Chương 229: Realm Breach Part 3

Damion's declaration made everyone freeze. Of all the things he could have suggested, going into a B Rank Breach was not high on their list. Inara believed he would suggest that he and Phil go in while the rest prepared for the Breach to collapse. With him already in there, taking out as many Demonic Beasts as possible they might stand a chance to hold the area. Suggesting they all go in, that was not what she expected.

"All of us?" Ronald asked, terrified of the prospect.

"I thought you said it wouldn't be safe for us to go in. That you can't protect us?" Leaving the other's outside would have been preferable to Damion, but he did not want to risk Thomas and his cronies sabotaging things. As long as they were with him, they were unlikely to cause problems, not wanting to put their own lives at risk. Plus, he had already negotiated for a quarter of everything they kill.

"As Inara said, we have two C Ranks, three D Ranks and two E Ranks. You can protect yourselves. Since this is a B Rank Breach, the average strength of creatures will be D Rank. Most of everything we find in there we can handle. Only the guardian and champions will be at B Rank. But here is something you may not realize about Breaches, especially Unstable and Semi-stable ones, you don't have to kill everything inside to clear it." Thomas Sorin was the first to realize what Damion was saying.

If the dungeon core was destroyed, the Breach would be cleared and since it was an Unstable Breach, it would collapse, sending them out, but taking all the Demonic Beasts with it instead of spilling them into the exam area.

"You want us to go in and destroy the core before the Breach collapses on its own. Force all the Demonic Beasts back to wherever it is they come from."

"Exactly," Damion told them.

"I'm not trying to puff myself up, but I can last a few moves against a B Rank if it comes to it. You all would just need to destroy the core fast."

"You want to go in, clear as many Demonic Beasts as we can and take out the core before the B Rank guardian can kill us all?" Inara summarized.

"Sounds reasonable to me," Yuri said cheerfully.

"We can also retreat once we are inside," Damion added an option.

"If there are too many Demonic Beasts, or if it looks like we can't get to the core, we can retreat. The Breach will still eventually collapse, but when it does, there will be fewer Demonic Beasts released."

"Great," Inara said.

"Let's get this show on the road."

"Wait," Damion said before anyone could move towards the Breach.

"We need to all be ready, before we go in." To show what he meant, Damion cast Ice Shield and Ice Sword. With his spells active, he was ready to go in. The others understood what Damion was getting at and started readying their own weapons and spells. The only one who looked ill equipped was Roland, who took a stick off the ground and grew it into a sharp spear.

"Is that the best you can do?" Thomas questioned, trying to suppress his laughter.

"I'm a Wood mage. I don't exactly travel around with metal weapons," Ronald said, defensively.

"What spells do you know?" Damion asked.

"Nurture Growth, Razor Leaf, Constrict and Wood Golem."

"Why don't you cast Wood Golem now? There is no guarantee there will be trees inside the Breach," Inara asked.

"Because it costs me most of my mana and takes 25 mana per second to keep active. Even if I chug potions, I can't keep it active for long. It's a tier 4 spell." If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Collect some leaves to keep with you," Damion told him.

"We really don't know if there are any trees in there or if there will be any around when you might need to cast Razor Leaf."

"Oh. Right, good idea." While Roland was rushing over to a tree to pull leaves off and save them in his bag, Damion cast Ice Clone. When the icy form appeared next to him, Thomas was practically beside himself. A tier 4 spell was not easy to acquire, and hearing that Ronald had one was bad enough, but seeing Damion casually cast one as well was bringing him to the brink. To top matters off, Phil came down and perched on Damion's shoulder, further highlighting his superiority to the Wind mage.

By the time Ronald was finished gathering leaves, Damion and the others were more than ready to go. Walking towards the Breach portal, Damion walked through with his Ice Clone, prompting the others to follow behind him. Inside the Breach was a completely different environment than Damion had imagined. Normally, Breaches reflected the landscape of where they appeared. This area though, was quite different. Instead of a lively forest and a pond, the area he was now in looked more like a haunted forest.

The trees were barren and grew in twisted patterns with bark that looked to be an orangish color. There was no pond and instead of a bright midday sky filled with sun and a few clouds, the Breach had clouds that were dark red, and the sky was a much darker shade of blue. To Damion, this did not appear to be anywhere on Nerotath. The sky, the trees, even the clouds, everything seemed to be wrong. When the others walked through the Breach and appeared beside Damion, they were equally confused by where they were.

"This doesn't look anything like any Breach I have ever heard of," Thomas said as he bent down and picked up a handful of dirt. As the dirt fell through his fingers everyone watched. The dirt was not the typical brown and blackish mix of material, it was blue and green.

"What is this place?" worry filled Ronald's voice as he watched the weird dirt fall to the ground.

"I don't know," Damion said, just as confused as everyone else.

"Phil, scout around for us." The Snow Hawk flew off into the sky while the rest of them continued to look around the area. Damion sent his Ice Clone ahead, using it as a lure. Any Demonic Beasts in the area would likely attack the construct if it crossed into a beast's territory. Looking around, Damion noticed the drones following each of them had not followed the group into the Unstable Breach.

Part of him felt it was a good thing, he would be free to use spells he would otherwise not risk showing, but it also meant help would not be coming. He was not sure why the drones did not follow them, but he guessed it was likely they could not. If he had to guess, he would say that if they could not receive a signal from their controller, the drones would cease to function. Meaning, even if the drones were sent into the Breach, they would have become inactive.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on which team member you asked, Damion's Ice Clone did not attract the attention of anything. A few minutes later, Phil returned and dropped a small creature from its talons before landing and picking at the creature with its beak. Inara and Ronald turned away, unable to watch the Snow Hawk eat. Thomas and Damion, however, were trying to identify what type of creature Phil had killed.

Since it was dead when Phil brought it back, Damion had no way to know how strong the creature was or what affinity it had. Thomas, on the other hand, seemed to have recognized the Demonic Beast.

"I think that was a Slash Rat," Thomas said before Phil bit the creature's head off.

"They are Earth affinity Demonic Beasts. Very fast at burrowing through the ground and their claws are sharp enough and strong enough to cut through armor."

"Slash Rats move in packs," Yuri added.

"More like swarms," said Inara.

"I'd much rather face anything other than a Slash Rat swarm."

"How about a Deinosuchus?" Damion asked remembering the giant crocodile he fought after the beast wave in Saung.

"Okay, there are a few things I'd rather not fight in place of a pack of Slash Rats, but rats are… just disgusting."

"Which way Phil?"

'Over hill,' the Snow Hawk sent back. There were numerous hills nearby, so Phil's directions were not very helpful. Damion decided to take a more direct approach.

"Lead the way." Phil took another bite of his kill and then took the sky, heading off to a large hill in the distance.

"That way," Damion told the others as he started walking in the direction Phil flew.

"Are we sure this is a good idea? We don't even know how many there are," Ronald worried. Everyone else remained silent. They were of course thinking the same thing, but they knew it did not matter. They would either find the Slash Rats and kill them all, or they would make a very speedy retreat to the dungeon exit.