Nyxithra was right, some sort of lesser goblins appeared in front of us, forcing us all to get into combat potion.
Those of the second line use spells that keep the goblins away, while those of the first line, as soon as they saw the presence of threatening creatures, activated a protective shield in front of us to protect us from any arrow or spear that decides to throw itself, surprisingly, towards us.
We mages have the deficiency of not working our bodies for these situations, so we rely heavily on our wands. It was something I learned as I explored dungeons, so I have also worked my body in the training I had with Alphonse.
Close combat is a weakness for any mage, distance is the biggest advantage you usually have on a battlefield when exploring dungeons.
With only mages, it is best to divide your forces in this way so that enemies keep their distance and you can best attack enemies.
In the magical and creature world, there are two types of beings, one of them are those magical beasts or creatures that give in to their animal instincts and are extremely violent, seeking only violence and death, feeding on blood and living beings that surround them.
Goblins usually come in packs, so in this case, there are a total of 20 goblins ready to attack us, although no one understands the goblin attack system, as they are usually very impulsive, they are also very easy beasts to finish if you manage to hit a critical hit.
As the goblins have not been able to advance, we take advantage of those in the rear to cast fire spells to burn them and finish them off with different projectiles.
The dungeons are usually a mystery to this day, nobody understands how it is possible that life develops inside a dungeon constantly, the groups in front of us should have already faced this kind of monster a while ago, so in a few minutes, the same enemies will most likely be waiting for us at the exit.
After that fight, none of us got hurt, so we continued to carefully make our way deeper into the dungeon while collecting materials left behind by the beasts we defeated along the way, materials that are good for potion making.
Partly, I feel this is the easiest way to get materials if that's what it's all about, outside of riches and other items, materials can be useful to me too, and more for what I'm planning to craft.
So far no monsters of greater risk have appeared, among the goblins, the Mikaribaba that are monsters of a size smaller than the goblins and with a single giant eye that covers much of his face, they have big mouths with sharp fangs, their horns although small are also dangerous if you are not careful and reach you, they are good at dodging attacks but are not very strong, so they tend to bite, headbutt or try to use their claws to attack.
And in addition to these also some insects that tend to hover around the surroundings pending to launch their poison and take advantage of any carelessness to attack and fly away to avoid being hit, although this is not effective against our formation because with the defensive barriers and also the long-distance attacks are not a big problem.
Walking a few meters further and further ahead I know that at a point reached in the dungeons, it gets more and more dangerous, so without anyone noticing I take advantage and cast a spell that helps me to locate the monsters that are ahead with sound waves, almost in the same way that bats do.
Before locating any target, a piercing scream is heard in one of the paths near where we are. Everyone turns to look at each other, surprised and scared of the great scream that went through the dungeon. The group panics, thinking the worst of what was ahead of us, fearing the worst, the best thing to do would be to go to support those at risk while we call back the teachers.
"Hey brat, what are you doing?"- says Vaelin while he falls to the ground because of a push that Patrick had caused to make his way through the front line.
"Patrick, stop, we can't go there, we have to go back and cast the spell for the teachers to come in reinforcement, from here the spell wouldn't be visible," says Estrella.
"You guys do it, someone is in danger, I won't wait for you to react."- shouts Patrick, highly upset.
"We can't just go like this, we don't know what creature is ahead of us.
"Are you kidding? They must be fighting, If we get there, maybe we can help him; going back would be condemning them to certain death."
"Patrick analyzes the situation. If we do that, we might as well die."
"Dion, what are you doing? Why are you just standing there saying nothing, back me up, there are people at risk up ahead, Phylicia may be there,"- Patrick says, getting more and more upset.
"Patrick is kind of right, the best thing would be for us to split up, Estrella, Kaelor, and Seraphis go back and report the situation, the rest of us should go as soon as possible to support the other groups."
"Dion...well, let's do that, you heard Dion, all in formation. We need to help those further ahead, so prepare for the worst. Estrella delivers the potions to Lyara, We will need them in the worst-case scenario,"- Aelric orders.
The panicked face of the boys was immediately calmed by Aelric's strong voice of leadership, which filled their hearts with the courage to go on.
"Okay, let's go," says Patrick.
Suddenly, a tremor shakes the entire dungeon, causing stones to fall from above and the whole place to shake exaggeratedly. A loud roar-like roar makes us all disoriented for a moment, and we fall to the ground to protect ourselves from anything that might fall on us.
The roar was so loud that the place was filled with a lot of dust after some rocks were destroyed by falling from the ceiling to the ground.
When we look up, the place is full of dust and debris. At first glance, everyone is fine, no one is mostly affected, or so it seems. Some have scratches, and some are bleeding a bit from small debris that fell on some parts of their bodies.
"Are the boys all right?" shouts Aelric.
Without hesitation, each one goes about affirming their physical condition as they get back to their feet. All except Estrella and Kaelor.
"Estrella! Where are you, Kaelor!"- Aelric's tone becomes desperate as he receives no response from the other members of the group.
Without wasting time, he activated the locator spell again and managed to find Estrella.
"He's a little further back, he's still alive, I don't know his current state but he's on his knees looking at the... shit."
Realizing what I felt, I quickly got to my feet and headed to where Estrella was.
"Dion, what happened? Talk!" says Aellric.
Everyone runs after me to see what happened, and when we get to where Estrella is, the worst scenario awaits us; the entrance is completely sealed by debris that fell after the earthquake.
Everyone is left in a great silence, seeing that there is no other way out but to go ahead and fight whatever the teams are facing.
"Ahhh!" shouts Seraphis.
Everyone reacts to Seraphis' shout and looks in her direction, a scared girl with tears in her eyes, with one hand she covers her mouth and with the other, she points out that right under all that debris and in front of Estrella is the buried body of Kaelor, the only thing that can be seen is his hand sticking out of all the debris.
This is very bad, right now everyone is panic-stricken, some are paralyzed by the scene in front of us, and others can't even look in that direction anymore.
"We have to go on," says Patrick, breaking the shocking moment.
"Are you crazy idiot, we don't know what's ahead, look what it did with just a roar, what do you expect us to do, we are just kids!"- shouts Talrico.
"I'm sorry to tell you that we have no other options, Talrico. Kaelor took Estrella before she delivered the potions and tried to take her with him before the tremor started, so he took the potions, so right now we have no resources to survive until the escape."
Although it is not the best option, this is the only way out we have; later, maybe we will find supplies with the others, so we must go ahead and defeat that creature.
On the other hand... after that roar, the gem started to burn in an exaggerated way, but I can't give in to the pain right now, we have to keep going.
author's note: I apologize for my absence in the stories I have been publishing, they have not been good weeks for me and I was not motivated for many things, I guess some of the readers at some point have felt this, and you will understand me, I will publish more often from next week, I have to catch up, thank you very much to those who support the story, keep it, or just read it, I would appreciate if you comment what you think, if there are errors or something you do not understand, I will be to help you. Remember to visit my website if you want to support my work. There you will find advanced chapters. patreon.com/SlipperyRaccoon - DON'T FORGET TO LEAVE POWER STONES EVEN