Chapter 40: The Secret Dungeon Part 4
Following orders were always the magical solution in any confusion like now. Everyone looked at me before moving to do their tasks. The presence of a leader in any team was priceless precisely for such an effect.
I kept my eyes over them, especially Snad, as he was the one that might be in grave danger out of us. He also was our only eye to see through this ordeal, so his presence here was crucial.
'My skills range couldn't reach these monsters, how should I attack them then?'
Heda asked in the team chat, while I contemplated for a moment before replying:
'Try to hit the tunnel itself. Falling rocks might give some hand to us here, I hope.'
'Ah, ok.'
I watched Heda moving his staff towards the back, as he used some of his skills. His skills didn't reach the monsters, or even close to them, but some caused some minor damage to the tunnel causing the fall of big rocks. Some monsters in the forefront didn't see these rocks, especially at this dim tunnel, to fall on the ground.
These rocks weren't enough to kill them, but they decreased their marching speed. These attacks gave us valuable time to widen the distance between us and them.
'There is something strange, the number of these monsters has decreased to less than half.'
Snad sent this in a team chat. I looked back at these monsters. Their numbers seemed to be less than usual. I didn't consider that my team couldn't attack 50 monsters with this high HP yet. After ten minutes, Snad sent again:
'The monsters stopped tracking us. There is no monster following us now. Should we stop?'
I looked back again to confirm his words. The tunnel was empty except for us.'It's not safe here, who knows there might be hidden assassins in them. We need to create a safe big distance with them.'Goda sent this to the chat, and I didn't find any fault in his words. So, I wrote:
'Better to be cautious than regret, let's keep moving forward.'
Although we had no monster on our tail, we continued to move rapidly for nearly half an hour. After that, we stopped to catch our breaths and take some rest.
'Grendy, keep an eye on our backs please.'
Grendy was our highest player in HP, plus he had a lot of defensive skills, so it was normal for him to act as our rear guard.
'What happened back there? Is this the dungeon that would save our lives?'
Mony asked while we were resting. Shin replied:
'I don't know. I revised the info about the key I got. There is nothing wrong with it. We are really in a dungeon, but to be honest, I never saw something like this before.'
Goda joined the chat as he said:
'It might be a special dungeon with special rules. I read before that some dungeons could have weird laws, like the Challenging Tporat dungeon where players would be separated and each player would be forced to finish the dungeon on his own.'
'It might be something similar. By the way, has anyone felt this faint tremor?'
Heda said in the chat. I immediately focused on the tunnel around us. After a few moments, I felt a very faint tremor that I could easily neglect.
'Move, immediately. Grendy, keep guarding our backs.'
I didn't hesitate to issue the order to move again. We didn't rest for more than ten minutes, to start running again.
'This is strange; I feel the intensity of these tremors increases as we head forward,' Heda said in the chat. I thought he was right, as I could now feel the tremors easily without the need to focus. Before I could say anything, I felt a huge tremor that was like a severe earthquake.
The tunnel suddenly began to crack like a soft eggshell under a mighty force. In seconds, the rest of the tunnel up ahead had been shattered as a bright light appeared all over us accompanied by foul loud breaths.
"Hahaha, that idiot let you escape from him. It's just my luck then. Don't think I will let you escape as that idiot did."
In front of us, a huge monster that didn't lose to that previous monster in size or power. This monster's huge body was lit on fire that lightened the whole area to us. I didn't wait to hear the rest of its words as I ordered:
'Move back immediately, Shin takes the rear. Use your absolute defense skill without delay when needed. Don't forget to use your Cooldown Auxiliary skill before using Sword Shield.'
Instantly, I relayed my orders as I moved without pause to the other end of this tunnel. What was this crazy place exactly? Why would every monster we met be with such a tyranny?!
"Idiots, do you believe I will let you escape? Try out my fire fountain then and burn to death."
I saw that monster open its wide mouth. All the fire in his body had been absorbed to appear on the tip of its mouth. I managed to take a glimpse of its true body, it was a dragon! It was preparing to launch a fire breath on us. I screamed out loudly:
"All stand behind Shin, now."
Shin was nearly in the center of our group, so it was easy for us to cluster behind him. I stood behind Shin while Heda, Goda, Snad, Mony, and Grendy stood behind me.
'Mony, heal Shin whenever needed.'
'What if my skill ended before its skill?'
Shin asked as the intensity of this dragon skill was increasing rapidly. I looked to this huge mighty dragon and gritted my teeth as I said:
'Then I will use my one-second absolute defense. If its skill doesn't end by then, we will die.'
My words ended all the chat as everyone's attention was attracted to that huge fiery breath that landed over us. We were already inside the tunnel, but this breath managed to reach us easily. At once, Shin used his two skills one after the other.
"Cooldown auxiliary skill."
"Sword Shield skill."
Suddenly, a big shield appeared engulfing Shin's body. That shield would provide us 5 precious seconds of absolute defense. Once the two skills met, Shin's skill was lost without question. That made Shin's body move with unstoppable momentum to hit mine.
My body couldn't hold in place, as I moved back to hit Heda, who hit Goda and back to Grendy. Our bodies moved backward like cannonballs escaping the range of this crazy dragon skill. Our backward flying lasted for twenty seconds before we stopped.
Our bodies scattered over the rocky grounds with multiple wounds. I stood on my feet at once as the roars of this dragon were echoing in the whole tunnel as I ordered:
'Move, let's keep moving. Mony, heal us now.'
I even moved to help each of them to stand on their feet. The first one I helped was Mony, who started to execute my orders and started healing everyone. We all lost a big chunk of our HP, except for Shin, who was protected by his absolute defensive skill. In seconds, we started to retreat again as many fiery monsters were hot on our tail.
'What the hell is this dungeon?!!'