After they had rested in the cavern for a bit more than a hour Kehit stood up and began stretching saying that she wanted to prepare herself if there would truly be a battle, touching her toes from a standing position and circling her arms in different directions a few times, once hitting Leyk after which she apologized a few times and he assured her it was fine, laughing it off as it really didn't hurt him all that much despite her rather impressive strength.
Actually he ended up joining her after that punch in the face when she circled her arms, having a bit of fun in trying something new and finding it a bit uplifting to do it before a battle, be it that Avere looked at them and had nothing else to think about other than how utterly ridiculous they seemed to be looking in his eyes, even telling Ohrren that who nodded and seemed a bit relieved, as if he had finally found a companion that shared his opinion before remembering their fight about archery and magic, grunting, and remaining silent once more.
Altogether it took about ten minutes for them to finish the stretching, having made Avere laugh a bit as Kehit had accidentally hit him a second time, though it seemed to be harder this time, causing not Leyk, but the attacker herself to recoil in pain, holding her hand and staring at the forehead of Leyk with a look of disbelief on her face at there perhaps being a plate of steel affixed to it, right after which they continued stretching for the last three minutes, her hand moving less now, having turned a bit red from the impact, before she straightened her back and told the others that it would be best to get going now.
The others didn't really move, at least not until Leyk affirmed her exclamation and his red eyes pierced their souls, causing Avere who already stood a bit of fright, Ohrren who was still lying down to scramble to try and both stand up and put the uncaring Akrisen on his shoulder, after which they finally climbed out of the cavern that had been situated around halfway to the top where Leyk was certain they would find the monsters he really wanted to fight right now, a smile being situated on his face at the thought before vanishing as he once more confirmed a few things about demonic magic in relation to vampiric bodies with Kehit, just in case he had to use it.
He wanted to use it, that was for certain, but using new and rather unpredictable magic he had never used before in a battle in this forsaken realm, one that he did not control, one where there were weaker people present he had to most likely protect at that point, that was not something Leyk could do, and Avere looked a bit smug as he realized the same, hiding a bit of haughtiness at not really having understood the way the magic worked from the few pieces he had caught of her explanation as they had run, rested, walked.
They walked, they jumped, they ran from time to time, Leyk stopping Avere from trying to scout ahead by flying because the monster, or monsters, or even golem like back with that forgotten demon, or what it was called, might be able to spot him and fighting on a slope like this would be much more suited for the creatures.
It took them more time than expected to finally arrive at the top, Leyk being the first to jump over the last ledge, none having seen monsters before this, and inwardly, at least for the most part, praying that there would really be no monsters until they heard Leyk scream that there were indeed monsters, saying they should stop walking.
Inside the mountain that had now turned out to be hollow there were countless worms, white, no eyes, maws as big as the width of their bodies, full of parallel teeth that were ordered in rows, dozen at a time, each as long as about fifty feet, as thick as a big tree, marking along their winding bodies as Leyk jumped in there, telling the others to go around as he fought them, knowing he would most likely win without trouble as there were only a few hundreds, most of which on the low ranks of a transcribe, only one or two at the rank of a scribe, however the monsters had understood intent, or perhaps it was just innate with such creatures, who could tell...
Either way did these worms have no eyes, Leyk explained to himself as he had just jumped into the squirming nest, knowing that that meant they saw through vibrations, just like some worms came to the top when it rained because they felt the vibrations in the earth from the rain drops.
Had he not jumped in, he explained to himself further, justifying it as he used his hands to defeat the creatures, killing most of them with kicks and such, splattering himself with greenish goo that didn't really seem to stick, just like back with Manug when he had still had this body, wanting to use the blade later on but worrying that there might be too many for that, thinking he should perhaps let a good dozen or so live in case this was important for the city, he thought that the worms would have surely attacked them had they walked alongside the edge of the mountain.
He killed half of them, making sure the remaining would not follow them, the only challenge being one of the scribe worms that were thrice as thick and twice as long, had dozens more teeth and even eyes that he killed, causing him to have a stone in his hand right after, formed like a coiled up worm feeding on it's own tail, the other one trying to kill the four that were already on the other side of the mountain, descending, Kehit and Avere having looked back, worried about Leyk, even if they were just intent on keeping the most powerful member of their team alive.
In the end, he mused as he killed the second scribe with his left hand, the right one being occupied with holding the stone, having let some fall but preferring to keep one gained from a scribe, they didn't have to worry.
A second later, having briefly looked at the white stone that looked a bit like it had been carved by hand, he followed the others, the blind worms doing their best to avoid him, three other stones on the ground, him picking up another that looked like a few teeth sank into a piece of wood, coloured white as well, dropped from the second scribe to his luck, intent on asking Kehit to put them in the leather pouch she had under her robe.