The sound of many footsteps creating splashing sounds through the small puddles on the roughly paved concrete echoed through the cavern. The footsteps were the only sound heard once the group exited the residential area. Carriages were not allowed after a certain point, as the noise was too loud and would constantly attract beasts speeding up their advance.
A voice resounded through the cavern and caused the party of six to look behind them. The poisonous and seductive woman was standing far behind them. "This is where I leave you. I will be watching from afar, in places where you cannot see or notice me. Now go kill some beasts!"
The first one to start walking forward was Niko. His fist grew flames that illuminated the pitch black area in front of them while the other held his sword, and the rest of the group slowly followed, starting with Elijah.
Conversations were started by Niko as he confidently walked through the dimly lit darkness. "I need to know everyone's affinity."
Elijah had water, Alexia had air, Cora had ice, Ben had earth, and Trey also had earth. "Tch, it looks like we are well rounded with three offensive affinities. Me and Cora will stay in the front with Ben, the rest of you, look around our surroundings and provide offensive and defensive support."
To Elijah, it seemed Niko had a knack for ordering people around, or simply experience which he gained from being a noble. With the Weltor's being a magitech family, they did not have access to a training ground, or family expeditions into The Catacombs like Elijah assumed Niko had.
The only light source were the fists of flames that came from Niko. The eeriness of not seeing anything within twenty five feet of the light was constantly washing over them, as if they were being watched.
A small rock fell from the ceiling, and Niko instantly threw a small layer of fire in the direction of the ceiling. What no one had noticed before, were the mass amounts of red dots hanging from the ceiling. "Blood Bats! Attack!" Niko commenced the attack with a battle cry.
Elijah was jolted by the fact he did not notice them before. Considering their name, these bats had something to do with blood. A thin layer of water was erected from Elijah, and slowly pushed toward the ceiling that was more than eighty feet tall. The bats had dispersed, and Elijah's plan was to catch a large amount of them in his water, and manipulate the water to drown the bats.
Fire balls, icicles, and air blades were being thrown at the horde of bats rapidly flying towards the group. A mucus like blood was falling from the sky and painting everything and everyone red. And the horrid smell clogged the sinuses of the hunters, who were barely able to see out of their eyes.
Elijah knew what was happening with him being at the back of the formation, he signaled to Alexia and Trey to back up as fast as possible. The bats did not care how many of them died. As long as their blood continued to spread, their goal would be achieved.
"NIKO! GET OUT OF THE WAY! Alexia and Trey! Continue protecting us!" Elijah brought his hands together, and a large amount of water surged out of the environment close to his body. With the seductress watching, he needed to be careful with how he used his magic. A massive ten foot tall tidal wave was pushed forward towards the puddles of blood that cleaned the cavern and battle ground. Without knowing how many bats there were, they couldn't just stay in one place and continue to throw different spells. That would literally spell their exhaustion and failure.
Niko, Cora, and Ben quickly ran to the sides of the cavern and were splashed by water that completely soaked them. Not even seconds later, the now two groups started to spread out, as they all realized the goal of the blood bats.
Different elemental spells were thrown for not even five minutes as the blood bats were completely massacred. With Elijah knowing he shouldn't waste mana, he did not clean all of the blood on the floor again. But instead regrouped with everyone as they continued travelling deeper through the cavern.
Niko started the conversation. "Haha, that was rather messy! I wonder what we will encounter next."
Elijah and Alexia were not happy, Niko ran into a fight he didn't need to run into. However, the blood bats did have some time of plan cooking up in the background that they likely had to release early. Elijah dedicated to gauge his reaction to see what kind of kid this noble is. "You're an idiot Niko, We could've played that much smarter instead of calling out to the bats that we found…"
Niko stopped and turned around with a smile on his face. "Oh, and what did you think was the correct way to approach that fight? The bats were right above us!"
"Give us a signal to the situation, so we can launch a surprise attack while they are thinking we don't see them."
"What?! These are beasts, not people. When they see people, they attack! Why don't you leave the strategy to me, water mage. The only thing you are good at is cleaning up…" Niko stomped his feet on the ground and continued walking forward. Everyone slowly looked at Elijah with confused expressions besides Alexia, as if they were on Niko's side. What they didn't understand was that those bats had a plan of attack.
The humidity was rising in the atmosphere, and sounds of water dropping into more than just puddles echoed in the distance. The glowing flowers and vines returned to light up the area in front of them, which led the group to a large spherical opening similar to the giant mushroom cave, but just much smaller.
Niko put his hands to the side and whispered. "Everyone stop. Beasts ahead of us. Time for a surprise attack."
A small drop-off was the only hurdle they had to overcome to enter the cavern filled with many water pools, and rock formations that added different layers of cover. Ben and Trey used precise control of their earth magic to slowly create a ramp that led to the ground, and was surprised that one was not already there. Maybe a way to limit the number of beasts from going near the civilians?
Niko led the group of six slowly down the path, and split up into their previous groups behind two close rock formations. Their goal was to get a good look at the beasts they were dealing with.
Elijah overheard words coming from Niko's mouth. "Kappa's, brown beetles, and cancrix's." A confused expression washed over Elijah's face as he saw the trio of Niko, Cora, and Ben jumping out from their cover, while throwing different spells. Elijah had no knowledge of anything but the brown beetles, and subsequently leapt around to the opposite side of the rock formation and came face to face with a humanoid looking turtle. This turtle, known as a kappa, had a severe slouch due to the heavy shell on its back, crooked teeth that sat inside a pointed beak, a long spiked tongue, and the hair of a normal person with very messed up hormones. A bald top with small hairs protruding from the side of its head. The saliva filled growl it gave off when face to face with Elijah made his insides churn. What does this guy eat?!
Alexia moved back and quietly yelled for Elijah to duck. Trey had erected a small earth barrier on the side of Elijah's crouching body, and moments later was lightly hit in the head by the head of a beast. Its head had fallen off and blue colored blood was running out of his neck.
Loud explosions were heard on the other side of the cavern, but the trio had no time to think, and only time to act. Elijah recovered his mentality after coming face to face with a weird looking creature, and followed Ben and Alexia who seemed to have cool heads. Simple air blades and earth horns were being thrown from the two mages that were doing zero damage to the hard carapaces of the beasts. It seemed everything in this cavern had a hard shell on their back, and can only be killed from the front.