Ancient Chapter 29
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Chapter 29

The captain Darius watched silently as the adventurer they hired stepped into a new corridor. Because of their long-lasted antagonism, adventurers and knights weren’t teaming up often and developed their own fighting styles. Darius was a commandant in the Consortium’s army and thus knew a lot on the army’s strategies. Using number and proper placement in order to overwhelm the opponent’ forces was as simple as counting up to ten for him.

From what he knew, adventurers were more focused on small parties with great teamwork. Like this, they were able to specialize specific roles while relying on their comrades. Darius had the occasion to witness this kind of parties fight while he was bringing out his soldiers do the weekly monster cleaning, and he was fairly sure to know this kind of fighting style fairly well.

And then there was the kind of adventurer who privileged fighting alone. Digging in his meager knowledge concerning them, the captain remembered that the solo adventurers were either newbies not ready for proper missions yet or abnormally powerful ones who chose to fight alone in order to not bother or be bothered by others during their work.

It was obvious that the adventurer called Kyle was in the second case. His prowesses during the earlier fight more than proved his abilities to the rest of the knights. Darius’ superior asked him to evaluate the Dusk Angel, saying that the adventurer had caught the attention of the Consortium during some previous events, and now the captain was realising why. Kyle Dawnstar was a free electron, and his nature itself made him dangerous for the higher authorities. Nobody knew his goal or why he suddenly appeared out of nowhere, slaying a disaster-class monster.

A hand lightly tapping his armored shoulder brought Darius back to reality. He nodded at the faithful knight who caught his attention. “Sorry, I was a lost in thoughts. What is it?”

“This adventurer is something right?” The knight smiled while putting his finger on what occupied his leader’s mind.

“Am I this easily readable?”

“No, not really. But you were fixing his back for quite some time now.”

“Ah I see.”

“We can see the next room now.” Captain Darius and his knight refocused themselves.

Kyle disarmed yet another trap -this one was launching arrows- and entered the room. Fairly wide and dark, its sailing was hidden in the darkness. The room’s shape was circular, its walls made of rough stone, and some boulders were disseminated as if some giants played a game of petanque here.

Three identical steel doors adorned the opposite side of the room, guarded by some humanoid spiders. Easily four meters tall, they weren’t human-like enough to be called beastmen. Aside from their standing posture and their opposable thumbs, they weren’t much more than some monsters. One of them was wielding a spear and a child, another one was brandishing an impressive greatsword and the last one used a shortbow backed by two daggers. 

Thanks to the width of the room, they hadn’t spotted the intruders yet, allowing the soldiers to land some arrows on their thick exoskeleton. The captain gave his orders in a whisper.

“Archers, aim to incapacitate the enemy ranger. Kyle, can you take on the berserker one? We will distract the shield-bearer.”

“Fine by me.”

Darius gave the signal and everyone rushed simultaneously. Kyle ran behind the guards, their rear covered by a dozen of arrows. Once the guards engaged with a clang the shield-bearer, Kyle ran past them and intercepted a downward swing coming from the berserker. He then riposted by kicking the side of the monster with enough force to send it crashing on a wall.

Meanwhile, the archer gave up trying to pull its bow and joined the fight side by side with the shield-bearer. It was already exchanging blows and swings with the knights and even pierced the armor covering the thighs of one of them. The newcomer lept, trying to attack the captain from above but was intercepted and turned in a pincushion once more by the archers.

The berserker stood up and spat a thick purple saliva on its blade. It then brandished it’s venom coated greatsword and rushed toward Kyle. The latter's fist met the blade while his tattered mantle whipped the monster. It screeched in pain and brought its weird hand to its face, covering the hundreds of small but deep gashes the cloth left behind. 

Kyle didn’t wait and snatched away the monster’s weapon before impaling it in its chest. The impact crumbled both the rusted blade and the exoskeleton and Kyle only had to tear the monster’s heart out of its chest to end the spider’s sufferings.

He then turned his gaze toward the soldiers. They were almost finished too. The archer-turned-pincushion was slowly collapsing on itself while the shield-bearer was using its shield to replace its lost its lost legs. 

Darius raised his axe before cutting the creature’s neck. The pincushion tried one last time to stand up before Kyle plunged the rusted greatsword in its neck.

One of the soldiers raised his voice. “That… was smoother than the last time.” His gaze fell on Kyle, who was still holding the crumbling greatsword. “Ah.”

A female knight reprimanded him. “You said something stupid again Carl.”

“Huh, I know. No need to remind me.”

Kyle chuckled and walked toward the three doors.

Darius followed him. “This is the main reason we weren’t able to empty this darn den. Too much different ways and dead ends.”

“Say, the labyrinth’s mana comes from the core room right?”

“... Yes why?”

“And there is only one path leading toward the core room?”

“... Yeah?”

“Then we just have to follow the path with the most mana.”

“But how? The amount of mana required to see through this mess is way too high!”

Kyle smirked. “Well, this is my problem.” He closed his red eyes for a split second and, when he reopened them, a crimson hue was shrouding them.

Darius activated his mana sight and what he saw baffled him. The concentration of mana in the adventurer’s eyes was enough to pale everything in comparison.

Kyle pointed an armored finger toward the rightmost door. “This way.”

The knight detachment followed him quietly. Some of them, who had the same idea as their captain, were sweating bullets.

*****

“H-how?” A bottle of wine was sent crashing toward one of the screens. “How can he find the way this quickly?!” He collapsed in his chair. “What’s up with this quantity of mana.” He jerked his head, realising something. “And why is his mana red? There is no way he is a monster…”

The detachment was quickly making its way toward the core room. There were only a dozen rooms separating them from the place where Hendrick was.

The leader of the Blood Flag stood up and readied his weapons. He then patted the glowing orb that was occupying the center of the room. “Don’t worry. I will protect you as our oath says.”

Hendrick turned his gaze toward the screen just quick enough to see that the adventurer was looking at him, as if he was really seeing Hendrick.

 

Hey! How are you doing during these troubled times? Me? Aside the fact that this quarantine awakened my inner procrastinator, all is good. I hope I will be able to fight back my procrastination enough to write a second chapter this week lol.

That aside, Soul of Cinder was an amazing boss. I love their lanky figure and their numerous movesets. Also, the nameless king is a pain. There is no way to calculate distances during this fight, and this is problematic since you yeet a dragon during the first phase.

I hope everything is well in your side and see you hopefully soon.

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