"Don't let it bite you!" Gerald shouted and retreated from the crazy beast. It was madly thrashing around, making it extremely difficult to attack.
"Try to hold it down. I have something that might be able to kill it, but I need a few seconds to do so!" he shouted.
A few guys frowned, "It's not that easy! This beast is too strong!"
Kerius thought for a second to consider Gerald's request and then spoke, "Okay, we will all jump at the Minecrawler at once, on my mark! We will give you five seconds, after that, if there is any danger, bail!"
He was considered a leader together with Derrick so people listened to both of them. He gave a look to Derrick, and the latter nodded, indicating his agreement. "We will do as he said! Get ready!"
"We go on three! One… Two… Three, go!"
Fifteen grown-up men pushed forward and jumped at the Minecrawler at the same time, holding each leg in pairs of two.
"Good, hold it still!" Gerald shouted and rushed forward.
Bam!
"Die!" He smashed the cannon barrel between the mandibles, right at the mouth of the beast, and fired.
Boom!
The head of the strong Minecrawler Warrior exploded like a watermelon, and various juices and flesh showered the cave walls.
The mouth was one of the rare weak spots that couldn't be armored, becoming a perfect target for attack.
"Good! Excellent!" Kerius laughed and wiped the beast's blood off his face.
Ignoring the ringing in their ears, the men cheered loudly for their victory. But that didn't last long. Kara and Howkin had problems shooting down the advancing Minecrawlers, while Eneth, Owyn, and Nina turned out to be somewhat useless against the heavy-armored monsters.
"Give me some time to reload!" hollered Gerald and retreated further back. Before placing another cannonball inside, he opened his pouch and filled the barrel with gunpowder.
"I'm ready! Try to hold one of them down again!"
The warriors at the frontline already struggled hard and were happy to receive help.
"Let's go again, hold down the one on the left! One… Two..."
Haaaaa!
With a shout, they jumped the Minecrawler Warrior again, and Gerald rushed in to kill it. But this one didn't open his mandibles, making it impossible to reach its mouth.
"God damn it! Work with me, you stupid beast!" Gerald cursed as he struggled to force the cannon in its mouth.
"We can't hold it much longer! The other one is coming!" someone shouted anxiously.
Gerald started to sweat from the pressure. 'Screw it! I'll have to do it!' He placed his right hand over the mandibles and...
Boom!
'Success!' The explosion from his hand was strong enough to blow them away. Swiftly, he stuffed the cannon inside the beast's mouth and fired.
Boom!
Another head exploded and another opponent was dead. The first explosion could be considered suspicious if it was not for such a chaotic environment, with the guys trying to hold on to the beast for dear life.
They didn't have time to think at all.
"Argh!" The last Minecrawler Warrior bit one of the soldiers in the leg, almost pinching it off. The bones broke and blood started flowing from the ruptured flesh.
"Stone Spike, Stone Spike, Stone Spike,..." Gerald chanted quickly, one spell after another. Stone Spikes grew from the ground, smashing against the aggressive beast. Although they didn't hurt it at all, the impact still pushed it away, giving the poor guy some room to breathe.
His friend quickly dragged him off, giving Gerald a grateful look.
"That's the last one, don't give up now!" Derrick shouted and smashed his weapon on the hard exoskeleton. It didn't do much more than a scratch.
Gerald reloaded his cannon once again and then, with the help of the rest of the team, blasted the last struggling Minecrawler Warrior in the face.
Boom!
"Phew! We got them!"
"We should leave," Owyn said. "If a few more of these come, we won't be able to handle them."
Catching his breath, Kerius nodded, "You are right! Because we had such an easy time at first, we went too deep. We have to get out of here, now!"
Eneth helped one of the wounded stand up and said, "Hey, give me a hand to me carry these two!"
The group quickly packed their stuff and left the battlefield. They didn't even care for the loot as they didn't have any more space for it.
Gerald stayed behind and took the bits and pieces of blasted heads, in hopes of exchanging them for some points. He also took the heads of the Minecrawler Workers that were left behind and then ran after the squad.
They made sure to take the fastest way out, but they still took more than an hour of rushing to get out. By then it was already early afternoon.
They weren't the only ones that came out though.
Many groups were already resting outside, some because they got lucky on their hunt, and some of them because they got unlucky.
There was one group that was mourning their fallen teammate who got ripped apart by a single Minecrawler Warrior. They weren't strong enough to save him and had to escape to save their lives.
Many realized that day that this expedition was no joke, but for some, it was already too late.
The team Gerald was with could be considered a successful one, getting their hands on so many trophies, and their losses weren't that big either.
Although the two that got hurt won't be able to participate anymore, the wounds weren't considered anything too serious.
A few months of rest and taking it easy and they would be as good as new. Even less if they decided to spend some money on a good quality potion.
"We will hunt with you until the end of this week, afterward we will leave this place," one of the guys said to the leaders of Iron Hawks and Silver Phantom.
They were just a group of friends that decided to join in the adventure and didn't think things would get so bloody so quickly. As such, they decided to leave as soon as they got paid and take care of their two friends first.
"That's fine, I won't hold it against you if you want to leave," Kerius patted his shoulder in understanding. "You do what you think it's best for you!"
The group then left for the Fort and brought their catch to be counted. For every head brought they got a mark on the document, worth one gold coin.
Besides this reward, people also collected Ether Crystals from the beasts, worth another few dozen gold coins.
There were some merchants buying Minecrawler armor plates for a good bit of coin, planning to sell them to different armor-makers throughout the kingdom.
The armor plates were light and tough, perfect for high-quality armor. Not many people brought the entire corpse with them, though.
But since they now knew that they could get even more from a single kill, up to a few gold coins even, the number of trophies was bound to drop in the following days.
Gerald didn't care much about it, though. When his group went to rest, he made an excuse to leave and went back underground. He used the Scent-Removing Powder to mask himself and ran deeper inside.
The Minecrawlers, as beings that lived underground, were completely blind and only relied on sound and smell to move around.
By removing gravity and smell, he could travel soundlessly through the tunnels, completely avoiding any dangerous places and only taking on lone Workers.
He was now alone and could use whichever magic he wanted.
Placing a hand on the neck of a clueless Minecrawler, he gathered a bit of Mana and blasted through it with a Wind Spear. Directing all that energy between the gaps in chitin armor, the beast presented no resistance whatsoever.
"Too easy!" Gerald smirked as he rummaged through the corpse to find the Ether Crystal. The beasts were quite old and strong so their Elemental Cores were big and expensive.
Some of them could even reach the price of a few gold coins!
But he didn't take any heads, instead, he just crushed them to pieces, making them unrecognizable. He could not afford to raise any suspicions by bringing out fresh kills.
Although, on the other hand, he took all the nice and big plates he could find. Making an excuse for collecting scraps after other people left them was not something that aroused suspicion. Many weak and poor people decided to do the same.
Trailing after a strong group, the danger would be significantly lowered and they could collect bits and pieces that they didn't bother to pick up.
He also stored a few Demon Mushrooms in his Space Pouch. With each of them being bigger than his head, he would have enough for months to come.
"Oh, man! This place is a freaking gold mine! So many natural treasures to gather!"
He slowly glided through the air, appearing behind Minecrawlers like a specter, and slaughtered everything he saw.
But then, just as he was thinking about going back, he noticed a peculiarity in the tunnel. There was something that looked like a big orange stone slab, surrounded by the gray walls, which appeared as if it was carved out of the rock surrounding it.
"Oh? What is this?" Gerald almost stumbled on it, as it was protruding from the ground. It was extremely odd. The Workers usually made the tunnels quite uniform, nothing was sticking out.
He came closer to observe the stone. Some small golden symbols were etched into it, but other than that, it looked like any normal orange stone.