Descending Into A Novel-Chapter 114:City of Creatures (12)
"Guys...wait up!"
Raymond panted, his current mage physique made his running speed severely lacking compared to everyone else.
Despite being a perfect human, it only made him more athletic compared to other mages. When compared to warriors, he was still weak and slow.
Feeling his sides burn, he begged them to slow down. Something they reluctantly agreed to.
Until Ellen came up with an idea.
"Why don’t we just have one of us carry him so we can all run faster?"
His head snapped towards her, who was conveniently running in front of him so he couldn’t see her face.
"No. I refuse to be carried by anyone."
He still had his own pride dammit. He refused to be carried around like a limp sack of flour.
Pointing his wand at himself, he casted a spell. "Fleet-footed."
It would burn through his mana faster, leaving him less to work with over time. But he would rather this then be carried.
All nine of them began speeding up, running through hallways and busting through the occasional shutter that tried to close them in. As they approached a fork in the hallway, the group split into two. One consisting of Raymond, Ellen, Thomas, Zachary and Noelle. The other group consisting of Lucy, Cador, Audrina and Lin Qingyi.
Sometime after getting Lucy’s agreement to join the raid, they had shown her the image of the purple Night Blazing Horse. After showing the purple Night Blazing Horse. Lucy, as expected—immediately showed her interest in acquiring it.
So one team would go off to find and kill the demon, while the other team would go and rescue the horse. Lucy had used the excuse that such a rare monster had to be preserved, but both Raymond and Ellen knew the real reason why.
Why she even hid the Art was a mystery, they could understand hiding Cador. But why not just reveal the Art? She already had her viper.
With both teams running down separate halls, the team Raymond was in suddenly stopped as four lab security finally showed up. The first time yet.
With a four on five, it was barely even a struggle.
Zachary, who was leading the way. Didn’t hesitate, a golden sheen covering him as he poised his sword and charged. Thrusting it in a straight line towards the first one he met.
These guards might have been a level above them, but they were substandard within E-ranks. Compared to them, it was like a smaller bar of gold situated next to a larger piece of iron. One was obviously more valuable.
The one Zachary attacked, immediately raised a sword in response. A loud clang erupted as he deflected Zachary’s sword away.
Thomas and Noelle, following behind Zachary. Charged towards their own opponents, sparks flying as several weapons clashed.
It might have taken them longer to deal with their opponents, if not for Raymond and Ellen of course.
First things first, they had to deal with the fourth currently unoccupied guard.
In sync, him and Ellen raised their weapons. A gold and white beam flying out after a few seconds of charging.
’Freeze ray!’
’River Crossing!’
They weren’t aiming to kill, so they just targeted his limbs. Ellen’s arrow lodging itself into his forearm, while his freeze ray stuck his leg in place on the ground.
Sending off another spell at him to knock him out, they re-focused their attention onto the three others. Who, despite facing enemies an entire level above them. Still fought on equal grounds.
Thomas swung his sword, floating a few inches of the ground as his holy energy left trails in the air.
As his longsword clashed with his opponent’s, he felt a bit of surprise as his enemy suddenly got blown away. An icy mist lingering in the air.
Noelle as well, her silver spear whirling as she stabbed and thrust at her opponent. Occasionally sending out bursts of starlight in cones originating from her spear tip.
Just as she performed a sweep with her spear, she felt her opponent fall to their side as her spear hit him clean in the sides. An arrow in his thigh that momentarily stunned him long enough for her spear to connect.
A loud roar interrupted her. Zachary’s opponent had in a last ditch effort, activated some sort of Art. His skin turning red, veins bulging across his entire body with his eyes going bloodshot.
Opening his mouth, he let loose a guttural roar. Loud enough Raymond had to cover his ears briefly. Ditching his sword as he lunged at Zachary.
Despite the sight being, quite frankly terrifying. Zachary’s eyes remained still, calmly wielding his sword with precision. An aura of light forming on his sword, making it slightly larger and longer.
Swing-!
In a single swing, Zachary’s sword cut through his skin which was as hard as iron. Leaving a long and bloody gash running diagonally from his waist to his shoulder.
Collapsing onto his knees he slumped forward. Blood pooling onto the ground, he was still alive fortunately.
While Raymond and Ellen had no qualms about killing thanks to their experiences over the years. They were still new to this, it was best to avoid it for as long as they could. Even if it was inevitable, they had to be prepared for when the time came.
But that time wasn’t now, these people were still relatively innocent. They didn’t deserve death like some others they would face in the future.
Busting through another shutter door that tried to lock them in. The group found themselves in a corridor with, completely empty. Save for a single individual standing put in the open.
Raymond and Ellen recognized her very well. This was the individual they had been tailing the whole time after all, and this current scene matched what he had seen when casting False Future Sight. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺
Staring at their drawn weapons, she held zero fear in her eyes as she loudly said. "I’ve been waiting for you all."
Zachary pointed his sword at her, "Who are you?"
"I’m an employee here. Former employee actually since I just got fired a few minutes ago. I’m here to help you. "
"And how can we trust you?"
Ellen stepped forward, her left eye—usually a multicolored mess of colours. Now shimmering in a grey light as she looked her up and down.
"Unless she’s a freak who can perfectly control her emotions. She’s telling the truth."
Killian’s inheritance held several emotion based Arts created by Killian himself. One of which was an Art that let the user see the emotions of an individual. Able to work as a worse version of a lie detector for most people. As long as they weren’t crazy people who could perfectly control their emotions as Ellen stated.
But such individuals were rare, even trained assassins from birth couldn’t perfectly control their emotions. Only angels, who were too compromised by the effect of holy energy and had no emotions were completely immune.
"She’s afraid, and happy? But also very angry."
She waved around an access card attached to her neck. "Like I said. I’m here to help you all. You want to get into the high-risk section don’t you? I have clearance to enter there."
With such a card, they would get free access into the high-risk section and someone who knew their way inside. Making their lives substantially easier.
"Why are you helping us?"
"I just said it didn’t I? I got fired a few minutes ago, I’ve always hated this place. So this is the best opportunity for me to get my revenge. Now hurry up, we don’t have much time before the Mercia Family acts."
The wrath of someone recently fired was really powerful. Despite being just a regular human, she was standing in front of them confidently telling them she could help.
Zachary looked conflicted for a second, before finally relenting in the end. "Lead the way."
Following her down the corridor, they stopped at a metal door. The entrance to the high-risk section, containing monsters that posed an immediate threat to the lives of any humans in the vicinity.
Normally, the door was tough enough that even Raymond would struggle to bust through. It had to be after all, in order to withstand and hold back whatever monster that might escape. But with a single swipe of her card.
"Access granted."
The doors opened up immediately with a small hiss, showing a staircase that brought them even further underground. The wallls here weren’t as clean or shiny as previously, and the air had a slight stale stench.
"We’re looking for the demon, can you take us there?"
"Demon? So that’s why...I’ll take you there. But its a Baron ranked demon. Can you defeat it?"
Demons followed almost the same system as humans, with each letter corresponding to a different rank. Baron at E, then Viscount, Earl, Marquess, Duke, Prince, Grand Duke and finally, King.
The chances of even meeting a demon that fell within these ranks was absurdly low however, because most demons fell into the Common category, encompassing the G-F rank.
Not just most, but literally 99.99% of demons fell into this category. If there was a million demons, only one would be a Baron.
With the constant killing and slaughter, despite the natural ability of a demon to grow stronger passively like angels. It was rare for them to even be able to survive long enough!
