Chapter 178: Strange, Abnormal and Bizarre
As Mistwalker forced the creature to step back, Seraphina appeared right in front of it from the opposite side, her body already bent forward as she thrust her blade upward at a terrifying speed.
The moment the tip of the sword struck the narrow gap between the bones on its chest, the enormous amount of lightning she had previously condensed into the blade erupted outward all at once.
A terrifying shockwave swept across the hall, strong enough to force several adventurers to stagger backward while the others instinctively raised their arms to shield their eyes from the violent wind.
The attack contained enough destructive power to burn straight through its entire ribcage until nothing remained behind. Or at least, that was what should have happened. However, despite being caught off guard, the creature somehow endured the terrifying force of the attack.
Even so, its body was still launched through the air like a shooting arrow.
The instant Seraphina noticed that, she sprinted after it at an incredible speed, though instead of charging straight ahead, she moved in a wide arc. Brilliant sparks of lightning danced wildly around her figure.
After being pushed across a great distance, the creature twisted its body in mid-air before driving one of its claws into the ground in an attempt to halt itself. Even then, the pressure behind the attack still forced it backward, tearing through the stone surface as deep cracks spread beneath it, but despite that, it still managed to come to an abrupt halt.
The moment it steadied itself, tendrils of water suddenly wrapped around its joints and bound its limbs to the ground, forcing its body into a kneeling position.
Unable to move properly, it slowly glanced over its shoulder, only to find a massive greatsword descending directly toward its head while compressed water swirled violently around the blade.
At the final moment, the creature broke through the restraints binding its limbs before sidestepping with unbelievable precision, casually evading the attack just before impact.
As a result, Valric's greatsword slammed into the floor instead, splitting apart the surface almost in half while a long crater tore across the hall in its wake, causing water to explode outward in every direction.
Before Valric could even straighten his posture, or even gain the time needed to react at all, the creature drove a devastating punch directly into his chest and sent him flying through the air.
The pressure behind the blow was so immense that if he had not been wearing that armor, his ribcage would have been shattered into pieces by now.
'Impossible!'
Moments later, his body crashed against the wall hard enough to leave deep cracks spreading across the surface behind him. He slid downward before collapsing onto the floor, though he still managed to keep himself leaning weakly against the wall.
Somewhere nearby, his greatsword landed on the ground as well, which he could vaguely tell from the metallic sound echoing in his ear.
As blood escaped from his mouth, Valric opened his eyes and noticed that the creature was walking toward him. Though strangely enough, it was not rushing at all. Instead, it seemed to be taking its time.
At last, his pupils began to tremble, revealing traces of fear he could no longer suppress.
'This monster... it's so strange, abnormal, and bizarre. No matter how hard I try, I can't recall ever seeing any record related to it, neither have I ever encountered anything remotely similar before. Which could only mean one thing... it came from below the sixtieth floor at least, or perhaps from somewhere even deeper.'
If it had been an evolved form of a monster from the upper floors, he should have been able to identify at least some resemblance to its previous form, since evolved monsters usually retained certain traits or characteristics from their original state.
At least, in most known cases.
'But none of this makes any damn sense. How did an unknown monster manage to appear here on the second floor? The unexplored floors were supposed to remain completely inaccessible. After all, the teleportation passageway on each floor only activates after the previous floor has been conquered, and only then could the conquerors bring others with them if they wished. That was how the dungeon system always worked... wasn't it?'
The color gradually drained from his face.
'Or... could it be possible that we've misunderstood the truth all along? What if the teleportation circles had always been active ever since the appearance of the dungeon itself?'
Naturally, theories like that had existed among explorers before, though there had never been any concrete evidence capable of proving them, since monsters normally couldn't travel between floors under ordinary circumstances. On top of that, among all the recorded Dungeon Breaks throughout history, there were barely any sightings of monsters originating from unexplored floors.
All of that only caused the theory to sound increasingly baseless instead of supporting it, so hardly anyone truly believed in it.
Unfortunately, Valric had been one of those people as well.
But now that the truth had been forced right in front of him, countless questions began surfacing within his mind one after another, though he had no time to waste thinking about them any longer.
Right now, he needed to think about the consequences that would follow afterward.
Drops of sweat formed across his skin.
'My Goddess... this is such a disaster.'
Since the ecosystem was broken now, the passageway would surely become available to the unknown monsters as well, which meant that there was a great chance they would end up joining the dungeon breakout too.
The whole Velhart town hardly had the capacity, resources, or even manpower required to hold off the monsters from the first to sixtieth floor, which were estimated to number around twenty thousand at least, and that was exactly why this expedition was being carried out in the first place.
So, how were they supposed to survive the unknowns, or even hope to stand against them, when only one of those creatures was giving the town's strongest defenders and warriors such a difficult time without them even managing to scratch it properly?
He swallowed hard.
'I hope I am only imagining things and my deduction proves to be wrong, otherwise—'
The creature halted right in front of him and stared down at him with its malicious eyes, then, after a moment of silence, it leaned its body forward before lashing out its hand toward his chest in a wide arc.
At the same time, Valric swung up his greatsword from the side in an attempt to block the incoming claw, but despite reacting immediately, he still was not fast enough to stop it in time.
Yet, instead of tearing through his body, the creature found itself slicing through nothing more than a wall of water which had risen from the ground at the last moment and formed itself into a shield between them.
He narrowed his eyes in surprise.
"Tina?!"
Some distance away, Valentina stood still with one hand extended forward while her fingers remained clenched tightly into a fist. Although she tried her best to maintain her usual composure, drops of blood could be seen staining her once-beautiful face.
However, the moment she noticed his gaze falling onto her, her cheeks puffed slightly as she looked away in annoyance.
Unbothered by her reaction, however, Valric wiped the blood from his lips and forced himself back onto his feet before facing the creature once again.
Of course, that had been possible because the creature was allowing him the chance to recover in the first place. By now, he was more than certain that this monster possessed the ability to kill him within seconds as long as he made even the slightest mistake. But he still could not comprehend why it continued to keep them alive instead of finishing them off. Could it be that it was underestimating them far too much? Or perhaps it was simply playing with them from the beginning?
Either way, he had finally found an opportunity, and he intended to use it thoroughly.
Or at least, that was what he believed at first.
'But it's so fast that I can barely discern its movements at all, so attacking it blindly would probably be nothing more than a pointless waste of strength... not that I have any other choice to begin with.'
Pulling back his greatsword, he swung it toward the creature in a wide arc, but the moment his blade cut through the air, the creature had vanished from where it previously stood into thin air, leaving behind nothing but empty space.
'Where did it disappear to?'
Halting abruptly, he scanned the surroundings ahead of him, but there was no sign of it anywhere.
'Could it be...'
Shifting his footing, he brought his sword to one side and adjusted his stance so that he could immediately turn around and strike at any moment if necessary. Then, he tightened his grip around the hilt before glancing over his shoulder cautiously.
Still, there was nothing there.
'It's not behind me either. Then where did it go?'
Since the creature was no longer attacking him, there was a high possibility that it had shifted its attention toward another target, or more specifically, toward the one who had interrupted it earlier.
He quickly glanced toward Valentina, but she appeared even more confused about the whole situation than he was.
Still, there was no sign of the creature anywhere near her either.
'Wait... what's going on?'
He carefully studied the hall once again in hopes of locating the creature, or at least finding some sort of trace that might reveal where it had moved.
By then, Aerisyl had reached the injured man and knelt beside him while using her healing magic to treat his torn shoulder.
At that moment, crimson flames suddenly danced through the air as the creature reappeared right behind her. Its jian was descending from above at a terrifying speed before anyone could properly react.
'Shit!'
Valric's eyes widened the instant realization struck him.
'Of course it would target the healing process first, since that man happened to be one of the people it wanted dead the most. So, there was no way it would let him off the hook that easily. How did I fail to notice something so obvious?'
Fortunately, Mistwalker happened to be standing near Aerisyl at that moment, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that she had remained there intentionally after bringing the injured man over to her. So, the moment she sensed the creature's presence somewhere near them, she immediately dashed forward and appeared beside it in the blink of an eye.
Her katana sliced through the air at a terrifying speed as well, but even with such overwhelming quickness, she still failed to intercept the descending attack in time.
The beautiful jian pierced straight through Aerisyl's back, sliced through her muscles and flesh, before its tip burst out from her breast. Everything happened so swiftly that she hadn't even realized what had occurred until a chilling pain spread through her chest.
Blood filled her mouth instantly.
She shut her lips tightly in response, although a few drops still slipped out through the tiny gaps and rolled down her chin. Even then, her gaze never shifted away from the ruined shoulder of the patient before her.
At this moment, blood was still spurting out from the wound like a small fountain, which meant he had lost a terrifying amount before she even arrived there. In fact, the amount was so severe that she genuinely found it surprising the man was somehow still conscious after suffering such heavy blood loss.
Not to mention, he had even attempted to heal himself immediately after receiving the injury, only to be stopped by Mistwalker before he could proceed any further.
That was because if he proved incapable of regrowing the limb properly and damaged the structure of his arm or shoulder in haste or desperation, there was a great possibility that even she would fail to restore it back to its original shape, at least unless the entire arm was cut again afterward.
Besides, if the arm had been severed cleanly, she would've been able to reattach it without much difficulty, but since the flesh had been torn apart instead, the process required a tremendous amount of concentration and time, neither of which she could afford in a situation like this. So, she had no choice except to choose the option of regrowing it entirely.
Unfortunately, the time given to her had been far too short.
She hadn't even managed to stop the bleeding yet, which meant blood was still flowing out from the wound. Since he had lost an incredible amount beforehand, he simply couldn't afford to lose anymore. If it continued any longer, his life would truly be in danger, or worse, he might die before she could even finish the treatment.
So, even after being stabbed through the chest, she still couldn't allow herself to stop concentrating on the healing process.
Although regrowing his limb was impossible right now, stopping the bleeding at the least was something she had to accomplish.
Looking at his gloomy face and the strange expression he carried, where his half-open eyes were barely remaining awake anymore, she ignored the throbbing pain spreading through her body and poured every bit of concentration into the wound.
A soft glow of light circled around the ruined shoulder like a radiant green sun while tiny muscles rippled and regrew upon themselves little by little.
As the flesh gradually closed together, the pace of blood spurting outward also began slowing down steadily.
Her expression turned somber.
"Please, hold on a little longer."
Another sharp pain bloomed within her chest as the creature pulled its jian back out from her body mercilessly.
Even then, she still refused to shift her focus away from giving treatment.
Meanwhile, the creature leaned back just enough to evade the katana that was about to slice through its shoulder cleanly.
Time seemed to slow down for a moment.
Within that brief moment, the creature straightened its posture before taking only a single step forward.
Without the slightest hesitation, it moved its blade toward a neck in one smooth motion and positioned it perfectly. However, the target wasn't the enemy standing nearby, instead, the blade rested against the neck of the kneeling healer.
After a brief second, the jian swept horizontally in one clean motion, severing her head from her shoulders completely.
Or at least, that was what Valric thought he had witnessed for a moment while hurriedly sprinting toward them in order to assist.
His heart nearly stopped.
'No!'
To his surprise, however, the severed head never fell onto the ground like it should have. Instead, her entire body collapsed at once onto the injured man lying beneath her, awkwardly or not.
Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that he had intentionally dragged her downward at the last possible moment with his remaining hand.
'But how did he pull that off?'
As he closed the remaining distance rapidly, he finally discovered the answer.
To make it happen, Mistwalker had intercepted the creature's arm with her gauntlet at the critical moment, disrupting the trajectory of the strike just enough to buy the injured man the required time to drag Aerisyl out of the blade's path.
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(Chapter Ended)
To be continued...