Spirit Taming

Chapter 728: Caged Beasts

Moving in silently, the squadron that Clark had become part of did not show any signs of fear. Instead, they made sure to show that they were more than ready. The elves with daggers in hand were prepared to leap in to any battle. The archers had their arrows ready to be drawn back in a single breath if need be.

This seriousness only escalated as one elf at the font stopped everyone. They knelt to the ground and began fiddling with a small pile of leaves from all the dead sunlight oaks.

'Poison needle trap- uncommon

This poison needle trap was created so that those that stepped on it would be pierced by needles. The springs in the trap will cause the needle to shoot up out of the ground and pierce the foot. From there, poison from various sources will be injected.

The poison vial within this uses the demonic monster potion created using the cursed demon blood and a dark bat. To disarm this trap…'

Clakr saw that there had to be many of these traps here. For those that would enter here, they would have to walk in a certain way. When his eyes drifted up, he saw teams of elves disarming these traps all around. When they were done with one. they would move to another.

This was something that would be radically underlooked by many people. The elves were used to hiding and setting their traps within the forest. They were hidden fighters. Hiding in stealth with an arrow to hunt prey or using their daggers in the same way. Humans had never fought them within forest before. That was where they had been lucky.

Even with the way that the elves' training was set up, they had branches, vines, and various other obstacles built in to their training grounds. The group ahd seen this when they were training. While they had not thought about who that influenced the elves overall, now they could see it.

The traps that the elves made would normally use a natural poison, but since some of the elves had become cultists here, they ahd influenced how the blood moon cult base had been defended. This was why there were no guards. They didn't need guards at all. They had traps that would create a monster out of an enemy when they tread on their traps.

It was almost enlightening watching the finesse in the elves' movements. They had a delicate hand when it came to removing the springs of trap after trap. Clark calmly explained to the leader of this squad that the vials were dangerous. They would literally create monsters when they were injected within a body.

This led to a second group collecting them for burning. The elves would dispose of these poison without any hesitation. That was how the vials that had been taken from the brainwashed victims had been handled. Burned weight in front of the matriarch to ensure that not a single fool had any thought of using them for strength. There was always going to be someone with a foolish idea like that.

Once a path was made, the movements in to the dungeon were made. Clark felt the intense changes in the air as they made their way inside. He was in the leading group due to his strength being the greatest out of his group. But he didn't expect the feeling of the air to be spo stagnant.

The air itself made him feel that they had walked in to an area full of rot and decay. This would be why the outside trees had begun to rot. However, it was much worse as he noticed various metal cages within the cavernous dungeon atmosphere.

While it was still dimly lit, certain dark corners had been sectioned off with tough forged metal bars. These places had different bests trapped, dark spirits included.

'Dark spirit- uncommon

This is a beast created through darkness energy condensing and gaining sentience. It had a brief stage as a dark wisp before it was filled with enough energy to take this from. Normally it would not have a solid enough body for it to be able to influence things physically. However, due to the strong darkness energy within this environment, it is able to manifest a solid body upon birth.

While it needs to constantly absorb dark energy to be able to grow, it is often times not aggressive unless attacked. When attacked, it will condense dark claws to slash at whatever is harming it. This will leave behind dark decaying energy that will cause a rotting effect on the wounds.

While it is very limited, it has the chance to grow in to a great dark spirit, or a dark knight. A spirit that awakens its purer darkness energy to create a hollow armor of darkness. Sometimes referred to as a hollow knight.

They are weaker to light based attacks since it is in direct contrast to their typing…'

The dark spirits were all clearly forming their bodies in these darker corners. That was why the metal bars had been created. To trap them so that they could not form again and move through the dungeon. It also made sure that they could be taken from there at any time. Evidence of this was all over the cleared center of this cavernous area.

Smaller cages with trapped dark spirits forcing them to be stationary. Forcing them to be experimented on. "Intruders!" a roar of anger erupted after the shout. A single whip like tentacle of dark energy slashed out at the group of elves with Clark.

Unfortunately for the sudden attacker, the elves had already let go of the arrows before the attacker had even gotten close to them. Six arrows had pierced the cultist's neck, no, the monster's neck.

His body had been partially made black by fusing with a dark spirit. The rest appeared to have a slight rotting illness due to that. But it had been held back enough that the cultists were able to use dark energy to attack with one of their limbs.

The dark spirit they had been slicing pieces off of was trembling in its cage. Trapped for too long. Forced to be experimented on. "We have been found! Move forward and free these beasts!" Clark's anger erupted. The dragon energy was radiating through the first floor of the dungeon.

Crim took his place as armor to defend Clark. But this had also woken Shy from her rest. While she was not at perfect strength, she was at home in this dark atmosphere. She also felt the rage that Clark possessed seeing so many beasts abused just on this first floor.

The elves entering behind received the message that they had been found out. But they had already cut off every exit. Nothing would be able to escape them. They would focus on saving the beasts here while backing up the first group.

Two off shoot passageways were already being taken down. Maria partnered with one group while Isa with the other. Both working to free beasts as their main priority. The elves taking the lead with the exceptional bowmanship and sneaky dagger attacks. The monster cultists with dark spirit abilities were easily taken down in minutes.

The dunedin trembled from below as the cultists began to push back up and attack. Various attacks came from the forward most passageway. They had heard the warning and knew of the dangers coming.

What they didn't know about the dangers, were that the dangers had already wrapped them in a trap. Shy was using the darkness to act as the best hiding place for her threads. The shadow threads had snaked their way in to the depths of the shadow lighting. Right around the ankles of the cultists coming up from the second floor of the dungeon.

As they tried to attack the elves, they were all thrown off balance at the same moment. This was the perfect opportunity for the elves to attack. Arrows and dagger slashes came at the monsters that had once been elves and humans.

It was a brutal offensive that the elves felt was being guided by an unseen hand. They had no idea that Shy was playing such a large role since she was handing on to Clakr's back securely. Seemingly not moving whatsoever.

"Stick close to the shadows. My [partner will keep throwing them off so you can keep attacking without them realizing." Clark's orders were heard and a few of the dagger wielding elves responded immediately. They liked the open targets that would prevent them from taking damage. Especially since the second floor cavern path was narrow and inclined. They had less line of sight.

What Clark knew though, was that there would be more dangers ahead. "Clark, my squad has joined yours. The melee fighters said that they needed to group up to move in formation." Ella had joined Clark seamlessly. But it was clear she had seen the dark spirits and knew that they had once been wisps. Her Face was twisted in anger.