Heavenly Mortals-Act One

XIV-Aetos

Aetos was positively exhausted. So exhausted that his body started ignoring the feeling.

They had just taken care of the second wave of monsters. Vouno's promised backup was nowhere to be seen. He would have kept on ranting in his head, but then Calum suddenly yelled, "They're coming!"

A wave of black burst out of the tunnel, catching them by surprise. Aetos couldn't shake the feeling that each wave seemed smarter after the last. Why was that?

He willed his whip to glow with energy. He went for the creatures' heads, decapitating several of them in a deadly glowing arc.

Aella managed to split them into three groups with two continuous blasts of wind. Aetos and Calum went to work, slashing and attacking, avoiding acidic blood. This wave was nearly twice as large as the last one. They were halfway through the first group when somehow, their right flank broke free from Aella. They surged towards them.

Aetos and Aella took off while Calum jumped out of the way, landing on top of a glowing mushroom. Immediately, the monsters started attacking the mushroom, pushing and gnawing at it.

Aella knocked them away with more wind as Calum jumped away to another mushroom, and then a tree.
Soon, Calum had made his way to a mushroom growing on the gigantic pillar.

Aella had stopped suppressing the last group, and they charged up the pillar, like hungry arachnids who had just found food. Aetos heard Calum call to him. He'd done that a lot throughout their journey.

Aetos flew towards Calum, snagged the monster closest to him and threw it at the horde. Several of them were sent tumbling, some clinging onto their brethren instead of falling all the way down. Aetos lashed at more of the monsters, trying to keep them away from Calum.

The range of Calum's sword was too short. If he fought under the current circumstances, he'd get swarmed and devoured. Aella summoned even stronger winds, trying to knock away the monsters. Calum stood there, unsure of what to do.

Aetos could tell how he was feeling in that moment-useless, unable to help in any way. It was not so different from being bound by the Apoklesti's whips.

They continued knocking the monsters off the pillar. Some of them leaping at Aetos and Aella. Aetos looked around, but the Ligovoni were nowhere in sight.

Just then, the entire cavern shook.

The creatures momentarily stopped, their heads darting around, as if trying to sense where the tremors were coming from. A section of the cavern wall crumbled away, about tens of feet from where the tunnel was. The hole created was huge, and while throwing the monsters at each other, he saw the hulking, rocky hand of a Ligovono grabbing at the bottom edge of the entrance. Help had arrived.

At the same moment, another wave of the horrifying monsters flooded out of the tunnel entrance. Instead of going for Aetos and the others, they charged towards the one Ligovono that had climbed up to the entrance and was lumbering in.

Thankfully, Aetos saw another Ligovono right behind the first. The creatures climbing up the pillar shrieked and joined the charge. The Ligovoni were more enticing targets, it seemed.

Then, it dawned on Aetos that it was because they were probably packed energy from the Ley Lines. They were Vouno's children, after all.

Calum waved to Aetos, "The cavalry has arrived!" His voice seemed a little shaky. His phobia must have made the sight absolutely terrifying for him.

Seeing the light of the outside world, Aetos saw an opportunity. He flew towards the entrance, witnessing more Ligovoni climbing the wall of the green-blanketed mountain and entering the cavern, single-file. For some reason, he found it funny. Rocks that climb, He thought.