Arganthes: The Capital Of Dungeons 57 Chapter 23: The Thing In The Caverns

I couldn't believe it... what I saw... it was gone... Disturbed by this fact,I quickly began to check our surroundings. Checking every inch, nook, and cranny.

Thankfully I did not find what had been staring at me all this time. And so, we spent the remainder of our guard duty patrolling and toying with some of the smaller luminescent animals.At this hour most of the animals were night crawlers as they came out at night.

When the time had finally arrived to pa.s.s on the guard duty I thought to myself that it was best to try and get some sleep.

As Geo and I walked to the campfire we then proceeded to lay down, to try and catch some z's.

I lay there on my back looking at the stars as the cavern was located at an open area within the forests. As I got thirsty because of all the worrying I did... I decided to go take a leak while refres.h.i.+ng my water supply.

Making sure to stay close to the camp I stumbled upon a small pond. Moss was growing all around the water as they had enough water to supply their growth. Looking into the water it had a faint glow to it. Almost similar to the plant life and animals in the area.

I thought to myself that the fish had to have luminescent bodies as well, as they gave off faint glows that gave off a faint glow from the water.

I could still not fathom just how magical this place felt to the naked eye. As I took it all in on my leisure, I began to fill my gorges. As I was filling both of them again a feeling of being watched crawled up my spine.

I knew it was there and did not dare to look behind me.I heard something move in the dark and decided to try and ignore its presence.But, I couldn't as the feeling only began to increase its pressure on me.I heard what was staring at me crawling closer in the distance.

I could bear the pressure anymore and turned around to see what had been staring at me all along. But when I did, something rushed at me, knocking me over, making me fall in the pond of water.

The fish in the pond swam for their life as my body hit the surface, illuminating the surrounding waters. Waves trashed about cras.h.i.+ng into a wall? Was that there before? Too scared to look up I kept my eyes closed as the moments pa.s.sed by I thought I was done for… but still, nothing happened… I could only hear the cras.h.i.+ng of the waves as they splashed up against the surrounding walls.

"Wait… Walls?"

I didn't want to look, as I wasn't certain if what had knocked me over was still there, lurking in the shadows… But, as curiosity got the better of me, I had to look. Slowly I opened my eyes allowing them to adjust to the faint light that had been projected by the fishes. Carefully I raised my face to look for the edges of the pond… What I saw shook me to the core, there were no edges…Only scales, all around me… I tried looking up, and when I did, my heart stopped for a moment.In front of me, the creature stood there silently observing me.

It's head hanging over me as it watched my every move. It was unfathomable how big the beast was… Our eyes… Our eyes met just for a moment when I realized the pond didn't have any walls.I could feel my heartbeat increase as it was uncertain what would happen to me next.

The creature slowly moved its head closer to me, as I feared for my life I was frozen by fear and unable to look away. When I suddenly heard a voice inside my head.

"You… Want… To… Kill… Me… Too? Like… The… Othersss?"

It almost sounded as if the creature itself was disappointed… not in me, but humans in general… When I tried to answer the creature, someone moved upon us, giving away its position by shouting.

I got snapped out of the trance I had found myself in trying to communicate with the creature,but when I came too… the beast was gone… Still not sure if I was awake,it took me a minute to hear the shouting.

"Master!! Master, Michael!! Where are you?!" The shouting got closer as finally, a familiar head emerged from the bushes in front of me. It was Yami!! But… what was she doing here in the woods? I decided not to pay much attention to it, as I was overjoyed to see a familiar face in the dark,eerie woods. Yami found me laying in the pond… Still baffled and confused by what had happened previously.

"Master! I visited the rendezvous point as my village is close by, and I wanted to see you again.But then… I heard you had gone to replenish your water supply and haven't returned for several hours! I am so glad to see you are alive and well, Master!!

Come… the others also went looking for you, Yami thinks it is better to return, maybe she can guide team fang through the caverns?"

Yami offered to help me stand up, I was happy to accept her help, but it appeared I was weak in the knees. Trying to hold it together Yami supported me, which didn't turn out too well as we both fell into the pond. Again the fishes illuminated the pond giving off a magical glow.

Yami had fallen on top of me and got startled by what had happened. We both got embarra.s.sed by what had happened and turned red,quickly we tried to recover our footing and made our way back to the camp. Once we got closer we could see everyone had spread out in search of me. Thankfully a small group was still present who knew where everyone had gone.Meiko and Kasim set out to recover the others while Ragnee walked upon us.

"Thankfully everything is okay, right master?"

Yami asked overjoyed as she was able to finally see me again.Ragnee stormed up on me with a worried face and slapped me across the face.

"Idiot!! Don't you know how worried we were?! What if one of those beasts that drained all forms of liquid, bones, and muscles had caught you in this darkness? What would be have done then?! I have been worried sick about you… and here you were flirting with your servant?! I must have gone crazy…"

I could see Ragnee had indeed been worried sick about what had happened as she almost began to cry she mustered up her feelings and went towards the search parties who had shortly returned.

Before engaging with them she turned around and quickly addressed me to rest up.

"Michael!!! I'm glad you're back, we still have a long day ahead of us tomorrow morning at dawn, so, please… go to sleep, then team s.h.i.+eld will take care of night duty. All of you, that is an order! You understand?"

I nodded accepting the order as I quickly took a place close to the campfire.Laying down I thought back at what had happened, as it all felt too surreal to be true… Shortly after Yami,curled up against me granting me a soft pillow for the night. The next day at dawn,Geo had prepared the right nutrients for an energetic breakfast.Shortly after preparing Ragnee called us from team "Fang" together as we were about to embark into the caverns.

Having encountered various gruesome scenario's thus far, had put the team on edge.Not knowing what to expect everyone had to trust their leader and moved along with the plan.As we took our first steps inside Geo and the others wished us luck, the other teams needed to take care of their preparations while we first began scouting the area for a possible pathway through the caverns, leading to what the royal elite had supposedly reported having found.

Quickly it became apparent that light didn't pa.s.s through as it almost felt like the place was devoid of the tiniest sources of warmth and light. Yami had joined us, as she was worried about me,and knowing the surrounding areas like the back of her hand helped us a great deal.

Our formation was simple, Ragnee, Yami, and I were at the frontlines, closely followed by the second line which was made up out of Meiko and Kasim who were tasked with supporting our rears in case of an ambush.

Ashley and Maria took the sides so we could either block off attacks while they prepared their magic or support us with buffs, such as resistance and healing spells.We had put the healer in the middle, making sure she wouldn't be taken down first.

The only one left was Sarah, she had to protect our backs.With this formation, we had faith in reaching the other side of the caverns.Still… this was a rather difficult challenge,at first the only enemies we encountered were low-grade kobolds, but the further and deeper we went into the caverns the stronger the creatures became.

After a while, we even encountered a huge central area inside the caverns,which had separated the paths in three different directions. As this was our first mission outside of Sharoo we were all on edge… As we didn't what could be lurking in the shadows…

Meiko began to break under sheer pressure almost pulling all of us in as she began talking about scary stuff that presumably happened in the area around here.

"Guys… not to scare any of you… but I have had the feeling that we are being watched,maybe followed even…"

The magical trio, Maria, Ashley, and the healer who was appointed to our team jumped up in horror as chills ran up their spines. Ragnee didn't pay attention to the scary stories the others were telling each other.Instead, she was trying to think of a plan to cover as much ground as possible,as our teams' duty was to locate the entrance of the ruins, before the others would venture inside. Ragnee came up with a plan and ordered everyone to listen carefully.

"Okay everyone!! Listen up! We will be dividing the team in equally powerful squads to cover as much ground as possible. Meaning, I want Meiko and Kasim to scout the areas on the outer rings as Michael, Yami, and I will go to the middle. As for the rest… well… I want to keep this area as our base of operations inside the area, do you think you girls are up for it to protect it with your lives?"

Ragnee said serious, yet with an underlying sarcastic tone. Before the girls knew it, they were left behind in the darkness of a huge cavern, with nothing to protect them… Unable to bear this… they began to panic. Unable to focus… they did not hear the small and shallow approaching footsteps of the residence of the cave.

Meanwhile, Meiko had stumbled upon a dead end, as she was alone she quickly wanted to make way to the meeting point. On the other hand, Kasim had stumbled upon an area that split into two…

Not sure which way to take, she too decided it was best to regroup. But when they returned it appeared they weren't the only ones inside the caverns. A horde of goblins had surrounded the girls, unable to prepare their magic they couldn't fight back. One of the goblins launched himself towards the girl in the center as it held a rusty knife in hand.

Trying to strike the healer collapsed in fear, unable to react… Was this it for her?Just when the goblin struck down its knife Meiko had shot an arrow which pierced straight through the disgusting little green b.a.s.t.a.r.d. The others got enraged by this and swarmed Meiko, a few staying back to fight the mages. Meiko tried her best to fight them off, with knife and bow but got overpowered by sheer numbers. The goblin who was victorious claimed its price as the others rushed back to the center wanting what was denied by their comrade. Meiko screamed for help as she was defenseless to fight back the sheering pain.

"Kyaaaa!! Help… me… No!! Please…. Leave me alone!!! No… No!! No!!!!"

She looked to the right, hoping Kasim had also come back to help them…Kasim had arrived… but to her disappointment didn't do anything to aid the survivors. On the contrary, she was watching ecstatically as a grin from cheek to cheek formed on her face…

"Kuh, kuh, kuh… So it was worthwhile to stay a while longer.Never thought I could study these cave goblins in their natural habitat like this, hahaha.This… this is hilarious!"

Kasim looked at the group of girls who were now cornered. Sarah was done for, the other two, Maria and the healing apprentice of the church did their best to outrun the little b.a.s.t.a.r.ds…

The apprentice tripped making her fall headfirst into the ground. Maria tried to help her as she tried to do some incantations.

But because fear had taken over, she couldn't utter the words needed for the spell to activate.The apprentice knew this was her last moment as the goblins jumped her and began tearing in her flesh and ripping off her clothes. The final words she uttered with a smile as a healing circle formed around Maria, allowing her to survive the ambush.

Kasim couldn't believe her eyes as the despicable little creatures began mating in front of her eyes, breading like wild dogs they went one after the other…

"fascinating aren't they? Soon the girls will give birth to a new population of them allowing them to gain the strength to even overthrow a village-like Sharoo. Kyahahaha!! Can't wait to see that s.h.i.+t happening!!"

Meanwhile, the rest of the group, Ragnee, Yami, and I were unaware of what had happened as we had found some sort of a shrine… Made out of bones... it looked like whatever was residing here was wors.h.i.+ping the skull of an animal.

Not sure what kind of animal it was we took a mental note of it and decided it was best to go back and try to meet up with the others. As we rushed back we heard screams coming from the area we were supposed to meet up. What we saw… shook us to the core…

"Goblins!"

I said as I rushed to Maria's aid.there weren't many left… as I killed the remaining few we tried to calm down the survivors.Kasim and Maria were in the area, the priest who was supposed to keep everyone healthy had died of blood loss, but we couldn't seem to find Meiko or Ashley anywhere…

That was when… our pathways got blocked… Bigger creatures walked through the paths we wanted to escape to, most were all muscle, had black fur, and even tusks the size of blades…

Ragnee quickly took command snapping everyone out of their frozen state of disgust.

"It seems we have walked into a trap, everyone keeps close to each other and prepare to fight off what you can!!"

We took our positions in the improvised defensive formation, protecting Maria,hoping we would survive the fight to live and see another day…