Author's Notes: So apparently, I am about to lose Writathon. How embarrassing is that? And since I've decided that losing is bad, you can expect a bunch of chaps for the next few days. Also give me your thoughts on this arc. I can't decide if it's rushed or not, because the events are just as hectic as they are portrayed.****Since Lev was low on mana, he had to be smart and decisive. Melvine’s battle, regardless of how strong her opponent was, didn’t seem to be out of control.
Her mist countered the monster’s air manipulation pretty well. Hell, Lev didn’t think he could properly face the monster by himself, not without going nuclear with full pools.
He ignored her battle for now, focusing on the other two teams and Aryan. The rogue flitted in and out of range, struggling to find an opening as Elias and his team faced another Ebonwalker, and Isabella’s team faced an actual horde of trolls.
Somehow, there were second-threshold trolls still in the dungeon, which didn’t escape Lev’s notice. The other monsters should’ve torn them apart. The Hunter was also missing.
A quick moment of thinking revealed no apparent reason for their presence, so he instead prepared his traps. Evidently, the two teams were waiting for them, and they followed the negligible pulses of mana revealed by his orbs.
Lev didn’t act hastily. The Ebonwalker was standing right atop one of his orbs, but that would do minimal damage. Instead, he waited until it bent forward, swinging a thick tangle of vines from its arm, aiming to pulp the humans.
The move had only reached halfway to its destination when an orb materialized between its eyes, crackling with lightning. Blinded by the explosion, Aryan climbed up its bulk with sheer speed and technique, leaving a long cut on its neck. Blood spurted, swiftly turning a sickly dark gray as the toxins ran their course.
Neither the rogue nor Lev didn’t cared for the monster’s fate after that. They focused on the second battle, for which Lev only focused on looking for the ranged trolls.
A small barrage of arrows infused with blue fire landed around the horde, making the monsters huddle close together and revealing the potential locations of the shamans.
That was enough for Isabella, who was already trying to locate them. A few blue fireballs flew in random directions, only to hit the concealed shamans.
For the rest of the horde, they were right on top of an orb. His involvement was unnecessary, for most of the trolls were just barely above level 300, yet he still made it explode between the trolls. It was a free progress towards the next level.
For a few moments, it seemed to be going well. Then a rumble shook the ground, originating from deep into the dungeon.
Lev gulped. That sound wasn’t something an ordinary battle could make. A few seconds passed as he kept an eye on his friends, but just when he was about to turn around, one of the visible mountains surrounding the flat region exploded.
Or more accurately, a large portion of its peak was eviscerated between a clash of two extremely strong beings.
The Hunter’s location was also revealed. The being faced a humanoid crab that operated on four legs, and moved at incredible speeds while slashing with its four arms, two with clawed fingers, and two with wicked bone scythes.
Each attack was a blur to Lev’s eyesight, his strongest form of perception. It wasn’t particularly surprising that the Hunter could match the monster blow for blow, and yet, it was on the back foot, unhurt but flagging.
Their ally was also covered in blood of different colors from head to toe, which also explained why more monsters weren’t rushing to the lake. The Hunter was dealing with them all.
Where the hell did that come from? Lev thought to himself, keeping half an eye on the creature Melvine was facing. More importantly, how did it appear just now, and not when we were deeper into the dungeon and facing different monsters? How was it not attracted by the stag’s battles with the Hunter?
Answers weren’t forthcoming, so he charged an orb with shadow mana, using extra to avoid the strong air monster’s senses. A pulse revealed his plan to Melvine, who backtracked, giving up her momentum for a decisive assault.
Bursts of air slammed into the barrier ground like stone pillars, forming large craters. Melvine danced through the calamitous rain, slowing down the barrage with her element whenever necessary.
Like that, she guided the monster until it was surrounded by three invisible orbs. Lev stayed his hand, knowing he wouldn’t get a second chance.
Lightning was converted steadily, all of it stored inside his armor for now. With a single burst, it would be teleported into the traps, ready to be unleashed in an instant.
Then a portal opened not far away from the lake.
All of the plans were derailed in a split second. His orbs hovered mid-air, momentarily forgotten. Melvine also froze for an instant, almost getting severely injured by an air burst.
She dashed out of the way, reorganizing her mist, but her eyes kept moving back to the portal. That was still better than Lev’s reaction, who was staring at it with his jaw hanging.
His senses tried to scan it, yet they slid away from it, as if refusing to acknowledge the phenomenon. The portal was also stable enough that Mana Perception returned nothing, nor could he infer anything but a single detail with his sight.
The grassland on both sides was the exact same, meaning the portal didn’t lead to the outside world, but to another instance of the dungeon.
Lev kept watching it for another few seconds, his heartbeat loud as thunder in his ears. When they had first entered the dungeon, the stag was present near the lake.
If the portal was also present next to the other instance’s boss…
Summoned by his thought, a familiar clawed hand gripped the dungeon’s edges from the other side. A veiled hunter peered at the humans, and the moment it realized who they were, a sickly aura washed over the battlefield.
All fighting paused, and most of the remaining monsters immediately fled. Lev didn’t waste a moment in overloading his bubble’s enchantments, grabbing his friends with barrier ropes, and throwing them into the construct. Melvine was grabbed last, and only after she reluctantly let go of the almost lethally injured monster. Even to her, ending the duel represented at least one level.
The moment she was inside the bubble, Lev made it fly away as fast as possible. A lance filled with lightning was launched upwards and towards where he could feel the ally Hunter fighting, sending a clear signal for help.
He could only watch with bated breath as the Veiled Hunter on the other side of the portal crouched, squeezing its frame into the small portal. Its eyes, however, never once strayed from the bubble’s vicinity, somehow able to feel the auras of the humans.
It had only emerged halfway when the stag opened its eyes.
Throughout their cursed dungeon run, the boss had been an enigma. Too strong to belong to the instance, too powerful to not remove them with a thought, too domineering to be faced by any Master.
And yet, the humans still lived. Not just that, but the boss actively pushed back the curse responsible for turning it into a monster, not only fighting the dungeon’s influence but also the assault on the mind.
That spoke volumes about the sheer resilience of the stag. For centuries, it had remained stuck, yet refused to fall. And that same stubbornness and awe-inspiring might was put on full display as the boss rose to its full height, taking more than a little offense at the intrusion.
Lev didn’t need any further prompting to run all of his sound wards at full intensity. A roar tore out of the stag’s throat, so loud and potent that it eviscerated all of the barrier floor in front of it.
The whole dungeon trembled despite not even being the main target. No, it was the portal that earned the stag’s ire, and after flickering for a few moments, it snapped shut.
One half of the emerging Veiled Hunter flopped to the ground, lethally wounded but far from dead. It caught itself with its arms, preparing to defend itself as the monster’s body enhancement came alive, only for a hoof to smash it into the ground, turning it to paste.
Without even sparing the humans a glance, the stag straightened, easily looking past the mountains in its way. Somewhere deep into the dungeon, the Hunter’s battle had paused, and for very good reason.
Like a natural calamity, the stag moved. It vanished from sight almost immediately, though its charge left a very clear trail. Massive chunks of the mountains were simply barreled through, disintegrated from the impact as the stag simply tore through the dirt and stone.
Lev hurriedly made his bubble rise and follow, uncaring of the risk. He was not going to miss out on such a show.
By the time he reached the Hunter’s location, there were only chunks of the crab monster splattered inside large craters. Both the Hunter and the stag, however, were nowhere to be seen, so Lev made the bubble ascend even further.
After nearly a minute, all of the dungeon was revealed. In the furthest corner, the duo was facing what Lev could only describe as an ugly monstrosity. He could just barely make out any details from so far away, though that was enough.
A pulsing mass of too many limbs and eyes was fixated on the stag, its appendages thrashing wildly in a bid to land a hit on the boss. Each swipe tore grooves into the ground, yet the stag never remained in one place, dismantling the creature with cold efficiency.
The Hunter watched from afar, transfixed. Lev doubted anyone could tell why the being was frozen, and neither could he turn around to check everyone’s reaction. No, he, too, was paralyzed, as he had felt the abomination look directly at him.
His eyes were wide and bloodshot. The battle had many peculiar details that would’ve interested him. Even the prowess of the stag would normally be enough to mesmerize him, especially since it used blood in its movements.
None of that registered. Lev could only see the misty substance circling the creature the boss was facing, for he recognized it far too well. All he needed was a single glimpse.
Chaos…
His fingers twitched. Stargazer was clutched tightly enough that his armor creaked. By now, everyone else had realized that something was very wrong, everyone except Lev.
The bubble was suffused with his aura, laying bare all of his thoughts. His brief encounter with the Chaoswalker in the Mistcrawler dungeon, the sheer terror brought about by simply looking at the corrupted corpse, and the humiliating days he had spent trying to suppress the trembling caused by fear of the unknown.
Someone put a hand on his shoulders, and when that didn’t elicit a reaction out of him, something very cold drilled through his armor and jolted his spine.
Lev turned around, coming face to face with Melvine. Her expression was hard, eyes like steel. It took him a moment to realize that his presence was fully spread out, which he recalled while taking deep breaths.
“I thought I was already over it,” he murmured, then chuckled distractedly. “Sorry about that. Just some bad memories.”
“None of us can see what is happening, Lev,” Melvine said, still meeting his gaze. “Why are you not moving closer?”
“We can’t risk it,” he immediately answered, surprised that his words were slightly heated. Inhaling a long breath, he sighed. “I’ve met a monster like that before, and trust me, if we go near, we die. There is no other outcome.”
True to his words, even the ambient mana in the dungeon was behaving oddly. More and more of it rushed to the grand battlefield, hundreds of kilometers away. The stag was using it to power something, and that was enough to attract the attention away from him.
“What’s happening?” Isabella asked, voice trembling slightly.
“The fight is probably coming to a close,” Lev replied and lowered the bubble. “We can’t remain in the open.”
Somehow, none of them argued, even if he could feel the burning questions in their gaze. They reined in their curiosity, saving it for later.
It only took a few minutes to return to the dungeon entrance and their hideout. Now that it was empty, Lev boldly flew inside and activated all of his best concealment wards with shadow mana.
The fight had escalated to the point that, despite the massive distance, everyone could feel the presence of the two beings. They were also given a scare when the Hunter joined them in the hideout, just as negligible as the humans in that battle.
A small part of Lev wanted to joke about their situation, to lighten the mood. Those thoughts were banished quickly once he looked at the Hunter, who was hit far worse than he was.
Truly, he had never seen the being look so small with its hunched shoulders.
Chaos, huh? Who could’ve known that, once again, that abominable thing would try to doom me.
He glanced at one particular title, checking its description to see if something had changed.
[
Seen:
You have been noticed by both Mana and Chaos.
Similar events are extremely unlikely to occur around you again.
Title granted for compensation.
]
Still the same.
To date, he had never forgotten what that day was like, what he had to see in that dungeon. Now, here he was, painfully aware of the title’s wording.
Chaos. It was an unknown force, one that the System compared to Mana itself. It showed, too, for despite the title’s reassurance, history was repeating itself.
The implications were worrying, especially because he was once again targeted out of nowhere. Lev didn’t want to imagine what it would’ve been like if the stag wasn’t present, willing to take on a foe that even the strongest of humanity would have no chance against.
Would they be corrupted as well, piloted like the creature he had once seen in the Mistcrawler dungeon?
Fortunately, he was spared the terrifying conclusions when a wave of… something rang throughout the dungeon, bouncing off its edges several times in waves.
When they died down, all of them breathed a sigh of relief, for a portal to the outside world had just opened where they had first appeared.