Extra And MC-Chapter 91 - 87 - Crystal Caverns II

"Reaching the fifth floor…" Aiden declared composedly.

As if to pose a literal challenge the moment those words left Aiden’s mouth, three kraugrs quickly emerged from the ground in similar fashion to the latter they had defeated.

-Fwoosh!

Without skipping a beat, Aiden and Flynn dashed forward like a burst of wind, appearing instantly before the kraugrs.

Despite seemingly having no expressive features, the three monsters were surprised by the sudden appearance of their enemies, as evidenced from their physical movements that forced them to take a step back.

-Swish!

One of the Kraugr’s faceless visage found its way into the air, cleanly sliced off by Flynn’s katana but in addition to that, the youth quickly performed three slashes at a rapid rate in a transversal format, reducing the Kraugr to nothing but unevenly sliced chunks of pale blue crystals.

Aiden on the other hand, had to be more careful due to his greatsword usually emitting pressurized bursts of winds when he swung it, but even, then the youth effortlessly decimated them.

Swinging the greatsword in a horizontal manner, he cleaved the torso of the remaining two kraugrs in an instant and in double quick time, performed another diagonal upwards slash, rendering both monsters defeated.

With no spoken words exchanged between both brothers, they calmly proceeded towards the long hollowed crystalline structure of the caverns, heading straight for the second level.

Along the way, they defeated a few more Kraugrs but then, that was to be expected, so, they proceeded without a single second wasted.

Reaching the end of the first layer of the hollowed crystal caverns, they were met with a descending spire, akin to those in old cathedrals, but upside down.

This led to the second level and quickly, both brothers descended down the spiraling crystal structure, making their way deeper into the caverns.

Reaching the second level as expected, caused the number of Kraugrs they were battling with to increase drastically.

If they were only battling with the occasional one to three on the first level, then the second doubled and sometimes even tripled in numbers.

In addition, the brittle crystals that made up their humanoid amalgamation and would easily break from a single slash of either Aiden or Flynn’s weapon, now required a bit more force to shatter the crystalline creatures.

The natural architecture of the second level also did not help as the hollowed tunnel was now far more constricted with lesser space, requiring the youths to fight with even more delicate yet skillfully devastating movements.

If before Aiden was fighting with pure strength, now the youth was slowly reverting back to skillful movements, utilizing both his weapon and combat arts efficiently, all in an effort to reduce the vibrations in the caverns that could cause either the stalactites or stalagmites to come crashing on their heads.

Flynn on the other hand, increased the speeds of his attack even more.

He was slowly getting used to the increased weight of the cuffs on his hands, and although it was nowhere near his actual speed, it was enough to deal with the D-ranked monsters he was currently facing.

If one could still see the trajectory of the way his katana was previously moving, now it was quite subtle to spot due to how within the span of seconds, two to three kraugrs would have found themselves destroyed before they could do anything.

Slowly and gradually, they continued descending down the caverns, made their way past the third level whose tunnels were even far more constricted in space compared to the second along with increased Kraugr spawns, and soon enough, they reached the fourth level.

To their slight relief, emphasis on the slight, the fourth floor was actually a much wider open space, with towering natural pillars of stalagmites and stalactites which not only adorned the ceilings, but also elongated and stretched all the way to the very tip of the grounds’ crystal flooring.

Many small pools of water were also present here and in addition to that, the Kraugrs that emerged from these pools, were capable of using frost magic.

These particular breed of Kraugrs, although spawning in lesser amounts of a mix of three to four each, making a total of ten kraugrs, and was far less than those in level three and two, could make frost-like blades that extended and morphed from their very own bodies.

Some of them were also able to conjure homing frosty icicles that they could shoot out of their palms while the rest, were capable of throwing balls of frost, on which upon hitting the ground, would extend like a homing missile of frosty spikes on the crystal surface of the ground, intent on freezing Flynn and Aiden’s legs in place.

"Kriggk!!!" the faceless monsters screamed with an eerie tone, almost as if letting out a battle cry and swiftly, began their attack against the two brothers.

’Well, this just got fairly annoying…’ Aiden thought to himself, realizing that as much as he and Flynn wanted to save their mana by not using their [Series], just in case there was an actual sixth level and a possible boss monster on it, it would be in their best interests if they used it to clear out the annoying variant of kraugrs before them.

Quickly, Flynn activated his [Ether Blades] spell and swiftly attacked the four kraugrs who had now continuously started throwing frosty balls of ice onto the ground.

-Thud! Thud! Thud! Shhrrggkkk!!!

That, despite being the best move to take care of their adversaries, seemed to have been less efficient for the youth as he soon realized that these variant of kraugrs, were far smarter than the somewhat mindless ones they had previously been facing.

In response to his mana slates, these crystalline monsters dodged, ducked and sometimes even rolled to avoid his attacks and also retaliate with frosty balls of their own.

Although his mana slates were perfectly also hitting them despite their best efforts to dodge, their pale blue and frosty crystalline bodies was also far harder than the previous ones they had been battling, making it harder for his slates to effectively dismember them.

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The Kraugrs with morphed blades for hand would also then attack simultaneously, almost as if they were coordinated by a revenant general who was giving them orders.

-Clang!

Clashing with one of the ones that attacked him, Flynn sensed a few shards of icicle coming his way but instead, concentrated on the Kraugr presently clashing with him, pushing it back and instantly jumping meters into the air to avoid a homing frost of spike that was headed his way.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!

Just as the icicles of frosty shards were about hit him, the Flynn’s mana slates returned back to him back in the air at a rapid pace, effectively blocking the multiple shards that was headed his way.

Aiden who realized that his brother was giving him enough space to attack even as he clashed with two bladed Kraugrs of his own, immediately activated his [Compression] spell, causing the entire space around them to increase in weight due to the increased gravity.

-Fwuuaaammm!!!

The kraugrs, unable to handle this sudden increase in weight around them, found themselves lying flat on the ground in an instant, making it immensely easy for Aiden to quickly dispatch of the two he was currently battling with by stomping on them.

Upon discontinuing his spell, Aiden watched as Flynn used his slates to quickly traverse the area around him as he hovered a few centimeters above the ground, swiftly dismembering four of Kraugrs who were using ranged attacks in a matter of seconds.

Without waiting a moment longer, Aiden also dashed around the small pools of water present in the wide open space around him, promptly taking care of the remaining four Kraugrs that were left.

"If this is how the fourth floor is, I wonder how much more intense the fifth floor will be…" Aiden commented as Flynn landed with a gentle thud near him, his slates returning back to his spatial bracelet.

"Well, we’ll be getting there soon anyway so I guess we’ll find out but…" the youth added, and after a slight pause, spoke again.

"…there’s also the issue of these cuffs again and how fast our mana is being drained constantly…" Aiden kept speaking as he and Flynn began walking towards the area that led to next floor.

"A bit of a nuance I previously thought at first but, in fact, just a few spells here and there and I feel like half of my mana has been sucked away…" Flynn said with a slight frown in reply to his brother’s words.

"Did Darius enchant them to guzzle more mana than usual when we use spells too?" Flynn asked himself, his previously slight frown now replaced by a slightly puzzled look.

"We can worry about that later" Aiden quickly interjected and then spoke while pointing towards the deep chasm that there were now presently in front of.

"Right now, this should be our main concern…" Aiden gestured to the dark abyssal chasm that looked like it went on forever.

Despite the kaleidoscope of different shimmering colors of faint light created by the crystals of the caverns, the chasm before them seemed unilluminated by it, darkness purely settling into its depths.

"Well, the map does say below here is the fifth floor…" Flynn stared at the deep dark chasm below.

"So we jump?" Aiden asked, a blank look present on his face.

"Yep!" Flynn replied.