Caves

Four knights were wounded, but three of them had simple bruises, so only the one who was grabbed by Hobgoblin could not go down with the group.

Roland, Harald, and Aron walked ahead as Roland held a torch in one hand, lighting the way ahead, while his other hand was on the hilt of his sword, ready to fight at any moment.

"What do you think is in here?" Harald asked quietly with narrowed eyes as if trying to see further, if only for a little.

"I don't know... but this place gives me goosebumps..." Elin honestly admitted, flinching slightly from time to time, usually when the occasional wind currents caused the flame of the torch to become weaker.

'Hmmm... Is she...?' Zayne noticed this as he looked at Elin who was walking to his right and said, "Hey, you're afraid of the dark, right?"

Elin's eyes went wide as she was about to deny it, but Zayne already knew the answer, so he just switched places with her, now Elin was closer to the knight with the torch than he was.

'Did he do it on purpose...?' Elin muttered in disbelief. She had begun to look at Zayne differently after he killed Hobgoblin, but now her gaze had changed once more, 'Damn... Now he's going for the darkest part... Why would he do that? Wait... Maybe he likes me!?'

In Elin's mind, like a hurricane went through everything that had happened between them for the day as Elin blushed and looked away. For some reason it seemed quite logical to her, however, Zayne's thoughts were as much in the other direction as they could possibly be.

'Hah, is Elin afraid of the dark? Can the dark be scary?' Zayne inwardly muttered with a thoughtful expression, 'Well... I'd be happy to trade all my fears for this one. Elin seems really lucky.'

The road was quite long and some were beginning to get nervous, but suddenly there was an unusual purple glow in the distance.

"What is that?" Roland frowned, gripping the hilt of his sword tightly.

"I don't know, but we have to check it out." Aron concentrated, "Zayne, come with us. The four of us will be in the vanguard."

"Sure." Zayne nodded, emerging from the darkness as his blue eyes flashed.

"Well, well, it looks like you're beginning to enjoy this, doesn't it?" Harald grinned looking at the faint but obvious smirk on Zayne's face

"No, I'm just curious to know what's ahead." Zayne said calmly, but the corners of his lips lifted unconsciously.

Roland and Aron glanced at each other before walking forward, the rest of them staying about ten meters behind.

They walked slowly straight toward the purple glow until they stopped as in front of them was a massive flower exuding a pleasant fragrance.

"How strange... The closer I get to it the more I like the smell." Zayne muttered looking at the slowly swaying petals.

"Yeah, it's probably a defense mechanism, some plants have that." Harald said as he waved his hand.

Zayne reached out his hand, wanting to touch the flower as Harald instantly slapped him in the palm of his hand.

"Ouch! Why did you do that?" Zayne frowned.

"Hey, can't you control yourself at all? You see something beautiful and immediately try to take it? What if the flower is poisonous? We can't know that." Harald said seriously with a strict look.

Zayne didn't answer anything, he just snorted and turned to Roland, "I don't understand something. Why didn't we notice this flower earlier? I mean... for the last few minutes our path was straight, this flower was like suddenly blooming."

Crackle.

Suddenly there was a rumbling sound that echoed through the walls of the cave. Everyone looked ahead and saw another flower appear out of nowhere in the darkness as its bud slowly opened allowing its petals to emit an enchanting aroma.

Everyone's eyes opened wide, but not because of the blooming of the flower, but because of the figure standing next to it, that was actually there all along.

An anthropomorphic creature with gray skin and without eyes, ears, or nose leaned toward the flower. It had several white crystals on its body, some were simple growths, but the ones that grew from its elbows were like deadly blades. The monster had a lean body, but it looked like it was made entirely of muscle, being incredibly athletic.

'What the hell...?' Zayne inwardly muttered with a dazed look, afraid to move. The others had a similar reaction as no one understood what this strange creature was.

The monster seemingly tried to enjoy the aroma of the flower, which was strange because it had no nose, but when the monster opened its creepy mouth everything fell into place. In its mouth was a black band that slowly opened, revealing dozens of razor-sharp teeth and a creepy long tongue with three ends.

The monster's tongue gradually touched the petals as its crystals glowed brightly with purple light illuminating the area around it, then the monster turned to Zayne and the others. It stared at them for a while, letting out its tongue as if trying to taste their smell. Everyone immediately got ready to fight, but no one was in a hurry to act prematurely.

The monster was attracted by the pleasant scent, so among the group of knights who were constantly fighting, obviously the best aroma hovered around Amelia, especially considering her medicine bag with many different healing herbs.

Whooooooooooosh.

The monster grinned, its crystals flaring brightly, and the monster rushed forward right toward Amelia. Its speed was immense as in a heartbeat the monster rushed past Roland and Aron, who simply didn't have time to react.

"Stop him!" Roland exclaimed, waving his hand.

The knights nodded and ran at the monster, preparing for battle. It was an unknown enemy, but they weren't going to wait until someone from their squad was killed.

The monster did not stop for a fight as it just jumped high and bounced several times off the walls of the cave like a shadow, quickly approaching Amelia, whose face was already pale.

"NO!!!" Amelia screamed with a frightened look as the monster's long arm rushed towards her, with sharp crystal claws capable of killing her easily.

'I must do something!' Zayne inwardly exclaimed as his gaze shifted to Harald, who suddenly disappeared.

At the same moment, a silhouette with ice-cold eyes appeared behind the monster, seemingly capable of killing with a single glance as Harald's palms were covered in dense red energy. Then, he pointed his hands toward the monster's head, slamming them together with lightning speed.

Crackle.

Because of the tremendous force, the monster's head exploded, unable to withstand the pressure as half of Harald's face was covered in blood as well as his coat.

The monster slowly fell to the ground. Harald stared at it as if wanting to send this monster to hell.

"Get out of here!" Harald exclaimed furiously, kicking the monster's body to the side with tremendous force. Everyone clearly heard the loud crunch of broken ribs, then Harald walked over to Amelia and asked, "Are you okay?"

She looked at his bloody hands, squeezed them tightly, and whispered, "Yeah... Thanks, I was really scared."