"It looks like they have left us in a storm, Lord Commander!" The knight uttered at a completely upset Commander Crovar. "Shall we chase after them—"

"Leave them buggers be!" Commander Crovar exclaimed as he threw his mug into the ground. "They can take those…demi-humans with them, the hell do I care!" He spat.

Commander Crovar wanted his way out of the hellhole he deliberately and voluntarily asked for himself. He thought of the mission as something he had been before. He had been to too many wars in the past. He had seen and made all sort of horrors that no ordinary human would dare see or do. But this one was different. This was the most blood curdling experience of them all.

The monsters he thought that were nothing more than a mummer's farce or a bedtime scare are truly living among them beneath this wretched surface. At first, he thought ridding of them will certainly give him glory and save the surfaces from their hungry maws, but the more he saw them and their swarm, the more he wanted out.

He has seen with his own two eyes the horrors that welcomed them when they began to go inside the tunnels. The horrific headless giants that came on swarms, overpowering them and eat his men whole or tore them apart as if they were nothing more than just reeds.

Commander Crovar had been to battles far too long and no matter how many times he faced defeat, he had always overcome it. However, those wars he fought was against the like of him, a human or humanoid that he was truly familiar with.

He has never felt fear the same way that he felt against those monsters they've face. The calm and collected Arterian knights known for their collected disposition during war, but that was war, this was something else all different.

He mentally counted the remaining knights who stayed with him. "One… two…three…" He counted until twenty and assumed that was all they were. He stood up from his seat that caught all of the knights' attention towards him.

"Brethrens!  I beg you to lend me an ear!" He spoke. "It is with heavy heart that I have to tell you, that we are to abandon this mission!" He announced.

Commander Crovar looked at his remaining men straight in their eyes. He saw a look of relief in their faces. He subtly smiled in relief knowing that he wasn't alone on his thoughts. "I, Lord Commander Crovar will desert the order of going further inside this fucking hellhole. I do not want to risk more of my men's life in this endeavor. However, we shall still collect those ores we promised to our prince! Who's with me?" The remaining knights raised their hands in agreement.

"What would you do if the Prince finds out?" A knight asked.

"Do you think he would found out?" The Commander confidently declared.

The other knights looked at each other as he called for a tactical retreat. They were still hesitant about the entire idea. They feared for their lives, they feared for their honor. But what do they know about honor? Honor could just be an excuse for men not smart enough to understand their current situation. He knew that too well. A lot of his men and a few of his friends died because of it.

But with that honor they withhold, they came back dead, rotting, decapitated, burned or otherwise drowned. No honor can save a life and that was his point.

"My dear Brethrens," he called again. "You were already honorable for raising your hand and volunteering to come with us in this hellhole. But I would like to stop you there! My task is to get everyone of you back to your families alive and well!" He said. 

He wanted to stir the knights' hearts to understand his side, to finally convince them how this was all a bad idea. He didn't want to look like he was running away. He wanted them to back him up. It was his only chance to redeem himself from his own bad decision.

He already planned how to report it to the Prince and the Imperatur for that matter. He knew the slaves would be his scapegoats, the non-humans in particular. He knew that the Imperatur has little love for their kind and would immediately agree with him if he told him such.

"It was a bad decision. An awful turn. I should've let the knights scout it themselves." This was what he was going to say to the Prince and the Imperatur.

His speech finally convinced the other knights to come and follow him. Of course, they wanted to live! They were still young and even some were still green at the job. Following his speech, he rallied the knights back to the path of which they came.

He instructed the men to take as many of those shining rocks as much as they can at the cavern were the headless monsters nestled. When they were finished collecting the aetherium they made their way back into the entrance, into that damned white stone wall.

But as they made their way back, they were welcomed by huge humanoid creatures with bat-like wings. The monsters stood near the entrance of the tunnel. They hung themselves upside down looking below as if they knew they were coming.

In his last-ditch effort, Commander Crovar ordered the remaining knights to fight off the beasts and so they did. The Commander fought them and killed a few of them, but as he saw the monsters tore the knights apart, he quickly turned around and ran away from the carnage.

He ran back into the deep cavern. But with no more light runes to lit his way, he stumbled as his ankle broke when he accidentally stepped on a stone. He writhed in agony in the darkness of the cave while spatting vulgarities at their non-human companions, at the kingdom, at the prince and even at his friend.

Commander Crovar crawled his way into the deepest recesses of the tunnel but how can a cripple outrace a monster with wings? No one can!