Infinite Classes in the Apocalypse

Chapter 101: The Ruin Below

As it quickly turned out, Damon’s idea involved using his black ice manipulation to create a slope along the cliff wall and sliding down the ramp until they reached the bottom.

"...That’s your idea?" Nyla asked, blinking at the only third of the ramp.

"I’ll create the rest of the ramp along the way. Why?"

Nyla shook her head. "Nothing."

Damon moved past the girl and slowly lay flat on the slope, pushing off the edge and sliding down at a speed that was a little too fast.

And although he had two-thirds of the journey left to fix it, he still underestimated the speed at which he was going and crashed into the ground with a heavy thud.

The impact knocked air out of his lungs, but as if that wasn’t enough—

"Aaa!—"

Nyla crashed right into him.

"I guess it wasn’t too bad," she said as she propped herself on top of him.

Damon took a moment to regain focus. "Weren’t you just screaming?"

"No," she replied with an overexaggerated oblivious expression. "You must’ve imagined it."

***

Up close, the seabed was far worse than it had looked from above.

The ground was uneven and treacherous, slicked with black water still draining between rocks, the soil soft in places and giving underfoot in a way that felt wrong.

The smell was also stronger down here, thick enough to taste the rot in it. The silver-purple chunks of rock had nearly finished fading now, most of them pale and dull as old bone.

They moved carefully, picking a path between the larger corpses and avoiding any still alive monsters when they could.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

There wasn’t much to say. The scale of the destruction was harder to process at ground level, where it wasn’t a panorama but a series of immediate, specific horrors. A creature that was the size of a house lay on its side with its ribcage split open. The inside of it was already hollowed out.

Another, smaller creature was half-buried under a collapsed rock pillar, one limb still moving in a slow, rhythmic way that had long since ceased to be purposeful.

Damon already summoned his weapon, tightening his grip on the tilt as he walked through it all.

And of course, it wasn’t long before he had to use it.

A crab-like creature came around the far side of a large rock formation at a terrifying speed, its eight segmented legs moved with an efficiency that made it look almost mechanical.

Up close, the exoskeleton looked darker than it had appeared from above, almost black at the joints with a dull reddish sheen across the carapace that caught the already low light completely wrong.

It was big, not the largest thing on the sea bottom, far from it, but big enough to make their adrenaline spike up. Its front two claws opened up the moment it closed the distance.

Nyla was already moving.

She didn’t run at it so much as cut toward it at an angle, she swung her golden hammer in one smooth motion. The creature’s hollow eyes locked straight at her, which was the biggest mistake it could’ve done.

Damon stepped into the shadows before stepping out from behind the creature’s shadow with his blade ready to strike.

The hammer came down.

The hammer struck first, and a deafening sound echoed through the entire seafloor upon impact.

It wasn’t an elegant strike, none of Nyla’s attacks was. She swung her weapon with full strength, and as it connected, the heavy exoskeleton cracked upon impact. It didn’t shatter completely, but the jagged split opening across its exoskeleton was enough.

Damon drove his sword straight into the damaged part.

The resistance lasted about half a second before the broken exoskeleton gave way. The moment Damon’s blade plunged deep into the flesh, he activated his black ice manipulation and allowed spikes of black ice to tear the monster from within.

The creature dropped almost immediately, its eight legs folding all at once as its body went still.

[You have slain a Level 60 Dreadclaw]

[New Monster Index bonus: +10 Stamina, +7 Strength, +9 Vitality, +4 Mana]

[You have reached Level 61. You have received 1 Stat Point.]

As the silence settled over the drained sea floor, Nyla lowered her hammer and looked at the thing at their feet.

"Hmm," she mused.

She crouched beside it, studying the exposed flesh through the split carapace with the calm, appraising look of someone who had eaten stranger things out of necessity and was already making peace with the fact that they were about to do it again. "Do you think it’s edible?"

"Only one way to find out," Damon replied as he moved toward the slain monster.

Luckily, they didn’t have to make fire, which, considering their surroundings, would be quite a challenge. Instead, they used the girl’s furnace ability and shoved the meat inside, making sure it was cooked until it looked like charcoal before they pulled it out.

They settled against the broad side of a fallen rock formation, large enough to put their backs to and block the worst of the damp air still drifting across the sea floor. The ground was wet but a lot more solid than in most places, and it was as close to a shelter as the ruined seafloor was going to offer.

Nyla sat with her knees pulled up while Damon sat beside her, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. In front of them both was the furnace, still burning and still offering warmth.

"You first," Nyla said, her cautiousness winning against her hunger.

Damon didn’t linger.

He took a large chunk of monster meat and bit into it without hesitation.

Nyla’s eyes widened in slight surprise at how easily he ate it.

"I’ve had worse," Damon replied, already taking a second bite.

Her hesitation broke in an instant as she grabbed a second chunk and began eating a little too quickly.

"You know," Nyla suddenly broke the silence as the two of them simply ate. "We make a pretty good pair."

Damon’s brow rose, and he tilted his head slightly.

"Earlier..." Nyla began to explain as she noticed his confused expression. "I cracked the monster’s exoskeleton, and you finished the kill."

"I could’ve done it myself," Damon stated. He wasn’t trying to boast, but his strength stat was obviously higher than hers.

Nyla rolled her eyes. "I know, I know..."

She suddenly moved closer toward him. "But isn’t it more fun to have me around?"