The cave erupted into chaos. Fangs and claws barred raw, the hounds rushed the group in a frenzy. Cherry, who still had his hands up in mock surrender, his whole time, flicked his wrists inward, catching a spherical item. Not even aiming, he slammed down the sphere on the stone.
BOOM
A puff of acrid smoke exploded from the center, and the hounds howled and whimpered as the smell hit them. Cherry already had his breath held, as did the others.
Sounds of bow strings being pulled and daggers slashing left and right filled the air. The distraction Cherry caused gave them a short reprieve, but they needed to find a way to get out of this predicament, fast.
'Should buy us a few seconds,' Cherry thought. He went low, readying his crossbow and tinkering with his Aether Converter to find a way to neutralize the hounds.
"Eos! I need a vantage point!" Elfie commanded, her voice urgent as the chaos raged.
Eos nodded, grabbing her by the waist, and he slung her back like a sack of potatoes. He jumped out of the smoke and landed on top of the caravan. A hissing sound rose from below—the caravan's unstable core.
Just as she stabilized herself, she felt the caravan shake. Mistress Hound Handler in her Beast Form was attacking. She shot an arrow at her, and the Mistress intercepted it with her mouth, biting it in half. A chill shot down Elfie's spine. Before she could react, Eos dropped down to engage.
Eos's attacks were a blur of unpredictable precision. He made quick slashes with his daggers while deftly dodging the Mistress's strikes. A combination of flying kicks to the beast's chest sent her reeling, finished off with a dagger slash across her arm.
The beast growled in pain and lunged at Eos again in a frenzy. He readied himself as he focused all his attention on intercepting her. Just as he was about to jump for another attack, he felt a tug at his leg, and one of the hounds got him by the leg, refusing to let him go.
Using her enhanced speed, the beast closed the distance in an instant. She readied her punch, but before she could send a devastating blow, Eos Shadow Walked beneath the shadow, leaving his boot in the mouth of the Hound.
Elfie, on the other hand, had her full attention on the horde. She focused her wind magic on every tip of her arrow. Every shot was a devastation of wind. Mini tornadoes exploding with every arrow that landed on any surface, be it earth or flesh. She kept shooting until finally she ran out of arrows. There were still plenty of hounds, and the smoke was about to clear soon. She needed to use her magic directly. She looked to be in thought, but the shaking of the caravan snapped her out of it.
On the edge of her vision, a father and daughter were surrounded by hounds.
She didn't have the luxury to hesitate. She laid her bow down and focused her hands together. A small tempest formed inside her hands, and she threw the tempest at the pack of hounds; blades of wind exploded and cut them apart.
"Agh!"
Cherry screamed out in pain, and Elfie was in horror.
'Oh, no. No, No, No, NO!' Elfie silently screamed in her mind.
Through the chaos, she saw it—her stray wind blade had found its mark. Cherry, in the middle of the hound pack, clutched his arm where the leather was parted like paper, blood welling from the gash.
He keeled over, clenching his jaw, desperately trying to finish his spell. With one final click, he completed the spell. A hound lunged at him, and with his bleeding arm, he quickly took out his crossbow and shot, the bolt now lodged in the beast's head.
Another one came, but he didn't have enough time to reload. The hound bit his shoulder. His weapons were made for precision, not for big encounters like so. He reached for his converter, but the pain in his arms was unbearable he wasn't able to grab it.
"Cherry!" Alric and Elfie exclaimed.
Through the pain, Alric pushed through the pack of hounds. Each step felt like a stab through his ribs, but he needed to protect his comrades. Sunbringer was a few paces away from him, and he needed to arm himself fast. A hound came straight at him. In his anger, he grabbed the hound by the snout.
SLAM
He slammed the hound to the ground, killing it instantly. Grabbing the hound's tail, he started to use it as a macabre flail. The other hounds flinched with fear as their former kin was used as a weapon. They started to back away, but a few were struck, killing them instantly from Alric's brute strength.
Finally, he reached the Sunbringer and easily picked it up with one hand. He rushed to Cherry's side, swinging both the carcass and his sword wildly to carve a path to his injured friend. Using his Aether Converter, he pressed it to Cherry's good hand and activated it; a surge of healing enveloped him.
Meanwhile, the hounds still surrounded the two below, danger far from over. On the caravan roof, Elfie reeled back, her eyes hazy with panic. She clutched her head.
'What do I do? Do I use it again? What about a weaker spell? No, no, no! There is no weaker spell! What should I do? What do I do?'
Alric kept swinging, each one feeling like it might tear off his arms. His grip tightens with every swing as his muscles scream for reprieve. While swinging his hound flail wildly, the rotten tail snapped and sent the hound's carcass flying. Into Eos.
The hound struck him as he battled The Mistress, catching him off guard with a powerful slash to his left side. He was sent flying and landed on the caravan. The impact snapped Elfie out of her stupor when she noticed the beast marking her as prey.
The Mistress flexed her leg muscles and blitzed to the caravan roof. Just as she was about to land, a violent green light erupted from the elf's hands. Elfie squeezed her eyes shut, tears cutting through the dust on her cheeks, and screamed.
"STAY AWAY!"
The bundle of energy was released, and a tornado pushed the Handler into the air. The tornado, laced with dozens of wind blades, tore through the Handler's beast form, drawing blood and smashing her into a wall with a deafening boom. The Mistress slumped as her transformation wore off; she slumped unconscious.
The other hounds noticed this and scrambled away in fear, leaving the cave. Moe and Lester, who had been occupied with the caravan core, saw that their boss was defeated and decided to turn tail with the hounds.
"Wait!" Alric yelled, trying to catch up to both of them, but his legs gave up. He fell down and slammed his fists to the ground, 'Was he truly this weak? Was I this useless?' All that talk about saving the two, and they're barely hanging on.
Steeling himself, he stood and hauled Cherry up by the shoulder, determination driving him as they went to check on Raynar and Millie.
"Big brother Alric! Are you okay?"
Alric smiled weakly at the child. 'Don't fall,' the words repeated in his head. Cherry patted him on the shoulder, signaling that he could walk.
Cherry crouched down to reach Millie's level, "Hey there, champ, can you walk?"
Millie nodded. Alric patted the girl on the head a few times and smiled at her, "Can you do us a favor and check on our friends up there? We'll get your dad up and about in no time."
Alric went closer to Raynar and booted up his Aether Converter. He activated the same healing spell, using his own Aether, and held it close to Raynar. His body is enveloped in white light, the bleeding on top of his forehead closing. Once the light vanished, he opened his eyes.
"Alric! What happened to you!?"
"It's, it's okay, Raynar, we're safe now," Alric replied weakly.
"And you! You're the person who helped Alric return my caravan. What happened to your arm?"
"A bit of an accident, but don't let that worry you. Mind if I take a look at your caravan?"
Raynar nodded. Cherry, using his good hand, inspected the Aether Core and found that it was still operable, though unstable. They can use it to get the Caravan out of the cave.
After examining the core, Cherry's voice was fatigued but decisive. "Alric, get Eos and Elfie off the roof and into the caravan," he said. "We're going home."
Alric nodded. Even though Cherry's voice wasn't commanding, it felt final. He climbed on top of the caravan and saw Millie shaking a distraught Elfie and tending to an unconscious Eos, who had a claw mark on his torso. Alric healed Eos, picked up Elfie, and put them both inside the caravan.
Cherry activated the caravan after careful configuration and navigated the way out while Raynar operated the wheel. Alric took one final look at their team and heaved a sigh. Bloodied, beaten, and barely standing, could he consider this a victory?
He took one last look at Millie peacefully sleeping on Elfie's thigh.
A complete victory? Definitely not. But they're still breathing, and so is the family. For now, that would have to be enough.