36 Classer

Around them were several of the monster corpses. According to Tanya, the Village called these monsters Zelts.

Scowly limped backwards, a nasty gash across his thigh.

Jayesh stood there rubbing his right arm, his club arm, since several of the Zelts had attacked it after identifying it as his blind-spot.

Stanis had been cracking his neck, until he had turned his head around to Aaliyah. The heady rush of adrenaline only increased as he looked at her body, his own body motionless as his mind lay dumbfounded. She looked exactly like Xiu had been…

His memory became brighter than day as he relived it, charging backwards to knock the Wolves off her. Then he had looked at her body, only to become wrought with anger. Her body was ripped and bloody, the Wolves' claws holding no hostage as they had swiped and slashed without remorse. Her whole body was gashed, not a single part clean or whole. The sounds she had made before he had killed his first every human were groans and moans, them being the only sounds she could make when overcome with pain.

Aaliyah now lay in a similar situation, albeit to a smaller extent. She was clawed all over and the poor girl was streaming tears of blood, unable to even roll onto her sides as both of her sides had been clawed. She was covered in blood…

He could feel a small part of bile travel up his stomach, his body struggling to keep it down. It wasn't the sight in front of him that hurt him, rather the memory he had of when he had been pure and naïve. Perhaps he was still such as his mind was now completely frozen, devoid of all thought as if it was a blank canvas.

Jayesh patted him on the back with force, almost causing him to fall to his knees. This broke him out of his spell as he regained his senses, his mind screaming for him to heal her. And so he did, casting Light healing several times across her most serious, life-threatening injuries. At the end of her treatment, she was still crying in pain but no longer in threat of death. Stanis could have continued to heal her, but instead stopped as he saved some mana for Scout and sense. He had merely had an emotional moment a while ago and was past that, his mind now back to normal.

They waited there for about ten minutes as Tanya struggled to help Aaliyah up. Aaliyah would no longer be fighting, she was now far too weak both physically and mentally. An awkward silence followed as people expected the others to offer up to walk her out of the tunnel, and was slightly shocked at the lack of.

This struck the final blow to Stanis's mind, a clear teardrop slipping down his face as he realised how cold he had become. The worst thing was that despite his realisation of his unsavoury changes, he still refused to walk her out as his mind reassured him that this was now life. He could no longer backtrack his changes, unless he wanted to die that was…

It would be completely wrong to say Stanis was the only emotional one in this situation, but he was the one who had just understood the reality that many were still struggling against. And he accepted it, not with open arms but with understanding ones.

Tanya comforted Aaliyah for one more minute, reassuring her that no more harm would come her way as long as she backtracked through the tunnel. Then, with heavy hearts and even heavier steps, the remaining four ventured deeper into the maws of the tunnel.

To no surprise, the frequency of attacks only rose, although the amount of Zelts in each attack stayed similar. As the number of Zelts downed by his arm grew, Stanis grew proficient at killing them as he now understood their bodies and attack patterns.

The thing about Zelts, in his mind anyway, was that they were very tough. Their outer body was built like stone with their fangs and claws even tougher than such, all to protect their fragile organs inside. Every time Stanis had increased his Constitution, he had the feeling that his whole body including bones, flesh, organs and all the other parts were increasing in toughness. The Zelts seemed to be different as their insides were still soft and easily sliced through, although this truth was only entertained as long as you could cut that deep in the first place.

They were like a mix of moles and dogs, their body and behaviour as strong and ferocious as a dog's whereas their body shape was more akin to a mole's. Their strength was in their defence, whereas their weakness was predictably their attacking power. A single Zelt would barely be able to damage a Human who was alive at this stage of the apocalypse, and this was where their numbers came in. They compensated for their weakness by using overwhelming numbers against single opponents, which when successful ended with bodies looking like Aaliyah's.

As for how to attack them, Stanis's personal style was to use his left arm as a shield. Their claws might be tough, but certainly not that sharp. It was by luck that his left arm was also very tough due to the dark-orange covering, meaning he could use it as a highly mobile shield while chipping and slashing away with his sword. This tactic had fared him well as both he and Tanya were largely uninjured, whereas the wounds and bruises on Jayesh and Scowly had slowly built up. Stanis had healed the worst of their wounds, but his mana regeneration of seven per hour could not hold up to the frequency of the Zelt's attacks.

It was after experiencing 8 total attacks from the Zelts that the group saw a light at the end of the tunnel. The torch in Stanis's hand had not died out despite the number of times he had dropped it, and he was just about to extinguish it when Tanya stopped him.

"Stop here guys."

At this, the whole group turned around towards her as she began briefing them as to what lay in the light.

"The light is coming from a cavern, about as wide as two houses. Inside it will most likely be tens of small Zelts alike the ones we have so far encountered, and one or two larger ones. We reckon the larger ones are tier one monsters, but that isn't to be underestimated as their toughness is exponentially increased compared to the smaller Zelts.

Considering it has only taken us three hours to pass the tunnel, I'm guessing we are going to be the first through to the Cavern. About five or six of the tunnels will join on, although we shouldn't expect any help considering how fast we made it here."

She then moved onto the battle stratagem.

"Jayesh and Scowly, you two hold the brunt of the attacks from the small Zelts. There will be too many of them to kill without taking double the damage back, so just try your best to block them. Stanis, you focus on killing the little ones and I'll focus the tier-one Zelt. I'll be using my Class skills so I should be done quickly, and thus able to provide you with support. Just try not to die…"

The group went into motion again, the light at the end of the tunnel getting larger with every step. It was as Stanis walked out of the tunnel that he tensed his muscles, straining his every fibre as he saw what Tanya had described in person.

There were stalactites covering the roof of the cavern, which was about as tall as three men and as wide as ten men lying head to heel. There was an azure pool at the far end of the cavern as well as several other smaller puddles scattered across. The stalactites actually had a glow to them, which was reflected in the pools and thus created the light they had seen. At his side of the cavern were six tunnels, whereas at the opposite end was just a single, large tunnel. But all of this was missing the main point: the Zelts.

There were about thirty small Zelts, each sized similarly to a dog, scattered across the Cavern. They were, however, growling and closening in towards the Invaders who had just walked in. Worse still were the two Zelts in the far-distant pool, both about chest height with far fiercer features. Perhaps the only luck Stanis's group had was the fact that the two large Zelts were making love, the slightly larger one humping the slightly smaller one, creating constant splashes of water and growls. Both seemed completely disinterested in the Invaders as they carried on, leaving the smaller Zelts to deal with them.

Tanya looked across the cavern and instantly changed her plan, "Change of plan. Let the bigger ones carry on and just massacre as many small ones as we can before they have a change of mind."

This seemed the appropriate plan as Jayesh charged into the smaller Zelts, immediately using Titan's Taunt. Scowly followed him, before using his skill as well, at which his strikes became truly powerful and his defence as high as Jayesh's, all at the cost of his mobility.

Tanya used Piercing arrows, before shooting out several arrows. Each one of her shots was a death sentence, some even piercing through multiple Zelts before stopping.

Stanis, with his lack of sustainable offensive skills, went the old-fashioned route as he fought with arm and sword. His left arm was almost impenetrable as multiple Zelts broke their teeth biting into it, whereas others dulled their claws swiping him. This wasn't to say that he wasn't in pain though, rather the opposite as he followed his adrenaline, blade splitting flesh and spitting blood through every slash.

No longer could the large Zelts mate as the smaller ones faced overwhelming force. Instead they rushed out of the pool, before shrieking out a roar.

"CRAAGGHHARGHHAGHHH"

The echoing roar improved morale for the remaining ten or so small Zelts, now fighting with vicious vigour as the two large Zelts bolted towards the Humans.

<Bladeworks>

Stanis heard a soft sound from behind him, followed by a large suction of mana. He turned his head, only to see Tanya armed with a shortsword, her bow thrown on the floor. Her eyes shone neon-blue, her sword begging for blood.

This was a Classer…