Before leaving the last cave, Lana pulled Dobin, Kyle, Tanisha, Levalis and Kai aside.
"I'm thinking we go in the last location on the back of the panteri," she looked toward Levalis as she said this.
He returned her gaze, listening intently.
"The panteri are faster than most of us and we don't know their numbers. I think this is the best way for us to work together initially. The panteri are best in melee while most of us have either ranged attack or ranged protection like the shield spells. Rene can even heal from a distance. Thoughts?"
Kai had his finger on his lips, "I've noticed they walk quieter as well which is a huge stealth advantage. I'm glad the school allowed you to keep your little friend there. He's a true asset to your defenses."
Lana nodded, "Kent is the greatest!"
He had been making sure his Aunt Rosalie was okay. She had been injured when they went to attack the right flank. She was healed but her soreness remained.
He heard his name mentioned and raced to his mother's side. He had joined the panteri in the fighting. He learned a great deal about how they were supposed to fight as a species by watching them. Now he needed to perfect it while adding his own things.
He rubbed his cheek against his mother. Lana knelt and caressed his fur, grateful he had not been injured in any of the fighting so far. She had noticed Rosalie was protecting him. He was the only juvenile panteri on the hunt.
Lana stood back up, "we'll go in side by side and close together based on their standard attacks. We need to be ready for anything. I want Kent riding with me at first until we assess how bad this is going to be."
Lana spoke directly to Levalis on this last point. After almost losing his son, he wasn't going to argue.
There were no further comments or suggestions, so they mounted up and climbed the remaining stairs. Lana rode next to Sam with Kyle and Dobin just behind them.
The cave mouth was wide, empty and silent. Lana couldn't even hear whispers of their foes. This unsettled her terribly.
The cave mouth was wide enough to fit the panteri walking four abreast. They still stayed two-abreast. Lana had a really bad feeling and let Levalis know.
The entryway soon opened to a huge area similar to where Levalis lived. It was not completely dark. There were light crystals embedded in the walls. The height of them made it clear they were not placed there by the scimmia.
Just after the last panteri entered the main room, they heard stone scraping on stone. Before anyone could even turn around, dozens and dozens of scimmia came flooding from the rooms.
From behind the party was pinched in by 20 more. In total there had to be 200 enemy forces. Kyle and Dobin let out huge attacks immediately. Dobin sealed a room catching some of the scimmia in the stone wall he created. Then he built walls that would reduce the speed of their approaching enemies.
Kyle created a hail of stones that were infused with acid. Everything descended into chaos. The panteri in the back focused on the 20 behind them. If they could clear those, the rest could back up and make it safer to fight the rest.
Chekof transformed until his full werewolf form. Three panteri in the back fell before they were able to secure their backs. Rene was able to shoot them with healing arrows, but they were out of commission for the fight.
Lana stayed on Levalis' back and they made a fairly good team. She fired off ranged attacks, trying some new things as well as using Qi-infused vines. Levalis held her on with one set of tentacles but attacked with everything he had.
She felt stronger with each kill, the ribbon from Kyle doing its job. She could hear the cries of pain from her friends and her fury increased. Without knowing how she did it, an arrow storm flew from her palms instead of a vine.
All 30 scimmia in front of her were impaled on glowing green energy. Kyle saw the attack and how effective it was. He pulled out his book and switched to ice. He called down an ice storm and more scimmia fell.
Within ten minutes, all of the panteri were barely mobile. A scimmia had pulled a rope. The result was a bunch of rocks fell on each side of them.
Kyle and Lana were doing the most damage with Dobin right behind them. The others were already exhausted and most were injured to varying degrees.
They were down to 15 foes left when Lana saw a scimmia with bulky muscles run down a corridor at the back. She placed her hand on Levalis' back and healed him.
With Kent still in front of her, she implored him, "go after that monkey!"
Levalis didn't even stop to think about it. They were struggling but there was no way he was going to allow one to escape.
They reached the hallway and realized it was spiraling down. They couldn't see their quarry, but they could hear him. He was also running by the sound of it.
They ran for what seemed like days in their fatigue, but it was really only 20 minutes. At the bottom, it ended in a moderate-sized room with all kinds of strange contraptions. The scimmia beat them there and was waiting with an item in his hands that made her think of a sci-fi weapon similar to a gun that fired energy instead of projectiles.
Without even thinking, without even knowing what this weapon was going to do, she threw her hands up to block the attack. A blue forcefield surrounded them.
Yellow energy flew from the end of the weapon. It hit the shield and split in half. The yellow energy flowed along the shield then kept going, missing the original targets.
Confused, the scimmia fired once more. This time, Lana tried stopping the energy. Not only did she succeed, but she was able to push the energy back. The weapon heated up and exploded, destroying the hand that held it.