Chapter 127: Chapter 127 - Adventurer Party(Part 11)

Ah, so these are the flying Monsters I sensed that I didn’t recognize through Thought Communication...based on their appearance, they’re Sylphs.

Sylphs are Monsters with humanoid, translucent bodies with a faint, light blue hue that are highly fragile, with glowing light green slits for eyes. They have round heads and their jaws open wide, reminding me of Pac-Man.

Their bodies may be really weak, but they can generate their own winds and use it to surround their fragile bodies with a pretty strong barrier of wind.

They can also fire out powerful blasts of wind and are highly versatile fliers. And if they get too close to you, they can suck out all the air from inside your lungs and asphyxiate you to death.

However, with a powerful enough piercing attack, their wind barriers can be breached. And it doesn’t take a lot of damage to kill them...at first glance, their bodies look flexible and almost gelatinous like a Slime’s, but if you strike them directly with even a small amount of force, they crack and break apart like glass.

It’s pretty fascinating, their biology...I then manifested my whip as a Sylph swooped down towards me, stiffening and extending my whip towards it rapidly, piercing through the middle of its body in an instant.

Severe cracks spread out from the spot I’d pierced through, before its body shattered into several chunks, plummeting towards the ground and breaking apart into smaller pieces.

I then activated Magic Eater to absorb the blue flames that were continuing to spread all over the place, every last one of the grounded Monsters reduced to charred piles of ash.

We’re almost done here, there are only a handful of Monsters left now. I glanced around at the others, watching the mop up the remaining Monsters...Ilex was using his Soul Weapon to shoot down a bunch of Taratects, before an explosion burst out as Ekspen slashed at a Cockatrice swooping down towards him.

Sakri was slicing apart some Taratects with her arm blades, while Dispo was bashing a couple of Sylphs and Cockatrices flat with his gloves, crushing them dead.

"That was a lot easier than it normally would’ve been...those blue flames of yours are amazing," Remarked Ekspen, having finished the last remaining Monster.

"Oh, uh...thanks," I replied awkwardly...yeah, I never know how to react when I get a compliment.

"It’s likely that there are more large groups of Monsters further in, we should be careful," Said Dispo warily.

Yeah, he’s right, there’s no way that this was all the Monsters that fled up to the higher floors. Well, it should be good exercise, at least, and I’ll definitely take it over a boring, uneventful descent like yesterday. I’ll burn them all to smoldering bits of ash...

...

...

"Damn...I’m beat," I sighed wearily, as I sat down on the ground, wiping my brow.

Six hours had passed, and we were down to the ninth floor now. And I’m pretty spent, we hardly got more than five minutes of respite at any point during this descent.

There were Monsters everywhere, though so far almost all only Common and Intermediate Grades. I was expecting to see at least a few Disastrous Grades, but we’d only encountered three so far.

One Giant Taratect, One Dreadipede and one Hypnosaur. The first two took a couple of minutes to kill, since they tend to skitter along the walls and pillars and usually stay off the ground.

The Hypnosaur was an easy kill thanks to Ilex’s Shadow Bind though, I simply decapitated it with my whip after he restrained it. We’re not far from the path leading down to the tenth floor, and were currently taking a break to rest up and catch out breath.

"Here you go," Remarked Sakri, as she walked over and handed me a bottle of water.

"Oh, no worries, I’ve got my own, but thanks anyway," I replied, as I took a water bottle out of my Pocket Dimension.

"Ah, right, I forgot you had that Skill," She laughed sheepishly, before heading towards Ilex and giving him the water instead.

"Um, thanks," He replied meekly, as he took it and drank from it.

"The missing party are unlikely to have gone too much further down than this, so it shouldn’t be long before we find some sign of them. At least, that’s what I hope," Sighed Ekspen wearily.

He and the other two usually have a lot more energy at this point since they almost completely stayed out of the action during the last two days. But with the sheer number of Monsters that had come up to these upper floors, they’ve been a lot more involved today.

They did say that they’ll be doing more than just observing us today, but they probably hadn’t planned on doing this much. Ilex and I are still playing the primary frontal roles in the formation, but with a lot more support from the trio this time around. Even if they hadn’t planned on it, they wouldn’t have had a choice.

With this many Monsters, some are inevitably going to get past Ilex and I and target the three of them, so they have to defend themselves. I can’t exactly blast my flames at the Monsters who get past me, with the way it spreads, it’d definitely engulf the others.

Friendly fire wouldn’t be a very friendly way of going about this. Alright, I think I’ve regained enough energy to continue...I’ll wait on the others to suggest it though.

"Hey, are you good on Mana? You’ve been blasting out several powerful Spells without much of a break in between," Remarked Ekspen with a look of concern.

"Oh, I’m at full capacity, actually. Since I reabsorb the flames, my Mana gets replenished," I informed him.

"Wow, that’s pretty convenient. So, you could theoretically keep using Magic indefinitely, can’t you?" Chimed in Dispo in awe.

"Well, yeah, I suppose I could...though if I’m up against an opponent where I have to do so, I’m probably in trouble," I responded with a wry smile.

"Alright, shall we get moving again? If anyone feels like they need a bit more time, we can probably spare another five minutes or so. Although, since we’ve been down here for quite a while, we should try to wrap things up and head back out soon, we don’t want to be here when completely exhausted," Mused Ekspen warily.

"I’m good to carry on if everyone else is," I replied, as I got back onto my feet with a sigh, dusting off my back after I stretched my arms up.

"Y-yeah, um, I’m fine too," Nodded Ilex, as he stood up.

Sakri and Dispo voiced no objections either, so we got back to it. We headed down the path leading to the tenth floor, a slight chill running down my spine as we reached the bottom.

What is this feeling? I’m not sensing a Monster through my Skill, but it feels like there’s an ominous presence down here. The others seemed a bit more on edge too, looking around warily.

I increased the range of my Super Hearing, but it was dead silent for quite a distance...this is way more unsettling than when I hear a large group of Monsters, it shouldn’t be this quiet.

Something’s definitely not right here. I can’t sense or hear any Monsters at all...my chest was starting to pound, beads of sweat running down the sides of my face. Hm? What’s that?

"Hey, um, there’s something over there," Spoke up Ilex, as he noticed it too.

I can’t quite make it out from here, it’s by the shadow of a large, jutted rock formation. There’s an unpleasant but kinda familiar scent coming from there, I’m getting a bad feeling about this...

"Let’s take a closer look," Remarked Ekspen with a grimace, before we cautiously made our way there.

My eyes then widened as we got close enough to get a proper look at exactly what it was...

"H-how sickening...," Gulped Dispo, taking a step back.

A pile of bones and bits of flesh, in a large puddle of blood that was almost completely dry. Those are definitely human remains...there’s a half-eaten human head in the pile, the stale stench of blood heavy in the air.

"Wh-what could have done this?" Muttered Ilex in horror, as we stared at the gory pile of remains.

"We should head back up...I’m getting a very bad feeling, whatever did this could be-...," Began Sakri warily, trailing off as she noticed me stiffen and stumble back, "Hey, what’s wrong? Is something the matter, Larrk?"

First, I heard it, something zipping through the air at an alarming speed...and then, I sensed it, a despairing presence coming this way rapidly. I-I’ve never sensed anything like this before.

My blood was running cold, my shoulders trembling as I felt wracked with a deep, chilling terror.

"S-something’s coming!" I exclaimed urgently as I turned in the direction I was sensing it from, right as a rapid blur came into sight and shot past me before I could fully react, just barely able to shuffle across a few inches to my right before immense pain burst out across my left shoulder as blood gushed out, letting out a sharp gasp of pain as I felt claws nicking my bone.

I then quickly spun around as blood poured down my left arm, manifesting my whip in my right hand, turning to see the Monster I’d sensed.

It was hovering in the air, my blood dripping off its claws as it raised its hand towards its jaws and licked my blood off.

A tall humanoid figure with a dark blue scaly body, wide wings, a tail and long, wide jaws...no way, that’s a Lightning Dragonoid, a Catastrophic Grade Monster.

A smaller, anthropomorphic version of a Dragon, but considered equally as dangerous. They have less destructive power, but superior speed to Dragons, and are one of the most deadly Monsters you can encounter in a Labyrinth. What the hell is a Monster like this doing in the upper floors...?

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