We stood there, staring at the great rift that looked like a gateway to another world.
But we didn’t remain like that forever. Soon, we resumed walking and stepped into the maze.
Well, why hesitate... what’s the worst that could happen to us in there?
Maybe death and having our bodies devoured by hungry monsters... truly, I don’t think there’s anything worse than that.
We moved slowly between the towering walls of this ravine while my sense swept the surrounding areas, wary of anything appearing.
From what I observed, I think we’re safe here from those Rank 4 birds, because this place can’t accommodate their massive bodies descending.
Time passed as we advanced in silence under the dim light of the shattered moon, until we reached the first crossroads.
Ahead of us, the path split into two, but we weren’t confused. We had already prepared for this.
I looked at Kyle beside me. "So which way do we take?"
"The right," he answered without hesitation.
With that, we continued forward.
Kyle had drawn a rough map from above, as far as his sight had reached, so we weren’t afraid of getting lost here and moving in circles.
...
The first hour passed in complete silence, but things quickly changed.
Through my sense, I felt something approaching us.
It was a monster... only Rank 2.
Soon, it appeared before us from one of the corners a few hundred meters away, dust rising with its steps. Before I could speak, everyone had already noticed it.
Nearly three meters tall, its body hunched forward with little flesh on it, and a head resembling a deer skull with long horns sprouting from it.
Below, the bones of its ribcage protruded outward, exposed without any flesh or skin covering them.
Its long arms dangled forward, extending past its knees.
And we weren’t the only ones who noticed it.
In the next moment, it turned its head toward us, its eyes glowing with a red gleam.
It opened its mouth wide, and a high-pitched screech escaped it as it burst toward us at full speed.
But this monster was no threat to us. I didn’t even need to draw my sword or move a finger.
Because in the next moment, a swift arrow arrived and passed through the eye socket of that fleshless skull.
Its body halted from the force of the arrow and staggered backward, but it didn’t die even after the arrow lodged into its head.
Then, in the next instant, a small sphere of compressed lightning arrived and struck its body.
With the sound of an explosion, the right side of its ribcage was destroyed before it collapsed lifeless to the ground.
I looked at the pitiful monster on the ground before glancing at Elliot. "Was that last attack really necessary?"
He could have done it in less flashy and more efficient ways.
Elliot shrugged indifferently. "I didn’t think much before attacking."
Didn’t think... how wonderful.
I sighed as I walked toward the corpse.
Kyle was the first to reach it. He extended his hand and pulled the arrow lodged in its eye, turning it slightly in his hand to inspect its condition.
Seeing it was still usable, he returned it to the quiver on his back.
Meanwhile, I arrived before the corpse, now clearer... and let me say, this thing truly looked disgusting.
Because where its stomach should have been, its intestines were visible and tightly packed together, as if barely preventing themselves from falling at any moment. What made it worse was the smell of burnt flesh rising from someone’s spectacular attack.
I looked at everyone behind me. "So, who wants to take this?"
My gaze was directed particularly at Izel and Kyle... the two weakest here.
Izel hesitated as she looked at the corpse in disgust, but Kyle wasn’t like her.
Without hesitation, he placed his hand on the fleshless skull and began absorbing its Essence.
Through my eyes, I could see the Essence leaving the dead monster’s body and dispersing into the air. But the moment Kyle placed his hand on it, it changed—flowing into his body, spreading through him, then returning to the center of his chest.
I watched the process until the Essence within the monster was depleted, and Kyle pulled his hand away.
"Now let’s continue."
With that, we moved forward again at a moderate pace, but we had only advanced a few hundred meters before what I had expected happened.
At the edge of my sense, I felt many spirits similar to that monster heading toward us rapidly.
I sent some Essence into my ring and drew my swords as I announced,
"There’s a lot coming."
Immediately, everyone prepared and drew their weapons.
Kyle gripped his bow with an arrow already nocked as he stepped back, while Elliot drew his sword at his side.
At the same time, Ellen’s blades flew into the air around us, while Leona and Izel took the other side that Elliot and I had left.
Once everyone took their agreed positions, the first guest appeared from a crack high on the wall and leaped directly toward us.
At the same time, five others emerged from a bend ahead of us, while more advanced from different places and corners.
As if they had always been there, waiting for us.
I gripped the two swords in my hands as dozens of Rank 2 monsters surged forward, blocking the path ahead.
Escape wasn’t an option in this enclosed place.
And it wasn’t as if we would do that.
The first monster to reach us was the one that had leaped from the wall.
Its feet struck the ground a few dozen meters away, shards of rock scattering everywhere, while its exposed intestines trembled as if they would fall and spill onto the ground at any moment... but they didn’t.
Before it could even charge at us, several of Ellen’s blades reached it.
Two pierced the empty sockets of its eyes, making it release a painful scream. At the same time, three more blades arrived and tore through the place where its intestines were, causing them to spill onto the ground.
But that wasn’t all, because soon a sphere of flame arrived and engulfed it in searing heat.
In a single moment, the monster fell dead to the ground.
But at the same time, more arrived.
Essence surged through my body as I moved forward, my swords shining and driving away the darkness around me.
I quickly closed the distance with those things.
The moment I stood before one of them, I could see just how large they were compared to us.
The monster raised its hand, covered in decaying skin with sharp bones protruding from it like fractures that would never heal.
The force generated by its speed and mass was enough to crush and shatter large rocks, but I didn’t need to block the strike directly.
I stepped just enough to the side for its massive hand to pass in front of me. At the same time, my sword rose and sliced through its arm.
With a muffled sound, its arm fell to the ground, black liquid seeping from the severed end as the monster staggered back several steps.
But I didn’t let it go anywhere. My other sword quickly reached its knee, severing one of its legs.
The monster lost its balance and tilted forward.
Before it could fall, and once it reached the height of my blade, I cut off its head, separating it from its large body.
With a dull thud, its body collapsed lifelessly to the ground as black fluids leaked out and stained the dusty earth.
At the same time, two were already upon me from both sides.
But I wasn’t fighting alone this time. In the next moment, several metallic blades arrived and pierced their knees with deadly precision, robbing them of balance for a few brief moments.
Taking advantage of those short moments, I slashed toward the monster on my right, my sword passing through its intestines and splitting it in half.
At the same time, a small sphere of raw Essence gathered at the tip of my other sword, and directing it toward the second monster’s head, I fired it.
The Essence bullet pierced its skull and destroyed it as its body slammed to the ground.
Ellen’s blades withdrew from their joints and floated in the air before heading toward their next target, while the foul smell of burning rotten flesh reached my nose.
I turned my head to see a monster screaming in agony as Izel’s flames devoured its body, burning its intestines and the little skin covering its bones.
Nearby, Leona moved smoothly and swiftly, dodging a monster’s fist as if it were nothing.
But at that moment, another monster reached her.
I thought things would become difficult for her, but instead of attacking her, the monster crashed into its companion and knocked it to the ground as if it saw nothing before it.
In that instant, as the two monsters grappled on the ground and attacked each other, Leona seized the opportunity. Her sword passed through one of their skulls, shattering it into pieces, and many chunks resembling a decayed brain spilled out and fell to the ground.
Without giving the other any chance, she did the same to it.
I turned my head to the other side.
There, things were slightly different.
It was like a display of absolute power.
Arcs of light tore through the monsters before they could even reach Elliot.
Their bodies crashed one after another onto the ground, their burned intestines scattering everywhere around him.
In front of me, many of those things advanced toward me quickly. They should have already been upon me, if not for those arrows striking their weakest points with astonishing precision.
It was true that Kyle couldn’t bring them down from afar due to their lack of a clear weak point and his arrows lacking destructive force.
But every arrow pierced their eyes or joints, crippling them and slowing them down.
I advanced toward one that was stumbling in place, clutching the arrows lodged in both its eyes as it tried to pull them out.
I reached it, and with Essence forming over my swords, I executed a double slash, splitting it into three pieces—only for another to already be upon me.
Several minutes had already passed since the battle began, and the number of these monsters had been reduced by half.
But we weren’t done yet.
With every passing moment, another body fell to the ground. Black blood and scattered entrails spread everywhere, while the smell of burnt flesh seeped into my nose as I moved greedily, cutting them down one after another.
After a few more minutes, I found that every unfamiliar spirit had vanished from my sense.
I turned my head and looked around to see everyone still relatively unharmed, while the area around us had become the result of a one-sided massacre.
I exhaled tiredly as I shook my swords, removing the clinging blood, then walked toward one of the corpses and placed my hand on its skull... the cleanest part.
At that moment, the essence began flowing into my body.
And I began advancing once more.