Causing explosions left and right might have been the obvious method for killing the critters, but it wasn't the wisest. Anna's actions had given their location away to everyone following them.
Kern's men were one of them. Ashton had disappeared into the dungeon before they had a chance to know the cave's location.
But thanks to the explosion, the Gold Water mercs found their way to the cave. After that, it was only a matter of time before they got the same notification as Ashton and Anna.
"We can't exit the cave now?" Luno, Kern's newest recruit, panicked hard.
"There are more important things to worry about than that," Grimm, the team leader, calmly explained, "See whether we can contact the commander from here or not. If a connection establishes, request immediate backup. If we fail, I can't have that werewolf and succubus running out of here."
"On it," Another soldier replied before fiddling with the radio.
The radio packed quite a punch. So much so that one could easily have interplanetary contact with someone stationed on a nearby planet or satellite. That's why it came as a surprise to everyone when the radio malfunctioned inside the dungeon.
Deep furrows on Grimm's forehead were a clear sign of his annoyance. Just like Luno, the entire team consisted of newly recruited members. That's why they wanted to take this opportunity to prove their loyalty and worthiness to the Gold Water. But it didn't appear their task would be a smooth sailing one.
Belonging to the Tardigrodes species, they were nomads who lost their homeworld to natural causes and have lived as refugees on other worlds and as integrated members of various alien societies ever since.
However, most of them were treated as outsiders, and that's why they had people-pleasing tendencies ingrained in their behaviour. Tardigrodian mercenaies were no exception. Their will to force themselves to go to extraordinary lengths to accomplish their task was one reason Kern hired them.
"Listen up," Grimm exclaimed while grabbing the rest of the team with an arm each, "The situation seems dire. Handling the undead should be easy as Reaper and his girl would take care of them."
"I-isn't it wrong to let others do our work-" Tosti, the youngest in the group, interjected.
Tardigrodes were hard workers and didn't appreciate anyone taking their work away. That's why they were surprised when Grimm mentioned letting their enemies do the work for them.
Slap!
"Don't open your mouth until I say so!" Grimm retorted, "As I was saying, we'll let them do the heavy lifting for us. Fighting against the undead should tire them out enough. Once that happens, we'll sweep in to claim the staff for ourselves. Anyone has any doubts?"
Luno was the first to nod. Although confused like the rest about 'skipping work', he knew better than to voice his thoughts.
"Jenko, you stay here. As soon as the barriers lift, you will contact Commander Kern and inform him about the situation." Grimm handed everyone their orders, "The rest of us will head deeper into the dungeon and try to steal the staff. We anyone is scared, they can stay back."
As he said so, he waited for anyone to say something, but no one did. His men were braver than Grimm thought. Either that or they were fools who would believe anything he said.
To them, it would appear Grimm trusts them, and that's why he was taking them deeper into the cave with him. But their thinking was flawed and far from reality. Instead of trusting them, Grimm was planning on using them as meatshields when the time arrived.
'Without proper equipment, these idiots are the only ones who can save me from the undead.' Grimm thought as they headed inside the cave.
Amongst the team, Grimm was the only one who had some experience fighting against the undead. The rest were teenagers who wanted to make a name for themselves.
That said, they would do anything Grimm told him to without blinking twice. In other words, Grimm was planning on taking advantage of their blind trust in him.
"Let's go!"
***
In the meantime, Ashton and Anna were slowly progressing through the dungeon. Handling the wraiths wasn't challenging; in Anna's words, they were weaker than the critters.
Ashton knew it wasn't true. Critters were weak creatures, there was no denying that, but the only reason it seemed the wraiths were easier to deal with was that it wasn't their first time fighting against them.
Earth was abundant with wraiths and similar creatures, and hence both had enough experience dealing with them.
However, Ashton could no longer control the undead as the duration of [Corpse Parade] skill was up. Now they will have to face the Undead generals and the dungeon boss without help.
"Should we head inside?" Anna asked.
Ashton stared at the rusty doors in front of them. Behind one door stood the generals, the second last hurdle to obtaining the staff. Dealing with the generals would weaken the boss to the max.
The only issue was there were two doors in front of them. One led to the generals while the other to the boss, and they didn't know which was which.
Ashton tried to cheat his way using his [Perception], but that was a bust as the material of doors stopped him. In other words, they were blind. Opening the wrong door could be catastrophic, but it was a risk they had to take.
"I have a plan," Ashton mumbled as he walked up to the adjacent door, "it'd either mess everything up or save us some trouble."
"You're not planning to do what I think you're planning to do, are you?"
"I'm going to open this door. If the boss comes out of here, open your door." Ashton explained his master plan, "Either the generals would attack the boss or vice-versa, or the five of them would give us the gangbang no one asked for."
"That's the most ridiculous plan I have ever heard of!"
"It is what it is." Ashton shrugged, "As a wise man once said, if you lose, blame it on the RNG."
"... Sometimes, I hate that I love you." Anna smiled and took her position, "I'm ready."
Both of them took a deep breath as Ashton pushed his door open, "I should have known my luck. Anna... open the door!"