Chapter 179: Breach Pt.2
Lake did his best to pry his eyes away from the mass in the center of the room and after identifying which of the six Demon Worshipers looked the most important ran towards them. Lake was trying to keep his speed around what one would expect from someone who had maxed out their Agility so he wasn't able to make it all the way to them before a few of the Demon Worshipers fired spells at him.
Most of them were the same old spell the ones outside had used on him so he had no trouble blocking them but there were a few mixed in that were clearly a level higher than the others. They were all mixed in and coming from different directions so Lake just tried to block them the same way as he was the smaller ones and after the first one he could tell he couldn't keep doing it that way.
His shields had held up just fine but the force behind the spells he was blocking had almost knocked the shields out of his range of control. He had survived the barrage though and was already to the main Demon Worshiper, who oddly hadn't tried to attack yet. Lake was happy he noticed this in advance because he was sure the trick he would have stumbled into if he had tried to attack right away would be life threatening.
Pulling away instead of finishing the attack run he had planned, Lake saw the others were already in the room and running towards the other Demon Worshipers in a group which left him the boss to fight without having to worry about the others casting spells towards him. He still would probably think about it though because he was really hoping to get through this without any of the others dying.
He was hoping if they all came back alive they would tell masters about how strong he was and masters would give him a solo mission of great value so as he was fighting he needed to keep an eye on the others. With his plan to just rush kill the boss now too risky, Lake just decided he would cast a few spells first to see why they hadn't moved this whole time.
It was odd behavior for someone who was in a fight and Lake wanted to make them move around so he knew they weren't up to something that involved whatever was in the middle of the room. Shooting a few stones, Lake was surprised to find that the Demon Worshiper still didn't move until the spells actually hit what seemed to be a barrier in front of them.
Finding that they had something protecting them from outside attacks, Lake took a second to look back at the rest of his team. He was happy to find that they had already taken down two of the Demon Worshipers and were making good progress towards the third so he didn't think he needed to worry about them after all and he could just focus on getting through the barrier.
Lake didn't think just walking up and touching the barrier was a good idea so he looked at the rim of it where it was coming from the floor. The circle around the edge seemed important so Lake grabbed his knife and used Crunch on it before throwing the dagger at the circle of what he was assuming to be enchanted stone.
Lake watched as his knife hit the stone and passed through it like it was nothing and once he saw the handle completely disappear into the ground he realized what he had just done. That knife would probably keep going deeper and deeper because of the effects of Crunch and he was about to be angry when he remembered he could just resummon it to himself real quick.
Once his knife was back on his belt Lake inspected to see if his attack had actually destroyed the Barrier or not. The Barrier was normally invisible and was only visible when it received an attack so Lake threw another stone using Earth magic. Seeing the stone smash against the barrier he knew he had failed but he didn't know why he had failed or what the right answer would be.
Either way it was time to just use crunch on the energy part of the barrier to see what would happen. Pulling his knife again Lake used Crunch again because he wasn't sure if the Earth spell he had just used had used the second Crunch he got for free because of Barrage and threw it at the barrier.
Seeing it bounce off Lake was actually kind of happy to see Crunch wasn't all powerful even if it wasn't a good thing for him. It meant barriers used some way other than Endurance or armor to block attacks and it made him curious what it was. Maybe since it was magic it was based off of how high the person who made its Intelligence was, kind of like how his barriers he could summon from a skill he got from Brawler were based on his Dexterity.
That would mean if he wanted to break it easier he would need something that ignored Intelligence but he doubted attack skills like that were very common. Lake gave up on dealing with the guy behind the barrier and decided to see if he could just destroy the thing in the middle of the room instead.
He felt like it was a risky move but he doubted it was worse than letting the Demon Worshiper do what they wished with it. Resummoning his knife once again Lake sent it flying for the ball of wriggling flesh in the center of the room and hoped it wouldn't cause it to explode or anything if he was to destroy it.
Seeing his knife once again fall to the floor after having hit a barrier, Lake couldn't help but think he was stupid to expect that he could just attack whatever the moving flesh was without having to worry about any form of defense, especially when he had already seen a barrier in this room.
With this he was out of ideas that weren't just him going up to the barriers so he could inspect them closely. He also was starting to feel like he was running out of time because the Demon Worshiper had started to produce a corona of Unholy mana around him and the same went for the flesh so not knowing what else to try he turned around to the others and said. "Run away."
They were still in a fight but he was about to do something he had considered to be a mistake the last time he had done it underground. It was the only thing he could think of and he was pretty sure it would put an end to what was going on in this room.
Seeing the others take him seriously and retreat, Lake gave them as much time to get as far from the underground as he could and used Wave. The shockwave that spread out from his hand cracked everything in the room it passed but he didn't feel like it was enough to collapse this room so he did it again.
Seeing rubble start to fall, Lake noticed whatever he had done had affected the barrier around the Demon Worshiper and it made sense since he had been aiming in that direction that it would be the first to fail. He was actually hoping what he was doing wouldn't undo the one around the flesh because it was moving and as far as he knew it might just attack him if it got out.
He was pretty sure it had something to do with the undead even if it had a different form so if he looked at the undeads behavior he had seen so far he felt like that was a rational thing to expect from it. Looking at the roof's condition Lake decided one more Wave would do it and hopefully crush the Demon Worshiper in the process since they had lost their protection.
As soon as he unleashed the attack he saw the stones that had made up the ceiling start to cascade down as it collapsed outwards and he turned to run. He was hoping with his speed he would be able to still make it out of the basement before he had to turn and punch his way out like he had had to do last time he had caused a collapse.
Making it to the entrance he had had Grendia make, Lake started to pass through when the noise he was using to gauge how close he was to being crushed stopped all of a sudden. Turning his head while continuing to run, Lake saw something he didn't understand. The room was back to how it had been before he had tried to make it collapse.
Stopping and turning Lake saw the Demon Worshiper was looking at him with a hateful glare and Lake knew why. Even if they had been able to keep themselves from being crushed the ritual or whatever they had been trying to do using the flesh had been interrupted and they would have to start over and based on how long he had had to try and break into the barrier Lake was sure the process was extremely long.
"Why are you looking at me like that? You're the one doing what they shouldn't be." Lake could tell his words had no effect on the Demon Worshiper so instead of trying to harass them into making the first move he decided he might as well go ahead and start the fight. The others were no longer around so Lake went ahead and used the fastest speed he could while still being able to control himself and rushed the Demon Worshiper.
Lake felt his foot hit nothing when he should have made contact with the stone and looked down to see he had somehow walked into a giant pitfall. He had felt a similar feeling to this back in his old life when he had missed the bottom stair of his home's staircase. As he was falling he started to gather wind mana but found it was taking a while longer than it should have.
Before he was able to gather enough mana to cast Fly, Lake felt himself collide with the bottom of the pit, Lake was about to jump out when he felt something that at first felt like water slam into his sides. His mouth had been partially open so once a bit of whatever it was hit his tongue and he tasted it he realized it wasn't water but dirt and that he was now buried under 20 or so feet of dirt that the Demon Worshiper was controlling.
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