Yleen returned to the game at the appointed time. Not a minute earlier, not a minute later. He summoned everyone to sit side by side and talk. For an hour, the scouting team discussed the problem of everyone fighting as if they were alone during the battle. They came up with a plan in case of a new attack and agreed to stick together.
“Where do we go next?” Latludious asked at the end of the conversation.
“What do you mean?”
“Have you forgotten already? There are two paths from here on,” the mage said, pointing to a small tunnel.
“We’ll stick to the main path,” Yleen said and made a note on the map and set up a new B rank self-deploying scanner.
The group set off. The frightening sector, filled with bones and obsidian pillars, was left far behind. They walked in the darkness, surrounded by silence. The sphere illuminated their path. The road became more difficult. Excessive cracks appeared on the ground, and the magician almost fell into them. Little further, narrow holes appeared in the walls. Concern for their own life intertwined with fear. They passed underground wells, strange places filled with outlandish purple color and dwarf trees, stalactites hanging like a hundred spears over their heads and stalagmites. Faolandan noticed a strange worm of bright white color with two front paws and a long tail, which, at the sight of the guests, grabbed a stone in its mouth with a long tongue and swallowed it and tore into a crack and disappeared. There, the group also observed small Mornazhars—harmless bats that moved and flew like dragons, and looked like a reduced copy of them.
The road led the travelers in winding arcs and narrowing and widening corridors. The floor was smooth and adjusted in places, but a half a mile further, everything changed in the opposite direction. On the fifth hour of their journey, in the murk of the dark depths, Vvy saw a strange curved strip on the wall from which purple light oozed. At a closer glance, it turned out to be an entrance, flanked by statues of two ten feet tall people dressed in a tattered robe, armor resembling dragon scales peeked from underneath. The helmet hid the head from the crown to the nose with steel teeth, exposing only the lower third of the face: the nose was missing, there were no lips either, only inhuman long fangs. In their right hand, they held two-handed swords. Touching the floor with their blades, Illyseh checked them, sharp.
“Strange,” said the healer. “Usually, if they make statues of warriors, kings or ancient gods, sculptors embellish the beauty of the original, sometimes even elevate it to the absolute. These are the freaks I’ve never seen before. An interesting decision.”
“Shall we take the swords from them?” Vvy asked.
Yleen shrugged his shoulders and said, “try it.” The group’s tank tried with all his might to pull one out, but it did not budge. Latludious helped him with a spell, but that helped neither.
“They’re protected by magic,” he said.
“That’s sad. They could be very expensive,” Vvy replied.
“Can’t you open the entrance either?” Yleen asked.
Latludious checked the amount of mana in his HUD, sniffed, and tried to open the gate. He used all he had, to no avail. They scanned the place and put another mark on the map and moved on, guided by logic. What could happen next? Could they find the cherished key? So they walked, without talking or looking at each other, for about an hour. The tunnel had no end in sight. A long maze with secret passages and dangerous monsters. The fine art déco arches replaced the rugged, rocky ceiling. The wet stone soil turned into a rough line into smooth granite floors with adjusted geometric shapes. There were a huge number of doors between the tall columns, but when opened, it became clear that this was a deception, because there was nothing behind them except the wall.
This time, they did not find any light sources. The darkness did not retreat a step. It was everywhere. So beautiful and all-consuming. Like a divine sieve, that passes the souls of travelers through itself. Blind, innocent, and powerful at the same time. In it, your inner world comes out on top. You are with yourself. You are with your darkness.
The next room looked in the same style, but someone hung planets and stars on chains on the ceiling and on the walls, and also drew a map of the solar system. The second planet reminded Ronnie of Thalack. Two more were gas giants, and the closest one to the sun was like Mercury. Destroyed pillars, dust, and sand filled the rest of the chamber.
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They went on and found themselves in the tunnel again. Fear enveloped everyone. No one admitted to himself this feeling and did not understand where it came from until a creature appeared from the passage ahead. Its eyes and nose were missing from its face. The neck was also not visible. The head attached right to the chest. There was a huge hump on the back, and stone scales covered the whole body. It made a few strange sounds, similar to the muffled chirping of birds, and then headed in their direction. The group prepared for a new battle.
Vvy stood in the vanguard and pulled out a huge shield in front of him with a small slit for his eyes. After killing the dark creature, he felt confident. Adrenaline levels increased. Latludious was in the middle part of the formation next to Faolandan and Yleen and prepared to use the ‘Arcane’ spell. Ronnie and Illyseh waited in the rearguard and did nothing. Bullets from the DP and Scar-L machine gun flew at the monster. They ricocheted and crashed into the walls and ceiling.
“Not even a scratch,” Faolandan frowned. “Again, this machine gun is useless.”
Latludious concentrated on the fire element. He let go of the flaming whip, which lassoed the monster, and then burst into flames. Smoke and fumes filled the tunnel. The magician did not stop there and used the “All-consuming Flame”. The beam with a diameter of 24 inches launched forward and within five seconds, it was firing at an exorbitant temperature.
“Is it dead?” asked Yleen.
“No,” Latludious clenched his teeth. “Watch the experience bar.”
The creature’s chirping rang through the tunnel again, this time accompanied by some consonant sounds. It came out and stopped two yards from the tank. Vvy used “Irritation” and turned the monster’s attention to himself, but it would not attack.
Latludious gathered his thoughts and thought about the classification of elements. He asked the AI to scan the forum for any information.
Please be aware. The data is unconfirmed, but it’s the only thing available on the forum so far: The opposite of fire is water, the opposite of earth is air.
That’s it? Anyone could have written that. Then what defeats air and water?
Most likely, fire is weaker than water, which is weaker than the earth, which is weaker than air.
Not logical and stupid. Shit, I’ll have to test everything myself.
Latludious looked at the healer behind him—he was not even going to move a finger—and spat and concentrated mana in his lungs and released the spell “Cutting Wind Wave” from his mouth. A gust of wind in the shape of a disc projectile crashed into the creature’s armor. It did not move. The stone on its body lit up with purple fire for a split second and went out.
“Did you see it?” asked Latludious.
“Yes. You didn’t do any damage.”
“No. The armor. It changed color as soon as the spell reached it.”
“Why isn’t it attacking us?” asked Faolandan.
“Good question, maybe it doesn’t want to,” asked Vvy.
“Then let’s go past it,” said Yleen.
“I wouldn’t risk it. Who knows what’s going on in its stone head.”
Latludious cursed and suddenly a memory flashed through his mind of his foster father taking him to the blacksmith shop and showing him how the workers there treated Inconel, hastelloy, titanium, aluminum, and stainless steel with high-pressure water. The magician took a jar out of his pocket and opened it and tossed it up and used the ‘Piercing Water Beam’. The chthonic creature squeaked and opened its mouth and swallowed the spell.
“Fucking hell!” Faolandan shouted, and backtracked. “This is not our level.”
Ronnie pulled out his rifle and fired, silently and without warning. The bullet flew half a yard from the heads of his comrades in front and knocked down a stone peak on the creature’s hump. It screamed and rushed at them in rage. Latludious aimed the “Power Of The Rock” at Vvy and ordered everyone to run while the defender restrains the creature.
“It’s a breach of contract!” Ronnie shouted.
“We will return after him,” the mage replied.
The band members rushed headlong forward. Ronnie, though reluctantly, but followed them. Two hundred yards ahead, they came across another crossroads, stuck to the main passage. They marked the tunnel from which the monster came out on the map.
Vvy pinned the creature to the wall with his shield and restrained it. When he stopped hearing the running, he swung his sword and tried to stick the point into the enemy’s head, but the armor turned out to be strong.
“What should I do next?” he asked himself.
When the effect of “The Power Of The Rock” ended, Vvy tried to run after the others, but the chthonic monster made a dash forward and with a stone shoulder threw the tank in heavy armor ten yards back and jumped on it and landed, sticking its knee right into the chest of its prey. Vvy was horrified. The armor bent. He gathered his last strength and hit the creature with the sharp angle of the shield in the side and stood up. The enemy jumped back and said something and teleported in less than a second behind his back and knocked its opponents off balance with a blow to the spine, imposing a “shock” effect. Vvy’s body stopped obeying him. He could only lie on the ground and watch a small stream of blood flow out of his mouth onto the floor. Gauntlets clung to the ground. He wanted to crawl, but he could not.
“That’s one fucked-up plan.”
He watched through the visor as the creature approached him, taking its time, as if stretching out the pleasure of catching an alien trophy. Stopping one step away from Vvy, it poked its finger into his body, said something, chirped and fidgeted and waved its hand in order to finish the job. The tank closed his eyes. He had never died before and hoped for only one thing: the absence of severe pain. Then a 12.7 mm caliber bullet whistled and hit the monster in the chest and threw it half a yard back, leaving a dent.