Thorne?... The one Lyra was worried about. He had fallen with the other two Templar force guys; the warrior, Drake, and the knight, Kael.
After resting up in the spot of the cavern tunnel they fell into, to replenish their lost life force. They had also left to meet up with the others.
"What now? This end too is divided into two tunnels like the other one." Thorne lamented.
They are currently standing in front of the entrance to two tunnels. They were possibly confused and conflicted on which of these two they should follow and from which end too.
They had gone eastwards previously only to meet this same situation: two tunnels.
They had to pick one of the four to continue their search for others.
"Why don't we head back to the other end. I mean the tunnels on that side are much larger than this one. It could mean that it might lead to a more spacious place… probably the exit," suggested Kael, who was still wielding his sword in case of any unprecedented turn out.
But, Thorne and Drake had no weapon on them.
Drake had his hand on his chin, considering the options. "Okay. I guess we are left with no option than to go with your speculation."
'These two… so weird. I wonder if all members of the Templar Force are like that.' Thorne imagined.
Not long after taking one of the eastern tunnels, they came across a particular spot.
They had to stop and investigate whatever had happened there because there were scratch marks and cracks on the surrounding walls.
"Seemed one of us had walked past this tunnel, and possibly a skirmish had ensued between him or her with something," commented Drake after using his Aura to access the walls. 'Him',in his guess, should be Alvan, while 'her' could be any of the ladies with the.
"It means two things then," Thorne said. "We are close to meeting up with some of us. And then, we are eventually going to face off whatever they fought with here."
"There is no trace of its body around. Does it mean it was not defeated." Kael was surprised even himself.
"First let's hasten out movements… I will use my aura scan to fish out whatever it was…"
After saying those words, Drake's Aura rippled out of his body, much more condensed, interacting with the walls surrounding them as it went off into the distance. It was faintly visible, like a gray smoke, to the others as it hovered around the tunnel walls.
"Just a little distance from us… there is an aura entity. But far ahead of it, there are more dots of auras approaching so fast." He reported before canceling the aura scan.
A scowl appeared on Kael's face, "Do you guys think it's a beast?"
"Perhaps. Let's find out, though," Drake replied.
"This is going to be interesting for once. I can't wait to slaughter some idiots!" Thorne exclaimed happily while some gust of wind blew past them. Dispersing around them the earthy scent within the mountain tunnels.
The other two knew where the gust had come from, after all Thorne was one attuned with wind manipulation attributes.
"Cut it off already… We don't even know what's ahead of us. A knight must never underestimate the enemy he had never seen or fought with," said Kael.
"Really? Cut me some slack on those knight code shit. Seems you have forgotten that I am not a knight who follows some restricting rules or something. I'm a mage… I'm free to do anything, you know." Thorne retorted back before taking the lead to find whatever it was that was awaiting them ahead.
Then the other two followed suit while Kael was sulking inside.
'So full of himself huh, because he can use ethereal energy and he is a dual elemental mage. Just wait till I master the ways of the sword and perfect true control over aura… you will see that we non-aetherians are powerful too… and should be accorded more respect in our village.'
As they walked along the tunnel, they could notice more scratch marks on the wall and even few bioluminescent fungi around. Probably destroyed during the said fight that had taken place.
Soon, they arrived where the aura entity Drake spoke of was lying lifeless on the cold ground: a lifeless Slythwyrm.
Silence engulfed them which allowed them to hear the faint dripping of water close by and to perceive the pungent odor emanating around the said beast.
Not only that, they could see some kind of dark greenish smoky gas escaping from the pores and marking on the beast's body.
Those smoky gases were the source of the pungent odor they were perceiving.
With ultimate care, Thorne, who was in front of the other two, walked over to the beast.
However, the closer he gets to it and the more of those gases he inhales, and the more he feels dizzier.
Without wasting time, he reached out for his mask and put it on. Then, he took a few steps away from the lifeless beast.
'I knew this thing would be of no good at all… it's like an anti-energy, I couldn't use my wind element to disperse it after inhaling some of it.' His mind went wild with thoughts as he remembered what had happened a few days ago while he was stalking Lyra.
The encounter that almost left him traumatized by this kind of situation.
Walking up to him were Drake and Kael. He was about to inform them to put on their mask, but it was of no use as those two had it on already.
"Surprised? I already figured it out with my Aura Scan, but you've already stormed off before I could give you a warning."
"In the Templar Force, one of our main training was studying all different kinds of creatures and acquiring necessary skills that will help us to recognise and point each one out in the field… That beast is a Slythwyrm and it has many attributes… which one of them is the ability to release condensed pheromones when they are on their last legs or killed," said Drake.
"What?" Thorne exclaimed. "That's kind of messed up, you know. What's the use of such an ability on its enemy when it is dead… just to cut out their use of energy?"
"That's just one of the reasons and not even the main one," a frown became visible in Drake's usually stoic face. "Slythwyrms are gregarious beasts but it's kind of complicated. If one of them gets hurt or killed, it releases the pungent pheromone that attracts the others to its body, perhaps to finish off what had killed it while their energy is being drained."
"You mean," Kael began speaking with a hint of fear etched in his voice, "the dots of aura entities you detected with the scan earlier are the other beasts?"
"Yeah… these beasts have a very strong sense of smell especially when it has to do with their fellow beasts' pheromones… right now, there are five of them approaching us."
Drake had used his Aura Scan again. Well, that was one of his special aura manipulation abilities that only a few of the aura users can pull out. For ordinary aura users like Kael, they could only go so far with scanning auras around them, only by sensing them.
However, Drake, who started to hone this skill from when he was a Templar guard, can go extraordinary miles with the scan, detecting any kind of aura around him.
Not only that, he could see the color of each aura silhouette to know whether the aura entity is that of a human, beast or demon.
He was one of the prodigies of the Templar Force as not just his unique Aura Scan made him outstanding but also his ability to forge any kind of weapon with raw aura of the things around him.
Nevertheless, the only downside to his Aura Scan is that it takes up so much of his Aura reserve and can make him run out of aura handling capacity easily. So, he does not usually employ the skill in trivial situations.
'I wonder which one of the others killed this beast. Whomever it was, was able to take it down without much struggle… There is no physical damage to the beast either. Maybe, it might be Apphira,' he thought as his gaze was fixated on the dead Slythwyrm.