"Damn it! Damn it!" Adaloun cursed as he tried fending off the bat-like humanoid creatures from attacking him. He made good use of his shield, deflecting the attacks as they rushed in with their sharp talons. But his light rune proved to be no match for the eyeless creatures.

Without his sword Adaloun was unable to counter the attacks, so he improvised. Using the runes, he immediately set up his position to where he could deal the most damage. The monsters seemed to use sound as their means of detection which made it more difficult for him, as the segments on his armor would clang against each other. He also tried ramming them with his shield and found out that their skin was made of scales similar to that of a lizard. The shield obviously made no damage, but at the very least, it gave him an idea on how to attack them—in theory.

The overwhelming numbers of these monsters placed him in a pinch as their relentless attacks now included aerial strikes. The monsters flew and swooped over him. Using his limited stash of runes, Adaloun activated the earth rune and created a partial dome to protect himself from aerial assaults while still setting them up for his plan.

Adaloun made to a point to never let the monsters surround him. He new that with their numbers and his inadequate arsenal of weapons, he was at a disadvantage. The concave earth dome gave him enough time to set his trap.

Using an earth rune on one hand and a fire rune on the other, he was ready to test out his plan—hopefully it'll work or else…

He readied himself as the dome slowly cracked from the barrage of talons the monsters were unloading on the earth shield. Adaloun took a deep breath and took as much as he can. His throat was parched and beads of sweat rolled from his forehead. He was afraid, but confident that he could manage the situation.

The earth wall finally cracked open and the bat-like creature reared its ugly head on him, revealing its detachable jaws and serpentine tongue on him. Adaloun smiled and taunted the monster even more. Using his shield, he rammed it hard against the monster's face. The creature wanted to retract its head but fortunately, it got stuck in between the crevice it made earlier.

Adaloun checked on the integrity of the earth dome. It was still holding up pretty well, made too well. He needed to initiate his plan and fast or else, he might be overwhelmed by these creatures if he won't. He had no choice but to aggravate the stuck monster. He held his shield in both hands and used the edge of the shield to smack it across the monster's face over and over again, until it wailed in pain.

The angry monster and its kin wanted to retaliate, and their anger made them hit the wall harder than they ever could. They smashed it hard and rammed it over until Adaloun could see the visible cracks appearing randomly on his wall.

He readied himself for the worst and assumed his position. He left the stuck monster limped. He moved into the furthest corner of the cave and used the walls to rest his back as he aimed the fire rune on the crumbling dome. He focused all his exousia into the rune and as the dome blasted open, he activated the rune releasing a huge spray of fire towards the monsters.

It scorched the rushing creatures and burnt them all to crisps. The rest of the monsters away and made their way to the stony ceiling above. They monsters hid in between the huge rocks using the shadows as their veils. The bat-like creatures screeched and growled at him as he continued his assault.

Using his earth rune, he created a pillar that reached the ceiling. Adaloun then attempted Ghwynmyr's earth formations. He focused his mind on the ceiling and imagined spikes popping out from its walls. It took him a moment, but he managed to do what he thought was impossible, he conjured spikes skewering the rest of the creatures to their death.

Adaloun's magical experiment turned out successful, however, that wasn't the end of the wave. One of the creatures suddenly let out a loud shriek. The shrillness of the sound was nauseating and downright painful that he had to break his earth binding spell.

He covered his ears and squinted as he tried to control himself from passing out from the intense pain of the shriek. His nose bled and his eyes felt like it was about to pop out from it socket. He needed to stop the monster from its shriek or else his head might explode from its pressure.

He fumbled through his satchel and felt the runes. The sound was distracting him from identifying the runes correctly, but he desperately continued until he found what he was looking for. He focused his remaining exousia on the wind rune and activated it as fast as he could.

A blast of wind almost hit the creature who swiftly flew away from him. Adaloun knew that this wasn't the end of it. He laid down on the ground breathing heavily as he tried to rest his body and composed his thoughts.

He knew there was no time to spare. He went back to the satchel and felt its pockets. Alas, only one of the three regenerative potions were saved. He took the remaining one and drank it hastily. From a distance he could hear flapping wings. It sounded like erratic heartbeats playing the soon of his hearing doom.

There was no time for rest! Adaloun quickly stood up and groggily went deeper into the tunnel. He was regaining energy once again, but he knew it wasn't enough for the incoming wave of creatures. The flapping wings stopped instantaneously, now the cave was filled with darkness and silence. In the far distance he could a subtle sound, a chorus of creatures sucking in their breaths.

He knew what was coming and quickly fumbled for an earth rune. He took the earth rune, stabbed it on the ground and quickly activated it. Using the same techniques as Ghwynmyr did, he imagined shaping huge blocks of earthen walls stacked in front of each other at a distance of one footling each. The walls spawned almost instantaneously as he desperate poured most of his exousia to hasten the process.

Just as the final stack of wall emerged, the monsters released their heart-stopping scream. Adaloun sat behind the wall covered his ears. The entire cave trembled as the shriek filled the cave with its horrifying echoes.

He clenched his teeth as his head ached. The ground rumbled and he could feel his earthen walls slowly crumbled at the piercing sound of the creatures' horrifying screech. He saw debris and dust being swept away by the powerful wind the monster produced along with their shrieks.

Unfortunately, the earthen walls were no match to the might of the strong gusts of wind the monsters produced along with their terrible screech. The walls got blasted one by one. Adaloun could feel his doom approaching.

As the walls continued to get blasted, Adaloun curled his body and waited for the inevitable.

"One…" He took a deep breathe as he heard the audible blast from the wall. "…two…" He gritted his teeth and readied himself for impact.

"Three." The last wall was finally blown away and him along with it.

Adaloun was thrown away a few footlings away, luckily the ground was soft and muddy enough for him to land with getting harmed. The sound finally stopped. But his ears still rang from the shrill sound. He felt nauseous once again. His body was not responding to his command.

He tried to move his fingers, but even that was impossible. He laid down on the ground paralyzed and helpless. Surprisingly, he saw a spark of light glowing from the direction where the monsters were. The spark became bigger and bigger. Glowing brighter than ever before. Suddenly, he saw the shadows of the bat-like humanoids flying directly towards him, as if running away from something.

The spark became into a huge ball of flame engulfing the monsters as it rapidly spread along the tunnel. Adaloun closed his eyes. It looked like it was already the end for him. He thought that it was the monsters who will finish him there, but apparently that wasn't the case. It was the strange ball of fire that will end him—a painful death he never imagined he would have to go through.

But right before the flames could engulf him, it suddenly retreated back to the tunnel where in came from. It slowly became smaller and smaller until it returned back into a spark. The little tinder of light dissipated in the hands of a person that was approaching him.

He still couldn't move from the monsters' binding spell, but he saw clearly who they were…

The Orkamuus.