187 Deeper graves

"Wow she's a big one!" Zhao Wei spoke as she swung her hammer down at him. He side-stepped the swing by an inch. Usually that'd be intentional so that he'd be able to close the gap quickly, but this time, it was because he was simply not fast enough, despite her huge body, her muscles didn't just provide strength but decent speed as well. They weren't exactly fighting in an open space either, while every swing of hers nearly covered the whole width of these halls.

Every swing would chunks of the floor and walls as it passed by, leaving behind newly formed ditches and craters in her wake. He almost couldn't believe these were the same walls that could keep him locked in as it broke like biscuits when she so much as grazed them. Those swings though not comparable to him in speed kept him backing away.

But leading people on was his forte, as he baited her advancement, she suddenly turned to look at her leg which was now caught in one of his wrap traps. Seeing his chance he closed in on Gary very quickly. "Zhao Wei! Don't.." Grendolyn tried to warn him, a little too late.

His fist collided with her face with a thump. Though the next part left him dumbfounded as she just looked at him as if nothing happened. The punch didn't even push her face back, if anyone was watching, they'd think that he just gave her a love-tap. But Zhao Wei knew he didn't hold back, at least not by much.

If he'd use that kind of strength against anyone in Dracas he'd knock their jaw clean off their face and then some. And yet it didn't even cause Gary to budge. Instead in the next moment the hammer came swinging at him full on. At this range he really didn't have the choice of coming out of the exchange unscathed so he decided to just jump and lean backwards as the hammer came crashing into him.

It felt like a bus ran into him, if he'd stood his ground instead of jumping, there was a chance he'd have to leave his legs behind. His body flew back and crashed into the wall next to where Grendolyn had crawled away during the fight. Pulling himself off, a Zhao Wei shaped imprint was left behind. "Care to join in the fight? ughk!" He spit up a mouthful of blood as he looked at Grendolyn.

"And do what!?" She panicked, "She doesn't have a lot of mana but her physical abilities surpass mine by a long shot if I could even use them with this dumb agoraphobia in the first place, if I stood in front of her at most I'd be a pebble she could kick around."

"Then what am I!?" Zhao Wei shouted back as a stream of blood dripped down his head.

"I don't know, but you better figure it out soon, here she comes." And sure enough Gary was already moving in towards them, snapping his upgraded wrap trap like paper, for some reason this reminded Zhao Wei of when he first faced the Death Wishes.

"Okay then let's try something else," As Gary bounded towards them, Zhao Wei bent down into a sprinting position. With each step, he saw the dust shake off from the surrounding. Then he ran towards her, his body leaning forward almost parallel to the ground, as fast as his feet could take him, almost breaking gravity's hold of him and floating off the ground, but gravity was exactly what he needed right now.

Seeing him come to her, Gary roared and swung her hammer sideways, but much too late as Zhao Wei was already making his move. He couldn't afford to wait for when he saw the hammer coming, instead he watched her shoulders. Like it or not she still needed to roll them to swing, and that gave him the signal he was waiting for.

With his upper body so close to the ground, he just needed to reach his right hand out to touch it. The little friction it provided pulled his body back wards as he slid his feet forward, switching into a sliding tackle. The hammer swung just above him, threatening to carve out some of his stomach if he hadn't wittingly decided to suck in his gut.

Sliding between her legs, he didn't forget to leave a length of Flaming Silk Trap on the floor. Once she saw him disappear, she stopped in her tracks to Zhao Wei's delight as he pulled on the Silk Trap whose ends he attached to his own hands. As soon as he did so, the nigh invisible sharp string was pulled tight against Gary's legs and cut them clean. But Zhao Wei didn't even manage to make a smile before it turned into a frown as he saw the legs that were cut instantly repair itself.

"You have got to be kidding me!!"

Zhao Wei hadn't faced a Golem before, so he was sufficiently surprised when that happened. The ones Thirteen had faced could only amount to cheap knock offs compared to the abilities this one held. The thing had regenerated so quickly that the baffled Zhao Wei almost thought that he'd made a mistake in his maneuver, maybe the string of the silk trap had dragged on the floor instead of latching on to her legs and cutting them off.

Not just that, he'd activated the paralytic venom trap when he'd tapped her in the face, then he'd at least put in 11 of those, even Guru was taken down even if he wasn't knocked out. She on the other hand, was completely fine as if he hadn't done anything at all.

He pulled his staff out, even though he was pretty sure it wouldn't help at all. Hopefully it'll at the very least, lessen one of the blows for him so he doesn't die in the next exchange. Just as he was preparing to rush forward, her head was suddenly covered by a sack, her arm flailed around to catch the sudden assailant. Turns out it was Grendolyn herself who came forward and jumped on her.

But in the next moment she immediately needed his assistance as it took all her strength to even stand up, jumping up to that height took away even tomorrows strength from her limbs. So after she did her maneuver, all she was capable of doing was fall from the roaring giants shoulders while barely missing those gigantic flailing arms.

After some time, the giant switched from finding the assailant to trying to pull of the sack from her face so she could return to seeing. But at this point, Grendolyn and Zhao Wei were already far gone from the scene of the fight.

"Don't run, slide!" She said, as she switched from steps to slowly gliding on the ground.

"Why!?" A frustrated Zhao Wei asked, he wanted to run away as soon as possible and yet the girl was playing games?

"We're part dwarf, if there's one thing we're good at it's mining, which includes sensing minerals as well as vibrations in closed spaces." She explained. "That's how Gary found us so quickly and no offense but even with her eyes covered, I doubt you'll be able to beat her."

Nodding, Zhao Wei complied and used the swivel steps to her surprise. While he wasn't as proficient at this as Guru was, he wasn't that far from his normal running speed. But they'd decided to do so a little too late as it didn't take long before the echo of several footsteps could be heard following closely behind them.

Like the one before, their physiques were beyond ordinary, it would take seconds before they arrived to intercept them. "Run!" Zhao Wei ordered instead. There was no point in trying to hide their presence in a one way hall anyway.

Zhao Wei sweated as they closed in. He could hear at least 3 distinct footsteps. He had trouble just surviving one of those things, if three of them came at him, there was no chance he'd walk out of that fight standing.

The distance shortened, 500 meters... 300... 100 and like that the assailants had caught up. Seven adult sized Grendolyns were running as quickly as they could. But after several minutes of running, they stopped in their tracks.

"What's going on? we should've reached them by now." One of them spoke. They could sense the vibrations even down to the speed Zhao Wei and Grendolyn moved at and they should've met them a long time ago.

Some distance back, in the dark empty area, a body lowered itself from the ceiling. The silhouette of a much smaller person dangling off of it. "Great plan!" Grendolyn exclaimed.

"Yeah, but we're not out of the woods yet, we just delayed the inevitable. They'll back track as soon as they realize we didn't outrun them and behind us is jumbo you." Zhao Wei complained.

"Hey! she's a person as well, you don't need to do any name calling!" Grendolyn retorted.

"I've been whacked by what I assume is the same hammer twice today, put into a room full of death traps, dragged into muddy waters by a person who I just met less than an hour ago and I'm being hunted down in a very closed space." Zhao Wei listed as his eyes bulged, looking at the girl. "Did I miss anything? Nope? So yeah, I do need to call them names."

Grendolyn pouted at the response, she looked in front of her and behind her one after another. "I'm not sure what to do... The sack I wrapped around Gary's head is made of stringed residue mythril shavings, it'll take at least another 2 minutes before she'd able to tear it off, it's our best chance, but if the others are already on their way here we probably won't even reach her before they catch up."

Their problems were getting worse, and every second they hesitated dug their graves a little deeper. Just as Zhao Wei was going to decide on a plan of action, he heard a loud rumble followed by the clashing of metal coming from the direction where the other's had passed by them.