(Two updates completed, requesting collection and recommendations, your support is my biggest impetus. ps, there won't be two updates tomorrow)
Beyond the glowing ground is a heavy, deathly silence of darkness. However, in this quiet darkness, faint, chaotic squeaking sounds could be heard. Mingling with the thunderous stomping of feet, the noises became closer and closer.
"Should we retract our helmets?" Catherine took off her helmet, letting her dark long hair cascade over her shoulders. "Plus, should we remain quiet?"
"No need." In the darkness, Pannis' glowing head moved slightly as if shaking in denial. "These creatures are blind and can't see the light. As for the sound, we have camouflage powder on us, in their perception; we are just a few solitary magical creatures. With a lot of delicious food in front of them, they won't care about a few magical creatures from high above."
"So you're saying we just need to sit here and rest, waiting for them to finish eating and leave?"
"Yes, but it might take a while." Pannis calculated quietly, "Sounds like there are three to four thousand Cave Apes, a small community. It might take over half an hour for all of them to have their fill. Let's hope another spore burst happens soon. Once it does, these creatures will abandon many bodies and flee, hiding far away, and won't dare to come back easily within a few days. Most creatures here have their own territories. Only these apes and another kind, rock beasts, are the most troublesome, moving in groups and wandering about, making them hard to avoid."
"They're here." Catherine, with the keenest eyesight, was the first to notice. In the darkness on the edge of the spore carpet, countless shadowy figures were constantly swaying, the shadows growing in number and the squeaking sounds becoming more and more dense. At first, these shadows were only eating the spores on the ground at the edges, but soon the impatient ones in the back bypassed their fellows who were already dining, climbing into the light to eat.
These shadows were a bunch of creatures that looked like monkeys, but all of their fur had fallen off, making them appear human at first glance. Their skin was originally white, and under the illumination of the spores, it appeared even paler. Beneath the pale skin, muscles, distorted by the corruption of the demonized energy, expanded grotesquely, even bursting the skin, which got covered with multiple fissures, revealing the dark flesh underneath. Every now and then, when a sound came from above, the creatures feeding would prick up their ears, raising their twisted, grotesque faces towards the source of the sound, their pure white eyes, devoid of pupils, pausing for a moment before they dove back into their meal.
"Disgusting." Lina made a face, "I thought the demonic bear we encountered last time was the worst magical creature, but there are worse ones, and in a group. Hey, Pannis, are we going to just watch them eat?"
"There's no choice but to wait. We can take this opportunity to rest a bit, but we shouldn't let our guard down just because the magic defense array isn't set up yet. Regaining some strength will do." As Pannis watched the demonic cave apes below, he answered absentmindedly. As his voice fell, Vivian let out a surprised exclamation. Whirling around, they saw the light from the jewel in Vivian's helmet flicker and then go out.
Upon seeing that the illuminating crystals of several people had all run out of energy and extinguished, leaving only the crystal on top of Pannis' helmet providing a weak light source, Catherine nodded knowingly, "It's fine. It's just that the crystal energy is exhausted, replace it quickly. Take care while switching them, change the one at the front first and replace the one at the top later. That way, we won't lose the light source completely in the future like we did now."
Pannis turned his head, gave Catherine a surprised look, and then shifted his gaze back to the swamp of creatures below, seemingly lost in thought.
Vivian did as she was told. Awkwardly swapping out two crystals, she once again put on her helmet and hesitantly moved her head from side to side, testing whether the crystal at the front was working normally. However, while her head was moving, a giant, pale face appeared on the umbrella of a nearby mushroom. The two blood-red eyes reflecting the light projected from the crystal were filled with a strange glow. The face's mouth opened wide, giving a silent roar at the group.
"Enemy attack!" Vivian screamed, throwing a spear made of flame from her hand, aiming at the wide-open mouth on the ghastly face.
"Don't! Close your eyes quickly!" Pannis, trying to stop her, was a step too late. The fiery spear instantly covered a distance of more than twenty meters, hit straight at the center of the wide-open mouth, and then exploded into a ball of fire.
By the time the flame spear was halfway to its target, Vivian had already realized her mistake. What she was facing was not a giant face, but a magical creature. The creature's body was flattened like a lizard, lying flat on top of a mushroom, with exceptionally robust limbs protruding from both sides. At the tips of its limbs were bird-like claws, with fingers as sharp as knives firmly clutching the edge of the mushroom cap, straining as if ready to jump down. As for the face that Vivian saw, it was just a pattern on the creature's back that closely resembled a human face. The fire spear hit the wide mouth position of the pattern on the creature's back. The raging flames exploded bombastically. The blinding light engulfed the entire space. The abrupt transition from darkness to brightness blinded both Vivian and Lina, rendering everything white in front of them. For a while, they couldn't make out anything.
Fortunately, Catherine reacted the fastest. She shut her eyes the moment Pannis called to close them and only opened them once the explosion ended, unaffected by the flash. Realizing she could still see, Catherine drew her sword and glanced back at Lina and Vivian. Seeing them both instantaneously deploy their magic shields for self-protection after losing their sight, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Stay alert," Pannis's shout rang out from behind, "This is the human-faced mesa, the most solidified magical creature. If one is injured, the entire community fights to death."
As if to verify Pannis's words, the sound of sharp claws slamming into the umbrella resonated around the four, and the flurry of breaking wind lingered over and approached their location in the darkness.
Hearing an especially intense gust close by, Catherine turned her gaze towards the source. Illuminated by the crystal atop her head, two bulky forepaws abruptly extended out from the darkness, charging towards Vivian's body with forceful impact. Catherine understood, although a Magic Shield could also defend against all attacks, similar to the Aggression Shield, it would inflict considerable drain on the caster's magic each time it was hit. Therefore, no non-demigod Mage would want their Magic Shield to be attacked.
"Damn it." This was Catherine's first combat experience in such darkness and she found herself caught off guard. Only when the claw was about to touch Vivian's Magic Shield did Catherine's sword arrive in time to sever the claw, and with a follow-up swing, she decapitated the attacker. However, before she could exhale, the sound of wind rose beside Lina, forcing her to quickly turn back and kill another attacking rock beast.
Fortunately, by this time, Lina and Vivian's vision had recovered. They put down their magic shields and joined the battle. Lina tapped her right finger on her forehead and under her breath, recited, "Holy Word Technique · A." A shadowy armor materialized around her body, subtly veiling her. After setting up the protection, she drew her mace with her right hand, holding it upright in front of her. She lifted her left forearm, palm facing upwards against her chest. The silver magic book suspended from her right waist slowly rose and hovered over her palmed hand, at a height perfect for reading when she lowered her head. The book opened by itself, pages turning in the absence of wind and holy light circulated on the pages.
Suddenly, the flipping pages came to a halt. A barely perceptible glow continuously arose from the opened pages. Lina's gaze, filled with reverence and awe, fixated on the opened pages. She chanted word for word, "Element of earth, in the sacred name of Denia, I command you to gather." As she chanted, the rising glow converged towards the mace held aloft in front of her until all the light drilled into it, leaving the mace itself emanating a faint glow.
"Holy Words, True Sight." The magic book's pages began flipping again. Lina, with the blunt end of her mace, lightly touched her forehead. As she chanted the words, real vision, that could only be used three times a day and held for an hour each time, opened up before her eyes. In the realm of real sight, darkness lost its meaning. Everything was divided into black and white—the solid black and the void white. She could switch between both visions at will, freeing her from the inconvenience of darkness.
Upon completing this, the three girls locked gazes briefly. Lina nodded and surprisingly, moved a few steps forward, assuming the frontmost position in the lineup. Facing the magical creature's onslaught, Lina, while wielding her glowing mace, looked as though she was possessed by divine power. Lightweight strikes concealed devastating power with each swing capable of crushing the magical creature's skull.
Seeing Lina stepping forward, Vivian slammed her magic staff onto the ground. A silver magic orb, the size of a baby's fist, and emanating bone-chilling coldness, formed at the top of the staff and hung aloof in front of her. She reached out her left hand to deftly grip the orb. Vivian took several strained breaths, leaning on her staff before pulling a potion out from the pocket on her right side and gulping it down, and letting out a relieved sigh only after resuming her clutch on the staff.
The moment Vivian reaffirmed her grip on her staff, both the magic orb and staff simultaneously glowed a faint silver color. As a magical creature pounced towards Lina from her diagonal back, Vivian pointed her left index finger at it. No incantation was needed before a trail of ice was formed mid-air, and in the blink of an eye, three icicle arrows penetrated the head of the magical creature. The impact from the ice arrows swept it off its feet.
Catherine cleared the front of Vivian. She, with the fastest reaction and speed, constantly roved around Vivian's left, right, and behind, killing each creature that rushed forward.
As time passed, the three girls finally understood the function of the crystal on top of their helmet. Though the forehead's crystal could project slightly farther and stronger light, its projection range was too narrow that it couldn't even cover the area around them. The crystal atop the helmet rectified that deficiency by scattering light within a radius of about three meters, allowing them to clearly see the enemies within their vicinity.
Catherine, given the task to guard others, actually bore the heaviest burden. Creatures continuously attacked her from behind. However, having gradually acclimatized to fighting in the dark, she found it easier than before. Quickly, she learned to disregard her vision to a certain extent, and instead, relied more on her hearing and energy sense during combat. Often, creatures could not even rush within the three-meter visibility range before facing a knight's sword, imbued with aggression, swinging towards them. Sometimes, when she had the advantage, she used the forehead crystal's light to illuminate enemies further in the dark, and with a vacuum slash, sliced them in half.
Lina too, although she had real sight, mostly stayed on the normal vision setting, learning to fight in the dark using her other senses. She only switched back to real sight to alleviate pressure when it became challenging.
The three girls stood in a straight line, creating a durable line of defense amongst countless magical beasts with just the three of them. Like a rock in the tempest, they stood stalwart, impervious to the magical creature's assaults.