As Squad Alpha makes their way across this treacherous, open terrain, they noticed that the ridge on the neighbouring hill towards west, Sayan noticed a cave near the ridge, which was embedded into the dark shadow casted by the tall hill. Upon noticing this, Sayan halted near giant pine tree. Elyria and Kaelen also stopped, after Sayan came to a halt.
"There is a cave present near the ridge. It is completely covered in darkness casted by the hill. Before heading we have to make sure it's safe. It could be a Velcryn nest." Sayan warned his team mates.
As Sayan finished speaking Kaelen sheathed his blades and closed his eyes. He focused on his hearing. Kaelen sensed the muffled echoes of bundles of desire and vile emotions emanating from the cave's entrance.
"There is an intense emission of desire and strong emotion resonating from that cave. It's most likely a herd of Feeders. I cannot be exactly sure about the numbers, but based on the frequency of resonance I can predict that there are at least five Velcryn creatures inside that cave." Kaelen responded in an even tone.
Sayan thought for a moment and instructed, "Fighting against five Velcryn creatures at once is a daunting task. We have to spare our strength efficiently, because even after we secure that cave as our shelter there is no guarantee that there won't be any more creatures nearby."
"We have to work separately and play different roles. Elyria will create a distraction. I will engage headfirst. Kaelen will use his stealth and lie await in ambush." Sayan continued briefing his teammates.
Near the ridge at the cage curtained by darkness, a dark silhouette merged with the shadows and spotted the creatures inside tearing apart the flesh of another creature of their kind. Above the cave's entrance Elyria brandished Glacient Fang, she plunged the blade into the ground and surged a one-fourth of her Ether into the sword causing that part of the hill to breakdown and fall at the entrance of the cave.
The sudden breakdown of the upper part of the cave, caused the group of creatures to come out rabidly. As the hound-sized predator of shifting, semi-solid shadow, they walked haphazardly on multiple insectoid limbs that cling to any surface. Its only feature is a single pale light drifting in its core, until its body splits open to reveal a soundless maw of needle-like teeth.
Precisely at this moment, Sayan appeared at the entrance of the cave. The silver lines on his Azure gloves Bastion rippled and throbbed as Sayan charged towards the herd of Velcryn creatures, the patient Kaelen appeared at the rear, with the two translucent black daggers appearing in his hands, the air around him was covered by the black mist, Kaelen's presence faded and he swiftly appeared aside the rearmost member of the crazed herd heading towards Sayan.
The dark mist shrouded the creature's vision causing it to turn berserk due to paranoia and fear induced by the mist which was amplified due to the creature's nature of intensifying emotions. This was the ability of Dread Bane named Mist of Frenzy. Using this opportunity, Kaelen struck the creature in its eyes with both his blades twice in a second. The dual strike of the blade caused the Velcryn to convulse with agonizing pain parted on it by the Dread bane. Kaelen rushed forward towards the other beast in the front without turning back, because he had sensed that the ravings of desire coming from the creature he struck had gone silent and the beast had died.
A few steps ahead, amidst the falling rubble from top of the cave entrance, Elyria dived down with Glacient Fang in her hand struck the front of the charging herd with a frost blast generated from the blade. The three creatures at front that were hit by this blast, started developing a layer of frost onto to their bodies causing them to slow down to a minor extent making their movements sluggish and hindering their sight to an extent.
Just as the enemies were slowed, Sayan arrived beside Elyria and used Bastion ability to make his strikes heavier he exerted strength from his right hand and punched one of the creatures in the front. The beast was not able to react to Sayan's sudden strike and when his fist landed on the creature's skull, a portion of the skull was pulverized and the creature's brain was bashed in.
This impact sent the creature flying and pushed back the other two behind it. At this moment, two more Feeders had already arrived. Without wasting even a moment, Elyria brandished her sword again and caused the frost blast, causing the remaining Feeders to slow down, responding to Elyria's attack. Kaelen and Sayan grasped their opportunities.
Kaelen wielded his daggers once again and appeared behind one of the feeders and struck its chest. But this attempt didn't kill the beast. Kaelen retreated two steps behind and veiled himself into the darkness.
Suddenly two insectoid limbs flashed in Kaelen's eyes. His eyes narrowed. One of the other members of the herd had sensed Kaelen's bloodthirst and located him in the shadows. Kaelen blocked one of the scythe-like limbs with the blade in his right hand but he wasn't able to react to the other limb's attack.
The creature's limb struck Kaelen on his left shoulders. Blood gushed out of the wound. Kaelen released the black mist to make the creature less rational and used this chance to free himself out of its claws.
The damage from the wound was bearable but the attack drained Kaelen's stamina and more importantly a portion of his Ether Pool. His vision blurred for a moment; his left hand was trembling and his heart thumped vigorously. Kaelen was in agony, but that was not a problem. To Kaelen agony was an old friend. It was the emotion he was most familiar with. He brandished his blades and covered himself in black mist again.
Now, it was his turn to return the agony received. The Dread Bane had an ability which caused the prey, which was struck twice by it to experience the pain accumulated by the user. This ability was called Echo of Agony.
Kaelen appeared behind the Feeder he had struck before, once again. He crossed both his blades and slashed them in opposite direction, piercing into the creature's stomach and disembowelling it. Blood spattered all-over Kaelen's face and clothes. And as it was his second strike the agony caused the beast to growl and die almost instantly.
A few paces diagonally to him, Sayan had noticed that Kaelen was struck by one of the feeders. He rushed to his aid, but Kaelen had already retreated and moved towards his original prey. Sayan charged at the Feeder which had gone berserk due to the effect of the black mist and struck his fist into the creature's chest breaking its ribs.
Although the strike was lethal, the creature didn't perish. It scuttled on the wall of the cave, dragging itself. Sayan picked up a large rock and making his fist heavy. He struck the rock causing it's pieces to launch towards the Feeder sticking to the wall. The damage was not significant, but it obstructed the creature's vision allowing Sayan to switch positions with Elyria.
Using the Frost Projection ability of her armor, Elyria generated frost under the soles of her feet and launched herself towards the Feeder on the wall. The cold aura of her blade restricted the beast's attempt to escape. She slashed the blade with precision, beheading the Feeder in a single strike.
The squad regrouped together to face the remaining two Feeders. Kaelen and Sayan rushed at the front. Sayan made his gauntlet light and struck the creatures multiple times from various angles while dodging gracefully.
It was as if he could sense the movement of the space around the creature, even before the creature moved. His intuition was heightened and he was able to map his surrounding perfectly in his mind after observing once. This was the first true stirrings of his Pulse awakening.
Beside him Kaelen released the black mist again. The creature weakened by Sayan's consecutive fast strikes immediately went berserk.
Elyria appeared and landed the final strikes. She raised her sword and surged Ether at the edge of her blade and cleaved through the remaining two Feeders instantly, almost freezing their corpses.
Within a span of four minutes, this squad of three novice awakened had eradicated a herd of six Feeders. But the dangers were not over yet. They retrieved the two tier 1 fragments left behind by the 6 Feeders and burned the burned the corpses. This provided them a source of heat and also eliminated the risk of being affected by the negative emotions emanated by the vile corpses.
The team sat silently in a moment of repose. Sayan opened his backpack and fished out an emergency-treatment box. This box consisted of some potions, medicinal ointments, bandages and other medicinal components. Sayan gave recovery potion to Kaelen. This potion only sped up the healing process of the body by reinforcing it with Ether. With the help of Elyria, Sayan mended Kaelen's wounds and at last Elyria used her sword to cauterize the wound with frost to stop the bleeding. During this entire process Kaelen just sat there inside the cave and observed his teammate's action without even flinching.
All of them drank water from their flasks and caught their breaths after the battle. The was a silence lingering them. But it was not awkward, it was comfortable. Even during the battle, no one called out or indicated but they harmonized themselves through observation and tacit understanding.
At last, it was Elyria who broke the silence. Looking towards Sayan she asked, "What are we going to do next? Do we make this cave our campsite for the night? or shift locations as the disturbances caused by our battle might have attracted other creatures?"
Sayan inhaled and answered concisely, "We will move to a different location after ten minutes. As Kaelen has just received the potion it requires some time to show its effects."
Kaelen looked at Sayan and responds, "There's no need. The bleeding has already stopped and pain is not an issue. We should proceed quickly as dawn is approaching."
Just as Kaelen finished his sentence a being's shadow appeared at the entrance of the cave. The hairs on every member's body stood up and their senses started ringing as if they were on high-alert. Their pupils constricted and their movements froze.