The eyes in the darkness looked straight at him and blinked.

A smile filled with razor sharp teeth could be seen as the light of the torch bounced of the yellow white. This new creature n the dark let out a laughing roar as it stepped further into the light. Standing at a height of roughly 7 feet, walking on two feet with slightly forward bending knees and the face of dog there was no mistake about it. The creature that stepped out of the darkness was gnoll! It let out another laughter like growl and eyed the band up and down.

It's not a surprise to see gnolls and kobolds sharing a den. The cowardly kobolds flock around a strong gnoll for semi protection, they could always still get eaten, and the gnoll got some lackeys to do his bidding.

Matthew got in front of his mage friend to protect him from a sudden attack as well as trying to somewhat intimidate the gnoll. Though not highly intelligent, it had enough smarts to not fight opponents it couldn't beat in a direct fight.

It was wearing a crude type of leather armor around its torso and legs. It was riled with holes and cuts probably obtained right before the previous owner parted with the set. The most daunting part of its gear was the actual steel sword it held in its hand as well as the dagger on his waist. Its other hand was holding a wooden kite shield.

As both fighters were eyeing each other up the gnolls sight shifted between the two men and then noticed the third person slightly behind the skinny man and this was no man, this was a woman. The gnolls face switched to an evil grin as he eyed Nalia. Both parties at a standstill each waiting for the other to make a move.

A small salamander scurried along the cave wall knocking over some pebbles. The sound which would otherwise go unnoticed now sounded like a thunder strike and signalled the start of combat.

The gnoll lashed out with his shield, a heavy thud was heard as both shield collided with each other. It had the height advantage and the shield slam came in from a higher angle. While both shield were locked in combat the gnolls sword swept underneath his shield trying to get a clean cut across his abdomen. Luckily the strike was shallow and barely missed him.

Matthew pushed of his shield to break the deadlock and put some distance between the two fighters. The gnoll instantly put tension on his leg muscles and launched himself forward again. Matthew caught the strike on his shield and pushed the blade to the right side as he lined up a heavy punch with his left fist. He was almost in full swing before he had to cancel his attack. The gnoll brought up its own shield and the impact of bone on shield would have definitely broken a few bones.

"Spear of light", the tip of Nalia's spear emitted a quick glow of light to blind the gnoll as she thrust it forward. Partially hidden behind his shield the gnoll was mostly unaffected by the light and adjusted to intercept, but the light spots in its vision didn't see the correct path as the spear graced the shield and nicked the flesh of its shoulder.

It spun around it axis trying to bring the full force of the sword down onto her but was intercepted by the blade of the shield bearer. It roared in fury not expecting these interlopers to put up such a fight.

It still held the upper hand, the light of the torch was growing weaker and with no light to see it would have the advantage. It was also blocking them from running into the tunnel and back to the surface. They could go deeper inside but there was something down there even it knew was sure to get them killed.

The glow of the torch he thought was dying soon became stronger, no not the torch it was the third person! He was conjuring some ball of fire, it didn't like fire! It swapped the shield to its sword arm and pulled the dagger on its belt.

Matthew tried to block and Nalia tried to call out but it was too late. Jared was solely focussed on his magic spell that he never saw the dagger the gnoll had thrown. It might have been enough to kill him outright but the cut the gnoll received earlier in the fight to its shoulder made the dagger fly somewhat of target. The blade bit into Jared's shoulder instead of his neck where the gnoll had aimed the blade. The sudden influx of pain made him lose his concentration as he was pouring mana into his spell. Without his focus to only use the needed amount it was like a dam bursting open and all his mana was poured into the spell and shot it forward.

A loud explosion, which seemed to rock the entire earth around them, shattered the bedrock wall of the cave.

The mage who had cast the fiery magic collapsed as the spell had drained him of all his mana.

The gnoll we were fighting was screaming in pain as the hot flames burned his body before the ceiling above him collapsed and buried his body.

"Jared!", Nalia yelled as she saw the boy topple over. She rushed to his side as large chunks of rock scattered in every direction from the volatile explosion.

Matthew lifted his shield to block a giant boulder which was propelled forward by the explosion. The impact numbed his arms as they took the full blow of force as it impacted his shield. It pushed him back several feet but i held on as behind me a dark cliff loomed into the dark below.

Luckily he stopped just a few inches away from the edge with the giant boulder in front of me.

As he peeked past the rock in front of him, he saw that Nalia was healing the scratches on her arms from the impact of rocks from the explosion. Jared hovered on the edge of consciousness as the backlash of running out of mana had hit him hard.

"At least they are safe" he thought to himself as the floor below him caved under the weight of both him and the boulder, and he fell towards the darkness.