“All of you with wounds will stay out here and recover,” said Akira as he walked up to the front of the open entrance and peered inside.
It was quite dark inside and the only thing he could see from where he stood was three branching tunnels that led deep into the mountain.
“What's the plan?” asked Dolph.
“We can't have the entire force enter. If we did and everyone was wiped out that would be bad for Kodria,” said Akira.
“Plus we need someone to guard the entrance,” said Klyn.
Akira turned to the gathered Werewolf cavalrymen with a determined expression.
“I need thirty volunteers that are in the best shape.”
Nearly all of the hands shot up.
“Nubs, Put your hand down. You are in no shape to go anywhere right now,” said Dolph.
Akira quickly picked 30 volunteers and formed them into 3 teams each one having a holy shaman to provide whatever limited protection they could.
Akira's group had Klyn, Mileena, Dolph, Vilkas, and 5 other Cavalrymen.
“We'll just be going in for a quick reconnaissance to better understand what we are dealing with, so don't be so jittery,” said Akira as he looked over the 3 teams.
“The rest of you should hurry up and patch yourself up and keep an eye out for any demigods. They may come back here from the woods or they may even somehow reappear nearby.”
Akira crouched down and rubbed Fluffball's head. Fluffball was looking far better but was still recovering.
“I need you to stay out here with Grarr and help guard the entrance while you recover,” said Akira.
Fluffball did not respond to him as Akira stood up and joined the others as they started to pass through the gap in the two black stone doors.
Akira was the last to pass through the entrance and as he did he felt something ram into his back pushing him forward a few steps.
Ding!
You have entered the Ancient Dark Dwarves ritual grounds.
If you trust your eyes you may or may not die.
What a useless message thought Akira.
Thump!
Something soft rammed into Akira's back. He turned to the side and looked down at the ground to see what it was.
“Fluffball, I told you that you need to rest! Go back!”
“Yap!”
“Huh?” Akira turned the rest of the way and found that Fluffball was right!
The gap between the two black stone doors had silently closed!
Several of the werewolves slammed their large bodies into the stone doors trying to ram them open, but they failed at budging it or even causing any damage to it.
All of their repeated attacks made no sound as it was muffled by the soft inner stone. The only results they had to show for their effort were bruised furry shoulders.
“What are we going to do now?” asked Oroo, the officer in charge of the 2nd group of ten as he rubbed his bruised shoulder.
Akira silently looked at the three pathways in front of them that now had a dull gray glow coming from the walls.
“If all thirty of us try to go down one of these and something happens we will be too clogged to do much of anything,” said Akira.
The tunnels not being wide enough there would be major problems if they needed to advance or retreat.
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“I don't like splitting up,” said Vilkas.
“I don't either but this place seems to not want to give us a choice,” said Mileena looking down the empty tunnels.
Akira activated his [Detect Life] skill and scanned the three tunnels but found nothing suspicious in the immediate area. He, along with several others, stood there sniffing the air for any clues.
Mileena looked at Akira with a questioning look, he shook his head letting her know he found nothing close by.
“There are traces of someone going down each of these tunnels... who gets which tunnel?” asked Dolph.
“The most recent scents are going down the center path. We will take that one,” said Akira.
“I'll take the right,” said Oroo.
“I guess we will go left,” said Nort.
Akira picked up Fluffball and placed him on his shoulders so he could rest. There was no way he was going to just leave him at the entrance.
“Don't be reckless, there is no telling what this place once held or if those cultists made any modifications of their own,” said Akira as he walked towards the center tunnel.
“If we find something that we can't handle we will retreat and meet back up here,” said Nort.
Dolph and Vilkas stood on either side of Akira as he entered the center tunnel. Their group created a 3 by 3 row formation with the tenth person acting as a rearguard a few steps behind them.
Both Mileena and Klyn were placed in the center position with Klyn in row 2 behind Akira and Mileena behind him in row three.
They continued to inspect the gray glowing floor, walls, and ceiling for any irregularities before moving forward.
Because of this, their movement was now set to a slow walk.
When a half-hour had passed they came to a halt upon reaching a section of the tunnel that had dark black and smokey gray stone slabs arrayed in a checkered fashion covering a distance of more than 100 ft.
Akira scanned the ceiling and found nothing wrong, but when he looked at the two side walls along either side of the checkered stones there were visible small holes...
“Pressure traps?” asked Dolph.
“Appears so...” said Akira as he pulled out a heavy hammer and tossed it out onto the checkered path.
He and others behind him all hid behind their shields as they watched the hammer spin through the air and fall.
The hammer landed on a black square with a loud 'thunk!' and nothing happened. It bounced and skidded off the black square and came to a stop on a gray square.
The square visibly sank a few inches and loud CLUNK! CLUNK! was heard from either side of the surrounding walls.
“Is it a dud?” asked Klyn from behind Akira, after watching for several seconds but seeing nothing exit the holes of the wall.
“Be careful of the gray stones,” warned Akira.
Akira, Dolph, and Vilkas started to hop from each black stone making their way across the checkered floor.
Klyn, Mileena, and the other cavalrymen followed behind them.
When Akira landed on a black stone halfway across the checked hallway it gave out and Akira nearly fell into the pit. If it were not for the quick reactions of Dolph and Vilkas who grabbed him and Fluffball they would have disappeared into the black abyss below.
“%^#@,” cursed one of the werewolves after seeing this. They were already halfway across and now they could not even trust the black stones to be stable.
“A false trap,” said Klyn.
“Cunning, a trap disguised by using another trap set up,” said Mileena.
Akira had to admire how far Mileena had come when it came to traps. But he was still afraid that her clumsiness would set something off. That was part of the reason she had been placed at the back.
“I want to punch whoever designed this in the face,” said one of the cavalrymen.
“That person is probably already dead,” said Akira.
They were forced to test each step before moving forward, further slowing them down.
When the last person was jumping onto the last solid stone to join the others, the stone fell, opening a pit filled with sharp stone spikes.
The people near him were a little too slow only managing to catch him as his body fell into the pit.
“AAAA, my leg...” groaned the man as he was hauled up.
A large hole could be seen in the man's leg which was badly bleeding. Klyn quickly crouched down next to the man and started first aid by pouring a bit of a red potion on the leg to stop the bleeding. He then started a healing chant.
When he was finished the man was able to once again walk on his leg.
“It's not 100% healed but you won't be bleeding out or have too much trouble keeping up with everyone,” said Klyn as he slapped the man's shoulder.
“Let's keep moving,” said Akira, leading the way.
After the checkered path, they found several other oddities built into the tunnel.
One of such things was when the tunnel branched off into three different paths but then joined each other once again only after a short 200 to 300 feet.
“Seriously, what is the point of all this?” asked Klyn.
“Maybe they were unable to finish building the traps in this tunnel?” said an unsure Mileena.
Moments later.
“Kiyaaa!” Mileena let out a loud cry forcing everyone to stop and look at her.
She had fallen onto her butt and was looking at something only a few inches right in front of her face.
A dead rotten humanoid skeleton had fallen from a hole in the ceiling that had not been there when Akira had passed.
The dead body was hanging by a rope and was slowly swinging back and forth in front of Mileena.
“Seriously what's wrong with the designers of this place!” said an angry and completely embarrassed Mileena.
Akira helped Mileena backup and did not say anything for fear of getting kicked in the shin.
They once again started to move forward.
“Is it just me... or is the light growing dimmer?” asked Dolph.