"Is everyone alright?" - Ian


    The wave of zombies had stopped, reced with an eerie silence. The moment the new monster showed itself, the rest of the zombies stopped pushing forward and except for a few stragglers, none had attacked since, like they were waiting in the darkness.


    "I''m fine, for now. That blow was heavier than a golem''s and faster than your attacks, Ian." - Howard


    "Ster and Lynn are fine as well. Howard took the brunt of the attack, so we are okay. How about you, my lord?" - Gobi


    "I''m fine. The monster is fast and silent. However, what makes me worried is that there are no zombiesing to attack us." - Ian


    "Let''s retreat a bit, Ian." - Sr


    "Okay. Let''s m- GET DOWN SOLAR!" - Ian


    Activating Quickstep, I pounce towards Sr as she turns behind her, falling forward. I ce my hand on her back, bending my knees to catch her, as I swing my trident upward, shing with a pink tongue. Attempting to retaliate, I stab my top two spider legs at the tongue, but it retreats as fast as it attacked.


    "Bubble!" - Lynn


    Lynn casts her spell, enveloping us in a bubble as a second tongue attacks us from the darkness. Gobi and Howard hurriedly regroup before the Bubble pops from a third tongue.


    "They are crawling around us, along the walls and along the ceiling." - Howard


    "We need light, Sr can you cast Ball of Light? While I get Robin to shoot down a ming arrow towards us. It won''t be super bright with the ming arrow as a torch but it will do." - Ian


    "I can try to control the Ball of Light. I saw another elf do it before in my vige but I never thought it woulde in handy, so I never properly learnt it." - Sr


    "Alright you can try. Howard, Gobi and Lynn stick close together. Let''s move back towards the cave entrance." - Ian


    Helping Sr up, I block another tongue attack while, Howard and Gobi get in front of Lynn protecting her. As we move back, I nce at Sr as she closes her eyes in concentration and starts to mutter some elven words.


    "Bone Wall!" - Lynn


    Lynn uses Bone wall the moment we back off from the corner, sealing the lowerpart of the cave but the new monsters knew how to climb and I could hear the rocks being crushed all around me. I keep my eyes peeled and my ears open, snapping my head in the direction of any sound and attacking immediately.


    "ROBIN! SEND A FLAMING ARROW DOWN!" - Ian


    Yelling at the top of my voice without looking back, I signal Robin while doing my best to defend against any attacks that wereing toward the front. My senses sharpen as I start to see the outline of the 3 monsters as they climb along the celing of the cave. Thier shadowy figures dart around the top and the sides, however, I notice they have stoppletely still before they attack.


    Using this information, I was able to defend agaisnt the majority of the attacks with my trident and my spider legs. Howard would block a couple of attacks as well, but since he couldn''t see where the attack froming from, his blocking was awkward and the cement of the shield was always off making it hard for him to defend.


    Gobi on the other hand was able to see in the dark being a hobgoblin, however, the monsters were moving faster than his eyes could keep up with them. The only time he could respond to their movement was when they werepletely still and about tounch their attack on him. Blocking with his club, he grunts at the force of the attack but stands his ground as Lynn was right behind him.


    At the same time, Lynn casts water bullets into the darkness but since she couldn''t see most of the attacks missed. However, it did restrict the monsters movements a little bit which allowed time for Robin''s arrow toe whistling into the cave lighting up the surroundings as it flies through the air.


    Howard picks up the arrow as itnds, lighting up the area in front of us briefly but as if it knew, the monster''s tongue nimbly dodges around Howard''s shield breaking the arrowhead and extinguishing the me.I curse under my breath but luckily for us Sr starts to chant louder and a Ball of Light starts to revolve around her hand, illuminating the cave''s interior.


    Snarls start to echo in the cave, as the monster''s retreat from the light, staying in the darkness. We back off slowly, keeping an eye in front of us. I gulp down my saliva as my heart races agasint my chest.


    "They are gone." - Gobi


    "Are you sure?" - Ian


    "Positive, my lord. I know they move fast but I can still see arge figure moving around. They retreated back behind the corner. At the same time, zombies started to move from that corner as well heading towards us. However, they are slow with some walking into the sides of the cave." - Gobi


    "Okay, let''s get out of the cave then." - Ian


    "Agreed. That was too much." - Howard


    "At least none of us were hurt." - Sr


    "Sorry, everyone. I didn''t do as much as I could have done…" - Lynn


    cing a hand on Lynn''s shoulder as we turn our backs to the cave, climbing over the wall.


    "Lynn, you did a good job. Those monsters were different and we knew next to nothing about them so you shouldn''t fee down about it." - Ian


    "Thanks, Ian. So, what now?" - Lynn


    "Now? Robin, keep an eye out for me. The cave is still filled with zombies. Howard set up another rotation and once you are finished meet up at Lucina''s healing station. Sr, Gobi and Lynn,e as well." - Ian


    "Got it. I''ll be there in a second." - Howard


    "What seems to be the problem?" - Gobi


    "We will talk more once, Howardes back." - Ian


    "Yes my lord." - Gobi


    The 4 of us wander back to Lucina''s healing station while Howard shouts somemands at the other people. Robin helps Howard as well asmand the archers to attack anything that aproaches the wall. Howard rushes over, waving goodbye to Robin who takesmand of the troops while we are disscussing about the new monster.


    During that time, I had asked Lucina to do a quick check up on everyone. While I can tell they lost some HP, I wanted to make sure their mental health was okay as well, after all, there is no stat screen for that. Gobi was a little shaken by the experience as I saw him reluctantly bashing the heads of zombie goblins with his club. His hands were still shaking even now, despite his confident expression.


    Lynn also looked under the weather as she looks through the magic book, muttering to herself. I understood that she felt useless in the cave but her timely Bubble was able to help us at a crucial time. Furthermore, her water bullet magic was able to kill zombies easily and she was able to do it a lot since she had high Intellegence.


    Compared to those two, Sr and Howard were fine after the battle and were checking teir equipment. The two of them were already used to death and monsters and must have quickly epted the turn of events, only slightly shocked about the new monster.


    "Alright, group meeting. That new monster was very different to monsters we have faced before and seemed to have some form of intellegence even though it is an undead." - Ian


    "I think it wasmanding the zombies or there is still another monster deeperin the cave which ismanding both the zombies and these new monsters but can''t do it at the same time. After all, if they could attack at the same tme then the zombies would swarm us from the ground while those monsters would attack us from the ceiling and with thier long reach we might not even see the attacking for us." - Lynn


    "Lynn makes a good point. I saw the zombies deeper in the cave as we fought with the new monsters. They were unmoving and seemed to be looking at the sides of the cave not paing attention to the fight between us and the monsters. Despite, zombies rushing us earlier becasue of Ian''s explosions." - Gobi


    "Right, I found that weird as well. No matter how much noise we were making, the zombies should have been attracted to it, since the cave echos as well." - Ian


    "The monsters themselves were very strong. We would have suffered some injures or maybe even casualities if we were fighting them with the zombie horde." - Howard


    <o>,m "I think I know how we fight against them though…" - Sr</o>


    "Your light, right?" - Ian


    "Yep, they retreated from the light and the first time I used it agaisnt them, they also retreated but that time I did damage one of them." - Sr


    "They were afraid of the light andpared to me or Howard''s atttacks, you were able to damage themmore effectively. I also think they don''t have eyes and were relying on their sense of smell or sound to attack us. I say smell becasue it reacted to the burning arrow so fast, despite Howard oly just picking it up." - Ian


    "Then fighting it in the cave is next to impossible. Each step we make would produce so much sound." - Gobi


    "No, I have an idea…" - Lynn