Ch-1.4
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Not all the bats could learn stealth; mainly, due to their size. Still, the result meant that Creeps companions at least had the capacity to learn.  However, only four out of twenty-two bats did learn the skill stealth -including Creep-; everyone else either died or turned level five. The group ended up hunting close to a dozen humans with their new tactics, allowing creep to reach level four, but then a group of three humans walked into the chamber.

Creeps ears twitched hearing their arrival. A vague sense of danger alerted him. Although his group had killed many humans, the ax had fallen on both the parties. It had taken eleven from his side to kill nine of them. But even death hadn’t been able to stop their invasion. Thanks to the human’s stubbornness, Creep was able to find a method to gauge their strength. The analysis was based on three basic things: Group strength, equipment, and whether they brought a torch or not. Every human equipped in close range weapons with no light source was named a pushover. Only those groups that brought a source of light with them, and specialized in the long ranged weapon, were considered a threat.

The noises had proved his conjecture by giving him a point in wisdom. And Analyze had risen by a level; strengthening his reason.

This new group of humans wasn’t carrying a torch. So he should be feeling safe, right? But his sound sense was telling him otherwise. Their steps were confident. Their heartbeats were normal. He had heard drumming sound coming from the humans who were nervous or in fear. This trio was neither nervous nor in fear. And the weapons they carried were also of the worst kind.

The group consisted of a female archer, an armored warrior, and a white-robed priest. The archer looked like any other archer Creep had seen during his time in the chamber: Tight pants which tore with a captivating sound; light-colored shirt under tanned leather armor, which was difficult to bite into; a bow on the back along with a quiver carrying arrows. But this archer was different from the rest, as she carried the bow in her hand, and her eyes stared directly at the roof without wandering off to somewhere else.

Creep considered an archer a threat of the highest kind. Even the spearman who had taught him a lesson on the wonders of fire wasn’t placed so high. Although spears had long range, he had seen archers snipe his fellows from the entrance! Fights don’t get uglier than that.

The armored human who walked in front with his shield stretched forward was your typical warrior. He carried a long sword and was clad in a complete suit of armor, turning him invulnerable to the bat's bites, making him almost unstoppable. Creep hadn’t seen a priest before. The only human he had seen wearing such garments was a female. She hadn’t carried any weapon, but the strength of her exploding orbs of fire had him hiding at the first spectacle. He was sure it was only thanks to the adult bat that his group had survived. He didn’t consider her-kind a threat, but an absolute nightmare; something he didn’t want to face alone.

The bats who were too dumb to learn stealth were screeching feverishly, drowning the sound of their clicks, oblivious to the thoughts rampaging through creeps mind.

“-look at that!” The priest in white robe said, pointing into the chamber.
“What is it, Joshua?” the warrior asked.

“Look at the weapons scattered on the ground! Just how many must have died here, for so many to still remain around?!”
“I only see one rusted sword- what are you talking about?”

“Oh wait, let me…” Joshua said and turned Creeps fear into reality.

[You have learned to sense threat based on your observation and analysis.]
[Sound sense has risen to level 5.]
[INT +2]
[You can now sense the level of threat that your target possesses toward you.]

In creeps perspective, crimson aura enveloped the humans; they glowed in like the color of blood, meaning only one thing… deadly.  

Meanwhile, Josh joined his hand in front of his chest -as if praying- and when his hands parted, a light emitting marble appeared between them, growing to the size of a peeled coconut, as his hands grew further apart.  It hovered in front of him, bringing everything hidden in a five-meter radius into the light.

“Ah- you were right.”

“Alright, send it in Josh. And you-” The archer squinted at the warrior. “-I want you to pay attention, alright? And no funny business,”
“Yep, I’ll be straight as a rope and stiff as your knees, captain.” He said keeping a straight face while the priest snorted, and quickly moved his eyes to face away from her.
“Just pay attention. I don’t want to become famous for losing my life to bats, because your massive nose got in the way of your swings.”
“I don’t know about my nose and swings,” squinting, the warrior said, “but something else does get in the way of my walking…”

“What are you waiting for Josh?” Ignoring the warrior’s sleazy comment she ordered, sternly. “Send the damn light ball inside the chamber. Let me see what we are facing.”
“Oh- sorry, Gwen- I mean, captain,” Josh said trying to control his cheeks from bursting with laughter. “I-I’m on it.”

Taking deep breaths, Josh lightly pushed the light ball forward. Like a log swimming on a still lake, the light ball drifted away. It only stopped after reaching the center, bringing the bats into the light.

 “There they are,” Gwen said pointing at the ceiling. The bats were slowly crawling toward them. “Two teens and six younglings, they are so cute.” She added.
“-look hideous to me.” The warrior said.
“You know what Jason,” she said- pulling, setting, aiming and firing an arrow toward the biggest bat of the bunch in one set motion. “-you need to learn to appreciate your opponents for the things they give you.”

The arrow sailed toward the thing, but a scream stopped the arrow mid-air, and it fell toward the ground. The arrow falling, the bats taking flight, everything happened in a snap.

“I missed?” Gwen’s eyes open wide in shock.
“They are coming!” Jason yelled as he watched the bats opening their wings and taking flight. The younglings at the front, the teens on the back, they attacked.

Josh coughed-startled; Jason slapped his shin with his swords face, taking the position.
“Josh, get behind me! Jason-”
“I’m on it!”

“Should I conjure a barrier?” Josh asked.
“No need.” The warrior refuted as they shifted to an in-line formation. With his shield held to defend a bash and the sword raised high, Jason yelled, “COME!” as a volley of arrows flew past him cutting through the air, creating sharp whoosh sounds. Two out of the three arrows struck the younglings, pinning them dead to the roof, the last one missed a teen by a hairs margin smashing through a stalactite-bouncing off.

Gwen got ready to fire another volley, but suddenly the light ball went dark with a plop, hiding her targets.

“What the hell?” “JOSH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?” They simultaneously yelled.

Darkness enveloped the whole chamber. The situation turned quickly. With the sudden shift in light source, they lost sight of the bats, becoming blind ducks. Their reactions delayed for a small second, the bats attacked ferociously, with the intent to kill. A wave of sound struck Gwen, instantly paralyzing her.

Josh conjured another light ball just in time for Jason to see a teen flying toward Gwen like a bullet with his wings tucked in. Dropping his sword, he jumped in front of her with his shield tightly held with both hands, to protect her. The teen struck him hard. Because he was mid-flight when the impact happened, he was flung backward into Gwen like a bowling ball. The sudden impact and pain released Gwen’s paralysis, but she fell head first onto the floor and immediately lost conscious, bleeding.

“Gw-!” Jason groaned in pain as he bounced past the others, out of the chamber. Outside, he stood up staggering, with his vision blurring- a flat ringing sound blocking his hearing. He almost yelled ‘GWEN, JOSH!’ but noticed a translucent globe forming around his companions and calmed down. The barrier- Josh! He thought. Blinking unceasingly, he walked back into the chamber. His hearing and vision were slowly returning.  The pain though remained, squeezing his abdomen.

“There are three teens, Jason! The bats know stealth! And… there could be an elder here.” He heard Josh yell from inside the barrier. The bat's clamor was drowning Josh’s voice, but he heard him. Nodding -to convey he understood- he looked around.

The younglings and teens weren’t a problem. They had surprised them, but they were too small and fragile to fatally wound them. Josh knew this, and so did Jason.

‘An elder…’ This thought, however, made him groan. They hadn’t fought against an elder before. But they had heard stories of other parties fighting elder bats and the stories didn’t differ much from their current situation. The teens of this chamber fought on par with an adult from the depth. And if there really was an elder so high up the lair-

“Then there should be only one reason behind that… but I need to deal with that basher first.” He knew if there really was an elder here then it wouldn’t attack them until all the other bats were dead. At least, that’s what the stories told.

Jason looked up. He saw a storm of bat swirling around the barrier, lit up by its blue glow. The younglings were ecstatically screeching and scratching at the barrier, while the teens were using their skills to break the egg and get the yolk inside.

“How long will the barrier hold?”Jason asked.
“If you can kill the basher, then I’ll be able to hold on for another five minutes.”

“What about her? How is she?”
“She’s unconscious, but fine otherwise. I have already stopped her bleeding. Do you want me to cast the buff on you?”

“I think so. Yeah,” Jason said. “How long will that last?”
“It will give you three minutes. Will that be enough?” Josh said, sounding worried.

“If I can find the bugger, then sure, three minutes will be enough,” Jason said as he stepped into the chamber.

A teen bat broke off the group and flew toward him. He ignored the bat. Looked around to find his sword and picked up speed. It tried to paralyze him, but a yellow light enveloped him in time, turning him invulnerable to the paralyzing effect of the wave. The buff did nothing against the disorienting effect of the sound wave, though.

With his sword in hand and thoughts clear, Jason turned into a different being.

Next, everything happened in a flash. Josh conjured another light ball, partially lighting the chamber, and Jason hacked through the younglings like a bladed storm. The bats, helped by their extremely wise companion, responded with composure. They had a finely tuned plan, which had worked seamlessly until now.  

The bats were ordered were to remain hidden until the light source was removed. Because most groups or solo invaders brought fragile torches which were easy to extinguish -as creep had noticed happening with the spearman whose torch had extinguished upon falling into the water beneath- most fights had gone their way from the start, giving them an advantage of visibility. This time they had to improvise. The humans hadn’t brought a torch but had conjured a light source which was extremely similar to a mage's fireball, except it was very much stable.

Creep was almost unable to find a way to destroy it, but only when the screamer had deflected the arrow did an idea emerge in his mind allowing them to destroy the light ball. The idea was very simple actually. The sound wave of a screamer worked by binding every kind of energy in an object -living or material- with the wave binding the source of energy keeping the light ball floating, glowing and stable, it simply exploded; because the energy was bound very tightly, the light ball didn’t create an actual explosion and went out relatively quietly.

He still wasn’t sure about the process, but the result proved to be a significant step forward.

[You have had an incredible insight into a skills nature and function. A varied version of the skill will be available during your next skill choice.]
[WIS +1; INT+1]

Creep had even figured out that the humans couldn’t see in the darkness like them, neither could they use echolocation. This was the foundation of his plan.

The humans would have died by now, but the plan failed in front of the barrier. Because the inherent function of the barrier was to block everything, even the sound wave didn’t work on it. The basher split his head open on it, the screamers throats chocked by screaming; eventually, the tide turned when the swordsman sliced the basher into two halves, destroying their hopes.

Moreover, right after the basher’s death, the archer woke up. Even though the barrier broke soon after, the warrior-archer combo was deadly enough to sweep through the rest of them without any mishap.

Ten minutes later, all the bats -no matter in which position- had one thing in common, they were dead.

“Are you alright, Gwen?” Jason said, looking perplexed.
“Yes Jason, I’m fine.” She replied. “So can you take your hand off my shoulders?”

“Alright-alright,” he said backing off, intentionally mumbling out loud, “Geez, I at least deserve thanks.”

Red dyed Gwen’s face, but she followed through with his childish demand. “Thanks.” She said, her heart rate elevating slightly.

“OH,” surprised, Jason scratched his chin. “If I knew you would agree,” gulping down a mouthful he said, “I would have asked you for something else; like a kiss or s-” that deserved a punch and he received it without any hesitation.

“Now, now, it’s not the time or the place to act like kids. So tell me, captain, what’s next?”
“Of course,” she said with certainty. “We go deeper.”

After relaxing for an hour, they carefully collected the bat corpses and put them in a sac. Once free of the tedious process, they stood up and walked into the tunnel leading them deeper into the colony.

Moments after they left, Creep appeared on the floor. Unknown to everyone, he had calmly watched the fight take place- hiding in the shadows near the entrance. Without stopping, he carefully picked up the dagger he had hidden and flew after them- stealth hiding him and the weapon once again.

Creep-07
Level 4 Species Young Cave Bat
Health 32/32 Stamina 36
Mana 0/306 Gender Male
Titles
Emotionless,
Stats: (*) attributes can’t be enhanced with skill points.
Strength 7 Intelligence 56
Agility 11 Wisdom* 26
Constitution 5 Charm 4
Luck - Free skill points 30
Skills:
Passive Computing(3), Sound sense(5),Eidetic memory(-), Analyze(2)
Active Echolocation(3), Flying(2), Bite(2), Stealth(5), Burst(1)
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