Before implementing our plan, we brought people together in the middle, reviewed the plan, and shared it with the people.

Hiroshi placed a map and a couple of stones on the table to visually explain the plan.

“Everyone, please listen carefully as I will only say this once. One of the stones represents our distraction group, while the other represents the digger group. In an hour or two, the sun will rise. According to your observations, daytime is when the creatures appear the least. That’s when we’ll get to work.”

“Your task is to dig up the area just beyond the big door. The girl will protect you while you work. When you’re finished, set fire to the flammable liquid we spilled on the ground. When the fire reaches the gunpowder we placed in the shadow lineage’s nest, we’ll trap them here. This will give us enough force to propel us upwards.”

He then asked, “Is there anything that’s unclear?”

Someone raised their hand and asked, “What if we don’t make it through any of this?”

“Then you burn the flammable liquid and we’ll find another way out,” Hiroshi replied.

Wise suddenly stood up and declared, “There is no such thing as leaving anyone behind. We will all succeed.”

I could see that people were afraid, but the sage's words gave them hope.

Hiroshi lit his cigar and said, “We'll see about that.”

After Hiroshi’s speech, everyone dispersed to prepare. The miners gathered their equipment for the excavation while the rest of us busied ourselves with various tasks. Lezlie fed her rabbit, Babu helped move heavy barrels and other items, and Hiroshi reviewed the plan once more with Wise.

I sat in a corner, lost in thought about our upcoming mission. Soon after, Hiroshi approached me.

“We’re good to go, kid. I hope you’re ready too,” he said.

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“I’m ready. Let’s do this,” I replied.

When everyone gathered at the entrance of the mine, we all waited for my door to open. My friends and I stood at the front of the group, prepared for any attack, while Bilge led us and signaled the doorman.

“Open the door! We’re ready to go,” he commanded.

The large door slowly creaked open. As it fully opened, Babu, Hiroshi, and I cautiously made our way into the mine’s pitch-black darkness. Meanwhile, Lezlie and the mining people headed in the other direction for the dig.

It was colder and darker than the first time we came, but this time we were prepared for them. I was holding a torch to light the place, Hiroshi had a can of flammable liquid. Babu had powder kegs in each arm; he insisted on carrying them himself.

Hiroshi carefully poured the flammable liquid as we moved quietly forward. I turned to him and whispered, “Hiroshi, are you sure this flammable liquid will be enough?”

“I don't know if it's enough,” he replied softly. “But I'll think of something.”

We continued to move forward, quietly pouring the liquid. Soon after, the miners began to advance as well. We could hear the miners moving forward, they were not loud enough to attract attention, but we could hear them. we were quite far ahead when they started moving. According to the plan, they wouldn’t start digging until we made a sound to signal them. It was a loud process and we knew they wouldn’t do anything until we had all the attention.

As we moved forward, Hiroshi suddenly raised his hand and signaled for us to stop. I looked ahead and saw why he had halted us.

Nearly a hundred shadow-descended monsters lay sleeping in front of us. They blocked our path and we had to carefully navigate through them to continue.

We slowly stepped over the gaps between their bodies. As I moved forward, I heard a small sound behind me. I turned around to see Babu nearly falling on top of one of the creatures. I quickly caught him in mid-air but struggled to keep my balance on my toes. Babu was heavy with the barrels of gunpowder he carried. He quickly tossed them to Hiroshi who caught them with ease.

Once Babu regained his balance, we continued on our way and finally reached our destination. Babu and Hiroshi placed the gunpowder on the ground.

“Now all we have to do is distract these ugly monsters,” Hiroshi said as he stood up.

“We have to make noise to get their attention,” I replied.

Hiroshi slowly pulled out his gun and fired a shot into the air.

“Get ready,” he warned. “We may have to run a bit to make up time.”

At that moment, I heard the sound of hundreds of footsteps rapidly approaching. We braced ourselves for battle.

The signal for the miners was the sound of gunfire and I'm sure they were digging now because there was a very loud noise. We had to distract the monsters for a while Lezlie protected them.

The moment of battle we had been waiting for had finally arrived.