Chapter 16: Encounters

The camera pans back to Cheese and his party, and with the help of the land elves, the mage and the others follow a path that has never been discovered before into the cave. The eyes of the land elves allow them to see in very dark places, but humans cannot. So in order to illuminate the cave, Cheese took out a small stone from a small bag and some white powder from another bag, sprinkled the powder on the stone and rubbed it for a while. Soon, the inconspicuous stone began to glow a steady white glow that rivaled the brightness of a torch.

"Gray aphosphorite and the powder from the wings of the white feather butterfly glow when exposed to slight heat. The mage explained to the others. Everyone was amazed to see as the ordinary stone turned into a stable light source in the cheese's hand. The bold Hahn reached out to touch the magical stone.

"Be careful, it's hot. Cheese said hurriedly, but the boar's finger had already touched the surface of the stone, and he let out a muffled grunt and quickly withdrew his hand, as if he had touched an iron kettle containing boiling water.

Cheese had Elsa's hands wrapped around a damp cloth and inserted the glowing stone into a stick, also wrapped in a damp cloth. Then he handed the stick to Mona and let her take care of illuminating the surroundings.

"In fact, the reason why this stone glows is because it burns slowly. So while it glows, it emits just as much heat. The mage said. For others, though, Cheese's explanation is superfluous. They simply can't understand why a stone glows, and naturally they don't believe that the stone is actually burning.

"The mage's trick. Hahn rubbed his slightly burned fingers and muttered under his breath. This phrase almost became his mantra. In fact, the past few days of spending time with Cheese have made the three Frost Guardians, except for Elsa, amazed and awed by the mage's incredible knowledge and deeds. In their opinion, what the mage does cannot be combined with common sense, and this sense of mystery makes people respect and at the same time make them have a strange estrangement from cheese.

Seeing that Cheese and the others were ready, the land elves began to urge them to go on the road, and the dim cave could not affect these little ones in the slightest, and the bats and other animals inhabiting the cave also chose to ignore the visit of Cheese and the others because of the presence of these land spirits.

"Be careful. Cheese pulled the proprietress and let her avoid the stalagmites hanging down in front of her. In fact, not only the roof of the cave, but also the whole cave gradually deepened, and the texture of the cave gradually changed from the rough rock at the beginning. Dense stalagmites occupy the corners of the cave, and some glowing mushrooms also appear in the group's field of vision from time to time.

"Unbelievable. The Legion's largest fortress is less than a tenth of it. Mona, the warrior, struggled to raise the illuminating stone in her hand, but she couldn't reach the edge of the cave. For the Frost Guards, who regarded Dragonspine Mountain as part of their territory, this huge cavern that existed in the remnants of the Dragonspine Mountains was simply incredible.

A few men followed the goblins towards the interior of the cavern, and they saw that the size of the cave had changed unwarrantedly, the previous one was as spacious as the castle hall, and only one person could bend down through a corridor. And the intricate forks in the cave make it hard to imagine what would have happened without these land spirits leading the way.

"Did you hear that?" said Elsa, who suddenly stopped.

"Hear what?" asked Cheese curiously, as a spellcaster, his physical fitness was the weakest of the five, and his relative five senses were not as sensitive as the others.

The remaining three, including the proprietress did not answer Cheese's question, and they put their ears to the rock wall, and in this way "listened" to the sounds coming from the depths of the cave. Not only Elsa, but also the land elves around the group seemed to have noticed something, and they began to get agitated, and then at some point they scattered as if they had said yes.

"Wait!" The mage beckoned in vain to the land spirits who fled in all directions, but the little ones quickly disappeared into the darkness beyond the range of the light.

"It's the sound of fighting. One side should be human. The female warrior raised her head from the rock wall and said.

"Quick, over there!" "Monkey", as the scout character of the group, found his way first, and he took the illumination stone from Mona's hand and ran in one direction. The rest of the people also ran after him. Ignoring the mage's objections, Hahn put the cheese on his shoulders and followed with great strides.

The light of the fire, in this dimly lit cavern, the light of the torches and braziers was so distinct. And if the light of the flames only illuminates the cavern, then the figures fighting in the light of the fire are projected on the rock walls into strange and eerie images. Cheese, and this is what they see after turning a cloister. Under the reflection of the firelight, the two parts of the centaurs were fiercely clashing. On one side is a human in rudimentary leather armor, while on the other side is some grotesque creature. They are slightly shorter than normal humans, but this is because they are almost always carried on their backs, and these creatures have a rough humanoid shape with only one eye on their heads. They have bulging tumors on their bodies, and their skin is covered with moss.

"Cavemen!" exclaimed the three Frost Guards at the same time. As Frost Guardians who have been digging forts in Dragonspine Mountain, they are no strangers to these humanoids living underground and in caves. This is due to the fact that during the Legion's excavation of the fortress, they often come across natural caves, and there is a high probability that these creatures will be present in these caves. In fact, 90 percent of the Frost Guardians' combat attrition over the past hundred years has been related to these creatures known as "cavemen".

The sudden appearance of the five clearly attracted the attention of both warring parties, and before Cheese could shout to the humans to confirm their identities, a small group of cavemen had already rushed towards them. The cavemen had no formed weapons in their hands, only a few crude stone hammers and axes, and some even carried large rocks.

"Defend! protect the mage!" the warrior growled, drawing two one-handed battle axes from her back. The "boar" lifted the half-height round shield of the cheese and stepped in front of the mage and Elsa, becoming the strongest barrier. "Monkey" Jack silently took two steps back, his hunting bow already drawn to the full string, and the dark iron arrow reached the fastest troglodyte. The archer was the first to strike, and in the dim darkness, the arrow hit the enemy's one-eyed unbiasedly!

"Hmph!" With a soft snort from the mage, the stalagmites above the heads of the cavemen began to fall off, and one by one the rock pillars instantly turned into deadly nails, smashing the heads of the enemies in front of them and bleeding.

"Good!" Hahn couldn't help but whisper that the Frost Guardian didn't have a grudge against the cavemen, and there were always a few comrades in the same squad who died at the hands of these underground creatures, so he was naturally overjoyed to see Cheese's spell work.

However, while Cheese's spell had eliminated some of the cavemen, many more had already rushed in front of the five. After firing two more arrows, Jack simply threw his hunting bow behind his back and took out the hunter's dagger to prepare for melee combat. The female warrior Mona had already firmly guarded the left flank of the team with two battle axes, and although she was a woman, her long-trained physical fitness was not weaker than that of her male colleagues, and she had already killed three or four cavemen in the blink of an eye.

"Drink!" Hahn lived up to his name as the "boar", with his large shield on the defensive side and the boar's tusks on his other hand, and the northerner's strong man used his body to block almost all the enemies in front of him. And Elsa and Jack, the two agile warriors, were not to be outdone, a hunting knife and two short swords, although the two had not been run-in, but they cooperated tacitly, and the cavemen's disorderly attacks could not even touch the corners of their clothes.

However, with the dazzling performance of the five cheeses, more cavemen attacked them, and those cavemen who held boulders in their hands did not care whether they would accidentally injure their own people, but just threw the grinding disc-sized rock at the group.

"Flying Stone!" Mona shouted to her teammates, but Elsa and Jack were no longer in love after being notified, and the five of them instantly hid under the protection of Hahn. The huge stone smashed on the shield and made a dull sound, if it was an ordinary person, even if it was protected by a shield, the arm holding the shield would be broken, but the "wild boar" held the shield in both hands, and no matter how great the power of the flying stone was, it could not make him retreat a bit. At the same time, more stones that missed the way also caused a large number of cavemen around several people to fall.

"I can't stop it for long!" Hahn shouted in a low voice. His power is not endless, and as more and more stones mount, the Hercules is a little overwhelmed.

"We're going to meet those people. Mona said with an axe that knocked over a caveman who was trying to sneak up.

"But if we move, we'll be stoned into meatloaf!" said the monkey. Indeed, under such a dense catapult attack, several people completely turned into targets.

"I'm going to buy time, and I say close your eyes, and you close your eyes. Cheese, who had been silent, said suddenly.

"What do you say, who dares to ...... now" Before Hahn could finish his words, Cheese interrupted him with a loud drink.

"Close your eyes!" the mage held a wooden staff tied to the glowing stone, and suddenly stood up in the middle of a wave of attacks, only to see that the glowing stone suddenly burst out with a strong light that was ten times stronger than before! It was like a small sun. All of a sudden, the cavemen covered their eyes and screamed.

"Run!" the mage gave an order, and the few people who followed the command and closed their eyes ran towards the crowd without saying a word. The cave itself, which was fighting, was small, and Cheese and the others quickly joined up with the other group.