Chapter 143: Battle in the Cave
"The agreement has been decided, let"s go into the cave. Prepare your weapons." Martin gave a signal with his hand, then he took out a large shield from his s.p.a.ce Bag with a longsword attached to it.
Furthermore, Anika also took out her Magic Wand and Franky with his greatsword. As for Dylan, he took out a black longsword with a hint of redness after Sylvia nudged him to pull out his weapon.
After the two girls who were considered to be the weakest climbed onto Vanessa"s back, all of them entered the cave with great caution and alertness.
"Lys, in our party we have 1 tanker, 2 DPS, 1 support mage, 1 beast, and two flower-picking girls hehe..." Elysia whispered softly as they slowly entered the cave that wasn"t too dark.
The sound of water dripping from the cave walls accompanied the sound of their silent steps that were carried out on purpose to not alert anything on guard inside the cave.
"Wha, a unique term to describe our role cla.s.s. Hehe, we are flower picking girls. The hardest task of them all, because we are the two helpless girls hehe..." Sylvia giggled softly and returned the soft whisper.
"However, Ais, I think it"s the wrong cla.s.s naming for the other members." Sylvia added.
"Ah, so what is the appropriate cla.s.s naming for each member of this party? I"m not very knowledgeable."
"You"re asking the right person. Hehe, let"s see, I don"t know tanker cla.s.s or DPS, but let"s start with the guy with the big shield, he"s the Paladin. The all-blue guy with the greatsword in the back, he might be a Warrior or a Berseker. Well, that woman is indeed a Mage, and my father is Em, wait a moment... Now he becomes a Swordmage. Yes, that is more suitable." Sylvia pointed to one by one the people who were walking in front of them.
"How about us?" Elysia asked back. From the start, she could see everyone"s status screen, and all she did was jest around in a small voice.
"As you said earlier, Ais. We are flower-picking girls protected by a Spirit Beast." Sylvia answered by covering her mouth, she wanted to laugh, but she couldn"t. They were already in the cave, loud noise could echo, and that was not good.
After that, the two girls who exchanged whispers fell silent as they had gone deep enough. It was time for them to be even more vigilant in the horizontal cave that was slowly taking them several meters underground.
Even though they were already underground and approaching an area below 100 meters, it was still not too dark, as expected. Several red rocks stuck to the cave walls along the way seemed to serve as lighting torches.
Suddenly, Martin motioned for everyone to stop with just a hand gesture. Then, he pointed a little further ahead, there was a grey flower that was like a folded umbrella in a larger cave area.
One Ashen Fairymoss grew at the end of a large area of ??the cave without any disturbance.
That was the end of the cave tunnel. The target location had been reached. However, the monsters they were wary of and planned to kill were nowhere to be seen.
Elysia and Sylvia carefully jumped down from Vanessa"s back. They then approached the cave"s mouth, leading to the more extensive cave area.
Simultaneously, Elysia used her advanced perception to examine the surrounding area within a 200-meter radius. On the ground not far from the flower, four monsters were burying themselves underground in the middle of the cave expanse.
The four monsters curled up like stone b.a.l.l.s as if they were sleeping and didn"t want to be disturbed by anything.
She could even see some bones buried there. Not a few but many, many bones had been crushed and deliberately buried for unknown reasons.
Elysia covered her mouth in surprise but without a sound. Maybe all the shattered bones were the prey of the stone hedgehog. Among the bones were also adventurers who had died and had fallen prey to these monsters.
Elysia"s behavior was only known to Dylan and Sylvia. The two devils could see four life energies from the four creatures buried themselves in the ground.
Unfortunately, they did not know there were many crushed bones and shards of other bone fragments that could no longer be identified underground.
Franky snorted as if dissatisfied. He thought the monsters said to be nesting here to guard the flower were out looking for food. He and his comrades did not know anything under the ground on the broader cave area.
The man who was very confident and always believed in himself put his greatsword back onto his back and then stepped forward.
However, before he could get past the girl clad in a white robe, his stomach was held back with a little haste, he seemed to be hit, but it was light.
Franky immediately grabbed his stomach, strange but true. He looked at Elysia with a confused and astonished face while checking the armor he was wearing.
He was still wearing his great blue armor, but the light blow that was given by the girl as if breaking through his armor defenses and hitting lightly straight into his stomach.
It was just the girl"s light hand collision into his armor, but he could feel it directly in his stomach as if he wasn"t wearing any armor at all! Franky screamed in astonishment in his mind.
Martin and Anika, who were looking around, glanced at Franky with a confused expression. Then, they looked at Elysia. She kept Franky from moving forward, just like that...
The girl pointed towards the middle of the cavern hall, at the four stones that formed like a cone of tiny thorns rising several centimeters on the ground. She freed her own mouth from her hand, then turned around and whispered silently, only lips moving as if to say "they were there".
Martin, Anika, and Franky were not stupid and did not consider the words of the master of a Spirit Beast to be trivial. They thoughtfully responded while inspecting the area on the ground that Elysia pointed at.
Four small cones that were definitely not rocks were visible to them. It was very unusual and completely unnatural. Four targets were found, and the monsters were waiting right under the ground.
Martin drew his longsword from his large shield and gave a signal with eye contact to the other members. Franky and Anika nodded and prepared their weapons.
The Paladin immediately used some of the Reinforcement Magic and Enhancement Magic, Anika also added to strengthen the vanguard.
The two of them used the silent cast, and it took quite a bit of time to finish the preparations just for Martin"s agro. Martin"s eyes burned with bloodl.u.s.t for battle, followed by his body enveloped in a dark green energy aura and a brownish spherical shield.
After that, he jumped into the cave hall without saying a word or waiting for another second. He jumped high and fell right between the four suspicious cones with a powerful blow from the shield.
*Bam!*
The ground and cave trembled slightly with a sound echoing loudly from the boom of combined magic and intense physical strength.
"Graa!" One by one, stone hedgehogs emerged from the ground in anger. Their sleep was disturbed, attacked, and their tails were damaged.
The surprise attack was successful, and the target had revealed itself. Martin grinned and put on his stance for defense and attack. "Get into formation as planned!"
Franky and Anika were ready in their positions, while Dylan casually walked to the middle of the cave hall.
"Take this! Mountain Slam!" Martin dashed forward and smashed his shield with a mighty thud and fast-activated magic.
"Grakk!" A stone hedgehog that was twice the size of Martin"s body bounced off as if it was really light.
Furthermore, Franky and Anika partic.i.p.ated in close and mid-range combat. Dylan was only there to swing his sword and kick the hedgehogs that came to him.
"Regal Blast!" Franky swung his greatsword with a strong impact. The bluish burst of lightning triggered a powerful explosive force.
"Explosion!" Anika cast two small fire explosion magic which focused on the two stone hedgehogs that were purposely separated from the other two.
*Boom!*
A team of three people fighting in teamwork and a solo player was separated but partic.i.p.ated in the battle. They were fighting in their own way and style. Still, only Dylan was alone and seemed out of place from the name of teamwork.
"Lys, they"ve entered the battle, now is the time for the two flower picking girls to do their thing." Elysia spoke as she climbed onto Vanessa"s back.
"En, they"ll be fine. It"s just four monsters at Master level, no big deal. Our roles are the most important hehe..." Sylvia immediately sat behind Elysia.
"Vann, let"s fly above them all. Our target is the flowers over there."
"Rawr." Vanessa gave a small roar in response to her master. She flapped her wings and flew straight at the flower.