Thankfully the edges of the large fissure acted like barricades against the light, so Leor was able to set his Willpower torch ablaze without drawing the rest of the defiled down on their heads.
He swiftly approached the ongoing struggle, pumping a flood of Willpower into his torch as he cast the shining light over the body of the Twisted monster. As he did, the first thing he noticed was that the flood of inky corruption dripping from the creature's skin began to dwindle. Then, slowly but surely, the Twisted ones' powerful attacks began to lose a bit of their potency. With his opponent being slowly drained of its might in such a way, it didn't take long before Bone was able to take the upper hand.
The weakening effect of Leor's Willpower on these mutants was truly tremendous, and it was nothing short of a miracle that their sensitivity to light allowed him to take advantage of that weakness in such an effective way.
Still, it wasn't as if he could defeat a Twisted mutant on his own, for that he needed a powerful ally like Bonebreaker The Strong One. Now that his opponent was being constantly weakened, Bone let out an angry snarl as he kept true to his full name.
The sound of pounding flesh and breaking bone filled the wide fissure as the mighty ape seemed to revel in the violence he was committing. Tremendous fists crashed down on the body of the squid-like Twisted again and again. The creature tried to drag itself away from the terrible onslaught, but Bone simply snatched its tentacles up off the ground, threw them back onto the creature's own body, and resumed his work. The way he kept tossing the deflated monster back and pounding it with his fists made it look almost as if the mighty ape was kneading a great pile of bread dough.
Thinking of the mangled Twisted one as food made Leor rather nauseous, so he quickly shook the thought from his mind. A few moments later, a flood of new Willpower rose up inside his chest sending, his reserves skyrocketing past their former heights.
Bone casually collected the body of the slain Twisted and tossed it out of the cave entrance, leaving the path forward wide open.
"Leave your torch lit, Leor. We will need your light to make our way through the bitter darkness of the cave." Drelk spoke, as the companions all gathered on the edge of the dark tunnel of earth and rock.
The darkness was so deep before them that it appeared like a piece of the realm had simply been destroyed. Leaving nothing behind but a blanket of empty void. Leor held the crystal compass out before him for all to see, the direction pointed straight down into the darkness. There could be no mistaking it.
As Leor turned to share an encouraging glance with Alina, his breath caught in his throat at what he saw in his peripheral vision. All along the ridgeline and base behind him were set after set of glowing red eyes. There were not tens, not even dozens. Somehow they had been surrounded by hundreds of defiled mutants. The creatures might have been attracted by the death of the Twisted one, or even something as simple as the sounds of combat. Either way, now it was too late to regret.
"Run!" Leor shouted, startling his companions as they finally noticed the deadly ambush that was closing in behind them.
Without hesitation the six of them fled into the abyss-like cave before them. As they ran, Bone and the elder wolf quickly returned to their human forms, donning their cloaks once again in the hopes that they might be able to hide from their pursuers somewhere inside the cave.
The cave's interior was massive, with high ceilings that stretched out hundreds of meters above the ground. It was strange though. Instead of the normal cave interior that you would expect to see in such a mountain cave, with dripping stalactites filling the view, instead their walls were pitch black like fresh ink. The strange interior of the cave gave Leor an incredibly uneasy feeling, but he had no choice but to continue down into its umbral depths.
The stench of defiled Willpower flooded Leor's senses from all around him. It was so potent that there was no way for him to discern which route was the safest. The group was essentially rushing through the abyssal cave system completely blind to what lay before them.
The sound of snarling, gnashing of teeth, and pounding of hundreds of footsteps filled the air behind them as they ran. It was clear that their foes were in hot pursuit, motivating the companions to move ever faster into the darkness.
"T-Try to find somewhere to hide! We can wait for them to pass and then slip away to find Rynn!" Drelk shouted. Young Thales face was thick with sweat from all the running he was forced to do with the older elf on his back, but he undertook the burden quite nobly, refusing to complain even now.
Leor tried to heed the older dark elf's suggestion, but it was almost impossible to find such a hiding place by sight alone, especially as they rushed through the cave at such speeds. With only the light from Leor's single torch, and the inky darkness of the cave walls all blending together, it made it incredibly difficult to discern anything.
Finally the group came upon a fork in the route ahead, with an entrance leading down and to the left, and another leading up and to the right. The fork came upon them very suddenly, only giving the group a split second to decide. Leor didn't even have the chance to check the compass in his hand, because Bone had simply continued running straight down the tunnel on the right.
Leor grit his teeth and followed behind the large ape, there was nothing to be done about it now, the choice was made. Still, he glanced down at his compass regretful as he watched the group drift away from the direction it was pointing.
He quickly convinced himself that there would be other paths that lead to Rynn, so it wouldn't matter if they made one mistake. With that thought in his mind, he hastily continued behind the two Beasts.
As they continued forward, the dark cave walls around them began to narrow. It was as if they were rushing down into a funnel. The high ceilings and distance walls continued to drift closer and closer, until the tunnel had shrunk to merely a dozen meters across. Then, as Leor rushed to follow the Beasts around a bend in the route ahead, he nearly slammed into the old grey wolf's wide back as the group came to a sudden halt.
"What…"
That single word was all that managed to escape from Leor lips before the light from his torch spread on the solid black wall blocking the path ahead. They had chosen wrong, this was a dead end. Leor swallowed hard as he turned to face the sound of stampeding defiled creatures closing in behind them.
Alina slowly drew her rapier from its sheath, moving to stand by Leor's side. A gentle smile spread across her face as she looked at him, "We fight then." she spoke the words swiftly, still struggling to catch her breath after the lengthy run.
Thale gently rested Drelk against the rocky dead end, before lifting his heavy mace from his hip and walking up to join the two humans. Bone and old gray had long discarded their cloaks by now, returning to their natural forms as they prepared to meet their foes.
Leor clenched the Willpower torch tightly in his free hand as he glanced around them hastily. Trying to search for any possible way to gain an upperhand in the coming battle.
"At least the cave has narrowed to such a degree, do everything you can to stop them from getting behind us! As long as we don't let them surround us we have a fighting chance!" Alina shouted.
Leor continued to increase the flow of Willpower in his torch until the light covered the entire group of companions, that was the most he could think to do to help his friends survive the coming fight.
A moment later, a dozen frenzied mutant defiled entered the perimeter of light cast by Leor's torch. They were only the vanguard. Dozens more would reach their position every few seconds for the next brief window of time, until hundreds of defiled had packed themselves into the small area.
Bone stepped to the front of the group, swinging his massive arm in a sideways swipe and instantly crushing three of the attacking mutants against the inky black wall of rock. A flood of anxious adrenaline filled Leor's body as he watched the hopelessly outnumbered battle begin, but fear wasn't the only thing that filled his body, he also felt a flood of Willpower rising up inside him after Bone killed the first few mutants.
Suddenly the young man had a rather stunning realization. If he was to somehow survive for the next half hour, with the number of mutants that were about to die he might actually rise to the rank of Adept. Afterall, he was going to earn a portion of Willpower from every single defiled that was slain in the upcoming battle.
The realization sent a strange and incongruous sensation running through his heart, making Leor feel quite conflicted at the moment. On the one hand he was scared for his own life and those of his companions, on the other hand he felt a burning passion to achieve one of his longest held desires.
Leor had always dreamt of becoming a mighty Willpower Adept, ever since he was a young boy listening to heroic tales at the dinner table in the orphanage. But, to achieve such power was incredibly difficult, so much so that it took most initiates over a decade of rigorous training. Normally initiates would have few chances to slay defiled, and certainly nothing like Leor was experiencing now. Their only real option to increase their Willpower was through diligent training and meditation, slowly accumulating Will over years and years.
In countless ways, this cursed realm he had been trapped in was a deathtrap, but it was also undoubtedly something like a grindstone at the same time. It was trying to kill them at every turn, but it was also filled with potent opportunities for growth, if you managed to survive it, at least.