Izroth concentrated on separating the noise of the tremors from the creature itself in order to lock onto its location. It was much more difficult to detect compared to those bugs that moved around underground back in the mountain region.
"What's going on?" Halls asked as he kept his shield raised and his guard up. He did not know that there was a monster nearby, as his senses were nowhere close to Izroth's. Halls acted purely on instinct when he heard Izroth call out.
In fact, it was the same for everyone else there. But, they all understood that if Izroth unsheathed his sword then there was trouble nearby, even if they currently were unable to see it.
"Is it a monster or another team?" Zi Yi inquired. However, she already had a good idea of what it could be. After all, what were the chances of them running into another team as soon as they were transported? Could the Chaotic Dogma Realm truly be that small? If that were the case then reaching the end would not be a problem at all.
"One monster. It's most likely the cause of the tremors we've experienced while within this cave. The tremors are growing stronger the closer it moves in our direction." Izroth explained as he kept track of the creature movements.
"It will not be safe if we fight on a narrow passageway. We should retreat back to the room with open space to confront it." Luna suggested.
"Agreed." Zi Yi seconded Luna's suggestion.
While the passageway they were currently moving deeper into was not incredibly narrow, it was only as spacious as two people standing side by side with their arms spread out. It would be difficult to maneuver under such circumstances.
Also, ignoring the fact that the passageway may collapse on them given the intensity of the tremors, if the monster possessed any type of AOE attack, then it would be impossible to even consider avoiding it.
Izroth also believed that to be the best course of action. The passageway was filled with some twist and turns. For all they knew, the passageway could become smaller the further they traveled down. Why would they purposely set themselves at a potential disadvantage?
"We will turn around and face it back at the location we were transported to." Izroth said as Guan Yu moved over to their position and Halls, as well as, Izroth shifted over to Guan Yu's old position.
Now, Izroth and Halls were leading the way back to where they came from and Guan Yu was still tasked with protecting their rear.
Just as the party was getting ready to leave, Valentine raised his hand to stop them from doing so immediately.
"Ah, wait a second." Valentine removed a small rock looking object with various magic symbols inscribed into it. He tossed the item onto the ground and pointed his index finger towards it. He muttered a few words as the rock began to glow.
"Seek." Valentine finished chanting and soon after the rock cracked open and a teal colored orb the size of a fist formed in its place. The orb instantly shot through the passageway and disappeared from the group's field of vision in a matter of seconds.
"What did you just do?" Zi Yi narrowed her eyes as she looked at Valentine wondering what that magic freak was up to.
"Just think of it as an extra set of eyes, don't worry." Valentine smiled in an innocent manner.
'A bit interesting.'
Izroth maintained his carefree expression as he and his party continued to move.
Since Izroth and his party did not travel far, it only took them a few moments to arrive back at the open room. On their way, the group felt the tremors intensify and sharp shards of rocks fell from the ceiling.
One of the rocks almost landed directly on top of Halls and crushed him into meat paste. However, it missed him by a few centimeters and so he could be considered lucky.
Halls face was extremely gloomy. All of the sharp rock shards that fell from the ceiling only went for him as if it were intentionally picking on him! He had to constantly dance around in a humiliating way to evade them.
The entire time, Guan Yu was laughing without holding back in even the slightest manner, and Zi Yi had a smug expression on her face that pretty much said, "serves you right for teasing me".
Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrck!
The ground beneath and all around Izroth and his party began to crack as a hot wave of steam rushed out from within cracks.
Wooooooooo!
When everyone heard that disturbing sound, they shifted their attention to a large crater that was formed by the ground sinking inward. The sight resembled a beast devouring the earth.
Something slowly started to climb out of the ground. The first thing the group saw were two massive curved horns with small lines running across them. That strange noise definitely came from this monstrosity before them.
It had the face of a vicious bull and when it rose out of the ground it stood 3 meters tall. It was extremely muscular to the point where it was a little disturbing and had razor sharp claws on its hands.
Its skin was maroon in color and had numerous glowing red cracks that covered its entire body. It bore a resemblance to a rock that was about to shatter into countless fragments.
Its tail swung freely back and forth, but it appeared to possess a mind of its own. The monster released a strong burst of bloodthirst towards the players before it.
"So ugly...!" Halls couldn't help but say those words when he observed the monster's appearance and how bloodthirsty the monster seemed to be. Its pure black eyes were similar to looking into nothingness, which would frighten most people.
Name: Earth Devouring Groundbull(Elite)
Level: 25
HP: 70,000 (100%)
70,000 HP! What a tanky monster! Not even the boss monsters within the Sea Palace Graveyard had such a large amount of HP.
The Earth Devouring Groundbull roared angrily as if responding to it being called ugly, as it charged over towards Halls.
"Brother, it seems that your new taunt skill was effective!" Guan Yu joked as he took an offensive stance with his guandao.
Halls shield lit up with a bright red color as a wave of aura sped outward from his shield and encompassed the entire body of the Earth Devouring Groundbull for a few seconds before vanishing. Halls had used the skill Taunting Aura to set the monster's focus onto him.
The Earth Devouring Groundbull was not that agile, however, it was not by any means slow with its charge as it leaned its shoulder downward to ram into Halls. It wanted to completely run through him.
Halls stood perfectly still as he held his shield out in front of him steadily. Just as the Earth Devouring Groundbull was about to make contact with him, a transparent glass-like barrier formed on Halls's shield.
CRASH!
The body of the Earth Devouring Groundbull flew backward when it crashed into Halls's shield. Its own momentum was used against it thanks to a skill Halls had acquired. The skill was called Rebound and it was one of the core skills of Halls new second tier class, the Rebound Champion.
Skill Name: Rebound
Skill Level: 2/4
Skill Rank: B
Requirements: Level 20 Rebound Champion, Shield Equipped
Mana Cost: 50
Active: Forms a transparent rebound barrier in front of the user's shield for 0.5 seconds which causes any enemies it comes in contact with to be knocked back. The more momentum an enemy has when striking the rebound barrier, the more powerful the knockback effect. This skill negates 50% of the damage for any attacks that strike the rebound barrier and counts as a successful block. The cooldown time for this skill is reduced by 10 seconds when an attack is successfully "Rebounded".
Cooldown: 15 seconds
The Rebound Champion was one of the more difficult classes to obtain, as the class quest required endless endurance and perseverance. It was definitely not a class that anyone could acquire.
The Rebound skill made the class incredibly tanky and hard to deal with in a battle. However, it was not an easy class to use. If a player miss timed a Rebound, then they would pay the heavy price of having to wait for its full 15 second cooldown time. In a close battle, that could mean the difference between life and death.
«Blocked»
-676
5,974/6,650 HP Remaining! (Halls)
"What powerful attacking strength...!" Halls was shocked by the amount of damage he received even after successfully blocking the attack by using Rebound. Its base attack was at least 1,000 and that was a very conservative guess.
Izroth kicked off his back foot and shot towards the flying body of the Earth Devouring Groundbull. Trailing behind Izroth was Guan Yu who also pressed forward to join the assault.
An arrow soared through the air aimed at Guan Yu's back. However, the arrow's target was not Guan Yu himself. Zi Yi was using Guan Yu's body to hide the arrow she just released. The arrow vanished just as it was about to pierce through Guan Yu.
Zi Yi quickly released another arrow, but this was one aimed directly towards the Earth Devouring Groundbull.
The Earth Devouring Groundbull could not react to the arrows as they arrived in the blink of an eye. The first arrow, which had disappeared just moments before, had managed to reappear above the monster's head. It was able to penetrate the defenses of the Earth Devouring Groundbull with ease and shot into its skull.
The second arrow soon arrived as its speed was faster than both Izroth and Guan Yu, but it did not disappear as the other arrow did. Instead, it continued forward normally and struck the monster in the middle of its torso area.
«Critical Hit»
-1,180
-220
Zi Yi had used the same skill during her fight against those players who ambushed her. The skill was called Void Jump.
Skill Name: Void Jump
Skill Level: 2/4
Skill Rank: A
Requirements: Level 20 Void Seeker
Cost: 2 Void Essence
Active: Creates a small hole that leads to the void which causes the user arrows to enter the void and disappear from sight. The arrow will reappear at least 65 centimeters away from the target at the point of the user's choosing. Attacks that jumps through the void has its power increased by 100%.
The Void Seeker class did not use mana or energy, but rather a substance called Void Essence. In a way it was similar to energy, however, it was more unforgiving and not as flexible or expendable as mana and energy. It also came with a built-in regeneration feature, just as energy did.
Just as Zi Yi's second arrow struck the Earth Devouring Groundbull, Izroth's Blade of Lightning slashed outward with two phantom shadows following closely behind it. The first hit of his Phantom strike connected with the Earth Devouring Groundbull's head. The next two strikes that followed struck the monster's neck twice in succession.
«Critical Hit»
-244
«Critical Hit»
-588
«Critical Hit»
-932
With just a few attacks, the Earth Devouring Groundbull's HP dropped by nearly 5%. Its defenses were incredibly tough, however, Izroth and Zi Yi attack powers were nothing to scoff at.
When Izroth's Phantom Strike hit he was getting ready to follow up, but the Earth Devouring Groundbull finally regained its balance after being knocked back and sent flying. As it did, it swiftly slammed its large fist into the ground which caused tremors to shake the entire cave.
Sharp fragments of rocks ruptured out from the ground and rushed towards Izroth and his party.
Izroth reacted the fastest and jumped into the air when he felt and heard the noises of something getting ready to erupt from underground.
Halls did not bother trying to avoid the attack and simply braced himself for impact. It was the same for Guan Yu as he halted his charge and took on a defensive stance.
Zi Yi was agile and had no trouble jumping up and out off the way of the incoming attack.
A small thin string of mana flowed from Valentine's fingertip and slowly made its way towards the Earth Devouring Groundbull. He had already raised up a mana barrier and so was not worried about the damage he would receive from the attack. He was more focused on the current spell he was casting.
As for Luna, her mobility was lacking and the attack did not leave her any room for escape. However, Luna did not panic and instead, she simply took two steps to the left just as the attack was about to strike her.
At that moment, something astonishing happened.