Free Web NovelChapter 39: The Horde
The crypt was no longer just a dungeon; it was a meat grinder.
The moment the spatial lock took effect, the dungeon’s internal logic completely shattered. The standard spawn rates for a beginner zone were thrown out the window. The ambient dark mana grew so thick it began to physically manifest as a freezing, toxic mist clinging to the floorboards.
"Move! Keep moving!" Arthur yelled, his voice echoing down the narrow stone corridor.
Emily Thorne was a spectacular vanguard. She didn’t use weapons, and she didn’t need to. She led the charge, her fists wrapped in dense, glowing martial aura. When three red-eyed skeletons stepped out from a side tomb to block their path, she didn’t even break her stride.
She dropped her shoulder and slammed into the center skeleton like a runaway freight train, completely shattering its ribcage into a cloud of bone dust. She spun, driving a brutal sweeping kick into the second skeleton’s kneecaps, breaking its legs instantly, and kept running.
Arthur followed right behind her, his Whisperwind Longbow drawn.
Thwip. Thwip.
He didn’t bother aiming for center mass. He put an arrow through the skull of the third skeleton, dropping it before it could swing its rusted sword at Chloe’s back.
"Felix! Status!" Arthur called out, not looking backward.
"Holding!" Felix grunted loudly from the rear of the formation.
The quiet shielder was taking an absolute beating. A massive pack of Ghouls was relentlessly pursuing them, crawling over each other in the narrow hallway like a wave of rotting meat. Felix was running backward, periodically slamming his massive iron tower shield into the stone floor to block their leaping attacks before shoving them away and retreating another ten yards.
"Arthur!" Chloe gasped, her face pale and covered in cold sweat as she ran between Arthur and Felix. "The air! It burns!"
"It’s toxic mana!" Arthur snapped, his own newly modified lungs easily filtering the poison, though he could feel the stamina drain. "Breathe shallow! Don’t stop running until we hit the central chamber!"
A sudden, deafening chorus of howls echoed through the stone walls, shaking the dust from the ceiling. freёwebnovel.com
It wasn’t behind them. It was coming from a parallel corridor to their left, and it was moving terrifyingly fast.
Arthur’s [Perception: 103] flared. Through the thick stone walls, he could hear the frantic clicking of heavy claws and the wet, rabid snarling of massive beasts.
Ghoul-Hounds, Arthur thought, his eyes narrowing. They’re tracking the scent. They’re going to cut us off at the next intersection.
Fifty yards ahead, the narrow corridor opened up into a wide, four-way intersection. If they got caught in the open crossfire between the Ghouls behind them and a pack of mutated undead wolves on their flank, they were dead. Felix’s shield couldn’t cover two directions at once.
"Emily! Stop at the intersection!" Arthur commanded.
Emily skidded to a halt at the four-way crossroads, raising her fists. Felix backed into the intersection a second later, planting his shield to block the corridor they had just come from.
Arthur stepped into the exact center of the crossroads. He looked down the left corridor.
The pitch-black tunnel was practically vibrating. Dozens of glowing red eyes appeared in the dark, bouncing wildly as the massive, skinless undead wolves sprinted toward them. They were easily the size of black bears, their exposed muscles dripping with black blood, jaws unhinged to reveal rows of razor-sharp teeth.
"Goddess preserve us," Felix whispered, his eyes widening in pure horror from behind his iron shield.
"Too many to brawl," Emily gritted her teeth, her stance widening. "Vance, we’re going to get completely overrun."
"No, we aren’t," Arthur said completely cold. "They’re beasts. They hunt by sight and sound."
He raised the Whisperwind Longbow. He didn’t pull a physical arrow from his quiver. He didn’t want to kill one; he wanted to manipulate all of them.
[Active Skill: Mirage Shot (Lv. 1) Activated.]
[-10 MP]
Arthur drew the glowing blue mana string. As he pulled it back, the raw mana didn’t just form a projectile—it warped the light and sound around it.
He didn’t aim at the charging Ghoul-Hounds. He pivoted sharply and aimed down the completely empty right corridor.
He released the string.
Thwip.
The mana arrow whistled down the right tunnel. It flew for sixty yards before impacting violently against a stone pillar.
Instead of an explosion of magic, the arrow instantly generated a flawless, terrifyingly realistic illusion.
"AHHH! HELP ME! OH GOD, PLEASE!"
The auditory projection was deafening. It sounded exactly like a terrified, bleeding human cadet screaming in absolute agony. Simultaneously, the visual illusion of a stumbling, heavily bleeding student desperately dragging themselves across the floor materialized at the point of impact.
The effect was instantaneous.
The pack of Ghoul-Hounds bursting out of the left corridor completely ignored Arthur’s squad standing perfectly still in the center. The rabid beasts were entirely overwhelmed by the fresh, loud, bleeding "prey" screaming down the opposite tunnel.
The massive wolves banked hard, their claws entirely tearing up the stone floor as they drifted through the intersection and stampeded blindly down the right corridor toward the illusion.
Emily stared at the horde of undead wolves completely bypassing them, her jaw hanging slightly open.
"What the hell was that?" Emily breathed.
"Mob kiting," Arthur said simply, lowering his bow. "The illusion will only hold for ten seconds before they realize it’s fake. Move! Straight ahead!"
The squad didn’t need to be told twice. They sprinted down the central corridor, leaving the frantic, confused howls of the Ghoul-Hounds echoing behind them.
The toxic mist was growing thicker, curling around their boots. Chloe was visibly stumbling, her stamina bottoming out from the corrupted mana.
Arthur dropped back, grabbing the back of her uniform collar to physically haul her forward.
"I... I can’t..." Chloe wheezed, her thick glasses fogging up.
"Yes, you can," Arthur ordered, practically dragging the healer. "If you fall behind, they will eat you alive. Keep your legs moving, Chloe!"
They pushed through the final stretch of the corrupted halls. The narrow corridors finally began to widen, the rough stone blocks transitioning into polished, ancient obsidian.
"Up ahead!" Emily shouted, pointing forward.
At the end of the long hall stood a massive, towering archway leading into a colossal underground cathedral. The massive, iron-reinforced oak doors that once sealed the chamber had been violently blown outward, shattered into massive splinters of wood and rusted metal.
Brilliant, blinding flashes of golden light were erupting from inside the cathedral, accompanied by the deafening clash of heavy steel and the roar of a monstrous entity.
"Someone is already fighting in there," Felix panted, his shield arm trembling from exhaustion.
"The idiot who broke the dungeon," Arthur confirmed, his grip tightening on his bow. "Let’s go crash the party."
Arthur pushed Chloe forward and stepped through the shattered doorway, his high-tier perception instantly taking in the absolute chaos of the boss room.
