The dark, purplish mass of shadows shifted violently, condensing its erratic form until it took on a humanoid shape. The entity floated above the cracked stone floor, towering a full two meters tall. Two dots of reddish light ignited where its eyes should be, followed by a wide, unnatural smile that stretched unnervingly from ear to ear.
Without a single warning movement, thick tendrils of corrupted dark energy shot outward from its shifting torso. The shadowy spikes violently pierced the heavy armor of several vanguard soldiers standing in the front line. Before the men could even draw breath to scream, the tendrils forcefully sapped their entire life force. Their bodies withered and turned terribly decrepit in mere seconds, collapsing into lifeless, gray husks upon the cold ground.
Kellen reacted immediately. He slammed the base of his staff heavily onto the stone floor, channeling his transparent white soul magic directly into the ground. A powerful, colorless shockwave of pure spiritual pressure spread outward rapidly. The concentrated soul energy struck the dark tendrils hard, forcing the shadowy appendages to retract instantly back into the entity's body.
"Khehehehehehe," the shadow laughed. The eerie, distorted sound echoed unnaturally throughout the vast underground cavern, carrying a deeply unsettling resonance that chilled the air.
"Do not just stand there! All soldiers, fall back behind us, now!" Kellen shouted forcefully. His sharp command finally broke through the paralyzing terror gripping the surviving men and snapped Vena fully out of her momentary shock.
The ambient air around Vena heated instantly. She gritted her teeth in defiance as a dense, swirling orb of pure reddish fire mana materialized directly in front of her within a fraction of a second. She hurled the blazing projectile toward the floating shadow with blinding speed, leaving a bright trail of sparks in its wake. Yet, right before the concentrated fireball could reach its target, a thick, defensive layer of dark purplish energy pulsed outward from the entity. The dark purplish barrier blocked the attack completely, effortlessly absorbing the fiery explosion and neutralizing the intense heat before it could even touch the shadow.
Suddenly, a thicker tendril shot out from the shadow's body, aiming directly at Vena with blinding speed. Caught by surprise and knowing she had no time to dodge or cast a proper defensive spell, she quickly raised her staff to form a simple mana barrier.
Kellen quickly stepped firmly in front of Vena, raising both of his hands with his palms facing the approaching nightmare. He tapped deeply into his Soul Path core. Kellen's power manifested a completely transparent, glass-like distortion in the air. It was a colorless, shimmering white energy.
The dark purplish tendril slammed hard into the transparent barrier, immediately spiderwebbing the surface with deep cracks.
Kellen grunted under the strain. While one hand reinforced the failing shield, he raised his staff with the other and cast a spell. In a matter of seconds, multiple transparent, meter-long needles materialized in thin air around him. Formed out of pure spiritual energy, the needles shot toward the shadowy entity at blinding speed. They struck the creature's shifting body and shattered violently, exploding with the harsh crack of glass thrown against stone.
The shadowy being screeched, clearly wounded by the soul spell. Its feet touched the cold stone floor as thick darkness bled outward from its body, spreading across the cavern floor with the entity at its center. Jagged spikes of dark energy erupted along the black tide, racing directly toward Kellen and his company.
"Run! Out of the building!" he commanded, slamming his staff onto the ground to summon a massive, transparent wall to block the advancing darkness.
Above ground, Luceran was suddenly jolted out of his thoughts. 'A distress signal from Kellen?'
Kellen was strong, stronger than Luceran himself, and he had Vena, one of Luceran's most talented mages, at his side. For Kellen to shatter the distress signal meant he had already calculated the sheer danger of the foe, realizing that he and Vena could not handle it alone.
"Borrin! Gather everyone! We regroup with Cassandra now!" Luceran ordered, his voice cutting through the quiet ruins.
A few minutes later, the sound of rushed boots echoed across the stone pavement as the soldiers assembled. Moving quickly, Luceran and Cassandra's combined force soon arrived at the wide opening of the underground entrance where Kellen and Vena had descended.
Back at the underground fortress, the shadowy being let out a piercing screech. The darkness pooling across the ground began to twist and churn, spilling across the stone floor as dark creatures emerged from the abyss. They were hunched monstrosities of raw flesh and spiky bone, their eyes gleaming with a malicious red light. Their claws were razor-sharp, and even in their stooped posture, they stood nearly as tall as a full-grown man. Roughly fifty of the beasts growled in unison, exposing jagged teeth and long, serpentine tongues as they marched toward the retreating soldiers.
Vena and the troops were already outside the structure, waiting nervously for Kellen to join them. Terror was etched onto every man's face; this was a nightmare unlike anything they had ever encountered. Under Luceran's command, they had faced mountain bandits, dire wolves, and even ferocious trolls, but this was something otherworldly, ancient, and deeply evil.
"What... what are we fighting against, Lady Vena?" one of the trembling soldiers stammered.
"I... I don't know!" Vena answered, her voice trembling with uncertainty.
Before anyone could say another word, the heavy front doors burst open, and Kellen sprinted out of the building, looking battered and bruised.
"Everyone, fall into formation!" Kellen shouted as he skidded to a halt beside Vena and the troops. "Vena, cast a Fire Wall around us now!"
Without hesitating, Vena slammed the butt of her staff into the stone floor. A glowing circle of flaming runes instantly expanded around their perimeter, and a towering ring of fire erupted from the ground, wrapping the group in a roaring wall of flame.
Once the ring of fire fully formed around them, offering a temporary barrier against the darkness, one of the soldiers turned to Kellen, his eyes wide with fear.
"Master Kellen, are we safe now? Will the Fire Wall keep us safe?" the soldier asked, his voice trembling as if desperately hoping for a reassuring answer.
"No," Kellen replied solemnly. "This fire can only slow the ghouls down because they are weak to heat. But it will not hold them for long, especially with that creature commanding them."
He looked at Vena and then back to the troops. "The rest of you will fight the ghouls alongside Vena. I will cast a debuff spell to weaken them so you have a fighting chance. Vena, you will need to split your focus between supporting the soldiers and assisting me, because I cannot hold that shadow off entirely on my own."
"Master Kellen, what is that thing we are facing?" Vena asked, her voice tight with strain.
"That thing..." Before Kellen could finish his sentence, a chorus of guttural roars cut him off.
The ghouls slammed against the outer stone walls of the ruined building, their wild growls echoing through the dark cavern as they began to gather right outside the roaring ring of fire.
As the soldiers watched the ghouls circling them, they could not help but gulp in terror, their hands trembling and their legs shaking. Vena gripped her staff tightly, her knuckles turning pale.
"Let's hope Luceran arrives with reinforcements before that creature devours us," Kellen said grimly.