The Caverns were wet and cold. Athan could feel the dampness on the ground below his feet. Most of the cavern was narrow, with only a couple of ample open spaces. There were only two light sources: The sun illuminating the platform and some weird rocks lighting up blue in the caverns.
Athan and his new group carefully walked across the damp concrete floor to nearby light sources. At each lit-up rock, they would stop and carefully look around, then they would continue through the caverns.
While walking, Athan feels his throat getting dry.
'Is there water anywhere?' Athan thought.
The only liquid Athan could see in the caverns was dripping from the pointy rocks hanging from the ceiling.
Out of nowhere, Amelia stops, and Athan ends up bumping into her.
"Sorry," Athan says.
No one says a word. Sensing something was off, Athan looked at the Brute who was making a fist in the air.
And in that moment of silence, Athan heard wet chomping sounds in front of him. The sound of teeth clapping into something soft.
Athan froze in place, paralyzed. The hairs on his back went up. Amelia and the Brute couldn't move either, afraid of what was going to happen if they did.
Just in front of them was possibly a monster.
Finally, a rock that was just ahead of them lit up a little. Sweat began to form on Athan's face.
Even with the bit of light, Athan was able to somewhat make out what he was seeing.
The thing Athan saw was all black; it had a hunched back and three long spikes protruding from it. The middle spike was the largest of the three. The thing also had six short, skinny legs. The mouth was small but had a ton of small, razor-sharp teeth. And in front of the face was a long, sharp nose.
But what stood out the most was its soulless purple eyes.
Athan was failing to make out what the strange creature was eating, but the Brute wasn't.
Stuttering on his words, the Brute finally says:
"That—that creature…is eating a human."
Frozen, Athan tries to get the words that are stuck in his throat, but before he can, the Brute beats him to it.
"Run." The Brute says in a soft but calm voice.
Without debating whether to run or not, Athan and Amelia turn their bodies and sprint away from the creature, with the Brute following behind them.
After some running, Athan stops to catch his breath. The others follow his lead.
Athan, feeling a little dizzy after running, looks up at Amelia and the Brute.
"Just what the hell was that?"
The Brute wipes away the sweat on his forehead.
"I don't know. But whatever it was, it was feasting on humans."
Amelia's face becomes disgusted at what she just saw. She turns her head to the side and tries to throw up.
Amelia mumbles to herself for a moment, then shares a death glance at Athan and the Brute.
And in a threatening voice:
"Whatever that creature is…I won't be the one dying to it."
The Brute puts on a forced smile and tries to calm Amelia down.
All Athan can think about is how this kind girl can suddenly get so violent. But then he considered the circumstances and ultimately decided that it was a natural response.
After calming Amelia down, the Brute walks up to Athan and talks in a quiet voice.
"If I had to take a guess, a group just like us was exploring, and they ended up getting caught by that creature. In the end, I think the creature slaughtered the whole group."
Athan gulps.
The Brute sighs and whispers into Athan's ear.
"If we're going to keep running into monsters like them, we should classify them."
Athan raises his eyebrows.
"We'll call that specific type of creature, man-eaters."
Athan nods his head.
The Brute walks up to Amelia, grabs hold of her hand, and lifts her. As Amelia is getting up, she whispers something into the Brute's ear.
Again, Athan gets this uneasy feeling.
The Brute gives a hand signal to Athan, signaling that they are going to keep exploring the caverns.
Athan hesitantly follows.
Walking around the Caverns, Athan could sense something looming in the darkness, but he just couldn't tell if what he sensed was actually real or not.
'Is there more man-eaters? Should I tell them?'
In a flash, two man-eaters jump from the ceiling, one in front of the Brute and one behind Athan. The sounds of their teeth clamping together.
Athan's body froze, but the Brute's body didn't. He instinctively took a fighting stance. Amelia crouched to the side, scared.
First man-eater charges at the Brute at a very fast speed, but the Brute reacts in time, just dodging it. The man-eater behind Athan also charges, and unlike the Brute, he fails to dodge entirely.
The man-eater's legs just miss Athan's legs, almost completely clamping onto him. Athan managed to dodge with just a few minor wounds on his right leg.
Lying on the ground in pain, Athan watches as the man-eater changes its attention to Amelia.
Amelia slowly crawls backward as she watches the man-eater slowly approach her menacingly.
At a fast speed, the man-eater charged at Amelia. In a fear response, she makes a fist with her hand and swings at the man-eater. And to her surprise and Athan's… she completely punches through the man-eater's head.
The innards of the man-eater's head fly everywhere. Amelia slowly stands up and looks at her hand, which is now lighting up a bright yellow. Her mouth opens in awe.
Just behind her, the Brute chuckles.
"So you had the same experience, huh?"
Amelia turns her body slowly towards the Brute.
"It's like I felt a rush of energy go to my fist."
The Brute smiles.
"Yeah, same."
Amelia and Athan look at the Brute who has his fist going through the center of the man-eater.
The Brute carefully removes his fist from the man-eater and then looks at Athan and sighs.
"Nothing for you, huh?"
Athan shrugs in pain.
The Brute walks over to Athan and helps him to his feet. Amelia continues to stand there, examining her newfound strength.
As they are recovering from the sudden man-eaters' attack, the group hears loud clapping from the shadows.
"Who the hell is that?" The Brute says.
The three of them sit there, anticipating something to emerge from the shadows. After some time, someone finally does.
Athan's eyes widen.
'It's the guy from earlier. The one who called the dead guy a dumb fuck.'
The person who emerged from the shadows had short blonde hair, no shirt, and rolled-up pants. Four other people followed behind him.
The Brute's voice gets deep.
"What do you guys want?"
The blonde-haired guy smiles.
"I want to team up with you guys."
The Brute looks at Athan and Amelia, then back to the blond-haired person.
"No."
The blonde-haired guy stands there, confused.
"Ah, right. Let me introduce myself so you get a little more comfortable."
The blonde-haired guy pauses.
"My name is Xavier, and this guy to my right is Atlas."
Atlas has spiked black hair and ragged black clothes.
Xavier grins.
"You know, my group is quite capable. And it's as they say, the strong should stick with the strong."
The Brute smiles, then looks at Athan and Amelia, nodding.
"Sure, we'll team up with you, but demonstrate your strength first."
Xavier, with a wide smile, says:
"Gladly!"
Xavier puts his arm in front of him, then he opens his hand. With his hand open, he starts to take hard breaths, and with all his strength, he manages to get a burst of flames from his hand.
"Ah, shit, that hurt." Xavier squeals in pain.
The Brute sighs.
"Do your flames hurt you?"
Xavier shoots a glare at the Brute and makes fists with his hands.
"Maybe, but you have to admit that someone with flames will be dangerous no matter what."
After a second, the Brute nods his head in agreement, then looks over to Atlas.
Atlas talks in a soft voice.
"I choose not to show."
Xavier sighs at Atlas, then looks back at the Brute.
"He may not be willing to show it, but he is competent."
The Brute frowns, then looks over Xavier's shoulders.
"What about them?"
Xavier looks behind him.
"Don't worry about them, they won't cause a problem."
The Brute walks up to Xavier and holds out his hand. Xavier looks at him weirdly for a second, but he also holds out his hand.
"So, I guess we're a team now?"
Now that there is a team, they return to explore the caverns, only this time the group is much bigger.
While exploring the caverns, the group comes across a few man-eaters. But instead of running away, the Brute, Amelia, and Xavier take charge and cleanly dispose of the man-eaters.
Athan begins to think that things are getting easy… too easy.
Then that's when it hits the group. Small sounds of man-eaters crawling around the group.
The group pauses and looks at each other. Athan looks around, and sweat forms on his face.
Looking down at the group was a whole bunch of soulless purple eyes.