At Xia Duo’s warning, the group reacted in perfect unison.
“On guard! Po Kong, I’m leaving the front to you.”
Starlight flicked his finger, and the light orbs beside him rose to the ceiling of the tunnel, expanding until they illuminated the area for dozens of meters like it was broad daylight.
Po Kong drew Sacred Wood Phantom with a backhand grip, lowering his stance as he blocked the front of the group, staring grimly at the sealed entrance.
As they cautiously approached the rocks, they finally heard the sound Xia Duo had mentioned.
It was a crisp clatter, like metal striking stone, as if someone were digging on the other side.
Maela and Stark exchanged a confused look.
“No other investigation teams should have come down recently, right?” Maela whispered, biting her lower lip. “Could someone be trapped inside?”
“Doesn’t seem like it. The frequency of the tapping is off…” Stark shook his head, glancing at the readings on the probe.
Meanwhile, Moen slowly straightened up, withdrawing her palm from the damp rock wall. A faint glow from her detection magic still lingered on her fingertips.
Her brow furrowed slightly as she whispered, “There are definitely life signs on the other side, but I don’t sense any mana ripples at all…”
“What is it?” Xia Duo asked, turning her head.
“I can’t tell. Their forms are very strange…” Moen traced a vague outline in the air with her finger. “Very tall… but they don’t have the slender build of humans or elves, nor the stockiness of dwarves.”
“So, someone is buried back there?” Po Kong raised an eyebrow. “Then let’s dig them out. It’s just a few rocks. Watch me!”
Before anyone could stop him, he lunged forward, Sacred Wood Phantom carving a perfect arc through the air.
With the power of a Saint weapon, the scythe blade didn’t make a sound when it touched the boulders. The hard rock was sliced into two as silently as if it were tofu.
“Po Kong! You’re being too reckless!”
Just as Starlight’s warning left his mouth, the severed section of the boulders collapsed with a thunderous crash.
Amidst the swirling dust, what appeared before them wasn’t a trapped survivor as expected, but several hunched yet exceptionally tall and powerful figures.
These creatures had rough, brownish-grey skin covered in a hard, rocky callous layer that gleamed dully under the light of Starlight’s orbs.
Their massive heads were nearly as wide as their shoulders. Beneath their flat noses were gaping maws that reached almost to their ears, with foul-smelling saliva dripping from jagged, yellowish-brown tusks.
Standing nearly three meters tall, these humanoids gripped crude stone axes in their thick forelimbs. They were clearly not to be trifled with.
“Oh no! Stone Trolls!”
Maela gasped, instinctively deploying a transparent crystal shield in front of her.
Almost simultaneously, the behemoths spotted the group.
Their tiny, bead-like eyes flickered with a savage light beneath heavy brow ridges as they let out guttural roars of “Gak-gak, Gaha!”
The leading monster suddenly pounded its bulging chest with its stone axe, producing a dull thud like a war drum.
The sound echoed through the narrow tunnel, as if awakening some ancient instinct for slaughter.
The other Stone Trolls responded immediately. Their thick hind legs exploded with terrifying power as they dragged their heavy stone axes across the ground, sending sparks flying, and charged toward the group like an overwhelming tide.
“Warning! Warning! Dangerous targets detected!!”
Accompanied by the sharp blaring of the probe’s alarm, battle erupted instantly in the narrow tunnel!
Maela’s crystal shield collided violently with the first stone axe, resulting in a burst of blinding sparks.
As it was struck, the crystal shield expanded outward. Sharp crystal spikes pierced the monster’s palm, but it seemed completely oblivious to the pain, instead pounding the barrier even more frantically.
“These things barely feel pain! The only way to stop them is to restrain or kill them!” Maela gritted her teeth and shifted the form of the crystals in front of her into several long spears, pinning the Stone Troll to the ground.
Starlight reacted instantly. He threw his hands out, launching several light orbs like shooting stars. The dazzling radiance exploded among the trolls, momentarily halting their charge.
The monsters in the front row let out pained roars, shielding their light-sensitive eyes with their rough palms.
Po Kong seized the opportunity, his Sacred Wood Phantom tracing a golden arc.
“Take this!”
The scythe blade precisely sliced through a Stone Troll’s knee joint, causing its massive body to collapse to the ground. To everyone’s shock, no blood flowed from the wound; instead, a mud-like liquid seeped out.
“They aren’t purely made of flesh and blood!”
Po Kong shouted as he retreated a few steps, dodging a sweeping blow from a stone axe.
“What a pain! Po Kong, get down!” Xia Duo clicked her tongue, using a nearby rock to launch herself into the air. She drew her longbow into a full moon.
With several whistling sounds, fiery red arrows accurately pierced the eyes of two Stone Trolls. Suddenly blinded, the trolls began to swing their weapons wildly, accidentally striking several of their own kind.
“Moen!” Starlight yelled.
“Understood!” Moen replied instantly, giving her short staff a gentle wave.
In an instant, countless thick vines burst through the rock walls and grew frantically, coiling around the Stone Trolls’ limbs like living things. These emerald-glowing magical plants tightened their grip, pinning the monsters firmly in place.
Under Moen’s magic, the entire entrance was blocked once again.
“Retreat the other way! I’ll hold them back!” Starlight slammed his hands onto the ground, a brilliant light erupting from his palms.
The entire tunnel suddenly surged like a wave. The rock layers twisted and deformed under the influence of the earth element, completely sealing off the passage in the blink of an eye.
It wasn’t that they were afraid of these few Stone Trolls, but rather that they couldn’t fight effectively in such a narrow tunnel.
Po Kong’s polearm would be hindered, and Xia Duo wouldn’t be able to utilize her advantages at all. As for Starlight himself, he was worried that using magic that was too powerful might cause the entire tunnel to collapse, burying everyone.
Another cause for concern was that the Stone Trolls’ earlier cries were clearly intended to call for reinforcements. The group could already hear more heavy footsteps echoing from deep within the tunnel behind the cave-in.
The group ran along another winding tunnel, the sound of shattering rock booming behind them. It seemed the Stone Trolls were breaking through the seal with their terrifying strength.
“Turn ahead!”
Guided by Maela, they rounded a bend. On the other side of the narrow path lay a deep subterranean canyon.
“Waaaaah!”
Stark, sitting atop the probe, suddenly let out a shout. The probe’s sharp legs had pierced through a fragile section of the path, and he began to slide toward the canyon as the ground gave way.
The searchlight traced erratic arcs in the air. Before the others could react, they all stepped onto the suddenly sloping section of the path and began to slide down.
“Hold onto each other!” Without a second thought, Starlight used instant movement to appear behind Moen, grabbing her slender waist.
Moen quickly chanted an incantation, and pale blue wind elements swirled around their falling companions, slowing their descent.
Supported by the gentle breeze, the group landed softly at the bottom of the canyon after a dozen seconds. Looking up, they saw they had fallen over a hundred meters from the path above.
“Is everyone okay?” Xia Duo asked immediately after rolling to a stop.
“We’re fine. I just didn’t expect such a deep drop here,” Po Kong said with a sigh, patting the dust off his clothes.
But Maela was staring pale-faced toward the direction they had fallen from, muttering, “Why... how could Stone Trolls be in a place like this?”
“You’re right. Oh no! Could it be...” Stark also realized something, his body tensing up.
Seeing their reactions, Starlight frowned. “What’s wrong? What are those Stone Trolls exactly, and why are you both so tense?”
“Yeah, I didn’t see anything special about those monsters either,” Po Kong added, walking over. “Aside from being a bit resilient, if they’re only at that level, taking on thirty or fifty of them shouldn’t be much of a problem for us.”
Rate on N.U.
