The rain kept on falling, turning the dense and narrow forest path into a long stretch of mud. The vegetation underneath was covered in patches of parasitic fungus.

Cinnia kept on skipping through the patches of dry land in between the mud. The brown soil clung to her shoes and splashed up her legs with every leap.

"How much more do we have to walk, this whole place is just filthy brown shit", she muttered, clicking her tongue.

Aron, didn't bother to engage with her ranting, as he kept on watching his surroundings.

Kai — who was walking a few steps behind both of them, smirked inwardly, he had been listening to their meaningless banter since an hour.

"Aron...you motherfucker!, when are we reaching the location?"

Aron just kept on walking.

He didn't even look at her.

But his hands twitched at his sides.

'Calm down', he told to himself. 'You can't loose it here.'

Watching Aron, not paying any attention. Cinnia leapt near a huge puddle. The brown splashes immediately tainted Aron's pants.

Aron finally lost his composure, "Shut up bitch!, We're getting closer now".

Cinnia rolled her eyes, but didn't argue any further.

Earlier, Aron and Cinnia had decided to team up when they first met each other in the deeper parts of the forest and both of them had taken down eleven students in less than one hour.

For them, it hadn't been hard, just a few scratches on their clothes was all the damage they had received from their opponents. Ignoring the one's they had received from the terrain itself.

One of the boys in the group, had dropped a glowing orb.

Aron picked it up.

It was a checkpoint orb.

When Aron activated it, his information screen was updated, a nearby marker lit up on his map.

A grade-6 abysswalker.

The checkpoint orb had provided them with a group mission to kill a grade-6 abysswalker.

Along with its whereabouts, the mission had also briefed them about the abysswalker's rank, it was closer to evolving into grade-5.

On the way to the marked location, they ran into kai. After a short talk and discussing about the point ratio, Kai had agreed to participate in the mission with both of them.

The mission was originally meant for a group of four people.

But for them, three were enough.

Now the three of them moved through the rain, leaves dripping with cold water above, water squelching under their feet.

Kai trailed behind both of them, eyes sharp, his red hair sticking on his forehead while the naginata rested on his back.

'This is better', Kai thought. 'Way better than searching for opponents individually.'

One hundred and fifty points.

The number kept on repeating in his head.

This was the point distribution, he had been promised by both of them.

Ahead of those three, the forest grew darker and quieter.

After walking for few more minutes that seemed like...hours.

The three of them finally stopped in front of a cave hidden between thick roots and broken rocks. Water dripped from the roots while the vines tangled above the entrance, and the opening looked like a vicious dark mouth waiting to swallow them whole.

Aron muttered some words blankly in the air. Checking his screen, he finally allowed a breath to escape before nodding. "This is it, the map is pinning it's location here".

Kai stepped closer and tried to look inside, but it was useless. The cave was pitch black. Even the rain light from outside didn't reach far in.

Cinnia sighed like she had been waiting for this moment. She casually tapped her bracelet.

Click~

A bright red flare popped into her hand.

Aron and Kai both turned to her, surprised.

She glanced at their faces and smirked.

"What? Don't tell me...you guys never heard of preparation, before?"

Both of them cursed themselves internally, while maintaing a calm facade externally.

Before Aron could even say anything, Cinnia lit the flare and threw it straight into the cave.

The red light flew in, bouncing off the rocky walls. For a few seconds, the inside of the cave was painted in glowing red, long shadows twisting along the walls. Then the light faded as the flare rolled deeper inside.

Aron opened his mouth. "Wai—"

Too late.

Cinnia had already pulled out three more flares. She handed one to Aron, one to Kai, and kept one for herself.

"Let's go," she said casually. Without waiting for answer, she stepped into the cave.

Aron and Kai exchanged a quick look, then followed her inside, the red glow lighting their path as the darkness closed in around them.

....

The three of them kept on walking, the deeper they went inside, the wider the rocks grew apart while maintaining the same eerie darkness.

They moved deeper into the cave, untill Aron suddenly raised his hand. All three of them stopped and crouched behind a large jagged piece of sedimentary rock.

What they saw made them freeze.

The entire cave opened up into a massive hollow space. The walls, the rocky ceiling, even the ground were covered in glowing blue plants and thick moss. The light wasn't bright yet it illiuminated the place with its radiance, it was almost calm, the blue color reflected the moonlight underwater near a water basin. Long roots hung from above, dripping water, and the air felt heavy and damp.

"This place is… huge," Kai muttered under his breath.

In the center of it all stood the abysswalker.

It was massive, it was easily the size of a two-storey building. Its body looked like a mix of stone and flesh, layered with thick moss and cracked rock plates. Blue light seeped from the gaps in its body, making it glow like a living mountain. It had no eyes. Just a smooth, uneven head that slowly turned as if it could still sense everything around it.

Each heavy step it took made the ground tremble slightly.

And it wasn't alone.

Along the cave walls and pillars, dozens of creatures crawled around. They looked like dozens of oversized rats, their bodies were bloated and slick, their claws digging into the stone as they moved. Their eyes reflected the blue glow, making them look even more predatory.

Cinnia covered her nose and whispered, clearly disgusted, by the scene before her eyes. "Never in my life have I seen a tumour this big."

Aron didn't react to her comment. His eyes were assesing, scanning the abysswalker's body, its movements, the smaller creatures around it. He looked focused, already breaking the situation and forming a plan to tackle it.

Kai, on the other hand, leaned back slightly and casually plucked a glowing blue flower growing near the rock they were hiding behind. He turned it in his fingers, watching the soft light pulse on his fingertips.

"Pretty," he muttered, staring at the deep blue unsettling glow.

Looking at the creature's motionless body.

Aron kept his eyes on the cave and spoke in a low, hushed voice. "Cinnia, can you handle the smaller ones? There's got to be hundreds of them in here."

Cinnia slowly turned to him, her blue eyes glowing more darker in the fluorescence.

"Don't worry," she said flatly. "I've got bigger balls than all of you guys."

Aron clenched his jaw and bit his lip, irritated and clearly holding back a reply. He turned his neck towards Kai, his tone sharp and commanding. "You're coming with me. We take down the big rock."

Kai gave a short nod, at his question.

Aron looked back at Cinnia. "You got more flares?"

"I've got one left," she replied.

"Good." Aron took it from her hand, lit it without hesitation, and hurled it straight into the swarm of smaller creatures with deadly precision.

The flare burst into neon red light.

The cave erupted with red shadows highlighted in the blue glow.

The rat-like creatures screeched and scrambled, their bodies slamming into each other as they turned toward the sudden light.

At the same moment, Aron and Kai broke into a sprint.

"Fuckers!" Cinnia yelled as they ran.

Bur she didn't waste time. She shook her bracelet and a long black bow materialized to existence, its body glowing in the lusterous shade of obsidian black.

She pulled the tense bow string back.

Mana swirled around the black string and an arrow formed immediately, made of mana purely.

The arrow shot forward with a violent rip through the air.

THWACK—!!!

It smashed straight through a creature's head, dead center. The body dropped from the wall without a sound.

She didn't stop.

She fired again and again. One arrow after another, each shot was accurate and decapitated the creatures with pin point accuracy.

Meanwhile, Kai and Aron closed in on the massive abysswalker. They ran with full force towards its massive frame.

As they ran, Aron's twin daggers materialized in his hands. The blades were dull gray, with thin red lines glowing faintly along their mid section.

When both of them entered the creature's massive shadow.

Aron vanished from his position.

Gone.

The creatures blue eyes shimmered.

In the next instant, he reappeared midair behind the abysswalker, right near its neck. He aimed for a cracked section where the rocky plates were weakest, daggers flashing blue colour as he drove in for the strike.

Below, Kai avoided the oncoming attacks from the rat like creatures, and slid to his discussed position.

He planted his feet in the wet stone for grip, clenched his naginata, and swung with full force at the creature's legs. The blade slammed into its rocky limb — making the rock like skin fall off due to the impact.

The abysswalker let out a low, rumbling roar.

Aron barely kept his balance on its thick skin as the abysswalker went wild and grew more frantic.

The moment his dagger sank into the cracked flesh near its neck, the massive creature thrashed violently on the ground. Aron slipped past its range, his boots scraping against the mossy rock, almost losing their grip.

Then the thing lifted its arms.

What looked like stone-covered limbs suddenly split open, revealing long, whip-like structures hidden underneath. The whip like structures snapped forward.

"KAI— !!" Aron shouted at the top of his lungs.

Kai twisted his body just in time. One whip slammed into the ground where his head had been a second ago, shattering the jagged piece of rock. But the second one struck his back hard.

WHAM—!!!!

Kai screamed in pain as he was thrown forward, rolling across the wet cave floor.

The sound drew the swarm.

The rat-like creatures screeched and began rushing toward him from the walls.

Aron didn't hesitate.

He pushed through the panic and lunged forward, piercing his dagger straight into the creature's jewel like eye. Thick black fluid exploded in Aron's hand as he squashed the eye.

"Cinnia! The other eye" Aron yelled.

"NOW!".

Cinnia had already drawn her bow listening his instructions, she took aim.

The mana arrow released.

The arrow tore through the air and buried itself deep into the second eye. The abysswalker staggered, its massive body swaying blindly as it lost its footing.

Aron dropped down onto the rocks. "Kai! Take the leg and cut it off!"

Kai forced himself up, teeth clenched through the pain burning across his back. Wind mana surged around his naginata, wrapping the blade in sharp currents.

The wind added the extra required momentum.

He swung his naginata.

THUD—!!!

The Abysswalker's leg got severed cleanly from it's joints.

Aron didn't waste the opening created by Kai.

Using the fall's momentum, he leapt forward, both daggers glistening in his hands. He sliced cleanly through the weakened area near its neck.

The head got separated.

The massive body twitched once… then went still.

The battle was over.

Aron climbed down, breathing hard.

Cinnia casually walked past and suddenly raised her bow, aiming straight at Kai's head.

Kai froze, seeing her face.

Before he could say a word.

THWIP—!!!

The arrow flew past his face and pierced a rat-like creature on the wall behind him. Its body slammed into the back wall with brutal force then went... dead.

Kai stared, speechless.

"Don't thank me, lowlife," Cinnia said flatly.

Kai grinded his teeth and turned away, leaning against a rock.

At that moment, a glowing screen appeared in front of Aron, floating silently in the air.

[ Quest — Cleared....]

[ Generating points.....]

[ 415 points are being alloted to your group...]

[ Congratulations...]

[50 participants remaining. Time left: 3 hours ]

Kai smirked victoriously seeing the screen.

"Let's get going. Ezio is still out there!".

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