“Get Denier!”, yelled Kage as he continued to fight with the kopru. He heard some commotion echoing through the giant cavern, but he didn’t have time for it to register. He saw a chain leading from the hill into the mud pit. Thinking Denier might have grabbed onto it, he stabbed another kopru in the chest and ran over to the chain and began pulling. At the end it became stuck, but summoning his inner strength, he pulled with all his strength, and a great anchor came out, making a popping sound, and the mud lake began to drain out through an underground tunnel.

Greegan dove into the hot mud to find three more of the kopru rising up to protect their dinner. One grabbed his arm while the others tried to surround him. Greegan instead sprang towards the monster that grabbed him, head butting it and then throwing it down to the bottom of the pool. He eluded the other two kopru while slowly making his way to Denier, but once he got there his suspicions were confirmed.

“He’s dead. Let’s get out of here!”, yelled Greegan.

Kage cursed himself, made one more swing just to slow down the pursuit that was about to come, turned his back and ran. Greegan swam to the edge of the pool, pulled himself out, and started trying to catch up with Kage. The kopru pursued them, and the two had weaved across the land bridges that went around the cavern’s many mud pits, each filled with more kopru that climbed out of the pit to join the chase. They didn’t know where they were going, but then Kage felt a cool breeze coming from a nearby cavern, and the noticed the light they saw was coming out of it, so he headed towards it. The two ran through the cavern and directly to the edge of a cliff. Hundreds of feet above them were the light of day. Below them was the frozen volcano, which set forth a cold mist from hundreds of feet below. Behind them, the cavern passage was blocked by dozens of kopru. There was no way out.

The kopru charged. Greegan stabbed the first one in the chest and then reeled back and punched another in the face with his left hand. Kage went low, cutting of the foot of his first assailant, an then finish it off with a slice to the neck. Another one slammed into him, taking him inches from away from the drop off from the cliff. Kage elbowed the creature in the back and threw the monster over, raising his sword just in time to split the fist of another of the squid men attacking him. Greegan grabbed the tentacles of another of the kopru to pull it up close enough to slit it’s throat, but then he was grabbed from behind and another came up and slammed it’s slimy fit into Greegan’s face. Kage tried to run to Greegan’s help, but the one who had its fist split jumped on Kage’s back, pulling the fighter back. Another one of them came up and started to wrestle the sword out of Kage’s hand. Greegan couldn’t get his fist far back enough to stab the assailant who was holding him from behind, and so he was punched and kicked again and again in the face and chest. Greegan then stomped on the monster’s foot, stunning it long enough to get his arm free and stab it in the stomach. But just as he did that, the kopru across from him turned reversed Kage’s grip, and stabbed the knight with his own sword, piercing through his stomach, through his liver and out his back. Kage choked out in pain, and some blood came out of his throat and trailed down his mouth, and the kopru threw him down the volcano.

Greegan backed off from the seven or so kopru surrounding him. Still more were coming. He had no room left to fight. He was bleeding severely. Without looking, he threw himself backwards into the darkness.