Bo’guth jumped over me, landing a short distance away from us, and creating a small shockwave that sent a few Dark Beasts flying. He quickly took up his hammer and started swinging and squashing Dark Beasts just as he had done before when we got here.
“Get moving!” I shouted, and made my way to the back of the group, swinging almost as wildly as Bo’guth was, since in this dense horde of Dark Beast, it wasn’t even necessary to aim to hit something.
The couple of shield bearers took the flanks of the group, covering the mage with the spear in the middle, while the old man with the greatsword stood somewhere closer to me, while still giving me plenty of room to fight.
We started steadily making our way back, getting into a nice rhythm after a short while. The small group also managed to block and attack much better than when they were surrounded, only getting a couple of close calls that I would stop with a small Mana Shield to ensure nobody got hurt, or killed.
It was then that I felt something strange in front of me—which was the back of the cave and the place we were getting away from. I couldn’t really see or sense exactly what it was since the dense group of Dark Beast would interfere with my sensenses by forcing my attention on them, but I knew that something was going on in the back.
My suspicions of something strange turned out to be correct when a couple of blood-red lightnings were fired from somewhere in the back of the horde, arching mid-air to land somewhere in front of the group, which was Bo’guth’s front.
“What was that!?” exclaimed the man with the spear.
But before anyone could answer him, the horde of Dark Beasts suddenly got smaller as they started being pulled to the spots where the lightning struck. Because of that, the pressure from the Dark Beasts was lessened on us and I managed to make my way to the front to stand next to Bo’guth, who quickly launched his hammer to one of the spots where the Dark Beasts were gathering.
There was an explosion, with the hammer quickly returning to his hand right after, but I could tell that it didn’t do much to whatever was going on there.
“I think that’s a larger Dark Beast.”
“Urrrg,” Bo’guth grunted before half-turning to speak to me. “Well, good thing you’re an expert when dealing with these things. So let's get rid of this quickly.”
In this short amount of time, the larger Dark Beasts had managed to form. They looked similar to Bo’guth, the only few differences being that they were only slightly larger than he was, had a couple of shadowy horns on their heads and their arms were long and thick. The inside of their bodies was also slightly different from the other Dark Beasts around us, since in their inside, from their heads, it looked like blood-red lightning was circulating to their limbs, and their faces were nothing more than a couple of large red eyes.
“We’ll take care of these! You guys turtle down and try not to get killed!” Bo’guth shouted before rushing ahead at the large Dark Beast standing on our left.
I followed right after by going for the one on the right. I slashed and launched Mana Blades as I made my way to it, trying to cut down anything in the way and ensure that no other Dark Beast could get interfere or empower these beasts. The large ones reacted by roaring at the same time with a deep voice that seemed to push the air around them, dropping the few smaller Dark Beasts that were around them as if they didn’t matter.
With a heavy swing from his hammer, Bo’guth slammed down on the one that he had gone for, and the beast reacted in kind by blocking with its left large arm, only to follow up by punching with the other one at Bo’guth’s stomach area. Bo’guth was fast enough to block with the shield, but the impact was so strong that it forced him back a few steps. He didn’t let this stop him, however, as he went ahead again to the large Dark Beast, and this time, bringing his hammer down with a fiery spell.
“Pass on to heaven!” he shouted, and I couldn’t help but twitch my eyebrows at that.
There was an explosion when he did that, which caused the large Dark Beast standing in front of me to react at the same time, bringing its large arms down on me now that I was close to it. It would’ve been so easy to use Holy Power here to end it all in with a flick of my finger, disappearing almost every single one of the Dark Beasts around me, but the best I could do right now, was bring up a Mana Barrier to my front, where the large Dark Beast slammed into.
There was a large shockwave, but the Barrier held strong, even if it cracked slightly. Which meant that I couldn’t just stand here and let it do it again, so I quickly removed it, and followed it up by doing a fast and harsh horizontal slash, aimed at the thing’s large arms that had yet to rise up again.
Empowered by the mana in the blade, and the strength of my swing, the large Dark Beast’s arms were cleanly cut off from around the middle portion. It roared in a pained shout, lifting the stumps it had for arms and faltering backwards. I wouldn’t allow it to get away, so I rushed in yet again, only to be stopped by a wild swing from the beast that suddenly turned around.
I wondered if the monster was hoping to run away, but it had instead used that movement to grab a couple of smaller Dark Beasts with what remained of its arms. The Dark Beasts disappeared into its body, and the arms were regenerated once more in an instant. With the same speed as it had turned, it turned once more, this time swinging its arms to hit me.
It was then that another fiery explosion happened on the side where Bo’guth was fighting. This one was much more powerful than the others he had used before, which sent a few Dark Beasts flying in every direction, including mine. I was forced to duck to avoid both the ones that were coming my way and the large Dark Beast’s swing, and as I did so, the wild swing of the large Dark Beast splattered the smaller ones in the air, the aftershock of that pushing me to the side slightly.
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I worried that perhaps it would then use that opening to attack me, but it seemed like it also didn’t expect what happened, as the dark mist of the monsters it destroyed obscured my shape from its sight, so it unknowingly gave me an opening instead.
By focusing as much lightning element as the blade and my own power would allow, I leaped up, straight at the distracted Dark Beast. The dark mist disappeared, and like a boulder being launched by a catapult, I struck at the large Dark Beast’s head, exploding it in a mix of darkness and blood-red energy, with the lightning of my blade striking upwards and to the dark ceiling.
Not giving it any opportunity to regenerate, I followed up my attack with a vertical swing, using what remained of my power to split the being in half. After a couple of seconds, both halves fell to the floor, exploding in the same mix of darkness and red energy from before.
I quickly turned to see how Bo’guth was faring, but I found him turning his head my way as well, the large Dark Beas in front of him replaced by a fiery glowing crater full of a few holes in the shape of his hammer, from which the same darkness and red energy was dissipating.
He smiled and gestured with his head in the direction of the group that was struggling to fight back the Dark Beasts that still remained. “Come on! Let's not waste any more time.”
With a sharp nod, I rushed back to the group, cutting down the beasts that threatened to overwhelm them and taking the same spot on the back of the group. Bo’guth followed soon after, getting in the same position he had when we started moving, easily slamming any Dark Beasts that were in his way.
“Move it!” he commanded and the group started moving once more.
Once we got to about two thirds of the way back to the road we came in, something strange happened yet again to the Dark Beasts, as they all suddenly and for no reason stopped attacking.
“What the…” the old man murmured.
The small group of people were stunned momentarily, but neither me nor Bo’guth stopped attacking, since this didn’t mean that we were out of danger yet.
“Don’t stop moving!” I shouted, bringing the people back to reality as they kept moving behind Bo’guth, slightly faster now that there was nothing stopping us.
But not one minute later, the Dark Beasts all started screeching with a deafening scream. The small group of people all clutched their ears, while I resisted the screech with my mana empowered body. Bo’guth didn’t seem to be affected by it either, but he stopped for a moment to look around at the Dark Beasts that were slowly getting quiet now.
“This isn’t good,” I said, cutting the beast closer to me.
“Agreed,” Bo’guth replied, moving again.
From the depths of this large cave, a deep rumbling roar resounded, shaking the ground and causing all the Dark Beasts to turn their red eyes in the direction of the roar—the place that we had been trying to get away from.
With hasty movements, the Dark Beasts all started running back into the cave, as if they had been called by that roar, which meant that an Unholy Dark Beast was lurking in the depths and was likely the one responsible for the blood-red lightnings that created the large Dark Beasts.
“Don’t stop now! We must hurry! Move!” I shouted and started rushing back in the opposite direction of the Dark Beasts.
Bo’guth didn’t wait either, running along with me as well, and pushing aside with both his large shield and hammer any Dark Beast that stood in the way. The group of people lagged in their response, but seeing us running away, they also picked up the pace and started moving with us.
The rumbling roar kept resounding on the cave, and all the Dark Beasts around us kept rushing and brushing past us, not caring about being cut down, stepped over, or pushed aside as they desperately kept moving.
Soon after, the opening of the cave where we came from could be clearly seen, and from the distance that we were, it wouldn’t take long before we could get into it and away from the Unholy Dark Beast that was likely getting ready to attack us. The amount of Dark Beasts that were running around us had also diminished, as most of them had made their way to the back already.
However, as we were a short distance away, I heard the grunting voice of the old man and his body hit the floor. I turned to look at the old man who had fallen, only to then notice that the Unholy Dark Beast already had its eyes set on us.
It looked like an enormous deformed skeleton that appeared to be crawling on the ground, covered in darkness. It was as large as the largest demons, with several blood-red eyes, made out of the same blood-red glow that its skull-like head had for eyes.
It opened its maw, and from the depths of its darkness, I saw something that I had seen several times when fighting Darkness Beings under Salrak’s command: Hellfire.
“Get down!” I shouted, and the Unholy Dark Beast fired a bright blood-red beam straight at us.
The people didn’t really have time to react to this attack, so most of them could only half-turn to see what was going on, only to be stunned at the incoming beam that was cutting the air. It didn’t hit anyone, striking the wall right above the exit that we were running for. But unfortunately, the explosion from that beam dislodged pieces of rocks from the wall, which were now threatening to block the exit.
“Run! Quickly!” I shouted again, making my way back to the old man that still didn’t get up from the floor.
I feared that he wasn’t fast enough to make it to the exit, so the only solution I could think of was to grab him by his armor and toss him with as much strength as I could muster straight to the exit. I was surprised to see that Bo’guth had the same idea, as he was also rushing right behind me to grab onto the old man.
“W-wait! Director! You can’t do this, you’ll be buried with that thing! Just leave me—”
“Forget it,” Bo’guth said, looking straight at me. “Do it.”
I nodded, and without taking much longer, I grabbed the man and tossed him in Bo’guth direction. He quickly followed up by grabbing the man and tossing him with the same strength that I did into the exit. The old man flew and passed right under a large rock that hit the floor a second later, half-blocking the exit.
“Director!” shouted the woman with the shield from a small opening.
But before either Bo’guth or I could say anything, another large rock fell down, effectively blocking the exit and leaving us trapped with the Unholy Dark Beast, which roared as if it wanted to make its presence known to us yet again.
Bo’guth and I turned to face the beast, and Bo’guth chuckled. “I guess we have no choice but to fight it,” he said, turning to look at me. “Are you ready, Hero?”