Chapter 180: Buried
Lake didn't let the panic set in and just kept a cool head as he tried to start to climb his way upwards. Lake could tell right away that the Demon Worshiper was doing something to the earth around him to make it frictionless or at least he couldn't get it to provide enough support to use it to move upwards.
Once he realized he couldn't move and he was starting to run out of breath he couldn't stop himself from getting a little scared. Thankfully he hadn't stopped gathering Wind mana and he now had enough to try and use Fly. He wasn't sure what would happen if he tried to fly under ground but he needed air.
Getting the Mana spinning Lake cast fly and felt himself move but he wasn't really able to get very far before the area around him opened up again. Lake was able to see in the dark so he could see that he was now in a sphere and when he reached the top of it he felt it was stone. It seemed the Demon Worshipper was able to tell he had been making his way out of the earth and changed the form of imprisonment.
Lake was sure this would work on normal people because there weren't many who could get out of this while still struggling for breath. He was able to breathe now but the air in this bubble seemed to be thin, probably from the way it had been created underground. Lake had the perfect plan though.
He had accidentally done what he needed to do now earlier when he had thrown his knife into the ground after using Crunch. Using Mana Vision Lake looked for the Demon Worshipers core Grabbing his knife Lake used Crunch and threw it towards the core.
He threw it as hard as he could so it hit the Demon Worshiper almost instantly and then Lake put his mouth up to the hole he had made by throwing the knife to get the stream of air that was now coming to fill the bubble he was in.
There wasn't much that made it through before the dirt refilled the hole but it was better than nothing even if you accounted for all the dirt that he had just gotten into his mouth. That being said he had been able to get enough of a breath to start digging. The Demon Worshiper had been hit but Lake hadn't gotten any Exp yet so they weren't dead so he needed to dig his way out before they got back into the fight.
Lake didn't have anything designed to dig so he just pulled his sword and started to hack at the ceiling above his head. He knew it probably wasn't the best idea to dig straight up but he didn't have time to worry about burying himself. Once a big enough chunk of stone fell, Lake climbed on top of it and kept going.
The stone he was standing on shifted a few times as he was using it to get at the ceiling but he was able to keep his footing and keep digging. Once he got through the layer of stone the Demon Worshiper had made around him Lake got out of the way to let the loose dirt he had been drowning in earlier start to fill the space he was in and once there was enough that he could no longer move he started to climb his way through it upwards.
The dirt was loosely falling all around him and he had to constantly stomp downwards to make his way upwards but with how strong he was the loose dirt couldn't stop him now that the Demon Worshiper had stopped controlling it. After a while he felt his hand hit open air and quickly dug his face out so he could breath.
Not being able to really breathe the whole time had been the worst part of this experience and he was happy it was over. After a few deep breaths Lake got the rest of him out of the ground to see there was no one around. It seemed the Demon Worshiper had cut and run after being injured but Lake considered this to be a success because he was alive and they had stopped the ritual that he was sure would have ended in the others dying and him having to run away.
With the demon Worshiper gone Lake was left alone with the thing in the center of the room but he didn't go up to it to see what it was and instead went for the exit. Going up the stairs Lake used the marks he had placed on the others to see where they were. They hadn't gone very far and once he was outside he saw they weren't alone.
He had known they weren't the only team here on this floor and it seemed the others had gone for help and he was sure it was because of what they had heard while they were running away. "Lake you're ok." Lake nodded to Freed and said. "The Demon Worshiper I was fighting got away but the thing is still in the basement. What should we do?"
Lake didn't think just leaving it would be a very good idea so he thought asking someone with more experience was a good idea. "Is it still moving?" This was a good question and while he hadn't taken a good look as he was leaving he had seen it and he was pretty sure it was, which meant it was probably going to be a real hassle to do anything about it.
"I think it was when I left, but I didn't stick around for too long after the Demon Worshiper got away." After Lake said this, Freed turned towards the group that had gathered and said. "We Need someone to go tell Masters we have something here that needs investigators." After he said this a few of the people in the group volunteered to ride the elevator back up to get the people at the guild involved and Freed nodded saying they could go.
As they were watching them leave, Freed said. "Lets just set up a perimeter for now. I don't think it's a good idea to go down there till we have someone here who could kill something like that with magic or at a distance." Lake thought he probably could if someone told him how to get rid of the barrier but he was all for letting someone else do it for him.
After they spread around the house to watch it from all angles to make sure no one went in or out, Freed came over to him and asked. "So what happened after we ran?" Lake had no problems telling Freed what he had done because it made him sound like a hero so he told the truth. "I used a skill to collapse the roof on the Demon Worshiper behind the barrier because nothing I had was affecting it in any way and it was the only thing I could think of to stop him from completing whatever it was they were doing."
Freed nodded and said. "Yeah we really didn't have the time to drain the barrier in a normal way. You made the right call if you don't care about surviving." Lake looked at his dirty body and guessed Freed thought he had had to dig himself out of the collapses and said. "The collapse was actually stopped by the Demon Worshiper though once the barrier was down. It seemed they were an Earth mage and were able to control the stone to rebuild the room. All this dirt is actually from an attack they used on me before they ran."
Freed nodded and said. "So you didn't just collapse the room onto yourself, you were able to get away and that was why you used that method. In that case I guess it was a good plan all around. Nothing wrong with using a brute force method when necessary. I remember this one time back before I came to the Metal Domain I took a mission to kill spiders inside a cave and instead of going inside to fight them we used a nearby river to flood the cave."
Lake looked at Freed as he was telling the story and guessed the fact they were having a conversion like this Freed was starting to see him as one of them. He was flattered but he would have rathered if Freed started to see him as someone to look up to. Once the story of killing the spiders was over Lake asked. "What were the other groups doing before you went to get them?"
Lake knew there were probably other groups of Demon Worshipers here on this floor and wanted to know where because he was sure the Demon Worshiper that had gotten away had went strait there and he hadn't thought to put a mark on them so he couldn't just know where they were when ever he wanted.
"They were doing similar stuff to what we were before you came along and told us that there were Demon Worshipers in the building we were watching. Don't worry we'll get to it before the day is over." Lake nodded and looked around at the others they were now working with to guard the building and wondered if they would be ok with him skipping out now to go after the one that got away.
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