"So, can that darkness illusion of yours keep us safe and hidden till morning?" Was what Cecilia heard though it wasn't really what she expected the man or rather Nevius to ask first.
She exchanged eye contact with the owner of the device that had brought the illusion to life, the witch Velena, telling her to respond.
Velena stood up from her crouching position, took her witches hat from somewhere and wore it.
She stared at Nevius then outside and after some minutes of critical thinking she responded," Nope, we'll be dead immediately a horror discovers the cave."
Nevius gulped and asked,"Excuse me, what do you mean when you say a horror? Is that another term for a dread beast?"
She put her right index finger on her bottom lip then replied,"No a dread beast is a dread beast and a horror is a horror."
That did not help much as far as explanations went so Nevius turned to Cecilia who just shrugged as a show of ignorance.
It didn't help that no one else seemed likely to explain further. Velena saw that no one understand her simple enough explanation so she rummaged through her bag and withdrew an old book.
After flipping through a few pages and after stopping at a particular one she read it and then further explained,"A dread beast is one influenced by atmospheric mana while a horror is influenced by demonic mana."
She had at the very least clarified her earlier statement but the information she provided paled in comparison to how long she had read that particular page.
Nevius then asked what was in his mind,"Hey Velena, can I read that book of yours?"
She smiled brightly exposing her white pearly teeth and replied,"Nope"
"Tsk!" Nevius was disappointed but let the emotion dissipate into thin air.
He got his knowledge straight and put what he knew in order.'She said that we'd be dead if a horror discovered us meaning that they are probably stronger than dread beasts. She then mentioned them at night meaning there is a high chance they only appear during the night. Hah! What the fuck did I get myself into?'
"So can we survive the night here?" Nevius finally inquired
This time it was Framel who replied,"Not just survive, we have to get out of here alive even if we might die in the process."
That didn't encourage Nevius in the least as he classified it as some random unhelpful bullshit.
Framel did not seem to be a fan of his rude thoughts as she warned him." Think of something rude once more and you might lack a head to use sooner rather than later."
He brushed the threat aside, the horror still preoccupying most of his thoughts.
"Tsk!" Framel was not having it as her spear found itself embedded in the wall, beside Nevius head.
He raised his brows and looked at Framel as an ice knife floated between her eyebrows. He warned,"Be careful of what you wish for!"
She swatted the knife away, pulled the spear back to her grasp and taunted," Big words for a small man."
Nevius thought of the words in a lot of different ways and settled with the argument." I am not small." A small blush on his face.
What the ladies thought of the statement was not difficult to discover as seen by the blushing faces of Cecilia, the archer and brawler. Framel had still not comprehended Nevius words, whereas Asla was smiling widely and Velena remained somewhat blank.
A few hours had gone by with nothing of concern really happening except for the occasional roars and tremors outside the cave.
Nevius had decided to get some sleep though he kept one eye open just in case. Something like shutting his brain off and thinking of nothing which in turn had a very positive effect of relaxing his body.
He kept out of touch with the lady warriors who were also down and relaxed.
It was not long before things went south. The signs were there and he had seen and heard them, even sensed them but had chosen to give the cold shoulder. But what can go wrong will indeed go wrong and as much as the fact was debatable, at the moment it proved to be a fact for a reason.
Blood red menacing eyes glowed in the dark at the cave entrance. It was deeply unsettling and induced a very deep fear that Nevius had never experienced.
His new roommates weren't faring any better as they were all on their feet tense and ready to take action if so the thing...the horror made a wrong move.
Pin drop silence reigned supreme inducing a taciturn agreement not to make a sound. If the horror decided to leave after not hearing a thing, well and good but if it decided to try and have a feast, then it would be its funeral.
Now the main problem was that its body was not visible. Apart from the eyes that stared at the group nothing else was known about it.
It moved a bit back, at least Nevius thought it did so. Then as he imagined it being in a crouching ready to pounce position, it shot foward.
But it had greatly underestimated the prey or maybe overestimated itself. With three arrows flying towards its neck and an axe flying towards the head it was bound for death.
That was at least the expectations but they were deflected. With the arrows striking against its skin and failing to penetrate and the axe being swatted away with a very long front limb that had long claws which were probably as deadly as they looked.
Nevius still had made no move and rightly so as his help was not required, at least not yet. With Framel's spear emmitting a deep red mana coating, she moved foward disappearing and appearing with the tip of the blade of the spear embedded into its head. She forcefully pulled it out upward slicing the head open.
Asla momentarily appeared in mid air caught her axe and beheaded the horror ending its life.
As always Nevius was aware of danger and thus he knew that the danger around them had not passed but rather increased and probably locked into them.
He donned his mask drew his blades and got ready for the long night that it would be.
But before that he faced the remaining girls who he still didn't know and said."You know this might not be the best time but I'd rather not call you guys out as 'you' and 'you two' while we are fighting for our lives."
The archer introduced herself as Salum while the short one remained silent. Nevius wanted to call her out but Cecilia intervened introducing her as Monique.
The role of Cecilia remained a mystery to Nevius but it didn't matter much as Framel took the lead and began giving her orders.
The tremors were increasing in strength which showed that something big was approaching or alot of horrors were closing in.
It would not take a genius to figure out that horror that had been killed had released some sort of signal that gave out their position before its death. That meant it would be a stupid idea to remain in the cave where they would be flanked by God knows what from the entrance.
That was assuming that something would not dig through the cave walls and attack them which was honestly not an assurance.
But in all goodness, Framel was probably a competent leader. They were all at the entrance whereas he was ready to move out to the opposite direction of the origin of the tremors.
His role in the party also eluded him but as long as he survived and escaped from the god damned desert, it would be fine. At least if he wasn't betrayed or left for dead.
They walked outside and on the horizon, opposite to where the sandstorm was still blowing a large amount of mana was rapidly approaching. But different from the normal mana he was used to, this one felt sinister, malevolent and any other word that could describe how wrong it felt.
They were left stranded, with the horrors approaching from where he came from denying his exit, two directions that he didn't know where it led and a creepy stagnant sandstorm.
It was not his expertise in fighting in the middle of nowhere so he silently agreed to follow Cecilia's group.
He saw how ready they were to battle, somehow regreting his choice but when they started running south, he followed them glad they chose to escape.