Chapter 9: Baneroot Forest Dungeon Raid [2]

It wasn’t only him. Brakk, Nolan and Reina... his entire party froze, including the goblins attacking them.

It happened in the blink of an eye.

"ARRGGHH!!"

"ARRGGHH!!"

Two horrifying screams tore out from behind the group.

Draven and Brakk turned in horror as two massive silverback wolves tore Nolan’s arms off. A third and fourth mauled Reina’s arrow arm and leg.

Torn flesh echoed as wolves spat limbs onto bloody grass.

Nolan and Reina collapsed onto the ground, unable to process what had just transpired, yet their bodies spasmed and shook violently, still reeling from the pain.

"NOLAN!! REINA!!" Brakk was the first to snap out of the shocking turn of events. He turned around and slammed his spiky, heavy shield onto the grassy field in the direction of the silverback wolves.

[TAUNT]

The four wolves, who were getting ready for their next attack, snapped their attention toward him. They charged at him.

Draven came back to his senses a second later and charged at the wolves.

He didn’t have time to ponder why the wolves had attacked them at the start of the first phase, and neither did he understand how they had managed to sneak around them and launch a pincer attack from behind. His mind was focused on Nolan and Reina and getting them treated first.

[SLASH]

Draven activated his skill, drawing out all the mana he could. An invisible trail of mana wrapped around his blade as he swung it forward. To his surprise, three of the wolves circled around him, moving toward Brakk’s direction, while one met his attack head-on.

SHRRKK!!

His sword cut through its fur, embedding itself deep into the side of its front leg.

"GRRRHH!!" The monster let out an agonising howl as though calling on its companions.

Before Draven could pull back his sword and end its life, one of the monsters turned and leapt at him from the side with its jaws wide open.

Draven stamped the earth and used the force to launch himself backwards, driving up a cloud of sand and dust in the vicinity as he dodged the attack by a hair’s breadth.

He widened the distance once more and used the opportunity to move to the back to check up on his injured teammates. He knelt before Nolan. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"Hey, don’t die on me right now, man," Draven said, gently cupping Nolan’s face. "This is your first dungeon run. I promise you that I’ll get you out of here... I’m not planning on breaking my promise, so you better not die before I can get you proper treatment."

Nolan raised his eyelids and weakly nodded at Draven. His pupils shrank to pin-sized needles. He was terrified, as tears poured down his face.

"... I don’t... want to die," Nolan uttered in a rough, cracking voice as though he were gagging on water before he coughed violently, pouring a mouthful of blood from the side of his lips.

Witnessing this, Draven sheathed his sword, pulled out a string of several small red beads from his utility bag, and threw them forward to halt the monsters’ encroachment.

BANGG!! BANGG!!

BANGG!! BANGG!!

They exploded like fireworks, bathing the vicinity in thick smoke and lighting the bloody grassy field in flames.

The pack halted, unable to charge through the exploding balls of fireworks and smoke that slowly turned into a wall of blazing flames.

Draven then pulled Nolan up and carried him over his shoulder along with his staff. Then, he ran back to check on Reina. Sensing that she was still breathing, albeit profusely losing blood, he pulled her up and carried her over his other shoulder.

As Hunters, they possessed astonishing vitality, so as long as they didn’t immediately die, their conditions could be stabilised. However, they would still lose their limbs.

At this moment, Draven had only counted four wolves, all with similar height and form. Naturally, this pack was led by the Baneroot Forest Dungeon Final Boss. However, he had yet to see its appearance.

That only meant one thing: the Final Boss was nearby and observing them from the shadows.

There had been no recorded behaviour like this from the Baneroot Forest Dungeon Final Boss. In other words, this was a new behaviour! Simply put, it was no different from attacking a newly opened Level One D-Ranked Dungeon.

It was at this point that Draven realised that they needed to get out of the dungeon. They could not fight the Baneroot Forest Dungeon Final Boss and its pack in their own environment without proper reinforcements and preparations.

"BRAKK!! RETREAT!!" Draven looked behind him and yelled at his other party member before rushing forward, heading toward the spawning area.

As long as they reached there, they could quit the dungeon run and return to their world. Only in unconquered dungeons, where the Final Boss hadn’t been beaten yet, was it impossible for Hunters to voluntarily quit a dungeon.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the exploding beads and wall of flames, the goblins had also snapped back to their senses from the sudden roars that had appeared out of nowhere and charged at the only remaining Hunter before them.

It was Brakk.

BAMM!!

Brakk smashed his spiky, heavy shield into one of the charging wolves and slashed his sword at the other.

The wolves narrowly dodged and retreated.

Hearing Draven’s voice from the other side of the wall of flames, Brakk smiled wryly. "I don’t think that I can retreat at the moment, Captain." He glanced at the charging monsters behind him and met them head-on with his heavy shield, and cut them down with his sword.

"I’m surrounded."

Catching sight of the wolves that Draven had hindered with the strings of exploding beads about to circle around the raging flames, Brakk yelled, "Look at me!" He activated his skill once more and slammed down his heavy shield in their direction.

BANGG!!

[Taunt]

An invisible surge of mana exploded out of him and spread across the surrounding area, drawing the aggro of all the monsters toward him once more.