While Auriz maintained the Houbarok at bay, Basil came to its senses and could feel the pain break forth like an explosion inside. His body essentially recuperated from the injuries, but there were still some minor problems.

Some of his bones were misplaced, and he needed to replenish the nutrients he lost in the process. He felt sluggish and without energy but still managed to get up and look around.

It seemed like Auriz managed to bring him inside the cave where he was born. He could see the capsule still there and a corpse of a creature who looked to be a mushroom on the floor. Auriz was not around. That doesn't seem right.

He strode to the corpse to consume it, and while he was at it, he heard the sounds of rocks hitting something outside the cave. That could not be good news. Basil ate the thing fast and, as a last resort, tried to bite the capsule, but as before, He couldn't make a dent in it.

After some minutes, He heard Auriz calling to him.

"Basil! Tell me you are up now because I can hold these things much longer, and the things I can use to attack are running out."

Sensing the distress call in his head, Basil walked to the entrance to found Auriz maintaining more of the creatures he ate outside, trying to reach where he was.

"You are Up! Basil, we have to get out of this place. Those fungus monsters will flood us if we stay here. One of them followed your blood, and now we have many more appearing out of nowhere."

"But where? All I have seen are these caverns."

"Anywhere else were these things can't follow us."

"Then we better make a path. The best solution is to go in one of those holes around here, to travel to another cavern." — Uttered Basil while creating his helmet, but he couldn't make a complete version, so he opted to produce horns to ram against the Houbarok.

"Try to stay behind me. We will need to make some space between us and these mushrooms."

Basil pressed all his legs' muscles and found he still was not in good shape as he could feel some cracks and minor pain on the front paws. Still, he pressed and began to run towards one of the sides with fewer Houbaroks, with Auriz following behind him using rocks to defend their surroundings.

Basil impaled the first Houbarok on his path and used its body to knock the others on his way. Auriz tried to maintain the rhythm with her legs. Both managed to get out of the encirclement without problems, but something felt wrong.

Basil and Auriz didn't look back and maintained their pace. Back in the cavern entrance, one of the Houbarok looked at its siblings' corpses and began to tremble as it melts on top of the bodies.

The Houbarok fused its body with the others creating an amalgam of parts, more prominent and with arms. The new creature began to walk where the scent of blood called while liberating Spores in the air, sending notice of the two who killed their kind. More Houbarok started to rise from the soil, some from the same tall Mushrooms that permeated the forest. Everyone was hunting them.

Evalyne, Mardok, and the others could see the problem Basil and Auriz got themselves in.

"We have to get them out of that cavern now. The Houbarok is a Species similar to the Sikara in that they mark the ones who killed their kind, and those two are full of spores right now." — Voiced Moraeus while looking at the screens.

"At least you can wash the spores away. The pheromones are another story. Can't you make them run towards the river Evalyne?" — Asked Mardok.

"I guess I could. The problem is, the forest is full of beasts right now, and I don't know if they can reach the river at that pace." — Answered Evalyne while covering her mouth in thought.

"Well, you better do it now because they are going to the rocky plains in that direction." — Spoke Bik.

"Shit! Computer, send a beacon for Basil to the other side of the river and do it fast."

"The beacon is set for the coordinates. Warning! The smell of the beacon will attract or enrage the fauna around two kilometers."

"I hate this fucking game!!"

Basil was trying to run in a direction where the monsters would not appear, but around every corner, another one popped out, that was until a smell permeated his nostrils. It was sweet and demanded that He had to go in that direction.

Seeing its confusion Auriz asked

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know. Something is calling me. We need to go there."

"Right now!?"

"Yes, right now!"

Basil changed direction towards the pheromone beacon got stationed by the drone. The problem is the creatures in all the cavern could smell it too.

Worms got out of the ground seeking meat. The Bats were static and feral; the Argaranth got mad and thought it was an invasion of their home, and the long snout creatures got afraid of the smell, making them run in random directions. The only ones who didn't care were the slimes.

Basil and Auriz were going towards the scent, but both were too slow to avoid encountering foes on the way. Various Worms appeared ready to eat. One of them was longer and thicker and had small plaques covering its body as venom dripping from its maw.

Auriz put herself on the front to protect Basil and tried to ram at them. The Worms are mostly stupid as she killed three without much effort by stomping on them, but the armored one not.

The lesser wurm had some level of intelligence and knew the danger the golemite implied, but what called its attention was the life-core energy of Auriz. The wurm slithered out of sight to attack without them noticing.

Basil saw the Wurm moving out of sight and felt something amiss with its pattern while Auriz got busy with the bugs.

"Auriz, watch out!" — informed Basil, but it was too late. The Wurm attacked Auriz coiling around her with its body giving it time to bite her, causing a crack that Basil could hear.

"AAAAAHHHHH, BASIL, HELP MEEEE." — Auriz was cracking each time the wurm tried to bite her core. Basil, with his broken body, felt hopeless with the sight.

A sensation Basil never felt before rose from within, frustration. Could he save Auriz in his state? Would he be alone again in this place? Basil didn't want that. Basil didn't consider his body's shape and jumped in action with fury taking hold of its senses.

Auriz's crystal was getting dimmer each time the Wurm bit it. She tried to shake off the monster, but it was useless. She couldn't even walk by this point. Auriz lost the control she gained and could only accept her fate while plummeting to the ground with the bug still around her.

Basil averted her complete shattering by crunching the Wurm's head with his maw. The creature let loose a cry of anger, beckoning the attention of other animals in the surroundings.

"THAT'S MY SHINY! YOU BLASTED BUG! — But only a was out of Basil's mouth. Basil Nailed his claws in the body of the Wurm, trying to make it detach from Auriz, but the beast didn't let go.

Auriz light was out by this point, and Basil seeing this, could only feel grief. "Was he too late?" With anger taking hold, he grew spikes on his arm and stabbed the head of the Wurm.

The Wurm, feeling pain, let go of the crystal, shaking Basil off him simultaneously. The Houbarok were getting to the scene slowly, but they would encircle them in no time as the Behemoth was coming for them too.

Basil wouldn't abandon Auriz's crystal to be the food of others. He pushed forward and clawed at the head of the Wurm while it was down. The atrocity, in retaliation, trapped Basil's arm and started to crush it in its maw. Basil letting a growl in pain, tried to ignore the pain while pushing spikes out of his arm.

The bones covered the creature's mouth, but it still didn't let go. Basil didn't give up and pushed more spikes from its arm, plunging inside the Wurm in all directions.

In the last moment, Basil rocked his arm with force at the same time the Wurm bit with all his power, lopping Basil's arm off and killing itself in the process with the bones inside his mouth.

Basil covered the stump with a bone layer to prevent blood loss. He pulled the body of the wurm off of Auriz's core and tried to see if she was still alive.

"Auriz, Auriz!" — Basil called, but she didn't respond. He looked at her core as it began to crack and splintered into small pieces. Basil felt dejected and slumped on the ground as both began to get encircled by the Houbarok.