The group made some decent progress, with Liam at the front, he could handle multiple monsters at once. Robert also got used to fighting with his spells, even though he was reserving some energy for unexpected situations.
Lucas on the other hand didn't do or say much, he didn't bother using any spells or help with fights. He was still absentminded, his head was going through some internal turmoil.
Time passed, and the group made it to one of the nests of the spiders. This time the soldiers also had to fight with their spears, there were some casualties, but they were small in number. Liam didn't like losing any men, but couldn't stop every monster by himself. Even with his mighty weapon, he was still a lone being, incapable of duplicating himself.
Everything came at a cost, the weapon was strong but required a massive amount of energy and stamina for every swing. By the time they reached the nest, Liam was already quite exhausted. The room was cleared out, the spiders were dead, but that didn't make the place any better.
It smelled of rotting carcasses and corpses. Like in the other mine there were bodies with bloated stomachs lying against the walls. The soldiers grew stronger with every fight, there were barely any casualties in this fight compared to the beginning.
Robert was carefully looking around, not wanting to make eye contact with the corpses of the victims that were subjected to carrying the eggs. Lucas had already gotten used to the smell and the surroundings. Robert always had Lucas in his eyes, he didn't know how to feel after what they had been through. But he didn't want to lose the one person he could talk so freely to.
He approached Lucas, who was looking around the cave, "You okay?"
Lucas's eyes were wide open, his mouth shut tight, his brows furrowed. Robert was surprised, 'What's he looking at?'
Robert followed his line of sight, yet all he could find were the hosts of spider eggs. Lucas took a step forward, then another.
"….please....no...", tears started to form in his eyes, yet he didn't blink once. Robert didn't know what was going on, but he didn't have time to figure it out.
The cave started to rumble, "Cap! Earthquakes don't happen around here, right?"
"No Conrad, they don't. Men! Watch out, there's something coming!"
Liam looked around, trying to find the source. But it was too dark to see in any of the tunnels, as their torches had a very limited range.
"Group up, form a circle, don't leave your backs exposed.", the soldiers followed the orders, keeping Robert in the center. The rumbling stopped, but that didn't comfort anyone in the platoon. Liam saw that Lucas was crouched by one of the corpses, but he didn't have the time to care for him. He cared for him, but losing everyone else was a lot worse.
GHHRRRRR
The growling from something big came from one of the tunnels. 'What the fuck is that?'
"Someone, throw a torch to that tunnel."
Pinpointing the correct tunnel wasn't hard when it made no effort in hiding its presence. 'Question is, what kind of monster would willingly walk into the nest of Steel Spiders, not bothering to even sneak around?'
The men started to gulp and steady their stance, completely forgetting about the fact that Lucas wasn't in their little circle.
A torch was thrown, lighting up the tunnel, yet they still couldn't see what was coming at them. The torch flickered, casting shadows upon the walls. When it suddrnly became quiet, a single black and bloody paw became visible. The paw stomped on the torch, extinguishing the flame, enwrapping itself in darkness once more.
A heavy pressure started to fall on the soldiers, comparable to the one Venion showed occasionally. The men felt the gravity become stronger, their bodies felt heavier. Their armor started to drag them down, their weapons felt like they increased in weight.
The growling continued, but none of the soldiers dared to move or run away, standing strong in their formation, that now changed into a half-circle surrounding the tunnel where the growls originated.
They knew that there were other monsters in these caves, so running into another one alone is even worse. Running away would result in death, but fighting together would let some survive at least.
The soldiers threw their torches toward the ground to let them two-hand their weapons, some had spears, others swords. Only Robert and Liam were special cases, Lucas was also included in this group, but he wasn't paying attention.
The black paw became visible again, it was covered in dried green blood. The sharp claws made scratches on the ground. A bloody jaw started to show itself. An enormous black bear with red eyes and a hunger for flesh started to show itself. The body was filled with scars, probably from the spiders, but the bloody mouth showed that the other monsters didn't stand too much of a chance.
GRRRR
"Captain, what do we do?" Whispered one of the soldiers, but Liam didn't know how to deal with this monster. "That's a Demonic Bear, it grows stronger from the prey it eats!", Robert knew a little about the creature, he had seen it during one of his lessons.
ROOOOAAARRR
The bear started to roar, and caught the group off guard. During that split second, the bear sprinted toward one of the soldiers on the outer edges of the half-circle. It had already reached him before they could even catch their bearings.
SLASH
A single swing was enough to end the man's life, he was no more, all his experiences, all his accomplishments, merely reduced now to pieces of meat for the bear to feast on.
The dying scream of one of their friends reached the others and instilled them with fear. At that point the bear kept killing the other soldiers, some fought back, others ran away, and the final lot was too scared to even move.
Roars of the bear and screams of the men filled the cave, panic ensued. Liam tried to take control of the situation, but the bear had hidden something special.
Dark spears formed above the bear and flew towards the group, instantly killing five men. "IT KNOWS MAGIC! DARK MAGIC!!!", Robert was yelling his lungs out. He had never learned that monsters could use magic, his lessons never covered that.
He didn't know what to do, he was looking around panicky, stuck in place. His panic spread to the others as well, nobody was calm and rationally thinking anymore, even Liam was having a hard time thinking straight.
Chaos showed its ugly face as the bear was slaughtering the men one by one. "COME HERE, YOU UGLY SON OF A BITCH!", Liam tried to take the Demonic Bear's aggression upon him.
The bear was a lot faster than he thought, that combined with the dark magic, the soldiers didn't stand a chance. His taunt was effective, but even Liam didn't have any idea how to fight this beast.
Robert tried to use magic to stop the dark spears. Every time one of his fireballs flew toward the dark spear, it got absorbed and both disappeared. Since he had already used up quite a lot of magic he also started to panic. Sweat began to accumulate on his forehead. His vision almost blurred, but he stood strong.
Liam was stronger than your usual soldier, he had knight training. He knew how to fight against monsters, yet it didn't do much. He dodged the charged attack from the bear. Seeing an opportunity, he slashed his sword, but it didn't even break through the thick hide.
Had he fought this bear at the beginning of their journey, he would've done a considerable amount of damage. But after fighting so much with his artifact, his stamina reserves were running low.
His own artifact that could split a Steel Spider in two, couldn't even damage the monster at this point. The bear took this moment of confusion as a chance to quickly turn its body around to hit Liam with one of his claws. Severely damaging Liam.
It was a massacre, they couldn't even damage the beast, only watch or run as their companions were being slaughtered.