"What do you think?" Nathan asked Syril, who was looking in the direction of the roar.
"I think we should go, it could be a clue"
Nathan nodded in agreement.
Anything that disturbed the order of a realm was always something to focus on. But it was also important to remain cautious, one never knew what kind of danger or calamity they might encounter.
Following in line, they began to walk towards the source of the roar. It had not been heard that far away, so it must have been relatively close to them.
It wasn't more than 20 minutes before they came to a small hill in the middle of the plain that was the swamp.
"A cave" Syril whispered.
Nathan concentrated on the darkness of the cave and couldn't help but frown at the stench coming from inside. He thought it would be a bad idea to go in without knowing what was inside, but at the same time it could be a safe place to rest.
They would just have to get rid of the current owner.
A second later, a faint smile appeared on Nathan's face.
'That wasn't necessary... it seems he came out to welcome us'
Slowly, from inside the cave, a four-footed calamity revealed itself. The beast was the size and shape of a bear, its fur was grey, and where its eyes should have been, there was a pair of long, curved horns that ended in sharp points.
Nathan studied the calamity in silence.
In all his life he had hardly ever seen a calamity, in fact he could say that this was the first normal calamity he had ever encountered... not counting the boy at the time. So, he had no information about the calamity before him, but that was what Syril was there for.
Nathan looked at her and saw that she was signaling him to be quiet. He nodded and looked back at the calamity sniffing around him.
Syril's signal had confirmed it to him, the calamity was blind and was probably locating them thanks to its other senses.
Syril motioned for everyone to spread out and surround the calamity from different angles. The cadets complied and began to spread out around the area.
The soldiers just stood there and watched.
Nathan moved slowly to one side, so as not to alert the calamity, and then stopped. The beast knew they were there, the movement of the water as they moved, and the scent of their bodies had given it away.
But the calamity did not move, only growling softly as it turned its head in the direction of each of them.
Nathan took his bow and loaded an arrow, all that was missing was the signal.
Syril saw that everyone was ready and waved his hand to begin the attack.
Nathan let go of the arrow and it flew quickly into the side of the Calamity, which roared at the sky as it felt the pain.
Nathan watched closely as the calamity loaded another arrow.
'Did it work?'
His attack should have frightened the calamity, but it seemed to be more angry than frightened. Nathan wasn't depressed, he knew that one attack was far from enough, so he fired another arrow and this one buried itself back into the beast's body.
It was difficult for Nathan to tell if the beast was frightened or not. He was no expert on the behavior of wild animals, let alone calamities.
As he pondered, the calamity began running towards one of the spear-wielding cadets, who barely dodged the onslaught by jumping aside and burying the blade of his spear in the body of the calamity.
The beast roared and shook its body, sending the cadet, who still had his spear stuck in the body of the calamity, flying. The young man fell into the water without his weapon and watched as the calamity approached with its imposing horns.
Suddenly, Maya appeared at its side and struck it in the side, forcing the beast to recover from the blow, then two other cadets immediately attacked the Calamity.
Neither Nathan nor Syril had to move as the beast fell lifeless to the ground. The superiority in numbers was simply impossible to overcome.
Nathan knew that any one of them would have a hard time facing the calamity alone, but as a team it was no challenge at all.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and the Lance Cadet picked up his weapon, somewhat embarrassed by his mistake. No one blamed him, though, and they simply celebrated the victory.
Syril approached Nathan with a small smile.
"What do you think?"
Nathan took a few seconds to answer.
"It was easy... considering the disaster was probably injured"
Syril broadened his smile.
Nathan had noticed that the calamity had several scars on its body, surely some wounds had never fully healed. He guessed that if he had met such a calamity, but in perfect condition, it would have been a little more difficult for them to deal with.
Syril nodded, and they continued to talk about the battle.
A few minutes later, when everyone had caught their breath, Nathan and Syril approached the entrance to the cave.
"Do you think there will be more in there?" asked Nathan.
She shrugged his arms while shaking his head
"No, this calamity is known as Blind Horn, they usually live alone"
Nathan gaped at the calamity's name.
'Very original...'
Then he looked back at the cave entrance.
"Shall we go in then?"
Syril nodded, and they both began to enter, while the cadets and soldiers stood outside. Between them, Maya saw them enter and followed.
The cave was somewhat narrow, perfect for two or even three people to walk side by side. The corridor at the end led to the main cave, where Nathan and Syril stopped and peered cautiously inside.
"Well... this is unexpected" Nathan said in a subdued tone.
Syril nodded her head.
"Yeah…"
Inside the cave, two Blind Horns the size of small dogs lay peacefully asleep.
"It's their cubs" Syril sighed.
Nathan nodded as he drew his sword.
Just then Maya arrived and also saw the hatchlings, as well as Nathan approaching with his sword.
"What are you doing?!"
Nathan stopped and frowned at Maya.
Her scream had woken the two hatchlings, who sniffed around them and feeling a strange smell in front of them, growled and ran towards Nathan at the same time.
Nathan did not hesitate and slashed at the necks of the two hatchlings with two swings, causing them to stumble and fall to the ground where they died a few seconds later.
Nathan wiped the blood from the blade of his katana and looked at Maya in annoyance.
"What am I doing? Ending the calamities"
Maya looked at the bodies of the two hatchlings with a grim expression on her face. Meanwhile, Nathan sheathed his sword and stopped looking at Maya.
"Calamities are calamities, whether they are hatchlings or not. If you're careless, they'll try to kill you"
He had had a bad experience with a calamity that had taken the form of a child, so Nathan was immune to those annoying feelings.
Of course, there were also peaceful calamities, like the birds from earlier. All Nathan knew was that if something tried to attack him, he would do the same.
These hatchlings were attacking him, so Nathan did not hesitate to kill them.