"What took you guys so long?" Tsubasa asked as both Xavier and Mickey cleared the treeline and entered the clearing infront of the cave. On the ground infront of the cave, were the corpses of goblins, goblin warriors and two goblin archers. They had already removed the monster stones from the corpses, and most of the team was currently resting, with both Tsubasa and Maria standing and waiting for them. Both Xavier and Mickey looked around at the battlefield, and they noticed that more than a few of the goblins had arrows sticking out of their heads.
"Yeah well, hunting imps and Diabolic Imps aren't as easy as you think. Plus we had to double back to full the water bottles and get this idiot a another gun." Mickey said, making Xavier glare at him and Tsubasa looked at the firearms in their hands.
"Are they loaded?" Maria asked curiously, and everyone walked over to them. Xavier took out the magazine he had in his shirt pocket since the previous day, and loaded his gun.
"It is now." Xavier said and Tsubasa had emotionless look on his face as stared at the gun, but Xavier could guess what the gangster was thinking.
"This is the only ammo I have, so I'll be saving it for the boss." Xavier said, but Tsubasa looked at him suspiciously
"Where the hell did you even get that magazine?" Celine asked, with barely constrained greed in her eyes as she stared at the guns in Mickey's and Xavier's hands. The other members of the Rising Dragons also stared at the guns with desire, while Maria looked at them with a scowl on her face. The members of the Sisterhood simply shook their heads, and they knew that there was no chance those four could overpower Xavier, Mickey and Maria, but they were obligated to help out. Seeing the Sisterhood clutching their weapons, and feeling the tense atmosphere, Tsubasa sighed.
"We have wasted enough time as is, let's hurry up and get this over with." Tsubasa said, glaring at his gang members as he turned around, before walking towards the cave. His three gang members quickly followed behind him, and the rest of them followed behind. Tsubasa entered the cave and froze for a moment, no doubt because he saw the notification about him entering the"Goblin Cave".
"Xavier, you lead the way. You are the only one that has been inside.....and you also have a gun." Tsubasa said and Xavier nodded his head, before heading to the front of the group. He hadn't noticed it before, but the cave was wide enough to allow three people to walk side by side.
"Stay quiet, there are more of them down below." Xavier said and lead the way. Everyone else walked behind him, traveling shoulder to shoulder, maximising the space in the cave. As they walked, a putrid scent, the scent of something rotting entered their nose and a few minutes later, they found the source.
"W-wha..." Maria stuttered, as she stared in horror at the half eaten human remains on the ground, rotting away as flies and maggots writhe around in it's flesh. Everyone covered their noses, their eyes filled with horror as they looked at the corpses. Even the members of the Rising Dragons had to avert their eyes from the horrifying scene. Luckily, the dim lighting only illuminated a small amount of the wretched state of the corpses, but the flickering lights seemed to add to horror, like some kind of horror movie.
"Here we go." Xavier said as he found the stairs, and everyone turned towards him.
"Come on." He said, and walked down the stairs, as everyone looked at each other before following him. They all followed him downstairs, and they could see more torches on the wall and they could all see a reddish brown ore growing out of the wall, with the words Mystical Copper F+ above it. He gestured for all of them to be silent, as the sounds of chatter and clanging of metal could be heard, and he drew his daggers. They soon came upon a brightly lit room with goblins of different ranks sitting around copper tables, dining on human flesh.
All of their blood boiled at seeing this scene, filthy monsters making merry while dining on the flesh of their fellow humans. They all drew their weapons, and before Xavier could stop them, an arrow flew through the air, piercing through the head of a scout. As the scout dropped to the ground, the chatter immediately stopped and so did the clanging of metals as all the goblin warriors, archers and scouts quickly grabbed their weapons and the archers were the first to attack. Arrows flew towards the entrance and Xavier quickly pulled Maria back as over a dozen arrows flew towards her.
"You idiot, there are atleast fifty of them in there and you decided to charge at them without a plan!!" Xavier admonished her, and she looked at him furiously.
"They are eating humans in there, our fellow prisoners." Maria said, giving her reason and Xavier gritted his teeth with an enraged look on his face, and Maria took a step back as this was the angriest she has ever seen Xavier.
"And?! What you think killing these guys are gonna bring those sorry sons of bitches back?! The only thing you have done is increase our chances of joining them in these bastards stomachs!!" Xavier said, and started to back away while taking the gun off his shoulders and everyone started to back away as well. They could see the shadows getting closer, and Xavier stabbed his daggers into the ground as he crouched and aimed his gun, but Maria wasn't finished with the conversation, even as she drew her bow.
"Of course you don't understand, I bet you didn't even feel anything when you looked at those mangled corpses." She said and Xavier glared at her.
"That's because while you lived in your mansion with a bunch of rich fucks who have never experienced starvation before, I lived on the streets where people die everyday!!! I have seen more than enough of my friends get killed by those rich fucks or taken away never to be seen again!!! So no princess, I don't feel anything for the dead, I have no tears to shed or rage to spare for dead strangers!!" Xavier said, as a goblin warrior cleared the corner and he pulled the trigger, painting the wall behind it green.