31 Next Steps

Hundreds upon hundreds of dead monster bodies and different animal limbs rest lifelessly over one half of the cavern. The smell of blood and burnt flesh and fur started to permeate the air long ago. The purple flames on the wall combined with the aromas and the corpses created a scene that can only be compared to one from the underworlds.

In addition to the stench in the air, bodies can be seen flying halfway to the ceiling before falling back to the ground. Some of these bodies were whole, while others had limbs missing from them. One thing was certain between every flying beast, all of them were dead while they are airborne. Before each body penetrated the air, the sound of skin tearing rattled the cavern.

In another area, a set of triplets continuously cut their way through the enclave of beasts that rushed towards them. The triplets set up in a triangle to maximize their protection of each other and equal out the total pressure on the three are facing.

Flames continuously spewd from Ithaa's without trouble the center of the cavern incinerating everything that they touched. The residual flames ignited the corpses on the ground that had been slain already.

In another section of the cavern a middle-aged man rapidly attacking with his two silver swords without the slightest care in the world. He seemed as if he is going through a simple stroll in the middle of the day.

"While, those five are not special by any means, those three and that griffin could probably rank within the top ten of the kingdoms rankings for those in the kuwa realm. It seems that they will not need my help. Wait..whose this newcomer? I feel that I know her or that shady technique that she is using. Could she be from that sect or that group of people?" The hooded figured whispered to himself as he observed from the shadows on the side. As he stood there in the dark, he fiddled a gold coin with the emblem of a sun rising over a mountain between his fingers.

Arbor, Sald, and Eos, noticed the unfamiliar dark robed fighter attacking the monsters. They simply put her to the back of their mind as this person is helping them with the same cause. In addition, they figured that the person had entered with Leo and his group.

The last couple hundred monsters had been pushed into a tightly formed circle surrounded by the only humans in the cave. The sounds of animal cries gradually diminished as the Frankenstein looking beasts slowly got killed.

Panting heavily, Leo spoke in-between breaths, "That..was..Exhilarating!" After catching his breath he continued, "Now, only the big one is left. Let me see if I can do some damage do it."

Arbor watched Leo make his way towards the monster in the middle as his mind drifted into another direction as he began picking up the weapons that he had used earlier. "It would be so much easier to collect all of these if I could just call them back to the bracelets. That gives me an idea, I wonder if Orion could help me with that." Arbor thought to himself, "Well maybe that wouldn't be the best idea given how he is the reason we are in this mess in the first place." Arbor couldn't help himself as he let out a small laugh.

"While being a cultivator is exhilarating so far, its also beyond dangerous. I need to be more careful from here on out until I have enough strength to preserve my own life." Arbor affirmed himself.

Leo walked up to the behemoth of the monsters that has started struggling again once Leo started making his way towards it. While Leo started walking towards the monster, Eos let out caws that were filled with a sense of mockery.

"What the hell is Eos saying?" Leo stopped and glanced at Eos before looking towards Arbor. "Hey, Tagas, did you hear me?"

"Oh," Arbor woke from his thoughts as he laughed, "I think he is trying to say that if you are as strong as you are dumb, you wouldn't have a problem killing that thing."

Leo sneered and glared at Eos, who seemed to be laughing, as he made his move against the monster. With his hand spread out wide as if it is a claw, he slashed as hard as he could against the one of the legs. Even with his strength, he was unable to leave anything more than a superficial wound, barely drawing any blood.

"Hell, if he's allowed to use his weapons, why can't I?" Leo retrieved the godly claws from his space ring. A red exoskeleton attachment fit over the bones of his hands. At the tips of his fingers three-inch sharp nails extended out. Leo familiarized himself with the nails as he extended and retracted them for a little while.

Leo performed the same action as before but with better results. This time he was able to cut deeply into the spider's leg. Sadly, the wound was only able to cut another couple inches, not even halfway into the spiders twelve inch thick legs.

"What grade of weapons are those claws? And not just those, that fan that girl has and all those small weapons that boy has. I have seen a lot of high-grade weapons in my day and can sense the presence that they give off, but I do not feel a thing from those. Yet, I can easily see the amplification of power from each of these items. Just where did this group come from?" Those born in this lower realm all thought to themselves. Hints of greed streaked through their eyes before quickly leaving as they remembered the battle prowess of each of them. Its not advisable to try and steal the dragons treasure just because it is sleeping.

"Well, everyone together now." Dax glanced across everyone. "All of together should be able to take this thing down since it cant move."

"I agree, lets finish this nasty thing." Grary responded.

"Uncle, knows best." Grik bootlicked.

"I wish I was as smart as uncle is."Gror added on.

Dax shook his head as he started to join in on Leo who was furiously attacking the monster. The only person who isn't attacking the monster is Arbor, who is still collecting his weapons.

The monster attempted to defend itself by using its scorpions tail and the pincers on its front side. It continued to struggle as its life is in jeopardy. Since it is being held in place by Arbors staff, its attempts at defeating those around it turned out to be futile. It had no other choice but to accept its defeat and die in place.

"Tagas, this is Dax, uncle to Gror, Grik, and Grary this is Ithaa, and Sozoth. They are part of my team from the mercenary guild." Leo introduced everyone, "Speaking of which, where did you go earlier Soz?"

Tagas returned the pleasantries with them. He studied each of the individuals and remembered their faces and tried to piece together what they used as weapons from the small bits he saw during the fighting. Arbor and Leo made eye contact before nodding at each other.

"I go lost and went down another path." Sozoth quietly replied as if she is embarrassed as to what happened to her while she was missing.

"I didn't see another path along the way." Gror said.

"It doesn't matter. What matters is what steps we take from here." Sald interrupted.

"I believe that I can help you all out with that." A voice bounced off the walls of the dome ceiling.