"A wall...?"
"We got seperated with everyone."
Suddenly, a giant wall of dirt cuts the group apart. Sieghart's party and Ronan's are both together along with Susun. While Christa is with Edle, Kaien, Itsuo and Selene.
"Hey! Everyone! Are you guys all right?"
Itsuo tries to reach out to everyone on the other side. But there are no responses to the ones on the other side of the wall, implying that they can't communicate with the others.
"It looks like we can't reach out to them from here."
"Then, let's try breaking it apart."
Edle suggested. He draws his sword and envelops the blade with his flames.
"Stand back, everyone."
Kaien, Itsuo and Selene proceeds to take a step back as the prince requested. And then, Edle points his blazing sword right towards the wall.
"Sword Fire!"
He thrusts his sword forward and a powerful burst of flames charges the wall. However, the giant wall of dirt remained still. It hardly received any damage.
"What the? It didn't even cracked?"
"Let's do it again, together!"
Itsuo suggested to the prince as he brought out his own sword. But before they charged forward and hit the wall with force. Christa stopped them.
"Forget it, Itsuo, Edle."
"Why?" Edle asked in wonder.
"That wall is clearly embedded with a powerful magic barrier. You may be able to break it at some point, but you'll run out of mana as a result. You won't be able to fight if that happens."
Itsuo understood the girl with the crimson red eye's point and decided to let aside the wall that seperates them from the others. Edle followed what the adventurer did afterwards.
"Then, what do we do? Our exit is also been blocked. We're trapped here."
"What did you say?!"
Itsuo shouted in utter horror. There is indeed no way out. They are boxed in, at least that's what they can see from the vicinity. However...
"Don't worry, there's a way."
Christa looks at the corner intently, the opposite side to where the path way in and out is supposed to be. At the same time, the ground starts to rumble faintly once again.
"W-what's going to happen now? Is it going to be another wall?!"
"...!"
Edle noticed Christa preparing about something coming their way.
"Selene, barrier!"
*Glance!*
"Stand back!"
Edle shouted. At that very instant, a giant boulder came straight out of the wall Christa is carefully observing earlier.
"Light Shield!"
Selene casts her magic barrier around her, Itsuo, Kaien and Edle. While Christa alone stands in front of the giant boulder bowling straight towards her.
"Christa...!"
She clenched her fist. And the second the boulder entered her range, Christa throws her fist. The clash between the speed and impact of the giant rolling ball of rock and the strength of her punch resulted into the boulder exploding into sharp pieces and shoots around the entire room.
The sharp pieces shoots like a powerful projectile towards Selene's barrier, and the corners of the enclosed space.
*Screech!!*
*Shriek!!*
"What's that sound?"
*Grin*
Christa's mischievous grin tells that shattering the boulder and make it rain aren't done for nothing. Rather, it was to attack the monsters hiding from their sight, thinking that they wouldn't be noticed.
"You're all gonna have to do better than that."
"Look."
One by one, monsters reveals their physical appearance as they fall on the ground after being strucked by countless remains of the boulder.
"Amazing. As expected of Christa."
Said, Itsuo in awe.
Selene dispelled her magic barrier around everyone. They proceed to approach Christa.
"Their presence are kinda bothering me into pinpointing the location of the one that seperates us to the others. But anyway..."
Christa points her finger towards the hole where the giant boulder came from not long ago. Warning them that there is still monsters hiding and keeping her from finding the energy of the man behind the magic wall, Christa invites them to follow her lead and get the culprit through the hole.
"I can sense more of them and obscuring my ability to sense that person's energy. Let's take them out while looking for the culprit!"
Christa quickly dashes through inside the hole.
"Wait, Christa!"
Itsuo and the others followed her shortly after.
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, Jinrah and Sieghart are attempting to break the wall that spawned up out of nowhere. But they, too, don't have the strength to tore it apart so easily.
"What're we gonna do? They can't hear us, and we can't tell if they're safe either."
The same ground their standing onto begin to rumble dramatically. Something is coming their way.
"What is this?"
"Something is coming."
Everywhere around them, except the part where a giant wall rose up from the ground. Holes and monsters appear out of the blue.
From the ceiling, a goblin with a knife dripping with an unknown liquid jumps down towards Jinrah. But, David who's got Jinrah and the goblin on top of him in his sight, shoots an arrow right through the monster's left eye. Killing it in the process.
"Wha?!"
"It's a trap obviously! Sieghart, behind you!"
As the swarm of monsters surrounds them. Two grey skinned ogres with a pointy head charges towards both Sieghart and Ronan.
"Leave the giant ones to me!"
Sieghart effortlessly passes through the small sized monsters and goblins as he aims for the ogre's head.
"Take this!"
He jumped towards the ogre's head with a powerful right kick, pushing it down to the ground and knocking it out.
He immediately turns his attention to the other one, preparing himself for another attack. Until Ronan comes out and severes the other ogre's head with his sword.
The ogres were taken down.
"I'll help you, Sieghart!"
Said, Ronan with an intention to help the veteran adventurer.
Sieghart nodded without saying a word and then turns around to go and confront other monsters trying to surround them.
The rest of their group also begin to fight on their own. Taking down monsters one by one with ease. Time passes shortly, they continue to bring down monster one after the other. But there isn't the slightest of monsters minimizing in numbers.
"Hey, how many have you brought down already?"
Jinrah asked to Sieghart as he continue to bash through the monsters' head with his fist endlessly.
"I lost count already. They aren't running out in numbers."
After realizing the endless barrage of monsters, Susun begin to observe the whole enclosed space surrounding them. Except for the wall that sprung out of the ground, there are holes all around them. However, she noticed that there is only one particular hole where monsters are coming out, horde after horde. While the rest seem empty.
Soon after assessing the situation around them, Susun concluded that the other five holes could be their way out of the huge horde of beasts.
"Everyone!" She shouted to everyone in haste. "Get to those empty holes! We should be able to get away from there!"
"Let's meet each other on the way out!"
Lira heard Susun's suggestion and takes the lead towards one of the empty holes. Lance and Sasha who were nearby follows her.
"Let us come with you, Miss Lira!"
"..."
Lira's emerald-like eyes narrowed as she replied:
"Don't fall behind, you two."
The three of them went inside one of the empty holes close to them, with a number of monsters continue to tail them inside.
The others try to find an opening around the countless attacks of the neverending monsters. Jinrah starts to get fed up as he punch through left and right.
"We can just kill all these things with just one move, right? Why can't we just do that?!" He retorted.
Susun argued to him by saying:
"Don't be an idiot! Right now we are underneath the Kingdom of Kruule. If we made a powerful attack and destroyed this place, they'll realize we are here and send an army without hesitation! We're lucky enough that were only dealing with monsters at the moment. Just keep taking them down one by one and get to the holes."
"Damn it!"
Jinrah proceeds to punch a troll in its face and sends it away. His fury to not being able to use his full strength causes him to let his guard down on his back.
A hobgoblin comes on his unguarded spot and goes for an attack. But thankfully, Edward Edmond was there to pulverize the hobgoblin to the ground. Saving Jinrah in the process.
"Ah...!"
Edward stands up.
"You should be more careful around your back in such situations, young adventurer Jinrah."
Jinrah proceeds to offer his thanks to the adult man.
"T-thank you... I'm quite old now, too though."
At the same time he felt intimidated by how massive looking Edward is.
"Huge..."
*Gragh!!*
Jinrah effortlessly catches the little goblin leaping behind him and proceeds to flick its head, sending it away as though it got punched so hard.
Shortly after, Jinrah finds an opening to one of the empty holes. But at the same time, he sees Edward being swarmed by monsters left and right.
He was left no choice but to rush in and help him ease the fight a little.
"Thank you, young Jinrah."
"Please follow me."
"Sieghart, David I'm going!"
Jinrah told the man as he bid farewell to his other party members. He then takes the lead to the nearest empty hole together with Edward.
Sieghart and David watched Jinrah disappeared from the their sight.
"There he goes."
Said, Sieghart.
With their numbers gradually decreased, the monsters surrounding them begin to double.
"Sieghart, I will go now, too."
The bowman told his party leader that it is his turn to take the exit. And so, he easily opens a way to an empty hole between the ones Jinrah and Lira had entered.
At that time, he finds the timid young woman named Rein keeping her ground against horde of monsters trying to break through her barrier. Because there were so many grouping around her, she couldn't take a step to get closer with the others. While the rest are busy taking down monsters left and right.
David used that opening as an opportunity to bring down the horde clustering on Rein's barrier.
"Thank you. Eh...?"
As a result Rein was given time to breathe. But it was cut shortly as David pulls her hand and drags her towards the empty hole together with him.
Susun sees the bow and arrow user dragging Rein towards their escape.
"I'll take care of her." Says David as they enter the hole, followed by the monsters chasing them down.
The silver haired woman tries to follow after them, but a swarm of goblins, hobgoblins, ogres and other monsters stood on her way and stopped her in her attempt to follow David and Rein.
"You wretched monsters...!"
"Wait, I'm coming!"
Sieghart tried to finish off the monsters near him to try and come to Susun for help. However, another swarm of monsters suddenly rallied around him, as if they are trying to keep him from helping Susun.
"Damn... These things never get tired, huh."
"I'm fine."
Sieghart paused as he heard the words that came out of Susun. The girl refused his help. Instead, she told him to stick to their plan.
"Just follow the plan. I'm counting on you."
The girl with the silver hair turns her eyes to an empty hole, one that resides beside the one Lira, Lance and Sasha entered. Susun severes the heads of the short number of monsters blocking her way to the empty hole. With swift and precise movements like an assassin, she breaks through the mob and reached the hole.
Before she went inside. She stopped for a few seconds to look at the entrance where David and Rein entered. Eventually she entered the hole as the mob of monsters chased her.
Sieghart watched the woman entered the hole as he took a sigh. At the same time the monsters closes in on him, he slightly pulled his giant black sword on his back.
By doing so, the orb in the middle of the black blade that almost look like an eye glows with a menacing dark aura, sending terror to the monsters near him and renders them from attacking him.
"Okay. Stick to the plan it is. Ronan!"
Sieghart called to Ronan who is also dealing with monsters on his end. The veteran adventurer tells the young man to follow him to the other empty hole.
"We'll take this one."
"R-Right."
The two then entered the hole sitting beside the one Jinrah entered.