Chapter 116: Fears

’What is this strange sense of unease?’ Aurelius thought anxiously.

He could count the number of times he had felt this tense and shaken about something on one hand. All his life he had trained to be fearless. There was almost nothing that frightened him.

Even when he was thrown into the wilderness to survive as a twelve-year-old, he had not been that fearful. He had fought his way through hordes of beasts that had wanted him dead, and came out with injuries no child should bear.

Through all that, he had not been that fearful. He had come out stronger than ever, more confident. All of that was before he even awakened.

But this... this feeling was something else entirely.

It was like something in the air was forcing those feelings of unease and tension into the open. The mission was supposed to be an easy one, and for the most part, it had been so.

With how things were going, chances of running into something beyond their capabilities were extremely high. But they could not go back empty-handed.

Aurelius looked at his monstrous partner and sensed the same tension from him.

Every step they took deeper into the cave tunnel made his heart thump anxiously. Aurelius had expected to encounter beasts soon after entering. Like his beast companion, he had caught the scent of various beasts coming from the cave.

But they had not encountered any yet.

He ran a hand across the rugged edges of the cave tunnel, realising it was naturally formed; a good sign. For about a minute or so, only silence accompanied them inside the cave tunnel.

"Where are the beasts?" Adam whispered from the side.

"They’re deeper inside."

Aurelius replied as they continued moving slowly. Before they even got to the end of the tunnel, they felt a wave of cold winds gently brushing past them. Adam and Aurelius scrunched their noses at the same time.

"Blood..." The beast master muttered solemnly.

Adam glanced at his partner and could not help but swallow hard, his heartbeat steadily increasing. Before long, they came to a stop at the edge of the cave entrance, where the ground expanded and sloped into a spacious cavern.

"This place might not be so simple."

Adam muttered as he deactivated Thermal Sight and looked around.

The walls of the cavern and stalactites contained crystal-like veins that emitted a soft glow, illuminating the cavern in a blue hue. Aurelius took off his thermal glasses as well, taking in the wondrous sight.

Despite how beautiful the cavern looked, Adam and Aurelius did not let their guard down. That tension and sense of unease were still in the air.

Growl...

The SilverIce Wolf suddenly let out a menacing growl, snarling in a particular direction. Without hesitation, the two brandished their weapons, Adam aiming in that direction.

What they saw and felt, however, caused their hearts to skip a beat.

’We’re fucked.’

Standing in one of the many passages going deeper into the cavern was a massive scorpion-like beast with an inky black exoskeleton. This creature stood at a whopping one meter, its body length even longer.

The scorpion beast made no apparent moves, its gleaming and piercing red eyes locked onto them like someone had placed a heavy weight on their shoulders.

"Deathstinger Scorpion..."

Adam muttered in a solemn tone, swallowing hard.

The creature was not the problem... it was its realm. They had encountered the very thing they had been expecting. Adam tightened his grip on his gun, ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

The Deathstinger Scorpion suddenly took a single step forward.

Bang!

Adam fired without hesitation.

But the creature was not so simple. With insulting ease, it slid to the side, the bullet tearing into the ground with a thud. The Deathstinger let out a menacing clicking sound before an ear-piercing screech of deafening proportions tore through the silence.

SCREECH....!

"Ah...!"

The shrill came suddenly, loud and ear-splitting. Adam and Aurelius screamed, covering their ears in an attempt to minimise the resulting ringing in their ears.

Aurelius fell to his knees while Adam managed to support himself with his hand on the side of the cavern wall. The screech had severely disoriented their senses.

When the screeching came to a sudden stop, Adam breathed out and shook his head, trying to focus his vision. His ears were ringing, his heart thumping erratically, but he dared not take his eyes off the Deathstinger.

It started with the pebbles vibrating slightly. Adam narrowed his eyes, not liking what he saw. A sudden chill ran down his spine as his passive hearing picked up hundreds of rumbling noises and bestial cries.

"Oh no."

Adam whipped his head to look back, the colour draining from his face. The ground beneath his feet rumbled, the cavern walls trembling. What he had feared was coming true!

"Adam!"

Adam turned his focus back onto the Deathstinger. The creature had not moved, not yet, at least. But that was the least of their troubles; they were being surrounded on all sides!

From the passages within the cavern, an army of bloodthirsty beasts charged at them with maniacal fury. They dashed past the Deathstinger, some running across the cavern walls and ceiling, generating a huge dust cloud that filled the cavern.

They could forget leaving the cavern; not until they killed all the bloodthirsty beasts.

"I’ll leave our backs to you!"

Aurelius bellowed as he jumped down the slope with his sword in hand, Ranger following right after him. The beast boy partially activated his beast channelling skill, boosting his physical prowess and speed.

With a burst of blinding speed, he broke the sound barrier and closed the distance to the incoming beasts. The sword in his hand flashed like a silver streak, cleanly tearing through the closest beast with ease.

Ranger was not far behind, charging into the fray with its powerful fangs and claws.

Adam cursed under his breath as he took out his other gun. He turned and activated Thermal Sight once more. When he saw the army of beasts tearing themselves apart in the cave tunnel, his heart sank.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without hesitation, he began unleashing a rapid rain of bullets at the incoming beasts. Heads and bodies were torn apart as his bullets shot through them. But the beasts were unrelenting and uncaring. They kept pushing through, biting and clawing at themselves like they had been possessed.

’Dammit!’

Adam burned through his bullets within seconds. Forced to pull back, he leapt backwards and somersaulted, his head to the ground and feet in the air. He swiftly changed the magazines, spun to face the beasts and opened fire again, his Thermal Sight deactivating.

He landed on the uneven and rocky ground, having burnt through his bullets once more. That brief pause was all the feral beasts needed to break into the cavern. They spread out like a wave, pouring inside with maddening intensity.

’This won’t work!’

Knowing his guns would slow him down, Adam put them away and pulled out his tactical sword. Spark came alive as he channelled orange flames through the weapon. He gritted his teeth and brandished the flaming blade, dashing into the chaotic fray with an explosive bang.