Chương 201: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 201 - Terrifying Maze (3)

"So — is there any way to counter the Spectre Wolves?" The Beautiful Country player tried sending a private message to their dead teammate. It failed. Too far, and outside the party. The message vanished like a stone dropped into deep water.

"Spectre Wolves can merge with shadows," Freya said.

"That's almost certainly how they killed your companions without anyone noticing." She paused, and a flicker of arrogance crossed her eyes.

"As a mage of my caliber, I can use a detection array to pinpoint their locations. However, the range is limited, it only covers myself." She paused again.

"As for the rest of you, I'd suggest carrying an extra torch. Spectre Wolves fear light and fire. A brighter environment will lower your chances of being targeted." The Beautiful Country player curled his lip. Freya had talked a lot and said very little. Still, if it kept them alive long enough to get out of this maze, they'd take it. They dug through their inventories and pulled out their backup torches. Three of them, prepared in advance. Once they burned out, that was it.

The entire maze didn't have a single tree; there was nothing to salvage. They had to be out before all three torches went dark. The brighter light pushed the darkness back and did something to lift the mood. Since humans first learned to use tools, fire had never stopped being a comfort. It was one of the oldest truths there was. It just didn't seem to apply down here. The feeling of being watched only intensified. Especially when Kayal led Freya and the others into a junction hall with eight branching paths.

The moment they stepped inside, the sensation reached its peak. The corridors could fit three people across at most. Right now, several hundred players and native humans were packed into the passage behind them, a line stretching over ten meters, bent into a hard right angle by the corridor's layout. Three blind spots had formed: one between the junction hall and the corridor entrance, one at the right-angle bend, and one at the far end of the line.

Players in any one of those three spots had no idea what was happening in the other two. The sense of danger drove a spike straight into Kayal's skull. Even Freya, walking behind him, felt it, that wrongness hanging in the air. The hall around them was empty. Just walls carved with strange, unsettling murals.

"Fall back — retreat to the corridor!" Freya made the call instantly. Her staff was already pulling in magical energy. Wind Shield snapped into place around her. A second spell, offensive, was forming fast. It wasn't fast enough. The walls twisted. Massive shapes bled into existence, an entire group of exceptionally large Gnolls and Blaze Rabbits, materializing from the shadows as if they had simply stepped out of the murals carved into the stone. Leading them was a Blaze Rabbit standing over two meters tall.

Its muscles were enormous, almost architectural. Level 21. Each step it took produced a low, rhythmic creak from the meat packed across its frame. Around its neck hung a golden chain as thick as a baby's arm. The tumor-like mass of muscle on its face dragged the corners of its mouth up toward its ears, twisting it into a grin that was somehow both deranged and deeply calm. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The corridor had already split the player column in half. Bugs Bunny and its monsters only had to deal with the small cluster of humans at the front. The majority were still crammed back in the passage. That was the plan. Simultaneously, at the far end of the corridor, an Ettercap peeled itself silently off the ceiling and dropped to the floor without a sound. Dense waves of spiders fanned out behind it, moving fast and quiet toward the rear of the player line.

Elongated shadows writhed along the ground between them, Blackwater Pythons threading through the spider swarm. At the corridor's right-angle bend, a stone slab overhead shifted with a faint click-click, the sound swallowed instantly by the noise of several hundred people talking. A group of Kobolds peered down at the human line below for a moment, then dragged bamboo baskets from their backs to the edge of the opening. They didn't dare lift the lids.

They just shoved the baskets over and slammed the stone slab back into place. The lids tumbled free in the fall, blown open by the rushing air, and revealed honeycombs the size of millstones. BUZZZZZ, The sound filled the corridor wall to wall. A swarm of Fierce Poison Bees hit the air with their eyes burning red, diving toward the human column below like a locust cloud.

"What is that up there?!" A player spotted them, pointed at the falling honeycombs and the churning mass of bees above and screamed.

"Fierce Poison Bees, level 5 — guys, monsters incoming, weapons up!" The Beautiful Country players were quick. Some of them were practically eager. They had underestimated the bees. The Fierce Poison Bees moved with genuine hatred and zero self-preservation. Many mages were still reaching for their shield spells when their arms and torsos were already blanketed.

These things didn't just sting, they bit down and locked on with their mandibles and refused to let go, and the more determined among them actively tried to burrow into flesh. The Beautiful Country players were high enough level that a swarm of level-5 insects wasn't going to kill them, but their attention collapsed entirely inward. Nobody was watching the front of the line. Nobody was watching the back.

Every player in that bent corridor was either killing bees or pinching them off their skin one by one, those that had already gotten half their bodies wedged into someone's arm. The right-angled corridor became complete chaos.

"What is that thing?" Freya was close to losing her composure entirely. She had seen more Blaze Rabbits than she could count. Roasted, grilled, boiled, salt-baked. She had never seen one like this. Not even a Blaze Rabbit leader should look like this. It shouldn't be possible for one to look like this. The creature was massive and impossibly fast. Every time that grinning rabbit face turned its gaze on her, Freya felt a nearly overwhelming urge to wet herself. She had never encountered a demon.

But she was fairly certain that even a demon's aura wouldn't press down on you any harder than this. Her Great Wind Blade finished charging. She leveled her staff at the Blaze Rabbit leader, released the spell, and immediately turned and ran without looking back. She was a royal princess. She had a life worth living. She was not dying in this dungeon. Bugs Bunny raised one arm and let the blade hit it. BOOM.

The Great Wind Blade detonated against its forearm, the cyan wind energy spending itself completely on impact before fracturing apart. The pressure wave swept through the hall, lifting the blood pooling on the stone floor and washing Bugs Bunny's pink fur a deep, soaking crimson. It watched, cold and unhurried, in the direction the female human had fled. Then it reached out, caught a Beautiful Country player who'd charged at it, took hold of the player's head with its other claw, and pulled.

The head came off with a wet pop. It didn't give chase. It turned back to the hall entrance, where the humans were packed tight and screaming, and went back to work. That corridor the female had run into was a dead end. She'd keep. Right now, the only thing that mattered was clearing every last invader out of this right-angled passage.

One wing short, hahaha ➤ Next: Terrifying Labyrinth (4)