Chapter 7: Exploration and New Limits

Into the dark cave system, the unlikely group had just passed where Jack's frenetic battle had taken place, thus venturing in unknown territory from then onwards. Of course, both were already on high alert and ready to take on any fight that presents itself. Our very hero was already walking around with both blades drawn and ready for action, while Laura, after spending some time fixing her bow, was also with it drawn and an arrow in hand ready to cover Jack from a longer range.

Through the shifting stone pathways they found a couple of bifurcations, but after relatively quick deliberations they'd move on with no worries, as the combination of his powerful instincts and her non-hearing senses could more or less guess what was in the other path. Mainly, they tried to keep heading upward as their objective to return to human civilization hadn't changed and avoiding unnecessary fights as no one knew for how long the exploration would go.

Lucky for Laura, the way was relatively well lit as many fluorescent plant life lined the walls, guaranteeing the usefulness of her skill.

After around half an hour of traversing, Jack began hearing the distant sounds of wings flapping and chirping. He signaled her that there was possibly some danger ahead, so she nodded, slowing her pace and trying to see ahead of them.

She focused hard and with every step the two took, she could more clearly discern the big area that they were approaching. Her eyesight skill was much more advanced than regular ones that focused only on increasing the sight's range, as hers was capable of giving her a hint of night vision and even some foresight into any unexpected movements. All that coupled together gave her a pretty clear view of the area they were about to enter, despite some darker sides with less luminance all was in the clear, no monsters close by or already alerted to their presence.

When the pair finally reached the wide and open space that Laura had already mostly scouted, Jack couldn't hold in his curiosity, as it was as much a mystical place as the outside. A high ceiling stretched endlessly above them, the local flora illuminated the open area with tinges of many different colors like, a light blue, green and some yellow. A calm stream of water cut the vast plain in two, around it mushrooms of over 3 m in height seemed to spawn, giving the whole place the feel of a secret garden. However, after taking in the fantasy like scenery for a few seconds, something terrifying landed on Jack's sight, and that was the cave walls.

These were littered with holes, big enough for each to be a small room. One could even imagine cultivators from novels would start walking out of them after years of secluded training.

Yet, despite the entertaining thought, Jack's instincts told him they were no good sign and that which would be crawling out of the walls indentations would be more interested in their flesh than in acquiring power through meditation. Worst of all, the only area which had some sort of cover was near the river, in the small mushroom forest that grew from it. Thus, attacks from the air would be that much deadlier.

He turned around to face his partner and asked: ''So... what's the plan? Do we risk going through the open field and getting attacked from the air or the unknown of the mushroom forest? My instincts are telling me both are pretty dangerous, so I'll leave the decision to your scouting and experience.''

After a few minutes of careful thought, Laura decided to go to the open fields as her line of sight could better help in spotting dangers and quickly neutralizing or incapacitating them with the bow. In that way, Jack would have a much easier time finishing them off.

She pointed towards the plain area, and Jack somewhat pieced it together, but something still felt off. Thus, he suggested they never stray too far from the river and the mushroom woods, in case they need an escape route. ''Also, as far away from the small caves on the walls, the better.'' He thought to himself, uncertain of whether the danger was higher or lower than a place where your view is obscured. They both came to an agreement and began their slow and steady journey.

They walked for a few hours, and it all felt eerie, a slight wind seemed to emanate from the walls of the cavern towards the river. In one way, i't wasn't so bad since it would prevent any beasts from smelling them, at least if the worst enemy out there was one of those damned birds and not something in that weird forest. Our hero began to feel anxiety just for how loud their footsteps were, in comparison to the dead silence around them.

Until then, their exploration had been weirdly uneventful. ''God damn it, something just happen already! The suspense is actually going to kill me of stress!'' Jack thought and immediately regretted as just as soon, Laura grabbed his hand and used the other to signaling that she saw something.

They came to an abrupt halt and crouched, while she used her vision to try and ascertain what she had spotted with her keen vision. It was a gore fest as a single bird was eating away at the corpse of a crab and centaur hybrid like creature. It had a human-like upper body plated with hard crab-like scales and what seemed like another, giant crab as the base. Around it, many more corpses of said beast were thrown around as if a great battle had taken place in this area a few days ago. She then signaled Jack to be on standby while drawing her bow, which was in no way ordinary, as it was made of a gold substance and had foliage engraved in it.

Jack was totally prepared now and when the resounding sound of the bow's string clapping rang through his ears he broke into a sprint at inhuman speeds. Laura took notice of that and how much faster he had grown after recovering from a single battle.

The exact instant the arrow hid the bird's torso, roots came out of the stone ground, strapping him tightly to it.

And in the next second, giving the bird no time to even react, Jack was on him with his blade on course to its neck.

Just like that, the combat was over, no alarming sounds, grueling endless battles to fight.

Due to the long sprint, Jack was breathing somewhat heavily, but was otherwise fine. ''Plenty of stamina to spare still.'' He muttered to himself.

Laura caught up to him and gave him a nod. ''You take the blood of this one, can't have you not being able to fend for yourself now, can we?'' He said.

She nodded again and signed with both her fingers pointing at her eyes then at him and then at herself again. ''Sure, though we are pretty exposed right now, so don't mind if end up interrupting your meal if something happens.''

Not giving much head to his teasing, Laura sat down and began collecting the blood in a small but red flask. That flask, Jack noticed after some time, could take in some large quantities of blood. ''Little toy, sure looks expensive, she might come from a bigger background than I had imagined.''

After some 15 minutes had passed, the sharpshooter got up and give Jack a thumbs up sign, and thus more walking was ahead of them. Luckily, after one became a blooded, one could sustain themselves for long periods of time solely on the monster's vital fluids. As the further they progressed, the more and fresher the beast corpses seemed to be. Anne collected some blood here and there, while Jack just brutalized body corpses, squeezing the blood out of them, and even if he was in taking a lot he was moving around just fine. At this point, Laura wasn't even surprised anymore, but suddenly perked up and gave the sign of danger, the light slap on top of her right hand twice.

Jack immediately began moving, slowly they got out of the horrid scene and started to notice, the plain areas were starting to end and instead, the mushroom forest began to slowly overtake more and more of the landscape. Just as the sun was about to set on the outside, a big change had begun inside the cave.

Every single fungi and vegetation was staring to light up as if signaling the beginning of the night, the air grew colder, the slight winds that were coming from the walls of the cave blazed like the screams of a mad god.

Noticing the changes, the pair became fully alert, Jack immediately turned to Laura and said, just as the sound of a plant relieving steam bellowed in the background: ''My instincts are going crazy! Danger, from every side, we must hide! Now!'' She looked at him, fearful for her life as his body began moving almost on its own, dragging the girl behind him towards the forest of shrooms, the only place they could possibly hide.

While covering the literally changing landscape. They felt the strong wind pull them ever closer to their objective, but that was not all the wind brought.

It was a cacophony of frenzied screaming, like if you get the sound of metal scrapping on metal and amplify it one hundred-fold. Even the deaf girl could sense the vibrations in the air, and it gave her a bone shivering chill.

As if the immense pressure hadn't been big enough, 2 m away from the cover of the mushroom trees, enveloped by steam and blue light, Jack began noticing another sound coming from deep within the forest.

The sound of water splashing, ground being upturned and threes being broken. His desperation had gone from 0 to 100 really fast, and only his instincts guided him through these last few meters.

Drawing one of his blades while still maintaining an iron grip on Laura's hand, he heard more, the sound of flapping wings behind him ''Tens of them, maybe even a hundred.''

Finally, in the forest, Jack wanted to go deeper, for whatever it was that was about to happen wouldn't be kind enough to not get them caught in the crossfire.

He managed to get some good 5 m in as, he knew time was running low, is eyes were scouting for a hiding place with urgency in them and the sounds coming from all directions were ever maddening.

A faint rumbling vibration could be felt overtaking the whole cave, and fear was gripping violently at the bottom of their hearts and souls.

''At last! A proper hiding space! ''Laura spotted a small hill with a great mushroom sitting on top of it, its root creating a small gap between the earth and the fungi and the oncoming disaster. She tugged at his arm and pointed her finger at their Eden, some 15 meters away.

Jack wasted no time or effort and picked up the girl in his arms while using as much stamina as he could to dash towards the relatively safe spot. His urgency was much more an instinct for survival as he felt the tremors and sounds grow even more intense.

5 m away from their objective, all sound abruptly stops—a momentary calm before the storm.

Time seemed to stop for our hero as his instincts almost completely took over his mind, commanding him to jump.

And so he did.

As soon as they arrived at their hiding spot, the shaking went full throttle.

Hundreds of birds are flying between or crashing into the forest of mushrooms at full speed.

Oh, gods, I hope they haven't found our- ''Laura's train of thought was interrupted as an enormous spider leg full of weird plant growths stepped right in front of their safe space.

After it moved forward to face the onslaught, they could see it more clearly, it was a similar species to the previous one they had seen being devoured by a bird, but with a couple of key differences.

It was much larger, spider-like, and the fungi like growths were all over its body, enveloping the spider/fungi/crab hybrid in a soft blue radiance.

From the other direction, hundreds of birds were flying forward in mas furry.

They heard a ferocious gurgling, almost vomiting sound, as the crab used its front pincers to tear up to five or six birds in a single attack.

It was a battle between monster species, and the unlikely pair was caught in the crossfire.