Chương 21: [LD-1] 20. Fight for the Dungeon Core I

XX Fight for the Dungeon core I I wished I had the time to stand still in battle and ponder. The image Cull had fed me slipped into the back of my mind. I ducked into the path of a charging goblin to get out of sight of an archer, who took a fireball in the face. More hobs and hounds showed up, but no other bowmen did. Meaning every archer we killed increased our breathing room. Light hurled past me and took the charging goblin in the chest. Lily flashed in step beside me.

"Your partner is not bad." My brow rose.

'Partner?' Just then, a white blur zipped through the first floor and smashed into the warlock's barrier. Kiba's transformed claw fought for purchase, but the boy was knocked back too quickly to make a dent. The other warrior classes used the space he bought them and closed the distance to the warlock. I whirled back to our side of the fight.

"We're not partners."

"Really? You looked quite worried when he rushed out by himself." Her blade ripped through a leaping hound.

"That—" I cleaved through a goblin with a grunt.

"—has its reasons." She huffed.

"Whatever you say. Let's sweep the floor with these excuses for fighters." Her blade cleaved through another grunt before I could get another word in.

'She's skilled,' I thought, watching the blood fly. Not as skilled as Alexa, but the President had a year or two on her.

'These noble families are feeding their children magic meat.' Lily danced through every goblin that came near her. The craziest part of her performance was that she was doing it without using any skill—she'd only used her swordlight to help me, twice.

'She can take these things in a three versus one using only her blade.' Something I couldn't say. When two hobs ganged up on me, I crafted a bone shell to stop one in its tracks while I took care of the other.

'This is costing me too much mana.' If it wasn't for my higher level and working on the catafalque, I wouldn't have been able to keep up at all.

'I'm learning how to use Cull the moment we get out of here.' That last thought echoed through my mind. I cleaved through another hob. Learning how to use Cull…another jolt of cold shot through the scythe into my arms. Exhaling deep, I leapt to clear the distance between me and some grunts.

'What's this feeling?' The burn in my arm muscles should've worsened by now. Instead, the scythe felt lighter by the second. Sharper. More accurate. As if… This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Soft flesh separated around the scythe's blade, and the goblin's head went flying. Green blood spattered across Cull's edge. I watched in slow-motion how the blade absorbed every spatter that fell on it. And then I could hear it. A humming.

A melody like someone was singing. I thought of a robed figure sitting in a field on a mountain of skeletons, but the image was gone before I could blink. The cold Cull had fed me spun together in my stomach into a long, thin thread, which pushed back in the blade. A single marking on the scythe's hilt lit up.

"Keep going!" Lily's voice carried through the chamber.

"We almost killed all of—" The walls of the tunnel closest to her rumbled. Lily leapt backwards, and a pair of horns missed her by an inch. What exited the entrance was the fattest goblin I'd ever witnessed, with a face not even a mother could love. It basically rolled onto the gallery and made the entire platform quake. [Goblin Bouncer - lvl. 14] It was the orc brute's height in width. Layers and layers of fat bulged out over its stomach.

The creature wielded a flail of some kind, with the ball being an animal skull. The horns it'd tried to gorge Lily on were part of a helmet it was wearing. Because of its size, it blocked the entire gallery like a plug. We couldn't get to the archers this way.

"We need to charge it together!" Roland yelled.

"Agreed!" Light whirred around Lily's sword.

"Joy, can you make another shie—" Her words drowned out beneath a terrible, roiling scream coming from below. Lily whirled to figure out what had happened. My gaze remained on Cull. The rune, which I thought looked somewhat like a wave, pulsed, and thick, black energy bubbled out of the weapon to coat the blade. Mana pulsed around the fat goblin. Bark covered its skin, turning it into a giant wooden ball. It was not out of place to liken this thing to a tank.

When it burst into motion, carrying its flail behind it, the entire gallery moved with it. Regular attacks weren't going to do a thing to this creature. Even if Lily could cut through its technique, she'd have to swing plenty of times. Cull whipped out in an arc. Its black coating let go and launched forth without any heed or concern for what it was about to run into. Neither could the fat goblin change course and dodge. The slice of miasma hit one of its overworked kneecaps.

Between footfalls, the goblin's leg vanished from underneath him. The great beast fell, and its weight smashed through the gallery so it tumbled all the way to the ground floor. Shocks rushed through the remainder of the platform. Whatever held the gallery up refused to do its job a second longer. The entire platform collapsed. I whirled mid-air, thoughts glued to what'd happened just now.

'That didn't seem like it cut through the leg.' More than a cut, it felt like the wave simply moved through the kneecap and made it separate. I couldn't explain it any more clearly than that. The ground slammed into my legs, and the force made my bones rattle. I turned to the enormous dust cloud. The silhouette of the fat goblin within tried to rise to its knees. Of course, that fall wouldn't have killed it. Its entire body was basically a cushion. Lily pushed herself out of the dirt.

"Nice going, Joy. Everyone! Give it everything you have! This is the last stretch!" A chorus of shouts went up at that. The yells were barely at half the total volume they should've been. More than three quarters of the students had run out of mana while we were up there fighting. Our warriors were also tired. Only four of them were still in the thick of it with Kiba. The white fang still leapt around like it was another Tuesday. His fur, however, was covered in splatters of blood.

Since the warlock had not suffered a single hit, there was only one person whose blood it could be. Kiba leapt at an angle to me, and I caught his gaze. The haze was building in his eyes again.

'This isn't good.'

"Lily," I said.

"Leave the fat guy to the others. We need to help Kiba." Her eyes tracked him. She frowned.

"He's not that hurt…"

"Just trust me," I said. She blinked. Then nodded.

"Mama always says to trust a wife's intuition." I deadpanned as she ordered the last remainder of our forces to switch targets. A glance at my mana told me I had enough left for a single skill. Whatever I'd made Cull do just now didn't cost me any mana. However, what the blade had used for fuel was spent. The marking had also dimmed. Meanwhile, the warlock was at full strength. A fact it proved when Kiba lunged again and was sent flying by an off-hand shadowbolt.

The energies ravaged his already bleeding arm and punched him into the wall. The white fang landed on his feet, but the rage clouding his sight deepened. Then his head snapped my way. Oh, fuck me.