Chapter 11, Son of Darkness

 As time passed, the sounds emanating from the darkness of the tunnel grew louder, and the ground vibrations became more intense. Soon, the first ill-fated mole appeared in front of Alonso and his companions.

 The appearance of these creatures truly challenged their understanding of monsters. A deep groove on their long noses clearly divided their two nostrils, resembling the barrels of a dwarf double-barreled shotgun mounted on their faces. They had baby-sized nostrils, resembling a double-barreled shotgun mounted on a dwarf's face. The three of them felt nauseated by the sight of the creature's pitiful little eyes, which were even more deformed than those of gnolls due to their degeneration in the darkness.

 However, the most peculiar aspect of the ill-fated moles was their method of movement. Their bulky bodies relied entirely on their two front legs with sharp claws to pull themselves forward along the ground, somewhat resembling the way sea turtles crawl ashore to lay eggs, but it looked particularly bizarre on them.

 Watching these ugly creatures rapidly approaching them, the three of them suppressed their disgust and quickly went on the offensive.

 "Charge!"

 When the first ill-fated mole was just a few meters away, Alonso accelerated towards it, his sturdy shield smashing into the creature's head, causing it to become briefly stunned. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Karla raised her staff and released a psychic blast at the ill-fated mole, while Braus began chanting an incantation, a red light glowing beneath his clothes, seemingly guiding some sort of spell.

 "Battle cry! Rend! Heroic strike! Heroic strike!"

 With weapons in hand, a single ill-fated mole was no match for Alonso. If there weren't so many of them rushing towards him, he could have easily handled it alone.

 However, just as Alonso had inflicted several wounds on the creature and the force of its claw swipes gradually weakened, three more moles appeared in his line of sight.

 "Fireball!"

 Just as Alonso realized the danger, a fireball larger than his head flew past him, landing in front of the three moles. The scorching flames and the shockwave from the explosion knocked them over, causing severe injuries though they were not killed outright.

 "When did Fireball become an area spell?! And the power, it's excessive!"

 Seizing the opportunity, Alonso swung his sword at the forehead of the severely injured ill-fated mole, ending its life, then glanced back at Braus, whose face had turned pale behind Karla.

 "This level of strength might just qualify you as my teammate."

 Braus weakly squeezed out a smile at Alonso, and the red glow on his chest faded after casting Fireball, unnoticed by Alonso.

 "It's passable."

 With that, Alonso immediately turned his gaze back to the front.

 To be honest, Alonso hadn't been optimistic about his two cellmates at first. Among adventurers of the same age, few could match his strength. Usually, the teams he formed consisted of adventurers much older than himself. However, Braus's Fireball just now changed his initial impression.

 He had worked with mages who were almost a hundred years old, but he had never seen one unleash such a powerful Fireball, let alone one that caused area damage. There was definitely something fishy going on! But just now, he had rudely refused to teach Braus how to navigate the tunnels, so it was obviously too awkward to ask why his Fireball was so powerful. He could only brush Braus off with a perfunctory reply and redirect his attention to the battle with the ill-fated moles.

 As Alonso shifted his focus back to the front, he unexpectedly noticed that the three severely injured ill-fated moles from earlier had already turned into three balls of flame. The flames from the Fireball spell had ignited their fur, burning them to death in such a short time!

 His estimation of the power of the Fireball spell rose once again in his mind.

 "Listen to that commotion, more ill-fated moles are on their way. Braus, with that kind of Fireball spell, a few more of those and I guarantee not a single mole will get past to bother you!"

 Alonso had previously lucked into joining teams led by powerful mages, where all he had to do was stand beside the mage and clap the whole time. Braus might not be at that level yet, but with his unique Fireball spell, as long as Alonso stood in front to intercept, they should be able to easily deal with this group of relatively weak moles.

 "Um..."

 The red glow on Braus's chest flickered a few times, but quickly extinguished, and the brightness was very weak. He then said with an ugly expression, "I can cast Fireball, but the power might be just a tad lacking."

 "A tad lacking is still fine!"

 Alonso didn't see Braus's expression behind him, so he had no idea that Braus's idea of 'a tad lacking' was actually quite a bit off.

 Meanwhile, four ill-fated moles were already upon them. Alonso immediately prepared himself to withstand their onslaught, while Karla's holy light shone brightly behind him, swiftly restoring Alonso's condition.

 "Fireball!"

 Braus's voice rang out again, but instead of expecting to see another terrifying fireball, Alonso saw a rather ordinary one, with the flames even appearing somewhat dim.

 "Pff!"

 The seemingly feeble fireball hit one of the ill-fated moles on the forehead, singeing only a patch of fur without causing much damage. The four moles continued charging towards Alonso at full speed, completely unaffected.

 "You call this 'a tad lacking' ?!"

 If it weren't for the smell of roasted meat wafting from the corpses of the three ill-fated moles nearby, Alonso would seriously doubt if that powerful fireball had ever appeared.

 It was understandable that the power would decrease with consecutive casts, but the difference between instantly killing three and just scorching some fur was like night and day. Did Braus use two different skills?!

 "It's over! It's over!"

 With the main firepower reduced to this state, there was no way to deal with the four ill-fated moles in front of them. Since they couldn't win, Alonso didn't intend to fight anymore. He slowly stepped back, ready to turn and run at any moment.

 Alonso loosened the grip on his longsword and round shield, preparing to throw these two heavy objects to distract the moles and then take the opportunity to escape. He loudly said, "I'll count to three, then we run together! Three, two, hey? What's that?!"

 Upon hearing "two," Karla and Braus had already prepared to flee. But just as they were about to tip over, expecting "one" for the signal to run, Alonso didn't say anything, causing them to barely maintain their balance.

 Alonso didn't say "one" to signal the retreat because he suddenly saw a dark green, faint stream of air flowing into the tunnel, along with an exceptionally fast-moving shadow.

 With years of experience, Alonso was certain that whatever that thing was, it wasn't friendly. At the speed it was moving, the three of them wouldn't stand a chance at running away. Instead of being caught off guard and panicking, it was better to confront it head-on, which would at least increase their chances of winning.

 "Yah!"

 The shadow in the dark green stream of air emitted a hiss, then leaped out of the air and darted back and forth between the tunnel walls, quickly arriving near the four ill-fated moles and jumping onto their backs.

 It wasn't until it landed on the ill-fated mole's back that Alonso truly got a good look at the creature. Its round, pitch-black body stretched out four spider-like legs, and dozens of eye-like things arranged in a downward "V" shape on the front of its black body emitted a hollow, eerie green glow, with no pupils.

 The next moment, the "black spider" swiftly raised and lowered its limbs, leaving several blood holes on the ill-fated mole's back, before quickly jumping towards another nearby mole.

 The four ill-fated moles, easily and effortlessly, were left with multiple blood holes on their backs by this creature, causing them to stop due to excessive bleeding. Once they stopped, the dim stream of air from behind quickly enveloped them, and within moments, the outlines of the three large bodies rapidly shrunk until they disappeared completely.

 Seeing this scene, the three members of the adventuring party sent to exterminate the mole colony realized. The reason these moles suddenly appeared near the tunnel was probably to escape from this not-so-large, but terrifying "son of darkness"!

 "'Son of Darkness,' that's how gnolls refer to these terrifying creatures.

 According to gnoll records, these creatures were born in the endless darkness underground, born from the consciousness of darkness itself. They came accompanied by a green mist, slaughtering any living creatures they could see, while the mist would completely destroy the bodies and erase all traces of life.

 Gnolls, like other creatures living underground, suffered greatly from them, but gnolls discovered a weakness in these creatures, their fear of light. So, gnolls exchanged treasures dug from underground with bright and shiny harpies from the surface for candles, and established underground cities forever illuminated by candles to ward off these terrifying creatures.

 The gnolls' fear of these creatures was deeply ingrained. Thus, the candles that brought them safety carried a special meaning beyond illumination.

 Oh, by the way, I came across an interesting saying in a book I stumbled upon. It said that the 'ill-fated' in the name 'ill-fated mole' actually refers to the 'son of darkness.' Because these diggers of darkness often attract the attention of the son of darkness and lead them into the gnoll tunnels, bringing ill-fate to the gnolls' diggers." —"Marlin's Underground Adventure Diary"