43: A Single Glance

"I don't like this. It feels strange... This area is way too quiet."

Grey kept cutting through cobwebs, so thin they seemed invisible, blocking his way. He had been doing this daily for at least the past week, ever since they entered this strange part of the labyrinth.

Here, the webs were more abundant, as fine as silk threads but incredibly resistant, far tougher than any others they had encountered before. They seemed to dominate the place, dangerous and omnipresent.

The monsters, however, had disappeared two days ago, just when they entered this new zone, where the labyrinth's corridors widened. But with that space, the webs also multiplied, covering almost everything around them.

With precise and quick movements, Grey cleared the path, while Sara followed closely, alert to any signs of danger.

"This isn't good... I'm getting tired faster than before. These damn webs are becoming harder and harder to see."

Suddenly, a hand gently rested on his back. He stopped cold and looked behind him, finding Sara with a somber expression on her face.

'An enemy?' Grey thought, sharpening his senses. However, he didn't detect anything immediate.

"What's wrong?" he asked, puzzled by the interruption.

Sara spoke slowly, her voice tinged with nervousness. Her eyes scanned every corner before turning to Grey.

"I don't feel good, Grey. This place is too strange... I haven't sensed any enemies in a while, which is odd. But I've had a bad feeling for some time now."

She glanced quickly at the corridor behind Grey, and he turned to face her.

"I want to get out of here. Let's change direction. This place is no longer safe for us... it never was."

Her tone was unusually serious, which made Grey take her words more seriously.

'So she noticed too... Fine, there won't be any issues leaving.'

He rested his spear on his shoulder and nodded.

"Alright. If you hadn't mentioned it now, I would've suggested it myself. I don't like this place either. Let's go back."

Sara quickly nodded and turned to retrace their steps. Just then, something changed.

It was an almost imperceptible feeling, but both Grey and Sara noticed it instantly.

"Sara."

"Grey."

They both said each other's name in unison.

"Get ready!" Sara exclaimed urgently.

A second later, everything erupted into chaos.

The coral walls groaned, and the ground trembled beneath their feet. Huge figures with long legs surged from the walls, racing toward them at full speed.

The ground split as monstrous worms emerged, lunging from below with terrifying ferocity.

'Damn, we're trapped!'

"Sara, get close!" Grey shouted just as a steel spider lunged at him from the side while a monstrous worm descended from above.

"Cover yourself!" Sara responded, positioning herself back-to-back with Grey.

With a vertical slash, Grey severed the spider's legs, while Sara leapt into the air and slammed the worm with brutal force, sending it flying.

The brief respite they gained was fleeting. More beasts poured from the walls and ground, dozens of them.

"Together!" Sara shouted as she landed beside Grey. He leaned forward, holding Odyssey firmly, while his other hand began to swirl with white sparks.

In the blink of an eye, the entire area was engulfed in darkness.

Grey had summoned the Fallen Light.

The beasts, blinded by the sudden change, hesitated for a moment, giving Grey and Sara precious seconds.

They didn't waste the opportunity. Together, they charged to eliminate the steel spiders emerging from the walls.

Both were more than capable of surviving the onslaught of a dozen of these creatures, but they knew they had to make every second count to take down as many as possible.

Odyssey glowed brightly, and Grey too began to glow under the radiant blue scales of his armor.

His senses sharpened, and time seemed to slow down. His mind worked at full capacity, and his body filled with a revitalizing warmth.

He moved like lightning in the darkness, his spear slicing through the heads of the spiders with fluid movements. Sara wasn't far behind.

With her impressive physique, she charged at speeds that rivaled Grey's, striking the spiders with devastating force. Her blow sent several creatures crashing into one another, and with a graceful horizontal slash, her sword decapitated several more.

'Good, we can get out of this.' Grey thought with naive confidence as they wiped out the dozen spiders in seconds.

"Behind you!" Grey suddenly shouted, making Sara quickly turn around. Both saw pink-skinned worms crawling toward them, their speed matching that of the spiders.

"Sara, with me!" Grey ordered, moving to join her. They stood side by side, fighting together against the monstrous creatures emerging from the ground.

Sara's sword and Grey's spear moved in perfect harmony as they deflected, dodged, and blocked the worms' attacks. But the worst part wasn't the fight itself, it was the fact that every time they killed a worm, two more emerged from the muck, as if there were no end.

They were getting exhausted.

'Why the hell won't they stop coming?' Grey thought with growing frustration.

"Sara! Can you handle the spiders?" he asked as he cut down a worm that lunged at him.

In an instant, they swapped places. Grey charged at an airborne worm while Sara blocked the jaws of another creature emerging from the ground.

The spiders were closing in fast.

"I can!" Sara shouted back, and they separated.

A mistake they would pay for dearly.

Grey paused for just a second, but in that instant, his skin beneath the blue scales began to turn gray as sharp, clawed tips emerged from his hands. Spikes grew from his limbs, his gaze darkened, and his body hardened and tensed.

Without wasting time, he hurled Odyssey toward a worm going after Sara, just as another appeared beside her.

The spear would take three seconds to return, but Grey wouldn't be left defenseless.

"Come on, you stinking worms."

With a bestial roar, he grabbed the jaws of one of the worms in his hands and, with superhuman strength, tore its skull in half. Another worm emerged from the muck behind him and bit into his stomach, but Grey's ascended armor withstood the creature's jaws. He raised his arms and elbowed the worm's head, cracking its skull from within, forcing it to release its grip.

The spell kept announcing the deaths of the beasts, but Grey ignored those messages. He was focused solely on the battle.

Finally, his spear materialized back in his hand, and Grey continued fighting without rest against the beasts emerging from the ground.

Meanwhile, Sara was facing several steel spiders at once, her sword glowing with fierce flashes as she fought to hold her ground against the increasing number of enemies.

Her powerful physique was comparable in strength to the spiders themselves, maybe even stronger.

Her sword, connecting with each swing, was devastating. If any spider managed to withstand the blade, the impact alone was enough to destabilize it, giving her another chance to finish it off.

There were many, yes, but not enough.

"Come on, you bastards, come at me! I'll crush you all!"

She struck down every steel spider that stood in her way. Those she couldn't hit in time, she stopped with her sword, deflecting their legs before slashing them with a single stroke.

It was a tough fight, and though the situation wasn't ideal for either of them, it seemed like they could get through this.

That was, of course, until they appeared.

The ground trembled with a crack as the walls collapsed beside them. From the rubble, three monstrous spiders emerged, immediately charging toward Sara.

"Monsters!? Damn it!"

She backed away, trying to regroup with Grey. Next to him, she was sure they could face these awakened monsters.

On the other side, Grey staggered under the assault of three worms at once. One had managed to get into his lower range, where his spear was less effective, and bit into his stomach.

A stab of pain shot up his spine, but his armor held.

Odyssey had stopped the jaws of the worm in front of him, while another attacked him from the side.

Grey, trapped in the chaos, felt his frustration building. That's when he shouted.

"LET GO OF ME!"

His roar was savage, so powerful that the creatures around him froze for a brief moment, as if the cry had intimidated them.

Taking advantage of that moment, Grey channeled his enhanced strength, pushed Odyssey, and split the worm's head in front of him. Without hesitation, he threw the spear at the worm attacking him from the side, slicing its body in two.

The third worm, still biting and squeezing his stomach with increasing force, was next. Grey grabbed its head with both hands and drove his claws into the creature's skull.

A faint 'crack' sounded as the pressure on his stomach suddenly ceased.

At last, Grey had a brief moment of respite. It seemed those annoying worms were finished, as no more were emerging from the depths.

'Sara!?' He looked around for his friend, seeing her fighting fiercely, splitting the heads of several awakened spider beasts.

'Good, it looks like she handled the spiders.'

He was breathing heavily, his body nearly numb from the effort. The sharp scent of rotting flesh and blood filled the air, mingling with the dust and moisture of the labyrinth.

The darkness invoked by his fallen light spell began to dissipate. Grey could see through it to the being who was the summoner, and Sara, with her natural ability, could also see without issue.

Maintaining the darkness was no longer meaningful, but it had been useful at the start to give them precious seconds and eliminate some enemies.

As he let his guard down for a moment and withdrew the spell, a terrible premonition swept over him.

The ground trembled, and the few walls that remained standing collapsed. That's when he saw three enormous spider-like monsters emerge from the coral rubble and attack Sara.

A deep fear engulfed him, and he shouted his friend's name.

"SARA!" But before he could finish saying it, a crack in the ground opened beneath him, almost making him fall into an abyss of darkness.

"Damn it, not now! Sara needs help!"

He drove Odyssey into the ground to stabilize himself and avoid falling, then jumped, landing in the mud, away from the crack.

He was distracted and didn't see the worm approaching from behind at an astonishing speed.

The creature managed to snap its jaws around Grey's head, knocking him to the ground.

Fortunately, his scale helmet withstood the attack. Using both hands, Grey forced the worm's jaws open and, with a loud crack, split its skull in two.

[You have killed an awakened beast, Subterranean Hunter]

[Your souls strengthen]

[The duality within you expands]

A suffocating heat began to emanate from Grey's chest, causing his face to contort in a new grimace of pain. His vision was becoming blurry.

'W-What the hell...?'

"KUGH... AAAHHH!"

...

On the other side of the crack, Sara fought to survive under the relentless power of three awakened monsters.

'Where are you, Grey!?'

"Damn it, show up already!"

With her sword, she blocked the jaws of a steel spider, but her body trembled under the weight and force of the creature.

As she was about to counterattack, a sharp pain pierced her side. The second monster had reached her with three of its sharp legs.

Her armor had shattered, and the monster's claws pierced her skin, throwing her into the air with tremendous force.

Blood poured from her ribs as she landed in the mud and rolled several meters before stopping. That's when, as she lifted her gaze, she saw him.

Despite the pain that overwhelmed her, she could think of only one thing upon seeing her friend kneeling, holding his chest with both hands.

'What is happening to him? Grey!'

But before she could react, a thin string, almost like white wire, coiled around her arm.

Surprised, she had no time to do anything else. In the blink of an eye, her whole body was wrapped in a cocoon of spider silk.

A second before her face was covered by the sharp net, she looked at Grey. His body was bloodied, his face twisted in pain, his armor in tatters, and his black hair soaked with blood and mud.

But something else caught her attention. Behind him stood a gigantic red wall, rising several meters into the air.

No, it wasn't a wall. It was a worm, much more powerful, larger, and stronger than the others.

Sara saw the suffering on Grey's face as that abomination swooped down with its jaws open, ready to devour him.

An instant before that thing reached him, their eyes met.

What she saw in Grey's eyes was devastating. The light that used to hide in his silver eyes was slowly fading, and something inside her did too.

In his eyes, Sara perceived desperation, helplessness, and regret, a whirlwind of conflicting emotions and indescribable agony.

His face reflected a mix of suffering, desolation, sadness, confusion, and horror. Fear and shame also wove into his expression. It was a chaos of strong emotions and internal conflicts that Sara couldn't comprehend.

But she had no more time to process it. She couldn't think about what Grey might be feeling or going through at that moment because the spiders finally covered her entire body with webs.

For both of them, the world darkened at the same time.

____

Note: I'm sorry to announce that there may not be any more chapters this week. I have homework to do, and I also need to prepare for what will come in the following chapters and the ending of the Forgotten Coast.