My (Monster?) Hero Life

Chapter 86: The Hearts Of Man

Phillip sighed as he glanced back towards his mentors battle with the giant. They were not foolish enough to delude themselves into believing that Erik would have an easy time of it. Far from it. They expected that the battle would last quite a while and be highly intense.

He felt as though they had gotten the better end of the deal. The monsters they were hunting had not even bothered to attempt to cover their tracks. They were making following them an easy thing to achieve.

"What's up runt?" Tyler snarled at him. "Getting cold feet? Who could blame you? You've been getting your ass handed to you for the best part of a year."

Phillip refused to rise to the apparent bait that his senior was setting for him. Instead, he chose to focus his attention on the group of heroes that had followed them. Each one of them wore a look of determination upon their faces. Eager to catch up to their prey before they could escape.

Many of them had lost close friends in the naval assault. So it was easy to imagine that they were looking for their pound of flesh as payment. The broken branches and disturbed earth made the direction of their escape evident to all. However, due to the discipline that Erik had instilled in each of them, they managed to stay level headed, instead of devolving into a crowd of bloodthirsty creatures on the hunt.

"None of you had better fall behind!" Tyler roared at them. "They've already gained a headstart but let's show them what true warriors look like!"

Despite his first choice of words provoking the group of heroes, the second thing out of his mouth was worth listening to in their opinion. They roared in agreement that sounded pleasing to Tyler's ears. 'I'll make sure that shit Phillip can't claim any of the merits from this!'

The trail led them straight to a deep hole that led underground. 'Why would they go down there?' Phillip asked himself. In all the time that he had been chasing Kace, he had never once cornered himself. It made no sense to him unless it was a trap. After all, if they had wanted to disappear, they had a whole jungle above ground to make it happen.

Tyler did not seem to share his misgivings though as he took less than five seconds before heading straight in. The other heroes accompanying them all sneered at what they perceived to be cowardice from Phillip. They would make sure that Erik heard all about it when they reunited.

Being one of Erik's disciples did not just mean that they received his teachings. It also meant that when Erik retired, they each had an equal chance of inheriting his position as well as his human resources. The heroes that followed Erik admired decisiveness, bravery and power above all other things.

To them, Tyler had all of these things in spades while Phillip was severely lacking. They did not care at all that he was actually concerned for their safety. After all, with enough strength, they could force their way out of any situation just as Erik had proven to them many times in the past. Might make Right as they say.

Phillip inwardly cursed their short-sightedness. They were about to enter a narrow area that would make their superior numbers useless. He could only hope that his fears were unfounded. With a bit of luck, their targets had entered only to find a safe place to rest. Hopefully believing that nobody would give chase until Yul was dealt with.

Phillip lit a small flame within his hand, using mana to light the way. Quickly elbowing his way to the lead beside Tyler. He noticed the fake look of admiration upon Tyler's face and waited for him to deal a kidney blow.

"Wow! Who knew that you were actually useful for something?" Tyler said sarcastically. Over emphasising the word useful, causing the group to break out in a short fit of laughter at his expense. 

Gritting his teeth in frustration, he took the lead. For one thing, he did not trust Tyler to properly pay attention to anything they might come across. If he stayed in the rear, then the group might trample something important before he got the chance to see it.

They soon came across the remains of the battle between Kace's group and the Earthfish. Tyler's nose wrinkled in disgust at the stench the creatures' corpses were releasing. However, he was pleased to see the bodies of Raven's crew members all mixed in. It meant that they had wasted time defending themselves here.

"They can't be far! They'll be tired and have just survived an ambush! On top of that, they most likely don't believe they are being pursued. Let's end this quickly and get back to Master Erik!" His short speech provided surprising results. All of the heroes that joined them were now fully supporting him and ostracising Phillip. 

'This couldn't be going any better!' Tyler thought while rubbing his hands together in glee within the confines of his own mind.

Throwing caution to the wind, they began to sprint all out. Believing that at any moment they would spot the exposed backs of their quarry. Phillip was not as sure as the rest of them though, and by the look on Sarah's face, she also had similar thoughts to him.

Phillip never stopped scanning the walls as they gave chase. He had no intention of being caught off guard if more of those fish-like monsters were still hiding in the dirt around them. They soon passed into a much smoother area.

His eyes took in the same sights that Kace's did before him. Except for him, the images were beyond disturbing. He knew that Kace had a penchant for literally taking a bite out of his enemies. So that left him with the question of whether he was of the same origin as the creature depicted in the murals.

He shivered at the thought of what Kace might become if the images were anything to go by. 'We have to kill him before these images become a reality!' Phillip thought as he found his will to fight flaring to life within himself.

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