Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Forty-Six: Into the Cave

The process of sneaking around the back of the fight was somehow both easier and harder than Jayler had originally expected, and he had no idea how he was supposed to feel about it. 

Zelda was the one handling the barrier that made them invisible to the outside world. She had one hand held up as she focused on walking forward, and the rest of the group was crowded close to her to make sure that no traces of them were shown to the outside world. The monsters of Ice magic didn't have much intelligence to speak of, but Alba most certainly did, and they wouldn't hesitate to send the mindless beasts in the direction of the intruders. If that happened, they would lose the element of surprise, and everything would undoubtedly fall apart from there. 

"The battle outside has already begun, and it seems to be in full swing," Tavi remarked with a light frown. He was still holding tightly to the communicator that Liathine had given him. He was taking his job incredibly seriously, even more so than he took most situations and duties of his. It was almost impressive that he had found a way to look even more stern and detached than most other times. 

"Good," Zelda replied simply. "What groups have started to fight out there? When we came in here, it was only Tuila's group that had started to engage the monsters." She led the group slightly off to the left and closer to the wall to avoid a small pack of beasts that roamed a bit too close to them. 

"It seems that Tuila's party and Valdez's group have both started to engage the beasts of ice," Tavi responded. "The command was just given for the second team to join the fight and help to fight off the offending beasts. In other words, there are going to be more monsters leaving the cave soon enough, and when they do leave, Alba will have even fewer defenses."

"I bet that they're starting to catch onto our strategy now," Lex commented with a frown. "I somehow suspect that there's going to be something that happens within the cave. I mean, if there are all of those fighters out there, then they must know that there's more to it than that... I mean, we know how intelligent Alba is, and they wouldn't just lave such a wide gap in their defenses, right?"

"I don't know if I would go that far," Jay said. "Alba is now likely aware of the fact that there are other groups of ours that are camouflaged somewhere around here, but they don't know how many of them are lying in wait. On top of that, they have no way of saying for sure how much each group is going to have at their disposal. in other words, they only have a vague idea at best of what it is that we're getting up to, so we can't exactly trust them to know everything about our plan."

"We don't know for sure if they've even come to realize that we're coming in here," Zephyr declared. "Then again, I suppose that's the point. Even if Alba is a good strategist and all that with their army of monsters, I don't think that they're going to be able to just figure out that they're missing out on fighting a few members of our party. I mean, everything is so chaotic at this point. I can still hear the fight even all the way back here in the cave."

The group fell silent for a brief moment to see if Zephyr was right or not, and sure enough, they had a point; the battle was little more than a distant echo given how far away they were from the scene of the fight itself, a sign that everything was starting its slow descent into chaos, assuming that the point hadn't been reached already. Jayler let out a sigh. He hated the fact that he had to hear this, if he was being honest. It made him wish that there was more he could do for the groups that were outside the cave, but he knew that he had a mission of his own. The strategy had been specifically crafted for the sake of everyone being able to take care of the jobs that they would be best for. 

"If Alba is going to notice that anyone is gone, it's going to be the two of us," Zelda continued, gesturing between herself and Jay. "The two of us have been the greatest thorns in their side up to this point, haven't we? During their two invasions of the castle, we were the ones to send them retreating, and I doubt that they took too kindly to being forced to leave the palace behind because they were bested by two teenagers on both of their attempts."