Chapter 68 It Got Worse.

The massive bloody cavern seemed to freeze in time for a long moment. The three newcomers watched over the previous massacre's carnage with bated breaths. To Isaac’s Polarity Sense it felt like the blood and gore was made up of millions of tiny dark creatures. The hair on the back of Wo Lu’s neck stood on end as he felt like something was about to leap out of the darkness and swallow him whole. Lenna’s sharp eyes picked up a ripple across a puddle of blood. After another long moment she realized something. “Is the blood mo-” She was cut off by someone from the caravan approaching them.

“Isaac?!” An elf in worn and dirty robes called while running towards them. Isaac turned to look at her and smiled, at least he did until she stopped a dozen feet from him and pinched her nose. “You smell awful.”

“I’m covered in…” His voice trailed off as he looked at the rapidly drying liquid clinging to his entire front. “blood. Lots of blood.”

“Is this your friend?” Lenna asked. She noticed another adventurer following behind the elf at a more measured pace. He was walking slowly but his enormous stride still ate up ground as if a normal man were jogging. The goliath, Lenna assumed, Claus son of Rock. He felt weaker than Brick but the way he moved gave her the feeling that he was both older and had seen more combat. His lower level could be explained by him not having to push himself very often, which if he traveled with the lower leveled elf made sense, compared to Brick.

Isaac nodded both in reply to Lenna and in a belated greeting to the elf in question. “Aria, she is one of four people to have ever seen my Status screen.” He explained and then gave a casual wave to the approaching goliath. “That’s Claus.” He shook his head at Claus once he had gotten close enough to talk normally. “What happened to keeping her out of trouble? The only reason I am even here is because Lua herself told me you two were in trouble.”

Aria and Wo Lu both looked shocked, Lenna rolled her eyes, and Claus just took it in stride. “She searches for it.” He grumbled which got a chuckle out of Isaac. “Glad you survived.” He said with a grin clear in his bedrock deep voice. He glanced at the bone dragon hanging out slightly off to the side. “That dragon?”

Isaac beamed. “Is the one that killed you, yeah.” He replied cheerily.

Wo Lu walked up to the goliath and offered him a hand. It was the only time anyone had ever made Wo Lu look small as Claus grabbed his outstretched forearm. “Fought anything strong recently, friend.” Wo Lu asked the massive warrior.

Claus nodded. “A few.” He replied. “You, old wolf?”

Wo Lu shook his head. “No. The young ones have been taking all the good fights.” He said with a grin.

A chill shot up through Isaac’s spine as he felt the blood on the ground start to move and pick up speed. Everyone’s eyes shot to the roiling carnage as it moved to collect itself into one large mess. It started slow at one inch per second but the speed seemed to double every second. The blood and guts of the Ori-Masa sloshed and grated against itself until it formed a roughly spherical shape. Isaac was so distracted by the moving carnage that he only then noticed the source of the chill that he had felt. Something large and powerful was moving towards them from below at an incredible speed.

“This just keeps getting worse doesn’t it?” Aria grumbled.

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Isaac shook his head. “You have no idea.” He replied. “Something else is on its way.” He tapped his foot on the ground to signal the direction it was coming from.

“Power level?” Lenna asked and prepared for combat.

“Jala, give or take. Nothing we can’t handle.” He gestured towards the wagons. “Aria, Claus, move those wagons back. I have a bad feeling about this.” Kahtesh fired a bolt of lightning into the roiling mass but it seemed to just fizzle out. There was simply too much organic material to eat the attack for it to do any damage.

“I’m almost empty.” Lenna gave her mana status.

“Three quarters.” Wo Lu added his own. He had been using it to shape shift but had otherwise not touched his mana reserves.

“A quarter but rising.” Isaac replied with his own. He had burned through almost everything that he had while going on a rampage.

Aria hesitated for a moment before nodding resolutely. “Got it.” She replied to Isaac’s directive and ran back to the caravan. Claus headed back as well. He knew that he was still up to fight but it was pretty obvious that none of the casters in the caravan had any mana left after a six hour siege so if anything happened he would have to take care of it. Also, who was going to keep Aria from getting herself killed if Claus wasn’t there?

“Oh come on!” Isaac complained as the ball of guts started to roll towards them. He felt Lenna’s aura harden on her like an exoskeleton that held her sword in a vice grip. Flames danced along the edges of her armor and coated her blade. Isaac grinned. “The V’Nova way it is.”

The team knew that they needed to keep the ball from rolling over the lead wagon, that was still partially inside the cavern, for at least long enough for it to be moved back down the tunnel. The tunnel was about fifteen feet high at its highest point but the ball was approaching twenty and growing even as it began rolling.

Lenna got into a stance with her blade low so she could uppercut the ball of carnage and Isaac copied her. Wo Lu took a few steps back and prepared to counter charge into it. Power flooded Isaac’s system. He knew that he didn’t have enough mana to maintain his death enhanced strength for longer than a few seconds but it would be enough, he hoped.

The ball closed in on them and was met by all the strength the trio had at their disposal. Two uppercuts and a massive shoulder hit the monstrosity. The ball was stopped and almost lifted off of the ground from the impacts. Immediately after, it started to try to suck in the duo’s swords as well as Wo Lu. The, only mostly solid, surface of the monster conformed around everything that hit it and it tried to assimilate it. Wo Lu started shifting into a wolf half the size of his usual form which pulled him back out of it enough for him to jump back and away. Isaac and Lenna were able to tear their weapons out with only a little effort.

Wo Lu got distance and shifted into his larger wolf form and growled at the monstrosity. Isaac and Lenna dove around it on opposite sides and Kahtesh fired another lightning bolt into it. The creature from below continued to get closer. The ball started rolling towards Isaac.

“It’s always me.” Isaac grumbled and cut the power to his self enhancement while teleporting to the other side of the cavern. Lenna attacked the ball again leaving a trail of flames across its surface. Wo Lu looked back and forth between the ball and the rest of the team. He knew that if the ball would target him he could give it a run around for a while, if it only targeted Isaac then he would be better off going in search of the wizard, that was supposed to be present, or Aria. Kahtesh shifted positions to make sure he would maintain a clear line of attack on the monster. The ball abruptly changed its target to Kahtesh right after Isaac teleported away.

“Kahtesh!” Lenna yelled once she noticed where the ball was trying to go. She ran after the ball, landing a few shallow strikes that left more lingering flames. Wo Lu shifted back into his elvish form and grabbed a rock. With a powerful swing he launched it into the side of the ball to little effect. Isaac called Kahtesh towards him and started opening up the void to receive the little dragon. Kahtesh dug his claws into the stone and catapulted himself towards Isaac. The dragon flew thirty feet in a single bound before doing it again to cover the final fifty. He only narrowly missed getting a wingtip stuck on the ball as it rolled after him picking up speed the entire time.

Isaac had to jump out of the way of the rolling mass once Kahtesh was fully submerged in the void and had successfully made his escape. The ball seemed to lose track of a target for a moment and just kept rolling in the direction it was going until it smashed into the wall. The cavern shook and a chunk of stone fell from the ceiling. “Isaac!” Lenna yelled and he teleported in her direction without hesitation. He picked himself up off the ground to see a chunk of stone burst apart where he had just been.

“It’s about to get much worse.” He warned. The second monster was still closing in on them. He could feel that it was only about as powerful as Jala but it was easily twice the size of a wagon. The ball was impossible for him to get a good read on. It still felt like millions of smaller creatures instead of one big one. He needed to figure out how it was choosing its targets and who was controlling it.

The ball pulled itself out of the small crater it had made in the cavern wall and started rolling towards Isaac and Lenna who were the closest to it. Orange veins started appearing across its surface only for them to break free and start slapping across the ground as it moved. Lenna sneered at the ugly and disgusting creature getting even uglier and more disgusting. “It got worse.”