The (literally) sitting prey

Daffodil leaps over the wagon, now standing in the back with the crossbow mantled on the back of the buckboard as Lani promptly follows suit.

The houndum moves its claw, retracting it from the hole as it seems to make a plan.

The beast takes deep inhale. Its nostrils flaring wildly as the air begins to fill its lungs and as the deep breath stops, a soul-shattering roar echoes throughout the woods.

---

INSIDE THE CAVE:

The four finally get over the rickety bridge, taking sigh of relief. As they take that moment of rest, that's when a loud almost demonic-esque roar bounces around the cave and scares the hell out of all of them.

"What the fuck was that?!" Amilia asks with wide eyes.

"Something, very not good" Terra responds with fear in her voice.

"We have to get to the others, now!" Kyuala orders, his spirit seemingly intact as she begins to run through the cave with the others slogging behind.

---

BACK OUTSIDE:

The houndum has made the tear even bigger than before. Its nose now protruding through the middle of the hole as it uses its blade-like teeth to bite away all while it tears at the sides of said hole with its claws.

The women inside are quaking with fear, Daffodil firing her crossbow and the arrow lodges itself into the tip of the beasts nose.

A ghastly growl is the beasts response but it doesn't deter its attempts to claw through, the arrow seemingly just pissing it off even further.

Lani flicks her fingers, locking her eyes onto the beast as she casts, "Eldur sprakk!".

A bolt of flame fires from her slender fingers, heading straight toward the houndum. The flame latches onto the beasts nose, momentarily sending it ablaze. An agonizing roar leaves the houndum's mouth as it quickly pulls back from the hole, burying its nose in the dirt to extinguish the flame.

The stench of burnt hair and charred flesh begins to fills the bubble as the beast lifts its nose from the dirt.

The houndum now even more demonic looking than before as its face is partially burnt, patches of red skin showing amongst the singed fur along its nose.

The monster pounces back toward the hole, more deranged than before as it rages against the tear in the dome. The claws rapidly slashing and pulling away with the opening increasing in size every second.

Another few bolts pierce the skin of the houndum along as Daffy is nocking and firing them as quickly as she can while Lani is casting more spells, trying to deter the beast but it's to no avail.

The women share a glance of fear as the rampaging wolf-like beast seems to be unstoppable in its crusade to devour them.

Their hearts drop as their impending doom grows ever closer, looking to one another for comfort but that's when they hear it...

A roar.

But this roar is different, more, person-like and a few moments later, they see the source.

Kyuala. Fucking. Mar'azu.

The roaring orcs battle-axe swings down, slicing at the houndum's side. The hide taking a decent chunk of the blow but not enough as a massive gash appears on its side, blood immediately following.

The beast pulls its head out of the hole, bearing its huge teeth at its attacker.

Kyuala has her war face on and her axe at the ready as the two opponents stare each other down.

The intense western-esque standoff ensues with neither one of the foes backing down.

Just then, the houndum's back right paw begins moving, kicking up dirt behind it like a readying bull.

Kyuala spots this and so she readies herself, getting the best grip she can on the pommel of her axe. She also has her right foot behind her left, readying to take off as soon as the wolf-beast does.

Both sets of eyes narrow toward another, flaring nostrils with gusts of exhaling breaths emanating from the two.

A few guttural growls come from both sides as they continue to eye one another with murderous intent but after a few more intense seconds...

They charge.

The dirt crumbles underneath their feet and paws as they rush toward their opponent.

The houndum leaps up and goes to pounce onto Kyuala but the warrior is too fast for that as she quickly side-steps out of the way. She then swings her axe down in a diagonal slashing motion but the houndum shows its own speed by leaping back to avoid the strike.

The two foes grunt as the go at it again, rushing toward one another but this time, the houndum doesn't leap, instead, it runs straight toward Kyuala. The orc swings her axe to try and cut through the beast but the houndum swings its body to the side, sliding along the dirt before jumping forward.

The leaping works as the houndum bashes into the back of Kyuala's right shoulder and knocks her off balance. Meanwhile the rapid shift in momentum causes the houndum to fall onto its side, forcing it to quickly roll back onto its four legs to get ready for another attack.

The houndum now back on his legs, begins to run forward and as it gets within a few feet of Kyuala, the beast is struck in the side of the head with a ball of dirt.

The sudden attack stuns the monster. Its deep red eyes searching for its new attacker and after a few seconds of scanning, finds the source. The elven woman Terra, staff in hand and ready to cast again.

Terra is then flanked by a heavily breathing Amilia, daggers in hand as she tries to catch her breath.

Kyuala on the other hand is helped up by John who says, "This world has some ugly wildlife".

"You don't know the half of it" Kyuala responds, grabbing the axe pommel with both hands again as John draws his sword.

The houndum snarls with saliva dripping from its mouth as it realises that it has become swiftly outnumbered, moving its head between the two duos.

The party readies themselves for the next round of battle as the houndum does the same.

The beast's back right leg kicking up the dirt yet again, ready to bolt straight toward the preparing Terra and Amilia.

After a few intense seconds, the beast takes off, heading straight toward the two slender women. Suddenly, as it gets within ten feet of the two, the beast swings its body to the left sending a wave of dirt flying toward the women as it then takes off toward Kyuala and John.

Kyuala roars as she runs forward, briefly leaving a confused John who quickly follows behind.

Kyuala swings her axe downward but it doesn't work as the houndum dodges. Quickly following that, John swings his sword and surprisingly, he connects, another wound on the wolf-beast appearing with blood pouring down the black fur.

The beast howls in agony, now with two wounds on each side of its body yet its anger only grows with the pain.

The houndum then roars in anger once again, preparing to charge again. It takes off, thudding steps followed by deep paw prints in the dirt.

John stands there like a matador staring at an infuriated bull, sword in hand and fear in his heart as he looks on at the incoming beast.

The houndum picks up some speed and jumps once more, extending its claws and aiming them forward, directly heading for John's chest.

As the beast soars a few feet above the ground, time seems to slow down in John's eyes. He watches as the beast comes toward him, bearing its teeth and blackened claws pointed at him too.

John then wastes no time and rolls out of the way, avoiding the houndum but the beast isn't so lucky.

Just as it's about to land, Kyuala swings her axe and as it rises up, it cleanly cuts through the neck of the beast, instantly beheading the houndum.

The monsters head falls from its body, rolling as it hits the ground and tumbles a few feet behind Kyuala who stands there triumphantly with bloodied axe in hand.

John turns around, staring at the grinning orc who simply says, "What can I say? Everyone loves a little head".

John just looks at Kyuala, unsure of whether to chuckle or cringe. Instead, he opts for a simple shake of his head and a few low chuckles as he walks up to her before the two embrace with smiles on their faces.

The two are then joined by Terra and Amilia as the latter says, "Well, I can honestly say that I am tired".

"Tired? You didn't do anything!" Kyuala responds to which Amilia replies, "Not true, I had to get the dirt out of my eyes and fur".

The four laugh as Kyuala and John shake their heads. Meanwhile, Lani brings her hands down and the dome soon follows.

"Awrite, as much as I like a gid fite and aw, I never want to face another one of those bastards again" Daffodil eloquently comments.

"Agreed" Come from the unified mouths of the other five as the cave group head back to the tree to collect the loot before loading it onto the back of the wagon.

John extends his hand as he helps up Terra onto the back. The elf then takes a seat beside a tired Amilia who says, "I can't wait to get back home".

"Dinnae worry kitty, winnae be long now" Daffodil says.

"Call me 'kitty' again and i'll claw your face off shortstack" Amilia tiredly responds.

"Oooh, kitty's got claws" Daffodil remarks which o's then followed by Lani who says, "Can we not talk about claws for the foreseeable future?".

"Sounds like a good plan" Kyuala comments as she leans back, relaxing as she sits up beside Daffodil like always.

"Okay! Onto Wiralsama! Hy-ahh!" Daffodil exerts as she whips the reins and the gurogans move forward.

---

TEN MINUTES LATER:

John has his hand on the bag he filled up back in the cave. He keeps his hand there as he feels the armour inside gently pulsating, the pulse coursing through his hand in a pleasant sort of way as he reflects on the past hour.

His reflection brings some questions to mind and so he turns to the others and asks, "So, what the shit was that wolf thing?".

"That, was a houndum" Lani answers.

"A houndum? Sounds like a rip off Pokémon" John remarks.

"What's a po-kee-mon?" Terra asks.

"Oh, it's a thing from my world. In the simplest form, it's this game with these little monsters that people use to fight other peoples monsters" John explains.

"Oh, interesting. Can you teach me to play some time?" Terra asks.

John makes an in certain face as he says, "Well, it's gonna be difficult without the proper stuff but maybe I can whip something up".

"Can't wait!" Terra says with a little giddy smile on her face.

The group stop talking for a few more moments, enjoying their respite any sort of action.

The silence is but a few moments long however as Amilia says, "Alright, since no one else is gonna mention it, what the hell happened to all those bodies in there?".

"What 'appened with the bodies like?" Daffodil asks.

"They weren't there" Kyuala simply responds.

"They, weren't there? In the cave?" Lani asks with a little fear in her voice.

"Nothing, only the dried blood but no bodies. Hell, there wasn't even any clues as to if the bodies were moved or not" John says, answering Lani's question.

"The most logical explanation would be that the houndum consumed them and that's why it was so close to the cave" Terra comments.

"It does make the most sense" Amilia adds.

Kyuala is the next to speak as she says, "But we didn't find anything to suggest that the houndum went in there, nothing was moved from yesterday".

John quickly interjects as he asks, "Hold on for a sec. That houndum, are those things common in the woods? Like, this worlds version of wolves?".

Lani takes point on the explanation as always as she says, "No, we have regular wolves too. As for the houndum's, they are one of the more common monsters within the Network".

"Wait, the Network? As in the-".

"The massive world-wide tunnels that go through the center of the world from one side to the other" Kyuala interjects.

"Holy shit. They can come up out of the tunnels?" John asks with Lani quickly responding, "Yes but not on a massive scale. Hunters usually cull any large numbers of emergered".

Kyuala then adds onto Lani's explanation, "The monsters for the most part act like any other wildlife. They hibernate, have mating seasons and at certain times, have a hunting season. The half-season is the best time to find any emerged however it's not always the case. We once went three summers without a single emergence, made my father and uncle very upset".

"So do they only come up during a hunting season?" John asks.

"It's not unheard of but it is very rare" Lani answers.

Terra is simply looking at her new friends as they continue to talk about the Network and the half-seasons. Her gaze then moves over to Amilia and as it does, she sees a face full of thought and with concern, she then asks, "Amilia, are you alright?".

The others look toward Amilia. Her eyes still looking down at the floor of the wagon but after a few more seconds, she looks up to Kyuala and says, "Hey, do you remember what Puwlee said in his shop?".

Kyuala quickly answers, "He said a lot, mostly grovelling about his crappy stock. He also said some pervy stuff too. How come?".

Amilia takes a moment before continuing, "He said that some of the Darkcross were gone. So maybe, just maybe, that fat sack of shit wasn't entirely lying".

"Wait, you think that-".

"That one of the Darkcross could've come back and, moved 'em" Amilia finishes Kyuala's sentence for her which keeps the others in silence as they ponder on that thought for a moment.

"Do you really think there's any Darkcross members left?" Lani asks.

"Most definitely. The Darkcross have been active for a few years and have been seen in a bunch of the smaller and larger settlements around the entire continent. We definitely took out a good chuck but to think we eradicated the entire nest would be foolish" Kyuala answers with an immediate and confident words.

"We also have to consider one big possibility as well" Terra interjects with Amilia asking, "What?".

"Their leader, she was a blood witch. So we have to consider the possibility that, maybe, she wasn't their only one".

Terra's words send a chill down all of their spines, making them worry even more about the missing bodies and about potential retaliation from any remaining members of the Darkcross.

The echoing silence is cold, sitting amongst them with the chilled air that suddenly sweeps in like a shroud of ice that now lays over them.

Daffodil senses the tension and so in her own way, she tried to lift the spirits of the group by saying, "Ach, dinner worry about aw that shite the now. Once we get back to Wiralsama, we'll aw get pished and feed until oor bellies burst!".

The group seem to perk up a little, the prospect of feasts and sea-deep tankards with endless ale to fill them. The thought alone warms their stomachs as they continue to ride.