Natasha’s POV

We walked into the cave entrance with Matthew leading the way, he reminded me of my and Clyde’s squadron leader albeit the gender difference. Back straight and eyes always looking forward while debating the next hundred steps in their plan, his aura demanding respect and obedience yet his personality friendly and sometimes shy, over all a strong individual outside but we knew better. Just like me and my brother the darkness ate away at him from the inside, we could see the hatred in his eyes clear as day when he gave us the details of the mission we were currently on. He hid his emotions well like any other Cerberus but there was something different about him, from the moment I saw him I could tell we weren’t the same.

We continued to walk surrounded by darkness with the only light emitted from our weapons and Matthew’s strange eyes, he suddenly came to a stop and stared to our left so I followed his gaze, the large cave corridor abruptly twisted into a corner taking downwards. “What beast could dig through straight up stone like this?” Risa crouched down as she spoke inspecting the ground, I shook my head “Don’t know if you don’t, your world your monsters” whatever this beast was its domineering aura crumbled ours blocking us from sensing too far away from ourselves. I stared down the ramp like passage wondering if our enhancement magic would be enough to grip the slanted floor.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, it’s a spirit beast. Matthew why do you want to mess with one so ancient?” I glanced back to the speaker being Anabel who looked pale as she fidgeted with her staff, an adorable young woman with curves in all the right…(“Keep your head straight girl”)…I shook my head and glanced at our leader as he stared down the cave. A malicious grin plastered on his face as his eyes glowed menacingly red “Already told you, it’ll be our distraction. We only need to lure it out but that might be difficult, one with such a strong aura must be passive and will probably ignore us completely unless we steal its young or injure it” he wasn’t even trying to hide his cold excitement right now which disturbed me.

“Natasha, Clyde with me. The rest watch the entrance, the hordelings won’t dare come down here, the beast’s aura is keeping them at bay and once unleashed they’ll scatter and wait for their leader to organize but by then we’ll already be closing the portal” he stepped forwards and began to skid down the path, “You heard the boss…” Clyde sighed and we both followed him down. With my bow clenched in my left hand I kept enhancing my feet as I skid down the almost smooth slanted stone floor, the dirt and dust making it easier not to lose balance, as if skiing on snow.

A bright light shone showing me the end of the fall where Matthew and Clyde already stood staring at something, I came to a stop next to them and stared into the open cavern. The cavern roof was high enough to hold a four storey home while being wide enough to house a small town, unlike the tunnel the cavern floor was full of dirt and stone rubble making it difficult to move quickly without making any noise. I walked to stand next to Clyde while Matthew stood to his right to look at what they were staring at, I almost gasped in surprise at the beasts staring back at us and glaring at the light from Clyde’s blade that illuminated most of the cavern.

The beasts were large furry hares the size of a mature elephant with distinct patterns on their furry backs, brown, black, white, grey and ginger seeming the most common colours of fur. What mostly caught my attention was the deadlier aspects of the creatures, two pitch black tusks grew off each end of their mouths on top of each other that swirled around each other for a couple meters then intertwined together forming a thick bent edge like a halberd’s blade. From their foreheads grew a single long black horn that broke off into four each growing into a curved spike like a fork, their purple eyes reflected the light in a pinkish hue.

Looking closer their fur was very thick almost gleaming like metal due to the light, then they caught my eyes…their front paws held the deadliest claws I’ve ever seen on a beast, their toes bending wide while meter long black claws grew straight while ending in a sharp hook made for grabbing and tearing. They did not move an inch while we inspected them and neither did we, their intelligent eyes scanning us over as well. I whispered under my breath “What do we do?”, from beside me I heard Matthew whisper an answer back “On my signal, run out”. Before any signal could be made Clyde whispered back “Those are some big ugly ass bunnies” I felt a shiver climb down my spine as the aura suddenly intensified.

I leaped out of the way hoping for the best.

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Clyde’s POV

Every moment I spent cursing in my head for my shit luck as I leaped from wall, floor and roof while speeding through the rabbit tunnels like a mad man, the demonic rabbits chasing after me while screeching like the insane monsters they are. Matthew and Sis were way ahead of me while I was lacking behind even though I was going at full speed, the beasts only a couple meters behind me. I heard shouting as I turned the corner I knew was up ahead “Clear the passage! Get out!” it was Matthew’s voice, I landed on level ground and sprinted forward with all my might while Raijin enhanced my every step.

I almost let a tear flow down when I saw the exit bright from the day light, I was getting close now, I could almost make out the…non existing figures of my squad…I almost tripped at the thought (“Did they ditch me?”) . I reached the plateau and scanned for them while running towards the edge (“They’re gone?! Where…”) I clenched Raijin in both hands and steeled myself for what had to be done, (“This is gonna hurt…”) I leaped off the edge and stared down the cliff that would continue into a painful rubble down the mountain side if I failed. I stared wide eyed while preparing myself for the fall as I continued to glide further from the cliff edge (“Damnit…Did I put too much force in the leap?”), I glanced back.

Suddenly it dawned on me as I stared straight at a dozen demon bunnies leaping up towards me, I wasn’t falling, I wasn’t even gliding down but was instead moving straight and away from the plateau. (“Am I?...Flying?...”) I froze on that thought as I continued to glide away from the crazy rabbits, two even leaped off the edge trying to grab me. I chuckled as they glared menacingly at me (“Raijin! You didn’t tell me you could do this you bastard!”) I continued to stare at the monsters in glee at their predicament (“I have done nothing master, this magic is not of our doing”) his answer hit me like cold water as I turned mid-air to survey around me.

Suddenly I flew straight up a couple storeys but came to an even more sudden stop, my stomach grumbled in retort but I desperately held it in. A cold sweat trickled down my neck as I noticed I was now straight above the spirit beasts, they glared at me while baring their pitch black rows of fangs. Instead of panicking I steeled myself and concentrated my aura to sense the magic that held me, I detected the mana and followed the stream as far as my aura could reach then turned around to follow it with my eyes to its source. High up to the left of the mountain was a small cloud floating much lower than the rest, on top of it I could barely make out the others, five figures looking at my direction.

I sighed in relief guessing it was Anabel’s magic that held me up, I waved my hand at them and imbued my voice with mana “Uh..Thanks but…Can you get me away from these ugly bastards now?...” my voice reached further than it normally would and I waited momentarily for a reply. “Hand it there little brother! Keep their attention on you!” sis’s reply came through using the same method making my butt cheeks clench tight together “Hang in there?...Keep th-” I glanced down as I spoke immediately cursing at myself for doing so, one of the giant fuckers had leaped up with mouth agape, it came so close I could almost kick its tusks away.

“Holy shit!...Fuck! Hell no! Let me go!” I began to panic and struggle with the magic holding me, suddenly I dropped a couple feet and two of them leaped up at me baring their claws upwards. Almost instantly I stopped struggling as a shiver flowed up my spine along with something else.

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Matthew’s POV

I reacted immediately with both pistols already raised, pulling each trigger I released the pent up mana within them. The pitch black ray of dark mana pierced through each spirit beast before the pair even reached Clyde’s falling figure, “Anabel!” I glanced back at her as she concentrated on her spell “S..sorry!” she blurted out quickly while regaining control of her magic. Suddenly a wet belching sound filled my ears making me turn to stare at its source, I watched as Clyde showered the poor spirit beasts in spewed stomach liquid.

“Ugh…colourful ending?...” Natasha spoke while also staring in astonishment at her brother, the others turned to look away in disgust. Clyde suddenly fell a couple more feet “ANA..UHH..BEL!” his voice came in louder than before, “SORRY!” Anabel paled and screamed an apology as she concentrated again. Clyde was launched up a couple storeys before he came to an abrupt stop, not exactly the attention I wanted him to gain but from the looks of the spirits beasts it was more than enough.

Their aura turned into a frenzy of bloodlust as they glared up in unison at Clyde, a low pitched growl escaping their throats as they stared at him in pure unrestrained hatred. The person in question floated high above holding onto his stomach with his left while sheathing his blade with his right, his face turned away from us. Finally my plan…although different from what I had entirely imagined…began to bear fruit, “Anabel tell your summoned fiend to fetch him” I glanced back as she tapped her staff onto the solid cloud three times before it began to move towards Clyde.

I watched as the spirit beasts dug their claws into the ground while drooling in anger, all around them hordelings that had sneaked close had completely frozen up from their instincts screaming for them not to move. Voidlings did not feel fear but their instincts for survival acted similarly, they weren’t afraid of the spirit beasts but instead decided to wait for more of their kind to group up with them so they could overwhelm them with numbers. Some of the beasts seemed to have noticed their neighbour’s attention and began to bare their fangs at them as well.

Spirit beasts were very emotional beings, if it wasn’t for the Elves keeping track of their numbers on Etyria and their cousins the Beastmen giving them land to live upon they would have been eradicated for their wild nature. They weren’t entirely monsters as they held enough intelligence to know the difference between it and I along with powerful magic still being studied till this day, unlike other races they did not utilize spells to enhance their bodies or bend mana.

Instead they seemed to make us of their aura just like their cousins but with a more direct method that we could not detect or understand entirely, what we did know is that an angered spirit beast can effect another like a contagious disease. Anger one and the emotions will spread like wildfire turning a pastor of spirit beasts into a horde of suicidal monsters. I looked away from the pack of giant hares and reached out to grab Clyde as we moved in closer to him, “When I said get their attention, I didn’t mean shower them brother” Natasha helped me drag Clyde onto the cloud fiend while laughing loudly.

He immediately sat down while his hands trembled on his sword’s grip and sheath, a sigh of relief came from both him and Anabel behind us as she released her wind magic. None of us said anything further as they diverted their gazes while I scanned the ground below, I studied the spirit beasts as they slowly began to turn to the hordelings due to Clyde’s disappearance. Muffled giggling began to sound off from behind me but I saved Clyde the humiliation by barking out some orders “Clyde show your face off the edge so they can see you, Anabel get us a bit lower so they can sense us then start moving towards the portal. Natasha, Ell, Risa prepare to fight off any leapers but do not kill them unless they are hordelings”

I glanced back “Well? What you all standing around for?” I tried my best to snuff out the smile that began to grow on my face, Clyde laid face down on the edge of the cloud fiend, Natasha, Ell and Risa spread out evenly around the edge while Anabel began to take out the gear to close the portal from her storage crystal. As we moved up higher and closer to the portal I noticed the spirit beast hares going in a frenzy and climbing up the mountain behind us, just as planned they massacred all hordelings in their way forcing them to fight back.

“The fiend won’t last much longer, are the voidlings distracted?” Anabel was putting together a runic circuit with mana crystals full of chaos mana as a source while at the same time pouring mana into her summoner’s staff to keep the cloud fiend from dissipating, I nodded back at her “The spirit beasts have given a lot of causalities to the void, the hordelings are starting to lash out”. She nodded back and looked upwards, suddenly the fiend flew up taking us inside the clouds. The freezing air chilled our bones as we ascended higher, it got more difficult to breathe the higher we flew until we finally broke through the wall of clouds.

In front of us the portal stood swirling as it devoured the clouds beneath it, black, green and grey were its colours. “Start the spell” I walked over to Anabel as she began to chant her magic, I crouched down in the middle and began separating my chaos mana from the rest then pouring it into the runic circle around me. “Flow flow like a river, the currents carry you forward. Flow flow like a whirlpool, the currents swirling you around” the runes glowed a dark purple as the mana took ethereal form and flowed up to the portal, Anabel repeated the incantation over and over as more and more chaos mana formed around the portal as it lost its stability.

The portal’s swirl began to slow down as the ethereal chaos swirled in the opposite direction, I raised my arms with hands open in a claw and I began my own chant “Rise, float, hover. Wind unrestrained, gravity not a factor” I repeated the chant as I slowly rose from my crouching position, all around me the six purple crystals rose up with me. While still repeating the chant I began to close my arms until both faced each other in front of me, with those movements all the crystals rushed to form a circle in front of me. I changed my chant “Flowing river bend to my command, blowing winds stop at my order. Blazing flames shudder at my presence, steady earth shatter at my arrival!” ethereal lines flowed out of the crystals forming a perfect copy of the runic circle that lay under me.

I slowly began to open my clawed hands and the circle moved further away from me until it was directly within the swirling portal and chaos mana, I abruptly clenched my hands into fists remembering the chant Anabel made me practice on the way here. We both spoke the next words together albeit not in perfect unison, my large storage of mana making up for the timing “the moving stops, the still moves, the broken repairs, the whole breaks. Mangle thee, chaos unrestrained. Shatter and repurpose, form and destroy”. Suddenly the portal swallowed the crystals along with the ethereal runes, it began to distort further while spreading and losing its perfect form. The portal turned rift began to shudder as it slowly dissipated out of existence, one last voidling falling out of it as it disappeared.

The clouds exploded away as the sudden release of mana burst forth from the closing rift, the sky cleared for kilometres all around us. I sighed in relief “Looks like the horde leader didn’t make it through, not that I’m complaining”, even though I said that I had my reservations on killing the vile beast myself if it did make it through. “Bah! How can you still stand? I’m running on fumes…” I glanced back Anabel, she was on her knees and slightly pale from exhaustion. “No room to rest, now we kill the remaining voidlings” I looked around at everyone, it seemed like Anabel and Clyde where the only ones worn out.

Suddenly I felt gravity’s pull as every one of us began to fall, the cloud fiend no longer holding us up. We broke through the clouds and I watched as each of us fell down towards death, I glanced around at everyone but nobody seemed fazed. Just as planned we began to slow down in our descent, Natasha and Clyde’s doing. We began to slowly glide down towards the ground, as we descended I scouted the mountain for signs of the struggling hordelings hoping the spirit beasts weren’t over run already. With the portal closed the hordeling’s connection to the hivemind was cut and their meagre single intelligence wasn’t enough for them to think of anything else but hunger, they would fight, eat or die.

I scanned the mountain side but all I could see were corpses of already dead hordelings, no sign of the spirit beasts, surviving hordelings or any other voidling. Slowly and steadily we touched the ground and skied down the mountain side, after adjusting our trajectory we came to a stop on the plateau again. “Did the rabbits kill all the voidlings? Don’t see none around except for corpses” Clyde was staring down the cave’s entrance as he spoke, “They’re hares, the reason they got so pissed off at you and no there’s no way a dozen spirit beasts could take on all the hordelings that made it through while we closed the portal” I walked over to Anabel who was resting next to Risa and Natasha while Ell was standing by the edge scouting the area.

“Any of you saw where the spirit beasts ran off to?” I glanced at them while keeping an eye on Clyde who was moving too close to the cave for my liking, “Before we went above the…uuh…’Arias’…clouds, they were fighting beneath us” Risa responded while stuttering over her still improving English. The other two shook her head so I turned around to face Ell “See anything?” her Elven eyes were much better than any of ours, she clicked her tongue “Nothing, just dead”. I massaged my forehead while thinking our predicament over (“How do a couple dozen blood hungry monsters disappear?”).

“B..boss…I think I know where…they went…” I had taken my eyes off Clyde and he had gone and entered the cave, I quickly walked over to see what he was talking about “What is it?” my gaze fell upon the lit up tunnel and darted about the disassembled corpses and disembodied limbs of hordlings that now lined it up. The putrid smell hit my nostrils hard “Gugh..The hell?...” I covered my nose and walked in, “The spirit beasts must have been chased back into their cave, the hordelings followed“ Clyde kept giving me his back as he spoke, I shook my head (“Damn your pride kid, it wasn’t that bad”) remembering the sight I mentally corrected myself (“Okay maybe it was…”).

The others walked in behind me “They’re cornered as long as there aren’t any other entrances to the cavern, Risa, Natasha with me. Clyde and Ell stay behind and watch Anabel.” They all nodded and I began to walk deeper into the cave, “No, I’m coming with” Clyde was glaring at me protest of my orders. I raised a brow and glared back at him questioningly, he cleared his throat “I wish to come with, Sir.” (“Progress”) . I sighed “Natasha and Ell stay behind with Anabel, let’s go”.

We walked through the carnage while Clyde showed the way with his unsheathed Bound Aether, the further in we went the more corpses lay mangled about. All three of us held our noses shut with a hand as we moved carefully and cautiously and we finally reached the corner turn, we momentarily stood there staring down the hare tunnel. “Ris stay here for message relay, Clyde with me” I glanced at both and both nodded, I wanted Risa to go down with me at first knowing her strength in closed out spaces but after seeing how pride hurt Clyde was I decided it’s best he does this himself while I watch his back. Pride is a troublesome emotion; I’ll have to teach him that later.

We carefully moved down the sloped tunnel, our feet enhanced with mana to stick to the ground as we took slow steps. The closer we got to the bottom irking sounds made their way to our ears, the crunching of bones, the tearing of skin and flesh, the munching of something being eaten, the slurping of a tongue, all in all a disgusting series of sounds. (“Something isn’t right…there’s…too little sound…”) as insane as it sounds I expected the hordelings to be more frenzied with the large meals, had only one survived?

When we finally reached the bottom Clyde raised his sword as it’s brightness increased, the gory feast given light for our eyes to gaze upon it. Seven…no…Eight gigantic hares lay dead all about the cavern surrounded dozens over dozens of hordeling corpses along a couple other voidling variants also lying dead. (“No wonder the beasts’ aura felt so powerful like an ancient, they were each fairly old and strong themselves. Killed so many before they fell dead”) I glanced around searching for the source of the munching, crunching and slurping, until my eyes fell upon a single moving figure among the dead.

A ghoulish grey humanoid lay crouching next to a hare, only it’s lower body visible as the rest lay within the bloody corpse. From beside me I heard Clyde gulp down his spit, from ahead of me I heard the creature gulp down it’s feast and lay still and soundless. Slowly it emerged from inside the flesh, fresh blood still dripping down its torso among pieces of meat and bone. The being stood nine feet tall with sickly grey skin and elongated limbs, from its shoulders grew two arms per side while its hands held only three fingers each ending it a foot-long emerald claw. Its face was aimed towards us but it held no such thing as eyes, instead of a nose two small holes lay in the middle of its face above its terrifying mouth, a curved lipless mouth started from eye height, falling down to the chin then curving back up like an insanely stretched out smile.

It sniffed the air as it lowered its body, (“Is it blind? Does it not know we’re here?”) suddenly it hissed with its mouth laying forward agape, multiple rows of green blade like fangs lay moving around within as if having muscles of their own. (“Yeah…definitely knows we’re here…”)