Chapter 465: Four Against the Dark

The claw that tore through the floor was almost as long as Mina was tall.

Black chitin covered it from tip to joint, but the surface wasn’t smooth. Jagged mineral growths protruded from the limb like pieces of obsidian, and thin violet lines pulsed between the plates with every movement.

The ancient chamber shook as the creature below dragged its claw sideways, ripping through stone that had survived centuries underground. Water vanished through widening cracks while Iris immediately retreated from the collapsing center.

Sage felt the mana signature beneath them surge again, powerful enough that there was no question about its Rank. Another 4th Order Elite Beast, but unlike the displaced creatures they had encountered above, this one had been living beneath the ruins.

"Move!" Rowan shouted, already sprinting toward the western wall as another section of floor exploded upward.

Everyone scattered. An enormous head burst through the stone.

The creature resembled neither wolf nor boar nor anything remotely ordinary. Its broad, flattened body was covered in black segmented armor, with eight powerful limbs ending in hooked digging claws.

Two enormous mandibles opened beneath a crown of six pale eyes, while crystalline growths covered its back and shoulders. The beast forced itself through the floor with terrifying strength, sending slabs of ancient masonry flying across the chamber.

Iris swept both hands upward. Two brown Magic Circles unfolded before her palms as she shouted, "Earth Magic: Rampart Bastion!"

A wall erupted from the floor. Three flying slabs smashed against it hard enough to crack the stone barrier from top to bottom.

Mina planted herself behind her shield while Lucan moved beside her. Rowan didn’t attack. He was watching.

Sage was watching too.

The Aetheric Insight Eyes would have given him more information, and a serious barrage of magic could probably turn the chamber into the creature’s grave. But destroying an unknown Magic Beast inside an unstable underground ruin before understanding its abilities seemed unnecessarily stupid.

More importantly, the others were already moving.

"Don’t crowd it!" Rowan shouted as the beast pulled its entire body into the chamber. "It’s built for tunnels. Those front limbs aren’t just weapons, they’re digging arms!"

The creature proved him right immediately. It slammed four limbs into the ground as stone shattered. Its body disappeared beneath the floor.

Lucan stared at the hole. "Oh, that’s unpleasant."

"Quiet!" Rowan snapped.

Everyone listened. For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then Rowan turned toward Mina. "Three steps left!"

Mina moved instantly.

The floor where she’d been standing erupted.

The beast launched upward like a siege projectile, its mandibles snapping shut hard enough to create an audible crack. Mina’s shield came down on its head before it could disappear again. Mana exploded from her body as she struck.

The impact shattered the floor beneath the creature, it screamed.

Mina was thrown backward when one digging limb caught her shield, but she twisted in the air and landed in a crouch.

"Right eye!" Rowan shouted.

Lucan was already there.

He crossed the broken chamber in a burst of mana, his sword thrusting between two armored plates toward one of the beast’s six eyes. The creature jerked aside at the last moment. Lucan’s blade missed the eye but cut deeply across the softer membrane beneath it.

Black blood sprayed across the wall.

Lucan withdrew before the counterattack arrived.

A hooked limb passed through the space his torso had occupied and continued into a stone pillar.

The pillar exploded.

Lucan landed beside Mina and stared at the destruction. "I would like to officially thank Rowan for mentioning the digging arms."

Mina tightened her grip on her shield. "You talk too much when you’re nervous."

Lucan kept his eyes on the beast. "I’m not nervous."

Mina smiled. "You’re talking more."

Lucan had no answer for that.

The beast disappeared underground again.

This time Rowan closed his eyes.

Sage watched him crouch and place one hand against the wet floor. Rowan wasn’t sensing mana. He was feeling vibrations.

"Don’t move," Rowan ordered.

Iris held both hands ready, blue and brown Magic Circles slowly rotating around her wrists.

The scraping moved beneath them.

Rowan’s eyes opened. "Iris, behind Lucan!"

Iris reacted without questioning him. She spun and thrust both palms downward. "Earth Magic: Stonefang Array!"

A large brown Magic Circle spread across the floor.

Jagged pillars erupted behind Lucan just as the beast broke through. Instead of emerging cleanly, its head smashed into the rising stone formations. The pillars shattered, but they changed its angle enough that the creature surfaced sideways.

"Mina!" Rowan shouted.

Mina charged forward, her shield struck one exposed limb. The sound resembled a smith’s hammer hitting an anvil and the limb bent.

The beast screamed and swung another claw toward Mina, but water wrapped around the joint before it could connect.

Iris’s blue Magic Circle had already formed.

"Water Magic: Coiling Serpent!"

A thick stream twisted around the limb and pulled backward. Iris couldn’t overpower the 4th Order Elite Beast directly, but she didn’t need to. She held the limb off course for a fraction of a second.

Lucan used that fraction. His sword entered the gap Mina had created and severed the damaged joint.

The limb crashed into the water.

The creature’s scream shook dust from the ceiling.

Sage smiled faintly.

None of them had discussed that attack.

They had simply done it.

The beast burrowed again, but this time Iris immediately spread both hands. A wide brown Magic Circle appeared beneath her boots, expanding across nearly half the chamber.

"Earth Magic: Tremor Sense!"

Her eyes narrowed. "I can feel it moving!"

Rowan looked toward her. "Direction?"

"Circling beneath the eastern wall," Iris answered, following the vibrations. "It’s going deeper, no, it’s turning back!"

Rowan immediately understood. "It’s coming for Mina again. It thinks she’s the biggest threat."

Mina grinned behind her shield. "Smart."

"That’s not a compliment," Lucan told her.

"It should be."

Rowan pointed toward the center of the chamber. "Mina, stand there. Iris, weaken the floor six paces in front of her, but don’t collapse it."

Iris’s eyes sharpened with understanding. "You want it trapped when it surfaces."

"Exactly."

Sage remained near the wall and watched the plan form around him.

Mina moved into position. Iris quietly altered the stone. Lucan disappeared behind a broken pillar. Rowan stood where he could watch everything.

The chamber became silent.

Then Mina stamped one boot against the floor.

"Come on!" Mina shouted, deliberately sending mana through the impact.

Something answered beneath her.

The ground bulged.

"Now!" Rowan yelled.

Mina jumped backward.

The beast erupted.

Iris slammed both palms together. "Earth Magic: Collapsing Grave!"

Two brown Magic Circles flashed beneath the creature.

The weakened floor collapsed around its lower body.

The beast tried to pull itself free, but Mina crashed into its head with her shield and forced it deeper into the hole.

"Left side!" Rowan shouted.

Lucan appeared from behind the pillar.

Golden mana burned along his sword. He didn’t attack the armored head. He drove his blade into the wound beneath the beast’s damaged eye.

The creature thrashed. Its remaining forelimb swept toward Lucan.

Mina intercepted it. Her shield took the strike.

The collision blew apart the stone beneath her feet, but Mina remained between the limb and Lucan while he twisted his sword deeper.

Iris changed spells. A blue Magic Circle appeared over the flooded section of floor.

"Water Magic: Crushing Current!"

Every remaining pool of water surged toward the trapped beast. The water compressed around its exposed joints, forcing grit and broken stone into gaps between the armor plates.

The creature screamed and tried to burrow downward.

Rowan had expected that too. He sprinted forward, jumped onto its back and drove his sword between two crystalline plates near the base of its neck.

"Lucan, pull out!" Rowan shouted through clenched teeth. "Mina, hit the same place I’m standing on!"

Lucan ripped his sword free and retreated.

Mina looked at Rowan. Then at the enormous monster.

Then back at Rowan. "Move!"

Rowan jumped.

Mina raised her shield with both hands, Mana surged through her body.

She brought it down. The impact was monstrous. The entire chamber shook.

The beast’s armored neck cracked beneath the blow, and the crystalline growths covering its back shattered outward. Rowan landed, rolled beneath a swinging limb and immediately attacked the broken armor.

Lucan returned from the opposite side.

Two blades entered the exposed wound almost simultaneously. The beast convulsed, then it collapsed.

For several seconds, nobody moved. Water continued flowing around the corpse while pieces of the damaged ceiling fell into the chamber.

Iris released her spells first.

The Magic Circles disappeared.

Mina lowered her shield and breathed heavily. Lucan pulled his sword from the creature’s neck before inspecting another tear in his already ruined coat. Rowan simply sat down on a broken stone and wiped black blood from his face.

Sage finally approached.

"What was it?" Mina asked, nudging one enormous claw with her boot.

Rowan studied the body. "A Deepburrow Obsidian Crawler. 4th Order Elite Beast. They’re usually found beneath mountain ranges or deep cavern systems, not underneath forests."

Iris crouched beside one of the crystalline growths and examined it closely. "These crystals store earth mana. It probably uses them to reinforce its body while tunneling."

Lucan looked around the ruined chamber. "Wonderful. Can we agree that everything living underground from now on stays underground?"

Mina glanced at him. "You were useful again."

Lucan closed his eyes briefly. "Mina, please stop sounding surprised."

Sage laughed, but his attention moved between the four of them.

Something had changed.

Weeks ago, Lucan, Iris and Rowan had been strangers who happened to register at the same Guild. Mina had known none of them. They possessed different personalities, different backgrounds and completely different ways of fighting.

Yet nobody had needed Sage to direct that battle.

For the first time, Sage found himself wondering what would happen if Adventurers like these stopped operating merely as individuals who occasionally accepted the same mission.

The thought remained unfinished when Iris suddenly stopped examining the corpse.

Her expression changed.

"Guildmaster," Iris said, placing one hand against the fractured floor. "There’s something underneath this chamber."

Sage’s amusement disappeared.

The Obsidian Crawler had torn open a section of floor that had been sealed for centuries.

Beyond the broken stone was darkness.

And from somewhere far beneath it, Sage could feel mana moving downward.

The ruins went deeper.