15. Shade

Lighting up their torches once more, they all enter the cave tunnel. Their pace is a lot faster as they know what to expect around each bend. The mood is tense as all that can be heard is the crunching of boots on stone. Lukas wonders what happened to the other group, did they find the same thing as they did? Soon, they all arrive at the junction which initially split their group into two. Now, a choice had to be made. Would they go get the other group, or leave without saying anything. Walking up to a cave wall, Ragnar inspect it closely, gritting his teeth as he does so.

"We have to go after them, tell them what we found '' More than a few look reluctant at that.

"Ragnar… This place is dangerous. For all we know, we could have been the lucky ones, who knows what happened to those other people? Looking around he sighs. "Don't worry, we don't all have to go. How about you all go wait outside and I'll run in after them. We all should really talk about this before we decide on what to do." His smile, like always, seems evil and villainous. As if he had a scheme nobody else was aware of. They're all used to it at this point, though. So they all smile in relief and nod at him, preparing to leave.

"Come on, Lukas, let's go" Steve tells him and guides him with his hand when he doesn't immediately move. They all move towards the cave exit, as they walk, Lukas looks back at Ragnar standing there all by himself. And at that moment, he thought that he looked exceptionally lonely, standing there all by himself.

"That Ragnar, he's a real hero, ain't he? Always putting other people in front of himself" Ambrose laughs a little at that.

For some reason, that sentence really pissed Lukas off something awful, even though he himself couldn't quite place his finger at it. Considering for a moment, his lips pinches together as he walks towards the cave exit with purpose, fully intending to wait outside for Ragnar to come back.

Suddenly, there is some commotion at the front, a few people screaming and some kind of low growl could be heard. Looking forward, he could see a huge beast in the front. It kind of looked like an oversized house cat, Lukas only hoped that it wasn't as fast as one.

"What the hell is that?!" Ambrose could be heard shouting.

"Doesn't matter! Just an oversized cat! Men, to arms!" Someone could be heard shouting

In the commotion, Steve instinctively put Lukas behind himself.

"Stay back, Lukas" He shouts and draws his own sword as well. Lukas fully intended to listen to him, but he'd be darned before he missed any of this action. Looking with wide eyes as the 15 men faced off with a gigantic cat-like creature.

Now that he got a better look at it, he could see how huge it was, standing at nearly 2 meters tall, it towered over the average adult male. Its teeth were like huge spikes, too big for its own mouth, a stray thought wondered how the cat ate without hurting itself. Its fur, dark as night, seemed like a cloak of shadow as it covered every inch of the animal.

Grace could be seen on the side with an intensely concentrated look on her face, she nock an arrow in her bow and aimed it at the beast.

"Archers! Ready your aim! Fire at wil!" She shouts as the first arrow flies straight into the eye of the beast, hopefully blinding it on one side.

The beast screams in rage and pain as some kind of purplish liquid seeps into its fur. The sight makes quite a few people grin in satisfaction. The beast isn't unbeatable.