The Great Crestmaster

Aldrich felt his scalp going numb, the numbers they could see was not the problem it's what they couldn't see, Aldrich could feel that there were many more behind these.

"What are you two doing get back in formation!" Aldrich yelled at them to wake them from their stupor.

Sam and Liam's expressions froze in place as if they were too shocked to respond. And upon hearing his words their bodies moved on reflex, this was because they were moderately experienced.

Different from Kate whom he had to lift up and pull out her sword for her. After which she finally got a grip of the current situation.

Aldrich was always on high alert so he positioned himself to the way back where they came from to make a quick escape if things went south.

Unfortunately these Moji were too many and they crawled on the surfaces of the roof and the walls, leaving a strange wet and sticky liquid in their wake. They already covered the escape rout.

"Let's only focus on getting the ones blocking the way back." Aldrich had to tell them so none would make any stupid moves.

"O-okay, yeah! They're not too strong, lets get them." Sam answered as he got his spirits back.

Sam advanced and the rest followed. Suddenly one of the Moji's mouth bloated unnaturally and spat blue spit, it hit Liam on the thigh.

"What the—"

Liam checked on his thigh but it was just fine. Nothing burned and nothing hurt. While they were distracted five Moji lunged at them wielding wood and bone clubs, Aldrich cut down two of them in midair.

The others were not so quick, Sam's knives impaled one of them and Kate slashed at the one that attacked her causing it to back away long enough for Sam to backstab it.

Liam expertly cut down the one that lunged at him. After withstanding that wave of attack, Moji seemed hesitated to continue attacking them their momentum dulled.

This was Moji were actually very cowardly from the start, they allowed them to regroup and get back in formation. Even in big numbers they were a cowardly bunch.

They were known to target the weak and overwhelm with numbers, but if they were unsure if their target was weak or strong then they probably would prob first.

Suddenly a cry rang out and at once many Moji attacked with their spit once again, this time at was aimed at the whole party. Aldrich stepped back and only some of it landed on him thanks to splash damage.

"Don't be fooled this is a tactic to distract us!" Sam yelled, "watch out for their surprise attack like earlier."

Suddenly Aldrich grabbed one of the Moji corpses on the ground and lifted it up. The corpse was turned into a pincushion by four arrows in the next moment.

"Aah!"

Aldrich glanced at Kate and cringed she was shot by three arrows one to her knee and two to her torso. She fell down convulsing and twitching.

"Lets go!"

Sam and Liam broke whatever remained of the formation and ran to the exit of this enclave. As they ran Liam suddenly tripped and got back up again only to fall back a second time.

"What the fuck!"

It was that spit, it made it hard to run or make any sudden movements, it became too slippery. Aldrich and Sam both had the least amount and so the could move much better.

Sam ran past the many Moji blocking the way, some of them attacked him and slowed him down especially when he was unluckily shot with an arrow in the back.

Aldrich was much faster than Sam and he wasn't just running he was unleashing a brutal slaughter of any Moji that dared block his way and soon enough the Moji were taking the initiative to target Sam instead of Aldrich.

Aldrich who understand the nature of these monsters knew that the best way to handle them was not by running blindly. He had to demonstrate to them that he was not an easy target.

And indeed, Sam who was purely escaping and showing them his back looked the weaker of the two and thereby the preferred target. Which allowed Aldrich to make a clean escape.

Well, relatively clean. Aldrich ducked down and rolled many arrows hit where he was just now. This was one of the reasons Aldrich didn't just kill them all.

Arrows in the dark where he had a visibility disadvantage were simply too much. Even if he could evade and dodge some of them now he was in no place to confront the Moji.

Another impatient roar echoed in the cave and a blur darted out of the cave's depth. Aldrich glimpsed it, in the dim light of the lanterns, it was as big as a human and lizard-like tail with green seaweed-like hair.

It struck the fallen but alive Liam with it's giant bone club and flattened his ribs.

"Aaaaah!"

This was the Moji chieftain, it was a rare breed among them and it commanded the entire tribe. It was stronger and faster than it's peers and much more violent too.

But it rarely participated in the hunt, most of the time it would send it's underlings to take care of that, later it would take what parts it liked in the prey and left the rest for the subordinates.

However it seemed that Aldrich's killing spree had made it feel threatened.

Liam screamed a guttural cry before he was silenced forever. Aldrich was already on the run, and Sam although held down by many Moji still ran carrying them with him in desperation.

Aldrich climbed the rope as fast as he could but before he could get far his foot was pulled down from the ankle.

"No! Don't leave! I order you! I'm the leader! Take me with you." Sam shouted. That's right he was still the leader and in the quest his words were absolute.

"Let go! You fucking loser! We're in this mess because of you!" Aldrich answered by kicking his hand with his other leg, with his strength that one hit broke Sam's hand.

The sound of breaking bones echoed in the well. But, before Aldrich could get back to climbing back up his ankle was caught once again by Sam using his other hand.

Sam was weighted down by all the Moji that were hanging on his body. The chieftain was only a few steps away and the whole hoard that were hesitant before were encouraged by his presence and all of them were now coming in a single unstoppable wave.

"Fucking bastard! Let. Go!" Aldrich used the sword to cut off the rope ladder under him and then he gave a final kick to Sam's hand, breaking it too.

Aldrich quickly climbed up and from the top he could see Sam glaring at him while being devoured by the hoard of Moji.

'Glare at me all you want from down there.'

The nerve of some people… even though Sam and his friend were the reason why this happened, he actually felt indignant as if he didn't cause two innocent people to die.

Aldrich knew they wouldn't follow him up here because they were purely subterranean monsters, they wouldn't come up to the surface unless there were special circumstances.

Unlike other subterranean monsters like the Troglodytes that made frequent surface raids.

But just to be absolutely sure Aldrich rolled back what remained of the rope.

"What… happened? Where are the rest of the adventurers?"

Aldrich looked over and it was the Kazt family that gathered a good distance away from him and looked scared and confused.

"Oh, it's you guys. The rest of the group, unfortunately… didn't make it. Thanks to Sam, our leader's sacrifice… I was the only one that made it... *sob*"

Aldrich said looking traumatized, and just as scared as the rest of them. Unfortunately he didn't know how to cry on command.

The eldest Kazt son came over to pat him on the back, "no, no, this must be what he wanted. He wanted you to get out here. To live!"

"You're right! He must have wanted me to warn you guys. You have to block the opening of this well quickly!" Aldrich bit his lips as if to not allow himself to grieve now.

"Get help from the rest of the villagers if you have to. I have to go and report this to the guild someone will come here to avenge my friends."

"You're injuries… you should rest first…"

"No!" Aldrich replied, determination burning in his eyes, "I must report to the guild, at once."

After saying that Aldrich promptly left the farm and then made his way back to the village square where he stopped a wagon heading to Voryhrm and rode with.

His clothes were in tatters blood spots were not yet dry on his clothes. But he didn't give in to despair despite his loss.

This particular feeling was not an act or a front he was seriously worried that he had failed the quest and the the exam by extension.