The Scouts clambered up the slippery and steep stairs acending higher and higher, to the point where the portal island was not much bigger than Arath's index finger. The humidity of the air made it hard to breathe and soon all of their clothes were soaking wet, making it even harder to move forward. Altough Rym walked two meters ahead of the others and tried to use his Element to the fullest and remove as much water from their way, it was close to no avail. As soon as it was removed it came back even fiercier as if the Tower was trying to give them some sort of message or warning.

From time to time a hungry bat or some small bird-like creatures that at the same time had both fish scales and fins but also very wide wings with claws at their ends flew by, looking for an opportunity to seize their meal. These animals were the ultimate predators as they could hunt in almost any environment present in this cave. Arath reacted as soon as he noticed them incoming and ordered his companions to prepare for a fight. He hand gestured them to stay low and by all means avoid getting grabbed.

'If these monsters throw us off balance we can forget about ever seeing the sun.' Arath drew his sword and prepared his shield for impact.

When the animals got closer, the man noticed that altough it had quite a long head with wide mouth and big ears there were no eyes to be seen. That could mean only one thing, they must have been using echolocation so tricking them seemed to be the easiest way out of this situation.

Arath reacted quickly, pointing at a rock that was splitting the waterfall, making the entrance not as deadly and ordered to move there and point their weapons exactly towards it. His companions, although confused at first, followed his orders and soon realised the plan behind that move. The creatures, in order to pass the water curtain, took the safest road. To be precise, one that didn't involve being shattered to pieces by the immense pressure of the waterfall, falling into Scouts' trap

The moment the fish-birds entered Scout's range a slaughter began, chunks of flesh were cut and sent flying while afterimages of Arath's sword created crescent moons. The speed with which he moved his hand wasn't just due to the muscles in his arm, he engaged his entire pody in each slash, even a slight step forward increased the speed and power of his attacks. First two creatures fell down the well with no breath in them, and made space for the remaining three to fly forward. Outnumbered, smaller, and caught in a disadvantageous position the rest stood no chance, few clean cuts finished the job and painted the water curtain red.

Teammates gave each other high-fives and smiled at their first victory as a team, even though it wasn't much, it boosted the morale significantly and gave everyone more confidence.

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'If we stick to the wall and don't make a stupid mistake, we should be fine, even on the third floor.' Arath was certain of his capabilites and started to believe in his team too.

The group moved forward leaving the blood-stained battlefield behind, but no more than ten minutes passed before another danger presented itself. The rocks behind them started shaking as if an earthquake was taking place. In a matter of seconds everyone was lying on the stairs desperately clenching in order not to fall down but as the time passed it only became worse. Arath had seen such a phenomenon before but it was not, even a bit, less terryfing.

Suddenly, the rumbling stopped and half a kilometer away a huge, dark corridor appeared out of nowhere in the same place as the fight took place. One thought, filled with terror and primal fear, crossed the native adventurers' minds:

'Bloodworms.'

These tiny, but ferocious beasts could smell spilled blood from kilometers away, no barriers could stop their instincts as they looked for food. Bloodworm attack was generally considered to be a natural catastrophe and the best solution for it was to run away as far and as quickly as possible. There were ways to stop the swarm, but everything was either too expensive or immoral to actually use it on a bigger scale. Arath quickly threw a glance at his surroundings trying to find anything that could give off an odor of blood and his eyes grew wide as they landed on Ben. His entire sword was covered in blood of the monsters from before, and big, red stains, both new and older were visible on his leather armor.

'Oh no. Oh. Fucking. No.' He was like a boiling pot inside, he clenched his fists, approached Ben and without even uttering a single word snatched the weapon out of his hands and threw it with as much strength as he had into the well.

When the rest of the team noticed what was going on, they made sure their equipment was not in the same situation and threw away anything that could lure bloodworms. Having caught up, Ben stripped away his armor and got rid of it immediately.

The swarm seemed to have no end, it poured and poured and poured like a river from a spring. The creatures soon flooded an entire section of the stairs and after devouring the fish-birds they started to look for a new target and soon locked onto a nearby nest of some birds hidden among the rocks. After just few seconds, in the place where dozens of little creatures were screeching for their mama, only remains of a bloody and extremely brutal slaughter were left. When the calamity was busy with it's dinner, Kanina hurried her companions to run while they still could.

Thanks to her reaction time and Rym's idea to wash themselves with water from the waterfall, they were as safe as they could. Arath, who couldn't stop staring at the worms, finally, after ten long minutes, announced that he couldn't see any more worms and guessed that the swarm probably went back to the caves of the second floor. Just as they were about to sigh with relief, one thing picked their attention.

Less than hundred meters from their location a fight was taking place. Contrary to any expectations it were neither bloodworms nor other humans, two blood bats were fighting to death over something. But it wasn't actually the fight that was interesting, it was the participant, the bat had dark-red hair all over it's body.