Chapter 28
“I need to prepare all the traps. To thin out their number and then strike the few remaining ones.” Hendrick was talking to himself while rushing from screen to keyboard, effectively running across the whole room. The laters weren’t the kind you would expect from some otherworldly system. The keyboards were carved in the stone of the room’s walls while the screens were like the deforming glasses of an aquarium. His close aid was staring worriedly at him. The opportunities to see Hendrick stressed out were scarce.
The leader of the Blood Flag licked his lips. “They will soon activate the first one.”
*****
Kyle was advancing warrily. The maze he and the soldiers were in sported an amazing amount of flowing mana, as if it was a living creature. The young man guessed that even a person with close to none ability in the magic field could sense it once they entered the labyrinth.
Once someone had infused their eyes with mana, they would be able to perceive the flow of mana around them. However, the more you poured mana into their eyes, the finer their new eyesight became. And if a normal person’s mana pool was akin to a candle, the labyrinth’s was one of those huge projectors in the sport stadium from back on Earth. And Kyle’s? As bright as a little, growing sun.
Kyle suddenly stopped and hit the stone floor, activating a classic pitfall trap. The knight who held the torch beside him asked. “Have you been trained as a scoot? You spotted the trap without hesitation. The constant mana flow in here messes with our mana sight.”
“I guess it’s just a question of quantity because I haven’t learned anything to become a scoot.” Kyle answered while continuing down the slightly tilted hallway. Soon after, they reached the first open room of the maze.
The square room was empty and only a steeled door similar to the one they went through adorned the other side of the room. Kyle snickered. “Rather straight for a maze.”
“Things will get messier once this room cleared.” The captain answered with a serious face. “This is a monster house. The traps seem to change location each time we enter the labyrinth but there is always a monster house here. Well, the species of the monsters can change though.”
Kyle silently clad his forearms in thick red and black mana while the knights prepared their weapons. A loud screech resonned in the until then silent room and a mix of shoulder high spiders and basketball sized flies appeared.
The mage cast a minor buff spell on his allies, increased their defence. He needed to save on his mana pool since the trip was expected to be long.
Kyle swung his fist to a spider, crushing its mandibles and slashed at a fly with his other hand, severing one of its wing.
One of the other soldiers shouted while holding his shoulder.. “Careful! The spiders spit poison!”
Screeches and battlecries were resounding in Kyle’s ears while he was silently making use of his legs, fists and black claws. He wasn’t using his mantle yet since he wanted to keep it hidden for now, in case of an enemy spying on them.
Feeling a surge of beastly killing intent, Kyle threw his fist in his back and sent flying another spider. It was larger than its peers, its blackish shell contrasting with the sick green sported by the others monsters. Its eyes were glowing in red and a constant stream of acid was dripping from its huge mandibles.
Darius suddenly shouted. “The boss has appeared! Focus on him!”
The spider rose to its feet and sent a murderous glare to the one responsible of its love encounter with the wall. It rushed straight to Kyle without minding the soldiers that were circling around him.
“Mindless beast.” Kyle muttered while accumulating a bit more mana in his left hand and throwing a much faster punch at the disgusting monster that was rushing on him. Without much surprise, the fist connected with the head of the boss monster and all the mana stored inside it detonated, fracturing the exoskeleton of the spider with its deadly blow.
The later was again sent crashing in the wall, covering it with thick purple fluids. The spider rose again to its feet. However, its limbs were shivering, its body was swaying like a newborn lamb’s. The same blood-like liquid was continually dripping from its shattered skull.
Sadly for the boss monster, Kyle wasn’t kind enough to let it gather its composure back. Another mana infused punch crushed the boss’ abdomen and spilled more fluids on the wall and floor.
A low screech escaped the spider’s destroyed mandibles as life went out of its carcass. The other monsters, which had kept appearing out of thin air hurriedly retreated at the death of their leader, leaving only the small detachment of knights and Kyle in the monster room.
For a moment, only several ragged breaths troubled the silence. Darius reluctantly spoke, interrupting his knights’ rest. “Any injuries?” The knight who had his shoulder covered in acid-like poison was bandaging his shoulder after having drunk a healing potion. The others only had minor cuts. Their full body armors prevented them to be hurt by the relatively shallow attacks of the flies and they were smart enough to avoid direct confrontation with spiders as tall as a teenager.
“Well, if so, the pause is finished! We still have a long way to go and things will only get worse from now on.” The captain took out of a pouch a small ball seemingly made of glass. He lifted it in the air, making it glow green, before sending it toward the way they came from. “I informed the other squad that they could go forward. We wouldn’t want our reinforcements to be too far from us right?”
As if having waited for them to replenish their willpower, the steel doors opposite from the way they came suddenly opened with a loud cracking sound. The detachment slowly proceeded forward and was met with three new doors at the end of a small hallway.
Kyle smirked. “Now the things really starts.”
*****
Hendrick stared intently at the replays of the little skirmish the intruders had. The adventurer who accompanied the small detachment was bad news. Taking on a boss-ranked monster without breaking a sweat was nothing to scoff at. Even if the chaos spider wasn’t exactly a highly ranked boss, the adventurer had to have at least the skills of a veteran B-ranked adventurer to fight the boss like this. The other bad news that assaulted the Blood Flag’s leader was the M-letter sent by the leader of the squad. It was only used when reinforcements were on their way.
“I will need to be extra careful. Let’s wait and watch for now. I have a feeling that this adventurer hasn’t showed the full extent of his capacities.
