Being carried by Mihva, Lilly carefully listened for every sound in the darkness. But she didn't hear anything. The uncertainty let her heart beat faster. Her nerves were stretched taut.
Lilly's eyes roamed around, but the darkness naturally obstructed her vision. She thought about turning on her SMT.
The young woman cursed her misfortune. She had red about many common beasts by now. Unfortunately, their attackers weren't among them. They were probably considered a rare species. After all they seemed to live in ice.
If she recognized the beasts, Lilly would have more options. She might find a way to fight back against them. But with the way things were, the trio was facing the unknown.
Suddenly some quiet cracking sounds could be heard. The beasts seemed close to the surface. Lilly's muscles tensed. A voice appeared in her mind:
"They haven't left."
Lilly's raised an eyebrow in surprise. She whispered as quietly as possible:
"Can you see them?"
"See, see. Yes."
Despite not sure if it was appropriate, Lilly finally asked:
"Can you tell me how you see things here?"
"Tell, tell. I can see 'life'-mana."
"'Life'-mana? What about dead things?"
"Dead, dead. Nothing is dead. Only creatures can die. Nature is alive.
Everything has some mana in it. Rock, ice, everything. Makes it hard though to spot those beasts. If they sink too deep, I can only see ice."
This came as a small revelation to Lilly. Apparently, this was some advanced theory as she hadn't found it in her books until now. Unfortunately, she could only keep this information at the back of her mind. Right now, it wouldn't help her.
"They… are diving deeper.", exclaimed Mihva suddenly in relief.
Lilly's brows however furrowed. She didn't relax. Their situation was still dangerous. Somehow her uneasiness even grew.
Mihva on the contrary relaxed visibly. She began to flutter again, advancing towards the exit.
Suddenly a panicked scream left the butterfly monster's mouth:
"They are coming again!"
Multiple cracking sounds echoed through the tunnels. The beasts had only retreated to build some momentum. Now they jumped out of the ice with high speeds. They sailed through the air, targeting Mihva.
Lilly's senses went into overdrive. She felt their enemies approaching. Mihva was already dodging, clearly able to judge the beasts' trajectories.
She wildly beat her wings, flying higher and crisscrossing left and right.
Suddenly the fine hairs on Lilly's arms stood on end. She felt a presence to her right. Without thinking much, she quickly thrust out her sword.
A pained growl could be heard, as a heavy impact hit the trio. The beast's momentum was stopped, but Lilly paid the price.
She groaned in pain. Her already injured shoulder got dislocated. She had no strength left in her hand, as her sword was stuck in the beast's body. She had to let go of her weapon.
Despite the coldness, sweat built on the young woman's forehead. She did her best to endure the pain, but some tears still welled in her eyes. Although she went through a lot of training, this was the first time Lilly got seriously injured.
Bloody scratches still scarred Lilly's fair face. They were frozen over, hurting each time the young woman's face contorted.
For a second Lilly hoped she was caught in a nightmare and would wake up any minute now. Her eyes were blurry as she didn't know what to do.
Loud impact sounds reached Lilly's ears. The beasts dropped on the ice again. Fortunately, those noises cleared the young woman's head. She scolded herself. Knowing the dangerous situation they were in; how could she despair now?
Lilly forced her mind back on track. She needed to find a solution to the dangerous situation they were in. Mihva did her best to carry them towards the exit, but Lilly could tell that the young beast was getting weaker as well.
After racking her brain for a moment, Lilly was still stuck with their most glaring problem. A lack of information. She decided they had to do something about it.
"Mihva, listen. We need to find out how those beasts detect us.
Even though it might be dangerous we have to test it!
At first, let's see if they are able to perceive movement. We can hold onto a patch of icevines.
You have to keep your concentration up to evade if necessary.
Next, we have to try sound. After the first test let's stay silent!"
Lilly tried to talk as fast as possible. Only a few seconds passed, and the beasts might attack at any time.
At this point Mihva also felt exhaustion creeping in. She didn't even answer, doing her best to conserve energy.
Widely fluttering her wings, the butterfly carried them to the ceiling. She was glad to pause for a moment as she grabbed onto a bunch of icevines. Lilly silently thanked the poor beast in her mind. Mihva had to carry the rebel girl over her shoulder and support Lilly with one hand, as the latter could only grab some icevines with her only still functioning hand.
The two women's' hearts beat loudly. Would the beasts attack them again or not? Could they safely stay here until someone from Mihva's race found them?
Silence fell in the darkness. No one dared to move.
In many places this would be considered mental torture.
No wind. No sound. No warmth. No light. No anything.
Only each other's presence supported the two conscious women. Lilly might have gone insane if she were alone.
No. This wasn't true anymore.
Lilly smiled lightly as she remembered her mother who would always be with her from now on.
Suddenly, a faint noise reached Lilly's ears.
Mihva's shaking voice sounded again:
"They are coming!"
Lilly and Mihva kept their calm this time as they both let go of the icevines.
The butterfly beast tried to feel out their enemies' trajectories. Remembering the last attack, she noticed that they had difficulties jumping too high up.
Mihva did her best to stay close to the ceiling as she swayed left and right. Her eyes lit up as she felt only a few beasts getting close.
Only noticing the sounds of enemies swishing through the air, Lilly was pleasantly surprised. She praised Mihva in her mind. Maybe they had found a way to deal with their attackers. Although silence as well as stillness didn't work, maybe they could just avoid them.
Mihva also felt joyful. She did her best to advance quickly. Carrying Lilly and the rebel girl, she raced towards the exit.
Unfortunately, their elation was short lived. The beasts seemingly weren't as stupid as they had thought. As if receiving an order, they suddenly changed their pattern.
Now only one or two beasts jumped up from the ice lake at a time. They would try to predict their way, always appearing in front of them.
Mihva had to dodge left and right, slowing the group down strongly.
Every now and then a smaller group of beasts would then try and attack them directly.
Noticing the Mihva's wanning strength, Lilly drew a sharp breath. She understood that those beasts tried to exhaust them.
She forcefully steeled her mind, blending out every distraction. The young woman knew that they couldn't continue like this.
Since they already gathered some information about the beasts, Lilly pushed her thoughts to find any solution.
They already understood that their attackers didn't perceive their movement nor their sounds. What else could it be?
Lilly had another idea. They might be similar to Mihva, reacting to mana. This was easy to test.
After multiple hours Lilly's mana had mostly recovered. She simply formed a small healing spell, directing it somewhere towards the ground. Not using much of her energy, an almost neglectable green shimmer left Lilly's hand.
Mihva was slightly confused, but she understood what Lilly was trying after the young human questioned her about its effects.
After a second of silence Mihva answered with a slightly desolate voice:
"React, react. They don't seem to react to the mana but…
you might have provoked them."
Lilly's chest tightened. Her expression grim. She neglected this option and the directly had to pay the price for it.
Suddenly the beast attacks picked up. Mihva did her best to stay out of range.
The butterfly beast swayed left and right, but almost couldn't advance to the exit anymore.
Lilly was shocked. All of a sudden, she felt a pulse of mana from Mihva. It was a familiar type to her. 'Death'-mana.
Before Lilly could understand what happened a sadness inducing scream sounded out. A beast had dug its sharp teeth into Mihva's leg.
Despite being hit with a magic attack, its momentum still carried it. The weakening Mihva was too slow to dodge. The beast drew blood.
Without Mihva's first attack the beast might have separated her leg by now. But the situation wasn't much better. Pain she never felt before spread through Mihva's body. Tears formed in her eyes. In desperation she shook her leg strongly. Unfortunately, this only led to the beast's teeth sawing into her flesh. The young butterfly wailed in misery.