Wuying cursed inside as he realized the metal disk had fallen from his hand and desperately tried to catch it before it hit the ground. As his hand managed to grasp it at last it also struck the ground with a soft ding.
Instantly the sound of aggressive breathing and movements could be heard from inside the main cave. Long Wuying stayed deathly still, hoping they would just turn back to what they were doing, but then he heard something that made his heart sink even further.
The strange sound of the Volvaka speaking to each other, along with their difficult to understand language, made it extremely difficult for Long Wuying to make out what they were saying. Fortunately, he didn't need to know. Just the tone of it told him he would need to escape right now.
He slid back, finding the nearest shadow, and immediately began to retreat as fast as he could.
Outside the cave entrance Yun was waiting patiently, listening intently for any activity inside. As soon as she head the almost exhausted echo of the metal disk hitting the ground she knew it was a dangerous situation. The enemy now knew there was an intruder. She quickly stepped over to the unconscious opponent and put her spear through his skull, eliminating any possibility of him joining the fight.
Soon enough Wuying stepped out of the shadows beside her and gave her a worried look, the enemy now knew they were here and had gotten both of their scents near the cave, they would have to fight sooner or later.
Yun sighed as she looked at Wuying before pulling her spear out of her spatial storage and changed her robes to jet black to better blend in.
"Let's go, Wuying. We might as well face them at the cave entrance and limit the number of foes we face at once."
"Yun, wait. There's something you need to know first!" Wuying hurriedly said, grabbing her sleeve to stop her.
"Is it more important than our lives? If we don't hurry they'll make it out of the cave and we'll have to worry about being surrounded!"
Yun pulled her sleeve from his grasp and rushed off to the cave mouth, arriving just in time to slash the first lizard to step out and make a second attack at the next one, a few meters inside the cave mouth. This small cave was an ideal situation for them, the opening was only large enough for three of the big lizards to stand shoulder to shoulder, effectively limiting it to two fighters, but this also meant that Yun and Wuying had much more room to move than the enemy did.
Stepping into the cave she fought spear against trident with the Volvaka warrior who was inside, slowly transferring Lightning energy through his weapon until his arms were too numb to hold it before she deftly stabbed through his head as shock showed in his eyes.
As she finished her second kill Wuying began fighting a somewhat smaller opponent who was fighting with two short swords. This Volvaka was more brightly colored and had a ridge of spines down the center of its back. Yun was extremely surprised.
"Is that a new mutated strain!? And it's not even an adult, this is bad!"
Yun knew now what Wuying wanted to tell her. This was no ordinary patrol, this was a training mission for a new breed of Volvaka warriors. They were smaller, faster, and likely had some other advantages too. These fighters were just a little smaller than the average adult Canis, but they were also not fully grown. At full size they would probably be slightly larger than an average Canis, but significantly more agile!
"Wuying, back up and let me face him! Those twin swords are a good match against you! Watch my back!"
"Alright, let's do it!"
Yun stepped over, using her Chromatic Aurora Steps to close the distance as Wuying leapt backwards, giving Yun the opening she needed to slash across the enemy's chest, but as she did she was dismayed to find that her hurried slash barely cut open the thick outer scales, leaving a gash across the chest that wasn't even bleeding!
"This is bad! Wuying, this Yun is going to have to use some battle skills, watch yourself!"
Long Wuying moved back slightly just in time as Yun slashed out with a Undaunted Crescent Moon Slash, nearly filling the cave with her skill's energy blade. The Volvaka in front of her slashed out repeatedly as it retreated, whittling down the energy in Yun's strike, and as it stepped back another stepped up and slashed at Yun's energy as well. Between the two of them it only took thirty strikes to fully deplete the energy and shatter her attack.
She quickly brought out her Argent Spears and the Brazen Moon Flame lit up on her weapons, "Let's go all-out Wuying, we need to end this before more come. How many were in the cave?"
"Right! There were at least six of these new fighters inside, as well as a few escorts that were on the other side of the fire, out of sight. We need to eliminate them quickly!"
"Understood! Hyaaaaaa!"
Yun slashed out again, but this time her two Argent spears began to spin rapidly as they advanced along with the Crescent strike. Wuying added in a Darkness elemental strike as well that seemed to merge with her moon blade, eclipsing its light like the Minor Moon would sometimes eclipse the Major Moon at night. The two fighters on the other side of their strikes widened their eyes and began hacking at the attacks frantically, but the Argent Spears were an intelligent attack and began to slash them when they attacked the main energy attack.
Before long there were numerous large gashes along the sides and legs of the two Volvaka bleeding profusely, and with their frantic attempts to whittle away at the combined Dark Crescent Slash they began to slow down from blood loss. Finally, only twenty total strikes in, the attacks overwhelmed them and they were cut in half.
From within the depths of the cave a loud wailing shriek could be heard, somewhat sounding female. Yun and Wuying looked at each other and could see a great deal of fear in each other's faces. This was no temporary camp, this was a new hive!