The Witch's Relay

Chapter 59: Slip-Up

Linda and Heather both go silent. Listening to the incoming danger, they ready their weapons.

Beside me, Vanessa's hands, although on her bow, are shaking slightly. I can tell that this environment is far from ideal for an archer.

"I'm gonna light up the area." Linda states. "The people behind us should be far enough back not to see or realize what's going on."

Considering that the next several parties after us will have branched off, I believe we should have at least a thirty minute head start, maybe half that because we've had to be more careful.

"Grant me great light and let me fight. Flare!" Linda points forward and up, and out of her finger a blinding light bursts forward, revealing the cave all around us.

The first thing I notice is the massive crystal stalactites hanging off the ceiling, reflecting the light in every direction, and diffracting it into every color of the rainbow.

The next thing to notice is the pack of large wolf-monsters running towards us. Stunned by the unexpected light, they slow down.

For them however, slowing down turns out to be a fatal mistake. Vanessa, now being able to properly see, begins to loose arrow after arrow at them, and before they reach us, almost half of them are left behind on the cavern floor to bleed out.

Seeing their pack mates get felled by the one with the bow however, the five remaining wolves charge infuriated straight for Vanessa.

Not that I'm happy over Vanessa getting attacked, but finally I get a chance to show my worth!

Leaping in-between Vanessa and the incoming wolves, I immediately slash at the nearest one and just barely stop it from reaching.

Just behind me I hear Linda let out a loud breath out of relief. After just casting a spell, she wasn't able to reach Vanessa in time, and Heather is preoccupied with a couple other wolves.

Another wolf pounces forward, this one too I slash at, but barely do any damage, only grazing the side of its head.

The first wolf gets up and lunges at me with its claws but I'm able to jump to the side, and at the same time I succeed in stabbing the leathery bottom of its paw.

The wolf howls out in pain, but the cry is cut short when Linda's knife whizzes by me and gets buried deep inside the throat. The other one meets the same fate less than a second later.

Ready to meet my next opponent I stand with my blade raised only to realize that it's over.

All the incoming monsters have been dealt with, while me and Linda defended Vanessa, Heather made quick work of three more of them.

"Things might be getting more hectic from here on out. Imagine if they got the jump on us." Heather points out.

I shudder. Had Linda not cast the flare spell, then Vanessa wouldn't have been able to shoot four of them, then we would have quite possibly been overrun.

I wonder how the other parties are doing.

The flare that Linda fired is slowly beginning to fall and fade, but before that happens we are all able to see the clear path ahead of us.

"In case there are other monsters that can smell blood we should move quickly." Vanessa suddenly says. Her voice is shaky, either from adrenaline or the leftover fear from almost getting killed.

Nodding, we all agree and resume our quick pace down the path.

...

It's almost funny how terrifying the dark can be. Being only able to see a few steps ahead of us, we flick our heads around at the slightest of sounds, whether it happens to be a killer rabbit or just a water drop falling from the stalactites above, slowly growing the stalagmites below.

...

What has to be at least an hour later we reach the next cavern wall and there is thankfully a tunnel leading into it. While terrifying nonetheless, the tunnels leave less room for attacks, and are safer.

We slow our pace to a walk for a little bit in order to eat.

...

Another monster attack. This time the attack is by a cave golem. Thankfully however we found out about it being brittle in the joints, because otherwise we would have smashed the edges of our swords to bits.

I end up nearly crushed, but get out with just a sprain and a bad scrape. But we do defeat it and a greater heal spell from Heather is enough to get me back on my feet again.

...

A second cave golem. Bigger than the last, but armed with the knowledge from the last one, this one goes down quickly.

...

"This is almost ridiculous." I say to no-one in particular. "We've been going forever and the only thing changing is the monsters getting stronger. One slip-up and we'll lose a member."

"Then we just can't slip up." Heather responds to my complaint without batting an eyelid.

"That isn't really something we can decide." I object.

"Just pay attention. Besides, we still have magic to spare." Linda cuts into the discussion, obviously annoyed.

At this point we are all on edge.

"Can't we all just-" Vanessa begins to speak, when suddenly the ground beneath us gives way.

Without the chance of grabbing onto anything, all four of us plummet down into the deep.

Looks like we've slipped up.