Before him stood a cave mouth, about as wide as a bus and craggy akin to the gaping maws of an ancestral dragon. An icy draft lapped at Brock’s cheeks and limbs as he attempted to peer inside and gaze within its depths, although an unnatural dark obscured everything but the vague outlines of a descending slope and hanging stalactites.

It had taken a whole three days, but the group had finally arrived at the location they had been directed to by Adam. Brock hadn’t missed the way the man had snuck a glance at his phone beforehand, nor did he miss the well-hidden grimness in the lines of his face. It was all but obvious to him that this was some kind of scheme, probably by this ‘enigmatic leader’ no less.

He would be lying if he said he was surprised that a government-esque organisation was most likely listening in to a private conversation. Order was a core principle of that structure, and you couldn’t have order when you knew nothing of the things that could threaten it.

Still… fuck you.

Despite all that, however, Brock was all but certain that Adam hadn’t been misdirecting or mixing his words when he talked about the topic of the item. Once he knew he’d peaked their interest, the man had revealed that he was referring to a Treasure. At that point, Brock was certain his eyes were almost bulging out of his head. Harry had no idea what it even was.

That did leave the question of ‘why’, as making him stronger and more unpredictable was clearly against the principle of order and control. There was the potential it was just a ploy to get him killed, but he doubted it.

Adam didn’t seem like the type, at least from what he had gathered from the man’s personality.

Goodwill, maybe?

Brock glanced at Fon and Harry, the former having long donned a worried expression and the latter snooping around the cave mouth excitedly, “You guys ready to go?”

The teenager gave a nod while their acting diplomat reluctantly gave her consent in the same manner. Brock adjusted the fraying hem of his bloodstained jacket and stepped forward past Harry and into the cave, opting to take the lead in case of hidden enemies or hazards. Of course, the boy had a far higher Constitution than he did, but it was just a matter of principle.

An oppressively dark interior surrounded them as they walked, making it challenging to see anything out even two meters ahead of them. Brock messed around with his hand in the darkness, just barely able to make out its movements with his enhanced perception. The air was somewhat stifling and a tad bit stale, but otherwise it was fine. For now at least.

It wasn’t until they had been walking for a good five minutes that Brock noticed something troubling; Fon. Even if he couldn’t see her, he could hear the woman’s haggard breathing as she exhaled. Idly, he reached out and brushed the wall of the cave to his left, feeling it to be far closer than he thought it was.

She isn’t claustrophobic… is she?

Brock would have stopped their trek then and there and accompanied her to the outside to relieve her stress, if not for the sudden assault of a putrid stench upon his nostrils. It was faint, but as he reeled from the smell, he swore he heard what he thought was a groan. The darkness was still masking everything from him, but he narrowed his eyes and tried to pierce through the veil of black.

Only thirty seconds passed as they walked, and the darkness began to ease up significantly, bathing the cave in shades of greys and muted colours, revealing a small cavern. The dying embers of what was assumed to once be a small campfire were scattered across the floor, casting dim streaks of orange glow along the walls, mixing in contradictorily with the monochrome theme of the environment.

Even then, he struggled to make out anything. The unnatural dark aside, he was certain he was at least a few dozen meters below the surface level by now.

Utilising his newly upgraded Augment of Skies, courtesy of a sudden revelation he had had in terms of the boundlessness of the sky when he had gazed upon the expanse in the Eiffel Tower, Brock sent a wave of gusts throughout the tunnel. The embers stoked themselves to a brief radiance and the area was illuminated brightly.

Immediately, Brock was forced to resist the urge to vomit. Fon and Harry didn’t even seem to have the chance to, spewing loudly and splattering the bloodied cave floor with their lunch and stomach bile.

There were Corpses. Corpses everywhere.

Dismembered limbs and entrails were strewn in all directions, clinging to bloodied stone and hanging out of mutilated carcasses, their splintered bones revealed, and their faces trapped in an eternal visage of despair and agony.

Bloody handprints marred every surface, attesting to the desperate struggle of the dead as they found themselves eaten alive, fangs and claws savagely tearing into their bodies and disassembling them piece by piece. To their left, a haphazardly constructed meat hook of sinews and scrap metals held a woman’s body, a rusted hook piercing directly through her shoulder as she hung there limply.

Brock grimaced as he watched the organs that had dribbled out of her lower half swinging like pendants as his gust rustled the sinew rope the hook hung upon it. He noticed the other half of her body discarded several meters away, holding another slew of organs as they spread themselves across the floor.

Fon vomited again.

“What the fuck…” Brock muttered under his breath, almost disbelieving as he eyed each and every corpse and prayed them to the afterlife. He had no idea what the hell had done this, but… it was going to fucking die.

Behind him, he heard Fon muffle a series of racking sobs, with Harry retching loudly as he resisted another upsurge of bile. Was this why Adam had led them here? To expose them to this… atrocity? Brock felt seething fury bubbling up in his chest as he entertained the thought.

“…elp…”

Brock froze as the light faded and once more bathed the area in a blessed darkness. He had heard it clearly this time. A faint groan. A plead for help. It was almost inaudible, but he was certain he had heard it. Half blindly, he reached back and tapped his companions on the shoulders, “Go back. I’ll be out soon.”

To his surprise, from what little he could see, both of his followers seemed to vehemently shake their heads, “We’re coming with you.”

Fon’s voice was shaky beyond what he thought possible, but Brock heard her loud and clear. He nodded at them, respecting their resolve. He didn’t think it was the best idea for them to come with him, but they could make their own decisions. And their own mistakes.

No matter how much Brock wanted to prevent them from doing so.

Warily, they pressed forward, Brock putting his borderline photographic memory to use as he tried to step around each and every corpse, leading those behind him through the minefield of remains. He felt his thongs squelch into thick pools of blood underfoot, and he immediately regretted his choice of footwear. Though, he found solace in knowing that he hadn’t remained barefoot.

The voice didn’t call out again, perhaps having lost hope when they neglected to respond. Or maybe, they had been silenced. Brock hadn’t noticed initially, but he was unable to sense the presence of both Fon and Harry, as well as the mysterious individual he was pursuing. He wondered if there was something about this place that obscured aura senses.

Whether it was or not, it meant he wouldn’t sense an ambush in the darkness until it was too late.

Fon hadn’t ceased shuddering behind him, and as the tunnel began to get smaller, he heard her breathing hitch and her sobs begin to return, albeit far softer. He wished he had some way to help her, but he truly did not. He could try to widen the cave for her, but that was basically guaranteed to end in the worse way possible, probably with them buried alive under several tons of rock.

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Soon though, they stepped out from the passage as it started to become a tight fit and into a far wider cavern. Immediately, Brock shielded his eyes from the radiant light, a positively blazing pyre in the centre of the area killing the darkness and granting them the privilege of sight once more.

He wished it would die out and bathe them in shadows once more.

All around them, all along the cave walls and sparsely placed in the wide stretch of cavern, those very same makeshift meat hooks stood tall, the limp bodies of bloodied and wounded humans hanging from the metal hooks that were stabbed through their shoulders. Many hung lifeless, but Brock could see more than a few with glazed eyes, grasping the hooks weakly as their breathing slowed, their lives one gust away from ending.

Even more corpses than before were discarded about, all just as disgustingly mutilated, and nearby, Brock saw a familiar beast bent over, its hands digging deep into the chest cavity of a body and pulling out the fleshy innards hiding within. Greedily, it stuffed them into its toothy maw, swallowing each chunk with clear relish.

Clenching his teeth, Brock panned a solemn gaze across the entire area.

It wasn’t a person that had done this. It was the Skin Walkers. Thousands of them.

They were roaming around, snarling to those nearby them – communicating - or just consuming the carcasses of the humans they had captured. Some even seemed to be taunting those that were hooked, running their sharp talons over their revealed skin and raking through their flesh.

He heard Fon stifle a scream, and Harry as he took a steadying breath. Thinking it wasn’t too bad of an idea, Brock took one himself.

Only a few meters from them, a man hung, his dull eyes focused on them, flaring with subdued hope. Crusted blood clung to his lips and chin and dribbled down to taint what looked to once be a suit, “…Help… me…”

“Please…”

His voice could barely even be counted as a whisper as he spoke, and Brock almost didn’t catch what he was saying. Fortunately, he did, and he rushed over to him. Grabbing the man by the collar, Brock used his only arm to leverage the guy up and off the hook. The guy didn’t even have the energy to react to the pain.

The saved man slumped over Brock’s shoulder as he was freed and thanked him profusely, fresh blood spilling ceaselessly from his wound. His voice became quieter and quieter until it once more became a whisper, and he went limp. He was dead.

Brock gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to scream in frustration and fury. Gently, he placed the corpse down on the ground and closed his eyes. His lip quivered, but only slightly, “I’m sorry…”

Looking away as to not meet his lifeless eyes, Brock turned around and once more faced the horrors around him. Fortunately, the beasts continued to go about their animalistic routines, oblivious to the intruders encroaching upon their savage domain.

It was only now that Brock understood the plan of Seezy and his boss. It was this. To show him what the Skin Walkers were doing and what they were capable of. The supposed Treasure here was just a lure to awaken him to the problem and get him to join their cause.

Brock ground his teeth so hard he felt them ready to shatter.

Because of them, both Fon and Harry had to witness something as horrific as this. Fon was an adult by now, in her early twenties if she looked her age, but Harry was still just a teenager. Neither of them needed to see this in their lifetimes, and he knew that he didn’t either. No human being should have to bear witness to something like this.

Selfish. That was the only word that came to mind when he thought of their actions.

Despite that, despite the obvious manipulation they were trying to pull, Brock was going to kill every last monster here and save those poor souls that were holding onto their final dregs of life. He doubted there were many left to save, and knew there were a few that wouldn’t survive it, but he at least held hope that some of these people would walk out to see another day. Hope was all he had.

And his power.

Brock’s aura billowed out in full, Oppressive Might roaring to life and darkening the area, eating at the flickering light and the sight it gifted. Harry and Fon gasped as they felt its restricting grasp upon their bodies but followed suit and mobilised their own auras, casting the area in a deafening silence as every creature present froze.

The closest Skin Walker - the one eating the corpse they had seen before - bolted upright, eagerly locking its sickly brown eyes onto Brock’s own. Shortly after it began to bound over toward them, his empowered aura came crashing down in full, smearing the creature across the ground and expending a sizeable amount of aura.

That beast was only level 31.

A cacophony of bestial roars resounded throughout the cave, echoing and rebounded relentlessly. As Brock retracted his Aura Technique, he stood his ground and met the horde of beasts that were tearing toward the group, long tongues lolling out their mouths and their eyes portraying hunger along with something else Brock recognised.

Intelligence.

The creature at the head of the pack finally reached him, and immediately they were met with a searing kunai as it plunged through the beast’s forehead and continued through the eye socket of another behind it. Needless to say, both died instantly.

Licking his drying lips, Brock grasped his wire and pulled, yanking the melting kebab toward him and grabbing the first corpse by the neck, using it to block a deadly clawed strike from another of its kind.

Brock countered with a savage kick to the knee, shattering the kneecap to splinters before he infused his hand with Sparks and raked his smoking fingers through its head, liquifying its brain.

Another leapt at him as his kunai was ripped from the corpses and instantly, it was bisected by a sudden blade of wind, showering him in a burst of strangely humanoid organs.

The veil of blood was only brief, but it was enough that a Skin Walker met his chest with its claws, carving through his jacket and the tanned skin beneath. A second afterwards and blade shot out of Brock’s sleeve and impaled itself through the monster’s eye.

Dodging left, then right. Jumping back, loosing his knife, spinning around and decapitating a beast to his left as he met another with a blast of fire. Brock ceaselessly tore through the raving horde of monsters, gashes, bites and blood coating his frame, with more appearing each second. He spared a glance for his companions as his Skies empowered fist threw itself directly through the chest of another creature.

Harry barely slipped past the next strike for his life, the new set of armour he had been granted previously deflecting the blow of another and earning a trio of deep grooves in the aged metal. He spun around and met the onslaught with a wide swing of his axe, the entire weapon glowing a sickly green and black. His blade tore through the beasts effortlessly, leaving their flesh blackened and sizzling as his Augment of Infection got to work.

Brock’s foot scored a beast in the chest, and its chest caved in.

He briefly turned his attention to Fon, who was clearly struggling with the tide of combat against her below sufficient level. It was perhaps an oversight on his part, as he should have let his companions retreat before he released his aura. His emotions got the better of him it seemed.

The woman’s eyes glowed violet and she moved out the way of a strike before the monster’s arm was even moving, dodging the resulting attack flawlessly. Her expression was frantic, and Brock could feel her aura rapidly dwindling as her eyes continued to glow and she slipped past slash after slash.

There was the slimmest moment where her eyes dimmed for just a second, and Brock’s breath caught in his chest as Fon didn’t dodge the next attack, one coming from behind. He tried to call out, but it was too late, and the noise died in his throat. A clawed hand tore through her flank and out the other side, the beast looming behind her victoriously.

For a few seconds, she just didn’t react. She didn’t know how to.

Then, she reached back and grasped an arrow from the quiver on her back. With desperation clung thick in her expression, she managed to jab its tip through the monster’s eye. The creature recoiled in pain, tearing its hand out from her body and letting her crumple to the ground, blood spurting from her wound without any signs of stopping.

Immediately, Brock reached out and used Ethereal Shackles, binding the beast that had attacked her. It only took a second of strain from his finger before it was torn to rotting pieces. Hissing out a panicked breath, he met the wave of beasts with a powerful blast of Sparks, and rush over, cleaving his blade through the spine of one Skin Walker as it attempted to sneak up on Harry.

“Harry! We have to go back!” He called out as he arrived upon Fon, letting Oppressive Might chew through some of his remaining aura to physically repel any Skin Walkers trying to get close. The woman was pale - more so from fear than blood loss, thankfully - and her eyes were frozen wide open. Idly, he noticed she was shaking.

Without waiting much longer, Brock tucked his arm under her and lifted her over his shoulder. Harry swung his axe one more time to keep the horde at bay and began to retreat with them. Brock looked down at her, worry etched into his face, “Hey. It’s gonna be ok, yeah? We’ll get you out of here.”

He hadn’t known the woman long, only five days or so, and neither had Harry, but they both knew that she was a part of the team now. And they looked after each other. They had to. Because in the state the world was in now, you couldn’t trust anyone else to.

Fon smiled weakly at him. He could tell she didn’t really know whether he was going to be right or wrong, “…Thank you.”

Together, they reached the small tunnel that lead out of the cavern, and Harry killed a beast with an axe to the skull. Brock, on the other hand, used the final dregs of his aura – the dregs he could use without fully depleting himself like before – to power Oppressive Might and tear another Skin Walker in two. Its innards spilled out over the floor as they began to melt into goo.

“Brock! There’s too many!”

The man in question grit his teeth, and in the few second lull in combat, he handed Fon over to the boy. Taking off his spatial necklace too, he chucked it to him and stepped forward toward the horde, killing one Skin Walker with a brisk punch to its skull and then one more after that with a swift slash, “Go back to Paris and get her to a hospital. Now!”

Harry hesitated, “…But what about you?”

“I’ll catch up. She’s gonna die if you don’t do anything. Drive back and get her fixed up.”

Brock glanced over his shoulder and watched Harry retreat into the darkness. He felt some solace in knowing they’d get away from this site of cruelty. As for him, he would kill every last one of these beasts and survive. He had to. And hopefully, Fon would be waiting for him when he returned. He truly hoped so.

However, there was nothing he could do for her now except getting her vengeance. His fingers tightened into a whiteknuckled fist.