22 Cavern Lights
"Let's hope that snake leaves us soon."
Tomahawk was in no condition to move at the moment, the quick movement of the snake made full impact on his small body. He landed several feet away on a jagged rock bed and was in critical condition.
Fire Axe was giving first aid to stop his external bleeding but not much is known of the interior, his face was ghastly pale and the situation was going grim.
He couldn't do anything about the situation but feed his soul force into his, the soul had the natural ability of recovery and regeneration, but accepting foreign refined soul energy different than its affinity, the growth of power would diminish and stop them from treading any further. But not much could be done in this situation, one was in critical injury and the other had no equipment. Fire Axe kept his axe into the beast so it could continue burn away at the vile beast, but now that he was quite a distance away, he had no way of recovering it.
"Blast it, Ju Dun, help me treat his injury."
Ju Dun's Art of Shield definitely needed a shield, with no capacity to use it in the situation, he had most of his soul force to work with. Fire Axe used most of his energy and even his reserve to strike a devastating blow on the cobra, now using his remaining to help stabilize some of his brother's issue.
Ju Dun nodded, understanding the effects of having three different soul forces entwining, it clots the soul circulation indefinitely and there was no methods present to treat it, it was like a death sentence to most people in the occupations in the Soul Realm.
"Bai Li...." he had no words to give to him, Fire Axe had no more hope in the situation of a Saint grade High tier beast would be found in such a location void of any of such.
Fire Axe was silent, treating Tomahawk's with all his power and continue to concentrate, no matter what, he couldn't just let his brother die on him.
No knowledge of the cobra is known, no one knew if it had poison glands on its body instead of a venom one. No matter what they did, his conditions remained the same, soul force naturally allowed recovery, but something was stopping it.
Bai Li had no words to say to the amount of emotions on Fire Axe's face. he had tragic accounts in his life of his wife and now his brother. They were leaving too soon and the return back would definitely take a toll on Tomahawk.
"I will....try to find a way to help Yue Su."
He was clueless of what to do, but his sincerity only allowed him to amount to such.
He looked around the cave, they ran quite a distance between a fork and were in a dead end, Ju Dun removed most of the rocks from the vicinity to lay him down.
Bai Li was lost, he wanted to help in any way or form, but his new coming into the Soul Realm was not helping the situation.
"If only I could fight, I could've helped the situation..."
He was dejected due to the helplessness, with nothing in mind, he resolved himself to get stronger.
'If I tried to help now, I'll only be a hindrance, I'll explore to see anything I could do.'
He steadied himself at the mouth of the entrance and prepared to venture back to the forked path, he went the other way with extreme caution and walked silently, watching if any beasts would attack him.
He prepared his blade in hand and had the lighting from his armband given by the academy showing the return date and contribution points with a glow. It was a faint glow too as there was no care of venturing in dark places due to that there was always light in the sky whether it was cold or hot.
The light glistened his purple blade, letting out a purple hue which made it look extremely dangerous as he walked in.
It had been about 30 minutes and the route was definitely longer than the other, he had estimated the amount of time he walked to about four times bigger.
A sudden realization came to Bai Li as he walked further.
'I thought the snake would just wait us out, even if we die in here, its time would definitely be wasted.'
But that line of words dissipated when he felt an aura after walking to a certain portion of the cave.
The aura was deathly and would sent shivers down their spine.
The moment he felt that, a strong and powerful beast lived in this place.
'I must've entered its territory, I've already been marked?'
His brain was processing the situation at a slow pace and noticed something strange.
'All Saint-grade monsters are territorial, I've already entered its territory, why did it not attack?'
His mind broadened and wandered endlessly in the diverging paths, going in the paths that had the stronger aura emanating from its ways and walked along.
The aura was now suffocating and he felt if he went any further, he'd die, but that didn't stop his movement. He cleared his minds of any doubt and all emotions and walked, this was one of the paths an adventurer or a researcher must take to discover areas. A tip needed to be a wanderer of the Frontier.
The aura soon stopped at the distance and he felt immediately reassured. He took many deep breaths to keep himself on check and recollected himself.
He then observed the surroundings.
It was a large excavated area, it looked artificial and wasn't naturally made, whoever it was, somebody must've taken the time to do so.
No openings could be found but he was resolute that something was afoot, why else would there be a growing aura of death reaching to this serene plot of room.
Stalactites and stalagmites numbered the area and was obviously more dense in one of the areas.
He walked over and noticed a smaller tunnel. Curiosity was eating away at his mind and his young mind gave in, crawling into the tunnel.
He felt the air in the cave became much more cooler and felt his breath would soon turn foggy.
As he crawled in a tunnel, a strong foreboding light was at the end, not knowing what it may be, he crawled further. Without knowing the surroundings distortions occurred as he went further and felt an invisible wall behind him, showing him that forward was the only way to advance.
He was reaching to the end of the hole as he reached.
The cavern lit with lights. Illuminating the walls of the new area was fluorescent lights from moss feeding on a crystal like vein. Unknown plants were planted in what seem to be vases with strange flowers. Some emanated heat or were cold to the touch. Varying sizes with different sensations as he observed the area, and further ahead, was what seems to be, a cabin.
