The threat grows

It had been nearly an hour since the poor woman had been brought inside the tomb. Her cries echoes through the cavern and down the tunnels, causing a feeling of dread to spread amongst the men and women gathered to defend their position. Torches along the wall ahd kept the place lit, but several bonfires had been created from the corpses of the beasts killed in the previous raid. Helena tried to keep hipe that they wouldn't have to hild off an attack, but those hopes weren't to be.

From the leftmost tunnel, three of the creatures came into view. Two were normal, but one was much bigger. Not only that, Helena was horrified to see it produce four tentacles that ended in scythe-like blades. They were growing, evolving... Beside her, Beatrix called for the archers to fire. A volley was unleashed, but the creatures broke off their charge and slid behind their dead breathren for cover. Beatrix ordered their forces forward to push them from cover. The creatures split up and **** the soldiers and adventurers to do so as well. Beatrix and Helena found themselves and a small group taking on the larger beast while the others divided up the other two.

"It's not an Ancient, but I've never seen one like this," Beatrix confessed as she parried one scythe.

Helena dodged under another lashing blade, but before she could rise up to sever it, a normal tentacle grabbed her leg and pulled it out from under her. One of the soldiers tried to rush to her defense, but the beast swept two of it's blades across the man's chest. The scythes tore though his armor and killed him almost instantly. Helena twisted in the creature's grasp and slashed the tentacle holding her foot before kicking free. It had recoiled with a screech as her attack landed and she had to roll to the side as a balde slammed into the ground where she had just been laying.

Beatrix grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet as Ashlin and two more soldiers pushed forward with spears to try and **** the creature back. Beatrix and Helena regrouped quickly to charge again as another soldier died. Ashlin's spear had been broken, but she scooped up the dead man's weapon and twirled it to knock away a few grasping tentacles. Helena and Beatrix came in like a hurricane to support her, slicing through more tentacles and even taking off one of the blades in a whirlwind of strikes and dodges.

"Out of the way!"

Helena heard Paxia's yell and grabbed Ashlin by the collar and jerked her back from the creature just as a vial of alchemist fire flew past them. It hit the ground in front of the beast and fire sprang from the liquid as it coated the ground and the beast. It shrieked in pain and retreated back down the tunnel it had come from. Helena finally managed to catch her breath and look around, finding the other two creatures dead and their wounded fighters lucking their wounds. Besides the two that had died to the Slasher tentacle, it looked like an adventurer had also been lost to one of the normal ones. Although it had been their victory, Helena grieved the losses.

"The woman," she asked Paxia.

"Resting lass. We took care of the offspring."

"I say that we take tonight to rest and then get out of this hellish place'" Beatrix said as she pulled identification tags off of the bodies of her two men.

"Agreed. We've found you and learned more than enough new information to pass on to our allies."

Helena saw Ashlin pulling Groban into the tomb, a goofy and needy smile on her face. Chima was near a far wall, helping relieve thenyoung man that had helped her out a few nights before, and Natalie was busy checking her equiptment. With a thankful sigh that her friends were ok, Helena went to find a place to rest.

It listened to the whimpering of the broodmothers as the venom high left them wanting more even as their stomachs were bloated with young ones. These three would need to last longer than the last one. It regretted that it had been unable to keep her alive. After centuries of being trapped, it's desires had outweighed it's reason. No, these would live much longer and happier lives.

It's young had started to thrive, but now the cattle on the surface were fighting back. Just hours ago, one of it's first born had returned from hunting, missing several limbs and suffering from horrible burns. It alone couldn't protect it's young. No, they needed to expand and find the other Ancient soon. Then they could truly rule the cattle.