Devil's Business

The Sleeping Beauty

The suspicious cavern’s entrance has at least 20 meters high to the top in structure. However, in spite of the fairly noticeable size, the redwood trees has it covered from all the outsiders of the jungle. The sharp stalactite and glorious stalagmite pillared the gate as the teeth of its mouth, which could be also perceived as one ferocious monster from afar. Reddish nuance were emanating from the inside of the cavern, much alike to the outside world culture of the forest. The water stream of the river, that happened to flowing around within the terrain of the cavern are also colored in red, breathing the sense of human blood from its surface.

Under the umbrella of uncertainty, Juno pushed his courage to enter the malevolent beast of the redwood forest. He can feel the fear-mongering aura underneath the scale of upside-down spike on the ceiling. A single swing of his sword to the column could nail the fear out of his reach, but it also has detrimental risk that he can’t choose to happen. An unknown creature can be there, lurking above him as he pondered in every step within the cavern.

Thirty steps ahead and the path goes down slightly. Slanted rocks that has slippery slope, which concealed underneath the herd of red moss, could bring him nicely down to oblivion in an instant if he forgot to stay alerted in his movement. Light from the entrance slowly ceasing out from the depth of his travel, forcing him to turn on the portable magic flame of the demon’s potion store that always open whenever he wants to buy some supplies.

“Uh, I can’t breathe easy this time. It has to be much deeper than what it looks like.” Whispered Juno to calm his mind as he waltz down over the rocks. Being alone in this situation could be severe without clear thoughts of the man. His sanity could left from the wings right away and desolate him hereafter. Thinking out loud could be considered as the ailments for the trouble, but he could not do the same as he regularly did on the surface at the time.

The cavern, as he ventured deeper, gradually narrowed in dimension. Some man-size crevices are appearing one after the other, harrassing Juno’s stamina profusely as he goes within. The red-water of the river, once flowing under his feet, now drizzled him up as he walks downwards upon the steep rocks. Conversely, it does not occurred for long, since the pathways apparently goes back upwards after a few clicks of his venture.

“And it goes up somehow. I wonder if-“

“Growl!”

Just a short jump over the upper-side bump and the cave’s humongous structure is returning to its glory. Contrary to his seemingly-endless venture in previous session across the constricted path , the cavern’s well-introduced spaces is there, preserved for one and only inhabitant that he could perceive. The king of Ghouls, monsters of all monsters from which the chieftain promoted, is roaring against him in fierceful fashion. It has so much traits that practically boasted the moniker to him at a glance. Four times as large, shining claws that has stronger looks and sure-sharper nature than the regular city ghouls, and massive shield-like spine are the three features that could pierce Juno’s flesh anytime soon.

“Let me analyze your health points for insurance, master ghoul.” Said Juno as he flashing the enchanted gaze upon his opponents. The markers shown 100.000 health points of the ghoul is needed to be shredded down for the sure win of his,”Huh? Is it true? I can do two hits on this beast?”

There is no time to bargain with the huge victory circumstance of the monstrosity, hence Juno charged forward to gain advantage over the creature as quick as possible. He slashed two times, which calculated to be sufficient by the scale of his current seven thousand strength. In estimation to the growth of 100 damage for 10 strength implied, he could throw 70.000 in damage at the most. Because of this definitive victory, Juno’s face is beaming up towards the creature and grinning upon the slashes of his sword.

”Die, you mongrel!”

He immediately sheathed his sword after the two direct impact of the cut and walking out from the scene. However, the beast are alive and well, and even gotten bigger in size after receiving the hit. As any hero would react to the impassable bridge, Juno’s mind were also thrilled by the challenge from the bossman of the ghoul,”Work’s well on the other ghoul, but not for you. I suppose you are totally their reigning king of them all, huh.” Spoke Juno to the undefeated beast.

Due to the unspeakable feat of the opponent that he firstly encounter, He rapidly switched his attention to the rear of the ghoul. Based from his experience, that is the weakest and a sweet spot to decimate a ghoul instantly. The deformed spine-end of the ghoul, if he could administer a direct and clean shot over it, would be devastating to the creature and killed it instantly as a result. However, it seems that the king has it planned because the rear were all nestled under the tough exterior of its spine.

(Swoosh!)

King of ghouls apparently will not let him being idle to think of the strategy. It swipes the fury of its almighty claws towards Juno and bashing him out. He could not block the assault due to the size and its pace, therefore clearing Juno out of bounds as he got blasted towards the wall of the cavern.

“Ugh, that claws have to be nerfed down. How could I block it if it’s as big as I am?” Muttered Juno to the ghoul’s late attack before having to feint the other upcoming attack,”Whoops! Can’t talk much, am I?”

Because of the tumultuous barrage of assault from the creature, Juno decided to think it through while attempting to knock him out with his continuous s***h. He could not scratch the flesh, let alone cracking the bones of the ghouls even with the damage output that he has unleashed upon its surface.

After a quarter hours have passed along with the trade of blows, any of the assault seems fruitless to the ghouls. The shield are infinitely stronger than the hardened mucus and toughened shield of the smaller ones. However, he grins for another time as he found a glimpse of idea upon the enemy,”Hah! That lower part is vulnerable as a turtle, huh!?” Shouted Juno to the oblivious beast, who were unfortunately unaware of what he said earlier.

Before long, he feints some prompted blows from the creature and phasing down to the crotch of the ghoul. As expected, the flesh is barely open, too tasty to ignore for his attack to come.

(Crash!)

A hit is sufficient to pierce the meat down, evidently hurting the monster in the process. When he tried to land a second blow in his venture out from the inner side of the ghoul, it already tumbling down before the brawl even finished.

“Nice fight you have there, master ghoul.” Praised Juno to the beast, who were uncapable to even shrieking over the aggravating damage he had caused to its bowel,”Now, the troublesome part for me awaits. Ugh, how to climb those pesky moss, then?”

---

The structure of the greasy moss and nearly-vertical rocks inside the cavern stole 2 hours away off Juno to get out. His sword, for temporary actions that he has to do, momentarily became the extension and the complimentary of a pick-axe to climb as he got nothing to grasp the structure and lift himself upward. He even have to slide down numerous times in failure.

When he ventured out and coming back to the surface of the cavern, a herd of native ghouls were nesting inside and obstructin his way to get out. They have already closed their eyes, sleeping against the exhausting days of their life within the clutch of their dream. Juno was too fatigued to fight them around for the time being, so he chose to tip-toe before them for ensuring they would still asleep when he finally could reach the outside world.

The crawl and quiet dash spent him more than half an hour to make. There are so much ghouls to jump over and feint, not to count with the limbic movement of their unconscious self.  When he finally reached the freedom, he sighed and gasping several shots to regain stamina, before walking out from the vicinity.

”I’m not wishing to roll back here ever again. This cavern is the true ‘king of the king’ for the ghouls.” Said Juno onwards before he started running again in advance, leaving behind the obnoxious environment that was too rare to digest.