Ch.29 Cat and Mouse

I was happy with how my puppy had turned out. Thanks to Nature's Voice I was able to move the Poison Ivys as long as there was no other Life aura present to interfere with it.

Although I had to remove some of the walls so the Ivy can replace them, giving me the chance to make an endless Maze, it was not all without flaws.

The mages can now blast thru them with spells, apart from fire or wind base which would poison them or wake up the whole hallway, such as earth spells only activating the Ivys near the impact zone eventually finding their way out, however.

I took a look at my puppy, "I made good use of all those Life Crystals and made myself a powerful creature." Q'ill looked confused, so I explained my masterpiece's current statistics.

(Wolf cub???): The infant of a savage wolf, sharp fangs and claws. Mutated thru the use of a large amount of Life Crystals, has Wind and Dark Elements.

Rank: 1

Attacking power: 30

Magic power: 40

Defense power: 20

Magic resistance: 20 (+50)

Agility: 100

Mana Conductivity: 10%

Special skill: Enhanced Senses, Dark Born, Abyss Eyes, Wind Born.

Enhanced Senses: Increases the connection to the body's nerves, allowing the detection of danger and attacker's weapons trajectory.

Dark Born: Increases magic resistance +50, reduces detrimental magic effects greatly. Can damage hostile targets shadow for different effects, base on the corresponding part. Allows access to Dark skills/spells.

Abyss Eyes: Damages the soul of all hostile targets in your field of view, slowly deteriorating their mental state. Direct eye contact will paralyze the target increasing deterioration by ×10 while burning their Mana and Elemental Mana. The effect can be repelled by overpowering the invading Dark Elemental Mana be it thru their own Mana or Mental Strength. Can only affect one target with the second effect.

Wind Born: Greatly increases base Agility, allows access to Wind skills/spells.

Q'ill was shocked, but to my surprise, she did not ask about the puppy itself. "Soul damage, like the attacks from Specters and undead mages? Dark Element, no wonder people have their hearts and minds twisted."

She looked greatly interested in the new Dark Element and began to ask questions non-stop. While I explained the puppy Rank one Spells/Skill and hunting method, the invaders began moving again.

The highest rank soldier builds up the courage to confront the scholar. "Sir Scholar, why are we continuing forward without searching for the missing soldiers," the Scholar continued walking and replied.

"It is clear that the Dungeons workings have changed. The fact that no sound or struggle can be detected can only mean one thing, whatever is doing this can easily single out targets and remove them."

At that moment the Scholar, along with the mages, stopped and turned around. They felt a vile Mana invading their minds, the soldiers were in a worse shape. Feeling like a predator's gaze was declaring their death.

The large army suddenly became quiet, the arrogant mages included. A small green paw with pitch-black fangs stretches out slowly, almost like it was shy, and began to drag itself across the floor creating a horrible sound.

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Looking at this, as the one with the strongest mental strength, the Scholar shakes the feeling away. "Snap out of it, soldiers confront the target!" The soldiers remembered the danger and arrange themselves in rows of two, slowly walking towards the creature.

The frontline moved forward, only a few steps, and the paw retreated. "Don't let it escape," said one of the chasing soldiers, their fear suppress by the adrenaline. Turning the corner, nothing there, suddenly stopping in confusion cause the others to collide, nearly touching the dangerous Ivy walls.

Before the soldiers could even curse at each other, they felt the same sense of death from behind.

"SCREEEEE"...

The Scholar quickly felt the vile mana invading his mind again, the sound coming seconds after, the shrill sound sending shivers down his spine.

The soldiers stayed where they are making sure that they wouldn't be ambush from the back. Collectively, the group felt that the sound was getting louder.

The Scholar frown, "enough of this, use earth spells!" The mages instinctually followed the order, however. "What are you doing, not all of you!"The mages came back to their senses, almost wasting their Mana on a Boulder Toss.

Although most of the mages halted their spells, some of them have already finished the cast. The end of the hall suffered a rain of boulders, to the surprise of the mages, the spell pierced some of the walls.

The Poison Ivys quickly activated from the impact, barricading that part of the Maze for a while.

The Scholar wonder why the Ivy walls could now be broken thru with spells. He noticed that the collapse walls were made completely out of Ivys no wall behind them. With this new information, he immediately knew why the Maze seemed endless.

The Dungeon was somehow moving plants around, but how? He thought about it and came to the conclusion that a King Lily was probably in the middle of the Maze as a roaming boss.

Forgetting to question how a newly born Dungeon could have a roaming boss, he focuses on the walls and ignored the rest.

Knowing that the walls could now be removed he only needed to get rid of the strange green monster that deeply unnerved him. Whatever the creature was it is better off dead.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE"...

The soldiers could hear the horrible sound coming from the walls. Tightening their formation, they waited for orders, leaving the end of the hall unguarded.

The Scholar proclaims, "Hold a defensive formation do not chase the creature, it is trying to split our group apart. We shall use earth spells to carve our way out." The scholar waited for the Ivy to reset.

The sound of the green beast was heard again, this time, much softer.

The paw continued moving forward, a second one shortly after. The body attached seemed like a dog's shadow, given life. The mage's vast knowledge did nothing for this creature, was it a shadow demon or some kind of specter from the Abyss world?

Before the Scholar could command to attack, the creature gave them a toothy smiled full of malice. Two eyes suddenly opened, their emerald deeps corrupting the group's mana.

The Scholar on the other hand was trapped in an abyss of darkness where the eyes slowly grew bigger terrifying him. "Attack! Attack, kill that m-monster now!" The panicked soldiers charged forward to kill the demon that caused such fear from their superior.

The mages used their mana to cast more boulder toss, not caring about the charging soldiers. The spells hit solid walls doing nothing, as the demon weaves around them with no problems.

Seeing this the Scholar grew panic and use his mana in an attempt to save himself, his vast mana pool crushed the invading Dark Element easily. The Scholar had realized that he has been acting strange and his mind was sluggish.

At that moment the soldiers had been attacked by the Ivys from their unorganized charge, and the mages indiscriminate bombardment. The demon jumped in the air opening his mouth alarmingly wide, a scream full of fear came from it.

"HaahaaAaaAaaHaAaha"

Sounding like hundreds of people were crying out in fear, the whole group went crazy attacking anything near them or running unto the walls in fear. The hallway was now completely submerged in wriggling Ivys.

The scholar realizes what he was dealing with, the dark arts of the undead mage's first circle spell (Soul Scream).