Swallowing Ground

Levi knew that the Ravager named Nysander could easily summon countless Ghouls. The more powerful a Ravager was, the more Ghouls they could summon.

But in his entire life of facing Ravagers in battle, this was the first time he had witnessed more than one hundred fierce Ghouls summoned by a single Ravager.

The Antevern was blindingly dark, but thanks to his heightened senses, he could clearly see the Ghouls lurking and flying across the area.

Once they had entered the small opening, their group immediately positioned themselves.

They found a path leading to higher ground. From there, they could conceal themselves and clearly see the entire cave.

They needed to analyze the surroundings and the enemies before attacking if they wanted everyone to survive. This was called reconnaissance.

Levi scanned the area. It wasn't his primary job to slay the Ghouls. They were supposed to look for the Witch and hopefully kill her. But what awaited them was a hidden Ghoul hideout.

It was now risky to attempt to escape unnoticed without resorting to a fight. Moreover, the opening was on the other side of the cave.

The Ghouls seemed tough, but Levi knew his men could handle them. The problem was they were outnumbered. It was eight against hundreds. They would exhaust themselves, and it was uncertain if they could slay all the Ghouls before that happened.

"Damn it," he muttered. "That Ravager is stronger than he appears. And they say he's weakened by the Ghostfire Venom."

It seemed Nysander had already retrieved the cure and regained his full strength.

A weakened Ravager could not possibly summon this many Ghouls in such a short span of time. It required immense energy.

Either Nysander was cured, or he had other Ravagers with him who summoned the Ghouls.

But why couldn't Levi identify more Ravagers?

Levi stiffened when the Ghouls swarmed into a narrow opening toward the depths of the cave as the warhorn began to roar.

At once, everyone moved with caution. His companions leapt out of their hideout, and in mid-air, they transformed into massive beasts.

Levi's ears were filled with the sound of cracking bones, heavy thumps, and successive roars echoing all around.

Soon he shifted as well. His human form transformed. His bones grew bigger, stronger, and longer. His nails turned into sharp claws. His hands became paws. His brown fur lengthened. His teeth turned into sharp fangs.

The Ghouls began to attack, surrounding them from above.

Levi's group moved quickly, baring their canines and drawing blood from the lower Ghouls. Levi launched into the air, hitting a Ghoul with his paw and then crushing it to the ground with a sickening thud.

The other Ghouls swirled around and advanced. They reigned the ceiling of the Antevern. Although the Werebeasts could easily dispatch them with their claws, some of them were injured by the Ghouls' simultaneous attacks.

Pain seared behind Levi's back when a Ghoul sliced him with its bony wings. It felt like his ears were about to explode from the relentless and deafening screeches of the Ghouls.

He wanted to shut them up as soon as possible, so he began running across the cave, leaping onto protruding rocks, and smashing each Ghoul his paws could reach.

When he saw one of his members being attacked by numerous Ghouls, Levi ran toward them. He bit off each Ghoul near him until they lessened their attack on his member.

He had been wounded but was still able to stand. The brownish wolf roared as the bloody scratches began to heal against his skin. Together, Levi and his member advanced further.

Once Ryle heard Leonel's signal, they immediately moved with his group. They were at the back of the cave they had entered, where a river and a small waterfall lay. Oliver, the Water Fae Guard, had parted the waterfall, creating a small space for them to enter the cave behind the massive mountain.

Ryle used his fire to create light while signaling his team to start looking for the Ghouls. The diamond-like stalactites and stalagmites reflected the scorching flame, brightening the entire area.

Their search halted when they saw before them half a dozen monsters. Three Cyclops with gleaming eyes and three Ogres with olive skin and a suffocating smell.

The giant Ogres were preoccupied with eating the soaring Ghouls. Only the Cyclops, with their keen vision, noticed their arrival.

Cries of agony echoed inside the cave, accompanied by the cracking and crunching of delicate bones.

Ryle couldn't believe how heartless Nysander truly was. He was feeding his own Ghouls to the Ogres.

Perhaps that was the payment for their assistance. Ogres were always hungry, and one could easily make them work by providing food.

The colossal Cyclops advanced toward Ryle's team. Their sizes tripled as they closed the distance. Their footsteps were as heavy as fallen trees, finally alerting the Ogres to the Faes' unannounced presence.

The Ogres' roar boomed, and they began to run slowly towards them.

"Do not die!" Ryle glanced at his team.

The others nodded firmly, making offensive stances and preparing for the incoming enemies.

Ryle soon met the monsters halfway and attacked the largest Cyclops. He drew his long sword and, with a tight grip, swung it down onto the monster's left arm. Blood spurted, but the arm didn't entirely sever as he had intended.

The pain didn't seem to register with the Cyclops, but it grimaced with its hairless eye. Its movements became more aggressive, thrashing and kicking everything in sight while relentlessly screeching.

Hopefully, Ryle was able to swiftly avoid the Cyclops' determined advances. He used his blazing flames, aiming them at the monster's small feet.

Once the Cyclops lost its balance and stumbled to the ground, Ryle effortlessly buried the sword's sharp tip into its gleaming eye.

His face remained expressionless as blood gushed out upon retrieving the sword, bathing his hands in warm fluid.

Ryle's sword flew past him as the Cyclops kicked him, and its roar thundered through the ground. The cave seemed to shiver in fear as the monster grew furious.

It tried to wipe off the long wound from its lone eye, but Ryle knew it was already blinded.

The Cyclops attempted to stand, but it collided with a protruding stone nearby. As it kicked again, the huge stone rolled over and hit the Ogre's feet. The Ogre roared and suddenly attacked the Cyclops that Ryle had just injured.

"Aim for the eye!" Ryle shouted with all his might as his other members fought the monsters with difficulty.

His team soon followed his orders. Some climbed onto the Cyclops' face and fired fireballs at their vulnerable eyes. Once burned and blinded, the Cyclops were easily slain by their steel-made swords.

One Cyclops remained, fighting against the Ogre. The other Ogres became more aggressive as the Ghouls disappeared.

One of them grabbed a stalagmite as if it were folding paper, then threw it toward them.

They dodged it once, but they had difficulty approaching it and eventually killing it as the Ogre began to hurl another.

"Everyone team up!"

Ryle gestured, and everyone acted according to his plan. They surrounded the nearest Ogre. It kept throwing stalagmites at them, but Oliver used water pressure balls to counterattack.

Five of them surrounded the Ogre while the remaining two distracted another approaching Ogre.

At his command, they fired. They burned the Ogre from its feet up to its head until it ran aimlessly and collided with a thick wall. But they did not stop until the Ogre burned to mere ashes.

"Incoming!"

A loud scream alerted them to another Ogre chasing their companion. They used the same technique, burning the monster until it fell helplessly to the ground.

At a corner, Ryle saw Oliver struggling with another Ogre. It advanced dangerously close, throwing pebbles that Oliver tried to block with water.

"Three and four!" Oliver shouted while dodging the stone the Ogre threw.

His members soon advanced. They surrounded the two Ogres and, as before, used their elemental powers to burn them alive.

It took longer than before because only three of them remained, while the rest were on the other side, doing the same thing and staying alive.

Oliver was almost crushed by the Ogre's feet as it went berserk from being burned.

"Poor creatures," one of Ryle's companions remarked. "Why do they take so long to die? They could have less suffering."

Soon, he knelt with exhaustion, sitting on a rock as he relentlessly burned the Ogre with one hand. They all seemed to weary quickly from conjuring fire, but they couldn't stop now.

"More," Oliver said, icing the Ogre's feet to stop it from moving. "We need more fire."

They increased the fire coming from their hands, though their bodies shook from the effort.

The entire Antevern, once dark, now seemed lit by their collective fire. The two Ogres rooted to their spots, half burned and half chilled.

Smoke hissed and filled the air, but they didn't have time to acknowledge it as another Ogre approached.

Just in time, Oliver conjured a long spear from the nearby stream, icing it to make it hard, then threw it at the running Ogre. The monster stepped aside, dodging the spear.

As it dodged, Oliver threw four more spears toward the Ogre. Before it could move, the spears pierced its bloated belly, chest, and legs, with the last one in its eye. There was a shock in its gaze before it landed headfirst on the ground with a horrible thud.

Ryle sat wearily on a nearby stone, sighing with relief. He surveyed his team, grinning when he saw that all of them were alive despite sustaining injuries. Beaten and wounded, but undoubtedly alive with delighted smiles on their faces.

"It's been months since we fought. How wonderful it is, right guys?" one of them spoke.

"Five minutes rest," Ryle commanded wearily. "Then we'll advance and search for more Ghouls, Cyclops, Ogres, or Nysander himself."

They nodded silently while Oliver treated their wounds.

"We're yet to win, and the battle is far from over," Ryle added, panting heavily.

Once Liam's signal rang in her ears, Agatha acted swiftly. Blaster and his team ran toward where Liam and Leonel had gone.

Agatha followed suit, determined. On the left side, there appeared a narrow opening toward the middle of the cave.

They needed to duck to enter. Because it was so small, they had to crawl their way inside.

Agatha glimpsed the blinding light on the other end as she neared. But she stopped crawling when she felt a familiar presence. The others behind her also stopped.

"Is there any problem?" whispered Blaster, who was at the front, glancing back and realizing Agatha's absence.

"Aiden…" she breathed out. No more words came from her, and once she reached the other side, she frantically searched the entire area for Aiden.

But what awaited her was nothing but the land surrounding them. She couldn't even stand or breathe properly because of the passage's narrow space.

"I can feel Aiden somewhere," Agatha said to them.

Blaster's team immediately helped her, but since they were in a narrow passage, they knew it was impossible for Aiden to be with them.

"I can feel his presence," Agatha added hopefully. "It's near. Aiden is here…"

She tried feeling the walls and the ground, hoping to sense Aiden better.

Blaster said, almost certainly, "But he's not here. We're the only ones here."

Agatha gasped and stopped touching the ground once she felt something drenched. She brought her hands to her nose to smell it.

"A-Aiden…"

Agatha couldn't help but cry. It was Aiden's blood. They soon rushed out of the passageway.

"Aiden must be near," she said. "He crawled here before us."

Once they got out on the other side, Agatha roamed her blurry eyes, but only darkness met her, making it impossible to see. She was wide awake.

Blaster raised a hand and set it ablaze as their makeshift light. The abrupt illumination flickered, revealing hundreds of Ghouls that glanced at them at once.

All at once, there were deafening screeches, wings flapping, and a suffocating odor that seemed to assault their senses. Blaster's team fought against the fierce Ghouls while he remained at Agatha's side, protecting her at all costs.

Agatha did not just stand and wait but tried her best to contribute to the ongoing battle. She punched, kicked, and sliced her way through, but the Ghouls were too many. Two of the defeated ones flew past her and buried her under the ground.

As she was about to stand up and fight again, she felt something underneath her.

It was none other than Aiden!

Unable to move immediately, she was almost hit by a Ghoul's sharp wing. It would have wounded her, but Blaster blocked it, catching the Ghoul's bony neck and crushing it to death.

Blaster soon glanced back at her as he knelt. "Are you okay?" He helped Agatha stand, but she did not dare to leave the ground.

"Luke!" Agatha called to a Werebeast she had talked with earlier. He immediately ran toward her in his wolf form. "He's here," Agatha said with certainty. "Aiden is there."

Luke, with his large nostrils, sniffed the little cloth Agatha had brought. Once he identified the scent, he began to smell the ground. Behind him, chaos and bloodshed continued.

One of the Ghouls almost attacked them, but Blaster was on the lookout and rescued them.

"Bastione!" Luke roared, and half of his men fighting the Ghouls abandoned their positions and quickly ran toward him.

Agatha was surrounded by them, forming a rigid circle to defend her. Luke began to dig with his claws.

Agatha, meanwhile, held her breath, staring absentmindedly at what the Werebeast was doing. She couldn't think properly, though the battle was still far from over. All she could think of was Aiden, praying he was still alive.

Agatha's knees dropped to the ground when Aiden's body soon appeared. Tears started streaming down her face.

"A-Aiden…"

Once his entire body was recovered, Agatha neared him. Aiden was barely recognizable. His clothes were torn, and he had thick wounds and bruises all over his little limbs.

Agatha's hands shook as she searched for the boy's pulse.

"Aiden," she called as the tears streamed down her face.

Thoughts raced through Agatha's head. What if it was too late? What if Aiden had been long gone?

She couldn't help but cry more, spilling tears over Aiden's pale face. She wanted to hurt Nysander more than anyone else for hurting her Aiden. He had done nothing to deserve such cruelty.

Then there was a faint beat, then another that seemed to surge within Aiden. His lips soon parted a bit, and Agatha felt reborn. The pulses began to steady, though still weak, but they were there.

Agatha immediately tried to use her power to treat Aiden. But before she could begin, the soil started sucking them both until she was buried halfway, waist deep, with Aiden in her arms.

Although shaking, she tried to hold on to Aiden as long as she could.

Luke roared as even he was now sinking into the muddy soil. Agatha's eyes widened as she felt herself suddenly weaken. The soil seemed to be draining their power and energy.

"Blaster!" Agatha cried for help. Blaster, who was preoccupied with one sly Ghoul, acted quickly, throwing the Ghoul's body out of the way.

Blaster extended a hand. Agatha reached for it and pulled herself as Blaster did the same, all while carrying Aiden's body. The other Werebeasts followed suit, returning to their human forms and making chains of hands while the others tried to fend off the remaining Ghouls.

Blaster brought Agatha, while others brought Luke, to higher and more solid ground. The rest continued to fight. Luke shifted back to his human form, and Agatha immediately looked away.

Someone from Liam's knights threw Luke a cloak while a Water Fae came to the rescue and treated Aiden as Agatha regained her lost energy and strength.

Agatha wanted to heal Aiden herself, but she was too weak. The soil had drained most of her energy. Black spots danced around her vision as it became foggy, then darkness overtook her.