Chương 95: Chapter 94. Bear trap

Since entering the dungeon, Rayne had felt death mana constantly. It had been everywhere during the first few hours of the dungeon. Even after they had separated from the main force, it never truly vanished. It remained in faint amounts through their march. But the death that rolled out now was completely different. As Rayne stood on the ledge and looked down, he felt it engulf him whole. It pressed against his skin, seeped into his lungs, and crawled up his spine like frozen fingers.

It felt like ice climbing from his legs upward, trying to root him in place. And all of it was coming from a single figure walking slowly through the battlefield below. The man wore a dark robe with refined embroidery on every part. In his hand was a long staff crowned with the skull of some monster, its jaws open, and his hair was completely white. But it didn't look like it was because of age. His face was gaunt, skin pulled tight over sharp bones, and he looked like he was in his 30s.

Despite that, everything about him felt lifeless, and a thin, cold smile stretched across his lips as he observed the army fighting. Rayne didn't need anyone to tell him who he was. That was the necromancer. Around him, several soldiers gasped. A few even instinctively stepped back from the edge, not being able to endure the oppressive aura spreading outward. The undead below reacted instantly. The moment the necromancer appeared, their movements sharpened.

They grew more aggressive, pushing harder against shield walls, clawing and biting with renewed frenzy. Even from above, Rayne could see the shift. Beside him, Varrick's expression tightened. Both Casper and Captain Edran also looked tense as they watched the necromancer with pale faces. Then the necromancer raised his staff. At once, death mana surged. From the skull atop the staff, ethereal shapes began to slither outward—translucent snakes formed entirely of dark energy.

They twisted and coiled midair before darting forward, weaving through the mass of undead without touching them. They moved with terrifying speed. One of the snakes lunged at a spellsword in the center of the battlefield. It bit into the man's arm. The spellsword cried out, but before he could do anything about it, the snake exploded. A violent burst of death mana tore outward from the point of contact. The spellsword crashed backward as blackened cracks spread across his armor before exploding again.

More snakes followed. They struck mages, captains, and squad leaders and with their speed, hardly any of them were able to resist. Each bite ended the same way—with a detonation that ripped through ranks and disrupted formations. The chamber below descended into even greater chaos. Captain Edran turned sharply to Casper.

"What do you think of his level? Do you recognize the spell?" Casper didn't answer immediately. Her eyes remained fixed on the battlefield below. A few seconds passed before she nodded once.

"He's over a hundred for sure." A few soldiers nearby stiffened at that. She continued, voice tense.

"The spell is rare grade at least, and probably high tier even in that. Spells that could disrupt a big battlefield like these are always hard to learn, but I have never seen this one before." Rayne saw her gaze shift to the staff.

"And that staff," she added quietly, "is made from death-aspected monster materials. High quality ones, I'm sure of that. It's amplifying everything he casts. But that's normal to expect from a mage's staff. I'm sure it has other functions too." Captain Edran's jaw immediately tightened and Rayne saw a group of Hand members moving toward the necromancer. But he didn't get to watch for long.

"We need to move," Captain Edran said.

"Before we get noticed." At once, soldiers began pulling away from the ledge. No one needed to be told twice. If the necromancer noticed them standing above the battlefield, staring down like spectators, it wouldn't end well. The last thing they needed was for any of those snakes to turn upward. Rayne stepped back along with the others, forcing himself to tear his gaze away from the chamber below. The final thing he saw before turning was Selene.

Her blade burned brighter than before, crescent arcs of light flying from her swings to intercept the ethereal snakes midair. Each arc collided with dark energy in violent bursts, flashes of gold and black clashing in the center of the battlefield. Then the view vanished as Rayne moved away from the edge. Behind them, explosions echoed upward. The shouts of soldiers and the screeches of undead followed, growing faint as Captain Edran ordered them forward at increased speed.

"Move faster." All of them followed his command, and Rayne could see urgency on both the captain's and Casper's faces. One reason was obvious—they needed distance from that chamber. But the other reason was directly related to their quest. If the main battle was happening below, then they had descended deep enough. If he had to guess, the fight was taking place on the fourth level. Possibly even the third if they were unlucky. That meant the path they were on likely led toward the final stretch.

And the final stretch would surely not be without danger. There might be dungeon monsters ahead, or it could just be more undead protecting the way to the final level. They would have to break through them to get to the core where the necromancer's apprentice should be waiting for them with God knows what abomination under his control. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

They also didn't know how long the main army would be holding back the necromancer and his minions. Honestly, Rayne doubted they would be winning anytime soon. So all of them kept marching without any small breaks. And eventually, after an hour, the endless ledge began to slope downward. As soon as that happened, a subtle shift moved through the warband. Everyone knew that descending again meant that they were finally moving onto a deeper level.

Captain Edran raised a hand slightly, signaling caution, and the formation tightened despite the uneven ground. The slope forced them to adjust their footing carefully. There was loose stone and far more gravel here, so they had to take careful steps. Rayne even saw one soldier nearly fall before being caught by nearby soldiers. Other than that, nothing happened for an hour. But soon, the monsters also returned. The scouts reported clusters of bats on the ceiling up ahead.

They seemed to be sleeping, but everyone knew better than to trust monsters in a dungeon. Monstrous bats were never passive creatures and loved to drink human blood. The journal he had read reported them as one of the most common monsters across dungeons. If they were hanging in clusters, they were probably waiting rather than sleeping. Either way, they couldn't pass by without killing them. Monsters at their backs were the last thing they wanted. Hence, Captain Edran ordered calmly, "Prepare shields."

Casper took the lead as they approached the stretch where the ceiling dipped lower. Rayne lifted his gaze and spotted the bats soon enough. Dozens of leathery bodies clung upside down to jagged stone. They were a bit larger than what Rayne had expected, their wings folded tight around their forms, and their eyes were shut. Casper didn't wait for them to notice the warband. A large fireball formed above her palm, swelling rapidly before she thrust it upward. The sphere shot into the cluster and detonated.

Flames erupted across the ceiling and screams followed. The explosion tore through the bats in an instant, incinerating most of them. The blast even ripped chunks of stone loose from the ceiling, sending fragments raining down around the formation. But not all of them died. The remaining bats shrieked and launched themselves downward in a chaotic wave, wings spread wide even as they burned. Their claws extended as they dove toward the soldiers. From their open mouths, sharp darts shot forward in quick bursts.

Shields came up immediately. The darts clattered against metal with sharp pings, most bouncing harmlessly away. A few struck armor but failed to pierce.

"Archers now!" Captain Edran barked. At once, arrows flew upward in disciplined volleys. The bats that had survived the initial blast were quickly picked off mid-glide, their bodies tumbling to the ground. A handful still broke through. Two swooped toward Rayne, but he didn't panic. They were probably low level by the way they were taken by a single fireball, nothing like the stronger monsters they had faced earlier in the dungeon.

Likely placed here as harassment and surprise attackers rather than true threats by the dungeon. Rayne stepped forward and swung. His blade clipped the wing of the first bat cleanly. It screeched and spiraled downward before hitting the ground hard. He finished it with a downward stab without slowing. The second dove too low. He shifted his stance slightly and cut upward this time, slicing through the membrane and bone. It crashed at his feet and he immediately stomped down.

By the time he got the notifications and another point in Vitality, the rest of the bats were already taken care of, and they soon moved on after a cursory check of their corpses. Three more clusters appeared further down the slope. Each one ended the same way—Casper's flames or the archers thinning them before they could properly engage. One soldier took a minor scratch on his arm due to being careless, but nothing serious. With each encounter, Rayne felt like they were getting closer.

He felt the death mana in the air increasing every few minutes. And after roughly another hour of descent, the slope finally leveled out. Ahead, the path widened, and a large open area came into view. The warband slowed instinctively as they stepped into it and looked around in quiet wonder at the cavern they had entered. The first thing Rayne noticed was the mana. It was thick. And it wasn't just the death mana. It was there, but there was also heavy, pure, unaspected mana in the air.

The same kind Rayne practiced mana manipulation with, but here it was everywhere. It pressed against his senses from all sides. As he looked around the cavern, he understood why. The entire cavern was filled with crystals. They grew from the walls in jagged clusters and hung from the ceiling like icicles. Massive pillars of translucent stone jutted upward from the ground, each one shimmering faintly with light. The crystals weren't a single color.

Some were pale blue, others milky white, a few with faint streaks of violet running through them. They glowed softly, bathing the cavern in a natural, radiant luster. Nate took an unconscious step forward, eyes wide. Gold was practically reflected in them. Rayne caught his arm before he could move further. Casper had already stepped closer to one of the crystal formations, her eyes scanning it with an intent focus.

"Mana crystals," she said, then looked at everyone.

"They look to be very pure and are extremely valuable. Don't try to take any out. Extracting them without tools is dangerous." Varrick nodded slowly, gaze never leaving the walls.

"Enough here to fund a minor noble house for generations." He paused, then clicked his tongue.

"But we don't have time to mine them. They'll go to waste." Reluctantly, he tore his eyes away. That was when Varrick's gaze shifted forward.

"There's a bridge ahead." Rayne blinked and followed his line of sight. Only now did he notice it. A bridge stood in the distance, a wooden one with planks, stretched across a gap in the cavern. On the other side, another cliff face rose up, darker and less illuminated by the crystals. But he could see everything clearly with his skill. There were a lot of boulders there, and a wide hole in the wall that seemed to be opening into another hallway. All of it reminded Rayne of the bridge from the bug dungeon.

Except when he moved forward toward the cliff with Captain Edran, his party, and a few others, they saw no river below. Just a drop. It wasn't as deep as the one along the ledge, but it was still steep enough that anyone falling would likely break their neck. There were boulders and rocks there too, but they saw no monsters below. Then he lifted his gaze toward the opposite side, trying to take a better look, and frowned.

At first, he had thought there were just boulders, but the longer he looked, the more he realized that among those boulders, there were also monsters. Two huge ones with furred bodies. They looked like bears. Each one was easily the size of a small carriage, their bodies thick with muscle even in stillness. Their fur was a sickly, dark brown mixed with patches of black rot. Jagged thorns protruded from along their spines and shoulders, blackened and hardened like iron spikes.

Some of them were broken at the tips, others fresh and sharp. Their claws were long and curved, half-buried in the stone as they lay there. They looked like they were sleeping, but Rayne didn't trust that for a second. It might just be a trap. The others also got a look at them and their expressions darkened. Captain Edran was the first to speak, his gaze narrowing.

"Thorn bears," he said evenly.

"They are known to be at least level sixty." A few men immediately stiffened.

"Probably worse now that they're undead," he added. As he finished his sentence, everyone probably thought the same thing—that fighting them might cost them heavily. If they crossed that bridge, the bears would probably jump on them, and they might even throw the boulders at them. And there was even a chance they would do it while the men were halfway across the bridge. Even ranged attacks wouldn't guarantee an easier fight.

They could surely take a few spells, no matter how destructive, and once they closed the distance, their mass would tear through a tight formation easily. Maybe Varrick's shield might last a minute at best. Rayne's jaw tightened as he thought of a strategy to deal with them. Captain Edran seemed to be thinking the same thing as his eyes never left the sleeping thorn bears. Then Rayne lowered his head, looking down at the gap below, and as he stared at it, wisps of an idea suddenly formed in his mind.

He mulled over it for a minute, then looked back at the bears. It was certainly risky, but it might just work here.

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