Chương 83: Rage

"Nice discovery," Arica said to Damion as she walked over to the hidden passageway. The passageway was parallel to the wall of the chamber for a short distance before it turned further down leading back around the chamber. Damion did not know where it was heading, but they at least had a passage to follow again and more Demonic Beasts to find. As they moved along the new passageway, Damion once again got the sense they were slowly getting closer to the surface.

Even though Damion was trying to be extra careful to locate branch passageways, hidden Demonic Beasts and hidden resources, the passageway was devoid of anything to find. When Damion's team finally encountered a new chamber they were happy to see a ray of sunlight coming in from a hole high on the far wall, but were quickly sobered when they noticed what was in the room.

"Is it?" Ethan questioned in disbelief.

"Yes. Yes I think it is." Arica answered quietly. In the middle of the chamber, hanging upside down from the ceiling was a strange looking winged creature. Its wings were batlike and wrapped around its body, which looked very similar to an Aerico. The only difference, other than the wings, was that it would stand taller and had a fatter body.

"What is it?" Damion questioned the others. They had obviously guessed or seen a picture of this Demonic Beast before to know what it was.

"We are just guessing, but I believe that is an Aerico Brood Mother," Arica answered.

"What?"

"You had to wonder where the Aerico come from right? Well, I think that thing gives birth to them, or lays eggs that hatch into them. Or something," Ethan said as he watched the hanging creature.

"I thought Demonic Beasts were formed by magic?" Damion questioned.

"Most are," Matthew spoke up.

"But as you discovered Aerico have small cores and behave differently than most Demonic Beasts. These traits align with them being second generation Demonic Beasts."

"Second gen…" Damion started to question, but stopped himself.

"How come no one suggested this before we came in the dungeon?"

"Because this has never been seen outside of a labyrinth," Matthew told him.

"Do you think this is the dungeon guardian?" Travis asked.

"Possibly, it could also just be a champion. We won't know until we kill it and see if it reveals the Dungeon Core," Matthew said as he moved into the chamber. The Lightning Mage pointed one arm at the Aerico Brood Mother and cried out, "Lightning Bolt." A streak of lightning shot out from Matthew's hand, hitting the Demonic Beast as it slept. The Aerico Brood Mother screamed in pain and fell to the ground but could do nothing as Matthew's Lightning Bolt spell made it writhe in pain.

Once Matthew ended his spell the Aerico Brood Mother lay still on the ground. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. In the ceiling was the dungeon core, it was hidden by the Aerico Brood Mother. Just a simple attack would end the dungeon run and they could report back Mage Fletcher their success. Damion and the rest of his group, however, did not want to end their run so quickly.

After all, they had only encountered a few Demonic Beasts and had not found any rare resources. As far as dungeon runs went this one was pretty poor, especially for a D Rank dungeon Just as Damion was about to suggest carrying on, an unusual cry rang out through the cave and Damion could hear a number of feet running quickly towards them. As the sound of feet approached, Damion realized he could feel vibrations in the stone floor. Whatever was coming, was coming fast and there were a lot of them.

"Quick, throw a rope up and get through the opening," Damion instructed.

"Travis, you, Theodore and Arica get up first. You can then cover the rest of us from up there." Arica did not hesitate and took the rope and grappling hook from her personal storage space and tossed it through the window. Unfortunately, the hook did not catch on anything, and she had to try again. As Arica was trying to get their escape path secured, the first of the approaching creatures poured through the passageway the team had come from. They were Aerico.

But unlike their normal passive, slow moving selves, these were fast moving and quite aggressive. Damion stepped forward and slashed his sword through the neck of the closest one and then brought his blade down in a slash across the chest of another. In the time it took Damion to kill two, a half dozen had pushed through the passageway into the chamber.

"Hurry it up back there," Damion called out without looking back. He knew from some choice curses, that Arica had failed to catch hold of anything with the grappling hook on her second try and now Theodore had snatched it from her to make his own attempt. After dispatching two more Aerico, Damion channeled more mana into his fire attack glyph, so his flaming sword went from a torch to a blazing signal fire. Pointing his sword towards the passageway, Damion sent out his fire pillar attack at full power.

The blast from Damion's fire pillar knocked the first Aerico it hit off its feet before streaming into the passageway to cook the Demonic Beasts that were still inside trying to get through. Damion's fire pillar was able to kill quite a few of the Aerico in the passageway, creating a temporary roadblock for the Aerico, but because of the twists and turns of the passageway, the blast did not travel far down the passageway and thus did not take out a large number of the Aerico.

"You all get up yet?" Damion asked as Ethan finished off the last Aerico that was in the chamber.

"We are up," Arica called down. Damion turned his head and saw Arica, Travis and Theodore had made it through the hole in the cave wall. Matthew was at the base of the rope, while Ethan was still in the middle of the room with him.

"You coming?" Travis called, worry in his voice.

"With you three providing support from up there, I think we can handle them as they come. I can always blast the dungeon core if things start looking bad," Damion told them. As Damion spoke, the barricade of Aerico bodies in the passageway gave and Aerico started to make their way into the chamber. However, since they had been stopped in the passageway, these new arrivals were traveling much slower.

Damion was not sure if they were slower due to just starting to move freely again, or if they were slower because their rage had begun to subside. Killing the Aerico Brood Mother had obviously caused the Aerico to go into an aggressive state, charging over to protect or avenge their Brood Mother. But Damion suspected the effect was wearing off. As the Aerico approached, Damion made quick work of them. Each time he swung his sword an Aerico lost its head.

Ethan was just as efficient, the mindless Demonic Beasts might have been faster than normal, but they were still not as fast as most kinds of Demonic Beasts when they attacked. Matthew, stationed by the rope to the outside, sent the occasional Lightning Bolt spell at Aerico's as they came through the passage, as did Travis from the cave opening.

As predicted, they were able to hold off the horde of Aerico and when the last one finally made its way out of the passageway, Damion leisurely decapitated it before calling for the others to come down and help collect cores.