The stones beneath their feet echoed with each step, seeming to wander through the twisting corridors of the cave. The damp air made breathing heavy, and the light from the stone began to flicker, which Henryk had absorbed from Someryn like a broken flashlight, creating strange, unreal shadows and a sense of dread.
"Hey Hen, do you feel like we're going in circles too? I mean, we're going around and around, and there's no way out," Someryn said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I feel like these corridors are starting to disorient us."
"Yes. I feel something's wrong, too."
Ethan paused for a moment, crouching to examine the wall. The stones were damp and cool to the touch, and here and there, cracks indicated previous passages.
"You're right," he finally replied. "But we have to remain calm. Remember how I said that every shadow, every turn, could lead us to the light?"
"When did you say that?!" Someryn raised his eyebrows in disbelief, unable to recall the elven teenager saying such a thing.
"Stop being smart and move on."
Someryn sighed. "Sometimes I feel like the cave has a life of its own. Sometimes it leads us further into the darkness, as if toying with our steps."
Henryk lifted the glowing crystal higher.
"Then we need to find a reference point. Every cave has its own signs, its own 'clues.' They could be unusually shaped rocks or the sound of water leading to the exit." He explained, pressing his ear to the stone wall.
"What if there are no signs?" Someryn looked into the darkness ahead. "What if we simply wander until we run out of light and strength?"
Henryk placed a hand on his companion's shoulder. "We can't think like that. We have to trust our instincts and what we've already discovered. The cave gives us clues, we just have to know how to read them... damn, I sound like Indiana Jones."
They all moved on, taking cautious steps, listening for every sound. At one point, Someryn stopped.
"Do you hear that?" he asked, leaning toward the stones. "The sound of water… it could be a stream leading outside."
Henryk smiled.
"See? There's always a sign. You just have to know how to spot it."
With renewed hope in their hearts, they headed toward the roar that seemed to grow with each step. The darkness of the cave became less terrifying as their confidence grew. And somewhere in the distance, among the shadows, the first light flickered – the promise of an exit.
"Holy shit! We really are close to the exit!" Brina exclaimed, disbelief in her voice, and they began to run faster.
They all began to run faster, seeing the light of day.
"Not so fast," a terrifying yet familiar voice suddenly spoke behind them.
A blast of ice made exiting the mana nest impossible again.
"No fucking jokes!" Henryk shouted, slamming his fist into the ice wall beyond which he could see the outside world.
"Get ready." Brina quickly sobered him up, telling him not to focus on that right now, but on his familiar Elemental Devourer, who had a large companion made entirely of rock and stone behind him. "Great, as if the Elemental Devourer of ice wasn't a big enough problem, fate also gave us the Elemental Devourer of earth!"
They all readied their stone weapons. Henryk gripped the handle of his baseball bat tightly. The Titan smiled sadistically at them.
"You're leaving already? We're having so much fun together here."
"Die!" Brina shouted as loudly as she could, throwing a hundred stone spears at the Titan and his companion.
"You still haven't learned anything, have you, human woman?" the Titan sneered as his companion, who looked like a golem to Henry, shielded him from Brina's attack with his own body.
"Jesus, man, what do you want from us?!" Henry asked, irritated and fearful. "Is it because those idiots were mining mana crystals? Listen, we had nothing to do with it, we were just their slaves! I mean, everyone except Brina. If you care about her, no problem, kill her?"
"You two-faced little bastard!!!..." the sorceress shouted, glaring at Henry.
"Oh, poor boy." The Titan looked at him with pity. "I don't want to kill you because adventurers wanted to steal mana crystals."
[Great, so he's a crazy sadist who loves the heat of blood or some such nonsense.] Zielczyk drew his conclusions.
"Okay," Henryk finally said, getting into a fighting stance with his stone baseball bat.
The Titan simply smiled at this and pointed with his finger, as if wanting Henryk to look back.
Henryk instinctively wanted to turn around, but...
"Don't turn around, Hen." Someryn warned him, not letting him turn around. "You don't want to look at this."
Of course, Henryk ignored his warning. In fact, the warning only increased his curiosity. He quickly turned around.
"!!!" After a second, he regretted not listening to Someryn. His eyes were so wide, they seemed to want to escape his head. "...Felicia... Ethan..."
He saw a Demi-Human woman and a teenage elf pierced through the hearts by a sharp icy spear that sprouted from the stone wall.
How was there no screaming? How was he not hearing it? Such questions swirled in Henryk's mind.
*STEP!*
*STEP!*
Now he heard a stone golem, also an Elemental Devourer like Tynan, walking towards him.
Before turning to face the monster, Henryk took one last look at the dead bodies of Felicia and Ethan. He didn't share any particular bond of friendship with them, but in his opinion, they didn't deserve to die, not like this.
Looking at the stone monster now, Henryk clenched his fists. He glared at the Golem with pure hostility and then said, "Let's fucking go."
Running toward the golem, the young man quickly dodged between its legs, avoiding its fist at the last second, which ultimately hit the ground.
"Hey, stone bastard!" Henryk shouted, waving his arms. "I'm here. You want us dead, so come and kill us!"
[What the fuck am I talking about?!] he thought to himself, not believing he was risking this much without a plan. [Never mind, we'll have to improvise.]
In the utter chaos, the stone golem waved its massive arms, trying to catch Henryk, Someryn, or Brina. But as is often the case in games, golems have a strong attack but are slow to move. While they dodged the golem's attacks, the Titan aimed two ice spears at them.
"Hey, monster, I'm here!"
The now-annoyed ground golem attacked with all its might, and Henry cleverly dodged it.
*Boom!*
The ice wall was destroyed by the Earth Elemental Devourer's powerful fist.
"Quick, quick, quick!!!" Henryk shouted, heading for the exit, followed by Someryn and Brina.
"AAAAA!" the purple-haired sorceress screamed, falling hard to the ground.
The ice spear struck her left calf.
"Help! Help me!" she shouted to Henryk and Someryna, who had entered the cave. They looked at the sorceress.
The titan's irritating laughter suddenly rang out, and he began to applaud foolishly.
"Bravo, bravo! Hahahahaha!! All right, let's say you two win," he said, and the ice wall began to rebuild.
"Don't just stand there, help me?!" Brina screamed pleadingly before the ice wall closed completely. "Nooooooooo!!!"
Exhausted, Henryk and Someryn couldn't believe they were actually outside, breathing fresh air.
"Finally," Henryk said with tears in his eyes, falling to his knees. "Finally, it's over."
[[Reference Art for Earth Elemental Devourer in comment.]]