This tunnel was slightly steeper than the previous, still no tool marks or other man-made indications, and just tall enough Tore only had to stoop a little bit to fit. The group had not gone far into the tunnel when he could hear some serious commotion from up ahead. The sound of Xiao was clear, the shrieks and yells; but also, noise of hammers and picks – probably some type of excavation...someone, or, something was digging, not that Tore cared, but he was curious – humans, fae, mythical critters, demon's and dark gnomes was an odd combination. Someone was up to something, and it was not good.

  This tunnel never went full dark, light carried from the first cavern and something from the next one was allowing just enough reflected light the monks did not need torches. Tore noticed flecks of mineral mica, or something similar, allowing the light to 'bend' around the corners and gently illuminate the way. The group did not have to travel long, three or four bends later Tore could see the tunnel make its way into another cavern, and by all accounts, this one was much ginormousor than the first.

  Tore signaled the group to hold while he snuck up to take a look, keeping low and out of sight to get a good glimpse. As he peeked in, he was mildly stunned – not the biggest underground cavern he had seen, but he was not expecting this. The roof flew thirty-foot overhead, and you could fit three hundred people in the cavern with enough room for food servers and a music troupe. Xiao were immediately noticeable, there were hundreds of them flying with buckets full of dirt in their hands, out another lava tube, dumping that dirt somewhere, and returning for more, like a bucket brigade for dirt. They were landing close to the middle of the room to fill the buckets from piles of dirt the dark gnomes were making. Those little bastard were carving some type of large symbol in the floor. They were digging and chipping stone to make it flat, and inlaying gold with their dark magic to form a symbol. Overseeing the dozen dark gnomes was the taotie, the gluttony demon – that was one ugly son of a motherless goat. It must have been seven or eight feet tall, short legs and long arms like a gorilla but not as thick. The fingers ended in claws longer than a grizzly's. It was covered in nasty brown hair with a mane at the back of its giant head, and a face with a short snout and extremely wide set of jaws, not any resemblance to any animal Tore has seen. The coup de grace though, the wide mouth, which could open incredibly wide, was filled with teeth that would put a tiger to shame, and they were dripping with something nasty and foul...probably pixie.

  The taotie had its back to Tore's tunnel, watching the dark gnomes work in the torch light, kicking dirt on to the creation, acting like the giant a-hole it was. Tore took stock of the scene, there was not a lot to this, a lot of open space, eight dark gnomes, and one ugly ass son of a bitch who were all going to die. Tore moved back to Kai and Sifu to lay out his plan. "The ugliest creature you have ever seen, is in that cavern – do NOT try to engage it, any of you, understand?" Tore waited for a nod from each of the monks and continued, "this should be fairly straight forward, I am going to kill three of the eight dark gnomes as I enter the cavern, you will finish off the rest. Eight of you and five of them, dark gnomes are not tough, but they are much stronger than they appear so be wary. I will then engage the taotie, once you're done you can help me, assuming I need it, only ranged attacks...do not get close to that thing. Any questions so far?" No one said a thing. "Xiao," she looked up to Tores eyes, "As soon as I give a signal, you call you're your children. As soon as I see an opening, I'll attack – does anyone have anything else to add?" Little voices piped in to Tore's head, "Help, help, help." Tore stepped past Xioa and knelt down to his new friends, "You two, please stay with Xiao where it is safe...I don't want you to get hurt – can you do that?" There was no response, Tore just shook his head and moved back to his spot, "Let's go."

  Tore quietly move to the front of the lava tube, staying far enough back to avoid the eyes of the dark gnomes. He pulled two arrows out of the quiver, mumbling "Elf archers ain't got nothin' on me" and put them both to his bow string. He turned his head back to Xiao and nodded, she released the most intense caterwaul howl anyone in the lava tube had ever heard, making their ears ring. Literally all the creatures in the cavern looked to the rescuers tunnel and stopped – the Xiao only paused for a split second, they had heard mama and threw down anything they held in their hands and beelined for the exit.

  The dark gnomes and the taotie covered their heads with their hands and arms as Xiao flocked like mad, not caring if they collided with any of their captors, while throwing buckets and dirt back to the ground. Tore and the monks had tucked as well as they could into the bottom of the tunnel, escaping the mass of those fleeing. It only took a moment for the bulk of Xiao to clear out and Tore took his first shot; stepping into the middle of the tunnel, just inside from the cavern, caught eye to eye contact of the closest two dark gnomes and let the arrows fly. Even before the first arrows killed their targets, a third arrow was nocked and flying to target number three, direct heart shot. Tore stepped further into the cavern so he could see the taotie better, and let a fourth arrow fly, finding its mark in the right shoulder of the beast, and a fifth arrow down range, sticking out of the taotie's right leg. The monks barreled in and past Tore to finish off their assigned foes.

  The taotie, he was not having any of this – let a screech rip that put the Xiao matron to shame. Tore could not tell if the taotie was angry or scared, or both. The look in its demonic face was definitely fear, but fear of what. The taotie grabbed the arrow in its shoulder and pulled, then the one lodged in its thigh was yanked out, both leaking thick viscous brown ooze. "Stop!" it screeched. "He will kill us all if we don't finish." The taotie had the look of a toddler throwing a tantrum, its fists balled up shaking up and down while he hopped in place, stomping the ground.

  Tore quickly glance to see how the monks were fairing - they were holding their own, two gnomes down to one monk who did not look dead...okay for now. Tore focused back on the taotie who was now heaving its breath, giant mouth open as if hyperventilating, "No! No! No! I am going to rip your arms off and beat you half to death, then you will watch me eat your arms, and then I am going to eat you – starting at your feet I will bite you to pieces and you can watch!!" The taotie began to stalk toward Tore, leaning on his hands in a gorilla-esque manner, Tore raised his bow and fired again. The taotie was faster than it looked, it caught the arrowed headed for its sternum, tossed it away, and then jumped the remaining twenty feet to combat with its attacker.

  Tore tossed his bow to safety and drew Sirius and Arcturus to meet his foe. The taotie landed and swung a hammer fist at Tore's head. Tore crossed his weapons in a two-handed block...the hit harkened back to a time when he got kicked by a young Tiny, the shire – this was a powerful strike. Tore took the energy and pushed off to his left, pivoted 360 degrees and brought his hammer back around to the taoties head, just clipping one of the monster's incisors, making it shorter. In a howling rage, the taotie raised both hands for another hammer strike, but missing as Tore rolled backwards out of the way. A quick glance at Kai, Tore could see the monks had pretty well finished off the gnomes now, just cleaning up. Tore circled away from the taotie, getting it to expose its back to the monks, hoping they could help out a little bit.

  The taotie was pure rage, it kept swinging at Tore wildly telegraphing its massive hammer strikes – easy for Tore to avoid. Tore slid his hammer from his left hand into its belt holster and drew his twelve-inch seax (a.k.a. long knife), death by a thousand cuts would be easier than getting inside the monsters reach for an attack. Tore did not have to wait long, as the taotie swung in with a massive right hand, Tore used his seax to score a deep gash into its forearm, eliciting another howl of rage. Left hand, swing, and slice; right hand, swing, and a slice, again and again, the raging beast was getting cut to ribbons. The monster could not focus, it started spinning and randomly swinging at Tore who dodged easily even with its erratic behavior. The taotie was its worst enemy, all Tore had to do was keep cutting its arms as it missed – this would take a bit of time, but the monster was going to beat itself, all Tore had to do was stay out of the way.

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  In a sudden changed direction, the beast was now heading toward the monks who were not prepared for this. Tore bellowed a warning, but too late. As the monster closed in, Kai moved to intercept, with a feeble attempt to ward it off from his fellow monks, he was caught across the chest by a massive monster back hand and thrown across the cave, his movement abruptly halted by contact with the cavern wall. That short and unassuming interruption allowed Sifu and the other monks enough of a window to move out of the monster's destructive path. As the monks escaped, Sifu went to Kai while other monks began throwing whatever they could at the taotie.

  Tore snapped; he could not let the taotie hurt anyone else. He focused his resolve and zeroed in on the taotie's weakness, its rage. Tore closed in and began to dance with his axe and seax, bobbing and ducking Tore began to deliver quick and precise cuts to exposed tendons, hands, elbows, ribs – whatever the monster let him hit, he hit. The rage was building in the beast, it suddenly stopped and put both knuckled hands to the ground like a gorilla and roared – focusing its dark chi into the rage roar, all aimed at Tore. Whatever the taotie was doing, the effecte brought Tore brought to his knees – the massive roar blinded and deafened the Viking. Tore dropped his weapons to grab his head, that pounding was worse than the time he caught a full, bull ogre fist to the chest. The sonic induced stupor gave the taotie the opening it needed, it backhanded Tore across the cavern, back to the lava tube entrance, landing and sliding into the tube.

  Two little voices broke through the din of pain, "No. No. Help" The little fur balls started to purr...not really a purr, maybe a small growl in their throats, but whatever is was, cleared the fugue from Tores head and body. The Viking stood up ready for another round and stepped out of the tunnel followed by the foo dogs. The taotie was stalking toward the downed Kai and Sifu, Tore shouted to get its attention, "Hey asshole, I'm not done yet." The taotie turned, venom in its piercing gaze, as it noticed the furry foo dogs, "Those are mine! You ruin everything" it screeched, voice tinged with madness, and the beast began smashing his bloody hands on the floor and stalking toward Tore, "I will kill you!" and he leaped again.

  As the taotie cleared the cavern floor and began its descent, like a big hairy rock slung from a catapult, the foo dogs barked as one. The audible sound from this bark was not like a dog, not like the Xiao, and not like the scream from the taotie...this was a pleasant tone like the gonging resound from a giant well-tuned bell, which caught the taotie mid-air and flung him back across the cavern away from Sifu and Kai, smashing into the cavern wall with immense force. Not to be one who looks a gift foo dog in the mouth, Tore was on the move. He drew his hammer as he sprinted across the cavern floor followed by two fuzzy foo dogs.

  The taotie gained its feet as Tore arrived; it was too stunned to focus on anything - the foo dogs barked again. The demon was launched against cavern wall, the immense force knocking the beast nearly unconscious – Tore caught the monster straight through the foul mouth with his hammer, turning its teeth to bits. Swinging an uppercut, straight into the bottom of its jaw snapping the massive head back, driving the monster into unconsciousness...that should give Tore enough time to grab his axe so he could remove the head and burn the body.

  Tore turned to look for his weapon, he noticed Sifu sitting next to Kai – Kai lying motionless on the ground. Tore's heart broke, but he needed to finish this before the taotie woke up. Looking around where he thought the weapon would be, Tore heard a massive commotion coming from the upper tunnel, the one the Xiao escaped from – the Xiao burst back through into the cavern, mama Xiao in the lead, the mass of little demons swarmed the taotie. A discord of screeches was drowning out any noise the taotie may have been making whilst getting ravaged...the Xiao made the body of the nasty monster disappear.

  It took less than a minute, like piranha on a goat, and the taotie was gone. The small Xiao were flying back out of the cavern the same way the entered. Xiao, the Xiao, stopped to talk with Tore, "I could not in good conscience leave our rescuer. We were up with the fae, they were so hurt and damaged and my children have been hurt and spiritually damaged..." the sadness and anger apparent in Xiao's face, "the taotie caused too much pain and suffering. That monster hurt innocents and turned my children against their nature, we had to help any way we could – it is somewhat comforting to know that we could put an end to the monster that hurt us so badly. Thank you Tore, I will not forget you. Your name will be spoken in our heaven." Xiao turned and followed her children out of the cavern.

  Tore had no time to dwell on what just happened, Kai was down, and it did not look good. Moving to Sifu Bao's side Tore took stock of the man...not breathing, no pulse, and blood pooled under Kai's head. "No, no, no..." Tore pleaded under his breath, Kai's hand in his. Tore had not known Kai but for a few days – they were kindred spirits – Tore knew he and Kai had connected on a level deeper than the physical, their spirits clicked. The foo dogs settled down on either side of Kai, nuzzling with their big heads as close as they could, and Tore did the only thing he could think of, he prayed to the Almighty; "Grandfather, this is all you – there is nothing we can do. All things are possible through you...please restore Kai. I know he and I are kindred souls..."

  Tore continued his meditation for a few more minutes when he noticed Kai's hand becoming warm, the man's chest began to rise and fall – "Oh shit...that hurt" Kai mumbled under his breath. Tore and monks looking at each other in turn – stunned and grateful for the miracle they just witnessed. Sifu helped Kai sit up while the others did what they could to assist or moved back out of the way. Kai opened his eyes and looked from face to face at his friends, a mysterious twinkle now gleaming from him. "Did you know" he asked Tore "that Jesus guy is middle eastern...not a western white guy?" Tore laughed "I did know that."

  They let the moment sink in before Sifu asked Kai, "What happened – you were gone for some time and just came back. I am afraid I know dead, and you were dead, you are not possessed, are you?"

  "No Sifu, I am not possessed – but I am changed. After the taotie hit me, I was in so much pain, I couldn't move, and all was black. After a few moments even sounds stopped – and I opened my eyes. I was in this misty expanse of...nothing. I could feel a floor at my feet, but that was the only indication of direction, there was nothing else to see except white mists. As I was looking around, turning to see if I could find anything, I turned to find a middle eastern man in a pristine white robe smiling at me. His perfect brown hair and smooth beard, his eyes sparkled so bright I couldn't tell what color they were – they were endless...and I knew him, I knew he was Jesus. He walked up to me and hugged me. When he stepped back, the foo dogs were both beside licking and nuzzling my hands. I knelt down to pet them both, and as I looked up to see Jesus, an infinite conversation took place between us – and I said yes. I accept him and believe, and he sent me back...I get to make sure Tore doesn't do anything else stupid." Kai grinned at Tore – Tore sidled in, and side hugged Kai, little tears running down his cheeks. Sifu and the monks moved back and stood up. Tore took a minute more, and slipped back as well, standing with his hand out to assist kai in gaining his feet, "My brother."

  The men took a few minutes to revel in their victory, looking at the destruction that was wrought, grateful they all made it through the battle. The gluttony demon was known to devour people whole in stories told from Chinese lore...the fact they fought and won was a miracle, but the fact the creature exists, again, making the monks think about what is fiction and what is truth. The monastery will never be the same. Sifu moved toward the tunnel out, "Come friends, let us leave this cursed place."

  Sifu and the men walked out of the cave about an hour before dusk – those awaiting their return were ecstatic to see the exhausted faces. Water skins and food was passed around to refresh the warriors. The fae and the Xiao were gone, camp already broke down, the cook master knowing Sifu would not want to spend the night here, had everyone packed up already. The cook approached Sifu, "Master, we are ready to move, camp will be set up back down the road, warm food will be prepared – let us leave here."

  "I agree Qing, let us go, it has been a good day."