Chapter 182: The Cave Owner

Chapter 182: 182: The Cave Owner

A few moments later...

The rain did not stop.

It fell harder outside the cave until the entrance looked like a shaking curtain of dark water. The black fern they had used to hide the opening bent under the weight of the storm. Cold wind pushed wet air inside from time to time, carrying the smell of mud, broken leaves, and distant beast blood.

Lucard sat with his back against the cave wall.

He did not move. He could move his fingers and legs, but he could not stand yet. Cedric sat on the other side with Puff curled in his lap. His face was pale, and every breath seemed difficult, but he kept his wand close.

Elowen was the only one who could still move around the cave.

She checked the entrance, pushed the fern back into place when the wind moved it, and listened to the rain. Her steps were slow, but she forced herself to keep moving because stopping made the fear worse.

For some time, the cave was quiet except for the rain and their weak breathing.

Then Puff lifted its head.

Its ears stood straight.

Cedric lowered his voice. "Something is outside."

Elowen froze near the entrance. "Alan?"

Lucard listened.

The sound was not the careful movement of an old mage. It was heavier. Wet steps crushed mud outside. Something large moved through the rain with slow confidence, as if the storm belonged to it.

Lucard’s eyes moved around the cave.

Only then did he study the place properly.

The dry leaves near the back wall were not random. They had been pushed into one corner like bedding. Deep claw marks covered one side of the stone. Several cracked bones lay half-buried under dirt near the wall.

Cedric saw the bones too.

His expression changed. "This cave is occupied."

Elowen whispered, "By what?"

A low growl answered from outside.

The sound entered the cave before the beast did. It was deep, hungry, and angry. Elowen stepped back from the entrance.

The fern was pushed aside.

A bear monster lowered its head and entered.

It was huge inside the narrow cave. Its shoulders almost scraped the stone ceiling. Its fur was dark brown and wet from the rain. Gray bone-like plates covered its forehead and front legs. Its claws were long and curved, and its yellow eyes shone in the dark.

The bear stopped when it saw them.

Then it smelled blood.

Its mouth opened, showing teeth stained from a fresh hunt. The monster had gone out to feed. Now it had returned to find three wounded humans and one small beast inside its home.

Puff made a tiny sound and hid deeper against Cedric.

Cedric slowly raised his wand. "Of course this cave belongs to something."

Elowen gripped her knife. "Can you fight?"

Cedric tried to smile. "Badly."

Lucard did not move.

Elowen looked back at him. "Lucard?"

"I need time."

"How much?"

"Enough."

"That is not helpful."

"It is all I have."

The bear roared and charged.

Elowen moved first.

She threw herself to the side and flashed a weak burst of light toward the bear’s face. The sudden light made the monster flinch. Its paw struck the stone wall where she had been standing a breath earlier. Sparks flew from the rock.

Elowen cut at its leg with her knife.

The blade barely entered the fur.

The bear turned toward her.

Cedric’s crystal needle struck near its eye before it could bite. The needle shattered against the bone plate, but a shard cut the skin below the eye. The bear roared and turned toward Cedric.

Cedric formed a small crystal wall.

The bear hit it once.

The wall broke.

Cedric was thrown back against the cave wall, but he still held his wand.

Elowen threw a stone at the bear’s head.

It did nothing.

But it made the bear turn again.

She backed away, limping. The bear followed her, claws scraping the cave floor. Elowen raised her hand and forced another weak flash of light. This time, the bear expected it. It closed one eye and swung low.

The paw struck her side.

Elowen hit the ground and rolled.

Lucard’s fingers twitched.

His blood wanted to move.

Not yet.

He forced himself to stay still. He was gathering everything he could. Blood from the cave floor. Mana from the sealed Deepwell water near him. Bloodfire from inside his body. The bear was strong and close. A weak attack would only make it angrier.

He needed one clean strike.

Cedric understood enough.

He forced himself up on one knee. "Hey, fur pile."

The bear looked at him.

Cedric lifted his wand with both hands. Crystal light gathered at the tip, weak but bright.

The bear charged at him.

Cedric formed a crystal spike under its front paw. The spike pierced the soft part beneath the claw. The monster stumbled. Elowen crawled forward and stabbed her knife into the same paw with all the strength she had left.

This time, the knife went deeper.

The bear screamed and kicked.

Elowen was thrown back again. Her knife slipped from her hand.

Cedric tried to raise another wall.

The magic flickered and failed.

The bear’s eyes turned fully red with rage.

It stood on its hind legs, filling the cave with its huge body. Both front paws rose at the same time. Lucard was directly behind Cedric and Elowen.

He could not move away.

If those paws landed on him, he would die.

Elowen saw it.

Cedric saw it too.

Neither of them spoke.

Elowen threw herself in front of Lucard from the left.

Cedric moved from the right and forced one last crystal shield into the air.

The bear’s paws came down.

Cedric’s crystal shield broke instantly. The first paw struck him and threw him back. The second paw struck Elowen as she raised both arms to block. She screamed, but she stayed in front of Lucard long enough to stop the full force from reaching him.

Both of them crashed down near Lucard.

The bear lowered its head and opened its mouth.

Lucard’s eyes opened fully.

Now.

A small blood circle appeared before his raised fingers.

It was not large.

It did not need to be large.

The circle gathered into a single straight red line. Bloodfire burned inside it. The mana from the Deepwell water sharpened it. The blood on the cave floor pulled toward it like iron dust to a blade.

Lucard moved two fingers sideways.

The red line flashed across the cave.

It passed through the bear’s neck in one clean cut.

For a heartbeat, the beast did not move.

Then its head slid from its body.

The huge body stayed upright for one breath before collapsing to the cave floor. The head rolled once and stopped near the entrance.

Rain continued outside.

Inside the cave, no one moved.

Lucard’s hand dropped back to the stone.

Puff slowly peeked out from under Cedric’s coat.

Lucard looked at the dead bear.

Then at Cedric.

Then at Elowen.

The cave owner was dead.

.

.

.

.

Blood spread across the cave floor in a dark pool.

For the first time since waking, something useful had come to him without needing to be dragged through the forest. It was not clean blood. Monster blood carried wild mana, beast hunger, and many impurities. But Lucard did not need to clean right now.

He needed volume. He lifted his hand with effort.

The blood on the floor trembled.

Elowen was still breathing hard beside him. She turned her head weakly and saw the blood moving toward Lucard in thin streams.

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

"Living."

The streams of blood rose from the floor and flowed toward his palm. Lucard did not drink it from his mouth. He could not risk taking all of it directly into his body while Alan’s earth mana still remained inside him. Instead, he formed a small blood circle in front of his chest and forced the monster’s blood through it.

The circle turned slowly.

Black-red blood entered from one side.

Darker waste fell to the floor from the other.

What remained entered Lucard’s body in thin lines.

His face did not change, but his fingers stopped shaking. The wound in his stomach tightened further. His breathing became deeper. The deep tiredness in his eyes did not vanish, but it retreated a little.

Cedric watched from the ground. "You can absorb beast blood too?"

Lucard looked at him. "Yes."

Cedric gave a weak laugh. "Of course you can."

Puff crawled out and sniffed the dead bear’s head. Then it jumped back quickly and hid near Cedric’s side again.

Elowen tried to sit up. Her arms shook under her weight.

Lucard glanced at her. "Do not move."

She stopped, mostly because her body agreed before her mind did.

"You are ordering again," she said.

"Yes."

"That means you are better."

"Not enough."

Cedric looked toward the entrance. "The smell will bring more beasts."

Lucard knew that already. The rain outside could hide their trail, but fresh monster blood inside a cave was an invitation. The bear had died here. Other beasts might smell the open blood and come to take the cave.

Lucard pulled more blood from the bear.

This time, he did not take it into himself.

He spread it across the cave entrance in a thin pattern, mixing it with the bear’s own scent and a small amount of Bloodfire. The pattern did not burn openly. It only changed the smell. To weaker beasts, the cave would still smell like the bear was alive and angry. To stronger beasts, it would smell strange enough to make them cautious.

Cedric watched carefully. "That will not stop something hungry enough."

"It only needs to stop the first fool."

"And the second?"

"We kill it or die."

Cedric closed his eyes. "Very comforting."

Elowen looked at the dead bear, then at Lucard. "Can its blood help Cedric too?"

"No."

Cedric opened one eye. "Why not?"

"Your body will reject it. You are not me."

"That sounded arrogant."

"It was factual."

Lucard absorbed a little more. Then he stopped.

Elowen noticed. "Why stop?"

"Too much beast blood at once will slow my mind."

Cedric became quiet at that.

Lucard leaned his head back against the cave wall. For several breaths, he said nothing. The rain continued outside. The dead bear cooled on the floor. The cave smelled of blood, wet stone, and burnt mana.

Then Lucard spoke.

"We cannot stay here for long."

Elowen stared at him. "We cannot leave either."

"Not now."

Cedric’s mouth twisted. "So we stay in the dead bear’s cave until one of three things happens. Alan finds us, another beast comes, or we recover enough to crawl away."

Lucard closed his eyes. "Yes."

"That is a terrible plan."

"It is not a plan. It is the current truth."

Elowen looked down at her hands. "Then make a plan."

Lucard opened his eyes again.

In the dark cave, they looked colder than the rain outside.

"I am making one."