Chương 82: Rock Crabs

"Isn't this an exciting turn of events," Theodore mumbled as he took a lantern from Arica to carry.

"I did warn you we would likely be underground," Damion said as he swept his sword around checking the shadowy corners for lurking Demonic Beasts.

"Found the passage out," Ethan announced.

"Anyone else find another passage?" Arica asked as she checked the walls closest to her.

"Not unless it is up," Travis joked. Damion looked up and thought about the possibilities. The ceiling of the chamber they were in was too high for him to see in the dark, but he guessed it was possible for a passageway to be higher up. Damion waved his sword through the air and sent out a weak fire slash up into the air lighting up the walls of the chamber as it went up. About ten meters up the fire slash splashed into the ceiling and dissipated, but no one saw any sign of passageways further up.

"Well, I guess that takes care of up," Travis said as he turned back to the group.

"Will our big knight in somewhat shiny armor be taking the lead?"

"Enough," Matthew said, giving his fellow apprentice a cold glare. Hearing Travis' taunt reminded Damion that knights disliked going on missions with young mages due to their arrogance. With Arica, that had never been an issue for Damion, but clearly Travis was a bit full of himself and even Theodore was acting a bit off on this mission compared to the last.

"Don't worry about it," Damion said as he walked toward the passageway.

"Don't bunch up too close together in the passageway." Damion did not say anything else to the group as he headed in first, flaming sword lighting his way. Matthew headed in right behind him, followed by Arica. Theodore with Travis and Ethan bringing up the rear. The passageway twisted and turned, but Damion was sure it was slowly going uphill. The incline was very slight, and Damion did not think it would be a quick journey to the surface at this rate, but at least they had not encountered any Demonic Beasts.

The longer they went without encountering a Demonic Beast, the more worried Damion became. Either something was keeping them at bay, or there was something very odd going on in this dungeon. After about twenty minutes of moving through the passageway, it opened up into a large chamber, similar in size to the one containing the dungeon portal.

When Damion first stepped into it, his flaming sword lighting up the place, Damion heard the skittering of clawed feet on the stone floor, but he did not see any Demonic Beasts.

"Careful," Damion warned.

"I heard something moving around."

"I don't see anything," Matthew said as he looked around the chamber.

"Are you sure you heard something?" The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Yes, but it was coming from higher up," Damion answered.

"Shine your lanterns up on the ledges, I think whatever is in here might be afraid of light." It was just a guess, but Damion had a feeling he was right. When he heard the skittering, it was moving away from the light produced by his sword. If his guess was right, then whatever was in the room with them was hiding in the shadows. As the group shined their lanterns around the room, the skittering increased, and Damion could tell it was coming from more than one location.

Whatever was in here, was avoiding their lights.

"Shield your eyes for a moment," Damion announced. A moment later Damion sent out a fire pillar attack from his sword. Not a powerful one, but a large enough attack that he lit up the entire chamber for a brief moment. The flash of light shocked the Demonic Beasts in hiding causing them to lose their footing on the walls and fall to the floor.

"Heads up," Damion called as the Demonic Beasts started dropping to the floor. The creatures appeared to be some sort of crab. They had hard shells on their backs that could easily blend into the stone of the cavern, a number of legs with hooked claws on the end, which accounted for their ability to climb the walls, and a set of pincher claws on their front legs. Wherever the creatures' mouths or eyes were, Damion could not tell, but they appeared to be hidden deep in their shells.

"Rock Crabs," Matthew announced.

"Their shells are very strong, try to flip them over so you can hit their underbelly. Their shells make them very resistant to Lightning magic, but if you flip them over we can take them out easily." Listening to Matthew's advice, Damion and Ethan both sped forward into the chamber and began flipping the Rock Crabs over with their weapons. Each time Damion or Ethan would flip one of the Rock Crabs over, Matthew and Travis would blast the Demonic Beast's soft underbelly with lightning.

After a short five minutes, there were a dozen Rock Crabs on the floor of the chamber on their backs. A few had managed to escape from them over a ledge about 4 meters up the wall on the far side of the chamber.

"Where do we go now?" Travis asked as he looked around the chamber and did not see a passageway other than the one they entered from.

"Did we miss a side passage back there somewhere?"

"We must have," Theodore said as he shined his lantern down into the passageway as if to check.

"Over the ledge," Damion said pointing his sword to the far wall.

"Over the ledge?" Travis asked while Theodore squinted.

"The Rock Crabs that got away went over that wall and then disappeared. There must be another passageway over there." Damion explained.

"How do we know we will be able to fit through to wherever those beasts ran to?" Travis asked.

"We don't, at least not until we take a look," Damion answered holding out his free hand to Arica who had already produced a rope with a grappling hook on the end from her personal storage space. Damion tossed the hook over the ledge with one hand and then pulled until he felt it catch on something. After extinguishing his sword, Damion sheathed it and began climbing up the wall.

Thankfully, he had good physical conditioning and was easily able to climb up, Damion was not sure if Theodore or Travis would be physically able to climb the wall, but when he reached the top, Damion realized they might not have to. From the top of ledge, Damion could see down where the Rock Crabs had fled, but he also could see that the room was not as much a dead end as it appeared.

"Toss me a lantern," Damion called down. Damion caught the lantern Ethan threw up to him and then tied it to the rope and began lowering it over the back edge of the ledge. At first none of the others understood what Damion was doing, but after the lantern was lowered from their sight, they realized they could see a new light source in the room. Along the wall Damion was standing on, light was shining from the lantern Damion had lowered down. What appeared to be a solid wall actually contained a hidden passage.

The textures of the walls gave off the illusion of it being solid, but in fact there was a way through that did not require having to climb over the wall.