27 Mysterious Creature

"Looks like we don't have a choice. We cannot leave those two in there by themselves. You four can either go in yourselves, or I will force you in." Dax looked at the triplets and Ithaa with a complicated expression. His morals tell him to follow Leo and Sozoth, but the feeling protruding out of the cave is telling him to stay clear of what is lurking in there.

The other four noticed the look in Dax's face and seemed to understand his thoughts. After seeing Leo's strength first hand, what problem could show itself and force them into a crisis? This is not counting Dax, who is in the kaholo realm.

The triplets made a quick decision to head in under their own power first. After living with Dax for so many years, and knowing the force he uses when he forces them, they decided to step in on their own. How could anything inside the cave be even more scary than what Dax has done to them?

Ithaa's adventurous and go getter personality was easily seen as she happily jumped into the cave. Dax thought to himself as he followed Ithaa in, "this naive little girl hasn't changed one bit. Nothing will ever bring her spirits down."

Inside the crack in the wall ledge that expands only three feet. The first noticeable aspect of the cavern is the assault of the earie feeling on the body. Second, the lack of light will make someone think that they went blind once they entered. And third, the frigid temperature pierced all the way to the bones.

The sudden change in the environment caused each person to fall over the ledge. After a small two hundred-foot descent, Dax regrouped with the rest of the team. "Ithaa, if you would please."

Ithaa held out her hand with her palm up. A small flame only slightly bigger than a candles flame appeared. The surroundings in the vicinity of seven feet came into view. One path was leading away from the cliff wall at a slight decline depicted the only route to go.

"I've got a really bad feeling about this. We are going back up." Grik said with a shaky voice. Grik, Gror, and Grary all moved towards the wall to climb back up. Neither of them was able to get a good hold on the wall before they slipped and fell.

"What the fuck is this slim?" Gror flicked his hands to hid them of the unknown substance.

"Ahh! Get it off! Get it off!" Grary squealed as he flung his hands arounds.

Dax inspected the slim, "This is an uncommon material that has practically no use except to keep low level cultivators who can't fly, like ourselves, from reaching high places. I believe that it is call Half Stick Goo. It grows naturally without any specific conditions needed. It displaces all friction on it until someone choose what they want it to stick to by applying a layer of essence to said object and the goo itself. Then it will stick to the object forever. While the other side still is absent of friction."

"In that case why don't we just stab through it, and climb our way up? " Grary took out two daggers and tried to stab through the slime. But with his complete effort, he was unable to penetrate the Half Stick Goo.

"Also, our current strength is unable to penetrate it. We are useless against it," Dax looked towards Ithaa, "And no it cannot be burned. It seems all of the walls in the vicinity are covered in the slime.We are stuck here, unless we find another way out."

"It doesn't matter. We are not leaving just yet. We are going to find out what or whom is down here. This seems all to suspicious to me so far." Leo command everyone. "Ithaa stay in the middle and focus on burning that flame. Everyone else, stay on guard. We don't know what is lurking around here."

Leo led the group to keep the others seeing the worried expression on his face. Countless possibilities ran through his head involving Eos, Sald, and Arbor.

They had no choice but to head down the narrow path that was no wider than four normal sized humans. The group walked down the sole path covering only a few hundred meters over a five-minute period. Along the way, they noticed small signs of battle, skeletons of humans and beasts, shattered weapons, stains from dried blood, fresh blood, and dead creatures with disfigured bodies. Every step that Leo took, every partial body or limb noticed, the smallest drop of blood, his heart would only sink farther into misery.

Ithaa hurled a pear size ball of fire down the cave. The impact against a wall five hundred feet away caused it to explode and cause a slight tremor in the vicinity. In the darkness between the explosion and the group, hundreds of different colored eyes slowing started to blink open.

"Bad idea….That… was an extremely…. bad idea." Dax stammered in a faint voice.

"Ugh…guys…there are even more behind us," Grary whined, "I knew this was a bad idea."

"How do we…" Ithaa started.

"WE FIGHT! They might out number us, but we have the advantage in strength, experience, intelligence, and teamwork. Banish that sliver of doubt from your mind. Ready yourselves!" Leo encouraged his teammates.

The closest fiend looking creatures made their way towards the only source of light in the cave. With each step taken, the fiends speed gradually increased until their speed reached its maximum.

Dax noticed that they were somehow in a pinch between the two groups. None of the creatures were on either side of them. Had Ithaa thrown a fire ball at that moment on purpose, or is this a predetermined trap and it was just coincidental that she threw the fire ball? Dax lost himself in thought as he stared at Ithaa with a contemplated look on his face.

A line of blood splashed across Dax's face and brought him back to reality. He quickly noticed that everyone had already drawn their own respective weapons and prepared themselves for battle.

Gror, Grary, and Grik had equipped a halberd, daggers, and a two handed sword, respectively. Sozoth released her snake and stepped out of the light into the darkness as she has plenty of times before. Ithaa conjured another flame in her other hand. Dax grabbed his two swords and readied himself.

Ithaa started to hurl fireballs towards both groups of incoming fiends in order to light up the entire tunnel as much as possible.

Leo looked at the incoming wave of prey after killing the first victim of the fight. An easy and clean open-handed swipe at the head proved that a one on one fight is child's play as it was decapitated. Leo let out a reverberating roar before he made his way to the rest of the opposing group.

"Gror, you support Leo from behind. Grary and Grik you two are with me. We are taking up the back side. Ithaa, keep doing what you are doing, I believe that can see in the dark, and we will be at a disadvantage then." Dax commanded the kids. His countless years of managing a mercenary group has aided him in keeping a level head and formulating a battle plan during tense situations.

Gror headed towards Leo and watched his blind spots in a daze at the sheer battle frenzy that Leo is currently fighting in. The balls of flames passing by every five seconds created a scene that Leo was shuffling in and out of reality while killing the disfigured enemies. A head gone here, a hole in a chest gone there. The only sounds coming from Leo's side is those that are made by him. Every kill only needed on hit. There was not a single chance for the fiends to make a sound. In only a thirty second period, Leo had already killed over seventy-five creatures.

On the opposite side, things were not going as fluent as Leo's and Gror's, but they were still able to hold their own. Sozoth was still no where to be found. The only speculation is that she headed towards the back of the incoming enemies to try and split them apart.

Dax charged into the middle of the enemy's group to take most of the load on his side of the battle. He did this because he noticed how weak the opposing party is. Dax attacks involved him twisting and turning in a plethora of ways. He would sometimes use both swords to strike down an enemy or use only one. Sometimes, he would twirl in a circle with both swords out and kill a handful at once. Dax was facing handfuls of opponents at the same time. The large advantage in his cultivation base is easily seen.

Grary and Grik quickly noticed that not a lot of force was needed to successfully get a kill. The changed their attacks from using more power and less speed to using enough power and maximum speed. Due to their lack of experience, it would take more than one swing, stab, or cut to end the enemy's life. Grik was at a disadvantage due to the lack of strength and the heaviness of his two-handed sword. Unlike Dax, Grary and Grik only had to handle a couple of creatures at a time.

The explosions from Ithaas fire spell had started to ignite the carcasses of the fiends. The passage way soon started to light up and show the hundreds of dead creatures on the ground.

Suddenly, a loud shriek from the deepest parts of the cave echoed throughout the tunnel. Every fiend that was still breathing ignored the human group and made haste towards the depth of the cave. The group tried to kill as many as they could as they ran by.

Dumbfounded and scared, Dax fretted, "That's a peak Kaholo realm. What are we.."

"That is not what is important right now," Leo interrupted Dax, "We have a more important mission right now. First we need to recuperate. Second, we need…were is Sozoth?"