Chapter 11: Twelfth Floor Clashes—2
"Yo! If it isn’t our errand boy. What a surprise to see you here!"
I said sarcastically, watching them emerging from the shadows one after another. It was the party of three whom I—with the help of Zariel, by the way—defeated back in the tenth heaven. They, however, weren’t limited to three this time. There were more, at least eight of them, all clad with armor and caves hiding their faces. They already had surrounded us.
"Pfft! Isn’t that the loser whom I pulverized the last time?" Zariel burst into laughing tears, her smirk ignited the tamer in rage. "So, so. Where’s your big cat, boy? You didn’t bring him this time? Not that bringing him would make any difference anyway, Kya-haa-haa-haa!"
’Whoa!’ I was surprised to see Zariel catching my tone of sarcasm. It was funny, though. Her sarcastic laugh echoed through the forest, making the tamer ferocious more than ever. His other teammates didn’t falter and held their positions.
"Umm, Zanthrix..." Shika called out to me. Seeing my and Zariel’s laughing expressions, she felt somewhat bewildered. "Are they friends of yours?"
"Friends? Probably not. Enemies? Perhaps." I replied, drawing a puzzling gesture as I looked into her eyes. "In any case, you don’t have to worry. They are just a bunch of nobody."
"Yup! Zen’s correct." Continued Zariel, putting a superior act as she flew slightly above her head. "They’re just whiny babies who like to nag people around. They aren’t considered a threat either. Just a snap of my finger and they’ll know their place soon enough!"
She was right. I might struggle a little against him, but not Zariel. She was just too overpowered for them to handle. Speaking of which, adding a few numbers to their team wouldn’t make any difference as she had spoken earlier. I wondered why and how they found us here.
"Hey, errand boy, mind telling me your business here." I called out, putting my grinning smirk, of course."You see, we’re so occupied at the moment that we hardly have any time for your intrusion. If you excuse us..."
"Don’t pretend like you don’t know anything." He said, his voice laced with rage, "Just hand over the Dungeon Permit and I promise I’ll give you a painless death. Not that you’ll feel in pain while dying in this game anyway."
’Yeah, yeah. Speak for yourself, buddy
.’ I thought annoyingly, ’You may not feel pain, but I do.’
Pain Nullification was one of the best features of the NxGEN Engine. No matter how severe the wounds, players wouldn’t feel any pain or trauma. That, however, only applied to the players, not to me. As I was trapped in this game, I, like any other character of this game, would feel pain if I were to sustain damages or wounds.
"You mean the Cyndrill Dungeon Entry Permit?" I replied, known yet pretending to be unaware of, "I don’t know what you’re talking about?"
"Don’t mess with me! I know you have the item. I don’t know how it happened. But the item went missing from my inventory after getting defeated by your Seraphyll."
"Yet again you don’t have any shame that you deliberately came after us." Zariel said mockingly, "Do you want me to teach you guys a lesson?"
"Sure, go ahead." He replied, nodding to his mysterious comrades and they nodded back. "Try anything you want, but you won’t get away with what rightfully is mine. I won’t let you!"
They changed their positions and prepared a planned attack. Since they weren’t showing themselves., it was hard to determine their classes. The other two of his subordinates, by the way, weren’t there. This time they are different.
"Shika, stay alert. I have a bad feeling about it." I said to Shika, then looked at Zariel, "You ready?"
"Yes, of course, I am!" she replied, still with a carefree expression as if it were nothing new to her.
[Item: Savage Katana (Grade-B) has been selected]
Since my current class was shifted to Swordsman, I pulled out the emerald-bladed katana. Of course, I had another powerful sword with Grade A. As my current rank was D, I was incapable of equipping any item higher than a B grade. That was why I was eager to get stronger in every way possible.
"Shika, watch for the individual on your left. I’ll take care of the right ones. Zariel, annihilate the ones in the front."
"Got it!" they replied in unison.
*****
"Death Trap!" the hidden players screamed as stone pillars erupted from the ground, wiping out the snow in an instant. They bent and branched out like they had a mind of their own, trapping us in a fresh web of rock.
’Mages?’ I whispered nearly to myself as I fell into the vicinity, hardly dodging them with my subtle reflexes. I couldn’t say the same for Zariel and Shika, though. They were trapped in a cage-like structure—as though birds were falling unwantedly into the hands of a hunter.
I was quick enough to dodge the next attack—a few projectiles of the same ability— that came towards me with the speed of sound. It clashed with my katana, pushing me inconsiderably hard as I tried to deflect it.
"Zanthrix...!!!" Zariel screamed, unleashing a surge of thunder only to strike Shika as her thunder was being countered back by cage—made out of earth abilities. Shika was hurt. She did try to hide it, but I could tell just by looking at her. Zariel’s attack, after all, was far stronger than anyone could anticipate.
"Zariel, don’t use your abilities for now. I have a plan but I need time. Hold it until then." I evaded as quickly as possible while saying that to her. I didn’t want her to hurt Shika any further. She might be the key to getting us out of this.
"Ran as much as you can, bustard! If you had accepted my offer earlier, you might have avoided getting into this situation. Blame your negligence for it."
"Oh yeah?" I smiled, "But I don’t see any problem right now. Just because you’ve called your servants, that doesn’t mean I’ll accept my defeat based on quantity disadvantage. We’ve got quality over quantity."
"Tsk! He’s as annoying as you’ve mentioned him to be." One of the mysterious figures called out the tamer guy, "Can’t we just kill him and get the item back through your skill? He’s getting on my nerves."
"If we do that, there’s no guarantee that we’ll get the item back. It can be any random item from his inventory—not the one we’re here for. If we fail here, we have to look for them again. I don’t want to keep tailing this spoiled brat forever."
"He’s right! It has to be him to give that item back on his will." Another one supported the tamer.
Thanks to their chatting, I got the scene what they were trying to do—call it an unwanted advantage. Luck played on my side.
[Skill gauge: 10%]
"Isn’t it frustrating?" I called out again, jumping onto the cage-like structure that entrapped Zariel and Shika, "Getting backfired by your own skill... it truly is frustrating. Hehe! By the way, were you talking about this one?"
I showed him the item, pulling it out from the inventory. Although I wasn’t certain why exactly they were obsessed with it so much, one thing I knew for sure. The item—the entry permit only usable in forty-fourth heaven: Wondrasia, had to be unimaginably important, and I couldn’t afford to lose it either.