"I knew we shouldn't have considered this god-forsaken place!" the sound of blades clashed in within an incubi-colored terrain, emitted by bright cyan orbs that were emitted by unique crystals that were planted on the grounds. It was quite a calming and beautiful sight, contrasted by the struggling party battling against the mythical Zhuda's which proved to be much more of a fight than they had initially anticipated.
The Zhuda's were humanoid creatures that were well-built, both men and women had great physique and were taller than the average human, resembling the inhabitants who once lived here. However, they clearly had their differences from the average human, for one, they had fangs, and their hair was unusually spiky, quite similar to that of a porcupine, and their eyes mirrored that of a snake. And living in the mines for too long had not exposed them from the sunlight, thus, their skin grew pale. The party that Aitana and her members engaged were a group of 5, wearing an assortment of gears and even had a mage within their ranks.
Compared to the gnolls that often fought crudely and disorganizedly, the Zhuda's proved to be a much-organized foe, fighting in formations and passing out orders in their own tongue, incomprehensible to the party who only knew the Zanziyin tongue for now. They were clearly overwhelmed against the party that was about their size. Diacrao and Kadungon had difficulties breaking the ranks of their organized foe, while Conrad and Zemfina could not take down the mage who was hidden behind the well-placed formation of the Zhuda war party.
For a moment, the party had second thoughts if their option of entering the mines was even a good idea, seeing their current situation is not ideal in the slightest. Diacrao was pushed back after blocking a critical blow, launching him off from his feet as he was now pushed back to the walls of the mine. His Zhuda nemesis mocked the swordsman with a taunt in it's own tongue, followed by a laugh of mockery, before rushing to strike the dazed swordsman, but to his luck, his nemesis was struck by a heavy kick from Kadungon, launching the Zhuda quite a distance, dazed, stunned, and flabbergasted with the gentle giant's aggressive strike. However, Kadungon did not allow the fallen Zhuda to rest, quickly ending it with a quick blow in the beast's chest.
"Thanks", Diacrao said as he took a quick moment to regain some of his breath as Aitana quickly rushed to his aid and inspected to see if he had any wounds. After a quick inspection, she deemed he suffered nothing serious, and thus she resumed her combat duty, and so did Diacrao, getting up on his knees whilst he went on to assist the Chia who was in dire need of assistance as she was overwhelmed with two Zhuda's disrupting her from casting her spell. Whilst their attention was focused on the mage, they failed to anticipate the quick strikes from the priestess and the swordsman, with the latter dealing a critical strike that wounded the Zhuda severely, prompting it to retreat to a safe distance, meanwhile, the other Zhuda had it's iron helmet dented with the quick, but hard strike from the priestess' staff, knocking it out.
As three out of the five Zhuda groups have been either killed or knocked out, the remaining two members of the party realized that this probably wasn't going to end well for them either. And thus, the surviving members fled, leaving even their knocked-out comrade to it's fate. It was surprising to the party that they didn't need to kill every one of the members.
"Well damn, are we not going to chase them down? What if they call their buddies?!" Conrad remarked as he brandished his dagger, ready to track down the runners.
"For what purpose? They aren't stranger to war parties from Manda, so in any case, they simply are smart for exiting a fight they know they cannot win." Zemfina commented as she holstered her bow. "Of course, they might tell their comrades, but it's not really big news anyways."
"Compared to the gnolls we fought I wasn't expecting them to retreat.." Chiasoka, as her puzzled comrades, remarked the obvious, while the others begun looting the corpses and bodies of the fallen Zhuda's for anything they could scavenge.
"Well Chia, for one, the gnolls had a code of honor where they stand and fight to the death, it's something that an elder told me, despite of any social class, hierarchy or clan, the gnolls are to abide to this law that binds to them since their very birth." Kadungon, as usual, educated his party with bits of historical knowledge that he was versed with.
"So what if they retreat? Like the few gnolls that we battled against, some of them fled during the battle." Diacrao pointed out on this scenario.
"Well, of course, the gnolls are still living beings, but usually, those who were caught will be branded as traitor and be subjected to shameful treatment. In some militant clans, they will be exiled. But the same elder told me that some gnolls have found this code to be outdated, and thus are lenient and cover this act as strategic retreat. Of course, some detest to this reasoning, but usually they are the older ones." Kadungon explained.
"Interesting, thanks for the explanation, lore giant." Diacrao responded as he pulled out a few armor pieces from the fallen enemy. His blow was critical and it pierced through the fallen Zhuda's iron armor, thus damaging the metallic armor. However, he was able to pull of it's shoulderpads and greaves, which was thankfully still undamaged.
Aside from armor and protection kits such as shields, the group was able to scavenge a few items such as empty potion flasks, glass-beaded necklaces, and weapons such as throwing knives, a sword, and a mace. The glass-bead necklaces were certainly something new, and perhaps it could be a good deal at the market. As they collected their items, they stored it in each of their backpacks.
"Say, do you think it would be a good idea to head further?" Diacrao stared further into the illuminated pathway when he asked that question, much to the ponder of a few of his teammates, including Aitana. After a while, it seemed like she had made up her mind.
"I say....no. We should return back for now, and perhaps discuss what would be the best plan of action, knowing that these guys are no joke, and, we might not be too sure if we would be lucky like before." She explained her point of reasoning.
Truly, the group was beaten and exhausted, and this area seemed to be a tougher area than their current ability. Without any further delay, they retreated from the mine to head back to the town.