"Good lord... this is one massive cave."
Luo muttered, lifting his head trying to spot the end of the cave, but his eyes found nothing but darkness stretching upward and forward. The entrance behind them had grown distant enough that daylight had vanished entirely, and the only light now reaching them came from crystals scattered among the rocks.
They found the cave was wider than it had looked from outside; its main passage stretched deep into the mountain, while the walls on either side rose up until their tops disappeared into darkness. The rocks were irregular, some jutting out of the walls like stone fangs, while water dripped along the damp surfaces, leaving glistening streaks under the faint light.
With every step, the echo of their footsteps returned to them from different distances, as though the cave had no end at all.
But they weren't alone.
Hundreds of bats hung from the ceiling, their eyes turning toward the group in silence. They weren't small, as the three had expected; their bodies were large, and the aura radiating off them was strong enough to put Luo on edge instantly.
"Oh, no... get ready."
Luo said in a steady voice, trying to hide the anxiety creeping into his tone.
The three of them grouped together instantly; Luo in front, Cha Ji and Shun De behind him, leaving their backs exposed only toward the passage they'd come from.
They activated their Phantoms carefully.
A single mistake here would be enough to turn them into prey among this massive number.
"Guys, if you two can protect me for a bit, I can send fireballs at twenty bats every three minutes, and I'll hit them without a doubt."
Cha Ji didn't wait for their approval.
Neither of them objected either.
Cha Ji could normally fire off a far greater number of fireballs, but most of them could be dodged easily. His claim that he'd guarantee hitting twenty bats each time meant he was planning to cut down on the number of attacks and focus on precision instead of flooding the place with fire.
It didn't take long before the bats started moving.
They suddenly scattered, then opened their mouths and let out a deafening screech that shook the cave's walls.
But the screech wasn't aimed at them.
It was aimed at the ceiling.
Luo understood what it meant before the screech even began, stepping in front of the other two and activating the Fat Wall Phantom, his skin hardening in an instant.
At the same time, Shun De activated the Inner Shield Phantom, extending its effect to cover all three of them.
Shun De clenched his teeth.
Maintaining the shield across three bodies at once drained a huge amount of his energy, but he didn't back down.
Then the cave shook.
The sound wasn't just a screech; it was more like a shockwave slamming into every wall and ceiling at once. The ground shook beneath their feet, small fragments of rock began falling from above, followed by larger chunks crashing to the ground around them.
Luo raised his arm over his head to protect himself.
"Hold steady!"
The echo doubled through the overlapping passages, making the sound even more agonizing, as though dozens of screeches were coming from every direction at the exact same time.
Shun De began to feel the Inner Shield straining under enormous pressure, and it was becoming harder for him to protect their bodies from the sound's internal effects.
But he held on.
And suddenly...
the imposing blue light appeared.
The three of them stopped for a moment.
The light wasn't coming from the bats.
It was the hawk.
It hovered deep inside the cave, its blue eyes glowing amid the darkness, so bright that the surrounding crystals seemed to reflect a cold glow of their own. It barely seemed affected by the bats' screeches.
Then it attacked.
The hawk shot forward at tremendous speed, tearing through the gathered bats like a blue arrow. Its claws tore some of their bodies apart, while the rest scattered in terror, their screeching cutting off entirely.
In that same instant, the bats realized the source of the light.
Hundreds of them turned toward the hawk.
"The hawk followed us here...?!"
Luo said in shock.
The three of them had seen its strength before, but watching it fight in the middle of this many enemies made the gap in power far more obvious.
Even so, Cha Ji didn't waste the opportunity.
He planted his feet, raised his hands, then unleashed a focused burst of fireballs at a cluster of bats closest to them.
The fireballs streaked through the stone passage, lighting up the walls for a brief moment, then struck their targets one after another.
Nearly twenty bats fell.
"Let's run!"
Luo didn't need to explain.
The three of them took off deeper into the cave.
They couldn't go back to the entrance; the earlier screeches had caused part of the rock to collapse behind them, sealing the path.
Staying near the hawk wasn't a better option either.
They ran between the rocks, the echo of the battle behind them growing wider and wider. Bats circled above their heads, then dove in from the sides trying to cut off their path, forcing Luo to keep changing direction constantly.
But after the first twenty bats died, another group began focusing on them instead.
The moment they turned their backs to the hawk, three bats lunged.
"On the right!"
Shun De shouted.
Luo turned at just the right moment, raising his arm, and one of the bats slammed into it before it could reach his face.
As for Cha Ji, he fell back and fired off fireballs in quick succession.
The passage sometimes narrowed, then suddenly widened, making aiming harder. Some bats looped around rocky outcrops and appeared from unexpected spots, while others flew dangerously close to the ceiling.
"Don't let them get close!"
Luo shouted.
Shun De fired energy arrows from behind, which streaked between the rocks and struck a bat diving toward them.
But some managed to slip past the attacks.
One of them reached Luo.
His hand curled back, then shot forward with terrifying speed.
It struck the bat directly, and it dropped to the ground, motionless.
From the side, another bat lunged toward his body.
Luo activated the Hardening Phantom.
The bat's teeth collided with his body and shattered, and Luo grabbed it and struck it with his fist.
The impact boomed through the passage.
The bat slammed into the ground with enough force to crack the stone beneath it.
The three of them kept retreating deeper inward, and with every step forward, the cave's shape kept changing.
The wide passage gradually disappeared, replaced by massive stone pillars dividing it into separate sections. In some spots, crystals jutted out of the walls in large numbers, while gleaming minerals accumulated in cracks along the ground.
Then, suddenly, the sound of battle behind them faded.
Luo looked back.
The hawk was still roughly in the same spot, and the bats around it had started dropping one after another.
"All of this happened within the first ten minutes of entering the cave."
Luo wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"I can't believe pushing deeper in is actually a good idea, but if we stay here, the hawk's going to kill us. So we need to keep moving forward."
He looked at the darkness stretching ahead of them.
"We might find a beast equal to it, and then we can let the two of them fight each other and use the chaos to our advantage."
The other two nodded.
They kept moving, firing scattered attacks behind them to keep the bats from catching up.
As for the hawk, it had barely been scratched.
After a short while, fewer than thirty bats remained.
Normally, bats would flee the moment they sensed danger, but this species entered a state of frenzy that made retreat far harder for them.
After pushing in further, they found a wider side hollow, and made use of the spot to rest.
Luo sat down, leaning his back against a rock.
"I'm starting to like hawks for some reason."
Shun De laughed lightly, then stood up, checking their surroundings.
"Let's survive first, then I'll buy you one to keep as a pet. Though at this rate, I think one of them's going to be eating us pretty soon."
"Don't be so pessimistic."
Cha Ji said, then pointed upward.
"Don't you see that...?"
The other two lifted their heads.
The cave rose up ahead of them, and a more open area appeared in the ceiling, looking like an opening leading to another part of the mountain.
"If we climbed up a bit, even if the path's full of pits, we might find a way out."
Luo studied the opening for a moment.
"True, but I don't think we came all the way in here just to turn back at the first sign of danger."
He stood up, then looked at the darkness ahead of them.
"Don't worry. I'll stay with you two. And don't forget, life's one big adventure, so a little extra risk never hurt."
He smiled.
"And I don't think I'll be letting either of you die."
Then he added:
"Anyway, I tweaked the Pattern a bit, I think it's better now."
The three of them kept walking.
After several turns, the cave widened again.
Luo suddenly stopped.
Ahead of them lay something massive, resting in the middle of a wide hollow.
A giant snake.
Its body coiled across the ground, a few small rocks covering part of its tail. Its skin looked unnaturally pale, with clear bite marks visible along its side.
It was wounded.
"Are you two waiting for it to wake up, or what?"
Luo pointed at it.
"Why don't we kill it and make its sleep permanent?"
Shun De took a step closer, then threw a quick glance at the snake.
"You done with the setup? When are you striking?"
Cha Ji was the only one who hadn't moved.
He stood behind them, a massive cluster of fireballs gathered in front of him.
But these weren't ordinary fireballs.
A fine white needle had formed in front of each fireball, all of them aimed directly at the snake.
"Almost."
He paused for a moment, then looked at the fireballs.
"But wait..."
His expression shifted slightly.
"We've gone in pretty deep."
He looked up at the cave's ceiling.
"If I fire off this many fireballs here, the smoke and the lack of oxygen could become a real problem."
Luo looked at him.
"So?"
"I'll settle it in one strike."
The white needles began pushing the fireballs forward.
"I can't afford to waste energy here."
In the next instant, he attacked.
The fireballs surged forward all at once.
The fire lit up the entire hollow, its glow reflecting off the crystals scattered across the walls, and off the veins of precious metal running through the rock.
The snake woke up.
It raised its head, but the attack had already arrived.
The fireballs rained down over its head and body, the tremendous heat burning through its hide, and tongues of flame exploded throughout the hollow.
Had the snake been at full health, this attack wouldn't have been enough to finish it off.
But it was already wounded.
Moments later, the flames settled.
Half its burned body collapsed to the ground, thick smoke rising into the air.
Then something strange happened.
A dark Phantom emerged from the snake's body.
It appeared for a moment above the corpse, then leapt, passing right over the three of them.
"Catch it!"
Shun De used his Phantom on it, trying to pin it in place, but the Phantom slipped free.
It vanished into one of the dark cracks in the wall at incredible speed.
The three of them stared at the spot where it had disappeared.
Luo said:
"What we just did might slow that bird down a little, so let's keep moving. I don't think it'll leave its favorite meal to burn and come chasing after us."
Then he turned toward the opposite wall.
He stopped.
There were lines carved
into the rock.
He stepped closer.
Then another step.
"Why are there carvings on this side of the cave?!"
The three of them stopped in front of the wall.
And while smoke still lingered at the ceiling of the hollow, the carvings gradually emerged under the glow of the crystals.
They looked freshly carved!