Another Underground
The distance rapidly decreased between Chen Huang and I. The heavy thuds of the dozens of people behind us were still heard as well as the occasional scream and cry for help. Those were of course accompanied by a few squeals and shrieks every once and a while.
The two ahead looked so relaxed and even had a smile on their face until they turned toward us. The instant they saw what was chasing us from behind their joyful expressions turned ugly.
The fight must of took a lot out of them though as seemed a little sluggish with their reactions. It took them a while before they started to physically react to the situation and by the time they began to move we had already caught up to them.
"What is wrong with this place and it's boars?! That thing chasing us is literally just an even bigger version of what we just fought! I even saw the dozens of small boar bodies back there!" Chen Huang complained
"Why did it have to be after we beat that boar to death?! Couldn't it have picked a better time? Wait! How many of my people died?!" Qiao An spoke glaring back at the massive boars
"Ahh! R-Run away!" A man screams with one of the boars just a small distance away from him.
Turning back to glance at our predicament I realize that among the people who are running for their lives, are some of the prisoners from earlier. They still had their restrains that bound their hands though. As long as they had those restraints they were basically harmless to anybody.
It didn't seem like any of them were working together though except for maybe a couple. Those guys wore similar robes and even traveled close to each other. The other prisoners mostly made sure to have a good amount of distance between themselves and anyone who would come close to them.
We followed the trail which was created by the group who were originally chased here. The path of the felled trees was the only one which could be used as a landmark if we wanted to return. That was a big if!
The only reason we might go back is to retrieve their bodies to return them. But considering what we just saw with it's entrance I don't really believe anything will really remain. At most their bones or parts of their gear might still be here.
'Wait a minute, what happened to those people who brought the first boar? Last I saw they should have been hiding behind one of these felled trees right? Why is there no trace of them anymore? The only things that poked to their existence is the fact that the bodies of the green robed men still lingered in the area.'
As we ran down the unexpectedly long path the sounds and noises behind slowly became louder and louder. I was almost tempted to turn around when something suddenly entered our vision ahead of us.
A stone structure was embedded into a mountain, just like the entrance of the stronghold we entered before. But this time was different, the entrance had much more grandiose compared to the previous one. The one in front was more welcoming yet gave a somewhat eerie aura, while the one before couldn't even use the word 'decorated' to describe it.
Whatever it was the entrance looked broken down and we just so happened to fit inside. The giant boars behind us definitely wouldn't anyway, hopefully they won't be able to destroy the structure's walls either.
"Is this where those green robed men came from?" Chen Huang asked as we all sprinted over to the entrance as quickly as we could. As we entered through the entrance I turned around to see who followed us.
As I did so around 7 people ran in and the face of a huge boar quickly enlarged as it rammed into the door frame.
*Boom* The entire building shook a bit and some dust began falling down as the massive boar slammed it's head against the smooth stone of the door frame. The creature took a few steps back before slamming it's head upon the stone frame once more.
Even if the actions of the creature might not affect anything I still didn't feel entirely safe with how close it was to us. Turning towards the depths of the structure I realize that there were only around 30 steps that went down and a few people were already halfway down.
I followed along and by the time I reached the bottom I heard someone talk and turned towards them.
"W-Where are the others? Did they die?!" Qiao An had grabbed the shoulders of a Spirited Sun Sect member who had came along.
At this moment I took a look at who of the 7 came along with us actually were. Four of them were the cultivators which the Spirited Sun Sect had captured including two who wore the same robe color, two were Spirited Sun Sect members including the one currently being held Qiao An, and the final member of the group who followed us was someone from our Fortunate Sky Sect, Tang He.
"N-No, please calm down Miss Qiao. We aren't the only ones remaining. The others might have just accidently separated away from us. After all we weren't bound to only a single path." The disciple spoke while trying to find a place for his eyes to rest, yet it seemed everywhere he look wasn't right.
The Building shook a little again which signaled to us that we might as well keep going to feel safer. The corridor was a little bit long, but we could see the end. As we go closer to the end of the hallway it also gradually became more and more filled with traps... which were already activated.
Swinging blades from the roof to pit falls in the ground, that amount of activated traps were a little crazy. It was almost like they had activated every single trap instead of avoiding them.
'What kind of place is this? Why are there traps everywhere down this hallway for literally no reason in particular. Is this a tomb of some kind or something filled with treasure? That's my only answer for there to be this amount of traps to be placed.'
"What's with all the activated traps over here?" Tang He asked as he raised an arm up and pointed towards the used traps.
"There might be a group of people still inside there, and it could be those green robed men from before. After all, they came from this direction in the first place." Yao Ya replied as she looked around the area for anything out of the ordinary.
"That's right! But why would they be outside in the first place after coming in here?" Like he had a sudden enlightenment Tang He lightly hit the palm of his hand.
"Maybe it was because the creature was inside and blocking something and they needed to bring it away." I spoke as I watched the traps ahead which we were approaching, some of which still continued to move even after it was activated such as a few swinging blades which only swung back and forth. "It could also be that the boar was outside when they were just leaving and they were just unlucky with their timing." I also added in as I thought about it.
"Either way, they came out with the boar following behind them and clearly someone went through this place before as well. Wait, Look! Is that a light over there?" As Qiao An spoke she along with the rest noticed the moving light ahead.
It clearly a signal of other living people just up ahead wasn't it? They were just in the room at the end of the hallway too, but even from here people could see something about them. They wore the same green robes of the people Qiao An saved earlier.
"That's really them! There couldn't be other sects who wore this shade of green coming here right? Why are they back here?" Tang He said pointing towards them in the distance, for some reason shocked on why a group would return to somewhere they've already been.
"There's 17 of them, Qiao An should have only saved 7, but it seems that they still had a reserve of ten. Our problem is that if we fight them we're out numbered in forces just a little more than 2 to 1 since I don't believe you would like to release these four people." I looked at the group of unware green robed men, before looking over at Qiao An and pointing at the four still restrained members of other sects.
"We don't even know what they are doing here yet, though it probably has to do with this place, so why don't we try and talk to them first instead of instantly thinking of conflict?" Chen Huang spoke up as we reached the first few activated traps.