It was a long drop from the mouth of the hole. It was extremely dark, so dark that I couldn't even see my own hand. With a swing of my hand I fired a barrage of fire balls which flew ahead of me, illuminating the hole.
I didn't know how far I was gonna fall until the shots hit the ground. I must've been falling for over thirty minutes.
I used wind magic to slow the impact and landed softly on my feet. I looked around in the darkness, hoping to see something but everything was pitch black. I raised my left hand to my chest level and held it out in front of me.
" Illuminate", I said in a low tone. A small ball of light appeared in my hand and lit up the cave. Immediately a stench so unbearable hit me hard and I gagged a bit. What on earth was that stench.
Casting another locator spell I followed it. it appeared that the hole I'd dropped into was a whole cave system. Why the heck would the survivors come down here?
Could it be that there had been too many zombies? But that shouldn't have been a problem. There weren't that many so how could they have been overwhelmed so easily. I knew that Angel high's hunter program didn't have that good a turn out but it couldn't have been so bad to the point that they had to hide down here.
No. No I was starting to hi k that this was more than a zombie ressurection gone wrong. This was something worse. After following the locator for a while I could feel that I was getting close. The cave was starting to light up as I went further. Eventually I saw lighted torches all around and soon realised that this was more like a den.
A sudden cry of fear alerted me. Like a bullet I ran as fast as I could. I used enhancement magic to boost myself adding wind magic making me even faster. I glided around corners and halls until swinging around one corner I nearly slammed into a monster of sorts. It was a quick reflex movement as I rolled under it's massive scaly arm and slid on my back as I slammed into a wall. I got up groggily, vision blury.
Whatever it was big, bigger than me that was for sure. It had double jointed legs like a werewolf but much thicker with a long tail. It had four arms which were scaly and instead of fingers there were long, sharp claws. It had a short neck with a snake like head and two horns going back from it's head.
In front of it was a girl about my age shaking on the floor. Immediately a boy clearly wounded leaped on the creatures back with a battle cry holding it's neck in a choke lock. The creature gave a half hiss half roar and swung around wildly. Another person also a girl slid under it's thrashing feet, and with a chain,wrapped it's left leg with it. She rolled to her feet and pulled hard taking the creature down.
However the creature grabbed the boy and swung him toward the girl, both of them falling hard and giving out pained cries as they were smashed into the wall.
The creature spread it's hands and opened its mouth roaring at them savagely. From the look of things they were the it survivors.
I leaped to my feet and ran at the creature. It turned too late to see me barrel roll in the air and drop kick it in the chest. With my enhancement magic it sent the beast stumbling backwards into a wall. It slammed into the wall and was stunned for a few minutes.
I rushed over to the boy and girl.
"Hey.You guys Is there anyone else alive. What's going on?", I asked quickly, looking behind me. Tge creature was trying to stand but the kick knocked him sensless
" Some morons raised a zombie.... To see how well they could fight. But when they did, something went wrong and this...this...thing came too and slaughtered everyone", The boy explained.
" Our hunter class only had twenty people in it so we tried to prioritize but this thing was too strong and it killed pretty much everyone. It kidnapped our friend and we came after it. It made this giant hole and we followed it down only to find that this cave system", The girl added.
That made sense. But how did this thing come with the zombie.
A screech from the creature brought me back to my senses and I realized I needed to take this thing down fast.
Normally beasts had a core that needed to be destroyed before the creature itself could be killed. Worst still there cores didn't stay stable. They could move around making it a more daunting and tedious. But I had to try.
Otherwise, there was no way we were getting out of here alive.
" You guys shouldve mentioned this in the call. It would have been more helpful", I said slowly as I walked up to the creature.
" Can you beat it?", The girl said trying to stand. I shrugged. " whether I can or can't it's not up to you. I'll take it down", I said. " Are you crazy you can't beat that thing by yourself. it'll slaughter you like a lamb. The two of us couldn't what makes you think you can?", The boy said angrily, also trying to stand. I looked over my shoulder,giving them both a cold stare that stopped them. " Because unlike you amateurs, I've been trained my whole life for things like this", I said in a steel tone.
I looked at the beast as it now stomped over to me slowly yet with sinister intent. It took a few steps for it to now tower over me like a giant. Tilting its head as it looked down on me, it gave a low hiss. I don't flinch under it's intense stare.
With a swift motion I dodged a sudden tail swipe from it. I landed lightly leaping at it almost instantly. It raised a hand to block my attack. Smirking I thought, that won't work. I couldn't have been more wrong. The sword couldn't cut through its arm and instead it got stuck in its arm. The beast grinned, and with a hard smack sent me flying into a rock wall. I clenched my teeth with a hard grunt as I hit the wall. The creature ripped my katana from it's arm and came charging at me so fast I couldn't react.
It rhino charged me through the wall like a bulldozer through a wall until we fell into an open passage way of sorts. It was like a path leading up and away from the hole. I was guessing it was somewhere near yet far from the school. I the creature raised me up and tossed me away. I rolled a little before getting to my feet. I coughed blood and spat out what was left.
Wiping my mouth on my sleeve I looked up at the creature. It had already healed from the wound. I needed to find where the core was and far or this wouldn't end well. I got to my feet and summoning my sword I got into an attack stance. The creature roared and came at me. Using frost magic I created a barrage of ice spikes and infusing them with inferno magic I created a fusion spell I liked to call bifrost. With a swift forward motion like the signal to a charge, I released the bifrost spikes and they flew forward like bullets, blowing away parts of the creatures body but it only regenerated just as fast.
Luckily one of the bifrost spikes hit the creature in the leg and blew it apart, causing it to fall forward and pretty hard too since it as coming with some serious momentum. As it tumbled towards me I leaped into the air and twisting around with my sword some for it's centre and landed hard driving my sword through its heart.
Unfortunately for me that was the wrong spot and as a reward I was sent flying into the cave ceiling. The creature leaped up at me and with a barrage of furious punches pummeled me right into the ceiling even further.
It was all I could do to block it's barrage and a take a few blows in good faith as well. O needed to think of something fast.
Where the hell was the core?!
Was it the rotating type? If that was the case then this was way worse cause it would be insanely difficult to blast it.
The barrage suddenly stopped and the creature grabbed me by the leg and threw me down to the ground hard. I cried out as pain ripped through my body. The creature suddenly landed on me with a deafening boom.
Vomiting blood, The creature raised me up by my hair, looking me in the eyes. It pulled back two of it's remaining three arms and with Savage force it hit me so hard it sent me flying right out the cave and into a clearing. I slammed back first into a tree and slumped down. I immediately used healing magic as I heard the creature roar.
I needed to find that core.
Or I was going to die.
Right here. Right now.