As she finishes up the scans on the bones, it revealed plenty of information that could be quite useful in the leads in finding what caused the dog monsters to spew out plagues when it has showcased that they aren't exactly any type of monsters that has been seen from either in her bestiary which could lead into the case of a minion created by someone,

If she were led into that theory that would lead into questions such as how and why, she has guesses on the how but mostly conjectures at best, and to the why, that what's she is thinking of right now. Though it was surprising someone was here and someone would even dare to attack them, considering the rocks smashing to the walls and what seems to be wind magic with the way dust seems to flow basically everywhere,

She tightens the mask she is wearing and cursed as huge explosion suddenly rattles the cave, they were in. 'At any rate, they might bring down the entire cave wall and that certainly would ruin the few clues she has about the plague' she thinks as she looks at her work of deciphering the inner workings of the bone, she knew as from one single look at the dog monster, it was obvious that they were not normal and it smelt the work of aswangs or witches.

But that's weird there hasn't been any reporting of witches of the local variety here but even there was rumors or news about it, it's really difficult to distinguish an actual sighting or rather than some hearsay either from a drunk or someone who didn't really see it properly. Well, though speculating on the why and how will not be important if they both die first from a cave roof collapse or the overexposure of toxic gas.

She packs the bones in a box and puts in her bag, which if someone where to look would be pretty confusing considering it was smaller than the box used for preserving the box. Looking at the scattered materials, she sighs as sweat drips in her clothing making it damp, and the mess below her as it reacted towards the rattling and the mess it made with her reagents, cleaning up would be difficult. As she stores the metal reagents in the proper box, she tried to pick up the single candle for heat and it toppled as she tried to reach it, an explosion shook displacing the strange liquid used to light the candle.

'More mess to clean up…' she thinks as she looked at the additional mess but frown appears in her face. She picks it up slowly and as much as the increasing intensity of the fight outside, if it was taking that helper, she hired that long to fend off whatever it was, then she was going to help the boy for the time being.

She then puts her bag and supplies nearby and picks up a fishing rod and a shield, the fishing rod glowed for a moment and returned to its regular color, she mutters a spell and ethereal glow shimmered before her, she grips her rod and walked towards the ensuing fight

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Smoke billows, blocking the one-way path before her. She brought the fishing rod like preparing to throw the reel, and with mighty swing the hook flew towards the billowing cloud, as soon as the cloud touched the hook, it parted and disintegrated like mist. She could see two people fighting though in actuality it was rather the ending of the fight she was currently witnessed,

"I'll ask a few questions and I'll let you go wherever you were going" was parts of the conversation she heard Mapulon says,

Considering the amount of magic both of them were using earlier, she didn't think that the conversation would be this calm though.

"I was finding my way out towards the surface and stumbled over here. And you attacked me out of nowhere and I had to defend myself," the figure says calmly despite the chains of stone wrapping his arms and legs

She looks at him bewildered at the audacity of the person to lie in front of both of them, even Mapulon the hired help looked at the figure with amusement, the figure shrugged at the unspoken question

Mapulon looks at her and eyed her with what to do with the obvious suspect, she looks at him and she shrugged and whispers, "I haven't encountered situations like this and forgotten what protocols where there involving situations like these". And from what she'd seen of the fight earlier, it was really intensive and she wondered how the cave didn't collapse just from the intensity itself.

Despite Mapulon winning, she still felt like they were being played at. Mapulon was competent in magic but that doesn't mean much when your opponent is skilled and experienced with his own magic, considering how Mapulon only won with what seemed to be single blast of at least what she could assume was safe to say at least nearly 50% to 68% percent of his mana.

She could see it in his breathing and slight slouching as the sudden increased usage of magic must have been a heavy toll against him, as she did so Mapulon took noticed and straightened his posture and gave a thin smile, she nods in his way.

"Anything else, you have to say?" She asked the figure, she wondered why Mapulon hasn't taken off the hood of this person. So she moved to uncover the figure's hood, only to discover that there was nothing there, thinking fast she aimed her rod to the only exit of this place,

She jumps backward as two waves of wind slashes below that would have left deep gash on her stomach, Mapulon on his initiative threw a fireball to light up the area only for to dissipate before it entered the tunnel and the last thing they heard was the footsteps echoing in the distance. Though she was a bit disappointed that they couldn't deal with with what it was,

Mapulon glanced at her and asked, "Pursue?"

She nods hesitantly and soon they were dashing towards the darkness, with a small run then slowing towards a fast walk, Mapulon with his senses enhanced with his as self and the magical lure that she brought with.

"Not to be rude but I can't just keep calling you miss employer, would you mind giving me your name" She paused for a moment and says, "It's something I want to keep private but you could call me Trix for the moment".

He seemed to mull over it, a small frown for a moment but it was immediately covered up by an understanding smile.

"I suppose so, Trix. Considering this is a professional setting and meeting between hired help and a client" she visibly relaxes afterwards but the wariness in her stance did not disappear, though it was for the best as the hired help from his stance after sudden disappearance of captured figure did not relax after that.

A shift of rock forced both of them into combat positions as wariness sets them off, waiting for moments. Mapulon signals her to go forward as he turns back so that they can't be ambushed by the "dusty duster" as dubbed by Mapulon. Soon they walked slowly, the only sounds they hear is the breathing of themselves and the foot steps, from what seems to be the longest 15 minutes seemed to have stretched to hours in their perspective,

"The silence is really making unnerving… do missions go like these?" Mapulon asked the woman, "especially the smoke, currently permeating the area" he adds hastily

"No, most missions do have actions but monster that are encountered could be avoided or simple enough to be dealt with" she says as the lure returned to the rod, it flickered from colors of red to blue then it settled into red, she frowned at that and says, "Prepare for combat, a pack of dog monsters headed our way!"

Mapulon instead of grabbing the talismans instead closed and went into melee combat, the area began to heat slightly as his hands and legs, Trix took noticed of this and went back to switch into a supporting role, as soon as the first monster approached him it was instantly blasted with a fist of fire creating a hole incinerating it,

As soon as the first died, two leapt in aiming to bite Mapulon's head, he dodged by the nick, making a small prick in his cheek. He punched it away making a bone crunch and making it fly away, and he threw a blast of wind in front of him as the other dog monster leapt towards him forcing it away,

Though with the sheer practicality of what he did, it did cost too much of his mana for this to be viable technique, as he jumps back expecting the dog monster he blasted away to attack only to see it getting it's neck pierced as a glowing rod passes by only to finish it off with it glowing red as the neck bursts into fire as the line fully lights up leaving a headless monster behind,

He was slightly panting after that exchange, which from the distant roaring from the tunnel, persevering his strength might be important and with the large amounts of dog monsters, then rationing both of their strength might be important, so he looks at Trix and says, "Gatherings like these are usually what occur but at that point there would have been other mages in the area, exterminating the horde in that area"

"If the horde hasn't been thinned out yet, wouldn't that mean that this horde is new or the mages might have overwhelmed?" Mapulon guessed on what might have caused this scenario, he'd prefer the situation to be the former at least that can be salvageable and at least guaranteed that they might survive the upcoming battles and not be dog chow in the end.

"Hordes like this usually gets exterminated after approximately an hour or two hours at most, if its anything higher then that means something has likely gone wrong or another development took place" she says

"So, we have to see for ourselves to know exactly what is happening and the only path would be in front" he frowns at that with the current problem they have, she agreed with that, and sought to make another plan that something would solve the current problem. She could see Mapulon trying to think of plan, the only way would be to try to create another tunnel or try to eliminate them in one shot.

"for reference purposes, how do dog monsters really sense us? You were examining the dog monsters after all" he asks her, which was an unique line of question

"In my research, they have quite a unique structure despite the similarity towards askal dogs here however it seems that it didn't seen usage of other organs such as hearing, more of other means as there were parts that were not present in a dog"

"So, their senses are limited?" Mapulon asked as he took notice of the dog monster corpses as they were fading away,

"Yes, just as you have noticed they are rather more of constructs than familiars. And it seems that sight is the only organ that was seen to be of use" she informs him as since they were just recently attacked, after the analysis. She couldn't give an proper summary and only portion of the properties of the dog monster, a name that she stuck with for the time being.

She looks at Mapulon to see him, only to see him widening his eyes as if he found a solution to their horde problem, as she listens to what she says her eyes widens to hear the ridiculous and stupid preposition but that was the only plan, but stupid nonetheless.

CD - LINE BREAK - CD

As she walks down the the hallways, she felt the itchiness pop up as the mysterious liquid that Mapulon took effect in her body. Whatever it was seemed to quite effective as she walks along the cave, she felt a small shiver pass her back as a dog monsters were laying down as if they were just some sort of simple dogs setting up as their homes, though that small hope went out of the window when she saw a skull lying down being chomped down by one of the dog monsters,

She clenched her fists but continued walking forward, there was time for mourning and that making out of this situation was the first step in this big mess. 'The unpleasantness of the smell of blood and the crunching of the bones makes it really hard to move but sheer force will made her move, so she moved.

Making her way, through the cave. Avoiding large groups of them and slowly stalking towards the exit. As she gets out of the cave, she sees the gate and the smell of smoke in that vicinity, and at that moment she rushed towards the gate

Author notes:

Askal - A common term in Philippines as a hybrid/mixed breed of dog, it could also referred to dogs living in the street.