Chapter 45: Dungeon Dive [1]
The interior of the dungeon was a rain-forest, a proper one. A-ranked dungeons were like that. Sometimes, whole ecosystems flourished inside these things without upper limits.
The forest itself was saturated beyond belief, having fed on the abundant mana of the dungeon itself for thousands of years, the flora held nothing back in its conquest to cover the world.
Trees as large as skyscrapers towered into the sky, vines as thick as a human torso hanging off from the titanic branches. A certain, weird looking moss covered everything the eye could see, its slippery surface no doubt holding a terrible surprise for anyone that wasn’t careful enough. The undergrowth was thick enough that Silas couldn’t see anything further than 2 meters on all sides.
Though his ability to sense mana signatures were working perfectly.
Which was good, because he didn’t waste any time making the call.
"Incoming from the west and east! Prepare for battle!"
Not even a moment of hesitation before the entire party had summoned their weapons. Well, that was excluding Aris, who still fought barehanded for some reason.
It wasn’t long before the pursuers made their presence known.
Silas heard them before he saw them, the cacophony of chitinous limbs hitting hard surfaces at a speed that was mind boggling. If you weren’t perceptive enough, it sounded like leaves rustling, well, the kind of leaves that would rustle inside a dungeon.
The first centipede arrived from behind, having already circled around them to throw them off.
Silas took a small moment, processing the passing glimpse he caught before he moved.
The centipede looked like it had been left to grow for at least centuries in a world that had no qualms about feeding it nutrition. It was larger than a large car, each of its sharp limb big enough to compare to a human hand. The worst part though, had to be the large mouth in front, lined with fangs that looked dirtier than the sewers in the slums. The smell too, was just vomit inducing.
And then he moved, taking off from where he was and simply appearing next to the centipede a moment later.
Aris and Gareth were also just as fast as him in responding the ambush, Gareth already bringing his new oversized great-sword down into its head. Aris was under the abomination, doing the weird thing he always did with his aspect.
Silas had already summoned his sword himself, already halfway through slicing the centipede in half from the front.
Only, when his sword met the chitinous body of the great beast, it trembled, then it shattered entirely, and Silas was thrown back at a speed that he himself almost failed to process. A large boom exploded from where he landed on one of the large trees, Silas letting out a pained groan.
Gareth’s great-sword came down the next moment, a great explosion of flesh and chitin erupting from where the blade met the beast.
Though the wound didn’t look enough to kill, Gareth didn’t seem worried. Because the next moment, the beast lurched like it was great pain, and a ear shattering screech erupted out of its mouth before it went completely still.
Just like that, it was completely dead.
Silas pried his limbs out of the human shaped mould his momentum had etched onto the ancient wood, lips curved up in a thrilled smile as he shook his head disbelief.
He hadn’t noticed the damned thing was vibrating.
It was in such a high frequency that it genuinely looked normal.
Well, his sword was gone now.
He couldn’t really take his time to mourn the loss of his disgustingly expensive blade, because he could already feel more of the beasts closing in on them.
"You okay?" Gareth called out as he touched back on the ground.
"All good." Silas called out in response.
Aris was by his side the next moment, eyes curved slightly in a teasing manner as he pulled Silas up.
"Quite the welcome party." He said as he shook of the remaining shards of metal on the hilt of his broken sword, already conjuring up a blade made of mana.
"Focus." Aris said, turning around to scan the surroundings.
"You’re no fun."
"I’d rather live."
Silas smiled, giving his new mana blade a few swings in preparation, his mind already doing its thing, calibrating the blade according to what he had just learned.
The rest of the centipedes was upon them a moment later. This time, the rest of the party was also ready, both of their mages conjured up a great burst of wind to throw off the rhythm of the centipedes, and Gareth was already back in front of them, his blade raised to meet the oncoming attack. Their archer had already disappeared onto the woods, his presence completely concealed, and the other woman, a healer, was standing close to the mages, ready to heal when things went south.
Which always happened inside dungeons.
Aris took off from his side, appearing next to Gareth since he was now acting as the main striker of the party, which left Silas to do his job.
To finish off these things before it could get to them.
He hopped where he stood two times, loosening his stiff limbs, and took off himself, ricocheting using the woods towards the largest of the five centipedes that was attacking them.
The beast immediately noticed Silas approaching, and this time, he didn’t fail to notice the burst of vibration traveling through its body towards where it anticipated the strike was going to come from.
He had to admit, that was a really cool way of protecting yourself.
Then Silas brought his sword down, using the momentum as he met the hard chitin.
It offered no resistance, and the blade simply sliced through the beast, separating it into two clean parts.
When he landed back on the ground the smile was already gone from his face, replaced by the cold focus of an awakened who’s entire purpose was just one thing.
To kill.
He shot off towards the centipede that had circled around Gareth and somehow managed to slip past Aris, and was now aiming for the group of mages.
A glint of pale light as he moved, then his blade met the beast, somehow slicing through this one easier than he had last time.
He landed, looking at the mages and the healer.
"You guys okay?"
A nod in confirmation and he was already gone, moving towards the beast that Gareth was wrestling with.
That one too, didn’t take long before it was two clean parts.
Silas softly landed next to Gareth, letting out a long exhale.
Aris had already dealt with the ones that were going for him, the lifeless bodies of centipedes now laying limp on the ground.