BXBX NOVEL Chapter 62: Let them go
In an instant, the Mana beasts under his control roared to life, each one unique and monstrous in its own right.
The humanoid elk, towering at over ten feet, let out a deep, guttural bellow. Its massive warhammer, engraved with ancient runes, crackled with electric energy. Sparks arced off its surface, filling the air with a sharp crackle, as it raised the weapon high above its head and slammed it down with a deafening boom.
The humanoid ibex, with its jagged spear, snarled and leaped forward with startling agility. Its spear shimmered with an eerie green light, exuding a toxic aura that caused the very ground beneath its feet to blacken and wither. It thrust the spear with deadly precision, the air hissing as the poisonous weapon cut through it.
Meanwhile, the humanoid horse, wielding a massive spiked club, charged with the force of a battering ram. Its hooves pounded the stone floor, each step sending tremors through the ground. The spiked club swung through the air with a whoosh, the spikes gleaming ominously as it sought its target.
Lucius, Aria, Kira, and Varus were no ordinary assassins, and though the attacks were ferocious, they evaded with the precision and speed expected of elite killers.
They moved like a blur of shadows, darting between the cracks in the beasts\' defenses, but Lyerin could see their eyes were sharp and calculating. However, the sheer force of the beasts\' strikes destroyed the ground beneath them.
Boom!
Crash!
The dungeon floor crumbled away, sending chunks of rock and debris flying through the air.
The assassins leaped to higher ground, but as they looked down at the shattered remnants of the floor, their expressions shifted from confident to stunned disbelief.
Aria\'s sharp eyes widened as she noticed something in the air--flickers of elemental magic swirling amidst the destruction.
"What...?"
Aria whispered, her voice trailing off as she saw it clearly now.
The place where they had stood was filled with remnants of elemental particles--bright blue sparks of lightning, swirling green poison, flickering red embers of fire, and shimmering white frost.
Lucius clenched his teeth, his eyes blazing with fury. "Elemental magic," he growled, his usually arrogant face tightening in shock.
Varus, normally composed, had his face contorted in a mixture of disbelief and anger. "Those weapons..." he muttered, barely able to believe his eyes. Each of the Cragar\'Throm Clan beasts wielded magic-infused weapons, and each attack left behind a trail of destruction.
Lyerin stood at a distance, watching the scene unfold with a satisfied grin. He chuckled darkly as he saw their expressions. "Surprised, are you?" he called out, his voice echoing through the chamber. "Every one of these weapons is enchanted with ancient magic. Each one carries a different elemental force within it. Lightning, fire, poison, frost...
You have no idea what you\'re up against."
Before the assassins could regroup, Kira, the most sensitive to Mana, noticed something. Her keen senses prickled as she observed Lyerin\'s energy. She narrowed her eyes, her breath quickening as realization dawned on her. Without hesitation, she hurled a kunai directly at Lyerin.
Fwoosh!
The kunai cut through the air with deadly speed. Lyerin, sensing the attack, leaped gracefully onto the shoulder of the humanoid elk beneath him. As he moved, the kunai struck where he had been standing just a moment earlier--KABOOM!
The explosion rocked the dungeon, sending waves of heat and force in all directions.
The humanoid elk groaned loudly in pain, its massive form staggering under the blast, but it did not fall.
With a snarl, it shook off the damage, rotating its warhammer before charging back into the fray, its eyes glowing with renewed fury.
As the dust settled, Kira, breathing heavily from the intensity of the attack, spoke up. "I can feel it. His Mana... it\'s almost drained," she said, her voice steady despite her exhaustion. "He\'s putting on an act. There\'s something off about him, something wrong. He\'s weaker than he wants us to believe."
Lucius shot her a sharp look. "What are you talking about?" he demanded.
"The three of you should see it by now," Kira continued, her eyes darting toward Lyerin. "He\'s been using too much Mana. His aura is unstable, and it\'s fluctuating. There\'s some kind of suppression in this dungeon... It\'s draining him continuously."
Lyerin\'s eyes narrowed slightly, though he quickly masked his surprise. He stood tall, unyielding, but the slight flicker in his expression had not gone unnoticed.
Lucius, always arrogant but now sensing a shift in the tide, smirked. "Oh... Is that so?" He laughed, a wild, deranged sound that echoed through the dungeon. "It seems we\'ve discovered your weakness, great mysterious Lyerin." His voice dripped with condescension. "You\'re Lyerin as far as I can remember, right? You may have been able to enter this dungeon, but you\'re paying a price for it, aren\'t you?
The great mysterious Lyerin, with all his beasts and magic weapons, is just another fraud, weakened by the very place he thought he could control!"
Lucius\' eyes gleamed with sadistic pleasure. "How pathetic! You act like you\'re invincible, yet here you are, desperately clinging to what little power you have left. Do you think you can fool us with your cheap tricks? We\'re assassins, Lyerin. We know how to find the cracks in anyone\'s armor.
And you--" he pointed at Lyerin, his voice rising to a manic crescendo, "--are crumbling before us!"
Aria stepped forward, her voice cold and cutting. "There\'s never been a recorded case of someone in the higher Mana cycle entering a lower-class dungeon. It\'s impossible. The suppression would be too great. Perhaps we were right to doubt you, Lyerin. You\'re not as powerful as you appear."
Varus, who had been silent until now, finally spoke, his tone crude and dripping with malice. "Poison arrow!" With a wave of his hand, a magic circle appeared before him. An arrow, glowing with a sickly green light, materialized and shot forth at blinding speed.
Swoosh!
Lyerin reacted quickly, leaping onto another Cragar\'Throm Clan beast just in time to avoid the arrow.
The creature he had been standing on moments before let out a pained bellow as the arrow embedded itself deep into its flesh. A second later, the arrow exploded with a KABOOM, releasing a cloud of poisonous smoke that hissed as it filled the air.
The wounded beast staggered, its flesh sizzling and blackening from the poison, but it remained standing, its eyes glowing with rage.
Varus smiled, his confidence growing. "See? We were right," he said, his voice filled with venom. "Lyerin\'s a fake. If he had any real Mana left, he could\'ve deflected that arrow like he did before. But now... Now he\'s just evading like a cornered animal.
It\'s obvious--he\'s running on fumes. He used up too much of his power summoning those weapons for his beasts."
Lucius, emboldened by Varus\' words, began taunting Lyerin with renewed vigor. "Look at you!" he sneered, his voice filled with manic glee. "You think you\'re so untouchable, don\'t you? But you\'re just a fraud, a coward hiding behind your beasts! You don\'t have any real power! You\'re nothing compared to us!"
Varus joined in, his voice cold and mocking. "You should\'ve stayed in whatever hole you crawled out of, Lyerin. You\'re out of your depth here. We\'ll tear you apart piece by piece, and when we\'re done, there won\'t be anything left of you."
Lyerin remained silent, his eyes flicking between the assassins as they continued to hurl insults and threats at him. Inside, he was calculating his next move, searching for an opening. But the constant drain on his Mana was undeniable. He could feel it, eating away at his strength, pulling him closer to exhaustion.
In the midst of their taunts, the air in the dungeon shifted.
A presence, cold and commanding, filled the space.
The four assassins fell silent as a voice cut through the tension like a blade.
"Lyerin Borgias, let the four of them go."
Lyerin\'s eyes widened slightly, and his heart skipped a beat.
That voice... He knew it.
Everyone in the dungeon froze, their gazes turning toward the source of the voice.