Over the next month we encountered many small beasts but luckily only one at a time, our injuries had greatly decreased now that we had been forced into life and death situation repeatedly. Our movements were fine tuned and our bodies and brains seemed to be able to pinpoint weaknesses much easier now.
We still mourned our dead companions but knew if it wasn't a matter of skills it could also be just a matter of luck that allowed some to have lived were others had died. All together we did laugh as freely, fear as easily but now knew the joy of seeing the sun rose and breath fill ones lungs. Each day now was a blessing.
By the time we finally reached the outermost encampment our endurance was waiting and our excitement to beast hunt was gone from our minds. Only the hope of seeing ones family and friends could bring us the strength to continue onward. Even the prince and his remaining guards were gratefully to see the end of this great beast hunt.
We were told to rest up for the final push to the wall and our arrival back to our kingdom for two days later. So that night we partied with the last of our extras even Eric and Goldy shared their last chocolate bar with their reformed party. Celebrating making it back this far was a great achievement for the ones who had ventured forth for their kingdoms.
Many couples that knew they had to part ways soon made promises and gave endearments that meant the world to them at that moment. Eric said only one promise to Goldy, " I will love you throughout this life and onward into any others we may meet in." Goldy answer was to give him her very first kiss from a woman to her man.
At the dimming of the moon their group was awakened by the thunderous roars, and shaking ground from multiple beasts. The guards at the gated entrance were attacked by multiple magic attacks and within just mere moments were blasted into the encampment. Their bodies burnt and twisted beyond all recognition, pieces of the gate thrust into their bodies.
Within the following chaos we regrouped and took on over six small beast that had the ability to squeeze into the cave entrance after the initial attack. Our division of parties lured them into different areas that were out of the way of the spells still occurring at the front entrance. Over time they were able to spill the beasts blood and finally killed them off one by one however the larger ones attacked harder with each death roar.
As we tended our wounds and regrouped their claws and spells were slowly wreaking havoc upon our entranceway. The prince and his many advisors rushed into a meeting to quickly suggest strategies. We mages rushed to heal what we could while those able were trying their best to use extra support beams to fortify our camp.
The advisor group spent the rest of the day talking but were unable to come up with any decent workable solutions. We were facing a situation as if we were under siege in a Castle. We could not wait them out only having about four days worth of food. It might be possible to stretch it to twelve days the best part of the whole possibilities was the fact that we had a running underground stream.
The warriors were having to continue reinforcing our support system while the beasts continued to attack. It was truly a situation that had never occur at any time before. So many in one area could not be supported by the nearby area, in fact that's why only small beast occurred here due to reduced food and water supply.
In addition, usually only beasts of similar DNA backgrounds traveled together or if they were a family group. The ones gathered here were vastly different and yet not fighting each other for the meal in front of them but working together to keep us trapped while allowing others to go hunt.
Meanwhile Goldy gathered the mages to try to find a way to block out some of the attacks occurring at the front. After a lot of discussion we finally decided to use the dead Sea beast skins to design a wall that would redirect their magic attacks back towards the attackers. It was fairly successful except for when they changed tactics to physical attacks.
When their attacks changed, our had to as well, by switching to armed attacks and mage reinforcements we were able to inflect small damages. It helped morale while sadly barely infecting little true damage but the damage inflected on our cave was thankfully reduced significantly. This cave was stronger then the central one but had few offshoots and no other exits were discovered.
When the advisor and prince returned we were readying for bed and a rotation was set up already to protect the doorway. The prince's personal attendant came with a set of guards to request our specific party to come to discuss something. He looked as if he was asking a spider to come sleep in his bed, it was so funny that Goldy almost laughed in his face.
When they followed the attendant and the princes guards Eric and Goldy followed last behind their party. They couldn't resist letting a few snickers out when they glanced at each other. Their hands entwined and their hearts lifted it made them feel maybe the prince and his advisors had come up with a great plan to help them escape and survive.
After opening his master's tent cover both guards and the prince's attendant turned and left them. The prince was sitting at a table in the front of his tent in a small chair, and waved them forward to take a seat. He offered them a cold drank of water and as they sat down each saw a leather bag was sitting in front of of them.