The underground cavern system branched out in every direction.
The deeper they went, the more forks they encountered, and the visibility from their helmet lights grew dimmer and dimmer.
Eventually, the place turned into a veritable maze.
After the group got separated, they wandered aimlessly through the tunnels, unable to see a shred of hope for escape—only despair.
Juno led the way holding an ice axe and a gun.
In her words, it was all her fault, so Dan Lee just needed to cover her from behind; there was no need for him to take risks up front.
Juno hadn’t noticed the few Wendigos quietly crawling overhead.
By now, they were all Dan Lee’s most loyal minions, ready to eliminate any threat to him.
Along the way, Dan Lee noticed an interesting phenomenon.
Even though these six Wendigos had become his anomalies, their wild kin in the caverns still treated them as fellow creatures.
Was it because of their low intelligence?
From Dan Lee’s perspective, his six minions ran into another Wendigo inside the cavern.
Neither side attacked.
The wild Wendigo uttered vocalizations, seemingly trying to communicate, but his six minions remained motionless.
Until Dan Lee issued a command.
While that Wendigo was still confused and uncomprehending, the six companions surrounding it suddenly pounced like rabid beasts, pinning it down and tearing into its flesh.
Hearing the noise, Juno looked up just in time to see a corpse rapidly enlarging in her vision.
She dived into a roll to dodge.
Thud.
The body slammed onto the ground, splashing pitch-black blood everywhere.
When Juno looked back up, the monsters had already scattered.
Staring at the mangled corpse on the ground, she asked in confusion, “Why are they fighting among themselves?” Dan Lee made up an excuse on the fly.
“Maybe they’re starving?
Or maybe there’s not enough food to go around?” It was best to keep the anomaly business a secret whenever possible.
The main issue was that both Mutants and Wendigos had physical bodies; if they were specters or vengeful spirits, he wouldn’t have to worry about this.
Juno obviously didn’t buy it.
If they engaged in cannibalism, there wouldn’t be so many pack monsters roaming together.
Still, she couldn’t refute it—could they really just be starving?
This was merely a minor interlude on their journey.
The two encountered no real danger along the path—or more accurately, any threats were dealt with in advance by his six Wendigos.
Partway through, at a junction in the cave system, Juno picked up a bracelet.
She remembered clearly that it belonged to Sarah.
“Sarah’s in danger!
I have to go save her!” Overcome with emotion, Juno immediately sprinted down one of the paths.
Dan Lee hesitated for a moment at the fork before quickly commanding his minions to follow, then set off after Juno.
The six crawling Wendigos changed direction in unison, scuttling rapidly to keep pace with Dan Lee.
Seen from a bird’s-eye view, the sight would have been utterly chilling.
“Sarah!” “Beth!” “Sam!” Even from a distance, Dan Lee could hear Juno shouting at the top of her lungs.
She really wasn’t afraid of dying.
Still, it worked in his favor.
Having Juno draw attention up front allowed him to preserve his combat readiness as much as possible.
…
On the other side of the caves, high on a rocky ledge, Rebecca and Beth huddled together, not daring to make a sound.
A monster was right in front of them.
Fortunately, because these creatures had spent so long underground, they seemed to have lost their sight and relied entirely on auditory tracking.
Juno’s distant shouts echoed through the cavern, drawing the creature away.
The monster quickly crawled off toward the noise.
Neither Rebecca nor Beth had any intention of warning Juno.
In a crisis like this, where their own lives hung by a thread, friendships and sisterly bonds were as light as feathers.
Once the monster was gone, Rebecca and Beth scrambled up immediately and fled in the opposite direction, with no thought of going back to save Juno.
Juno’s yelling had indeed proven effective—it attracted most of the nearby monsters.
Most of them were torn apart by Dan Lee’s Wendigos, and the few remaining were hardly a concern.
After dispatching a monster with a few gunshots and her ice axe, Juno dropped to her knees before a corpse.
It was Sam…
Her throat had been ripped open, and she had been dead for some time.
After a moment of grief, Juno resumed her search for Sarah and the others.
She cast a glance back.
Dan Lee hadn’t caught up—had he run away?
Fear was only natural…
Yanking her ice axe from the monster’s chest, Juno pressed onward.
Little did she know, Dan Lee was no longer human!
To better blend into the dark environment, he had chosen to fuse with the Wendigo card, transforming into a creature that crawled on four powerful limbs.
Along with his five minions, he climbed along the cavern ceiling, stalking after Juno.
Truth be told, while turning into a Wendigo was hard to stomach, it conferred a sense of security he had never felt as a human.
Perhaps Wendigos were simply natural denizens of the underground.
Transforming into a monster for the first time made Dan Lee somewhat exhilarated.
As he tested his altered abilities, he scrambled around the rocky tunnels without worrying about crashing into walls.
His sight, enhanced faculties, and physical strength remained intact, uninhibited by the transformation.
That was a huge plus.
Dan Lee even picked a fight with a lone wild Wendigo just to test his power.
He found that the creature was no match for him at all; he snapped its neck with ease.
It seemed fusion meant stacking his own strength and abilities on top of the Wendigo form.
What a pity.
He could only fuse with one card at a time.
If he could fuse with them all and stack the Mutant form on top, he might actually have been able to go toe-to-toe with that spirit-possessed Wendigo.
Once he fully adapted to his new body, Dan Lee scuttled rapidly toward Juno’s direction.
…
Somewhere deep in a cavern nest, Sarah snapped awake.
Switching on her headlamp, she scanned her surroundings, her heart leaping into her throat.
The place was filled not only with gleaming white bones, but also with a literal pool of collected blood.
Before Sarah could even get up, a small Wendigo pounced on her from behind, grabbing her hair and yanking violently.
The excruciating pain on her scalp sent Sarah into a frenzy.
Seizing the small creature’s head with both hands, she slammed it violently onto the ground, grabbed a random bone from the floor, and began beating it relentlessly.
Just as Sarah was furiously beating the creature, a muffled gunshot rang out behind her.
Sarah whipped her head around and saw another monster lying dead behind her—likely the mother of the small creature.
Beth had fired the shot, her hands shaking slightly.
Overjoyed, Sarah rushed forward to embrace Rebecca and Beth.
Having successfully reunited in the cavern, the three whispered in relief at their narrow survival.
Just as they were discussing how to escape, a massive dark shadow blocked the exit.
When Sarah, Beth, and Rebecca saw the monster clogging the entrance, total despair seized their hearts.
Unlike the other monsters that were blind and relied on scent and hearing, this creature’s blood-red eyes were locked straight onto the three women in the cave.
Every inch they moved, its pupils tracked them accordingly.
Clearly, it could see.