Soon their training time was over. Sweat trickled on some of the member's faces and they all gathered in front of the cave and looked at the looming darkness.   

“Team, let’s go” ordered Vlad. 

And so, the ten players headed into the darkness.

“Should I summon my heavenly sphere?” asked Emma.

“No, not necessary. There should be light sources ahead” said Vlad.  

What he said turned out to be the truth. Soon purple, cyan and white diamonds that were stuck to the ceiling began to illuminate the place.

“It’s so pretty” said Mei.

“Shouldn’t these be worth at least a few golds?” asked Amanda

“Do not touch any emeralds or crystals that may appear on our way. It’s a trap. It’ll affect your mind if you do. That’s how the mousers of the caves were formed. They were normal people just like us. But the effects of the crystals hypnotized them to stay here. The ones who stayed, they all multiplied” said Vlad while advancing forward.

“Yikee” exclaimed Emma

“Wait…I thought it was impossible to breed in this virtual world” said Mikhail.

“Is that really your concern?” asked Bold.      

“Stop”

At Kenji’s command, everyone froze.

“What?” hissed Bold but all he got in return was a shallow “shut up”.

Moments later a purple vermin jumped out of the darkness towards them. Vlad was fast enough to slash its guts with his sword and the beast immediately fell to the floor. Natalia and Thompson swiftly entered from both sides and stabbed the beast out of its misery. Vlad kicked the mouser to make sure it was dead. They walked around the remains of the mouser and strolled towards the abyss. This time, more cautious than ever.

And soon enough the walls surrounding them disappeared and they were now walking along a dark barren land, with no guidance. It was immensely dark. They couldn’t even see their fellow teammates and only navigated their way by hearing one another’s footsteps.  Realizing that they mustn’t keep this up for long Vlad paused.

“Heavenly sphere and triplet orbs, NOW”

In a moment Kenji and Emma activated their spells and the yellow orb illuminated their surroundings while the other three orbs flew to different directions to enlighten the surroundings. Soon the three orbs showed that not one, not two but dozens of mousers had already gathered around them. Their mouth was watery and their eyes were fiery. Only the path in front of them was yet to be occupied by those monsters.

"W-what the fuck" mumbled Bold.  

“Shit. RUN RUN RUN” cried Vlad.  

Everyone followed Vlad as he sprinted like the wind. The squirm and the laughter of the mousers still followed them. All three orbs Kenji made, charged and blasted the mousers that came close to the team. One mouser managed to lunge at them but Mikhail stabbed it and kicked it away.

Bold fired a camel formed shagai at the mousers that attempted to reach the group from the rear. But the mousers did not give up and swarmed behind them as a wave and closed in on them. Diego threw his ‘sandsink’ spell at the ground beneath them. Some of the mousers fell into the sinking sand with their faces but the others gave no heed and simply rushed over their fellow comrades.

“Kenji, light the way. Where the hell are we going” yelled Vlad.

Kenji summoned the triplet orbs again and this time threw all three into the path beyond them. And as the orbs traveled further away it revealed a tunnel that was just ahead.

“Yes, go go go” yelled Vlad.  

But their hope turned to despair as dozens of mousers came out of the tunnel and blocked the way.

“Serpent's strike”

Thompson blasted some of the mousers but it was far from enough to clear the way. Kenji blasted all three orbs at the monsters. Some of them cried in agony and fell to the ground while others ran away out of fear. Natalia activated her ‘shard wave’ at them causing the leftover mousers to wright in pain as they got stabbed by the ice needles. But even when all of them were put to their death they still proved to be a hindrance. The mousers had grabbed unto one another in death which created a barrier in itself.

Vlad was the first to arrive in front of the pile of corpses and climbed onto it. But one of the surviving mousers jumped out of the dead corpses and grabbed hold of Vlad and bit his throat. Vlad cried in agony and fell into the tunnel and rolled on the ground with the troublesome mouser. Thompson, Natalia and Kenji all skillfully jumped over the corpses while protecting their other teammates from the mousers that gave chase after them.

And Natalia was especially quick to dash towards Vlad and slash the beast that hung around his torso. The beast screeched, turned around and threw an ugly roar at her but Natalia stabbed the beast, raised her sword with it and threw the dead beast to the side.

“Vlad, are you okay?”

“Fine fine. Just freaking MOVE”. 

While Natalia helped Vlad to get to his feet the other teammates jumped off the corpses of the beasts and entered the tunnel. Diego and Mikhail were the last to enter. And just then a mouser who was silently following them jumped towards Diego but Mikhail drilled a dagger into the beast’s chin. Despite the heavy damage, the mouser jumped at Mikhail when it landed on the ground but Diego kicked the fucker and it flew backward and landed on the pile of corpses. But dozens of mousers came crawling down from the pile of corpses. 

“Amanda, a wall. Hurry!”

When Vlad uttered those words Mikhail and Diego moved away from the mouth of the tunnel allowing for Amanda to create a thick wall that completely covered the entrance.

“Are we safe?” asked Bold.

But following his words roars of madness could be heard from the other side of the wall. Soon small cracks started to appear in it.

“We have to move, NOW” ordered Vlad and everyone followed him and ran across the tunnel. They ran and ran until the tunnel separated into two and they stopped.

“Umm, which way?” asked Thompson a bit timidly.

But before Vlad could make a decision, roars and screeches were heard from the left tunnel and soon swarms of mousers became visible. Just then Kenji realized there were also roars and screeching coming from behind them too. Indicating that the wall had already fallen.

“I think that pretty much answers it” said Mikhail sarcastically and they all headed into the right tunnel.

They were running as fast as they could. Soon different paths started to appear before them. Vlad fully realized that there was no time for idle decision making and took turns at random until they were out of the tunnels and arrived in a wide area. But that wide-area was restricted by the greeting of an avalanche. Beneath the square land that they occupied ran a strong water current. It splashed its mighty waves at the enormous spikes that bulged out from the waters. It’s thunderous sound echoing in the temple of darkness.

“Oh god, what do we do?” panicked Emma.

“Any bright plans to save us, leader?” said Diego mockingly.

Vlad gazed at his surroundings until he heard screeches coming from the tunnel. At last, he made a final decision and yelled:

“JUMP”

“What?” yelled Bold.

“There is no other choice. The mousers hate water“

“You have got to be kidding” said Mei.

“Yeah. I never learned to swim” noted Mikhail.

But when the crazed eyes of the mousers beamed at them from the dark tunnel they all swallowed their complaints and jumped into the water one after another. When Bold jumped in he could feel the icy waters running through his clothes and body. And the strong current lifted his body up to the surface with its mighty strength. When he got out of the water he gasped for air but water got into his throat instead. Even amongst panic and fear, he could hear his teammates shouting.   

“Help, I can’t swim” cried Emma helplessly.

“Hang on, Emma” said Mei.

The tremendous strength of the current made everyone helplessly weak in comparison and simply dragged them into the abyss.