Civilization

"Is everyone alright?" - Ian

The wave of zombies had stopped, replaced with an eerie silence. The moment the new monster showed itself, the rest of the zombies stopped pushing forward and except for a few stragglers, none had attacked since, like they were waiting in the darkness.

"I'm fine, for now. That blow was heavier than a golem's and faster than your attacks, Ian." - Howard

"Stellar and Lynn are fine as well. Howard took the brunt of the attack, so we are okay. How about you, my lord?" - Gobi

"I'm fine. The monster is fast and silent. However, what makes me worried is that there are no zombies coming to attack us." - Ian

"Let's retreat a bit, Ian." - Solar

"Okay. Let's m- GET DOWN SOLAR!" - Ian

Activating Quickstep, I pounce towards Solar as she turns behind her, falling forward. I place my hand on her back, bending my knees to catch her, as I swing my trident upward, clashing with a pink tongue. Attempting to retaliate, I stab my top two spider legs at the tongue, but it retreats as fast as it attacked.

"Bubble!" - Lynn

Lynn casts her spell, enveloping us in a bubble as a second tongue attacks us from the darkness. Gobi and Howard hurriedly regroup before the Bubble pops from a third tongue.

"They are crawling around us, along the walls and along the ceiling." - Howard

"We need light, Solar can you cast Ball of Light? While I get Robin to shoot down a flaming arrow towards us. It won't be super bright with the flaming arrow as a torch but it will do." - Ian

"I can try to control the Ball of Light. I saw another elf do it before in my village but I never thought it would come in handy, so I never properly learnt it." - Solar

"Alright you can try. Howard, Gobi and Lynn stick close together. Let's move back towards the cave entrance." - Ian

Helping Solar up, I block another tongue attack while, Howard and Gobi get in front of Lynn protecting her. As we move back, I glance at Solar as she closes her eyes in concentration and starts to mutter some elven words.

"Bone Wall!" - Lynn

Lynn uses Bone wall the moment we back off from the corner, sealing the lowerpart of the cave but the new monsters knew how to climb and I could hear the rocks being crushed all around me. I keep my eyes peeled and my ears open, snapping my head in the direction of any sound and attacking immediately.

"ROBIN! SEND A FLAMING ARROW DOWN!" - Ian

Yelling at the top of my voice without looking back, I signal Robin while doing my best to defend against any attacks that were coming toward the front. My senses sharpen as I start to see the outline of the 3 monsters as they climb along the celing of the cave. Thier shadowy figures dart around the top and the sides, however, I notice they have stop completely still before they attack.

Using this information, I was able to defend agaisnt the majority of the attacks with my trident and my spider legs. Howard would block a couple of attacks as well, but since he couldn't see where the attack from coming from, his blocking was awkward and the placement of the shield was always off making it hard for him to defend.

Gobi on the other hand was able to see in the dark being a hobgoblin, however, the monsters were moving faster than his eyes could keep up with them. The only time he could respond to their movement was when they were completely still and about to launch their attack on him. Blocking with his club, he grunts at the force of the attack but stands his ground as Lynn was right behind him.

At the same time, Lynn casts water bullets into the darkness but since she couldn't see most of the attacks missed. However, it did restrict the monsters movements a little bit which allowed time for Robin's arrow to come whistling into the cave lighting up the surroundings as it flies through the air.

Howard picks up the arrow as it lands, lighting up the area in front of us briefly but as if it knew, the monster's tongue nimbly dodges around Howard's shield breaking the arrowhead and extinguishing the flame.I curse under my breath but luckily for us Solar starts to chant louder and a Ball of Light starts to revolve around her hand, illuminating the cave's interior.

Snarls start to echo in the cave, as the monster's retreat from the light, staying in the darkness. We back off slowly, keeping an eye in front of us. I gulp down my saliva as my heart races agasint my chest.

"They are gone." - Gobi

"Are you sure?" - Ian

"Positive, my lord. I know they move fast but I can still see a large figure moving around. They retreated back behind the corner. At the same time, zombies started to move from that corner as well heading towards us. However, they are slow with some walking into the sides of the cave." - Gobi

"Okay, let's get out of the cave then." - Ian

"Agreed. That was too much." - Howard

"At least none of us were hurt." - Solar

"Sorry, everyone. I didn't do as much as I could have done…" - Lynn

Placing a hand on Lynn's shoulder as we turn our backs to the cave, climbing over the wall.

"Lynn, you did a good job. Those monsters were different and we knew next to nothing about them so you shouldn't fee down about it." - Ian

"Thanks, Ian. So, what now?" - Lynn

"Now? Robin, keep an eye out for me. The cave is still filled with zombies. Howard set up another rotation and once you are finished meet up at Lucina's healing station. Solar, Gobi and Lynn, come as well." - Ian

"Got it. I'll be there in a second." - Howard

"What seems to be the problem?" - Gobi

"We will talk more once, Howard comes back." - Ian

"Yes my lord." - Gobi

The 4 of us wander back to Lucina's healing station while Howard shouts some commands at the other people. Robin helps Howard as well as command the archers to attack anything that aproaches the wall. Howard rushes over, waving goodbye to Robin who takes command of the troops while we are disscussing about the new monster.

During that time, I had asked Lucina to do a quick check up on everyone. While I can tell they lost some HP, I wanted to make sure their mental health was okay as well, after all, there is no stat screen for that. Gobi was a little shaken by the experience as I saw him reluctantly bashing the heads of zombie goblins with his club. His hands were still shaking even now, despite his confident expression.

Lynn also looked under the weather as she looks through the magic book, muttering to herself. I understood that she felt useless in the cave but her timely Bubble was able to help us at a crucial time. Furthermore, her water bullet magic was able to kill zombies easily and she was able to do it a lot since she had high Intellegence.

Compared to those two, Solar and Howard were fine after the battle and were checking teir equipment. The two of them were already used to death and monsters and must have quickly accepted the turn of events, only slightly shocked about the new monster.

"Alright, group meeting. That new monster was very different to monsters we have faced before and seemed to have some form of intellegence even though it is an undead." - Ian

"I think it was commanding the zombies or there is still another monster deeperin the cave which is commanding both the zombies and these new monsters but can't do it at the same time. After all, if they could attack at the same tme then the zombies would swarm us from the ground while those monsters would attack us from the ceiling and with thier long reach we might not even see the attack coming for us." - Lynn

"Lynn makes a good point. I saw the zombies deeper in the cave as we fought with the new monsters. They were unmoving and seemed to be looking at the sides of the cave not paing attention to the fight between us and the monsters. Despite, zombies rushing us earlier becasue of Ian's explosions." - Gobi

"Right, I found that weird as well. No matter how much noise we were making, the zombies should have been attracted to it, since the cave echos as well." - Ian

"The monsters themselves were very strong. We would have suffered some injures or maybe even casualities if we were fighting them with the zombie horde." - Howard

,m "I think I know how we fight against them though…" - Solar

"Your light, right?" - Ian

"Yep, they retreated from the light and the first time I used it agaisnt them, they also retreated but that time I did damage one of them." - Solar

"They were afraid of the light and compared to me or Howard's atttacks, you were able to damage themmore effectively. I also think they don't have eyes and were relying on their sense of smell or sound to attack us. I say smell becasue it reacted to the burning arrow so fast, despite Howard oly just picking it up." - Ian

"Then fighting it in the cave is next to impossible. Each step we make would produce so much sound." - Gobi

"No, I have an idea…" - Lynn