31 Battle in the Depths

A terrifying buzzing sound filled the chamber. The group had been frozen for a moment as they were transfixed by the sight before them. Then, demonic beasts began pouring out of every corner, every crevice of the cave. It was like they had appeared into existence. The whole mountain seemed to come alive as demonic beasts charged them. The trickles of demonics beasts formed into streams and eventually a tide of them flooded toward the expedition group. The buzzing of the monster above them had clearly alerted the demonic beasts who were now charging to protect it. It was clear that they, the intruders, were not welcome.

The soldiers aimed their machine guns and began firing into the tide of demonic beasts. The demonic beasts began dropping like flies under the fire of the machine guns and their corpses began piling up in the cave. Yet, still there were more of them. The God's Punishment Witches sprung into action, their blades killing demons left and right as they performed their dance of death.

Elsewhere, the call of the monster attracted enemies. The soldiers stationed in the guard post were watchful of any attacks. They had not heard the cry of the monster but they were still alert. After all, they were in an underground cave cut off from the light of the sun. Who knows what might be lurking down in the depths.

An invisible demonic beast was approaching the outpost. However, it saw the net set across the entrance and knew that it would be unable to pass without being discovered. It slashed at the nets before quickly backing up.

The soldiers first noticed something wrong when one of them saw the nets falling. The air in front of the nets looked slightly blurred. He quickly shouted to the others and the soldiers quickly began shooting into the tunnel. Soon, they were met with the sight of a demonic beast fall onto the ground riddle with bullets. There were a few more blurs quickly retreating from the cave entrance. The rest of the invisible demonic beasts had realized that they couldn't catch the soldiers by surprise and quickly retreated. The one dead one had underestimated the capabilities of the humans.

The God's Punishment Witches quickly took up positions at the entrance to prevent any demonic beasts from getting through. Although they would only be able to cancel out the invisibility effect at short range, they had good enough reflexes to avoid any surprise attack launched by the demonic beasts.

Occasionally, a soldier would fire a shot into the tunnel to deter the demonic beasts from coming back. The base was not attacked by the invisible enemies again.

On the surface, a large tide of demonic beasts began advancing on snow mountain. They were spotted from a distance and the soldiers quickly took up positions. Their position was well fortified and they had a lot of men available to hold off the assault. The cannon began firing after being given locations of the large concentrations of demonic beasts. The shells began landing amidst the advancing demonic beasts, killing many of them and thinning out the group.

As the demonic beasts approached the defensive lines, the soldiers began firing. The machine guns spat out their deadly bullets which felled demonic beasts by the hundreds every minute. By the time the demonic beasts reached the soldiers, they were in such few numbers that the rifles of the ordinary soldiers were able to dispatch the remainder.

Back in the ruins, the expedition team had engaged in a battle against the demonic beasts. However, against such a large force they couldn't hold out for very long. They needed to take out the monster hanging over them.

The soldiers equipped with RPGs began firing at the monster. They were able to deliver their explosive packages onto the surface of the monster. The monster let out a scream as explosions erupted all over its body. The explosions left deep wounds on the monster but they were not enough to kill it.

Andrea aimed her own RPG at the monster. With her power, she aimed her weapon so that the explosive would land inside the monster's mouth which had opened slightly. She pressed the trigger and the projectile soared through the air. Her aim was true and it landed inside the mouth of the monster. An explosion occurred inside the monster's body. It soon lost its hold on the ceiling and began falling.

The monster hit the ground with a loud thud, crushing numerous demonic beasts. "Is it dead?", asked Zooey.

"It probably is, but we should make sure and finish it off", said Elena.

The soldiers had finished reloading the RPGs and once again fired at the monster. The next wave of hits blew the monster to pieces as the explosions tore into its already damaged body. After the death of the monster, the demonic beasts began fleeing. The soldiers took out a few more stragglers and soon the cave was empty.

The battle was over. The demonic beasts on the surface had been repelled and the team had secured its objective. The two devouring worms found were taken back and two Taquila witches had their souls transferred in, gaining two new worms to help in construction.

A cave system had been prepared for raising the rubber worms. At the moment the Taquila witches were transplanting the mushrooms into the cave so that the rubber worms would have food to eat. After that was done they would begin moving the captured worms in to begin breeding. Soon, rubber production could begin. Rubber was going to be very valuable for future technologies. Besides the obvious use for tires and treads for vehicles, rubber had other uses as well. Rubber could be used to make watertight and airtight seals. More advanced devices would utilize rubber in its internal components. The acquisition of the rubber worms was a great boon for Neverwinter. Overall, Roland felt that the mission was a success.