Chương 67: Blaze Wasps

"Let me take this one," Ethan whispered as he slipped past Damion and into the chamber with the sleeping Stone Bear. With the Stone Bear sleeping, Damion was able to get a close look at it, unlike the first which he had blasted before it could attack. The Stone Bear had plates of what looked like stone covering parts of its body, though Damion guessed they were actually some kind of bone growths.

The plates were positioned regularly along the Demonic Beast's body, giving it protection, but not so much protection that they served as a full armor, which was likely to allow the Stone Bear the ability to move without sacrificing too much maneuverability. Ethan moved silently, almost floating across the room, as he approached the Stone Bear. Just as Ethan arrived next to the Stone Bear Theodore let out a sneeze. Everyone in the chamber turned and looked at him in disbelief, including the Stone Bear.

The one redeeming factor in Theodore sneezing at about the worst moment possible was that Ethan was along the Stone Bear's side and not in its immediate line of sight. Knowing his window of opportunity was quickly shrinking, Ethan slashed out with his daggers, catching the Stone Bear in the neck between its armored plates. Ethan's daggers cut into the Stone Bear's flesh spraying blood across the floor and Ethan's body. Despite being grievously wounded the Stone Bear had enough life left in it to lash out at Ethan.

The Stone Bear's paw smacked Ethan across the chamber, causing him to drop his daggers. The Demonic Beast started to move towards Ethan, but collapsed before it could take more than a few steps.

"Great timing Theo," Ethan complained as he slowly got up off the floor of the cave.

"Sorry," Theodore winced.

"Let me give you a quick heal." Ethan was briefly engulfed in white light and he was instantly able to move more freely.

"We should make you kill the next one," Ethan spat.

"How about not," Theodore said sheepishly.

"I'm not that proficient in combat. I'll keep backing you up though."

"Are you good to keep moving Ethan?" Arica asked, ignoring Theodore.

"Yes, I'm good to move to the next chamber." After Ethan said he was good, Damion started leading the way to the next chamber. Even though Ethan managed to skate by without any lasting injuries, Damion did not want to take any more chances. Though, as they were walking, Damion could not help but feel Ethan did not look like he had just been in a fight. Except for some Stone Bear blood that Ethan had not managed to wipe off his face, Ethan looked just fine.

Which was odd, since his clothes had been covered in blood before. The only explanation Damion could think of was that either Ethan was a quick-change artist, or his clothes cleaned themselves. When the party reached the third chamber the champion in it was another Stone Bear that was pacing around the room. Damion did not wait for the Stone Bear to notice them, or even for his teammates to express their opinion. With a quick slash of his sword, Damion sent forward a fire slash that resembled a fiery bird.

Damion's attack splashed into the Stone Bear's side. Parts of the attack were deflected by the Stone Bear's bone plates, but enough of the attack hit the Demonic Beast's flank that the Stone Bear stumbled from the blow and growled in pain. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Throwing himself forward into to the chamber, Damion closed the distance to the Stone Bear before it had the chance to regain its footing and locate whatever had attacked it.

Damion stabbed his sword into the Stone Bear's side just behind the bone plate on its front shoulder. As Damion's sword pierced the Stone Bear's flesh he channeled mana into the sword's attack glyph and quickly released a fire slash directly into the Stone Bear's body. The Stone Bear tried to fight back, but by the time it realized what was happening, Damion's attack reached the Demonic Beast's heart and killed it.

Pulling his sword out, Damion wiped the Stone Bear's blood off on a patch of its fur before Arica stored the beast in her personal storage space.

"The guardian is the only Demonic Beast left," Arica said to the group.

"This is just a guess, but I think given the differences we've had in our run, compared to the others, I think there is a good chance the guardian we will face will be different."

"You mean we won't be facing a Stone Bear or a Wind Wolf?" Damion questioned.

"There is an easy way to find out," Theodore said as he gestured to the passageway leading to the guardian chamber.

"I guess you are right about that," Damion said as he moved into the passage and began channeling mana into all his pieces of gear. The final passageway had several turns before it finally opened up into a chamber. When Damion looked into the chamber he was not surprised to see that Arica was right. The guardian turned out to be a Demonic Beast that none of the previous teams had encountered in the dungeon before.

"Blaze Wasps," Arica said looking at the roof of the chamber where a number of small insects buzzed about around a wasp's nest.

"Blaze Wasps? What do they do?" Damion asked.

"Sting, probably." Ethan joked.

"Do you think they are the guardian?" Damion asked confused on how so many insects could be the guardian.

"Blaze Wasps, and other Demonic Beasts that are that small, aren't the real Demonic Beast." Theodore told them.

"What do you mean?"

"The nest is the Demonic Beast. The individual Blaze Wasps are magic puppets the nest creates to defend itself," Arica explained.

"How do Blaze Wasps usually defend their nest?" Damion asked as he watched the Blaze Wasps buzz around the ceiling of the chamber.

"When the nest is threatened they sting the intruders. The venom they inject when they sting causes an intense burning sensation and if it reaches your mana veins it can travel to your magic core and cause mana poisoning."

"Mana poisoning?" Damion asked confused.

"Mana poisoning is when foreign mana enters your magic core. It disrupts your ability to use magic and if left untreated can cause serious damage to your magic core. But you would know that if you had a proper education," Theodore taunted.

"Enough," Arica said with a death stare at Theodore.

"Anything else I should know about them?"

"Yes, the Blaze Wasps, being magical creations, are highly resistant to magic," Arica said.

"And the nest?" Damion asked trying to get a better look at the nest on the ceiling.

"You may consider this as lucky or unlucky, but the nest is only resistant to Fire magic," Arica said.

"Then I can't just blast it from here," Damion surmised.

"No, you can't," Arica said as she pulled a bracelet out of her personal storage space and swapped it with one of the ones she was wearing.

"I'll take care of this one." Arica stepped into the chamber and pointed her wrist towards the Blaze Wasp nest and unleashed a magic attack from her artifact. From her wrist streamed a fast moving cloud that chilled the air in the entire chamber. When the fast moving cloud hit the Blaze Wasps they dropped to the ground, frozen, and Damion realized what type of artifact Arica was using this time. Ice affinity. Arica's attack froze the Blaze Wasps and their nest solid in just a few seconds.

Once the nest was frozen the few Blaze Wasps that had avoid Arica's initial attack vanished.

"Now that is how you take out a nest," Christine celebrated when the nest fell off the ceiling.