adbindia Chapter 75: The Traps Laid (1)
Chapter 75: The Traps Laid (1)
The Red Chains continued to move deep into the wide tunneling paths and into the wider halls of the dark cave.
Their torches lit up the side with a few scouting units near the front.
Traces of tracks and mine carts could be seen on some parts of the path. These were the tracks that were once used, before dungeons began to appear in the mountain, making the place a dangerous area.
"According to the map, the miners stopped right at the front when more beasts was entering the place..."
"This is because of the growing mana. It’s spurs life and creatures and monsters appear..." One of the Battle Mages explained.
In time, most of the dungeons were vanquished when the adventurers and the army came. But none have ever returned to mining.
Boldred watched the cavernous paths, and his eyes frowned.
"Boss, let’s pick up the pace. Other than that massive hole, I doubt that a group of three or four people could make such traps. And that hole didn’t even kill any of us!" The Commander Battle Mage approached Boldred. With the massacre of three squads, including his own brother, Boldred had become more cautious and even made the group march slowly, delaying the journey.
"...Agreed." Boldred finally nodded and raised his hands to make the group move.
"Move out! Squad leaders! March out!" The Commander gave the order.
The vanguard of the group roared and began to move out faster.
"I’ll get that boy! How dare he kill my brother!"One of the Battle mages cursed.
"Hold!" An archer cried.
"Up ahead! A... Groundling?" The archer pointed to the distance.
Far ahead was a dazed, wounded Groundling that was struggling to walk. It had blood all over it and was tipping over.
"What’s a Groundling doing here?" One of the Red Chains frowned.
"Did it try to attack the Battle Mage?" One of the vanguards asked.
The group slowly approached, wary of a trap, and began to even look around the sides.
The Groundling then turned and saw the group and began to roar in anger. Flailing its arms wildly and began to hurl stones and pieces of rocks it found close by.
But the Groundling’s balance fell as he wildly trashed and even fell flat on his face.
Seeing the berserked actions of the Groundling, the Red Chains began to laugh.
The enraged Groundling roared and got up, but slipped on the slippery wet stones.
The Red Chains began to laugh even more.
"Kill it." The annoyed Boldred ordered.
But at that moment, Esau hurled a stone flying up high.
The Item Storage of Thane was a cheat item.
Because it could store and retrieve stones of great size, it was able to easily pluck out boulders and stones. After all, with the Big Bonky club, the Excaliblade sword, and the assistance of Esau, removing boulders that were sticking out of the ground was easy.
Moving them to cling in between pillars was also easy.
Thane would retrieve the stones and let them fall right in between two stalactites, where they would barely fit, and add layers above them. The resulting masterpiece was an arch of stacked stones between the stalactites above them.
The resulting traps created a falling boulder trap that could be triggered with the slightest force.
A simple stone throw from a Groundling with 26 points in its Strength stat would cause this pile of boulders to collapse.
All of a sudden, the archer who stepped forward to shoot an arrow at Esau did not see the crumbling stones.
"Move back!" Boldred heard the collapsing stone and pulled his closest allies.
SMASH! SMASH! SMASH!
"AHHH!"
The archers and the few Barbarians fell to the ground as the huge boulders crashed on top of them.
All of a sudden, a fireball shot far behind where the Esau was and shot onward to yet another arch of stones that was carefully fitted together.
This time the stones were so tightly packed that they required a greater force to push them back.
BOOM!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
Another fireball shot forward towards yet another arch of stones.
BOOM!
"We are under attack!" The Commander Battle Mage cursed as he channeled his magic and shot upwards to block the falling boulders.
Several other fireballs shot at the back, causing the entire squadron to panic.
In the midst of the chaos, the Barbarians in the front were pulling their allies that were down, when suddenly...
SMASH!
Boldred met a stone to his face! The stone did not fall from the top, but was hurled in front of him.
The reaction of most warriors was to turn around when they heard the collapsing stones and the cries of their allies.
Boldred gazed momentarily and looked ahead, but was struck by a rock that Esau flung at him.
Picking up an axe that was prepared close to the path of the allies, Esau aimed for the nearest barbarian who was on the ground.
SLASH!
SLASH!
Two hand axes crashed down on the skull of the archer and a Barbarian.
The blood gushed out as Esau landed the blow on the skull.
But Esau did not stop and began to attack, slashing and striking whoever was closest.
Boldred recovered from the stunning attack and was about to issue a command. But then...
BOOM!
A fireball struck him. Though he managed to block at the last second, he still stumbled down.
Esau had already slain the four that was caught at the first collapse of stones and quickly retreated.
The fireballs no longer aimed high, but low, striking the Barbarians.
All of a sudden, Esau sensed the command of his master, and quickly threw the two axes on his hands as he made a quick turn.
STAB! STAB!
The two axes struck the Barbarians on the chest.
Esau’s strength had already surpassed that of a normal Groundling, and such attacks left a critical wound on their foes.
Thane could see the ones he attacked and knew that their guard fell and ordered Esau to attack.
"After him!" An enraged Barbarian roared as he saw his allies fall and ran to catch up to Esau.
Three gave chase as those behind them were still confused at the collapse of several stones and were helping each other out.
Esau ran, and his pace suddenly began to slow down.
The three drew near Esau and prepared to strike, when suddenly...
"Whoa!"
SLAM!
The slippery wet stones caused all three to fall and crash on the rocks.
Even Esau had to slow down to get a proper footing before launching his attack.
"NO!"
STAB! STAB!
This time, Esau now had spears that he had quickly retrieved behind some stones as he ran back.
Without looking to see the state of the stabbed men, Esau moved forward and leaped from one dry rock to the other as his pace increased.
All the while, fireballs kept shooting and caused some of the areas to collapse.
Stones kept falling behind, but this time, the people were wary and did not get crushed by the stones and managed to even block the attacks.
Some even blocked the stones together and smashed them.
POW!
Boldred was enraged and single-handedly blocked and smashed the falling boulders.
He saw Esau fleeing, who now had a bow and arrow!
"Impossible...! Groundlings don’t use... bows and arrows!"
Groundlings had a very clumsy state, so they couldn’t use arrows. They could use clubs, spears, even their frying pans, but not arrows!
FWIP!
STAB!
But Esau was not an ordinary Groundling. He had the soul of Bolgard and had a mind and focus far surpassing a Groundling!
With precise form, Esau readied another arrow!
"That... Groundling!" Boldred rushed at Esau as his explosive Power blasted.
BOOOM!
Soaring forward with a powerful leap, Boldred used one of his tremendous abilities.
"So that’s the Leap ability that Esau could recall through Bolgard’s soul... Not a bad skill... Too bad I was waiting for that!"
Under Thane’s orders, Esau kept his stand with his bow following the leaping Boldred.
"DIE!" Boldred roared as he crossed the obstacles and was about to land upon Esau.
But then, two gigantic fireballs shot behind Esau and went straight for the falling Boldred!
BOOM! BOOM!
"ARGH!" Boldred was knocked back and fell into the slippery stones.
CRASH!
But even though his foe was down, Thane quickly retreated and did not attack anymore.
"Now that’s a tough cookie! To think he would have a Power Hardening skill! He could take on that Serpent alone! Welp... God help me in this... Let’s go, Esau!" Thane chuckled as he fled back with Esau.
"Boss!" The Commander arrived as he shot fireballs into the distant darkness.
Boldred rose and could see his hands slightly charred.
Rage built up in him.
On his watch, several of his men died once more!
"KILL THAT MAGE!" His roar echoed throughout the cave.
But Thane was already a distant and positioned himself to aim the last few traps he placed outside of the path leading to the Fire Dungeon Core’s resting place.
"Blame yourself for being too slow. If you took another hour, I could have made ten more of those!" Thane chuckled.