"She's fast asleep now," I said as I noticed the others getting back to the base.
"What did you do? She somehow looks to be doing better than before," Mai asked.
"What do you mean "do"? She's sleeping right now. Although, she is better now that she let out her bottled feelings." I smiled while looking at her face.
Soobin had wonderful dark-brown hair, her lashes were long, her nose was arched, and she had a well-maintained body.
I turned to face the girl who was the spitting image of my lost woman, Mai. "So, did you discover anything on this floor?" I asked.
"Sadly, nothing yet," she informed me and continued, "But it seems this floor is made of two parts, the upper and the lower."
"Hmm, I see. As far as you've gone, I can tell you've only encountered Bat-Spiders, am I correct so far?" I asked.
"You certainly are. This place is also full of bat-spiders, even more so than the first floor. We took care of over fifty this morning… or evening was it?" She muttered while swaying her head to the right and left.
"I see, you've done a good job, but I'll warn you only once," I began emitting some pressure with my intent which was forged by mana, "Don't you ever run off without my orders again, got it?"
Unsurprisingly, the "killing" intent worked and Mai took a pale color quickly, "Y-Yes, it won't happen again."
"What happened?" Sean came rushing, sensing the shift of mana in the surroundings. I'm glad to see he's improving with each passing second.
I let the pressure go away and sighed, "Nothing, nothing. Everything is alright."
"Great! So, what do you want to do now?" He questioned me.
"That's where I was about to get to. Are you reading my mind somehow?" My right brow twitched at his correct guesses, "Sean, you may call Luke. We three are going to further survey the area."
"Oh, okay. Just what I was hoping to hear," A smirk drew itself over on his face and we finally made our way into this floor.
***
"Hm, hm…" Luke was humming around as we walked down the different passageways.
These alleys were each different. Some had dead ends, some extended into craters like the one we saw before, and some just expanded and became a cave where we could reside. In these cavities could be found small lakes that were full of piranhas.
"Finally," Luke voiced as we saw a staircase.
"They sure don't, but we can't do anything besides moving forward and exterminating our enemies. Fight-on!" Sean grinned as he began stepping down and getting engulfed by the ever-darkness. And why did he use an Attack on Giants reference?
"We better follow or we'll get left behind." I winked as I followed our companion.
"Ah, wait for me you suckers!" Luke retorted.
***
After a three-minute walk down this stairway, we finally reached the end.
"It looks about the same, doesn't it?" Luke questioned.
"It does look the same since it is," Sean affirmed
"Should we just keep moving first before jumping to conclusions?" I kindly asked of them as I took the lead.
And finally, we had guests.
"Bat-spiders, huh." I looked at the disgusting creatures, my memory of them getting crystal clear again.
"Sean, can you give me one of your daggers?" I requested Sean to give me a piece of his two-bladed set.
"My dagger, why?" He unconsciously wrinkled his brows at my weird request.
"Just do it already!" I urged him and quickly had the golden dagger in my hand.
"Hmm, my fingers fit perfectly." I nodded amusedly at this great blade he had gotten, "But I won't use it the normal way." I smirked as I turned the blade to the opposite side, its blade behind my lower arm.
"Hmph-!" I threw the dagger toward the monster, activating my mana cloak and making a run toward it.
Did I run too fast by chance? Since I can already catch the blade midair.
Well, that doesn't matter– "Hmph!" I grabbed hold of its small hilt and swung it upon the bat-spider's neck.
First target, eliminated.
And thus, I began the massacre of the monsters here, soon after getting aided by Sean and Luke which made everything much easier. It surprised me to see Luke keeping up with us.
***
"Is it over yet, hah…?" Luke was now panting for air, coughing here and there too.
"We got to kill like, forty-five or more, I think," I gave a rough estimate of how many monsters were numbering in the crowd in front of us.
"And how many did we kill?" He asked another question.
"Around ninety-three," Sean answered in my stead.
"I don't think I can keep going anymore…" Luke whispered, slight disappointment could be felt in his tone.
"Don't worry, take a rest and watch our movements instead, you may pick up and learn something from this." I nodded, a smirk overtook my face while thinking how nice it would be to check myself out during a battle.
"Well, here they come," Sean shrugged.
"Let's get this over with!"
***
"Hah, hah…" I was also tired and breathless now, huffing and puffing.
Taking care of over one hundred and forty-nine monsters in one hour was quite a drag to deal with.
"Look at this cutie pie," I smirked as I approached a legless bat-spider.
"Quite the villain you are making yourself to be, Helis. What's with that look on your face when this one already has severed limbs?" Sean berated me.
"I can't help it, can I? Now then, give me that Mana Crystal. Ehehe…" I was giggling at the thought of how many Mana Crystals we had gotten and how rich we would be already.
Oops, you're getting off-tracked Helis, we aren't here to get rich! We are here to survive through this forsaken place whose only goal is to take our lives, "Meh, good night." I stabbed the dagger into the monster's forehead.
"Grah–!" The monster struggled a little and soon went limp.
"Phew, now that's a weight off our shoulders, isn't it?" Luke walked next to me.
"Guys… I think this monster can seal off people's mana…" Sean fell to the ground, unconscious.
Next to him was a blue jelly-ish monster with the silhouette of a human, touching Sean's back with one of its tentacles.
The battles continue and so does time tick away.
Is Helis fighting with a certain goal in mind or not?
Is he saddened and destroyed by Selica's death and yet acts like he's alright? He indeed is.
Is he wanting to run away from this constant stress to survive? Of course.
And are you willing to support this story for Helis' sake? Indeed you are. Teehee :P