ALL NOVEL Chapter 60 – The ruined complex
All Nethy got out before one of the sharks barrelled into her was a quick, ‘found something, Oh shit-’ Luckily she managed to ward off the first shark with a wide swing of her guandao so she wasn’t bitten but the shark’s momentum still sent her flying into a wall. While she recovered the other sharks started to try to swarm around her but Taren shoot into the room and hit one of the sharks with his shield.
He didn’t stop there though but kept on going, smashing into a second shark before pinning them both against a wall. That still left two sharks though so me, Baer and even Helle started to bombard them with various spells from the entrance into the room. It managed to get their attention but didn’t seem to do much more. Meanwhile the two sharks that Tagen had pinned easily managed to get out from under him.
That was fine as his main goal of getting their attention had been achieved since they were now fully concentrated on him, having forgotten about Nethy for now. Now that Nethy had gotten used to the water and wasn’t panicking so much she was managing to put up a good fight against shark, even managing to get a few hits in, although her strikes only left small wounds.
Meanwhile Tagen and his two sharks had entered a stalemate, he was able to ward one off with his shield and the other with his sword but was completely on the defensive. They would most likely stay that way until someone could go to and help swing the balance one way or the other. With the melee fully mapped out in my mind I put my full focus on the two sharks charging at the ranged fighters.
We were all really squishy so we needed to keep them away from us, Baer had obviously had the same thought as me as she had turned the water around one of the sharks into ice that it was furiously bashing itself against. I didn’t know how long the ice would last but atleast that meant I could focus on one target and hopefully take it down before the other one got free.
I felt my spell take in earth mana against my will, but I managed to roll with it as I shaped the mana into three long spears of dense rock that slowly started to spin, causing the water around them to create small whirlpools. The shark was approaching us too fast so I didn’t manage to charge my spell up as much as I would have liked but I still managed to send them shooting at the shark before it reached us.
The first spear hit at the wrong angle and just bounced off its hard scales but the next two struck true and dug into its body deep enough that I could only see half of each of the spears. They also had contained enough momentum to send the shark flying a few feet backwards. It wasn’t much but it was a few seconds to breath.
As the shark regained its senses and started to charge at us again a large ball of light appeared beside Helle that grew until it was about the size of her head. It then shot out in a blinding arc that went straight through the main shark before sinking into the shark that Nethy was fighting, causing both sharks to be momentarily blinded. This let Nethy get a debilitating strike on her shark, chopping off its fin in a single strike.
The other shark couldn’t stop its momentum and went hurtling past us and hitting its head into the wall behind us. I heard a small crunch that was most likely one of its cartilage bones breaking but when it turned around the wall didn’t even have a dent on it. As I was charging my next attack I heard ice cracking, signalling that the other shark was almost free and that we didn’t have much time to finish this shark off.
This was quite worrying as it didn’t even look slightly wounded yet, just mildly inconvenienced. I couldn’t really tell but it seemed to me like the shark was started to get annoyed at supposedly easy prey being so difficult to eat, although I could be wrong. Either way as it turned around it locked on to me and started to charge at me, I barely got off a psychic lance before its massive jaw closed around my arm and started to thrash about, trying to rip my arm off.
Luckily my HP stopped that from happening, but it was draining at an alarming rate so wouldn’t last forever. It also wasn’t strong enough to stop the shark’s teeth from digging into my skin and drawing blood. I was saved by Helle swimming with all her might into the shark, causing it to let go of me and get sent flying away from us. As it turned around to stare at us I noticed that it was more manic than before, getting a taste of my blood must have sent it into a frenzy.
Just as I was thinking this, I heard a shattering noise, the other shark had finally managed to break free from its ice prison. I knew if the other shark joined the fray we were doomed, so I decided it was time to use my [Chaotic Surge]. It would leave me drained and I wouldn’t be able to use it for another hour, but I didn’t see any other way out of our predicament.
As soon as I activated my skill I felt most of my mana leave my body as it went out of control, creating a dark red mass of pure mana as big as my fist. Over the next ten seconds it grew and grew until it was as big as my torso and it finally turned into a dense boulder of magical stone, indicating it was ready. I didn’t wait to shoot it at the wounded shark, it soared through the water as if it was air before colliding with the shark and not stopping for another ten meters.
When it finally stopped the boulder laid atop the shark and didn’t move, I had managed to finish it off in a single spell, unfortunately it had drained my energy so much that I grew incredibly lethargic. I could barely keep my eyes open, let alone pay attention to everything going on around me, I also only sent out spells that barely cost a single point of MP.
Luckily Baer and Hele managed to hold off the second shark long enough for Nethy to finish off her one and help them out before getting Taren out of his stalemate. Once the melee was over, we all swam into the room the sharks had been waiting in, although I had to be guided by Hele. They started talking about something, but I was too tired to pay attention but a minute later something was put into my hand that I put in my backpack while on autopilot.
Ten minutes later and I had barely recovered enough energy to pay attention to my surroundings. The room we had been resting in seemed to be some kind of research facility as it was full of desks and had a bunch of equipment floating in the water. Despite the water contaminating everything it still looked incredibly sterile. As I was looking around, I realised that my party mates had been talking about something so I joined the conversation.
‘…we barely survived that encounter, and the boss is going to much worse.’ Taren said in a worried but forceful tone ‘if we even managed to get there we I doubt we would be able to take it down. I don’t want to have to waste a week or two doing nothing when we could be training and getting stronger.’
‘I agree with Taren.’ I said, my voice coming out in barely a whisper, showing just how tired I still was, ‘sometimes people are just not fit for the situation they find themselves in and I think that is the case for us. Now that we know what to expect we can prepare for it the next time we delve into the dungeon.’
‘But if we just leave then we could lose our status as the vanguard.’ This was Baer, she was always a bit obsessed with glory so her statement wasn’t too surprising coming from her. ‘who knows when another party will manage to beat this floor.’
‘Why should that matter at all? We are just doing this for fun.’ Said Nethy with a bit more force than she usually does, probably still not fully calm being in water for so long. ‘We get enough money from our job protecting the colony while it sets up. And if we were to fall in this dungeon we wouldn’t be able to fulfil our job for atleast a week.’
At this Taren turned to Hele while saying ‘What do you think? It is clear that the majority of us are for returning to the surface but I want to make sure you are happy with this.’
‘It is clear to me that we don’t have the power at the moment to clear this floor so I am ok with returning as well’ Hele replied.
At this Baer grumbled a bit but was professional enough to outright complain as we exited the facility and made our way back to the colony. I was fine with this outcome as I was sure we would return soon and would be ready to beat the floor the next time.