Chapter 154: Entering the caves

Having satisfied his curiosity about his new weapon Eldrian set off towards the caves with everyone else.

As they neared the caves, he stopped everyone and said, "I feel like I should go in first. Similar to when we first started, we have no idea what is waiting inside. I'd rather be on the safe side."

No one argued, they all understood that this would be the safest method. Taking a deep breath, Eldrian took out his arming sword and the small round shield he still had. Feeling that they would work better inside the caves than the greatsword, he also believed they would work well against normal goblins. He was just afraid that it might struggle to hurt goblin knights or Oni. The latter hopefully no longer being in the caves.

At the cave entrance, he took one more deep breath as he saw that the entrance was empty. Not completely empty, since the corpses of some goblins still littered it. But no alive ones were insight.

After making sure that the goblins were indeed dead, he finally entered the cave, careful to not trip over the bodies. After the first turn, it quickly started becoming dark. Soon he needed some source of light for himself, else he would not be able to see anything.

This does not bode well.Eldrian thought as he cast Floga and kept the flame over his head. This took little effort and the spell needed so little mana to be maintained that it did not drain him. Only stopping his mana from refilling.

Even so, he knew he could not keep it active for longer than ten minutes. After that long, it would start straining his concentration and slowly draining his mana. Eldrian did not know why this happened, he believed it was because the spell became unstable with time. Never having been meant to be cast as a light source.

He simply preferred Floga over the light Tier 0 spell, Fos. He was used to casting Floga and could manipulate it with little effort, while he needed to concentrate on keeping Fos going.

Quickly came the time where he needed to take some rest. Letting the flame die, Eldrian looked at his map, glad that it actually worked as he had hoped. It clearly showed the caves as he had entered them, allowing him to see the places he had walked through. While navigating the caves even with a map might be hard, it only took some time to avoid the dead ends.

Eldrian rested and then continued, after the fifth time of having to recast Floga, he heard some sounds of fighting.

What the hell?He wondered as he heard many swords clashing against other swords. A sound of a battlefield. Eldrian failed to understand why something like that would be heard, from what he had seen, the goblins had seemed to be one group.

Letting the flame from Floga die, Eldrian followed the sound slowly. Managing to see what was happening thanks to some fire spells the shamans of the two opposing groups had cast.

Did they split? Is this due to the Oni being gone? Are they then indeed gone? Eldrian wondered as he saw a few hundred goblins fighting each other in two groups. Behind each group was a shaman who was surrounded by at least three goblin knights.

The cave-room they were fighting in was big enough to accommodate all these goblins, causing Eldrian to think that it was one of the main areas in the caves. The roof of this room seemed to be 5 meters high, while it spanned almost a rugby field in size. Naturally, it was not rectangular, but rather in the form of a crude circle.

Seeing this Eldrian also felt that their party would be safe to enter. While the tunnels connecting the cave-rooms were narrow, the rooms themselves were large. They would easily be able to split, group, or kite the goblins if they worked smartly.

Having finished his goal, Eldrian silently left. Following his map to get back, not even lighting his way. He did not want to risk letting the goblins become aware of his presence and stop fighting. Not before he had a plan.

...

It has been close to six hours now, yet no new group found me. Vivian thought as she cast Nidia to refresh herself. She was glad that she had not needed to run, but she also knew she could not just stay still. She had to get something to eat.

Slowly standing up, she felt all her muscles complaining. Not having managed to rest properly for days. She cast Anthos on herself to recover some stamina, after which she started moving out from her hiding spot. She had long become accustomed to the dark.

She might not be able to see perfectly, but she could make out silhouettes. This was good enough for her to manage to avoid distant goblins, along with the sounds. Which traveled really far in the caves.

...

"It should be fine for us all to go in. The caves are surprisingly big and the goblins seem to be fighting." Eldrian said as soon as he came out of the caves. Everyone relieved at the news.

They had all been feeling apprehensive about going in, but Eldrian's words caused them to feel much better. Getting into a formation they all started moving. Eldrian in front, Sabrea right behind him. Margit and Floyd in the middle with Terlas bringing the rear. Floyd was responsible for lighting as large an area as possible.

The group was not planning to go in quietly. They had to somehow find Vivian, and the best way was to make noise that just might reach her. This would be for the best, as no one had any idea how large the caves were, nor where she was inside of them. If things went south, they all felt they should be able to make it out.

After just a few minutes of walking the group ran into what seemed to be the winners of a fight. A group of goblins, not large, just twenty goblins along with the shaman and four goblins knights. They were all injured, some of the goblins even seriously injured. One of the goblin knights was even missing an arm.

Inside the narrow tunnel, the two groups stared at each other for a few seconds. The goblins stunned to run into a group of humans inside their caves. This gave everyone in Eldrian's group enough time to launch their attacks. Arrows and spells flying claimed half the goblin's lives.

Furious the shaman threw a spell of his own back at them, a poison arrow of some kind. This was quickly blocked by Cephaphyr who spread his wings to cover the tunnel. He did not charge into the goblins since Eldrian had asked him not to. He wished to save that for a hail marry when the group was in danger.

Before that time came, Eldrian rather wanted to get used to fighting in the caves. He also felt like Cephaphyr might easily make a mistake inside the caves. While he did not know what this could lead to, Eldrian wished to keep that possibility as low as possible.

Seeing his attack blocked the Shaman was furious and scared. The ease at which it was blocked leaving him feeling apprehensive. As his guards charged the humans, he started running away instead.

"Leave him to me!" Sabrea shouted as she darted past the goblin knights who were quickly stopped by Eldrian. Keeping them from following her.

As Eldrian had rushed in he cast Accelerate on himself, managing to keep the goblins knights busy with this speed. He was not faster than them, but they were also not faster than him. Along with the narrow tunnel blocking their large swords, Eldrian managed to use his arming sword to great effect.

Only needing the shield when the goblin knights actually managed to work together, which was not often. Since those behind Eldrian offered him support almost right away. Killing the normal goblins having only taken them a few seconds.

Once the support came Eldrian could even use some time to use Observe. Finding that the knights were Tier 3, while the shaman was Tier 4. The latter struggling greatly to not lose his head to Sabrea who wanted to end this quickly.

"We can't stop, we need to push on," Eldrian said as he felt grateful for still having such a variety of weapons, the arming sword having worked really well in the cramped space. His spear certainly would not have worked so well, along with all his longer weapons.

While he could still have used them, he would have spared some attention to make sure he did not hit the caves as the goblin knights had done more than once.

The reason why he wished to continue without stopping was large that the fight had been easy and the weapons the goblins had were not worth much. Eldrian only took a few seconds to grab those of the goblin knights.

They were not even magical weapons, so Eldrian did not care much for them. Simply throwing them into his cubic inventory for later. He could always give it to someone, or he could sell it. He might also use it in an emergency when he just wanted more weapons.