All of us turned to face the entrance as the noise of something skittering along the walls started getting louder and louder.
The skittering suddenly stopped when it reached near the opening, as though it was waiting for something.
The three of us held our breaths as we also waited for whatever it was inside to appear.
Slowly, as though it was testing out the light that flooded the cavern, a single thing that looked like a giant spider’s leg appeared from the darkness of the tunnel.
It curled to tap against the wall before another leg appeared to place itself on the other wall, making creepy clicking noises in the process.
Next to appear were a pair of long, thin arms that ended in claws reaching out from the darkness to grab against the walls, pulling some kind of creature out of the darkness and into the light.
It looked like what you might get if you crossed a bat, a spider and a Mahun, if the Mahun was some kind of monster that is.
It had the head of a bat with four legs of a spider poking out of its back. It’s body shape was like a Mahun’s if it was over eight feet or two hundred and forty centimetres in height with long and thin limbs that were half as long as it was tall, each of them ending in wicked claws.
Emilia let out a soft gasp before whispering to us in a barely audible voice, “That’s a Tunnel Stalker… We can’t fight that… It’s blind but it’s sensitive to sound… We need to escape from here…”
I went ahead to use my [Screen] on it.
[Name: Tunnel Stalker
Race: Monster
Stats:
500 Strength
520 Dexterity𝒐𝓋𝓛xt.𝒸𝞸𝔪
100 Endurance
200 Magic]
Ok… That’s some pretty huge stats… It’s even stronger than an Infant Dragon too… The only good thing was that it didn’t have high of an endurance.
Odeta was obviously not too thrilled to learn that we were not fighting it and turned to me to hear my opinion.
I shook my head slowly and apparently that was enough to get her to back down.
All of us turned back to look at the monster that was currently blocking the only way out of here. I’m guessing this was the thing that the goblins barricaded their tunnel to keep out, though it was quite surprising to learn they even did that in the first place.
I thought they didn’t have any thoughts of self preservation? Or was it different when it came to other monsters?
Putting that thought aside, this monster must have been drawn here by the sounds of our earlier battle.
I also just realised the rock wall was so flimsy because it was never meant to hold up against an assault from the monster, it was simply there to make it think there was no entrance there while also blocking the sounds here from reaching it. It was also easily removable to allow the goblins to move in and out of here.
And since we removed those rocks, this Tunnel Stalker managed to find the tunnel and enter here to look for the source of the noise. The only reason why Emilia managed to whisper to us without getting its attention was because of the noise from fire cackles on the torches.
I thought about casting [Shadow Glide] on all of us but I wasn’t sure if the monster would notice the casting of spells so I refrained from doing that for now.
The monster swivelled its head to the side, as though listening for something.
I held my breath as it slowly entered the cavern, crawling on all fours while the spider legs on its back retracted to lay flat on its back.
Emilia gestured for us to follow behind her, slowly tiptoeing her way towards the other side of the cavern while matching her footsteps with the monster’s to minimise the noise she made.
Odeta and I followed her lead, all of us watching the monster stalk its way towards one of the torches at the edge of the goblin village.
It cocked its head at it, bringing its face closer to it to sniff it.
The monster seemed to realised what it was since it lost interest in it after that, opting to move deeper into the village instead.
One of its hands knocked over a pot that clattered noisily on the ground.
It reacted immediately by striking at the pot with its spider leg, smashing both the pot and cutting the hut behind it in a half.
Odeta’s eyes shone and I knew she really wanted to test her strength by fighting it, the only reason she was not rushing towards it was the fact that I rejected the idea of her doing it.
That was when one of the goblins groaned and tried to get up, apparently a survivor from our earlier engagement.
That groan was enough to get the monster’s attention as it immediately leapt into the air, showing unbelievable dexterity for its size to reach the goblin in less than a second.
It swiped its arm and the goblin’s head was immediately separated from his body.
The Tunnel Stalker immediately opened its jaws wide and snapped up the body, swallowing the goblin up in a single bite.
It moved so fast that my eyes were unable to follow its movements completely. Had its target been me, I might have died even before I knew it was coming towards me.
Odeta shivered visibly, as though coming to the same conclusion as I did. At least she knew her limits and when to back down.
The monster then started sniffing around the place, finding the remains of the rest of the goblins that we had slain and left their bodies scattered around.
It picked up one of the dead goblins in its oversized hands and brought it up to its nose to give it a sniff before tossing it into its mouth, devouring it whole.
Emilia continued leading us closer towards the mouth of the cave, taking advantage of the fact that the monster was now devouring the pile of dead goblins we had killed.
The tunnel was merely just a few more metres away from us, we just needed to reach it and we should be safe.
Emilia suddenly stopped moving, almost causing me to crash straight into her had I not stopped in time.
Wondering what was the problem, I peeked over her shoulder to see a group of goblins standing at the entrance of the cave, all of them staring at the Tunnel Stalker in surprise.
I’m guessing those guys must be a raid party that was just returning or something, though I was curious if they didn’t think something was wrong since the rock wall was dismantled.
I thought they would start running away but instead, they drew their weapons and let out a war cry while charging at the clearly stronger monster.
The monster twitched and let out a screech that made me cover my ears from the sheer volume of it.
The goblins were also forced to stop in their tracks to do the same, crying out in pain as they were the closest to the monster and took the brunt of the scream. That caused them to be completely defenceless when the Tunnel Stalker leapt at them to start its massacre.
With a single swipe of its arm, three goblins were quickly decapitated without even being able to recover from the scream.
The Tunnel Stalker then extended one of its spider legs and skewered two goblins through their chests in one strike, lifting them up to toss them towards the wall.
The other goblins managed to recover and raised up their shields, though that proved to be a fruitless endeavour as the Tunnel Stalker swung its arm again, smashing apart their shields like it was made of paper.
One of the goblins tried to stab at it with a spear, only to have the larger monster catch the spear mid-stab to hold him in place.
The goblin was then skewered in the head by one of the Tunnel Stalker’s spider legs, killing him instantly.
There was a fire mage amongst the goblins and he managed to cast a fireball that exploded against the Tunnel Stalker’s side.
That only seemed to make the monster even more angry as it pounced on the goblin mage, biting him with its jaws and snapping the top half of his body up.
There were only three goblins left, one was an archer, one was a shield bearer and the other was a spearman.
The archer goblin fired an arrow at it but the Tunnel Stalker heard the whistling of the arrow and caught the projectile out of the air before snapping it in its hands.
The spear goblin then took the chance to stab at its side, which surprisingly connected and made the monster let out a scream of pain.
That scream once again made everyone cover their ears, allowing the monster to smash both the spear and archer goblin with its fists into meat paste, painting the ground red with their blood.
The last goblin finally realised how outmatched it was and started running away, the only problem was that it was running straight towards us.
That bastard! Does he intend to involve us as well?!
He managed to get within a few feet of us before the Tunnel Stalker appeared behind him and swiped at him with its claws, impaling the goblin on its hand before smashing him back down onto the ground.
There was a moment of silence when the Tunnel Stalker slowly lifted its head to stare directly in our direction.
That stupid goblin!