Ch 35 – The dilemma

The mercenaries faced a dilemma. As they delved deeper into the cave, the organized group reached a point where it divided into three branches.

"What do we do now?" Asked Marcus.

"This is bad..." (Lancer)

"We need to split in order to cover more ground."

"That's an awful idea, you know? We should stick together. That's safer."

"But how long do you think it'll take us to find them?! We need to split."

"Why do you have to be such a meatbrain..."

"You know this is the approach Gahan would take."

"Okay! Okay. I get it, but how should we split the groups?"

"Well... Each of us takes one group and one will be made of only mercenaries."

"Can you please think about it more seriously?! This is an unknown cave that just collapsed somewhere!"

"You think too hard. If they find something wrong they just need to retreat and call us."

"We still have 35 people right? Take five with you. I'll take five more and the rest can go together through wherever they want."

"Now you make some sense... I'd still prefer if we stuck together..."

"Don't be such a pussy, everything's gonna be fine. All we gotta do is hack through whatever comes right?"

"Your optimism annoys me you know..."

"Thank you. I'll take that as a complement."

"DIVIDE YOURSELVES, Two groups of 10, one group of 15. Now!"

"Which one are you gonna get in Jake?"

"Not sure man... I think the 15 group will go without any of them... I think I'mma take one of the 10 people ones."

"Oh... Good call. I'll go with you then."

"Sure..."

Some small talk started happening among the mercenaries as they quickly divided themselves.

Some people were shoved elsewhere when they tried to join a group that was larger than the amount specified by Marcus. Despite that, it took them very few seconds.

"If anything strange happens you are to return to this point immediately and send someone after at least one of the other groups. Do you all understand?" (Lancer)

"Yes, Sir"

"May luck be in our favor..." Lancer muttered to himself as he walked forward to join one of the groups. Only Marcus heard him, but completely ignored his prayers.

I watched through the images as the groups decided which path to take.

The larger group took the path Gahan and Garth took earlier, while the muscle-head lead group took the path mihara took, which was filled to the brim with traps.

The group that worries the most is the one with the guy using Katars... He seems pretty careful... Killing them is going to take a lot of effort... And also, they are taking the shortest route here...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is fucking weird..." (Gahan)

"Yeah... We've been walking for a while now and nothing happened... There was even another one of those empty rooms..."

"You think this is something to make us lower our guards?"

"Could be... But it's still very strange."

"Well... At least this gives us more time to rest... That fight was a bitch."

"Yeah... This cave has a weird windness to it isn't it?"

"Oh, you mean that turn we made a while ago that seemed to take almost straight back?"

"That's normal in large caves isn't it?"

"Hm.... Oh, there's a room ahead."

"Be careful."

"Okay."

The two slowed down as they approached a widening of the cave. It looked to me another room of sorts. While most caves have few places where many entrances join to make a larger area, Dungeons that take place in wannabe caves generally have this concept of rooms. They are a lot fewer than in this one, though.

"Huh..."

"Nothing again..."

"This is getting weird..."

"Agreed..."

The two reduced their pace a little, looking for something out of the ordinary. But nothing happened for quite a while... They simply followed ahead.

---------------------------------------------------------------

"Fuck!" Gabe yelled.

A group of goblins randomly popped up ahead of them.

"We fighting them?" (Kyle)

"No time for that! Slash them if they are in range but keep running!"

As per Gabe's instruction, Kyle and Joe unsheathed their swords.

For some strange reason, the Goblins were startled.

Without even stopping, the three mowed through the globlins ahead of them, that managed to pull out their weapons.

In total, they killed four of them.

"There were surprisingly few..." (Joe)

"Don't overthink it! Keep going!"(Gabe).

They continued heading towards the cave. Unaware of the remaining goblins around.

--

(The following conversation was translated to human language)

"FUCK!" (Goblin 3)

The goblins regrouped at the position where their comrades died...

"They didn't even stop to fight..." (Goblin 5)

"Are they looking down on us?!"(Goblin 9)

The leader of the group felt personally attacked by their lack of interest...

"We must show them not to mess with us!" (Goblin 2)

""YES!""

"Follow those fuckers!"(Goblin 2)

The remaining 12 goblins rushed ahead, tracking down the 3 men who looked down on them...

'They killed them because of my mistake... This won't happen again.' (Goblin 2).

Over the course of the next 2 hours they followed the enemy party.

"Why are they taking such a roundabout path?!"(Goblin 10)

"No idea... But they are getting dangerously close to the cave..." (Goblin 8)

"Shouldn't we send someone to rush back and alert the others?" (Goblin 3)

"No... They don't seem to be headed there. They probably don't even know it exists, and they'd die regardless... But where are they going this hurried?"(Goblin 2)

"No clue... That way is the Big Stone Wall... There's nothing there." (Goblin 11)

"Silence! If we keep talking like this they'll notice us!" (Goblin 5)

The squad followed them silently and quickly. Making as little noise as possible as they sew their path through the forest, tracking down the unaware mercenaries.