CHPT 336: Left to Fester in the Cave, Their Flesh and Bone will not be Saved....

Their foggy oasis of a death-land had changed drastically in their travels. What was once one wide berth of land blanketed in fog had become wet and mucky mounds of dead grass and dirt-- absent of fog. As if it too could hear Death's Ambiance and had decided to flee the otherwise horrific noise.

Even the grass had lost it's coverage, growing in patches as dark green- almost black, blades of nutrition-absent filth. The sight reminded him of old wet spinach growing from mud....only the smell was worlds worse.

Rot on top of rot, feces, old blood, and something tangy and sour smelling. The dark of the night sky did nothing to deter Claude's vision-- but if he had normal eyes, he still wouldn't have missed the presence of Ghoul corpses beneath the mud. He could feel them, with every step he made, causing his feet to sink into the brown and green sludge of natural ground, he could feel his heels dig into dismembered corpses, squishing eyeballs-- even teeth.

It was like they were walking in some sort of dilapidated and naturally occurring Ghoul Graveyard beneath the mud.

All the beautifully dark melody of Death's Ambiance did was add an increased chilling twist to the endeavor. It made his hairs stand on end. None of it was normal-- but then again, he was relatively new to Tangent exploration. Only recently had the panic attacks upon entering subsided. Hopefully he'd find nothing to insane to restart them.....

Their walk continued, the fog had grown increasingly more meager by the second.

SQLCH!

"Oh!...Shit....yea the Boss is definitely this way." Ursula announced from behind Claude.

He quickly turned around, curious to know what she meant. What he found was her standing at the foot of the mound they'd just traveled down, a big portion of the sloping muddy surface had collapsed where her and Frosty's combined weight had become to much to bear, in the slopes absence, he could see white. A dirty and sickly shade of white lined with black fissures beneath the surface that pressed against the surface like a network of wires were running beneath.

It would've been nice if that's what they were. But they weren't. When Claude came to stop beside her, he quickly realized they were veins, thick roping black veins running through the rather large back of a Ghoul that was somehow trapped in the muddy dirt mound. Like the many other corpses, only from what he'd seen this one looked quite a bit less...well, obliterated.

He reached forward, sweeping away more of the slimy mud to reveal more and more of the massive Ghoul wrapped in dirty pale skin and oil colored veins. He kept sweeping, up and up until his hands brushed over a thicker mound and revealed its split scalp to him. Even though it was at a slant and not standing, the Ghoul was taller than them both. It's scraggly black hair draped down towards them like tattered curtains dreaded together by the dried blood and brain fluids that dripped from the massive gash in it's skull.

Frosty dry heaved from beside him.

"God damn that's disgusting..." Claude whispered, unable to avoid the memories of the Undead Giant he'd faced not long ago in another Ghoulish Tangent.

"This isn't a normal Ghoul.....is it?" Ursula asked.

Claude shook his head, "Nope. It actually looks a lot like a Boss I've fought in another Tangent. Only that one wielded a giant chipped sword....and liked to laugh at me....bitch."

"If this place didn't smell like an open graveyard in one hundred degree weather I would laugh." Ursula replied.

The two stayed silent for a few seconds before Ursula spoke again in a slightly unnerved tone, "So..that's like terrible news isn't it? You know? Since this Boss-looking creature, isn't the Boss?"

Claude shrugged as he backed away from the corpse in the dirt, "Yes...but it means more EXP for us. Let's just stay focused and get ready for something possibly abnormal."

"Alright." Ursula replied before they all began moving onward again to approach the actual Boss.

Ursula came up to him at his right, again, he knew she was talking. But for obvious reasons, he missed it.

Before she could say anything more, he spun around, pushing her to the side as he unsheathed his short-spear and spun to throw it at the awakening Ghoul trying to escape from the dirt mound.

"WRAAAA--"

SHLCK!

His spear found a home in it's left eyeball, driving so far in that it ripped through it's brain and emerged out the back of it's head through the split in it's skull.

Without a moment's hesitation, Ursula lunged forward swinging her axe through it's unguarded throat.

FWOO!

CHOP!

The Ghoul's removed head dropped to the floor with a wet thud as it's body writhed and shook like a recently decapitated chicken. A sight made worse by the fact that it had no arms.

After a few minutes the shaking subsided and it's veiny body went limp, splattering against the wet mud loudly.

[+125 EXP]

"....How'd you know?" Ursula asked after pulling her axe from the dirt and turning to face him. The rest of the pack copied her movements and watched him.

"The song....I'm starting to understand it."

The startlingly strange response left them in silence with nothing else to do other than to continue their journey while Arne berated him for his once again lacking social skills. Sometimes he wished the Banshee's song shut everything out.

***

Their travels had hit a stopping point-- a point of transition was a more fitting word. They walked amongst the graveyard mounds for another half a mile in relative tense silence, now wary of what would rise from the icky dirt to try and pull them beneath.

They tried, and they failed. All the way until the mounds and hills had subsided, leaving only flat ground completely absent of fog. The dark melody of the Monster's he once saved were stronger than ever in his ears and mind, screaming at him to witness the song of death as it swirled and coalesced somewhere directly ahead of him.

There was only one place it could be coming from. And it was looking right back at them all as they silently stared while they stood in the wet grass.

A cave. It's entrance loomed over them like a giant's opened jaws wishing for them to enter and be consumed into it's stony and sulfurous depths.

"Yea this checks out..." Ursula said.

"[Indeed it does.]" Arne replied in Claude's mind.

Without a proper response, they all began moving again. The cave only grew larger with every step they made until they were stepping into the gigantic mouth in all it's dark humidity.

The ground was cold, uneven and slatted like most cave floors with the slight wetness that reminded him of slimy sweat....the smell didn't help matters.

Caves are always dangerous. Possibly homes to some of the most horrific beings of the wild. Old psychotic WereWolves.....Dire-Bears....Vampires....Demons. Claude knew all about caves after hunkering down in them while Ursula slept. But this cave was different-- maybe it was the Tangent...maybe it was the way the song of death and danger suddenly began roaring in a dark intensity from all over.

"Stay focused.." Claude said to everyone through their Pack Bond as they ventured deeper.

The cave wasn't spacious. Relatively surprising since the mountainous outside made it look like a sort of lair of doom. It was....underwhelming.

The walls were no more than thirty feet apart, climbing up and curling overhead in the shape of a dome...if domes were littered with dripping stalactites.

"Why does it feel like it's raining in here....why the hell is it wet everywhere anyway!" Ursula said, venting her anger over the absolute grossness of everything.

Before he could respond as they continued to walk, a droplet hit his hand. It was warm, and coincidentally, the trademark smell of Undead suddenly hit his nose that much harder.

"[Oh...my. That is horrific, mate.]" Arne said as Claude looked down at his hand and realized the water droplet was very far from water. The liquid was a thick dark red, he could feel the nasty magic in it even from one droplet. It was faint, but it fell on his skin like an unwelcome touchy buzz.

"Not water....none of it is water...." He looked at the cave ground. The cold wet surface that reminded him of slimy sweat. In the absolute darkness it was harder to tell, but when he focused, he could see just how dark it was. Too dark to be water.

The cave floor was covered in Ghoul blood, blood that also dripped from the ceiling like they were walking under a hundred poorly made faucets.

Another droplet hit him in his walk deeper into the cave, causing him to look up. Seemingly by coincidence, something looked back at him.

A crack in the ceiling gave way to an opening, allowing a single unnaturally bloodshot eye to peer down at him from behind the rock. Only the veins in the eyeball were a deep black, making the cold blue undead ring of an iris look even more haunting as it chaotically swiveled around to look over him and Ursula.

"[Ah. The old Ghoul in the ceiling trick. It often works even better than the Ghoul in the pond. I've got to say, I don't miss the musty buggers. They seem to jam themselves in every crevice they can in these places.]"

Claude continued watching the eyeball as it watched him, "Yea...why the hell isn't it attacking?"

"[I'm not sure....this Tangent seems a bit...bizzar--]"

FWO--

He took another step with his right foot, fully expecting to continue walking deeper into the cave only for the bottom of his bare foot to meet nothing but cold damp air.

Before he could fall into the shadowy depths, something grabbed hold of his cloak, both choking and saving him.

"How about we don't walk while looking directly at the ceiling in complete darkness? You know...erhm...because, common sense?" Ursula said from behind him.

"Yep...sorry." he replied. When he turned around to face her, Ursula stood holding a fistful of his cloak in her left hand while her right held her axe. Frosty tugged on the axe from behind her as a second layer of support.

Without an ounce of effort he was pulled back and away from the abrupt drop.

"Thanks for the save..." Claude said as they all approached the ledge.

A deeper level of darkness looked back at them in all it's stale and musky glory. To the left of them both, an undone and cracked naturally forming staircase swirled along the wall down into the black depths of the cave. The walls along the staircase were cracked and mashed together like stony puzzle pieces. Weird.

"Let's go." He said before approaching the stairs.

He took the first step, testing it's weight. It was good. Not guaranteed for them all. He was ready to test another when Death's Ambiance twisted and rose in his ears to the left of him. Before Ursula could step down behind him he dashed back up a step just in time to dodge a Ghoul arm exploding from the cave wall that the stairs formed from.

CRCHH!

"AAAAHHH!!"

It swiped and scratched at the stone surface trying to reach them for a few seconds before he snatched it's wrist and pulled backward until the arm ripped off.

[+50 EXP]

Ursula regarded him like he just ate fire. Then again-- maybe borderline premonition was more impressive than eating fire.

"So there in the walls....Alright." Ursula said as she raised her freehand. Frosted air and snowflakes fell from it as she slapped her palm against the stone surface.

CRCKRCKR!!!

A sheen of rigid clear blue ice spread across the walls in a flash, freezing the Ghouls inside and ripping them apart with the spikes that grew and pushed them deeper inside the walls.

"Keep doing that." Claude said as they stepped deeper down into the cave.

***

After another ten minutes of travel and freezing the Ghoul's to death, they'd reached the bottom.

[+1 Skill Point]

"How's your Mana?"

"I'm good." Ursula said as she brushed the ice-flakes off her hand.

"Good, cause I just found the boss...." Claude replied flatly.

He could feel Ursula go rigid, followed by the rest of the pack as they took notice.

Blackbeak divebombed down to the bottom with them and perched on his shoulder to peer at the distant creature with him.

The Ambiance of Death rose and intensified until it reached it's unholy crescendo in his ears-- in his soul.

And then, it fell. Leaving him to hear the creature's hideously grisly and wet sounds of eating.

It resided in a room further ahead. Even in the darkness, he could see how the room was cluttered with bodies and grime covered bones that were cracked and sucked dry of their marrow.

The pile of undead carcasses clouded around the creature and it's throne. It clashed with the sight in the oddest way. Like the chair didn't fit the vibe of what it's owner had become. The chair was dark-- but clean and almost regal.

The being that hunched over it, consuming something he couldn't see was anything but that. It's skin was a bright white-- like dirty paper, but it had an unhealthy cold blue pulse to it that made his skin crawl. Even the black veins running through it's back writhed and shivered as the faint pulses continued.

Whatever it had eaten must've suddenly become delicious based on the way it suddenly became more feral, ripping and scarfing down whatever it held.

And then, it was gone. With it's long arm, it threw something behind it.

Splat...

The Ghoul head rolled over them, revealing it's missing face and crushed skull that was absent of a brain.

Claude's stomach lurched. He looked back at the creature just in time to see it crawl over the throne to reach something behind it. It moved wrong. As if it's humanoid shape was no more. While it rummaged and sifted through the barrier of carcasses Claude suddenly realized why.

"Oh..gross.." He heard Ursula's thought as they both realized it's arms were too high, too centered at it's back. In fact, they were coming from it's back, reaching and checking the many corpses surrounding it with a mind of their own while it's two original arms did the same.

Claude activated his (Beast Trait) Skill, borrowing the incredible vision of Blackbeak, which caused his own eyes to zoom in and notice the black stitching around the arms emerging from it's back.

The stitches were black.....greasy. He could've thrown up....the stitches were made from Ghoul hair. And it's extra appendages were made from Ghoul arms.

It was a cannibal.....a cannibalistic stitched up amalgamation of multiple...possibly dozens of Ghouls.

That's why the others were hidden. They were hiding from the Boss....