The footsteps of eight black-robed figures echoed between the stone walls. After entering the cave, everything was pitch black, yet none of them lit a torch or cast an illumination spell, as if darkness had no effect on them whatsoever.
Several minutes later, Rakus, who was leading at the front of the group, suddenly came to a halt.
His nose twitched slightly beneath the shadow of his hood. Besides the metallic scent of blood, the air here carried an additional bestial stench.
After a moment, Rakus let out a soft chuckle.
He had seen through his prey's little trick at a glance, but didn't care in the least.
"Quite the clever little schemes, but this isn't one of those true wilderness zones. What magical beast could possibly..."
As he muttered to himself, Rakus rounded the final corner and saw before him a giant bear that stood a full two stories tall, squinting its eyes as it stared at them, slowly rising to its feet!
"Lord Rakus...?"
A hesitant voice came from behind him. Rakus's mind raced at lightning speed.
This giant bear looked familiar, but he couldn't immediately recall what species it was.
But judging by its size alone, it shouldn't be too weak.
The Sacred Tome had to be found—otherwise, forget about the elevation ceremony, he would face severe punishment.
This cave had no branching paths. That little thief must still be hiding somewhere inside.
After all, this was wilderness near human activity zones, not true wasteland or the deep levels of a dungeon. The magical beast's level shouldn't be too high.
With his own Level 40 strength, plus his seven subordinates...
While Rakus was still trying to analyze their relative strength, the giant bear had run out of patience.
If it had encountered so many people under normal circumstances, it might have hesitated, but now, with nameless fury swirling in its heart, it couldn't wait to immediately kill these invaders who had disturbed its sleep!
The giant bear roared as it raised both paws high, then heavily slammed them down, unleashing its skill.
**[Gravity Field LV6]**
In an instant, weight nearly double their body weight pressed down upon all the black-robed figures present. Caught off guard, everyone stumbled.
This signature skill made Rakus cry out in shock: "Tyrant Bear!?"
However, Rakus quickly regained his composure.
Under a truly adult Tyrant Bear's gravity field, he and his subordinates would never be able to stand so "easily"!
Which meant this giant bear that stood two stories tall was actually... just a cub?
Thinking this, Rakus immediately spoke up to stabilize the morale that had been shaken by those three words "Tyrant Bear."
He had already seen one of his men preparing to flee—he'd definitely have to deal with him later!
"Don't panic! This is just a cub or subspecies. Bring out your real strength and we can take it down! Don't forget—none of us will have a good ending if we return empty-handed!"
Rakus's words had their effect. The black-robed figures finally managed to barely calm down and prepare to counterattack.
*Splat—*
The black-robed figure on the far right, who had just raised his staff, was slapped into meat paste by the giant bear's paw.
Though the Level 6 gravity field couldn't directly crush them to death, it had robbed several people of their agility.
Those with stronger physical power could still force themselves to move and dodge under the gravity, but mages were already using all their strength just to stand, let alone avoid the giant bear's paws.
The team that had just organized itself fell into chaos again after one member was instantly killed.
Some charged forward blindly with reddened eyes, some retreated as much as possible to avoid battle, and the one who had wanted to flee earlier actually started running toward the exit!
"A bunch of useless trash!"
Cursing loudly, Rakus transformed into a bat wrapped in black mist and instantly flew behind the fleeing black-robed figure.
Changing back to his original form, he grabbed the man's head from behind and bit down on his neck.
The man tried to push away Rakus's head with both hands, but the difference in strength meant he couldn't budge him no matter how hard he tried.
His resistance grew weaker and weaker until only a drowning-like whimper remained.
Rakus, his mouth full of blood, threw aside the figure who had already become a mummified corpse.
"Attack! Whoever takes another step back, I'll kill them!"
His undeniable command crushed the last trace of hesitation in the others.
With no other choice, even as another unlucky bastard was sent flying into the wall and became a groaning mass of mangled flesh, the remaining few still gritted their teeth and charged forward.
Rakus wasn't idle either. With a raised hand, he extracted the fresh blood from his dead subordinates' bodies. As for the half-dead one, naturally he died too after his blood was drained.
A sphere of blood gathered in his palm, then condensed into cone-shaped projectiles that shot toward the giant bear. Each one exploded into a bloody hole on the bear's body.
But compared to the giant bear's massive frame, these injuries could only be considered flesh wounds.
As the battle continued and his subordinates fell one after another, only Rakus and Evina, who wasn't skilled in close combat, remained.
With no other option, Rakus could only rely on repeatedly transforming into a bat to engage in combat with the now heavily wounded giant bear.
Dodging another bear paw, Rakus transformed all the remaining blood in his palm into a spear. Holding it, he dove down from mid-air and thrust it into the giant bear's eye!
"Die, you beast!"
"My lord, be careful!"
The blood-maddened Rakus paid no attention to Evina's warning.
The severely injured giant bear used an acceleration skill, and this hateful strike landed on Rakus before he could react, immediately sending him crashing into the wall like a cannonball.
After that one strike, the giant bear could no longer support itself and collapsed heavily to the ground with two mournful cries.
"My lord, are you alright?"
Evina hurried over to check on Rakus's condition. If the commander died, subordinates would face serious trouble.
Unexpectedly, from among the rubble, an arm suddenly pierced through Evina's heart.
"Ghh... you..."
Rakus, his face showing a grotesque half-bat transformation, propped himself up with his still-functional upper body and pounced on the severely wounded Evina, drinking her blood in large gulps.
His injuries were too severe—if he didn't replenish himself with fresh blood rich in life force, he would die.
As his subordinate, under these circumstances, it was only right for Evina to sacrifice her life for him!
When the person in his arms had been drained of the last drop of fresh blood, his fractured spine finally managed to reconnect.
His current strength was less than twenty percent of his peak...
Looking at the cave that reeked of blood but no longer contained a single living person, Rakus still dragged his weakened body to extract the giant bear's fresh blood, then scattered it into countless tiny blood blades that shot in all directions.
After brief but intensive collision sounds, the entire cave's inner walls were covered with fine scratches.
Scanning around, Rakus couldn't discover any anomalies.
He wasn't skilled in tracking, and devouring Evina earlier had been truly unavoidable.
That damned human had very likely slipped away during the chaos!
After unwillingly searching around once more, Rakus could only roar in frustration and fly away in bat form.
He now had no choice but to seek more human blood to heal his wounds...
The cave fell into deathly silence once again.
Only after the sun had risen outside did something the same color as stone move slightly in a crevice between the rock wall and ground.
Returning to his original color, Dylan, who had been lying there for half the day like he was half-dead, crawled out from below.
"I'm... I'm alive..."
Though he was fortunate enough not to be directly affected by the attacks, the gravity field had worked on him just the same, and his old bones had nearly been crushed.
Thank goodness for his Level 3 Mimicry—it was perfect for a weakling like him!
*[I told you listening to me would keep you alive]*
Looking at the little book beside him seeking credit, Dylan wanted to say something.
Those black-robed figures, or rather the demon clan led by a vampire.
They had fought the giant bear without hesitation—were they looking for him?
How could that be pos... how could...
Dylan's gaze at the book pages gradually became dazed—
Maybe... they really were looking for him...
Thanks to this book's help, he had managed to escape with his life.
*[Hold me up, I can still help you]*
This time Dylan didn't hesitate and directly lifted the yellow book in his hands.
Faint wind sounds and wailing could be heard from around the cave, but besides the sounds, Dylan felt nothing.
Then, a power flowed from the book into Dylan's body.
After a brief moment of alertness, Dylan had actually recovered his strength!
No!
Not just recovered—he was better than before!
Though not by much, this was the feeling of attributes increasing!
"Amazing..."
*[Of course. As long as I'm here, you can become even stronger!]*
"Become... stronger..."
*[That's right. Now we just need to find somewhere remote, where even if people die it won't attract attention, like]*
"Like a dungeon!"
*[...]*
*[Ah, yes]*
*[A dungeon works too]*
Under the sunlight, a spirited Dylan walked out from the cave entrance.
After getting his bearings, he placed his faithful companion the yellow book close to his body inside his clothes and headed toward the dungeon.
Comments