“Shingen, can you please kill these wolves a bit further away from me?”
Michael was currently standing right in front of a dead wolf, its head lopped off.
However, the reason he was irritated was because Shingen only killed the wolves once they got close enough to him.
For that reason, he was currently drenched in blood from head to toe.
Aren’t you fast enough to dodge the blood though?
Michael’s brow twitched ‘Did you not see what happened when I tried? He literally swung his sword again, speeding up the blood flying at me’
That is true.
‘…’
They have been walking around the forestry area that seemed to mimic the one outside the dungeon.
However, besides the first pack of wolves they ran into, they only found wolves that were by themselves.
Michael found it odd, from what he remembers, the wolves always travel in packs, was that some kind of a lie?
He was not sure, but he didn’t feel too threatened, his healing coupled with Shingen’s might, made quite the combo.
All of a sudden, the color of the grass changed, it seemed to get lighter.
It reminded Michael of something..dungeon collapse.
‘But how is that possible?’ He couldn’t help but think. From what he knew, the dungeon could either break or collapse.
However, he figured collapsing was extremely rare, yet here it was, happening to a newly opened dungeon.
Have you forgotten?
‘Forgot what?’ Michael was slightly puzzled.
Think back to the time you were in the dungeon you met Meph in, that’s as big of a hint I can give you, I don’t want you to get any stupider.
‘Hmm..’ Michael thought for a moment while glancing around at Shingen, he was trying to talk but his voice could not be heard.
All of a sudden Michael’s eyes widened, he seemed to come to a realization.
‘Dungeons can be closed but still operating..is that what happened here?’ The timing felt a little off for Michael, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on why.
A dungeon opens and it operates as per usual, then if the boss monster grows strong enough, a dungeon break happens.
However, why or even how do the collapses happen?
As Michael was deep in thought, he noticed the colors being further distorted, their vibrance seeping into the surroundings and mixing with it.
‘This is different’ he noticed, unlike when he was outside of the dungeon, where the vibrance mimicked the color of the portal, the whole dungeon was currently a mesh of colors.
Distorting, changing, some even disappearing, turning white.
The pressure Michael was currently feeling, was miles above what he felt on the outside.
It kept getting stronger as the dungeon further deteriorated.
Michael turned to look at Shingen and noticed the expression on his face, it was grim, he could even see his hands slightly shaking.
Michael looked at his own hands and they were too, yet he didn’t even notice.
‘Odds on me surviving?’ He asked the system sarcastically, yet he was hopeful of the answer being positive.
Hm, low, the others can’t enter the dungeon and you yourself can’t leave, you either walk out with the boss monster or of course, kill it.
‘Is there some kind of a catch?’
Since the dungeon is its natural habitat, it gets a bit of a strength boost, on top of already being incredibly strong.
Michael now too shared a grim expression ‘What about the outside? The camera is live right now so shouldn’t they be trying to somehow open the dungeon?’
I told you, it’s not possible, once dungeons collapse, the inner protocol enters maximum defense, meaning that whatever attack is thrown at them, they will be able to block it until the boss monster exits the dungeon.
‘Fuck..’
Michael looked around and saw most of the colors had already disappeared, only a white void was left with Michael and Shingen standing side by side.
They were not able to communicate, yet they both knew what they had to do and that was to somehow beat the boss monster.
However, no matter where they looked, it was nowhere to be seen. The only thing they saw were the colors, which had been drained prior, gathering in the sky.
It looked like a massive sphere, glowing, swirling every single color imaginable.
All of a sudden Michael felt a chill run down his spine and he dodged to the side, followed by a sharp pain in one of his arms.
He took a glance at his left arm and noticed blood pouring down his shoulder, his hand cleanly severed on the ground beneath him.
‘Wha-‘
Just as he was about to exclaim again, Shingen dashed towards Michael and blocked something.
At least Michael thought he did, no sound was heard but a bit of blood was dripping down from Shingen’s mouth.
Michael quickly cast Shield of Nourishment on the both of them, albeit he began feeling a sharp pain where his left arm used to be.
Focus, forget about the arm, it will grow back later.
‘Grow back? What am I, a fucking lizard now!?’ Michael exclaimed, venting his frustrations out on the system.
Michael took notice of the thing in the sky, which now started taking shape, the colors warped and twisted, forming a wolf.
‘A massive fucking wolf’
It was much bigger than the others he saw, frankly, it was strange even trying to compare them, besides the body shape, nothing else looked similar.
The wolf descended down and opened its eyes, they were a hollow black color, a stark contrast to its fur, which had a dominant green, with the other many colors only serving as highlights on its fur.
It looked menacing, Michael was not exactly sure how he can get out of this alive, however, if there was one person he could put his trust in currently, then it would be Shingen.
The previous shaking seemed to have disappeared, yet his grim expression still remained.
All of a sudden, the other colors except green flowed into the wolf’s eyes, seeping into them and adding a glow.
The pressure from before had lessened, though Michael knew it definitely did not grow weaker, if anything, it might have gotten stronger.
Its eyes were now mesmerizing, however, Shingen did not wait to admire them, dashing at the wolf with insane speed.
Slashing his sword down, it appeared to have missed, though in reality, it went through the wolf.
‘Was it that easy?’ Michael looked a bit confused, that was until the wolf disappeared from his vision, followed by Shingen who also disappeared.
As Michael was about to question his sanity, he suddenly felt a prick on his cheek, upon touching it with his remaining arm, he noticed blood was dripping down.
‘Fuck.. they are fighting and yet I can’t even see them’ Michael felt helpless.
Even with his INT now reaching 400 points, coupled with his buff skill and Physical Enhancement, he was still not able to see even a single trace of them.
They were just moving way too fast..
‘Any tips?’
Hm? Oh.. Don’t die I guess?
Michael’s brow twitched, he regretted asking the system for advice. Like it would even know what to do in this situation.
This felt suffocating, not only were wounds appearing all over his body randomly, the white space felt odd by itself.
It was quiet, he had no arm and he could die at any moment.
‘Fucking great.’
Michael was thankful for his high mana pool, he still had roughly half of his mana left, though the rate at which he was currently casting Shield of Nourishment, he doubted it would last longer than 10 minutes.
He looked at his hand and saw that out of the small stump, an arm was very slowly growing back.
He didn’t think his heals could regrow limbs yet, but perhaps they could?
Your limbs, not others. Plus it would have been a lot faster if you had taken the arm off of the ground and placed it on your stump, it would have healed in mere moments.
‘Thanks for the heads up, I’ll remember that next time my head is lopped off’
Michael realized the space around him was crackling and just for a mere moment, he was able to see Shingen again.
He was clashing with the boss monster, both of them with heavy injuries.
However, Michael did not dawdle in that small moment as he cast his Shield of Nourishment on Shingen, healing him for a massive sum.
Just as fast, they both vanished.
‘Hey system, do you have some sort of a recording function?’ He asked absentmindedly.
What? No?
‘Pity’ Michael clicked his tongue, he was maybe hoping to get the system to record some movies for him and play them in his mind.
He would prefer not to carry a laptop around all the time after all.
Have they finally managed to damage your brain? I am not some sort of a DVD player.
Michael rolled his eyes and looked around, waves of blood splattering all around him, However, this time it was not his blood.
‘It seems the fight is coming to an end..’
