Chapter 24 - Surrounded!

My ears perked up, twitching in response to the slightest sounds and visuals. Leaves rustling and metal clashing all became more vivid.

A faint orange glow surrounded my body, showing that the skill had taken effect. It’s a skill that allows me to enhance my senses for a limited time. I thought it would be useful to find out what was putting me on edge but everything went into overdrive.

I clutched hold of my ears as the sounds of gravel uprooting from the ground flooded my ears, and grew louder by the second.

“Around us…there’s even more around us!”

As I cancelled the skill, stones began bursting out from the ground all around us. Small rocks and jagged stones flew between us as they latched onto the golems rising bodies.

“It’s too late.” Liv muttered in a conceited manner. She grabbed her sword out from its sheath and held it between her and the Golem standing before her.

“Hoya!!” Marcel broke through the crowd and lanced sword first at the closes one. The tip of his sword froze against the surface of its stone body, jittering in place.

Jasper extended out a hand, summoning a large ball of fire as he chanted the words to his spell. “Spirit of Wrath heed my call and destroy my enemies, Fireball!”

The raging flame burst ahead and collided into the Golem nearest to him, engulfing it in flames. The nervous smile on his face faded away as the last embers blew away, leaving only scratches on its surface.

“What the… it had no effect?” Jasper mumbled in awe.

So his magic didn’t work either, I guess some defences are too strong for that then. Would my Chakram even work on them, then?

I don’t want to show them my powers but…what other choice do we have in a situation like this?

{Strike Kick activated}

With one large wide swing my foot collided into its head and forced it back a few meters, trudging up the dirt in a trail from where its feet moved.

My hands immediately fell to my shins where the searing pain of that kick pulsated.

Are they that sturdy that one hit did this much damage to my own foot?!

I couldn't believe my eyes, that even with that much power I barely dropped its HP into the yellow. Meaning I would have to throw another of those kicks before it would go down.

I looked to my sides and saw everyone else having as bad a time as me. Even with his axe, Welm couldn't do much if he got surrounded. Jasper and Marcel weren't having any luck breaking past their defence either.

There has to be something we can do to turn things around?

A large shadow towered over me from behind. My body reacted on its own and leaped out of the way, narrowly avoiding a crashing stone from the golem behind me.

{Field Golem Lv19}

Now a level 19 one too, what’s going on here! It’s almost double my level, we haven't even reached the sixth floor yet…is this something to do with the system?

{No}

Uriel replied swiftly with a snarky remark before vanishing into silence.

What’s up with that response, I don’t remember him being able to talk like that…Screw it, I’ll do this on my own then.

Suddenly the Golem I had kicked came charging back at me, as I stepped back I felt the presence of something lording over me from behind.

“Both sides-”

I ducked out the way as the Golem behind me swiped through the air with its lengthy arm. They both moved in closer and blocked any way of escaping when suddenly the Golem in front of me froze in place.

The tip of a sword forced itself through the crevice of its waist and split it from the large rock making up its chest. As the two sections separated the entire Golem crumbled back into lifeless stones.

“Break them apart!” Liv jumped over the pile and hopped towards the one behind me, she wedged her sword between its shoulder and arm and jerked the sword aggressively.

As the sword shifted, the golem’s structure snapped and its body fell apart with a sudden drop.

I didn’t have time to question anything, I needed to act. My eyes locked onto the Golem surrounding Jasper and my body began moving.

{Rush activated}

In a blur of white I rushed past the others and clung onto the back on one standing in front of Jasper.

Nobody should notice if I’m back here…

{Shadow Claw activated}

Shadowy black nails formed over mine as I ripped through the Golems back, clawing at the stones and trying to rip them apart. I dug my fingers into the crevice of its back and tore it out, breaking the stone off from its limbs and other parts.

I’d probably break my fingers if I did this with my own hand but since I don’t have to, I’ll go all out!

{Golem defeated}

{500 Exp gained}

A cloud of dust filled the area as its heavy body dropped to the ground. I quickly knelt over it and placed my hand onto the rocks,

“Devour.”

I raced through the fight, slipping past Jasper and Marcel and leaped onto my next target. I sank my shadowy nails into it and began clawing at the stone connecting its waist and chest. Trying to throw me off the Golem spun in place with violent and erratic motions.

I gripped hold of its body and stuck to it like a leech, not letting myself get thrown off. My eyes began to swirl as the large motions of it trying to throw me off got even larger.

“Damn it, I can’t take any more of this…”

Still holding on tightly to the body, I shifted my leg up against the back of its chest. The white aura of my skill circled around my foot as I tightened my grip and extended my leg out.

“Strike Kick!” The large boulder acting as its chest shot out of place and crashed into the golem ahead, causing the rest of its body to fall to pieces in place.

As I consumed the last of its remains into my mist the others were finishing up on their end as well. It seems that after we cut down some of their numbers we were able to turn things around.

“Finally over~” Marcel wiped off a line of sweat from his forehead.

“Oi boss, did you notice?” Jasper called out silently.

Welm nodded in agreement, Jasper and Marcel walked in close and the three of them began to whisper amongst themselves. Every few seconds one of them would strike a glance my way and then turn back into their huddle.

Gulp

Did I overdo it? If I hadn’t used my skill then we would have been overrun in seconds, it was the only way. Still, it might be bad if others found out what I could do…

Liv seemed deep in thought, observing the area around us with suspicious glances.

She might notice that I devoured some of the golem remains. I wasn’t stupid, I left a few behind but…I might have gotten a little caught up in the moment back there.

As my restless nerves continued to fire off I noticed the alarming red ping in the corner of my eye coming from the map.

A massive red marker flashed beside our location on the map, although I had never seen it there before. I lifted my eyes from the screen to confirm and was shocked to see the entrance of a dungeon hidden in plain sight.

One of the larger trees had a gap split down the centre of its trunk in the shape of a door. It blended in so well with the rest of the area that I wouldn’t have noticed it if not for the map. It was clearly a dungeon.

Could that be the reason that there was Golem spawning out of the blue in this spot? If they were designed to be that strong then that means that they could be defending something down there.

I tried peeking into the opening of the tree but couldn't see much, at first glance it just looked like a hollowed out tree.

I reached out and poked the trees opening, the air rippled from the spot that I poked like a pool of water.

“It’s the same as last time.”

{Summoned Dungeon} {Magical energy emitted from within Dungeon is extremely high, danger level is above Users abilities}

It really is like the one from before! That description is very worrying though…if the danger level is above my ability then wouldn’t it be best to steer clear of this all together?

As I observed the makings of the rippling air in front of me I felt eyes glancing over my shoulder and turned back.

“What’s that?”