Cave Monsters surged forward like a tide, first emerging from ordinary burrows, and then stirring within the especially large ones.
A mushroom-like creature peeked out from one of the holes, at first very tiny, but in the next few breaths, it swelled with the wind and completely filled the cave, like a giant umbrella propped in the field.
Then, fine spores as small as plant ash fluttered down from the massive mushroom cap, settling like a fine drizzle over the boundless rice fields.
But these spores were not bearers of vitality; they were the harbingers of destruction.
The barley, barely budding at the top of the stalks and yet to plump up, met with their wilting fate.
Grey-black spores landed on them first, and in the next instant, they were drenched in black, withering away like ashes after burning, falling to the ground.
The barley stalks could not escape this fate of degeneration, and even the earth itself could not escape!
