Episode 8: Grave Under (7)

As the Sentinel-class hunter began climbing up the ladder, the gunshot noises in the distance slowly grew closer. As Huey finally reached the top of the roof, his eyes were immediately greeted by the sight of a sea of zombies all aggressively surrounding the mausoleum.

"What the... That sure is a lot of them..." The man gulped, soon making his way towards the edge of the rooftop. "Phew. Let's see now... Where is he..." As his eyes began sweeping through the graveyard, he quickly took notice of a blonde-haired man in the distance. "Ah. There he is! He's not that far away from this place. Though, Hugo's right. I don't think it's possible to save him given the circumstance. Hmm...? Who's that?"

As Huey fell into deep thought, he realized that Landon wasn't the only one who was fighting against the zombie horde. To the side of him, he spotted a black-haired man who was rapidly shooting out bullets like there was no tomorrow.

"...that isn't Silas. Who is he?" Huey raised his brow in confusion, squinting his eyes at the young man in the next moment. However, just as he did so, the Sentinel-class hunter saw that Landon was fervently waving his arm towards the direction of Huey, seemingly calling out to him. "...is he trying to say something? Ugh... I can't hear him at all."

Helpless, the man turned his attention towards the bottom of the mausoleum, where he began gauging the distance between the rooftop and the ground below. After eyeballing it for a few seconds, he concluded that the height was almost impossible to reach with a casual jump, even for a hunter.

"...this is bad. I really don't see a way to save them..." he frowned.

Given the current situation, it looked as if the chances of survival for the two men were low.

"OIIII!!!" Whilst the Sentinel-class hunter pondered on the matter, from a distance, Landon could be seen screaming out at the top of his lungs, hoping to get his attention. "Help us get up there! OIIII!!!"

"It's no use trying," Jace sighed, soon shooting out another row of bullets over towards the zombie horde that was swarming around them. "He can't hear us from here."

"Ugh... Then what do we do?" Landon gritted his teeth. "The mausoleum's surrounded! There's no way we can enter the building like this!"

"..." The young man frowned, soon beginning to scan around his surroundings. "The only way for us to get into the mausoleum is through the rooftop. But, from the looks of it, we'll have to jump up there ourselves."

"Huh...? Jump?!" Landon cried out in shock. "There's no way we can just jump up there!"

"You're right..." Jace's expression grew troubled as he continued to survey the area, hoping to find anything that they could use to boost themselves up. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the graveyard except for zombies and more zombies.

"Hey! I got it!" As Jace fell into deep thought, Landon's voice abruptly rang into his ears. "Don't you have a teleporting ability? Isn't it possible for you to bring me up there with you when you teleport???"

"...my teleporting ability?" Jace was taken aback by his words. "I mean... I do, but..."

"...but what?" Landon titled his head. "Now's the time as any for that skill to be really useful!"

"Err..." Jace bit his lips. "I don't know if it's possible to bring you along. I haven't exactly tested that out yet..."

It wasn't that Jace hadn't thought of using [ Phantom Mirage ] to easily teleport up to the roof. Rather, it was because he felt hesitant to use it. After all, he knew not whether he could bring someone else with him when teleporting.

Jace had never truly tested out the skill properly, much like the other skills in his kit.

"Huh? Is there even room for doubt right now?!" Landon cried out. "Now's the time as any to test it out!"

"But if it's not possible, you'll be left here alone."

"Well, you'll still be able to get up there, right?" Landon asked. "Then go and get help from the party when you do! Don't worry about me, I can hold off against these guys on my own for a bit longer!"

"..." Jace frowned, falling deeper into thought.

As the two men continued to push their way through the horde, the mausoleum in the distance slowly grew closer and closer.

"...fine." After what seemed to be an eternity of contemplation, the young man took a deep breath, soon turning his head over towards the direction of Landon. "I can't guarantee that this will work, but there's no other choice. Hold on tight and jump when I say so."

"Got it...!" The blonde-haired man nodded his head, swiftly grabbing onto Jace's arm in the next second.

"...well, here goes nothing." With eyes now fixed onto the open space next to Huey, Jace took another deep breath, soon activating [ Phantom Mirage ]. "JUMP!" At the young man's words, the two men jumped, disappearing amidst the chaos.

...

In the blink of an eye, Jace found himself on the rooftop of the mausoleum, safe and sound.

"..." Soon after the successful use of his skill, the black-haired man hurriedly turned his attention towards the side of him, where he saw that Landon was tightly holding onto his arm. "Ah... It worked."

"AYY! It worked!" Landon cheered. Right at that second, the incoherent screeches from below them became rowdier. "O-Oops..."

"What the... Landon...?!" Huey cried out at the realization. "How did you get up here??? I was for sure thinking that you were a goner..."

"Eh... A goner?!" Landon raised his brow in confusion. "Well, I'm in one piece, thank you very much!"

"...well, in my defence, given the situation, I thought you were a lost cause..." Huey frowned, soon turning his head over towards the direction of Jace. "But, never mind that. I'm glad you're safe. Though... Who's this?"

"...ah." As Jace heard the question from the Sentinel-class hunter, he was left stupefied. "Err..."

With the whole fiasco regarding his nightmare and the anomaly, the thought of revealing himself to the others had been placed at the back of his mind. As such, when it came time for his grand reveal, he wasn't able to come up with an explanation on the spot.

"U-Uh... Let's go inside the mausoleum first and talk there, yeah???" Realizing the awkwardness of the situation, Landon hurriedly interrupted. "Don't you see the potential danger here? We should get to safety first!"

"..." At the blonde-haired man's words, Huey raised his brow in doubt. "Well... Given that the zombies can't quite climb up here... I don't really think we're in that big of danger. But..." Following Huey's sentence, his eyes landed on the lich in the distance. "There is the problem of that lich over there. Who knows when she'll attack us again?"

Right as Huey made eye contact with the boss monster, she randomly began to laugh crazily.

"...ugh," he frowned. "Hah. Yeah, you're right. Let's head down first. We can talk about this later."

"Yeah, yeah! Let's go!" Landon nodded his head.

And so, after the short discussion on the rooftop, the three men began heading down towards the ladder, now making their way back to the rest of the party.

...

Within the mausoleum, the cries of the undead could be heard echoing through the enclosed space. Only some time had passed since Huey had left to check on the situation outside, yet the atmosphere within the room had worsened.

"Ugh. Huey sure is taking his damn sweet time..." Cole frowned. "Did something happen to him or what?"

"Beats me," Hugo shrugged. "I don't hear any screaming for help up top."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" The Striker-class hunter scratched his head. "I don't think I hear anything up there at all."

"...should one of us go check?" Rei muttered.

"God. Are we going to have this conversation again?" Hugo sighed, facepalming. "If you want to check, go check!"

"Tch! Are we seriously gonna lose more people?!" Cole cried out.

"..." Whilst Yun was listening in on the ongoing conversation, he took notice of movement coming from the ladder. "...hmm? It looks like they're coming down now."

"Huh?" Upon hearing Yun's voice, the entire party abruptly became quiet, now turning their attention towards the ladder. There, they saw the sight of three men climbing down it.

"Oh! Huey's back!" Cole sighed with relief. "God! You had me worried!"

"Seriously? Worried?" Huey raised his brow in confusion. "If you were really worried, you would have come up there to check on me..."

"Ahem... Let's put that matter aside for now," Yun coughed, catching everyone's attention once again. "The more important matter at hand would be Landon. It's good that you're safe and sound! By any chance, did you see Silas? Hmm...? Who is this?"

As the attention of the hunters fell onto the three men in the room, they noted the sight of Landon and Jace.

"This isn't Silas," Hugo frowned. "Who the hell are you?"

"A-A Stranger?" Rei raised her brow in caution.

"Hey, this guy didn't enter the dungeon with us!" The Striker-class hunter pointed out.

"...ah. Well..." As all eyes were now on Jace, the young man fell into deep thought, still racking his brain for an explanation. "I am..."

"U-Uh..." Just as Jace was about to explain himself, Landon abruptly intruded. "This guy came here to help us out! He's backup!"

"...he's backup?" At Landon's words, Cole blinked. "This weak-looking guy?"

"...hah? Backup? So suddenly???" Hugo frowned.

"..." Not fully convinced by the blonde-haired man's words, Yun stared at Jace. "...backup, huh? What's your name?"

"Ahem..." Jace coughed. "I was sent here by the Hunter Association's Head of Security, Bryce Yang. My name is Jay. Officer Jay. It's a pleasure to meet you all."

"Hmm..." Despite Jace's introduction, Yun continued to scrutinize him in doubt. "So you're sent here from the Hunter's Association to help us out, huh? I appreciate it, given the current situation at hand."

"Yes. The situation is indeed... Perplexing," he nodded his head in reply. "The association detected a strange flow in mana about 50 minutes into your dungeon run. So, we suspected that an anomaly might have occurred here. As such, I was urgently dispatched here as backup."

"The hell's an anomaly?" Cole blinked.

"...an anomaly happened?" The female hunter frowned. "So that's why the lich appeared... Ugh. Talk about rotten luck."

"Oh! So it's like that!" Cole nodded his head. "So that's why this mess started!"

"Why are you the only one here, though?" The Striker-class hunter raised his brow in doubt. "Surely you have more backup coming?"

"Unfortunately, due to something that had happened earlier on, I was the only one who was able to cross the portal," Jace reasoned.

"Hah. How incompetent can the association be?" Hugo rolled his eyes. "But whatever. Since you're here as backup, surely you have a plan to get us out of here?"

"..." Jace kept quiet in reply, only observing the group of hunters around him. "Well, first of all, I want to confirm the headcount, skills and class of each of you. There's no problem with that, right?"

"That's reasonable enough," Yun nodded his head. "Well then, I'll start first. I'm the leader of the party, Yun, a Magician-class hunter. My skills are thunder-related."

"Hm?" Jace raised his brow at his introduction. "A Magician-class hunter? If so, how did the enemies get this out of control?"

"Ah. Well, we had two Magician-class hunters. One was AOE-oriented, while the other, me, is more single target focused," he reasoned. "Unfortunately, the former was killed."

"...I see," Jace frowned, now turning his attention towards Cole.

"Hah. Cole, a Sentinel!" he flexed his biceps. "I can harden my body and soak in damage. Simple as that."

"...is now even a good time to boast about your muscles?" Huey scratched his head. "Whatever. The name's Huey, another Sentinel. My skills are on the side of barrier protection. Though... There are some limitations."

Without any further words from Jace, the introduction of the hunters continued.

"Rei, I'm a Marksman." The female hunter introduced herself. "I don't have much to say about my skills, but I'm stronger when I don't have to deal with a crowd of enemies..."

"Fred," the Striker-class hunter stated. "I'm a Striker. And err... My skills are, I guess spear-related?"

"Hugo. It should be obvious what my class is," the man scoffed. "I crush enemies with my axe. That's all."

After the introductions of the six hunters came to an end, Jace's eyes landed on Landon, seemingly nudging him to introduce himself as well.

"...right. Cough. Well, I already introduced myself to Ja-Jay when he found me. But, I'll say it again," he coughed. "I'm Landon, a Marksman hunter. I err... Can deal a lot of damage in one go if I miss a certain amount of shots..."

"..." As the introductions came to an end, the young man kept quiet. "As for me, my class is that of a Synergist. I can act as a support by being able to heal your wounds, well, in specific scenarios. Though I may not be as combat-suitable, I can guide everyone into clearing this dungeon."

"So it's possible?" Huey asked.

"With the current lineup..." With another look around the party members, Jace fell into deep thought. After a while, he took a deep breath. "It's possible."

"...it is?" Rei uttered.

"Yes. However..." he frowned, turning his attention to the front entrance of the mausoleum. "Since this is an anomaly, we'll have to be extra careful. This is an A-ranked boss we're dealing with after all."

"...?!" As they heard the words uttered by Jace, their eyes shook.

"—as such, I need everyone to work together. All of us."