They had met four of these men in the last day and a half--at least Kage thought it was about a day and a half, it was hard to tell in the endless cavern--and Kage had put three of them down himself. It wasn't just the monotonous enclosed rock that was driving men nuts, at least not for two of the men Kage had killed, but also "beasts from the depths of hell" as the mercenaries had so bluntly put it.

This sickness had undoubtedly claimed countless groups by now, Kage surmised, and with bandits lurking about and the "beasts from the depths of hell" devouring groups by the handful, Kage guessed that probably more than half of the mercenaries were already dead.

The illness of cracked psyche's had even seeped into Kage's group, like some foreign ooze whose sole purpose was that of destruction. Though, it wasn't nearly to the extent of the others, after all, this was by far the most solid group of mercs and like that had been assembled. The worst by far had been the newbie that had been assimilated into the group shortly after Gunn and Darby, the one who had laughed when mentioning that his entire group had been eaten. he laughed and kept saying that they were all going to die, like it was some great joke. The way he said it was even more unnerving, using a voice that could have chilled a banshee's body. Meanwhile, Jonas wasn't much better off. While not speaking with the volume or exuberance of the newbie, he kept repeating a single mantra to himself, "He's going to kill me, he's going to kill me..." The arrogant adventurer, who hadn't even bothered to give his name yet, almost seemed like a walking coma patient, his skin pale, a constant stream of sweat running down his body. He hadn't muttered a single word in the last couple of days, and when the group had been accosted by problems, his reaction time was equal to that of a dead cat.

The other seven, Trine, Gilbert, Sydonia, Grenseal, Gunn & Darby, and Kage, seemed to be dealing with everything fine; at least on the surface anyway. Hell, the two young ones had even been heard laughing and cracking jokes on occasion. Personally, Kage couldn't understand how a person could crack so easily, he felt just fine, he had been in much direr situations before. The only people he thought could fall apart under such laughable situations were those weak, idiotic samurai, or people equivalent to the moronic warriors. Kage snickered silently to himself with that last thought; samurai, the imbecile's peon.

They moved out of yet another tunnel, and came to a large chamber, one at least three times as large as any opening they had yet to enter. As they came into the large cavern, Kage's flesh began to crawl; there was something undoubtedly wrong in this place, they shouldn't be here. Whatever Fraunces was looking for was very close.

The stoic ninja's eyes darted around, trying to register everything about the space. It was darker here than in the rest of the mines, like some unwashed miscreant of evil wanted it that way. Kage's eyes adapted quickly, and soon everything was as clear as it had been just moments before in the lighter environment. The walls had been tinted with a red hue from the blood of hundreds of warriors who had dared to venture this far into the mines in search of uncountable riches, only to be slaughtered in the home of some enigmatic entity and die in anonymity. Skeletons were piled everywhere, some older than time itself, skulls half disintegrated, feet left with only one or two toes, those ready to collapse into a heap of dust themselves. Then there were the others, the fresh ones, the flesh just beginning to rot, large, black blotches covering their skin, exposing the marrow and bones beneath, thousands of microscopic creatures feasting on the gooey and quickly decomposing carcasses. Kage knew then, with a sickness creeping through his body with untamed velocity, that whatever was doing this wasn't doing it out of necessity, but out of pleasure.

Kage took particular notice of one young male adventurer, his chest ripped open, showing the world his deteriorating intestines, the cracked and broken ribs, and even letting the people see that whatever was doing this had ripped some clean off. His hand was still tightly clasped around his sword, his eyes--one of which was now missing--wide open masking a look of surprise and horror, his mouth stretched into an 'O' of terror, housing a silent scream that would never be heard, yet be held in the winds to be felt throughout the eternities.

Kage shook his head in disgust--spotting Jonas from the corner of his eye, retching and vomiting--and moved his gaze elsewhere, as the group, minus Jonas momentarily, pressed forward, the bones of long forgotten warriors cracking under their weight as they walked.

Kage's vision moved up to look at the ceiling, only to find that this place had none, at least not one that he could see, anyway. The walls moved up, reaching towards the heavens, and becoming absorbed by a black veil that not even the ninja's trained eyesight could penetrate.

Ledges jutted out from everywhere in the place, cloaked by a black air that made it difficult to discern whether anything resided on them or not. The sound of whispers pulled Kage out of his study. He looked at his teammates, who obviously hadn't been the source of the break in silence, nor had they heard it. The sound came again, and the ninja's hand instinctively shot down to his belt. Some might have said he was being paranoid, after all, how could anyone besides them or Fraunces personal squad make it down here alive? But Kage was a cautious man, he had been trained to be so.

He closed his eyes, for vision could deceive and should not be relied upon so heavily, and listened for the sound again. He heard feet scuffling on the rocky ground from above, a rock being kicked off a ledge and bouncing off the on it's way down, then came a low, taunting laughter. The shurikens were up and flying less than a second later, and the masked mercenary heard a distant "WHOA!" from Gilbert up ahead, as the projectiles flew just centimeters from his ear. There was a loud *clank* as the first hit the rocky exterior of the wall, then two soft thuds as the next two cut into skin. A low moan escaped the conundrum's lips, then a piercing scream as the man fell from his perch. The yell was cut off suddenly, as the man landed on his head, breaking his neck. Just another piece for the collection of growing corpse's that had accumulated in the mass grave. The man would not taunt with laughter any more.

"Wow! Nice shot!" He heard Trine exclaim. "Where the hell did he come from?" he finished to the sounds of weapons being drawn.

As if in response to the question, laughter exploded from every inch of the room, not taunting laughter like the man who would never see daylight again, but more of an amused, cocky variety. It came from everywhere as the men began to step into sight, jumping down from the sky, or walking out from seemingly nowhere.

Kage wasted no time, digging furiously around in his pouch. He found what he needed, and tossed it at the ground, the smoke bomb exploding upon impact.

When the smoke subsided, Kage sat upon a ledge high up, Sydonia at his side. The ninja gave a questioning look to the bandit.

"Heh, I'm not stupid." Sydonia said, as he and Kage watched as the rest of their team was surrounded.

The laughing grew, and one figure was finally recognizable through the darkness, his face was disfigured, his left eye scarred beyond recognition, his mouth had a scar showing that it had once been split open. Atop his head he wore a simple turban which had small hints of hair escaping, inside his mouth were horrible jagged teeth. Several more soon became distinguishable in the dim torch light carried by Darby and Gunn.

Grenseal had his sword ready, at his side, but he was hesitant to fight, for he had not fought in years without his trusty sword given to him by Master Teo. Nevertheless he was ready, and the two boys behind him planted their torches in the ground and brought out their own weapons, joining the other eight members, save the newbie who had for some reason placed himself in the middle of the group. The green clad knight had also noticed that Kage and Sydonia had both vanished into some blue smoke that was barely visible in the dim light of the fire.

Jonas was the first to strike, as he ran towards what he suspected to be the leader of the group, but soon found himself fighting off four of them at the same time. After that all hell broke loose, and Darby and Gunn seemed to be the only two who managed to keep it together, as the two had forced themselves to remain side by side or back to back and protect each other. On the other side of the large cavern room, the aging mercenary, Gilbert had managed to force himself into a fight with three of the bandits, some of them men he recognized. Trine had placed himself in the darkest section of the cavern and was taking out a good few of the nearly sightless bandits. The way he fought despite the near darkness was remarkable. Despite the group's superior fighting abilities to the bandit's poorly trained techniques, there was no way they could hold out. They were tiring and the bandit numbers just continued to grow. Grenseal saw Kage suddenly leapt down and skewered four of the bandits with a sharp, focused blade that Grenseal barely glimpsed before it was replaced with a shuriken which was then hurled towards the vicinity of Trine, striking a bandit who had been sneaking up behind him. Trine finished the bandit off, and shot Kage an appreciative glance. Up from where Kage had lept, Gilbert could see Sydonia crouching, waiting in silence.

Grenseal fell to his knees, he was exhausted. His sword was covered with blood, and his whole body was racked with nerves. The only casualty on their side had been the adventurer, whose name had never been revealed. He had been impaled by three swords and once, and had died instantly. Up ahead he could see a bandit coming, and he slowly rose to his feet, when a high pitched noise echoed throughout the cavern. Every hand froze, not a muscle moved, no eye bothered to blink. The newbie began to cry something out in a language familiar to none, and he fell down and continued his tear filled blubbering as everyone averted their eyes to they where the noise had come from.

One of the younger bandit's approached first, silently, and was promptly run over by five men, who apparently had been in another group. When the five men saw the large number of men staring at them, or rather staring past them, they quickly turned around readied their weapons. Two black, gleaming eyes were staring out from the darkness, they were huge, the size of a man's fist, with about an arm's length separated from each other. A massive paw then stepped forward into the light, it was blood red, with massive talons coming from the toes. The paw led up to a huge canine face with razor sharp teeth, that oozed with a blue liquid that only complimented the blood on it face. Suddenly both the torches blazed to life, so bright that it would rival the daylight outside. The 'beasts from the depths of hell' let off an immense amount of heat that instantly overtook the cool cavern air and conformed it into a hot, humid air that nearly choked most of the men.

Not one person dared to move, except for the 'newbie' who was still speaking in utter gibberish and crying his eyes out. The eyes gazed over every man slowly, the warriors flushed with anxiety and fear. The eyes seemed to overlook the newbie all together and finally looked over at Sydonia. The yellow haired bandit was overcome with fear, something he had rarely ever experienced. It was strong, he had never felt so afraid, his body broke out with a cold sweat, and he began to shiver despite the heat in the caverns. He couldn't see anything except the eyes staring at him slowly growing, bigger, and bigger. He could hear a heartbeat, but couldn't tell if it was his or the beast's, but at this junction it didn't seem to matter. Suddenly a wiz was heard, when he looked over he saw Jonas had shot off a crossbow that he had managed to find. The beast suddenly shrieked out in pain, a loud rumbling was heard, and in minutes there was another beast emerging from every tunnel that intersected with the large room.

Kage was having the most...well, whatever the ninja's equivalent to fun was. That is, right up until that point. He lived in the darkness, taking advantage of the support it provided. The unfortunate prey he stalked had no idea he was even there, he was the wind that rustled the leaves of a bush; the smoke that rushed to the air from a stricken match, appearing as if from nowhere, and disappearing just as quickly as it had arrived. His victims knew nothing of him, but they had that recognizable look of paranoia upon their faces, the one that said they knew something was there, but couldn't put their finger on what it was. They would turn, almost feeling the heat of Kage's breath on their cheek, and they would catch a small glint of the ninja's sword splitting the air before the throats were slit or their face cut clean in half.

He didn't enjoy killing, but he didn't loathe it either, to Kage the prospect was simply a business proposition, it came with the territory. But taking out the untrained bandits was a joke, a much needed refresher for the mercenary, whose last few contracts had been a tightrope with no room for errors. It was just too simple, easier than anything he had done in a long time, perhaps ever, easier than even his training, but then again, his training had been performed by his father, and good ole dad wasn't one to give many breaks.

All that, of course, had been before the beasts came home. At first, while others were scrambling about, panicking, crying for help, Kage stood thunderstruck. He wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Hundreds of options coursed through his mind, but at first the ninja wasn't sure which one to pick. He hesitated, only for a moment, not really long enough for anyone to notice, but a mistake for which he would punish the hell out of himself for later, then started to make his move.

To his great surprise, Kage wasn't the first to strike. Gunn and Darby's reactions had been instantaneous, and they ganged up on one hellhound, pummeling the creature so bad, it would be dead before Kage could take out his own enemy.

The ninja decided to go after the one with the arrow in its flesh first. He moved in cautiously, watching the creature devour four bandits, and two of the five men from the other group that had arrived. He was poised to attack--the creature with its back turned towards the ninja, attacking another remnant of the five man survivor team--when the hellhounds caught his perpetrator, a huge three hundred pound mercenary with a particularly bad case of body odor, by the leg. The monstrosity upended the unfortunate warrior, keeping the man's leg firmly clamped between two rows of razor sharp teeth, and began swinging the very overweight adventurer through the air in a large circular pattern. Kage was forced to duck the human lance on it's first pass towards him, then to jump back on the second. The sheer power of this thing was incredible! The fat man's yelling became deafening, the monster's teeth ripping through the flesh, and then the creature severed the leg just below the knee. The man went soaring through the air, screaming the whole time, and finally landed right on top of the newbie, the huge-framed mercenary crushing the psychotic man's body underneath.

Kage lept in and drove his blade into the monster's left side. The creature let out a howl that, had it been any other man in the cavern who had struck it, they probably would have turned to stone. But Kage was unphased, and as the monster whirled around to meet it's attacker--at a speed that surprised even the stoic ninja. Kage lept clean over the monstrosity, his body spinning and twirling in the air, and as he landed, he unleashed a bevy of shurikens into the animal's right side.

He flipped back to give him some space, and readied his sword to strike. The monster turned, nothing but fury and contempt for this inferior human who believed his insignificant weapons could hurt his superior frame. It charged at the ninja with ungodly speed, and Kage jumped to his left, barely beyond the grasp of his would be killer, and as he did so, his blade--expertly held in an underhand position--came up and clipped the side of the beast's neck, then came back down, slicing the vermin's ear off.

Kage scrambled back as the animal seemed undaunted by his attacks, trying to get into a comfortable position again. His feet moved faster than he wanted them to, however, and his legs kicked out from under him, and he fell to the ground, landing on his butt. His momentum carried him backwards, and when he landed, he was forced into a backward summersault. He tried to stop himself, and succeeded, unfortunately. He ended up on his back, his head slamming into the rocky earth below him.

He was stunned momentarily, the world spinning around him, images foggy and appearing in threes. His eyes held a cloudy, glossy look to them as he watched the creature turn it's attention back to him, a slight look of astonishment--if a monster could hold such a look--at the mercenary's effectiveness against it.

Kage struggled to paste together the thousands of fragmented thoughts that danced through his mind. Kage watched the mammoth back up a few steps, their eyes connecting for the slightest of seconds, the enjoyment and anticipation for the impending moment evident in the soulless black orbs. As the creature started to charge, a single thought exploded in Kage's mind. Sword...get your sword...His hand pounded at the stony earth, frantically searching for his weapon, but his grasp came up empty every time. He raised his head, and surveyed the ground for his blade. He found it some five feet away, lying there, taunting him with it's presence, so close, but perhaps not close enough to keep him from getting killed.

His eyes shot back to the monster...four steps away, closing fast. Kage's left hand rocketed over to his right wrist. He flipped the switch through his garb, and the sword came flying back to his hand. The hellhound was two steps away when he made his leap, saliva dripping from his mouth, ready to turn Kage into his main course for the evening. It was halfway upon him when the sword reached his palm, and less than two feet above him when he thrust the sword out towards it. Instead of getting to maul the mercenary as it had intended to do, the creature got nothing but a blade through the chest. It howled in pain, Kage's body nearly melting under the unimaginable heat, as it began it descent down the length of the blade, stopping at the top of the hilt, just inches away from Kage.

Kage breathed a sigh of relief, an act of futility as it turns out, as the animal was only wounded, not dead, and nowhere near giving up. Kage lifted his knees and brought his feet to the hellhound's chest, trying to lift the gargantuan so he could escape from underneath. The thing seemed to be far too heavy, as he could only get it maybe an inch higher. Kage was deciding what to do next when he saw it. The creature's front right paw; twitching.

Kage's eyes widened to the point that he wasn't sure if they would remain in their sockets. Damn! You have got to be kidding me! The paw began to raise, the creature's eyes lazy, only half open, but swirling with a hatred so intense for the human that Kage thought they would be enough to do him in themselves. Both hands clung to the sword tightly. He tried to pull his blade out, but found, to his great horror, that he didn't have enough room. He scrambled for the button that resided on the hilt, and found it. He held the button in, trying to pull the two halves apart. They began to slide apart, and then stopped. He tugged at them harder, desperately trying to separate the two, but they budged not an inch.

Jammed...

The paw reached it's pinnacle, and stopped, the animal letting it hang there for just a second, giving the human nuisance something to think about in his final seconds. It was like some pending armageddon, an event so catastrophic it had only one inevitable result: Death.

Then the claw made it's strike, and came streaking towards the helpless ninja, bringing the unmistakable scent of death along with it.

It was nothing more than dumb luck that saved Kage's life. His life was not spared because of his superior fighting ability, but more or less a combination of luck, and the ninja's unrelentless passion to live.

He tried with every fiber of his being to pull the blade apart. Like the creature he was fending off, the ninja was not prone to giving up. Even as the hand that would cause his death swooped down upon him, Kage struggled with his blade. His untiring work ethic paid off.

The left half unhooked and he put all of his strength into pulling the blade out. It ripped out with surprising ease, bringing some of the beasts insides along for the ride, and spraying blood all over Kage's face. The ninja didn't even blink. Unfortunately, or, as fate would have it, the ease with which the blade came out caused the momentum to carry his arm farther back than the mercenary would have liked. The claw was only five inches away when Kage's blade, well beyond the realm of his control, intercepted the natural weapon of destruction. The thin blade cut right through the leg, removing the paw before it had a chance to make contact. The amputated appendage landed harmlessly on the ninja's stomach, residing in a plethora of blood, then rolled off.

The animal rose up, and Kage wasted no time in removing the other half of his sword and rolling out from underneath the hellhound. He jumped to his feet, and put his sword back together, watching as the beast collapsed in a heap to the hard exterior of the ground beneath it. It's breathing was shallow and labored, and the ninja estimated that it wouldn't be long before the monster joined the people it so brutally murdered down in the depths of the mines for all these years.

The ninja resheathed his bloody sword, and gazed around at the spectacle before him. Trine was fighting off four bandits--whom Kage guessed hadn't let the arrival of the hellhounds interfere with their prime objective--and fairing quite well at it too. Gunn and Darby were putting the finishing touches on their victim, and it looked as though the sad creature never even got a chance to attack. Grenseal and Gilbert were desperately trying to fend off another one of the animal's.

Meanwhile, Jonas and two bandits, a tall lanky fellow Kage remembered as being present at the massacre of Gunn and Darby's old team, and the bandit who had had the audacity to show himself first at the beginning of the fiasco, probably the leader of the novice thieves. Jonas seemed to be doing fine, despite the large claw marks that ran down his chest. The beast didn't even seem to notice the tall lanky bandit, as he moved and attacked freely. But the leader of the bandits wasn't going to last much longer, as the hellhound seemed to have pegged him as victim number one. He had a large cut down the side of his face, and a large chunk of his thigh had been bitten off, and was currently in the process of being digested in the monster's stomach. Kage watched as he tried to attack, the motion slow and obvious, than as the sword was being brought down, the monster rising up and ripping the swordhand off at the shoulder blade with his teeth. The 'boss' fell to the ground, screaming and crying, shaking and moving on the earth in a way that couldn't possibly have been human. The blood poured all over the place as the bandit continued his convulsions. Kage considered ending the man's life with a well placed shuriken, but then remembered the man had tried to kill him, and decided against the action, the hellhound would see to the idiotic bandit's end soon enough. While all this was going on, Sydonia seemed to be picking and choosing his spots as he went along; appearing, attacking, then disappearing. A continuous pattern.

He began to move towards his teammates, when he heard a low, menacing growl from behind him. Kage sighed, and an amused and unbelieving smile cracked his lips. He didn't need to turn around to know what was waiting for him. But he did so anyway, and, as he had thought, his former combatant was up again, bloody and beaten to hell.

"You truly are the devil incarnate, aren't you?" Kage asked rhetorically. "I guess a dog with three legs is just as good as four, huh?" The only reply he was privileged with was that growl. He hadn't meant to sound so humorous, but Kage couldn't help it. This fight had just officially become a joke. As the two enemy's sized each other up, and Kage realized just how laughable the battle was. The hellhound was in a comical shape, hobbling on three legs, down to half the ears it held just ten minutes before, blood covering every inch of the black fur. They looked at each other for a few minutes, then the ninja decided it was time to end this.

Kage began walking forward slowly, his hand on the pommel of his sword. His enemy moved forward as well, and Kage's slow walk sped up, turned into a trot, then all out blitz. The creature, once again surprised by the weaker human's bold offensive tactics, let out a threatening roar that shook the walls to their core, trying to intimidate the ninja. It didn't work.

"Why won't you just...DIE!!!" the blade was out as soon as he finished the last word. He thrust the sword forward into the hellhound's open mouth. He drove the weapon through the back of it's throat, and out the back of it's skull. Blood gushed out like water from a geyser, tinting everything in its path. Kage flicked his wrist and cut the sword back to him, ripping the left side of the monsters face off. It fell to the ground again, only this time with one subtle difference, this time it wasn't breathing.

Kage drove his sword in its carcass a final time, just to make sure there weren't any more annoying revivals, and turned back towards his team. What he saw was a completely different portrait from the one he witnessed no more than three minutes ago.

Gunn and Darby's enemy had been slain before his, so they were now mopping up the remaining bandits; still unharmed. But that was the only positive going for the humans. Trine had killed the four bandits he had been fighting, but he was slumped up against the wall, semi-conscious, covering wounds on both his arm and stomach. Meanwhile, the leader of the bandits whom Kage guessed wouldn't last long, didn't. He lay dead, his throat ripped out. The remaining members of the team that had scrambled in before hell broke loose, had each been devoured by hellhounds. Sydonia was upon a ledge once again, only this time he wasn't waiting to attack, but tending to a deep wound on his leg. That brought Kage to Grenseal. His former Gate Rune War ally and enemy was packed into a group of four along with the tall lanky bandit, Gilbert, and Jonas. All looked unhurt--save Jonas, of course--but were in serious danger. The small pack was grouped together between the two remaining hellhounds, and Kage could see the clammy hands of death tighten it's grip on the quartet.

He was cornered, trapped, the prey of a savage beast who could easily devour him within seconds. But to make it worse, their was two hellhounds and only four of them. But in reality it was only him and Gilbert, Jonas was unable to fight and the bandit wasn't to be trusted.

"Gilbert" Grenseal said lowly, not waiting for a reply but simply expecting him to hear "Do you have any Offensive Runes?" Gilbert simply shook his head.

"Alright then, you distract the beasts while I get ready to attack with my rune"

Gilbert nodded and began waving his sword at the Hellhounds while dodging their nips at the same time. The bandit seeing this, caught on to the concept and made Gilbert's job easier by distracting the smaller hellhound.

At the same time, Grenseal had been focusing on the power in his rune and had gathered enough of his strength to unleash the most powerful spell he knew. He then raised his right arm high in the sky, causing a massive variety of electrical bolts of lightning to strike the smaller hellhound. However, as soon as the dust cleared, to his great horror, Grenseal discovered that the beast had not even been singed. (And this is, which he later learned, is because of their thick rubbery skin which prevents magical attacks from damaging their hide). After a moment of hesitation, he took advantage of the creatures surprise to slice a deep wound into it's chest.

Feeling the sting of the sword slicing into it, the hellhound swiped Grenseal with it's massive paws and threw him into the wall as if he were no more than a rag doll. Painfully, the toranian knight was able to bring himself back to his feet before the hellhound was able to jump in for it's morsel of food. As the beast was about to attack, something in Grenseal's head seemed to just click, or connect, causing him to grab a sword lying by a nearby corpse and slice off the beast right paw with a swiftness and speed unusual for him.

The hellhound was now extremely angry and was finished 'playing'. He was ready to go straight for the kill. Grenseal however was unwilling to let that happen and once more struck the monster with a terrible blow into it's chest. By now the largest hellhound had realized that all his allies were dead or almost dead. It examined the sliced up hellhound Grenseal was fighting, and decided it was worthless now, and grabbed the neck of it's fellow beast and snapped it with a quick jerk.

Grenseal had been watching, and his rage had subsided when he saw how the hellhound had ruthlessly killed it's own kind. Since he was the nearest prey, the beast turned it's attention and began charging at him with amazing speed. If not for Gilbert intervention by driving his sword into one of it's hind legs, Grenseal most likely would not of been able to react fast enough. Before it was able to snap back at Gilbert, Grenseal once more cast his spell, this time aiming at the new freshly made wound. The bolt hit dead-on, the fresh blood conducted the electricity and rendered the massive creature unconscious.

To finish the job, Kage drove his special sword into the hellhound's skull, therefore killing what most of them hoped would be the last trial for this insane expedition. Those who were able, save Kage who had took to himself to think, went through all the corpses to see who had survived. Out of the Fifty-Four Mercenaries and bandits that had been in there, only Kage, Gilbert, Grenseal, Trine, Darby, Gunn, Sydonia, Jonas and two of the bandits had survived. One of the bandits however had lost one of his arms to the creature and Trine estimated that he would die within eight hours unless properly treated.