Labyrinth, VI

Elias Ayla POV:

A Mob of monsters suddenly resurfaced on the sand after reading the text on the hologram plank.

As a person from a fantasy world, I wasn't typically phased by the unusual appearance of different beings, but that was different for the people of Earth.

A faint squeal was heard from Haruka, she didn't seem much of an outside person, and uh she's hiding behind Sean... did those two become a thing already?

The monsters in question, I'll just call them bat-spiders, as the name explains, it seems that they have the body of a spider and the head of a bat.

They screeched while moving their creepy body that appeared to be full of fur, and eight legs. Their height seems to reach up to our waists.

"Kragh-" the first bat-spider to approach me screeched, its maw opened unnaturally much, distorting its face.

"Hah..." I let out a sigh. Be calm, rational, and breathe.

My hand instinctually went down to my katana, I grabbed the hilt which fit perfectly for my hand.

Damn, I hadn't given it much thought when I first got it. It seems this sword needs both hands to hold it and unleash its full potential, but right now, it doesn't matter. I thought.

Smoothly, the sword slipped out of its sheath, with both of my hands, now, holding its dark and purple hilt, I pointed forward toward my target, the bat-spider.

I started circulating the mana inside my body, the multicolored motes moved up to my brain and became colorless. I began to envision the now greyish particles, receiving a color I hadn't thought of before, amethyst.

The amethyst mana surrounded the whole surface of my body and came to be a new skin, in other words, my mana cloak or aura.

The katana, the tip of the blade, was now being aimed towards the forehead of the bat-spider, with my augmented body, I moved to the highest speed my body could accumulate in an instant and severed its head cleanly.

***

Everyone panicked after seeing the monsters, besides Sean, Luke, and Elias, that is. Around one minute after the horde of monsters started to resurface in the desert, the unexpected happened.

After everyone was almost ready for the incoming attack, the first to make his move was Elias. The atmosphere shifted and Sean noticed the new aura surrounding him, so intense and fierce, like a flame that would disintegrate you the moment you were to touch it.

In the duration of a blink, the purple-clad mage was seen after the monster, as if he teleported.

The next instant, he raised his right arm unhurriedly, in which he was holding his katana, and then the movement from the monster stopped.

Cleanly, unusually slow, the head of the monster fell with a weird noise like a wet towel hitting a surface.

Next, blood gushed out of the center where the head of the bat-spider used to be three seconds ago. No gasps were heard, and no movements were seen.

Silence, just an eerie silence overtook the whole of the expanse they reached.

The body of the spider finally became limp, and soon all the other bat-spiders went berserk.

The first one to take action after seeing Elias was Luke. He, with his rose-colored blade, tried to also help and amount to the group. Though he had the moves of an amateur, he had gone to the dojo when he was younger, there, he had practiced a little the way of the wooden swords.

So did Sean get into action as well, he had an advantage here, like Elias, he also knew magic, and the way he built his mana cloak and used magic was quite a unique one.

He visualizes the atmosphere mana getting sucked into his body, the translucent mana claws around his skin and takes a tinge of light blue, like a charring blue fire, Blue Whirl. The first transcendental spell he ever used.

As Luke sliced off the limbs of a bat-spider he voiced his thoughts, "Ew, this is disgusting..." Soon after, everyone got into action.

These monsters weren't particularly strong and tough to beat. The main dangers that ooze from them are their claws and fangs when they open their mouths.

***

It took around six minutes of constant battle, everyone had been included, and the teamwork of everyone got better and better every moment they managed to survive.

Elias blocked the claw of a bat-spider, without looking he gave his orders. "Sean, you stay next to me in front. Luke, Haruka, and Mai, I'll trust you with the center. Ren and Soo-bin, you will stay in the rear. Hmph--!" He let out his breath when he finished off his orders and murdered another one of these senseless monsters.

The team formation was made and is now put into action.

From when the monsters appeared, up to now, Elias has already killed off fifty-three of them. Sean didn't do half-bad either, he had cut off thirty-eight already. The one who seemed to have done worse off than everyone here was Haruka Maki.

She didn't have enough confidence in herself and so Mai had to also cover for her, being dragged down.

That was ticking her off, she wanted to do more, to be considered an equal with him, to be able to stand next to him.

She knew... Mai knew, that it had only been two days in the dungeon, she knew what she was doing was irrational, she knew she shouldn't develop feelings, and yet, she couldn't help but look at him with awe in her eyes.

His hair, like the night sky. His eyes, sharp as a knife. His movements, fast as a bird soaring through air. His attention, looking out for everyone while being in a pinch himself. Everything about him put Mai Sakaguchi in a trance.

***

Well, anyone who witnessed this sight would've been put in a trance, the reason for it being the two boys in front of everyone else.

"Hmph-" Their exhales were heard, "Switch-". They kept switching positions, Elias was in the front, Sean swung his dagger towards Elias's back, and then "Switch," was heard again, Elias turned one-hundred-eighty-degree, just barely evading the blue-blade daggers.

The same happened to Sean, getting out of the way at the last moment, covering for each other, within seconds, dozens of them were being killed off one by one, two by two.

Their trust and bond were truly one to be envious of.

"The head," Sean spoke and Elias tilted it to the left, avoiding the blade again.

"Left heel," Elias voiced, with that call, Sean smashed another bat-spider's head with that left foot, steering clear of the blade again.

Their coordination was astounding to the point it left everyone shocked.

***

It's been another four minutes since the fight began for Elias and the crew currently has over fourteen minutes of doing nothing but slaying and slaying.

Their stamina is getting used up, they're getting thirsty, and hungry. Finally, the number of monsters is also starting to dim visibly.

The ground was full of blue blood that gushed out from the monsters. Corpses of bat-spiders were all over the tract.

The engulfing stench was also no-less easy to endure.

Cuts were also visible on the bodies of the whole party.

Finally, this moment arrived, under the two scorching suns, Elias and Sean were now face-to-face with the mother of the bat-spiders.

She looked even more dreadful and nasty. Her height reached well over 3 meters, her body was like that of a tarantula, covered with fur, and she had a pair of bat wings attached to her back.

The bat-spider's face had six eyes and two mouths agape enough for them to fit in, the half-arachnid and half-Microchiroptera monster, was smarter than its mindless children.

***

Clearly, the mother of the bat-spiders was now declaring war on me and Sean.

"Everyone, run south of here!" I yelled out, they started to move immediately, only to be blocked by a tremendous web amount, shot by the mother's rear.

"You won't let them run that easily, will ya?" I scoffed, my teeth showing. "Sean, let's do this," I said resolutely.

He smirked and said, "Heh, you already know!" With a firm tone."

***

"Wanna try that thing I was talking to you about?" I asked Sean while nodding my head.

"Eh? Do you want to try that here? Against the boss? What about the people here?" He started bombarding me with questions and I interrupted him.

"Chill, take it easy, after all, the mother's willing to be lenient enough to give us the first hit." I glared at her, and a scoff was heard from her snout…

"Hah, I don't know if this will work, but I guess I've got to use both of my daggers," Sean's shoulders slumped, "Let's try to finish it with one hit. I'm lazy, I don't want to drag this on longer." He barely got a little of his vitality back again.

The plan to finish the mother with one hit was this.

He jumps upwards and lands on my palm with his heel, I will send him flying with wind magic at an immense speed. When he reaches the mother he will try to sever her head or her torso with his golden daggers, the moment the blade touches her skin, he will use the blue whirl to finish her off.

***

"Here I come!" he said loudly and jumped in the air.

I went under his silhouette, pulled my right arm upward, and aimed it under his attached heels.

As I was holding my right shoulder with my left hand, He landed on my right palm. I had to support my arm considering I had to hold over sixty-five kilos with it and move it around too.

Instantly after his heels landed on my palm, I redirected his whole body towards the mother, I moved up the green particles of mana up to my brain, and now down to the palm holding Sean.

In a glint, a massive compressed amount of wind was gathered under Sean's feet, I pushed my hand forward, outstretching my arm, and finally,

I said the move's name in my mind.

Canon Blade.

The whipping of air was heard and instantly the cutting sound reached the mother, a 'Schlak' noise was heard as Sean severed her torso in two while still flying, and soon after the smell of burned meat could be smelled.

In other words, we had been successful.

We managed to beat the boss of a floor with one hit.

The bisected body was now being grilled by blue flames, by Sean's Blue Whirl.

"We… we did it!?" Ren's celebration of victory was heard.

"Y-yeah!"

"I can't believe it!?"

I just slumped on the ground, strength gone from my legs, I started devouring whatever water we had, chugging it down my parched throat.

Mai Sakaguchi approached and sat next to me, "You really are amazing. You and Sean looked like you were in a movie earlier, and what's with that pushing power? How did you throw him that fast? Why did the mother's body catch on fire? How could you move so fast? Did you train before… blah blah blah…" She bombarded me with questions, but after all that mana usage, I couldn't bare listen to her questions, so most of it wasn't audible.

"The mother's body caught on fire as a defensive mechanism…" what a blatant lie I said with a straight face. "As for pushing Sean, I just have too much muscle power, and uh yeah I've been at the doctor for it. They said I miss the limiters of the strength I can send to my arms and legs, though I shouldn't overuse them because I can destroy my muscles fully." What am I even saying!?

"Where's Sean?" I heard Luke.

"Um… He should be back now--" I started to reply, but the person in question reached and interrupted my sentence.

"What the fuck!? Ahaha, the amount of adrenaline I had, man. It was so exciting, and that speed, oh my god man. It felt like I legit was Superman or something like that, I literally flew for over eighty meters. Thank god there's only sand here, otherwise, if it was concrete or something, my body would be splattered all over…"

Sean kept going on and on, I guess that was a great ride for him, considering he never talks so much.

"Woohoo, nice then, good job at the monster extermination too." I raised my hand and we did a fist bump.

***

The next moment I looked behind, only Sean and I were here in this desert.