by TurtleMe
“This is so odd. Even in the lower floors, there are never this many Snarlers bunched together.” Professor Glory braced herself and stayed firm. Because of the low moral in our class, if even our professor took a step back in hesitation, everyone would panic.
“There are a lot of them but they aren’t impossible to handle. However, since this is just a class excursion, I think it’s best to go back up, just in case. Safety is priority right now.” Just as Professor Glory started slowly ushering everyone back towards the stairs, a fireball flew past her and exploded in a crowd of Snarlers.
“BOOOM!” As the fireball exploded, six Snarlers all shot out in different directions and lay motionless.
“See? These nasty little beasts are weak. Professor, don’t tell me you brought us all here just to go back? Even a small fire spell was enough to kill six of them.” Lucas scoffed as he lowered his staff.
I could tell Professor Glory was hesitant because of the unusual amount of Snarlers suddenly appearing in the first floor.
“I-I think we should try and train here, Professor.” Curtis has a determined look on his face as several other students, because of Lucas’ display, gained confidence as well.
The Snarlers that have all come out seemed a bit frightened now, as they warily keep their distance, studying us with their unintelligent eyes.
“Okay, but if I feel that something isn’t right, we’re immediately out of here, understood?” With a stern voice, she waits for the class to agree to her condition.
“Good. Split into your two teams and take different parts of the floor. We don’t want any friendly fire happening in here. And Lucas, if you do something like that again, there will be consequences.” Professor Glory shot a menacing look towards the cocky blond, making him reluctantly comply.
“Prince Curtis, take your team and make your way towards the left side of the cave. Princess Tessia, take your team to the right of the cave and hold your ground. I’ll be keeping an eye on you guys at all times but stay vigilant and don’t underestimate the Snarlers, especially in these numbers.” With that, Professor Glory motioned for the two teams to rush forward.
“Arthur, I want you to be the vanguard since you’re the best in close range. Clive and Roland, you guys take positions to his left and right behind him and make sure he’s covered. Lucas stay in the center between Arthur, Clive and Roland; I’ll cover your back. We’re going in the diamond position we learned in class!” As soon as we headed towards the miniature army of Snarlers, Tessia’s shy self all but disappeared as her Student President side took over.
“GRRRAHHKK!!”
“KHHRRAAA! KRRAAH!”
“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.” Roland, obviously intimidated by the fifty-odd Snarlers all snapping their jaws at us, took out his weapon, which just looked like a handle of a sword.
Clive also took out his metal short bow from his dimension ring and he drew it back. Where the arrow should have been was a long metal needle wrapped in gusts of wind.
I take out Dawn’s Ballad as well, which was still wrapped in white cloth. I left it sheathed and lowered myself, getting ready for a quick draw in case any of them suddenly jumped.
“Spread and destroy! Ember wisp!” As we approached the horde of Snarlers, Lucas released one of his favorite spells and soon started floating around us.
“CRRAAHK!!” Reaching just 5 meters from the horde, I tucked my sword in tightly to my waist and prepared to draw as more than ten of them jumped towards us.
Dashing even faster, I leaned forward even lower and augmented the sword still inside its sheathe. Augmenting a wind to accumulate inside, I had to use all of my strength to keep my blade from coming out of its sheathe until the last minute. With the same theory as a loaded spring, I waited until I was just in front of the airborne Snarlers before I released the pressurized blade.
“FWWAAAHH! BOOM!” As the speed of my blade broke the sound barrier, I winced in pain as I felt my shoulder dislocating. That skill worked a lot better than I thought it would…I really shouldn’t experiment with skills in actual battles.
The front line of the Snarlers both in the air and on the ground was either knocked back or cut in half but I couldn’t follow up with anything as my right arm dangled, dropping my sword.
“GRHHAAK!” Several more Snarlers took the place of the fallen and galloped towards me, using all four limbs now.
“Fweeee~” Several arrows whizzed by me and promptly impaled some of the Snarlers almost on me.
I look back and give Clive a nod before picking up my sword with my left hand. As I look to my left, Roland was wielding a whip made of water as he gripped the handle he brought out in the beginning. The water whip whirled erratically as some attacks missed the target by a large margin, making me think that Roland was still learning his family’s art.
The cave glowed in red and blue as different fire spells went off from both our side and the other team’s side. The Snarlers were trying to surround us as they began spreading out and keeping their distance. The ember wisps that Lucas summoned were still shooting off small streams of fire but the Snarlers were getting crafty, throwing chunks of ice from the ground at the wisps in hopes of extinguishing them.
“Arthur, are you okay?” Tess sees me clutching my arm as she’s fighting off two Snarlers.
“Um… I think I’ll be fine.” I grit my teeth and position my right arm between my legs as I prepare to pop the shoulder back in.
“Gah!” I couldn’t help let out a cry as I forcibly reposition my arm back into its place.
The skill I haven’t even named yet worked a lot better than I thought, managing to kill over fifteen Snarlers at once. Too bad my body wasn’t able to withstand the force just now.
The Snarlers weren’t very strong, but after about thirty minutes the seemingly endless numbers that didn’t dwindle were taking its toll on us. Clive and Roland were sweating profusely while Tessia was a bit pale. Even Lucas’ spells were becoming a lot less flamboyant as he had to keep in mind the limit of his mana pool now.
“Is it just me or are there more Snarlers now then there were in the beginning?” Roland shouts as he manages to kill three Snarlers with the help of Clive.
“I think you’re right. The numbers aren’t adding up.” Clive responds as he looks at Tessia for further instructions.
Between the corpses on the floor and the ones still kicking, the numbers, just on our side added up to roughly over one hundred. That was more than double from the beginning.
“I think we should head back over to Professor Glory. We’re not going to be able to keep fighting like this for much longer.” Tess announces. As we make our way slowly back to where the entrance to the dungeon was, it seemed like the other team had the same idea.
Professor Glory noticed both our teams coming towards her so she made her way to us, cleaving Snarlers left and right with her sword.
“Professor, I don’t think we can keep going like this. The Snarlers keep coming!” Tess shouts over the waves of Snarlers.
“Both teams! Follow your leaders! We’re going back up!” Without hesitation, Professor Glory motions for us to head back up the stairs when we hear a loud crash.
“BOOOM!”
The icicles and stalactites, along with other rubble from the roof of the cave came crashing to the ground as two figures came floating down, flapping their large wings to hold themselves steady.
“Are you kidding me? What are the Queen Snarlers doing on this floor?” Professor Glory didn’t bother holding in her rage as she took out another giant sword from her dimension ring.
“Class, make sure to not let any of the Minion Snarlers get in my way. I’ll handle the two Queens. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m getting you guys out of here if it’s the last thing I do.” With a click of her tongue, she pulls off something around her neck and throws it on the ground. As the necklace shimmers and then turns grey, the mana fluctuating around Professor Glory changes.
She was using
a seal!
“Prepare to back up Professor Glory! Don’t let any of the Snarlers get past us!” Tessia commands as she holds her bladed staff out in front of her.
“Aye! Vanguards protect the Conjurers!” Curtis steps up, brandishing his sword and shield.
I take a step forward too, using gripping my sword with both hands to support my throbbing shoulder. There were 7 of us in the front as Lucas, Tessia and another girl started chanting spells. My eyes couldn’t help but focus on Professor Glory as she wielded two giant swords, one on each hand. Fire and what looked like sand were rapidly circling around her two swords as Professor Glory was chanting inaudibly.
The fire and sand began intertwining as the two Queen Snarlers, both a few times larger and nastier, with wings, began cautiously surrounding Professor Glory. The Queen Snarlers’ front two limbs had 4 long, sharp claws that glistened in a coating that I assumed might be poison.
“HAAAHP!” Professor Glory, her two giant swords ablaze with fire and sand, charged towards the smaller Queen Snarler, beginning the battle.
I held back on using spells, choosing to simply hack and slash my way against the Snarlers by augmenting my sword. Their thick coat offered them a little resistance against spells and attacks but it didn’t take much to kill them. What became more of a problem was from the corpses of the Snarlers. Their dead bodies began piling more and more around us, getting in the way of our attacks. Looking around, I was relieved to see that the vanguards were still holding up. Both Curtis and Claire had minor scratches and bruises, but they were in a much better shape compared to the other students.
I take a glance back and what I saw threw me by surprise. Professor Glory was pushing the Queens, who were estimated to be on the upper spectrum of B-class bosses, back, by herself. What surprised me more was the way she did it. She was obviously a dual elemental Augmenter in earth and fire, but she was producing projectiles that looked like ice shards…
No… looking carefully, it wasn’t ice. It was glass!
A small scratch on my arm brought my attention back to the fight in front of me but my mind couldn’t ponder how Professor Glory was able to do that. I knew that superheating sand but in order to produce that amount of heat while still battling…
“KRRAAAAAAAHHHH!” The ear-deafening cry made us turn our heads back. Professor Glory just managed to land the finishing blow on the smaller Queen. Our Professor wasn’t in the best of shape, her armor scratched and dented in various places while blood trickled down her cheeks.
“All right!”
“NICE!!”
“Go Professor!”
The defeat of one of the Queens dramatically boosted the moral of the class, as each of the students’ renewed vigor allowed us to fight back harder against the Snarlers that seemed to instantly generate spontaneously.
“GRRRRAAAAAAHH!!!”
“BOOM!”
Upon seconds of hearing the loud crash, Professor Glory flew past the front line and landed hard against a wave of Minion Snarlers.
Allowing myself a few seconds to look back, a wave of nausea hits me as my eyes are glued onto the sight of the bigger Queen Snarler gorging on the corpse of the fallen Queen Snarler.
Chapter 66: Widow’s Crypt III
As the larger Queen began devouring the smaller one, I couldn’t help but become perplexed by what was happening in this dungeon. There were more than 10 floors in this dungeon, with minion Snarlers inhabiting all but the 10th floor, where the Queen Snarler dwelled. The reason this dungeon was considered a beginner dungeon was because the Queens never left the 10th floor, allowing for easy training up until the very last floor.
Although the Queen Snarler was a B-class mana beast, a large party of E-class Adventurers was still capable of defeating it.
Another question that popped into my mind… was it normal to have more than one Queen in the dungeon? From what I read, Queen species were very territorial, and immediately battled against any potential competitors to maintain control.
Professor Glory didn’t really think much of it but I couldn’t help be bothered by it. This brings me to my last inquiry… How are those two Queens so much stronger than they normally should be?
I could understand Professor Glory having a hard time against two B-class mana beasts that are considered dungeon bosses, but she shouldn’t be losing. The Queen Snarler that I read about was easily supposed to be disposed of by an A-class Adventurer.
“Ugh… why is that one so much stronger?” As Professor Glory got up, she had to cleave a couple of minions out of her way.
As I fended off waves of Snarlers, my attention kept on drawing back to the Queen Snarler eating its former ally.
“Professor, does this usually happen?” I ask.
“Well I’ve heard that some species of mana beasts do indulge in cannibalism but I’ve never really seen this particular case. Why now of all times, I have no idea.” Shaking her head, she picks up her other sword on the ground and makes her way towards her opponent.
“GRRAAAHH!” As the Queen Snarler finished consuming her fallen comrade, a bizarre change occurred. Its once grey fur turned jet black and the small horn on its forehead that I failed to notice at first grew substantially and curved upwards. The once beady red eyes turned sharp and menacing, almost psychotic as its mouth started foaming.
Professor Glory doesn’t say anything but I know that there was a growing sense of doubt on her mind. Until now, getting back home safely was considered just a matter of time, but even my body couldn’t help but shiver involuntarily from the murderous intent that exuded out of this beast.
“Cough… Professor! We can’t… cough… keep this up!” Tessia shouted amidst the growls and hisses of the enemy.
Tessia’s condition didn’t look too good and brought to my attention a rather obvious problem we were now facing.
“Everyone! No more fire spells! The entrance of the cave is blocked so our supply of oxygen is limited!” I roared out.
From the burnt pile of corpses accumulating, the air was becoming thick as some of the weaker students began coughing uncontrollably.
The Queen and Professor Glory were in a stalemate, with our Professor on the losing side. As I focused on the main battle, I could see that the fighting style of the Queen Snarler completely changed. There was no trace of hesitation or sense of self-preservation. Each attack it lashed out at Professor Glory was with the intent to kill without caring for its own body. Usually that should’ve been its downfall, but that unique Queen Snarler’s black fur was able to absorb most of the damage from our professor’s attacks.
“Cough… Arthur… I think… my mana core is beginning to cough… act up.” Tess, who was a few meters behind me, fell to her knees as she began clutching her abdomen.
Fuck.
‘Papa! What’s wrong? Are you okay?’ Sylvie’s voice pops in my head.
‘We ran into a problem, get here as fast as you can and head down the stairs.’ I respond before focusing my mind on what’s happening here.
Several factors began weighing down on my mind now and I began to get a sense of nostalgia from my trip to the Dire Tombs. Did I have the power to clear the mountain of rubble blocking the front entrance to the stairs and even if I did, should I just take Tess and escape by ourselves?
No. Tess would never forgive me if she knew that I left everyone else in here to escape.
Then after making a way back up, do I stay behind and help Professor Glory kill the mutated Queen Snarler?
Whatever decision I choose to make, the first thing I had to do was clear this rubble. It was important that I clear a path back up in one try; since it was obvious the Queen wasn’t going to let us all escape.
“Professor, keep the Queen busy. I’ll try to open a way out of here for us!” Professor Glory had to work even harder to keep up with the Queen since she couldn’t use any fire techniques. After giving me a nod in affirmation, I get to work. Tessia wasn’t in any state to help and everyone else was
too busy fending off the army of Minion Snarlers. Lucas had to resort to using heat spells to try and deter the Snarlers since oxygen levels were becoming more and more scarce.
I would have to do this by myself. I had to calculate this well. If I were to use a large enough fire spell in this state right now and fail, we were all going to begin suffocating in here. Water? Ice? There were too little water elemental mana particles in this cave to release anything strong enough to drill a hole through the mountain of rock. The once ice-filled cave was now dry and arid with a thick layer of smoke being produced from some of the burnt Snarler corpses.
That left me with wind and earth, or a mixture of both, but even with the level I am right now, I wasn’t confident in being able to produce a powerful enough attack. I thought of maybe using phase two, but with Tess in the condition she was in right now, I had to stay conscious at least until we get out of this dungeon.
