The cave that we arrived in was quite easy to find even without the instructions given by the village chief. It was a huge cave that could easily fit ten people into the entrance at any point in time and the clearing before it was also pretty wide. Other than the large entrance size though, there were no other clues that pointed to us that the cave could have belonged to the trolls. We could only proceed cautiously with our weapons drawn.

We made our way slowly into the cave and had to light up a torch when it gotten too dark for us to see properly. There were no glowing moss to help us with the lighting of the cave this time round. The temperature within the cave drops slowly with every step that we took, and soon our breath could clearly be seen. The only thing keeping us warm was the single torch that lighted our way at the same time. The cave widened at the point when we started to feel cold. It spreaded out endlessly as far as our eyes could see with the limited light provided by the torch.

Stalactites and stalagmites decorated the area and this caused strange shadows to be created by our flickering torch. That made it harder for us to observe our surroundings. We tried our best to keep calm and proceeded forward, whichever way that would had meant as the cave had spread into every directions. The only sound that we could hear was that of the constantly dripping water from the stalactite, our own breathing, clattering of our armor, and the flickering fire. Otherwise, it was a dead silent. I found the situation too strange and had to break the silences.

“It’s too quiet. A cave this big should have something living within it right?”

“Yeah, there should at least be some bats living within the cave, they are probably sleeping. Should I shine my torch up?”

I gave a nod towards Chris who was holding the torch and he held his torch high above his head. We stopped moving and concentrated our sight on to the roof which couldn’t be seen clearly. What was seen instead was the silhouettes of multiple creatures hanging upside down. The silhouettes were unmoving, but the dancing flames from the torch made them looked like they were moving rapidly. That also made it harder for us to determine the actual size and shape of those silhouettes.

They screeched and moved. The light and sound might have disturbed them and immediately we were swarmed by the bats that those creatures were. They were larger than the average bats but were not big enough to be considered abnormal when I first saw them. Only when they flew closer to attack us did I realised their size. They each had at least two metres wide wingspan and were one metre tall. Sylvie dropped down to the floor to decrease the possibilities of her being attacked while Raoul moved to her side and held his fist high, ready to punch each of the oncoming bats.

The three of us gathered near them and Chris dropped his torch so that he could exert more strength with each of the sword swings. Sylvie held on to the torch instead. All we could do were to swing each of our weapons wildly at the air as they approach us. They couldn’t dodge as there were too many of them and they were too large too. Although many of the bats were sliced or smashed by our attacks, we also suffered gaping wounds due to how sharp and long each of their claws and teeth were. Sylvie had to constantly heal us while lying flat on the floor in order for us not fall dead due to lack of blood.

At first, we fought with vigor as to protect Sylvie who kept us alive but the amount of bats didn’t drop as each bat we killed was replaced by a new one from elsewhere. Soon, our stamina dropped to a point where we had to focus our mind on each of our attacks to make them strong and fast enough to hit the bats. Sylvie’s constant healing on all four of us had also taken a toll on her body as she started running out of mana. While Sylvie was making full use of her mana to aid us, I wasn’t slacking off with my mana either. 

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

While I had converted as much intelligence to strength as I could for the battle, what spare mana that I could regenerate was being used to spread spores into the air. The spores were used to help me determine the locations of the attacking bats with the low light conditions that were in and were also used to give me a better idea on the possible strengths and weakness of these bats. That and for me to figure out if there were something else other than the bats here.

What I found out was that each of the bats had a skill [Swarm Mind] which allowed them to coordinates their attacks together easily. There was also another entity that was hidden within the shadows as the bats swarm attacked.

StatuesName:CamazotzTitle:AncientRace:BatGender:MaleLevel:?Experience:?%Stats Point:?Class:?Health:?/?Mana:?/?Health regen:?/sMana regen:?/sStrength:?Intelligence:?Dexterity:?Wisdom:?Vitality:?Willpower:?Attack:?-?Defence:?

Skills

(Unidentified)

Identify:5%

Camazotz was just watching us silently as we took down the bats one by one as we fought hard for our lives. Eventually, the bat swarms trickled to a stop. It wasn’t because there were no more bats, but rather the bats stopped attacking us and went back to their resting place. Each of us fell on to the floor on our back in an attempt to recover our spent stamina. With the help of Sylvie who tried her best to heal us, we were left with no life threatening wounds and only minor scratches. She couldn’t heal everything as she would have fainted due to using too much mana. We let ourselves rest while keeping our eyes attached to the swarm of bats that still remained on the ceiling of the cave.