novelraw Chapter 203: The Burial Grounds
Chapter 203: The Burial Grounds
[Southern Region.]
WHOOSH!!
The violent spatial displacement of the gateway spat Mirabella and her team out, the localized gravity slamming them onto a surface that crunched sickeningly underfoot. Before them loomed a structure of pale, calcified marrow—Mirabella and her team appeared before a huge skeleton, it was gigantic, making them look like an ant.
".....?!!"
The group raised their head from the down of the rib cage to the top, all speechless. The sheer scale of the beast defied the biological laws of Galaxy Fall.
"Don’t tell me we’re in the burial ground." Precious muttered in disbelief, her assassin instincts screaming at the dense, corrupted ambient energy.
Carl turned his head, observing their surroundings, they were clearly in a bad place, skeletons of all sizes were all over the place, even beasts. The red sky above offered no warmth, only a bruised, bloody luminescence that cast long, grotesque shadows.
"These bones, They’re too big, do they belong to giants?" Kent asked, staring at the red sky, with a flick of his hand, his armor, shield and broadsword appeared.
The others followed his actions, summoning all their gears, the metallic clinks and shings of high-tier weaponry breaking the deathly silence, all except Mirabella. She stood perfectly still, her aura completely retracted, a stark contrast to the nervous energy of her peers.
"What should we do, Captain?" Casey asked, turning to Mirabella, holding a short sword in hand, her gaze fixed on Mirabella’s back.
"Hitachi?" Mirabella called out, not even looking back. Her voice was calm, anchoring the team’s rising panic.
"On it."
Hitachi stepped forward. His red eyes started spinning as more colors appeared, till it made five. He moved his celestial eyes all over the place, tearing hundreds of miles in seconds. Everyone stood quietly, watching as Hitachi’s scan their surroundings. The ocular bloodline trait hummed, piercing through the demonic miasma.
’I can cover 500 Meters with my ten guardian clones, and if I activate my Eagle eye, I can cover five hundred mile, But Hitachi’s eyes could reach a thousand miles, I wonder how powerful it will get when he completely gets control of it.’ Mirabella thought, analyzing her vanguard’s growth potential with the cold calculation of a veteran.
"South East, 967 Miles from our current location, our flag is on a small hill, but... But the way to get there won’t be easy." He said, as his eyes reverted into their usual red. He blinked away the strain of processing so much spatial data.
"Ok, come with me." Mirabella took the opposite direction of what Hitachi just said, entering the rib cage of the Skeleton.
"...?!"
Her action stunned her group, who looked at one another in confusion. Why walk into a cavernous, dark ribcage heading North West when the objective was nearly a thousand miles South East?
"Where are you going, Big sister?" Carl yelled, quickly following behind Mirabella, his blind loyalty overriding his tactical sense.
"A shortcut, there is a cave in this rib cage, and if you are lucky, you get gain treasures inside." She said, walking inside, Carl’s eyes brightened instantly, recognizing the classic signs of an unmapped mini-dungeon, and he yelled for the group:
"Come on!! Let’s go!" With that, he rushed behind Mirabella.
’Is he just following her into that dark space, and it’s the interior of a huge skeleton, isn’t he scared of anything?!’
This thought echoed in the mind of the eight, who looked at one another in confusion. The sheer reckless greed of the assassin class was sometimes baffling.
The most important thing was, How did Mirabella know this is a shortcut? It was a Level 300+ demon zone they had never stepped foot in.
"She is the captain."
Hitachi said, his sheathed sword in his hand, as he walked inside the cave, his celestial eyes activating again to pierce the gloom. His absolute faith in her strategic mind left no room for hesitation.
"Everyone, stay close." Rose yelled, taking her position as a Mage to provide magical cover, and followed, the team looked at one another, and followed behind them, entering the dark space before them.
_
High above the bone-littered plains, hidden within the folds of the fractured red sky, three old man appeared, hovering in the air, staring at the part the students took, these three were the Masters from the eagle empire placed to watch over the Dragon academy students.
"This is a strange turn of event, how can we keep an eye on them when they entered such a thing? I don’t even know what’s inside." One said with a slight frown, stroking his white beard in annoyance.
"Yes... With them inside, no one on the arena will know what they’re up to... I say we follow behind them, of course, we must perfectly hide our presence and keep our distance." The second suggested, staring at the dark space below. The spatial broadcast feed for the arena audience would cut out if they lost line of sight.
"Ok, both of you should follow them, I will stay outside, if it does lead to the location, just give me a signal and I’ll rush over... Remember, we aren’t to interfere with this competition, we’re just here to keep watching." He said, laying down the absolute law of the tournament.
"Understood."
The other two nodded and flew towards the dark space:
"The Competition is too cautious, each of us are tasked to look after another empire’s team." One said, entering the dark space.
"That’s to prevent us from helping the students, if this was our empire’s students, we would have tried to secretly help them, but doing that now, will only help the opposition." The second answered, completely blending his spirit energy with the surrounding space.
The second followed his actions, and the two became one with their surroundings, silently following behind the ten students. Their Level 500 stealth techniques should have made them undetectable ghosts in this mid-tier zone.
"This is the way."
One whispered, seeing a light in front of them. They increased their speed, confident they were closing the gap, and flew out from the dark space, only to be stunned in place.
"Huh? Which path?"
One asked in shock, staring at the tens of tunnels all over the space, illuminated by gemstones, scattered all over the place. The ’gemstones’ were raw, unrefined villain crystals, pulsing with a sinister, chaotic light that totally scrambled their high-level sensory arrays, creating a maze of dead-ends and phantom energy signatures. Mirabella hadn’t just found a shortcut; she had deliberately walked her team into a natural anti-surveillance labyrinth.
"I can’t believe we lost them."