"Why is it so dark in here," complained Judith as she stumbled over a few rocks.

The cave seemed to go in deeper than she had initially thought. She had been walking for nearly a minute however there was still no end in sight.

"What is that," whispered Judith as she saw four blue eyes float in the darkness in front of her. She could just barely make out the silhouette of the owner of the first pair of eyes.

'There are two beasts?' wondered Judith as she removed a pair of gauntlets from the satchel on her back.

[Guantlets of strength. Multiplies base strength by 1.3] said the voice in Judith's head as she wore them.

"A gift from the Ruin of the Legion," whispered Judith to herself with a smile.

"Perhaps the others retreated once they saw you. However you won't be so lucky this time," smiled Judith before turning into a yellow blur.

***

"Shouldn't we be going in?" whispered Tesse as the rest of the Riot Guild arrived in front of the cave.

"Not yet. Judith is probably struggling right now. We need the beast to be considerably weakened. Trust me, that thing is far too fast to be taken down by a single group," replied Amos as he watched the Riot Guild members walk into the cave.

***(A few minutes later)

"A cave?" wondered Ria as she reached the mouth of the cave.

'What the fuck? Where are my victims?' thought Clare, an annoyed look on her face.

"It seems we weren't the only ones that heard the gunshots," said a familiar voice as a group of people emerged from behind a thicket of bushes.

"The Hephaestus Guild," replied Ria once she recognized Fredericks's voice.

"P-Perhaps the gunshots came from inside," whispered Clare as if she were afraid of the new group in front of her.

'Something seems off about her,' thought Frederick as he heard Clare speak.

"Yes perhaps you're right," replied Frederick, giving Clare a thoughtful look.

"I know what I said earlier, however it seems the circumstances have changed. There is no way we can defeat that beast alone, our only hope is to band together," continued Frederick, a slightly embarrassed look on his face.

"If you're talking about the orc, we left it fighting with one of our summons," replied Ria

"Then what were those gunshots?" asked Frederick, confused about what was going on.

"We thought perhaps the other groups had found something, that's why we're here,"

"I guess we'll find out once we go in," said Frederick, eying the footprints that were left in the mud in front of the cave.

"Not yet," whispered Amos as the two groups entered the cave.

***

"What the fuck is this thing," gasped Judith as blood dripped down her face.

"And I can't see a damned thing in here," she complained, tripping over a pile of stones.

Her only source of light were the four gleaming eyes that stood in front of her. However, the beast moved with such speed that not even she could keep up with it.

One set of eyes remained still the entire time, only blinking occasionally. However every time Judith tried to approach it, the other beast would pounce on her, stopping her advance.

'To think this thing is still able to keep up with me, even after I took 5 agility elixirs to increase my speed,' thought Judith as she dodged the floating blue eyes that rushed towards her.

"Vice-Captain, is that you?" echoed the voice of one of her comrades.

"Attack the blue eyes. Hit it with everything you've got," shouted Judith, slamming her body into the beast.

The beast jumped off the wall, dodging all the projectiles the Riot Guild members shot at it.

The beast began rumbling in a low pitch, its eyes low as if it were stalking prey. The beast stood in front of the second set of blue eyes, as if protecting it.

"Are there two of them?" asked one of the Riot Guild members, however before he could get an answer the beast slammed its paw into the ground, sending a shockwave towards all those that stood in front of it.

The Riot Guild party fell to the ground, caught by surprise by the sudden attack. Without wasting any time, the beast pounced on the prone members. Biting off their heads before they had the chance to react.

Although the beast was still considerably fast, Judith had tired it out a bit. Its speed was now within a manageable margin, however without vision, the Riot Guild members were like sitting ducks.

***

"Do you feel that?" asked Mackenzie as she felt a shockwave pass through the ground beneath her.

"Yeah, what could have done that?" replied one of the other members of the Hephaestus Guild.

"I don't know, but let's hurry and find out. Something about all of this doesn't feel right," replied Frederick, suspicion audible in his voice.

***

"What are you two doing outside?" asked Arena as she appeared behind Tesse and Amos.

"We were waiting. Now that you're here we can go," replied Amos, standing up from where he had been hiding.

'How did she get behind us so quietly?' wondered Tesse as she followed Arena and Amos into the cave.

***

The beast had managed to kill half the Riot Guild members, it seemed to have the ability to see in the dark, giving it an advantage in this sort of environment.

However, it wasn't without injury. Judith had managed to crack its ribs once it had been too focused on killing one of her party members.

There were simply too many enemies for it to deal with alone, and with it quickly running out of stamina, it could barely keep the remaining members at bay.

"Not so tough now, are you," taunted Judith as she dodged another one of the beast's lunges.

"Is that the Riot Guild?" asked Frederick once he had made heard Judith's voice.

"Crap, their back. Kill it quickly before they steal our prize," shouted Judith, before rushing towards the beast, all her men behind her.

"I knew something felt off about this. Hurry, attack the beast as well," ordered Frederick, however, none of his guild members responded.

"What's going on?" asked Mackenzie, holding onto Fredericks's shirt to make sure she wouldn't lose him in the darkness.

"Where are all your men?" asked Ria, turning around to feel if her party members were with her.

As she felt Clare's face, a slick, cold liquid wet her hands.

"Clare are you bleeding?" asked Ria, once she smelt that it was blood.