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Felix startled when the fox transformed, but it wasn't unusual, just unexpected.
"Sounds like our best bet," Aurelius said, turning to Caelum, "Go ahead and do it, if you'd like."
Felix kept an eye on what was going on below. He could've sworn he saw movement, or at least shadows fall across the ground below. He frowned a bit.
"Hey, I think there's something else down there. Let's hurry if we can. They might be in danger."
"Right… just a second." Caelum stepped out into the hole, but strangely, his foot didn't fall. He just stayed suspended in the air. He started stepping downwards, creating a winding staircase of sorts out of the shadows. He soon reached the bottom and got Azel to follow him back up. Elio examined the fox boy curiously once the two of them were out of the hole.
Snarls and screeches rang out from the hole as a pack of ghouls ran to where Azel had just been. Felix winced at the thought of that poor fox boy getting eaten alive.
"Who are you?" Aurelius asked, "And more importantly, how did you get down there? Did you see anything? We're-"
"Ah, give 'em a break already, Auri. Let the poor kid catch their breath before you start interrogating," Felix complained, "Easy does it. First of all, are you alright?"
Felix turned his gaze from his friend to the fox boy in front of them.
"Uh…" Azel froze up a bit when he was suddenly bombarded with questions, his attention on the ghouls in the hole. He could easily be dead. "I'm fine…" He replied when he was finally able to take a breather. "Thanks for helping me. The ground just sort of… gave out. I think it got loose and weak because of all the roots from these plants."
"That's good," Felix said, giving Azel a smile and a nod, "We're on a commission to take care of, well, this… whatever this is. If you know anything, we'd be grateful for the help. But I also understand if you'd want to be on your way."
Aurelius stared down into the hole, where Felix still held a gentle glow.
"The nest couldn't be down there, right? It looks too hard for them to climb back up, unless there's another exit," he said, thinking out loud, "We ought to keep looking around this hole, so if there is a nest, we don't go down there and get ambushed."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're getting way ahead of yourself. Who said we were going down there?"
"Well, I can try and help, but my power isn't all that helpful…" Azel looked down into the hole, bouncing a little on the balls of his feet. "I can shift into a fox, but that's about it. It's good for sneaking around and stuff, but I'm weaker and smaller like that…" He hummed thoughtfully. "I thought I saw some ghouls heading back to that left corner before I fell, though."
"Thanks," Felix replied, "We'll head that way then. If you want to help us with scouting, you can. But then again, you've no obligation to help us. It is pretty dangerous out here. But between the rest of us, I think we've got the fighting under control at least."
"Right…" Aurelius said pensively, "So if the nest is that direction, what do we do?"
"Wait for them to trickle out, and once we've thinned them out, I can smoke out the nest," Felix suggested.
"I can try and help. I can scout ahead and help you figure out where they are." Azel shrugged. "I'm faster than the ghouls are as a fox, so I wouldn't have to worry as much about getting caught." Caelum nodded a bit as he listened.
"Alright. You can do that if you want to. Be careful, though. We don't want anyone getting hurt." He said softly, to which Elio nodded.
"Yeah! He always gets super pissed when I'm 'reckless' and get myself hurt."
"Hey! Me too!" Aurelius chuckled, pointing at Felix.
"Good fucking god, Auri. It's almost like throwing your life away isn't funny," Felix sighed, rolling his eyes, "Anyway, you can- I don't believe we got your name? But you can draw the ghouls out to us if you'd like as you scout. If things get dangerous, you can pull back."
"Oh, sorry… my name is Azel." He replied, a slight smirk on his face. "I'll… uh… I'll go do that. There should be some ghouls here soon, so keep an eye out." They shifted into a fox and ran off through the trees to find the ghouls. Caelum sighed softly, running his fingers through his hair.
"At least this guy isn't an idiot. Eli's always trying to get himself killed." Elio stuck his tongue out playfully.
"Am not! I just like to live life to the fullest!"
"Well, if you keeping 'living life to the fullest', you won't have a life to live!"
"If only-" Aurelius started.
Felix cleared his throat in warning to the other.
"Alright, let's prepare for combat," Felix said, trying to push away from any further conflict, "Like Caelum said, we are going to be careful. The less injuries we leave this place with, the better. With any luck, these ghouls should be all we have to face, but I have a feeling that's not the case."
Felix poised to fight, watching and listening carefully ahead, where Azel had gone. Aurelius eventually decided to take to his side, pulling out a long blade from its sheathe on his hip.
Soon, muffled screeching from the forest started growing louder. Caelum formed a sword for himself out of the shadows and held tightly to it, changing his stance so he'd be prepared to fight. Elio started sparking, and soon, electricity was traveling across his body. Azel dashed through the trees behind the others, tailed by a few ghouls.
Felix saw Azel tear through the trees, and he ran in between the fox and ghouls so he could protect the other.
Flames descended from the arc he cast with his hand, and he seared the ghoul closest to Azel.
Aurelius wasn't too far behind. He ran a hand down his sword, allowing his aura to surround its length. With that, he was able to inflict decay and finish the job with a clean sword slice, all in one go. Two of the ghouls came after him. He was a little frightened. He felt swarmed. Unprepared. Yet he was able to dodge any attacks despite his panic and with a few swings of his blade, he was eventually able to take both out.
Caelum jumped into action as well, destroying a couple of ghouls with his sword. Elio ran forward into the mix, electrocuting more oncoming ghouls. He clearly had very little regard for his own safety. Azel was panting softly, hiding behind a tree while still in fox form. He didn't have any weapons, so he figured he'd be pretty useless to the actual fighting at the moment.
Felix pushed deeper into the fray.
"Think they're on the right track," he panted, cutting down another monster, "This is an awful lot of- oof!"
A ghoul came from Felix's side and lashed a claw out, catching his arm. He retaliated, burning up the wretched creature in a fiery inferno.
"Felix!" Aurelius cried out, stumbling to get closer to his friend.
"Watch your own back. I'm fine!"
Caelum took down a few more ghouls, growing worried when Elio still hadn't returned. "Christ… this dumbass. I'm going in for him." He headed further into the forest, killing any ghouls in his path so that he could try and find Elio. Azel transformed back into a person and hesitantly approached, holding his fists up even though he knew they would do nothing.
"Wait! You can't just-" Felix started, running after them.
Aurelius took the aura of decay off his blade and tossed it to Azel.
"Hopefully you won't need it, but just in case."
He too followed after the group, helping cut down stray ghouls along the way.
"Thanks…" Azel accepted the weapon and ran after them, occasionally swinging at a ghoul, but making it pretty obvious that he wasn't super experienced with fighting. They soon stumbled across Caelum trying to drag an injured Elio back through the trees.
"Caelum, look out!" Aurelius cried out, sprinting past Felix.
He threw out a wall of magic that shriveled everything that touched it, including a couple of ghouls that had been about to attack again. For a few seconds, he held the wall up, until he was able to determine what was past it.
"Nest. I see the edge," he grumbled, "Looks like Elio got in some damage. Felix-"
"Wait 'til we're ready. It's not going anywhere. Elio, Caelum, are you two alright?" Felix replied, keeping an eye out for any more enemies.
"I'm fine, but Eli's not." Caelum sighed and kept dragging his friend, looking annoyed and worried. "He's not conscious right now. He's got burns across his body, especially his arms, and he's got a pretty deep wound on his leg. I wrapped a pressure bandage around it, but he's starting to bleed through…"
"Burns- from his powers or something else?" Aurelius questioned, still holding the wall in place, "Did you get a good look at what was back there?"
Felix frowned and glanced back and forth between Elio and the area ahead of them.
"Do we need to pull back?" He asked seriously, "It's not worth our lives."
"Felix! You-"
"I what? If need be, we pull back, and we bring reinforcements. It would be a waste to die here."
Felix moved around his utility belt and pulled out a vial, which he then handed to Caelum.
"Healing potion. Not a long-term fix, but it'll bolster him to the end of this, unless you want him to stay down for his own safety. Then, you're welcome to use it if you need it."
"Burns from his powers. He's been overusing them." Caelum sighed, looking up from his friend for a moment. "I can see the nest a bit from here. There's some more ghouls crawling out. We'll have to destroy the whole nest to deal with the problem." He accepted the healing potion from Felix with a soft thanks and started using it on Elio. Azel looked a little uneasy, gripping his weapon tighter. He didn't like situations like this where he had to think about a solution.
"Right. This might be where I come into play," Felix said, rolling up his sleeves, "Best way to deal with monster nests is to burn them. The tunnels are too small for anyone to be inside- and even if anyone was inside, they'd be dead. Auri, watch my back?"
"Y-yes! Absolutely!" Aurelius replied, pulling down his wall and glancing back at the others, "You can help us if you want, but I think we have this under control."
Caelum nodded a bit. "We'll stay back for now. Call if you need help." He continued treating Elio, who was starting to stir. As soon as he woke up, Caelum started scolding him for being so reckless. Azel stayed back with the two of them, figuring he'd just get in the way if he tried to help.
"Got it," Aurelius replied, jogging lightly after Felix.
When he turned around, Felix had already started a blaze around the nest, which he was closing in on the monsters.
"Good god, Felix!"
"Do me a favor and pick off any that escape, yeah?"
"Of course-"
Aurelius drew a dagger from his boot with one hand and had the other free to channel magic.
From the nest, they could hear howls and screeches rise into the air as the remaining monsters inside were burnt to a crisp. Not many managed to escape the blaze, but for those that did, Aurelius waited to cut them down.