"Sir, we have news."
Charlie glanced back to find his closest subordinate approaching with a steady gait. "What is it?"
Currently, they were at the top of a building, overlooking the remainder of a decimated area.
A flurry of noises could be heard coming from below but Charlie acted as though he didn't hear them, instead staring into the distance while pondering on a few matters.
"A dungeon appeared in the southeast of our current location." The man replied.
"A dungeon?... To the southeast?"
"Mn."
"Isn't that where those Enforcers said that maniac and a certain figure went in after they messed with my people."
"Affirmative, sir."
"So that's how it is." Charlie nodded as he looked in the general direction southeast with a murderous gaze. "You kill my men and think I'll let you off easy, you have another thing coming, Anderson!"
"Do we head over?" the man simply asked.
Charlie pursed his lips as he contemplated for a moment before nodding. "Mn, find out how long it would take for the other teams to reach the destination. If time is on our side, we can always take a detour before going on our way."
"Understood." With that, the man turned and leaped from the roof, landing several floors below before walking toward the source of the noise.
Charlie looked down only to be met with the sight of his bodyguards engaging with a pack of Zombie Hyenas.
"Tch, disgusting."
Hardly had those words left his mouth when he sensed something causing him to glance further away from the fight, only to discover yet another hyena but this one was different.
With a body as large as a building as well as several sores on its fur, the Hyena slowly made its way toward the fight, pausing at some point to meet Charlie's gaze.
The latter immediately frowned as he exclaimed. "Retreat!"
A second later and the Zombie Hyena opened its mouth with a fierce echo escaping from the depths of its throat.
Awooo
***
"This is a dungeon?" Felix still couldn't believe it even as they dropped from the city walls and entered the city proper.
The alabaster walls, the concrete pavements… even the building designs which were straight out of the medieval era, it was just so unreal.
Felix glanced at Nathan's back, the latter walking with a serious expression on his face.
"Ahem."
Nathan paused in his tracks before slowly turning to meet Felix's questioning gaze.
"What?"
"You said it would be disgusting."
"I know what I said."
"… So what is this?"
"Don't let the appearance fool you, the inside of dungeons takes on such appearances. Only once you have explored the depths would you understand just what I meant by disgusting."
Felix pursed his lips, unable to accept Nathan's claims but alas, there was no point refuting it.
"Since this is a red dungeon, the appearance isn't as twisted as higher dungeons," Nathan added for clarification as they continued moving forward.
Felix nodded wordlessly as he kept his guard up.
Needless to say, after almost an hour of walking, they still hadn't run into anything of note… that's if they were not counting the fountain with the likeness of a soaring eagle at the center of the outskirts of the city.
Soon they made it to a large gate with two giant stone knights standing guard on both ends.
Staring at the knights, Nathan remarked. "Based on my previous scouting, we can guess that the dungeon is made up of three levels. This is the first level, beyond this gate is the second and the heart of the dungeon is third."
"Are dungeons normally like this?" Felix asked as he glanced around.
"Quiet?"
"Mn."
"No." Nathan quickly replied before adding. "Which makes me worry what we might run into at the other side of this gate."
Felix tried to speak only to hold his tongue as a voice floated into his ears from somewhere causing him to pause in his tracks.
Albeit unwillingly, he found himself unable to move.
"Uhmm, Nathan," Felix remarked.
"Shit."
"What?"
"Something is wrong."
Both of them had heard the same thing and it was only three words.
Leave this place
For some reason those words caused them to lose all mobility and just as they tried to recover, what they had thought wouldn't happen, occurred in a flash.
The city trembled fiercely as the stone knights suddenly moved.
The place where eyes were meant to be glowed red and some sort of black mist covered their body as they swung their blades, intent on crushing the intruders.
"Not like this!" Nathan exclaimed angrily as his aura soared and his eyes flashed with lightning.
Boom
A flash of lightning followed after which the sword of the knights was obliterated without a trace.
A dust cloud formed and quickly dispersed to reveal Nathan with lightning erupting from his body.
Meanwhile, Felix finally had a chance to breathe as he dropped to his knees only to be stunned by Nathan's display of unrivaled might.
"…" Unknowingly, Felix's fighting spirit burned with a passion to go past the one before him to reach a higher level.
Just then, the city trembled again as a figure shot into the sky before rapidly making its way toward their location.
With a closer look, Felix immediately discerned the figure.
It was the bird statue they saw at the fountain.
"This…" Felix was unsure of what to make of their current predicament.
He expected a fight but not against some random statues.
There was something that just felt weird to him about the scenario.
Before he could clear his thoughts, Nathan spoke up. "Take care of the bird, I'll handle the stone knights."
"… I'll finish up quickly."
"Take your time."
Kwadudu
With that, Nathan charged at the knights.
Felix returned the sword and retrieved the Multi-shot Pulse Gun before aiming at the incoming enemy.
The moment it came within range, he acted without hesitation.
[Vital point shot activated]
Bang… bang