The tree creature and all its offspring were dead; the latter evidently died defending the former.
The tree itself was shredded, flesh hanging off, and blood flowing from countless deep wounds, which appeared to be claw marks and bites.
The Offspring were ripped limb from limb, organs, body parts, and blood covered the ground, combined in a disgusting, stinking sludge.
The sight was beyond horrific to behold, and the two of them had never been more eager to flee.
And of course, there was no reason not to listen to this urge; they had already investigated the sight as much as they could, and it was advantageous to leave this area as quickly as possible, both to try and reach the other group and to stay out of a possible hunting area of an even more dangerous creature.
.
.
.
A while after they had left the horrid scene, the pair of them felt a large weight leave their shoulders and sighed in relief.
This was because they had finally spotted another human.
It was the archer from the other group, a brown-haired girl of short stature who wore a green tunic with a practical set of leather pants and a worn-out navy hood.
She looked equally relieved to see them, and as they closed the gap between each other, Icarus began to fear the worst.
Perhaps there was no way out of this place, and she was the only surviving member of the other group.
Thankfully, his fears were not made into reality; the girl hurriedly explained that she had been sent ahead to find them, they had indeed found what appeared to be the exit, rather quickly in fact, and had been waiting for the last half a day for any sign of them.
Seeing as she was likely the fastest and stealthiest, Icarus supposed it made sense.
The three of them travelled in wary silence, but it seemed that this stretch was either safe or abandoned by the creatures that dwelled on this floor for darker reasons.
A minute later, in a tentative voice, the girl finally addressed the elephant in the room.
"So... the rest of them... how did they?.."
Icarus exchanged glances with Skew before looking back at the girl.
"We were ambushed; those things are way more cunning than you would think. Did you guys encounter them?"
She shook her head
"No, not since we separated, the only ones we saw were... dead, it was strange though, they were hung up on vines or mangled, as if something had hunted them and left the corpses for later..."
Skew shuddered, and Icarus had much the same reaction.
Whatever had killed the ones they had found was a wide range predator and was easily killing entire groups of the beastlike titans.
"Sounds similar to something we found. We had better hope we find the exit to this place before that thing finds us."
It was the girl's turn to shudder before nodding her head in acknowledgment and increasing the pace slightly.
Hours crept by, and they finally saw the first member of the group.
Positioned in the tree, the last remaining mage of the two groups, excluding Icarus, was perched high above on one of the branches of a massive tree and was surveying the entire area.
After spotting the approaching group, he quickly jumped down and ran to them, a mix of relief and fear on his face.
Icarus simply looked him in the eyes and shook his head, causing the young man to look downcast as they walked past him. He eventually followed sullenly.
Everyone else came into view: Bjorn, the Priest girl. The warrior and the last tank.
They gathered, Bjorn, of course, questioned them on all the things that had happened, and Icarus explained all, eventually leaving them standing quietly.
Bjorn cleared his throat.
"Well, Lei will pray for their souls, and they will not go unremembered. We will take their memory back with us to the surface, but before we go down, do not let any more of us die unnamed. We must all learn each other's names for this reason."
Icarus and Skew gave their names, Icarus for the second time, now more of a formality this time.
The priestess nodded; her golden robes were now a little dirty, and her well-kept hair was slightly dishevelled.
"Greetings, I am Lei."
The mage took a step forward. He had been wearing dark purple robes when they had first arrived, but now it seemed he had lost or opted to take off the top part, leaving only a dark tunic made out of some kind of nice fabric.
"Thank you, everybody. I am Jean."
The archer girl was next up; she nervously looked around before adding her input.
"Hi, um... I'm Alice!"
The warrior and tank stepped up in turn.
"Hello, I am Michael, a sellsword from across the split."
"And I am Hugo. I am a paladin of the vow of protection, as my vow instructs me to defend you all with my life, I shall."
Bjorn smiled
"And I am Bjorrn Randollfson! Hero of the Gulf War of Bravia! And I will lead you all to the world above, I vow this on my sword!"
This whole activity had bolstered their morale, and the group quickly formed up.
Bjorn raised his sword and pointed
"Follow me, and nothing will stop this group!"
.
.
.
The cavern opened up before them; all light seemed to avoid it, like the hole in the massive rock wall was refusing all forms of entrance.
Similarly, all of them clearly felt uneasy and were tentatively staring at the gap.
However, Bjorn simply turned back with a grin and raised a hand.
"Ahaha, you fools. This is the exit! come come."
He vanished into the darkness, and everyone else exchanged looks. Paladin Hugo was soon to follow, followed by the warrior Michael, and the rest of them in turn.
The space was pitch black; he felt the cold ground squish beneath his feet, the slope descended steeply, and he had to struggle to stay upright on the slope.
After a long few minutes, he felt the ground level out; he could hear the rest of the party breathing, but it seemed all of them were too nervous to let out a breath.
Suddenly, a spark followed by a ball of flame lit up the cavern.
Jean had ignited the spell, which was now hovering in the air like a makeshift lamp; he controlled it and sent it high into the air, where it could dimly light up their entire surroundings.
Which made everyone forget to breathe.
Bones, stripped of all flesh, were littering the ground in such numbers that it was an unbelievable sight.
They were strewn about, as if thrown away for some strange reason.
And at the center of the room, the bones were stacked, in what appeared to be some kind of altar; it appeared to be unfinished, and just looked like a half crescent with a strange hole around halfway down.
The cavern suddenly shook, and everyone tensed, a couple even assuming battle posture out of habit.
An eerie sound rang out through the cavern, like air being dragged in through something that clearly wasn't functioning correctly.
And the light was extinguished.
Curses rang out; he heard a sound for one brief moment that somewhat resembled what one might hear if someone had jumped into the air.
It was followed by a distinct cutting sound, a thump, and a gurgle.
The light flared up; Jean had produced another fireball.
Michael's headless body lay on the ground motionless, slowly being encompassed by a pool of his own blood.
In fact, he was not only headless, but most of his upper body had been cut, or more aptly, ripped off.
And the culprit was standing motionlessly, about a dozen meters away.
It turned to face them.
It wore a blank expression, its mouth appeared sewn shut, its ribs were ripped open, flaring like a pair of grotesque wings several feet out from its body, the flesh in between bloody and bearing the creature's vital organs on full display.
There was no reason for such a creature to be alive; it appeared extremely mangled, its arms protruding from its chest, and its entire body had a necrotic hue, as if it were in some state of decay.
Its lifeless eyes looked to him, and what might be described as a smile ran across its sealed lips.
and through its torn and destroyed nose, it once again took in a raspy breath.