They were stuck for a longer time than he expected, the landslide lasting several minutes. He didn’t need to use much energy to maintain the shield, the wood managing to hold against the weight of the snow. Once it passed, they were happy to find a lack of monsters on the cliff. The snow along the ground was thicker now, reaching his knees as he walked through it. Guessing that the monsters were tossed over the edge, he was disappointed to see that he hadn’t gained any levels. Either the monsters survived the fall, or they weren’t enough to earn him a level. Either was possible, he had killed a lot more bats and two bandits for only three levels. His leveling had slowed a lot after his class advancement, and he wondered what it would be like when he was over level 100. What would he have to do for a level? He made sure to check his energy, before attempting to fly.
He thought about it when he was hiding, the monsters had been able to fly before and hopefully that meant that he could too. In most cases, dungeons were not a safe place to fly. there were rules to each dungeon and breaking them was dangerous. He didn’t know if he could fly but thought to test it since the fight. He grew his wings out, big enough to carry him alone. Taking the dragonfly shape he used before. He found it easier to imitate movements he had seen and found himself using this form more often. He wanted to imitate the large dragon one day but didn’t have the energy for that yet. Lifting off the ground he steadily rose into the air, he made sure to stay above the ground since he didn’t want to risk it failing while he was over the edge. Falling to death was not in his plans.
He got almost ten feet in the air, before he felt a force push down on him. Like swatting an insect, he was slammed into the ground, feeling his wings crack from the sudden collision. He felt a little sympathy for the little creatures. The snow had cushioned his fall though, and he managed to avoid any injuries that were too serious. He would still bruise a little, but his necklace would be able to heal that up. Well, it looked like he could fly for a few moments, but not very high. He wondered what other rules the dungeon would have. What happened if he fell or jumped off? The dungeon was called the descent, but he didn’t know if there was anything at the bottom. Even when he peered over the ledge, all he could see was fog and darkness. It looked endless.
With that test over, they continued down the path. They talked a little but wanted to get lower quickly. The temperature kept dropping, and they worried about how cold it would get. Though, it might warm up if there was a sun in this dungeon, and the time changed. The moons were out, and he couldn’t see them moving. Guessing that different sections of the dungeon were at different temperatures, they moved quickly. Luke fell once, almost sliding over the edge and Jill needed to teleport to save him. The group realized they shouldn’t be running along the cliff edge. Slowing down significantly, Red pulled out the heat stone. They passed it around as they moved, sharing the small amount of heat it produced. It didn’t take much energy, so they used it without worry.
After a short while of walking, they gradually picked up the pace. The temperature was dropping faster, and eventually the bandits would get through the wall. Leah had become invisible, and the others were moving a bit faster.
“Behind us!”
Leah’s scream had caught them all of guard, and he stumbled as he looked behind. There was nothing there at first, but he saw Luke reacting anyways. He grew bigger, large enough to shield the entire group. It was larger than he had done before and his buffs shone with blinding light, and Mash could feel the mana drain out of him. He used most of it, in what seemed like a panicked defense. Clearly struggling to keep calm, he braced himself. Mash was about to tell him to stop, but felt the blades enter his mana territory. They were large and sharp, but completely invisible as they headed towards them. He wondered how Leah had seen them but froze when they collided with Luke. They cut into him, almost severing his arms, and cutting deep gashes in his body. With blood pouring out of him rapidly he slumped to the floor. Already running out of mana and growing smaller.
Not needing to see anything else, Mash started forming a wooden wall behind them. Large enough to block another attack. Also, he grew more wooden limbs across his back and formed them into shields as a secondary protection. At the same time Jill teleported in, grabbing Luke, and teleporting him to Red. Red started healing him, able to at least seal the wounds and prevent further blood loss. She had to teleport the three of them, as blades of wind tore through the wall. His wall hadn’t stopped it, though it did reveal the attacks and slow them down slightly. After the teleport, Red lifted Luke with her blood before starting to run. Teleporting three people consumed most of Jill’s mana. From what Mash could tell, she had enough to do it one more time.
Mash closed the gaps in the wall, forming another one as they ran. He looked back when he felt his wall shatter. He only caught a glimpse of the creature as the next wall rose. It was a combination of a lizard and a bird, but not a dragon. Its beak shaped mouth, and taloned feet named it a wyvern. With the difficulty of the dungeon, he hoped it was a lesser wyvern. Unlike a dragon its wings were connected to its arms, and it let out a loud shriek as more blades of wind sliced through his walls. He didn’t know how big a wyvern could get, and this one was already as tall as two of the chicken monsters from earlier. It had feathers at the edges of its wings, and its entire body was a bluish white shade. It blended slightly with the snow.
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They ran while looking backwards, and Mash almost slipped from the ledge. With his wooden Limbs he was able to correct for the misstep and moved closer to the group. He tried to attack, growing spikes from the wall it stood on, but they were unable to penetrates its scaled skin. His energy was depleting quickly, but he didn’t want to trigger his persist skill, and stopped attacking since passing out would mean death. Instead, he stopped growing the wooden barriers, relying on his mana territory to inform him of attacks heading there way. There were only a few more attacks, and most went wide. One managed to slash Red, but her blood armor seemed to meld into her healing the wound rapidly. She seemed better at healing herself, as Luke was still unconscious. They didn’t stop moving, even after the last attack. They couldn’t be certain that the creature wasn’t chasing or wouldn’t attack again.
They ran managing to find the end of the path, it formed into a ledge that hung over the abyss. He continued to grow wooden walls behind him, uncertain if the creature was still following. Moving closer to see if there was another path below, he felt mana surging along one of the walls. He reacted quickly assuming it was a trap and jumped backwards, but nothing came, and the others followed his movement in panic. He still waited, expecting something to happen, but finally relented and gave them a response.
“I thought there was a trap, there’s some weird mana on that wall.”
They moved towards it quickly, Mash outlining the strange mana signature. It was in the shape of a door, and he guessed that this was the real path for the dungeon. The door itself was as close to the ledge as it could be, and only one person could stand in front of the door at a time.
“Can you open it?”
Red sounded strangely worried, and he realized that he could see her breath. In fact, he was able to see his own breath now. The temperature was getting dangerously low now. He looked towards the others, before clearing away the snow with a wooden limb. It broke off more like ice but didn’t sound hard when it hit the snow on the floor. With the snow gone, he got a better view of the door. It was built into the mountainside, only noticeable due to the engravings. The whole door was enchanted, reminding him of the auction house though the purpose of these enchantments was different. Within his mana territory it shown the same color as Jill’s magic, and he knew that it was some form of space manipulation.
After informing the group, they had decided to let Jill open it. Red had identified some of the engravings and found a place to pour mana into the door. Thinking it would be best to use the same mana type, Jill placed her palm over the circular engraving. It seemed to be working, as the engravings started glowing brighter, extending from where she was pouring her mana in. It drained Jill significantly, but the door dissolved. It morphed, changing from the stone wall into a portal of swirling stone. They were planning to enter; this time Mash would enter last. That way he could block the entrance and continue to check for bandits with his mana territory. Jill entered first, followed by Red and Luke. Mash could see Leah’s mana despite her staying invisible, and he followed behind her to the door. He started growing some wood to block the path as he entered, but never got the opportunity.
Before Leah entered, she turned swinging a dagger at Mash. She aimed at his neck just above his armor. He reacted slowly but managed to avoid getting his head chopped off, instead the blade cut into his neck. Stumbling backwards, he took a strike to his chest, the dagger piercing into his flesh. His step backwards, stopped the blade from reaching his heart, but didn’t stop her strike from pushing him off the ledge. He let out a grumbled question, blood making his words more difficult to understand.
“Why!”
He didn’t understand. Why now? He didn’t get an answer for the question and watched as she stepped through the portal herself. What about the others? He had been the only one who could see her when she was invisible, and Red was the only one in fighting condition. He tried to reach for the cliff to grab hold, he needed to warn them. He couldn’t move, his body felt locked in place. He felt her mana penetrating his body, seeping in from the wounds. She used a skill that she hadn’t revealed yet. It was pointless anyways, the cliff beneath slanted away from him, and he couldn’t grab it even if he could move.
He tried forming his wooden creations, glad to feel them start sprouting. He didn’t have much energy remaining and couldn’t fly or even grab the wall, instead he tried to contain his injuries as much as possible. Feeding energy into the healing item that wrapped around his neck, he used the remainder into fusing his armor to his neck to stop the bleeding. He used his mana territory to try and fuse his wood with his flesh, like Jill did with her blood. He felt the bleeding stop but was struggling to breathe. With his last remaining energy, he braced for the impact forming a cocoon around himself, letting it hug his body tightly and stop any errant movements. It cut his vision sending him into darkness, but he hoped it would blunt and lessen the impact. He needed to survive, if for nothing else than to get revenge.