Chapter 152: A Silent Scream (1/2)

Mike advanced boldly down the corridor, stopping only to kill the occasional goblin or Goblin Warrior that threw itself at him in a berserk fury. The whooping hoots they issued were being translated as inarticulate howls by his Communication Magic. He didn't have a lot of experience to draw upon concerning the typical habits of the goblin species, but he was fairly certain that this was unusual behavior.

He'd actually tried talking with the first few of the creatures which he'd run across, more out of curiosity than anything else. However, they were even less communicative than animals or insects. It was almost as if their cognitive functions had been impaired in some manner.

When the spear wielder named Ophelia explained that the evolved Vargul seemed to be controlling the goblins somehow, it actually made a lot of sense. Vampires were often attributed powers related to mind control in literature, so it wasn't a far stretch to imagine that it was capable of such a thing. It wasn't really clear how the creature was managing to do so, but he figured that a little bit of investigation was in order.

Shooting a glance back at the fearful adventurers who were following his lead, Mike wondered what he should do with them. While the clear leader of the group, Ophelia, seemed like a halfway decent fighter, and the one called Ethan wasn't bad either, the other two were practically useless. If it came down to a fight, they would be more of a liability than anything. Not for the first time, he considered simply leaving them, dealing with the rest of the enemies, and then coming back once it was clear.

However, there was no guarantee that other groups of goblins might not attack them from behind while he was busy dealing with the Vargul. A part of him wondered why he'd suddenly become responsible for babysitting the group, especially since they were adventurers, and therefore should understand the risks. His benevolent side won out in the end, and he resigned himself to expending energy to make sure they didn't die in the coming fight.

After a few minutes of descending deeper into the darkness, the makeshift tunnel opened up into a large natural cavern. Mike was having flash backs to last few times he'd been in a similar situation.

[I know I asked for an interesting life, but that seems to include a lot more dank caves than I had originally anticipated. I'm going to need to make sure to bring that up to that goddess the next time I see her.]

The chamber was littered with discarded bones, but otherwise was strangely clean. It seemed whatever nested here was concerned with keeping the area tidy. In a odd recreation of his first experience fighting a Vargul, there was a crumpled form along one wall.

”Morgan!” Ophelia called, rushing over to the prone figure along with the silent Ethan. Whatever bond they held with the man evidently overcoming their fear.

Mike looked up, expecting to see the monstrous bat creature hanging from the ceiling, but it wasn't there. ”Huh.”

”Ah! I don't think he's breathing. Sir Mage, what do we do?” Ophelia yelled from her position near the fallen adventurer.

Mike scanned the room, but didn't see any sign of the monster, and didn't detect any hostile intent, although that had been proving a slightly unreliable lately, so he kept his guard up. Looking back at the two adventurers who had remained behind, he motioned for them to follow, and started cautiously walking towards Morgan's body.

He was fully expecting an attack while they were moving, but nothing had happened by the time he'd joined Ophelia and Ethan. Keeping his focus on the two exits to the chamber, Mike took a quick glance at Morgan and concluded that he was dead.

The grey haired man, who looked to be in his early fifties, was covered in minor wounds, that spoke of a desperate fight against terrible odds, but were not necessarily lethal. However, something had torn a section of his throat out. Judging from the fact that blood was no longer flowing from any of his injuries, it was clear that the senior adventurer's heart was no longer beating.

Knowing that the newbies wouldn't accept that pronunciation without some degree of ceremony, he went through motions of healing and even attempted to force some mana into Morgan's body, but accomplished nothing.

”I'm sorry. He's gone.” Mike whispered softly to the man's students.

Ophelia's face twisted in anguish and guilt, tears already streaming down her face as she started to sob uncontrollably. ”W-we should have stayed with him. If he had someone to watch his back....”

Ethan and Lonnie broke down as well, sobbing like children. Ruby on the other hand simply collapsed to her knees, a blank look on her face. She was evidently in shock.

”I'm sorry for your loss, but we should get moving. I'll guide you out before coming back and taking care of the rest.” On one hand, Mike could sympathize with their grief, but on the other, he was acutely aware that they were still deep inside the lair of a powerful monster that could tear these newbies apart with ease. Mourning could wait.

”We're not leaving him, not again!” Ophelia spoke emphatically between sobs. It seemed to be a sentiment shared by Lonnie and Ethan.

Knowing that arguing would accomplish little with their current emotional state, Mike acquiesced. ”Alright, but you will need to carry him. I need to be ready in case our enemy shows up.”

He turned to Ruby, who was still staring blankly at Morgan's corpse, and sighed internally. This kind of trauma would be difficult to recover from. In his old world this kind of thing would have meant years of therapy, at the very least. However, he didn't know what the state of the mental health industry was like in this one. Even though it was really his concern, he felt some degree of responsibility to the beastman after saving her life.