Author's Note:-
*Sigh*
You all know what, this chapter is still not complete. It's still going on. i don't know how long its next part will be, but this one already contains solid 3000 words. I think by the time I end this, chapter 16 alone will have 6000 words or more.
Well, what can i say.
Enjoy.
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Third person P.O.V:-
The ‘B rank’ human party started walking toward the ant mound. They carefully inspected everything near the area surrounding it. Instead of brazenly walking inside, they choose to be attentive and covered the distance without leaving any marks behind. Moving while hiding behind all the debris present, they walked silently towards the hole in the ground.
After walking half the distance, when their leader ‘a swordsman’ noticed that there was no danger present near the vicinity of the hole, he waved his hand in the air to signal everyone to group up.
“So, did anyone find anything out of ordinary?” the swordsman asked looking here and there, trying to find anything out of ordinary.
“No sir. There is absolutely nothing around here.” Replied a small petite girl with a orange cape tied to her neck.
“Yes, I didn’t even see any animals here.” another girl answered, with stern expression and stiff attitude.
“Mr. Assassin did you find anything.” That swordsman asked while looking straight into the eyes of a overly covered shadow like person.
“Kill.” He said, looking back into his eyes.
“Hey Archer, what do you think made that hole?”
“It’s not my job, but I am confident to say that whatever made this is still present inside. So, if you want to get your answers, then just go inside.”
“Aren’t you behaving a little too atrociously, little pest.”
Just after saying this, the swordsman vanished into thin air from the place that he was standing at. The ground quacked a little, and with the noise of sound barrier breaking, he moved. The next moment before anyone could even blink their eyes; he had already covered a distance to 30 meters, and was now standing in front of the archer. Everyone eyes bulged out because they knew, it was no magic skill, but pure physical power.
Without giving anyone even a sec to react, he was already gone from his place. After reaching the archer he wasted no time in putting any act of fear or waited for others to try and stop him, but kicked the archer directly on his face.
The kick was so powerful that it created shockwaves while travelling towards the now dumbfounded archer. The motion of him lifting his leg and impacting that face was so fast that others could not even see it; they only saw a line of black travelling and impacting empty air.
What they saw was nothing more than an afterimage, I reality his leg had already cracked on the archers face, and he was now flying towards the hole in the ground.
Everyone’s eyes were still bulged and hadn’t returned to normal, because it took some time to explain, but in reality not even three sec’s had passed yet.
The swordsman moved yet again. Everyone thought he was going to follow the archer inside the ant mound, but their expectations were broken when he flashed once more and came back to his previous position.
They looked toward the hole, where the archer had flown into, and the person who was now already standing back at his previous position; a chill ran down their spine. Some of them were thinking of stopping him at first, but now they were happy that he moved faster than them, and ended the fight without giving them any time to react. Otherwise they could also imagine them flowing inside the hole, after being kicked or punched by their brute leader.
They heaved a breath of relief to their thoughts and looked toward the leader, to know what his orders were. Just when everyone else moved their necks to look at their current leader he spoke,
“Someone once told me, ‘to hold the reins of a wild horse, you need to show him how wild you can be.’ Now that the wild horse has been tamed, let’s continue with our mission.”
He knew if he hadn’t taken care of the first person who objected or neglected his order, then his whole team would have started acting freely one by one, and that would have led to chaos one way or another.
“We are going to move inside now. No matter how many monsters there are inside, we are going to kill them all. If there really are ant inside, then this is going to be a very easy mission, but do not slack off. Who knows what kind of a foe we will have to face inside? So, any questions?”
To his question Martha nervously asked, “Yes. What if that something which made the hole is something that we couldn’t hold our own against?”
“Then you know what to do.” He replied seriously.
“So, you mean, we can run away if such a situation does arise?”
“If we weren’t able to hold our own against a monster then I don’t think we will get any time to run away. Forget about running away, just hope that whatever it is that is inside, doesn’t start firing laser beams at us, just as we enter.”
“What…about..that. Archer. can I at least save him if he is not dead yet?” D’sue, who looked like he had wanted to ask this question for a long time, nervously voiced out.
When the swordsman heard the knight saying that, his eyebrows flinched and his lips twitched for a sec, before his expressions returned to normal. He looked at him and said…
“Let’s go. Assassin, move to the front. If there really are ants inside, then just kill them all. With your speed they’ll hold no problem for you at all. Don’t let even a single one get away and if you find any traps or such on the way, then do inform us. D’sue, you also move to the front, and try to stop anything and everything that slips past our assassin. And both of you Mages, well, you know the deal, but don’t start hurling magic attacks without thinking. I don’t think there is anything or anyone here who can stop the advance of this party. Understood.”
“yes”
“I SAID, UNDERSTOOD!”
“YES SIR.” In the valley a shout rang out and it echoed, causing the death of tens of small birds.
Then after taking some precautions and completing some final preparations, they moved towards the hole. The ant mound like its name implied really was a hole into the ground. There was no slope or stairs that connected the surface and the deep dark pit underneath it. There was a drop of about 30 meters, which they needed to jump to reach the end of the pit.
But the drop provided no difficulty to them. What 30 meters? Even jumping down 50 or 60 meters would have been like a child play to them.
After jumping down from above, the first thing they noticed was that there was no actual way to go anywhere. They were in a pit with no path leading outside. They panicked a bit; cause who knew what kind of monster would come to attack them when they had nowhere to run. While they were trying to find something like a clue or a door, D’sue heard a voice calling them from up above. He looked above and what he saw left him dumbfounded.
He saw that the master archer who was kicked to death by their leader was standing high up above outside the pit, waving and calling out to them. ‘A Ghost! No, No, not possible. Then...’. he looked toward their leader who was doing nothing other than standing with his eyes closed. After thinking for some time he decided to tell them about what he just saw.
Hey, everyone! Listen to me.” He spoke in a low but audible voice, strong enough for others to hear him.
“I saw the archer who was….*ahem* I just saw him standing above somewhere, waving at me.” Hearing him everyone felt cold sweat running down their spine. They still remember how cruelly that person was beaten before being flung inside the hole moreover; the perpetrator was still standing beside them.
But instead of saying or doing anything, they all looked at their leader. After being given attention like this the swordsman opened his eyes and looked in the direction that D’sue was pointing toward. What they saw left them asphyxiated; they forgot to breathe for a sec and kept looking upwards with their mouth open.
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They really saw the archer waving and shouting at them. Everyone were a bit confused, thinking how could someone who had his ass kicked so ferociously be happily waving at them, but what happened next made them think again. Some even had thoughts like, ‘maybe what happened outside was an illusion.’
The swordsman spoke to the archer, “Is there any way to go deeper inside? Or we’ll have to dig our own tunnel to get out of here?”
“No, no. come above there is a tunnel here. It must lead to somewhere.” Hearing such words coming from the archer everyone’s confusion got even stronger. Now, they really believed that all that happened outside was nothing, but an illusion.
“Okay. Everyone, let’s move.” The swordsman said while looking upwards.
Just as his voice rang out, all of them started jumping and running towards the top, like someone had made a bet to see who would get there first.
They got to the top and saw a healthy male smiling and welcoming everyone by hugging them. Their confusion had now broken the normal limit. The mages were even thinking of ignoring everything, but then D’sue moved with confidence and he asked the archer.
“Why are you not hurt? No sorry about that, I didn’t mean it that way. What I wanted to ask is, how are you not hurt, even after…that?”He asked while looking between the archer and their leader.
“Oh! That, actually the kick that you all saw hitting me…actually never touched my face.”
“Huh…What do you mean? We all clearly saw you getting brutally kicked on the fac,e and the kick was so powerful that you was flung away into the hole, were you not?” he questioned him, but still a bit stunned from his answer.
“The thing is what really hit me was not the kick, but the wind pressure created by it. The pressure was so strong that it threw me into the hole. Because it was only the wind that made the impact me, I wasn’t really hurt much from it. Actually, the stone that my head collided with injured me more, than the kick itself.”
Hearing him say that D’sue was left with no words to say, Just when D’sue was going to ask him, whether what he said was truth or not, everyone standing behind him started laughing. They laughed and their voices echoed inside the cave.
“Okay, play time is over now. Tell me did you go inside to scout or anything?” Mr. Swordsman seriously asked him with a smile and Roby (The archer) seriously answered him while looking at the ground, “No, I was too scared to go inside on my own.”
“Ha-ha. Good, your cowardly nature just saved your life. Remember everyone; while in an unknown territory, never ever move alone. Who knows what kind of monsters and enemies you might have to face. So, until you are not strong enough, always move with a party that is strong enough to handle said threats. Understand.”
“Yes sir.”
“*Sigh* keep in formation and move forward. Let’s not waste any more time and get going. We have some ants to kill.”
While their leader was giving those suggestions and such, D’sue was lost inside his own mind. ‘This leader, he must have some kind of an ulterior motive to not kill the archer. His behavior recently has been very unlike his nature. He must be planning something or have something that requires the cooperation of everyone, and because of that he can’t kill anyone. Until the right time comes that is.’
They had just started walking, when they were presented with an obstacle.
The tunnel that they had to go through was in front of them, but the problem was that it was too narrow.
“Hey Roby, is this the tunnel that you was talking about?”
“Umm…yes.”
“So you want all of us to go through THIS tunnel to the other side, while fighting the monsters inside it?”
“Yes?” automatically escaped his lips, but when the question really hit him he shivered and hurriedly replied, “Ah! No, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s not like I want all of you to die or anything, but from what you can see, this is the only tunnel present. Behind us is that pit and in front of us is this tunnel.”
“You are not describing the tunnel properly my friend. It’s not just a tunnel, its narrow, dark and who knows how long. You can’t just call it a tunnel, it’s like a narrow highway to hell, and who ever named this cave ‘the cave of misery’ should be prized with 100 gold’s, cause his naming sense is out of this world. Legendary I’d say.” Martha said, staring daggers at the archer.
“Yeah, you are right. While other places have something like a stair or slope for entering, this place needs everyone to jump, and the drop is not a short one either. And only after jumping down does one realize that he is jumping to the entrance of the cave, but straight into a pit; a trap. How clever is this. Moreover because of low light… Ah! Sorry, let me rephrase it, because the only light inside is the light coming from the hole on the surface, the visibility is also very low and it only adds to the cleverness of the pit even more.”
“Yeah, and then after crawling back up 20 some meters, you find that the entrance to the deeper parts of the cave is a narrow dark tunnel. *sigh* misery, really misery. This cave really is ‘The cave of misery’.” Dust said while moving her head left and right in astonishment.
Their conversations and descriptions were going on and on when their leader interjected between them and stopped their untimely girls talk. “Stop wasting time. We get it, the pit is frustrating, and the tunnel is scary, but we need to move now. We have already wasted a lot of our time. The more time we waste the lesser become the value of our reward, and also who knows when something might come to attack us. I don’t want anything to attack me while I’m crawling inside this shitty hole.”
“Yes sir you are right. Let’s move now, while our surroundings are still calm.”D’sue pointed towards the cave, while suggesting everyone to hurry.
“KILLL, KILll lk ill ki?” the assassin said.
Hearing the assassin talk, the archer couldn’t help but blurt out, “Oh my god, he is right!”
“What! What did he say?”
“Why do we have to crawl inside this narrow tunnel? Can’t we just destroy or dig these walls to make it wide enough for all of us to travel comfortably.” He replied with confidence, thinking that this suggestion really was a great one.
He wasted no time in refusing his suggestion saying, “No time. Anyone else? No, then Knight get in the front and start crawling, I’ll follow you. The archer and assassin will crawl behind me, followed by the mages. No questions allowed, it’s is for the safety of, everyone else’s and also mine. I also don’t want to be attacked inside the tunnel.”
“But if we are attacked then…” D’sue couldn’t help but ask him that. Because he knew that the one at the front would have to bear the attack of all the monsters on his own and that was his position.
“Then you’ll use your shield to block the attack and buy us some time to turn back. It will be considered as a brave attempt from you to save the lives of your party members, and your family will be given some reward in case you die.” He said, smiling at him.
‘This bastard! He really thinks I will do whatever he wants me to do, and if he thinks that I’ll buy him time by giving my life, then he must be dreaming. But what can I do, not like I can face against him. He is much more powerful than me. *Haah* can’t be done, let’s just hope nothing attacks us in the tunnel.
After finishing their talking they got back to work. Because the tunnel leading deeper inside the cave was too narrow, they decided to alter their formation a bit and the best way to move was by making the most tankiest of their member crawl in front of them while others followed. It was done so that he could at least buy them sometime, in case of an enemy attack. He was followed by their leader, who had the responsibility to make the right decision of whether to move forward or to go back during any mishap. Like this they decided to crawl inside the tunnel while keeping most members of their party safe and protected.