Game On

With a new plan set Lucas followed Zyra's lead into another tunnel. Away from where that enormous horde of Kompies went. They would want to face that when the group is back together and with a good nights rest. 

Even if cultivators slowly began not to have the need to rest as much as a normal person. Lucas was technically, cultivation wise, was the weakest of the group and closer to being a normal person than the others. He needed to sleep 8+ hours every 12-14 he stayed up. The others however only needed to sleep 6-8 hours every 36-48 hours they were awake. 

Knowing her and Lucas were more or less on a time crunch she picked up her pace. Lucas slowly following behind her. They were making their way down one of the other tunnels. Zyra was keeping track of where they were going and mentally mapping out the hives' interior. She already knew Lucas couldn't do that, but he could handle himself in a fight. 

Neither one of them lite a torch or created any type of light source. Zyra wasn't sure how well Lucas could see in the dark, but cast her [Shadow Vision] technique on him to see. He politely thanked her and followed her lead. 

As they walked down the tunnel, now able to see 80ft, they noticed how dry and warm the tunnel was. Both were slightly sweating. Lucas briefly mentioned that it odd that it was warm while they were underground. Zyra agreed and stated that it meant they were getting closer to the inner section of the hive. 

A Xeomorph Queen and Egg Carrier need to be in warmer or hot temperature rooms to house the eggs they are caring for. They were on the right trail. The two kept walking for another 15 minutes. They followed the turns of the tunnel and would occasionally come to an intersection. When they arrived to one they would figure out which tunnel was the hotter of the two and follow it. 

What was most odd was the lack of Xeomorphs. They were deep in a hive and getting closer to the inner section of the hive, yet they didn't run into any Xeomorphs. When the two noticed this they slowed their pace drastically and moved at a crawl. They crouched down and stuck as close to the walls as possible. 

As the two got closer towards the end of the tunnel they began to feel the earth move in a rumble. Something was coming towards them! The two quickly changed their stance and got ready for a fight. From the around the corner of the tunnel, 80ft away, they finally saw their adversary. 

They were large dog sized like reptilians creatures. They had the same red almost scale like skin as the Tunneler. These new creatures had short stubby heads, but gave off the feeling that their sharped tooth jaws packed a powerful bite. They ran on two large powerful legs, but their front limbs were shorter with barbed hooks on the end. Not only that, but they had half a dozen long sharp quills on their back. 

As Lucas got a good look of them they reminded him more of how a velociraptor looked. If they were large dog sized, with red skin and hooked limbs. That and they had shorter heads very similar to a Rottweiler. 

"Shit" Zyra cursed loudly. "We got Hooked Runners! Don't let them get close!" she crouched down and stepped on the ground. "[Shadow Field]!" She manipulated the shadows emanating off of her. It didn't cover a wide area like before but filled the 10ft wide tunnel and moved up to 50ft away from her. 

As the Hooked Runners crossed the threshold of [Shadow Field] shadow tendrils jumped out and wrapped around anything and everything they could reach. They wrapped around the limbs of the Hooked Runners slowing them down.

"You're up Lucas. Don't let them get close and lets draw them away from here. We'll loop back to the main room and down another tunnel and sneak away."

"You got it!" He said as he raised and casted [Gravity Condense] in the air right above the Hooked Runners. The Hooked Runners were strong enough to resist the gravitational pull, but were slowed even more. Additionally those that were not as strong as others remained on the ground thanks to tendrils from [Shadow Field]. 

With the horde of Hooked Runners slowed Lucas went on the attack. While running backwards with Zyra that is. He began to cast [Hell Flame Roar], but wanted to try something new. He utilized his [Precision Casting] skill and honed the torrent of the crimson flame. Before it was like a Dragon's breath and would have filled the entire tunnel of flame. Now it was more like a beam of fire the size of a foot ball! He heard a chime in his head and quickly looked at what the System said.

[New Technique created! Hell Flame Beam!]

[Hell Flame Beam: by condensing the crimsons flames of Hell Flame Roar one has condensed the energy and mana into a single point. Requires considerable more mana to power compared to is previous version. This technique is still not as powerful as Hell Flame Canon. The next version]

[User has earned 500 VP's! Although System is still shutdown for the next 5 months and 28.5 days]

His eyes widened as he quickly read the notification! He created a new technique/sub-rune simply by utilizing a different skill to modify a skill he had. Could he do this with al his runes/techniques!? Though that would be something he'd have to test later. He had other things to worry about now. 

With his new found technique Lucas quickly realized how powerful it actually was! The [Hell Flame Beam] liquidized the Hooked Runners! As soon as the 28 circumference beam passed through the Hooked Runner it would screech out in pain before its red skin bubbled and melted. The beam was 90ft long and pierced through dozens of Hooked Runners. It was a massacre!

Even Zyra was horrified by the level of destruction Lucas wielded. She couldn't imagine how much stronger he'd be as he enters higher realms of cultivation. 

With dozens upon dozens of Hooked Runners being melted into a pool of liquid the rest of the Hooked Runners began to be filled with a sense of dread and panic! Even though there were no sparks of fire to spread none of them wanted to meet the beam and become a pool of liquid themselves. They watched as their brethren were slaughtered right before for their eyes.

The fear and dread they once felt was quickly quenched by another. Pure rage. The horde of Hooked Runners began to fill the tunnel. They climbed and stomped and ripped and tore one another in the tunnel. They killed each other just to get ahead of the other Hooked Runner. They were growling and screeching out of anger to kill Lucas and Zyra.

As the two backed away they were horrified. The Hooked Runners were packing themselves like sardines in the tunnel. Their vibrant green blood pooled over one another as they sliced and clawed each other to get at them. Lucas conjured [Gravity Condense] over and over again to keep the raging horde at bay while they ran away!

As they ran down the tunnel they felt a familiar vibration. 'Great. More Tunneler's' they both thought. Lucas quickly conjured more and more [Condense Gravity] and even threw in a [Gravity Wall] or two to fill the tunnel. He planned to stop the Hooked Runners while they dealt with the Tunneler's. 

Just as they had predicted 2 Tunneler's burst from ground and blocked the way. 

"[Shadow Cleaving Sword]!"

"[Shadow Maw]!" 

The two acted quickly and in sync with one another. Zyra quickly conjured an executioner's sword made from shadow. The blade met the flesh of the Tunneler's neck cleanly cutting through it. 

The shadows in the tunnel began to change into a sharp toothy maw. It materialized itself and bit down on the second Tunneler's torso. It was bitten straight through. It's worm like body fell limp as the top 4 limbs and head fell to the ground with a thud. 

They two were very powerful to be able to kill a Tunneler in a single strike! Even though Tunneler's are in Core Formation realm and Zyra and Lucas are in lower realms they still killed them easily. It mainly comes down to Cultivation Paths. For Xeomorphs only the Queen and Royal Guards have their own cultivation paths. Other Xeomorphs have the strength similar to those in the realm they are born in. 

Its similar to a Bodybuilder and an MMA Fighter. Both are strong physically, but one is far superior to the other. One is pure brute force while the other, that is equally as strong, has more skills and techniques in fighting. Of course the one with skills and techniques can swiftly take out a Bodybuilder, especially if they are able to strike first. 

Zyra was incredibly surprised to see Lucas using Shadow techniques. 'Just how many offensive type techniques does he have' she thought to herself. 'Can he just copy any other cultivation path? That's incredibly powerful.'

"Come on" Zyra said sternly. "Let's pick up the pace and make more noise." She held her [Shadow Cleaving Sword] tightly with both hands and slashed out. Large waves of dark energy flew out of the blade with each swing. With the Hooked Runners stuck in place from the [Shadow Field] and [Gravity Condense] she slaughter many Hooked Runners. The energy blades sliced through the horde like butter. There was no stopping her attack. 

Seeing Zyra let loose Lucas wanted to do the same. He also had an idea! He grinned as he conjured two skills together. He was hoping if he combined the two techniques he could make a new one again! He stopped running and began to concentrate on the feeling of his techniques. He closed his eyes and conjured [Gravity Condense] and [Gravity Blade] in the same exact place. 

Even from the distance he feel the mana from his body quickly move through the air and form itself into particles that controlled gravity. They were taking separate shapes of an orb spinning the gravity around it and the other as a long curved blade. He had to concentrate really stretch his [Precision Casting] skill.

Zyra started to call out to him when he stopped, but when she saw he was trying to do something she stopped herself. She would guard him till he was finished with whatever he was doing. 

As he felt the two techniques forming he had to fuel more mana into both and fuse them together. It felt like he was pushing two magnets with the same poles together. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead as he tried to create another new technique. He began to channel his mana between each technique and blend them together. This was much harder than he thought. 

After a few minutes of not only holding his technique back from fully form and combine the two Zyra began to get worried. She could see how strained Lucas was trying to attempt to do whatever he was trying. She still had faith in him and fought back the Hooked Runners, who were slowly making ground on them. 

Another 10 minutes had passed as the Hooked Runners were finally closing in. They were only 20ft away and Zyra had used more mana than she would have liked. She had created another 3 [Shadow Field]'s while still maintaining her [Shadow Cleaving Sword]. She was frustrated and turned to yell at Lucas to stop was he was doing because it was clearly not working. As soon as she turned and saw the grin on his face she knew he managed to do what he planed. 

"It's Game On mother fuckers!" Lucas yelled out with a grin. "[Gravity Blade Cyclone]!"