For the 21-hours that they had to let their bodies adjust to the Ghoul Graveyard temperature, not one of the Tomb Riders took a wink. They couldn’t afford to sleep in a hostile environment where night and day was obsolete. Most of them moved around to keep their bodies warm, chatted with each other, and shared stories while waiting for Armoured Hero to give the orders.
Though they complained about Armoured Hero being too cautious, they respected him enough to heed to his commands. When the time of waiting around had come to an end, the Tomb Riders packed up their camping gears then got into formation with Armoured Hero in the lead. They did as they were thought in the limited time during their training just before they entered the Ghoul Graveyard.
“Prepare yourselves everyone. 5 minutes from now we will set out in Formation Puma just as we’ve planned. Please get in your groups.”
After breaking up into smaller groups of 10, the Tomb Riders activated their Motors Cube while gathering into formation.
“Here we go.” The Motors Cube Angelina tossed out wasn’t her father’s original. It was the borrowed muscular vehicle that Mawol gave her. “For now I’ll get a feel of the environment with this.”
“Isn’t that…?” Unruly Ban who had just come forward with his upgraded Press Roller noticed his slutty nemesis hopping into an unexpected motor. “When the hell did she changed her ride? Did she do away with that old motorcycle? I thought she cherished that dump.”
The sounds of multiple motors activating echoed throughout the snowy expanse. Armoured Hero expected the loud noise to attract some lesser-tier Ghouls, however, reality betrayed his expectations.
“Something is definitely strange here. Not even a lower-tier Ghoul in sight? I’m not picking up any bizarre movements afield on the Automatic Guiding Cube either. What happened?”
“Hmm?” From the side, Angelina picked up on Armoured Hero’s puzzled expression. “What’s with him? He looks like something is troubling him.”
“Of course, something is troubling him. It is obviously fear. It’s affecting all of us.” A fellow female Tomb Rider overheard Angelina’s thoughts and responded to them with her opinion.
“Huh, you are?” Angelina directed her gaze to the flat-chested beauty who was sitting astride a 6 wheel emerald bike abreast her.
“Hi, I’m Fluffy Tanya. You’re that mysterious mistress right? I’ve been keeping an eye on you ever since your debut match.”
“Is that so? A Pro Tomb Rider like you?”
“Correct. I also happen to know that you’re not a Pro Tomb Rider yet. You must have gotten into this expedition using your links.”
“So what, got a problem with that?” Angelina started glaring at the chick who she thought was looking down on her just because she used her body to get ahead in life.
Fluffy Tanya quickly reassured Angelina that she meant no harm. “No! No! I wasn’t trying to offend you or anything. What I’m trying to say is that I’m a big fan of yours. While we are here let’s look out for each other’s back, alright?”
“Hrm…?” Before Angelina could voice an answer, she along with every other Tomb Riders’ attention was attracted to a golden object soaring throughout the sky. “What is that, a Ghoul?”
The vague golden figure crashed through the peak of a mountain present before the 50 Tomb Riders. Though it was barely perceptible, they all witnessed a rumbling dark cloud chasing behind the soaring golden figure with chains in the form of lightning.
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“What the hell did I just witness? Was that thing an actual cloud or a Ghoul Monster?”
“Armoured Hero are you listening? What was that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen those type of Ghouls before. But…” Armoured Hero took a moment to analyse what his vision had just discerned. “I think I might have spotted a Black Halo somewhere up there.”
“What? A Black Halo? Are you serious? Isn’t that the worst of the worst?” The crowd started panicking after hearing this.
“I heard that Ghouls with Black Halo cannot be defeated by regular means?”
“Then it is a good thing that the cloud thingy chased it away then. I thought that it was going to target us for a second there.”
“I doubt it even spotted us from this far away. The mist coupled with the thick fog saved our asses. Phew, what a relief.”
“Don’t be relaxed just yet!” Armoured Hero alerted his team members after hearing the violent rumbling coming from the peak of the mountain. “Something big is coming! Everyone get ready!”
Armoured Hero’s shout alerted the Tomb Riders survival instincts. All of them stamped their motors in gear as they observed the rumbling above the mountain peak.
Due to the violent impact that earlier abused the peak, the shockwave caused a bizarre avalanche to occur. The heap of falling show coagulated into three deadly snowballs as they were closing in on the nadir.
“Huh, those aren’t regular snowballs.” Armoured Hero noticed that the snowball shifted their trajectory to where the most Tomb Riders were gathered. “It’s as if they have a mind of their own.” Realizing that something was amiss, Armoured Hero started dashing forth towards the tumbling snowballs.
“Steed go!” His Motor started to Gallop! “Everyone! Be wary of those snowballs! I think they might be Ghouls!” To confirm his suspicions, moreover, to prevent his companions from getting hurt so early in the expedition, Armoured Hero took out his Weapons Cube and activated a Violet Soul Insignia.
“Awaken Acnologia!” From where he implanted the Violet Soul Insignia into his motor’s head, Armoured Hero’s steed underwent a drastic transformation which turned it into an enlarged draconic horse! “Breath of Fire!”
A terrifying breath of dark flames shot out of Armoured Hero’s steed’s mouth. The horrifying heat engulfed the three snowballs, quickly reducing them to cinders or so he thought.
“Wait! What’s that? I think something came out of that snowball!”
Something did indeed emerged from the coating of snow. 3 huge snow beasts bearing blue halos atop their heads. One among them had double blue halos. It was also the largest.
“They are Rank-C Ghouls!”
“ROAAARR!!” The Rank-C Snow Ghoul that was closer to the group of Tomb Riders lashed out with a vicious assault by slamming its muscular arms into the snow. A huge bubble of freezing liquid emerged from underneath, capturing 5 Tomb Riders who couldn’t retreat in time.
“This is bad! That monster caught some of our guys! Armoured Hero what should we do?”
“Protect Yourselves! Re-group then take care of the other Ghouls. I will rescue those captured Tomb Riders before it is too late.” Armoured Hero rode his steed towards the Snow Ghoul who seemed the strongest among the other 2. While he engaged that beast in brutal combat, the other Tomb Riders ganged up on the others.
“Armoured Hero is keeping that big one busy! Now is our chance to get rid of those two!”
“Our group will flank the one on the left. You guys circle around it! We will deliver a pincer attack!”
“Sounds good. Our group will take care of the other one. Let’s show these Ghouls what we are made of!”
“YAAAAH!” Multiple Tomb Riders dashed their motors towards the violent Ghoul duo. Perceiving their furious approach, the Snow Ghouls went on the defensive by conjuring a circular wall of freezing water. A Tomb Rider impulsively rode into the water barrier. He turned to ice then shatter instantly.
“That water barrier isn’t so simple! Don’t approach it impulsively!”
“What the hell? Plant Rider just die so stupidly! How is a Rank-C Field Monster so damn powerful?” A perturbed Tomb Rider said frantically.
“Remember what the researchers said. Most of the Ghouls that we battle in the Ghoul Stadiums were derived from blue halo ghouls! They are a lot stronger here! Their strength is comparable to an almost green halo Ghoul!”
“Shit! Shit! How do we deal with that water barrier? None of our Soul Insignia attacks is working.”
“Wait! What is that rider doing?”
While the scared Tomb Riders were having a hard time finding a solution for their predicament, they noticed a lone Tomb Rider charging towards the freezing water barrier impulsively.
“Who the hell is operating that muscle vehicle? Do they have a death wish?”
“It’s her!” Fluffy Tanya recognized right away who it was charging directly at the barrier like a mad tyrant. “The Mysterious Mistress!”