They formed two Groups, aiming to circle the entire perimeter of the forest. They had reached a strange wall, making it appear as though they were inside some kind of massive cave. This had led to the assumption that the way out of this place would be somewhere along this cave wall.
Icarus swallowed as he looked up at the mass of towering stone. It reached an incomprehensible scale, larger than any of the mountains he had passed through on the dragon continent.
Could this really be called a cave? It felt more like the center of a hollow world.
He was appointed as the leader of his group. Bjorn led the other group, and the pair had said their goodbyes with the intent of meeting each other on the other side of the space.
Despite how enormous this place seemed at a glance, with trees at least five times the size of those on the surface, the distance to the wall had only been about five kilometers.
Assuming it was the same distance to the other wall, this place could be assumed to be around 10 kilometers in length.
Of course, nobody said this place had to be perfectly circular or any shape at all.
Currently, there is one tank, one archer, one warrior, and one rogue in each group; the two mages remained with Bjorn's group, as Icarus was more than enough of a mage for his own group.
Introductions had not been made; they knew each other only by the classes they were.
Nobody was in a talking mood as everyone was on high alert; every step through the massive foliage felt tense, with the anticipation of something monstrous appearing from some unseen hiding spot.
however nothing ever did so. Minutes passed, feeling slower than time had ever felt before, but the dark, ominous forest seemed relatively devoid of life.
The group slowly fell into a monotonous walk, becoming less and less on edge.
until Icarus raised a hand, causing the group behind him to practically jump in surprise.
A brief glimmer of light had caught his eye.
Just through the dense foliage, something was shining in what appeared to be a clearing.
The group slowly came up to a slight hill that allowed them to have a vantage point on the source of light. Icarus took the archer to the top. The man had amazing eyesight and was the second most important scout behind Icarus, who was only first due to his ability to see in the dark.
The ranger reached the crest of the hill first, and he stopped dead in his tracks, and a violent tremble went through his body.
Icarus followed the man's petrified gaze and saw a large fire, a stick was turning over said fire, and on it...
Icarus felt bile climb up his throat and nearly fell to the ground and vomited, for on the stick was an impaled human corpse.
He could not make it out at first, as it was charred far beyond recognition, and he would likely not be able to tell who it was, even if he got closer.
The archer was clenching his fist, now seemingly more angry than disgusted.
"They are.. eating us.."
Icarus turned back to him. "We knew they were killing us; they are the enemy, and an enemy that we can't face; we have to avoid this, no matter what we feel. Avenging the dead won't matter if we die as well."
The archer's face flashed with sudden anger. "No, we can't let this go unpunished; we have to kill as many as we can! damn this place! I won't die trying to get out without killing as many of these bastards as I can!"
With that, he ran down the side of the hill, making his way to the camp.
Icarus stared after him in shock; the others ran up the hill to meet him.
The Rogue spoke first.
"I went ahead, there is a cage in there, and it seems there isn't any of those bastards in sight, I saw the fire... but maybe the other two are inside!"
The others all rallied in favor, and Icarus silently cursed the situation, knowing that at this point he had to go along with it.
"Fine, let's catch up to him," he replied while gesturing at the archer who was already halfway to the camp.
The rogue and warrior, who were the fastest in the group, quickly sprinted after the archer, leaving Icarus and the tank behind.
"You head to the other side of the camp. If we need to get out of there, we'll need you to watch our back."
The large man looked slightly taken aback, but nodded and headed in that direction.
Icarus quickly enhanced himself and nearly took off after the group, which was now stepping out into the clearing.
The archer was still at the head of the group and had drawn his bow, aiming at the cage which was to the right of the camp.
He took five more steps and fired. The arrow whizzed through the air. Icarus made out its path as it arced toward the cage and directly hit a lock from an impressive distance.
Sadly, the lock was unaffected, being much too sturdy to be broken by a mundane arrow.
Or so he thought. The lock exploded seconds later. Icarus assumed it had been attached to some sort of timed charge, a craft tool he didn't know the archer had possessed.
The gates of the cage slid open, and the darkness inside gave way, and the contents became visible.
The rogue, who had entered the clearing with the warrior, suddenly skidded to a halt and threw himself behind the nearest tree with astonishing speed.
Icarus reaction was slower; luckily, he was not in the clearing, the archer and warrior were not as fortunate.
where the archer had stood, a massive shaft of wood was embedded in the ground, and a red mist was splattered on the ground at the base of it.
The warrior raised his shield, and a red enchantment surrounded him, and Icarus sensed a strong defensive spell being formed.
The shield was blown apart, and the warrior's arm was clearly broken, however another massive shaft of arrow had evidently been deflected.
But by now, Icarus knew there was no hope for the poor man.
The cage was filled with the massive humanoid monsters, each one of them holding an equally massive bow, and another one was drawn taught, aimed directly at the warrior who no longer had any defense prepared.
Icarus was too far to form defensive magic on the warrior, so he did not bother to look at what happened after the monster loosed its arrow.
Instead, he produced his staff, the runes expanded into the three-dimensional construct, and inside of it a sphere of pure magic condensed.
He formed the strongest, most explosive spell possible, and hurled it inside the crate.
The ball of light flew inside, and the crate blew apart. He heard inhuman, horrific shrieks inside as the creatures burned.
The rogue turned and gave him a somewhat mortified expression, but Icarus was already moving.
"If you want to live, you need to run!"
The rogue snapped out of it and dashed after him, heading for the spot where the tank was waiting. Icarus motioned to him to start running as well.
The tank obeyed, and in the woods surrounding them erupted with noise.
dozens of horrific roars resounded, and the massive creatures burst through the treeline in scores.
It seemed more than the contents of the crate had been waiting in ambush, and it seemed they were heading to the source of the massive noise.
Icarus could potentially stall them with magic, but the sheer number of them was far too much to consider winning; he had only been able to slay the few inside the crate due to them all being packed in one place.
Not to mention, he could not produce an attack of that magnitude many more times.
They caught up to the tank quickly, but he did not continue running.
"What are you doing!?"
The tank's gaze was raised to where a corpse hung above him.
It was wearing armor just like his, its limbs mangaled and evidence of an excruciating death.
He turned, an expression of rage so fierce that it almost made Icarus stop in his tracks.
Of course, the fear of being eaten overpowered that.
The tank ripped his massive battle axe from his shoulder as he faced the approaching tide of monsters.
"I will not leave this spot."
Icarus and the rogue could not, and did not stop to try and persuade him; the man's resolve was clear in his eyes.
They ran deep into the foliage. Behind them, a radiant light began shining brighter and brighter, and the crashing sounds of the oncoming monsters grew closer.
and then a sound like the heavens themselves falling resounded throughout the cavern.