The area where they fought ended up in a mess. Giant trees collapsed, the cave wall where the monster crashed, crumbled into a giant dent. Little Elly who stood beside the dead body, starting to walk toward me, she sploshed across the pool of blood that was flowing from the monster while looking straight at me. Even though she seemed to have returned to her usual self, seeing her walking straight to me with her blood-soaked hand, it made me feel a bit flustered.

No cut could be seen from her pale skin, she seemed to be perfectly fine. But, when she moved closer. She wobbled on her feet and dropped down. I dashed to her side, caught her right before she touched the ground. I carried her on my arms while kneeling. Her eye blinked tiredly at me, even though she just flashed me a smile not long ago.

"Elly?? What's wrong?" I shook her body a bit, trying to get her awake.

Elly weakly shook her head, but then she uttered, "Yuu..." She beckoned to get my face down. When our face was aligned, she looked at me not blinking, her thick dark blue lashes didn’t moved even a bit while gazing into me, drawing me into her big blue eyes. I couldn’t move my eyes away as if I was paralyzed. Elly raised both her hand and then she suddenly grasped my head at both side. She pulled my forehead, touching hers. A golden light glowed on our forehead, simultaneously, a faint shock felt through my temple and eventually travelled toward every corner of my body. It was a light fluffy feeling at first.

I have no idea about what she's doing. I peeked at Elly, her brows furrowed and her face looked troubled. Suddenly, a different shock flowed through my forehead. The shock got more intense as time passed. My instinct viciously urged me to withdraw but I couldn’t, not because she held my head tight, but because I simply couldn’t move my body. My movements were restrained, my body wouldn't listen to me. Elly whispered. The moment she moved her lips, the shock pierced again. Then, a voice resonated in my skull.

[“I'm sorry Yuu, please endure...”]

The shock increased, my heart hammered wildly, I can feel my blood flowing in sync. Especially on the chest, it was bubbling hot and stuffy. Something in me seemed to be pulled out forcefully by her. As if she was drawing the energy out from me, simultaneously, Elly regained the healthy flush on her cheek every sec. Wild guesses were running through my mind.

Is she sucking my life force out?

I tried my hardest to move my hands or legs, but I couldn't. It was so uncomfortable, as if I was standing at the edge of a steep cliff, hands and legs tied, with sandstorm behind me. After a minute of suffering, Elly finally pushed me away. I jerked backward at the same moment Elly had let me loose. The uncomfortable feeling abruptly disappeared. She’s still looking at me though, constantly smiling at me, not explaining. She adjusted herself upright, then she sat on her knees. She beamed her usual smile like nothing ever happened.

"Thank you!" She spoke with a weird accent to it.

I did remember myself saying that word to her. But still, I was amazed by her learning curves. It won't be hard to teach her how to speak my language as she seemed to instantly remember every word I had ever said. She is a quick learner. But then, why did she thank me? And what was that just happened?

Wait... she sucked my life force out, didn't she?

She was wobbling weak before, but now, she seemed to be fine enough to throw another deadly kick. I groped all over my body. Trying to find anything that might had gone wrong, but everything seemed to be perfectly fine. I stood up from my position, once again examining myself throughout. My stamina was the same as before.

Sigh... Nothing seemed to be out of place

I looked at Elly again, wanted to throw a question but then was taken aback by a flash of how she smashed that monster head apart. I gulped down my cluttered thought, calmed myself down again. I shouldn't be agitated.

"Welcome" I replied to her thank. I was fine, so, I will let it pass first. Hopefully, I will be able to get a full explanation of what she took from me. I felt it, she did draw something out from me. It was a mysteriously familiar feeling, but I couldn't describe it well myself. Lastly, I seemed to recall hearing her telling me to endure on the process. But, it couldn't be from her, because that would have contradicted with the fact that she didn't know how to talk in my language. I didn't remember ever saying any of those words to her.

Ahh... so many questions

All left unanswered, the questions kept piling up high in the back of my mind. But for now, I will just keep myself close to this super strength girl while slowly gaining information as we explore the caves. Speaking of that, there was one place I need her to escort me. Before I could open my mouth, Elly turned her back to me and started moving forward, heading to where the nest placed. It was now an uninhabited nest.

I followed Elly, strode over the roots, weaved over the shrubs, moving forward to the nest. The forest had returned to its previous tranquil atmosphere. By the time we reached the nest, Elly hopped into it and I waited for her at the ground. Another second, Elly jumped to the edge of the nest with three giant eggs over her head. Blocking the light from above, shadow casted upon her face. She looked at me while grinning. Seemed to be contented. She jumped down and immediately sprinted. I was surprised, but still I followed her.

Sigh...she never stopped moving

"Yuu! Come!" She casually ordered me to follow her, talking with that weird accent of her again, but it was cute coming out from her mouth.

We started walking toward the big vertical cracked tunnel at the north of the cave, with Elly holding her eggs up high above her head.

Wouldn't she feel heavy? Should I help?

I clutched my hands around the eggs, trying to lift them. I pulled and pushed at the load.

Uhm...But... they didn't seem to move any bit?

"Yuu?" Elly voiced out a question, she tilted the eggs away together with her head to front facing me, shadow left her face. I was shocked by how easily she could move with the heavy load above her. Not mentioning about lifting the eggs, I can't even budge the eggs from her grip. I retracted my hand.

“Nope... nevermind” I mumbled and ashamed of myself. I honestly thought that I could lift that load, but it seemed I was too naive.

She moved the eggs back, up over her head and continue walking straight, hopped over any obstacles blocking her way. That three eggs were just three balloons for her. It was a long walk to the end of the cave, by the time we reached the tunnel. I was panting from the fatigue, while Elly was perfectly fine.

The otherworldly forest scenery had finally left my sight, we were walking inside another underground tunnel. Elly was leading the way at the front. She was humming a cheerful tone while she were moving. I wondered where we are going. Hopefully not into another monster lair. My little heart would broke from the constant shock. And I didn’t like the idea of letting Elly fought alone. Not that I could fight alongside her anyway. So, it was best to not encountering another danger. But, nobody knows what will happen next.

I tilted my head up, looking at the ceiling of this tunnel. It was pretty high up. Almost as tall as the one I saw back at the first cave, where a Cerberus appeared. And I didn’t ever wanted to see that monster again. We made a few turns in the tunnel, Elly did seem to be very familiar with the caves and tunnels. She might know where the exit is. I have started to miss the sunlight, even when I normally avoided exposing myself to it. Now, I honestly missed the warm feeling it radiated. The caves and tunnels were kind of cold after all.

Elly suddenly stopped while I almost hit the eggs she held up high. I was alerted by her sudden change of behaviour, so I immediately walked to her side. She raised a brow up while squinting her eyes. She seemed to be focusing or sensing something, I don’t know. A while after that, she suddenly leapt away in a speed I totally couldn't catch up. I ran and chased on her gradually vanishing back.

“Elly?! What’s wrong?” I called on her while running behind her distanced back. Eventually, we entered into another strange cave. This time, it was a cave full of sand, dunes, valley and canyon, but it was at least ten times larger than all the previous caves. I can’t even see the border of this place. It was an underground dessert with extremely high up ceiling as if as high as the sky, the air felt so dry and cold when sniffed down to the throat. No wonder why the tunnel felt colder as we moved further in.

Elly shuffled into the limitless dessert, with that giant eggs held over her head. She sprang toward the west of the tunnel we just came out. Where a vast red canyon mountain area could be seen. It was difficult to run through the sand terrain that lightly sucked in my feet whenever I stomped down. Furthermore, the sand was damp.

Elly jumped down off a steep cliff that cracked on the ground nearby the red canyon, I who couldn’t see the bottom of it, was surprised by her action. When it reached my eyes, I was relieved to learn the fact that the bottom wasn’t all that deep, probably five to seven meters deep with a stream of river lined across the bottom of the valley. The river seemed to be connected to all of the canyon area of this cave. As for this one, one end of the river was streaming into a small canyon cavern which was buried with the sand on the top, leaving only two meters tall of space. At the other side was a small stream of waterfall hung down from the edge of this steep valley. The upstream was connected to the canyon mountain.

I ran down from the slanted rocky wall, climbed and jumped myself down. My feet landed heavily on the sand strewn rock surface. And my eyes were set on Elly, who was putting down her eggs by the side of those four black kittens, which have the size almost as big as an adult dog in my world. Each of the kitten had three crooked tails adorned with white fur at the end of the tail and the ears stood straight above their head. They had the fang of a white saber tooth protruded from their mouth. The fur on their chest was especially long, surrounded the neck like a lion.

Even though they had a feature of a monster and seemed to be strong. The kittens were injured. They were laying down weakly, green eyes blinking slowly. The kittens wiggled their nose wildly when Elly approached them and they whined when they confirm it was Elly. Elly’s eyes glinted with anger and she snarled as she listened to the whimpers of the kittens. Next, she glared and frowned her brows with fury.

“Elly? What happened?” I spoke as I got my self close to them. Elly’s vicious snarl faded when she heard my voice. Then she turned her head to me. Her eyes gleamed wet. Her brows scrunched.

“Uuuuuu...” she let out a sorrowful groan as she glanced back at the kittens.

I closely observed at these weak monster kitties, they had bite marks dug deep into their skin layers all over its body. Moreover, the exposed flesh was swelling up with purple coloured pus, as if poisoned. There was trail of blood all the way up the other side of the valley, where the big red rugged canyon blocked the horizon.

Elly broke her eggs in one swoosh, she took out the flesh and immediately brought it near to the kitten’s face, in hope to restore their stamina. The nose wiggled, the mouth was opened slightly but that’s it. They were too battered to be able to swallow any food down through their throat.

Elly tossed the flesh, she knelt down by the side of the biggest kitten. She laid her head down on its big furry body while hands hugged and lightly stroked around it, comforting the dying kitten. She closed her eyes, her lashes were soaked wet, but no tears seemed to be rolling down.

Are these her pets?

I had a thought that she might be bringing the eggs back to her family, but it seemed like I was wrong. Does she live alone in here? There was some dried shrub from the previous cave, built into a comfortable looking bed near the river cavern. It was made and built to the size that all four or more kittens could sleep snugly in it. If the kittens had the size of a big adult dog, what would be the size of their parent?

Elly gave the kitten her last hug, then she moved back and she started trailing over the blood trails. She sprang on her feet and jumped over the other side of this crack, left me confused. In fact, I haven't fully regulated my unruly breath from all the running from before, but still, I heavily moved my legs and followed after her.

After a while of vigorous climb, I finally hooked my hand on the edge of the cliff valley and pulled my body up to the horizontal surface. While panting exhaustedly, I adjusted my position and started sprinting toward the blood trail, into the red sombre gateway. I rolled my eyes all over the place and secretly admired for the wind carved rock wall of the canyon inside.

It was almost dead silence in this ravine path if not because of the sound made from my shoes hitting the rock and the puff I huffed out of my mouth. The trail of blood ended when I made a sharp turn at the end of this ravine, leaded to a vast opened area, where big patches of blood were splattered across the barren walls decorated with lot of holes. There, Elly stood in a stance braced for a fight.

"Elly?" I called on her name. Her eyes fixed on the biggest hole at the north barren wall, where the outer area painted with colourful liquid which I assumed as blood, furthermore there were unknown flesh scattered to rot nearby that tunnel. It was clearly a lair of a ferocious monster. The hole reeked the smell of death.

Behind the tunnel, bone cracking and wet squelching sound could be faintly heard if I focused on my hearing. Elly moved her legs steadily toward the nasty tunnel, sploshed over the rotted fleshes and burst a nose piercing stench. She dashed into the tunnel, her barefoot was tapping inside the tunnel and her back vanished into the dark. The hair on my skin were raised and the blood in me was curdling in tension.

My legs froze like stone, while my mind processing the nasty scene spread in front of my sight. The spine-tingling silence struck again, I positioned myself into an unprofessional stance, as if I was a martial artist fighter, preparing myself for the upcoming impact.

My eyes darted vigilantly toward every ominous feeling that creeped out from the holes on the barren rock walls. I stared deep inside the black holes, not blinking, somehow started to catch creepy critters feet tapping and crawling into my ears. I closed my eyes tight, trying to concentrate more. It was pitch black, I sniffed, my nose picked up the same deadly stench but then, further into the hole, the air from inside seemed to be moving irregularly.

Hundreds... no... probably thousands of them... They are here!

I opened my eyes, immediately greeted by the critters I was sensing. My instinct was proven to be true but not to be surprised nor celebrate. Tiny, slender, fury legs drumming out of those holes, creeping on the wall. Their black skin were creepy smooth and shiny, seemed to be squishy, with four slender furry legs supported each side of its body. Those were spiders with the body size of a basketball. They started swarming all over the wall, and scuttled into the ground. Escape was the first thing I thought of, I turned myself back but to only caught another swarm of crawling spiders, blocking the path I came from.

The red barren rock wall was now covered by a blanket of moving black. The swarm slowly creeping in, I was force to move to the centre and got myself cornered. They were spread everywhere except the big tunnel Elly went in, as if not to block whatever that will be coming out of that eerie tunnel. Their eight eyes blinked separately, shining like a black pin heads and their mandibles clicked as they scuttled with those furry slender legs. They surrounded me but didn't attack. The tunnel was the only path I could take. I blinked and squinted my eyes to focus. I stared at the tunnel where Elly is.

Should I follow her? But it could be worse inside.

The swarm keep increasing, the wall was totally black and not a space could be seen through them, except the ground I stand and the tunnel behind me.

The once silence tunnel exploded with a loud earth-shaking sound, followed by a scream of a girl. I turned my head, a raging wind blasted out from the tunnel, altogether with a body crashing straight into the wall north of the tunnel. The blast messed the formation of the swarm, they are all over the place.

"Hh!!" Elly shrieked while she dropped to the ground, the swarm avoided her, they scuttled and distanced away from Elly, simultaneously opened a path straight across from her, to me and to the tunnel.

I batted my feet and rushed to Elly who had adjusted herself into a stance, she regained her balance while panting, her eyes looked troubled and a pinkie length cut could be seen on her left cheek, red blood rolled down. Elly swung her hand across her chest directing to me. She fixed her glaring eyes onto me.

[“Move!!”]

Her voice once again resonated in my head.