Chapter 17: Caved In

"Where are we?" Xi asked. Clinching his fist.

The team was randomly teleported to a cave. Dark and humid without signs of magical beasts. Not yet.

"I... Don't... Know," Toni replied. Her lips quivered. From time to time, she's grabbing Ned's clothes. Coco, who was still on Toni's embrace, felt something was off about the cave.

Inside, they were in a circular part of a cave. A cavern, broad enough for the three to move around pace by pace. We were supposed to be on an island. Or maybe this is part of the island. Ned thought. Trying to feel the wall while he paced unhurriedly.

Meow?

Coco's senses were different from them. From afar he could sense that something was coming.

Ned's senses—coupled with his instincts, came to a halt. "Stop," Ned warned. "Something's coming,"

"Ned, come on, don't be like that," Xi questioned Ned remarks and his own sanity.

Ned grabbed the Storing Sphere inside his pouch, the sphere emits a faint light. But enough for the surroundings to be perceived.

"Toni!" Ned grabbed Toni's hand and pulled her closer to him. Unsheathing The Butterfly, he slashed midair. Hitting an arrow in half.

"Goblins!"

"What!" Xi cried. "but, that's..." arrows swooshed, left and right. Xi's ear buzzed when an arrow, thumb length, passed by. He grabbed his bow with his hands trembling.

"Xi!" arrows swirled passing Ned. Dodging and slashing, he cried. "shoot that one!" pointing at a goblin, arrow distance away from them.

"Where! I can't see!" even with the faint light of the Storing Sphere, darkness still enveloped the cavern, and their eyes, except Ned.

Meow!

Coco sensed the danger, he jumped off Toni's arms. And radiated a spark of his magic. Electric cracked inside the cavern. Not hitting any goblins, but more than enough to dazzle a light.

Goblins screeched, surprised by the light. They were stunned for more than a second. "Now! Ned shouted. Reverberating inside the cave.

Notching an arrow, Xi pulled the string. The arrow flew straight, not to the stunned goblin, but to its side. An inch away from the goblin's eye. Hitting a wall." Shit!" he cursed.

"Calm down!" Ned dropped the Storing Sphere and jumped to the nearest goblin, slashing with The Butterfly. It went straight to its neck. Goblin's head plopped. Rolling to the ground. Mud covered the dead goblin's head. It must be his first time seeing a goblin. Ned thought.

"Yes!" Xi notched an arrow, again. This time, he breathed deep. Eyes focused on the goblin - still covering its eyes. Pulling the string, enough for the arrow to hit the target. "Bullseye. " Xi muttered.

The arrow went straight to the goblin's eye. Piercing until at the back of its head. A tip of an arrow peaked behind its head. Blood gushed out. Goblin screeched. "Yes!" Xi cried once more. "Calm down, calm down." He muttered.

Three more left. Ned mumbled.

[Affirmative.]

[One to your left, one to your right. The other is hidden far from the wall.]

ICE prompted on Ned's head.

Three more left, but their distance was far enough to shoot an arrow three more times. Their eyes focused again. The effect Coco's electric magic was now wearing out. Three goblin archers aimed at Ned.

[Ned.]

I know. With Coco's magic effect now gone. Ned zig-zagged towards the remaining goblins. "Vanish." He whispered.

[Vanish skill activated.]

Unable to be seen. Ned moved between the two goblins. Ready to shoot an arrow towards Ned. Vertical slash. The goblin to Ned's right went lifeless, the head was thrown in the middle of the cavern. Connected by a horizontal slash, from the bottom going to the top. The goblin to his left was divided into two. A critical attack in one swing. The Butterfly's lightness coupled with its sharp edge, Ned was satisfied.

But Ned's attack exposed him from the last remaining goblin. Eyes narrowed, its cheekbones lifted high. A smile of victory. The goblin must have thought. The already notched arrow was ready to be released.

Blood streamed down its neck. Toni with her dagger, stabbed the remaining goblin, right to its neck. The blood froze. The goblins mouth, eyes, holes in its ears and nose, froze. It cracked.

Knees first. Then its body, next to the frozen head. The goblin fell to the ground, lifeless. "Toni," Ned muttered. "Thanks."

"I can fight too, you know." Toni added, "you're welcome."

"How...how, how did you get there?" Xi wondered. Pointing there and there. "Ned, how did you, get... there, from here, to there," randomly pointing his fingers. "You didn't use magic, then how?"

"Well, it's..." Ned stopped. Can't really tell him. A Hollow using a skill, Ned thought. "a secret?"

Disappointed, Xi stopped asking more about it. He knew that a warrior must have its own surprise hidden under their sleeves.

"These are Goblins!" Xi cried. "What are they doing here? I thought they're already gone for good."

Ned moved towards the dead goblins, he started to cut their chest open and grabbed their cores. Seeing this, Toni did the same to the goblin she just killed.

"Well, that's what we all thought," Ned said. "They must have hidden inside this cave." Hidden, for such a long time, without food, that's impossible. Ned wondered. Putting the cores to the Magic Pouch.

"Uhmm, we need light, Ned," Toni spoke. "We can't move without light. Also..." She added while cleaning her dagger filled with blood using her old and ragged clothes'. "Also, I think these Goblins were afraid of the light."

"Yes, the problem is, we don't have a source for it," Ned explained. Toni's right, without light, we're sitting ducks here. We can't move forward without light. Ned thought. "Xi."

"Yes!" Although, almost the same age as Ned, Xi's narrow eyes shows respect.

"What magic can you use?"

"Wind."

Disappointed, Ned looked at Toni, but he knew, her magic was ice affiliated. "I'm sorry," Toni lowered her head. Black hair swayed upfront covering her eyes.

"It's fine."

"Well I'm Wind, Toni uses Dagger, the Cat..." Xi was stopped by Toni.

"His name's Coco."

"Tamed Coco uses electric, I'm not really sure about electric though, and Coco's body was too small to handle a long period of magic use." scratching his head, he added, " and Ned uses a sword, without any magic..." Eyes bulged out, jaw dropped down, Xi cried, "Ned! you're a Hollow?!"

"Yes, what about?" Now he knew, Ned thought.

"But! You just used a skill! I'm not sure what skill! But it's a skill! How?" Surprised, Xi moved near to Ned. And started to feel any Mana leaking out of Ned. "Wow, no Mana leak, you're indeed a Hollow!"

"I think..."Toni smiled, "Ned really trained hard." She explained.

"Okay, that's enough Xi." Ned stopped Xi from almost smelling him.

"A faint light from a Storing Sphere is all we have." Xi picked up the Storing Sphere on the ground, mud-covered half the sphere. "How can we leave this cave with just this?" Xi lifted the Sphere for everyone to see.

That's it! Ned muttered. "That's it!"

"What do you mean, Ned?" Toni asked.

"That's it! The Sphere." Ned grabbed the Sphere from Xi and gave it to Toni, "here, this Sphere had light because Mana was injected into it," he added. "Toni injects more Mana into it, but slowly," Ned warned.

"I know." Toni smiled. She then pointed her finger to the Sphere. Breathing slowly, she injected mana.

The Sphere's faint light was now getting brighter and brighter until Ned felt a prickling sensation. "Stop. That's enough." Ned said. It's getting hot. It can't handle too much Mana. Ned thought.

Now that the cavern was brightly lit, everyone could see the aftermath of the fight. Walls cracked and moist, brown and black fighting with one another against the light of the Sphere. The walls were painted red, where the goblin's body dropped near.

Goblins, dark green skin, pointy ears, pointy nose with hair sprouting all over their body. Although the head was cut to half from its body, the goblin's eye was still wide open. Yellow reptilian eye bulging out. Judging from their heights, they are adult goblins. Their heights reached Ned's waist. A little more than a meter. Without any coverings, the smell, a foul, disgusting smell oozed inside the cavern. Coupled with their blood and smell, the three decided to leave the cavern.

After they left the cavern, the group encountered a couple more goblins. The cave was like a maze. One fork after the other, it's been almost an hour but a never-ending path welcomed them. Losing energy and sanity on the process. Xi was almost giving up.

Toni seems to be flustered by their current situation. But kept the feeling to herself, cause she knew, the more she gets flustered, the more her magic became uncontrollable. So she clutched Coco even more.

"So what now?" Looking towards Ned. Panting. Breathing and heart beating fast.

Every step they made echoed throughout the cave

"We find the exit and hope," Ned said. Lifting the sphere to illuminate the pathway. Liquids dropped and echoed inside the narrow pathway.

"Hope?" Xi wondered.

"Hope to find it on two days," Ned said. "And hope we didn't encounter hundreds of those things."

"Hundreds," Xi muttered.

"Stop!" Ned cried.

"Not again?!" Xi cried too, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Toni grabbed her dagger. The other one still dangling on her waist. She breathes deep and focused.

Ned's senses were sharper than the two of them, even sharper than Coco. Ned knew, that something was coming. "It's them," Ned muttered in his lowest voice.

The three ducked, almost crawling, and leaned against the wall. Coco was intelligent, he knew when to meow and when not to. Because of this Toni was glad.

Run. Ned thought first. "Run" then muttered. "Run!" Then shouted.

Without hesitation, the two followed Ned to another fork that led to another fork. Sphere swaying left and right. The three, run as fast as they could.

"What happened, Ned?!" Panting, sweat started to form on Xi's forehead.

Sweat formed like beads. He answered Xi. "Hundreds of them."