Chapter 22 - 22. Betrayal
At dawn, a group of five men and a kid stared at the entrance of an underground cavern two meters wide and three meters tall. It went downward till eyes could see and was completely silent.
"The passage will go on for about a kilometer and then will divide itself in different directions. I only know in which direction the spiders went last night cause I stopped there."
Luke explained.
"I will be in the head, the rest of you follow tightly."
Mason ordered and went in, the rest of the group followed with Noah at the center of it.
The passage was made of rocks and terrain and didn't seem too stable and, as they moved on, the light of the sun could not reach their position.
The passage was growing darker which made the group advance slowly.
Mason was being very careful of where he stepped since he knew that, in the enemy's nest, even a little sound could cause a catastrophe.
The passage got larger after some time and they could stand side to side, then they arrived where the cavern split into different branches.
Luke pointed at one of them and Mason went directly inside.
They walked for about an hour before the passage split again.
The light was scarce and the air was stifling wet but the group had to wait until Luke found some traces of the beasts to decide in which direction they had to explore.
"There are no conclusive traces, well, there are signs of their passage in all 4 the directions. I advice we take the rightmost since there seems to be light coming from there."
Mason thought a little and then decided on following Luke's advice.
They moved again and after another hour of march, the cause of the faint light coming from the end of the rocky corridor showed itself.
A big basin occupied a space of some hundreds of meters square and, at the center of it, a lake was situated which glowed with faint blue light.
'Water that glows?'
Noah was surprised, he never heard of anything like this.
He looked around to see if any one of the group knew something.
Mason's eyes were wide open like his mouth hung on his jaw.
Noticing Noah's gaze he recomposed himself and talked in a soft voice.
"I might have an idea of what that is and if I'm right we could not need to work anymore for the rest of our life. Yet, to be sure I must look at it closely."
Everyone's attention was piqued by Mason's words as they started to stare at the lake with greed.
'Strange, the concentration of "Breath" seems higher than the surface.'
Noah could feel his acupoints slowing their work as the air had a higher percentage of "Breath" in it.
Before he could investigate any further, Mason moved toward the lake.
On the walls of this big space, there were countless holes of different dimensions and on the ground, there were countless bones belonging to different species.
'Ironclad spider's legs, human skulls, those should belong to a sheep.'
As they were getting closer to the edge of the lake the numbers of body's remains grew as it grew the concentration of "Breath" in the air.
When they reached the lakeshore, Mason could not hide his excitement anymore.
"Yes, I'm sure. Inside the lake, there must be a "Breath" blessing, it's a legendary mineral that can attract "Breath", the inner ring will pay any price to get it, imagine our rewards if we bring it back!"
Everyone stared at the center of the lake, trying to find this legendary stone with their eyes, they didn't notice that the sound of crawling started to resound in the basin.
Noah was the first to pay attention to the sound as his alertness and mental energy were the highest in the group.
"They are coming!"
He unsheathed his sabers without hesitation.
The men were started awake by Noah's warning and cursed loudly when they heard the sound coming from every direction.
Spiders crawled out from the holes in the walls, they were of different dimensions as some of them were still rank 1. Yet, at least 50 of them were rank 2.
"Don't panic! We might get wounded but we can handle their numbers."
Mason yelled looking at the hundred of magical beasts surrounding them.
Suddenly, the bones on the shore of the lake rose as a figure that was hidden beneath them was revealed.
It was 3 meters long and had 8 long and sharp legs. 3 pairs of eyes were on the sides of its face and 2 big pincers protruded from its mouth.
"Rank 3!"
Luke yelled but the mighty beast did not hesitate.
It shot one of its legs at Noah that blocked it but was sent flying for a couple of meters.
"RUN!"
Ordered Mason, as the group moved in the direction they came from, uncaring of the spiders in their path.
Noah jumped on his feet and followed them a bit behind.
'Fuck! My hands are still trembling from that blow and I think my sabers cracked a bit. Why the fuck I didn't reach this conclusion, it was obvious! The only reason a magical beast would be so selfless is that something more powerful than it gave the order! I'm so stupid! I have to run!'
He sped through the pack of spiders like he was a shadow, crouching and jumping to avoid their legs.
The other guards had already reached the passage and were swinging their weapon to force the blockage of spiders, when Noah arrived they had already proceeded and new spiders came to block his escape.
Without wasting any time he executed the best forms he ever did in his life and killed 2 rank 2 spiders on the spot only to continue speeding toward the passage.
Inside it, more spiders were crawling out from the walls using their powerful legs to obstruct the road but Noah didn't care.
He let them scratch and cut his skin in order not to waste any time.
When he arrived at the place where the first passage was, Balor was there preparing to enter. He didn't seem in a good condition as wounds were all over his fat body and blood flowed out of them.
He looked at Noah speeding toward him and smiled.
"Don't worry young man, I'll definitely tell everyone of your brave attempt in holding back those beasts to allow our escape. And don't worry about your mother, I'll be sure to console her properly eheh."
Noah's eyes widened hearing these words but he could only look as the man in front of him raised his hammers and struck the wall on his side.
The passage walls could not hold the impact and crumbled in front of him, while Balor was speeding on the other side.
"NOOOO!"
A rough yell came out of Noah's mouth as his only way out was destroyed in front of him.
'Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!'
"Fuck you, you worthless pig, if I ever come out of here alive I'll make sure to kill you personally!"
He could not contain his curses.
Meanwhile, spiders kept coming in his direction leaving him no time to for desperation.