Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 649: The mysterious city Part 2

"Everyone, duck!" Uriel shouted as he dropped on the ground.

"Where?" Luna asked trying to spot a bird in the distance, prompting Uriel to pull her down to the ground with him.

"Is it over?" asked Nika after the echoes of their voices had died down and nothing happened.

"Is what over?" Medusa asked thinking they survived a close call.

"It was nothing, I guess." Uriel stood up, but Luna remained on the ground. Thinking he used too much force he turned to apologize to the tiny huntress whose face was half buried in the ground.

"It's not over... it's beginning. Something's coming," She informed after she noticed a low grumbling sound that came from below. "It's getting closer."

Luna's words didn't match what their own senses told them and they looked around to spot any incoming threats. It was only when they looked up the sloped hill that they noticed a large boulder rolling towards them.

"Is that it? I'll take care of it." Nika said with a smirk, eager to put Luna's worries at ease and prove herself useful.

"Don't!" Uriel attempted to warn Nika, but the sunkissed huntress had already made the jump.

The force behind her kick was enough to crush three boulders that size, yet the moment her heel touched the rock she realized how wrong she was. Her ankle snapped out of place and she fell to the side grunting in pain, retreating to Uriel's shadow to lick her wounds before anyone had the time to make sense of what just happened.

"I'll do it, I can sense its presence because it's charged with flux." Medusa walked uphill and took a defensive stance to destroy the rolling boulder, only to be pulled to the side by Uriel.

"Why break it? It was just rolling down on a straight line, there was no need to do anything," He said. As though making fun of his words, the moment the boulder passed them two more boulders started rolling downhill from the mountain's crest and when they passed four more appeared. "On second thought... run!"

Dodging a single boulder was easy enough, but as their numbers increased it became apparent it wasn't a possibility. Everyone ran downhill looking over their shoulders from time to time to avoid the path of the racing boulders that carried enough momentum to wound Nika despite her heavenly rank constitution.

"Are we safe now?" Being the slowest of their group and also blind, Medusa was forced to ask even after the grumbling noise faded.

"Yes, those things disappeared as soon as they touched the fog." Uriel explained, failing to understand the reason himself.

"Uhm... Nika?" Luna asked with perfectly concealed worry, prompting Uriel to check inside his trait.

"Her ankle is swollen and dislocated. It's better if she stays inside my trait for the time being." Uriel shook his head.

"Were those rocks caused by someone's trait?" Luna asked.

"Unlikely, I didn't feel any presence nearby. It was as if they appeared out of thin air." Medusa replied, then turned to Uriel whose mystical sense was sharper than hers.

"I've seen something similar before, it wasn't a trait but a dungeon trap. They're security mechanisms meant to keep people away."

"Is there a way to bypass them?" Medusa asked.

"Bella certainly didn't have any issues with them." Uriel's voice shifted into annoyance. The last time he found himself in a similar situation was inside the dungeon of Rapa Nui. Back then he could afford falling into traps without any consequences due to Water warlock's blessing, but now just a few boulders meant as deterrents were enough to make him second guess if they should continue.

"Flying would be... uhm... nice." Luna remembered how she was carried by the Air spirit people the first time they entered the second world.

"If only that witch was here she could carry us one at a time. The one time she can be helpful and she leaves us alone." Medusa grumbled in annoyance.

"Given that we found the air spirit people here and that there's floating islands, It's safe to assume this dungeon is related with the air element. This means that flying should be the easiest way to enter the dungeon, but If my suspicions are correct this dungeon was built to keep Air spirit people in."

"Are you implying that Bella is in trouble?" Medusa instantly dropped her attitude and her voice shifted into one of honest concern.

"Maybe, but nothing changes the fact that we won't be able to know if we don't reach the top. Let's give it another try."

The group stood up and started running full speed uphill and Uriel paid close attention to their environment trying to spot pressure plates or levers that could trigger the trap, but a boulder appeared the moment they reached the same height as last time.

Contrary to last time, instead of stopping they cranked up their speed a notch until they passed the first boulder, causing two more boulders to appear at the top, then four, then eight.

"Their number grows exponentially!" Medusa shouted as soon as she noticed the oddity.

"What does that mean?" Uriel asked, after barely dodging a boulder by pivoting with his left foot.

"It means their numbers increase proportionally to their current number." Luna explained dodging the boulders with the ease only someone her size could display. Due to her tiny stature and nimble feet she was able to run almost in a straight line.

"Thanks." Uriel scoffed.

"I can't keep up! I'll wait for you near the fog!" Medusa shouted when she realized that the problem wasn't the mathematical proportion or the amount of boulders, but the fact that the trigger for more boulders to appear was passing by them. She turned back on her heels and started running back, gritting her teeth in frustration.

Running uphill such a mountain wasn't a difficult feat for any hunter, but things were different when they had to maintain a high speed for a long time. It made them spend more stamina the higher they ran while also slowing their progress the higher they climbed.

Luna took some distance from Uriel so the boulders would be as disperse as possible, but it made no difference when after five minutes almost the entire way in front of them was seemingly closed by a wall of bigger spherical rocks rolling downhill as they increased in speed.

"I'm out." Luna panted as she too retreated, leaving Uriel alone to face the incoming boulders.

'If only...' Uriel clenched his fists thinking on how much he missed the enhanced regeneration Water warlock had blessed him with. Since he couldn't spot any triggers on the way he was certain that there had to be some way to deactivate the traps on top of the mountain. He was so close, but it only made things more difficult as it made more rocks appear more often.

"Screw it!" Uriel snarled as he activated his Dash skill. It made dodging the incoming boulders as easy as a child's game, but it also meant rising the stakes. Running out of either stamina or flux energy would mean certain death and he was already scarce of the former.

It was an all or nothing situation that would have been meaningless if he still possessed regenerative abilities, but he stopped his inner whining to focus completely on the task at hand.

Strafing from side to side as he continued his way forward despite the avalanche coming his way and finally reached the top. His breathing was ragged and he was covered in sweat due to the physical exertion, but his efforts paid out as he found the mechanism responsible for spawning the boulders.

To most people it was nothing but a tree stump with weird meaningless carvings, but it was actually thanks to those carvings that Uriel was able to tell it was actually a totem.

"Now, how do I turn this off?" Uriel inspected the totem as though he was handling a precious object made of glass instead of an old log with scribbles on it and took a couple laps around it before even attempting to touch it. Needless to say, destroying something of cultural value was against his code and wanted to avoid doing something so reckless.

Thankfully, all it took to turn the boulder trap off was to dig out the totems and remove it from its position. Now all what was left was to do was to wait for his friends to climb up.

"It's safe now, you can come out." Uriel spoke to his shadow and Nika climbed out with a pained grimace on her face.

"I don't think I'll be able to walk for a couple days." She grunted as she rubbed her swollen foot with both hands.

"Don't worry, Luna can probably help with that. If push comes to shove, you can just wait for us out here." Uriel looked around to confirm if it was a safe place, only to realize he was in the same place where he dug out the artifacts with the help of the army. In other words, they were resting on top of an ancient burial site.