Chapter 173: Guild Wars[2]

Will be fixed soon.

Xior was confused as to why Derek and his party couldn’t move. But then he realized that in the distance, among the tall grass multiple orbs of light kept flickering.

Upon squinting his eyes, he could see it clearly. Those weren’t light orbs, but were eyes. A dozen or more eyes blinked continuously as they watched the group.

“Bob, Anna, Dio and Jack are you guys alright?” Derek questioned as he forced his body to move.

The cold made him shiver but he pushed through. His party members nodded their head in affirmation as they too tried to move their body. While they were affected by this weird cold, Becca and Xior weren’t.

Was it because they hadn’t awakened? Most probably the case. Despite Derek being a narcist he was once a part of the shelter Becca and Xior belonged to.

Anna’s wrist glowed and she conjured a fireball in her hand to illuminate the surrounding.

“Derek, what the fuck happened just now? This was a Yellow-I Gate which is equivalent to a D-Rank Hunter in terms of strength of the monsters inside.”

“I don’t know either, the Gate flickered and turned black before it closed.

Did the Hunter Association measure the gate strength wrong?” Derek replied trying to calm himself down.

“Doubt that was the case, if they had known it was a Black Gate then they would have to mobilize an L-Rank Hunter from the New Federation.” Dio replied as he summoned an owl like creature.

He synchronized with it as it flew in the air, his eyes turned into owl eyes as he shared its field of vision.

Behind the continuous blinking eyes, there was darkness in every direction. He cancelled the summon and sighed. A Black Gate is a Gate of the highest difficulty. A Black-I Gate can be cleared by a single L-Rank or two EX-Rank, while a Black-II Gate requires both of the L-Rank Hunters.

Only three Black Gates have been recorded in the past ten years. This was the fourth, if this gate is not cleared then Sector H will be turned to dust because of the magnitude of the Gate Break.

“There’s only darkness as far as Minnie can see, we have to get rid of these things first if we have to try and find a way out.”

“Alright, Bob stay with the kids. We’ll use a tight formation to attack them.” Derek announced as he took out his sword. A steel sword with a pommel in the shape of a dog.

They got in formation as the creatures slowly closed the distance themselves and the party. Anna was in the middle since she was a Mage by job. In the front was Derek a knight. On each side of Anna were Dio and Jack, both Assassins.

Anna raised her hand in the air and a fire arrow shot towards the sky and exploded and creating enough light to see the monsters who made their way towards them.

They were short, hunched pale green colored monsters with thin long arms and long nails. Gaping maws with jagged teeth had drool constantly dropped down from it. This creature was known as a Goblins.

Was it due to the Black Gate that these mob monsters felt terrifying to go against. But Derek didn’t falter, his wrist shone again and water covered his sword as he swung it two times.

The sound of water as it clashed with something was heard but nothing happened, his attack was useless. A Goblin walked forward, a sinister grin on his face as he stood in front of Derek. Then its eyes landed on the group behind their group.

Bob stood a few meters behind with the kids in front of him. Becca’s eyes were closed but Xior looked at the goblin like he looked at everything. The goblin stared at his eyes and its grin widened and it lunged towards Xior.

Bob moved to block but the goblin used its long arm to claw his arm. Bob staggered due to pain but pushed through. The goblin stretched its other claw and aimed for Xior’s face but that attempt to block was enough time for Anna to recharge her fire arrow.

She let go of it and the fire arrow blazed forward and hit the goblins side throwing it off its balance, then Bob’s eyes changed and he grew claws and two fangs big enough to tear apart someone like Xior. He had used one of his runes and then he clawed at the goblin just like it did.

It winced in pain and called out the others but it was of no use, Bob swung his great-sword and cut it cleanly from the middle.

But this was just the beginning, the rest of the goblins rushed the group with their weapons like axes and maces.

The group was pushed back but they shielded the kids at the least. The onslaught didn’t stop, their bodies bled but they held their ground. And Xior, he observed both the humans and the goblins.

He looked at Becca from time to time to check if she was alright, but when Bob had to move forward he gave him a small dagger for self defense. Not that he would know how to use one.

Derek’s scream alerted Becca as she stood up, his left arm was gone from the elbow down. Blood trickled down on the ground as he dropped down to his knees. But then thunder rumbled and it brought rain all of a sudden.

Lightning dropped down and crashed the goblins, as it short circuited their insides. The sound of meat being sizzled was the only thing they could hear for thirty seconds or so. First the gate increasing in strength and closing and now this sudden lightning.

They could not figure out what was happening. Jack took out some healing potions from his bag and Dio grabbed the cut off arm of Derek and placed it back at its place as Jack spilled the healing potion on the severed area. The potion started to work and the skin started to merge.

Anna tied the arm with a piece of cloth to keep it in one place. Derek was in an awful state. His arm was cut off, that’s traumatic enough. As they took a break and rested a bit, Anna and Dio scavenged anything they could find from the fried goblins.

*****

A few hours as passed, the rain had stopped but the darkness remained. It was an unusual sensation in all of them, something was wrong. The group decided to move towards the area where the tall grass ended.

They walked for what seemed like hours, their water almost finished same as their food. Hallucinations started to appear. They could sometimes see a skeleton who wore a iron armor and rode a black horse.

And then in the distance they saw a fire. Happy that they had found someone inside this hellish place excited all of them and ran towards the source. But soon their face became pale as if they had seen a ghost.

The saw a skeleton on top of a black horse, behind him more skeletons but on foot and on the ground in chains were humans, elves and other creatures.

A wide grin formed on the skeletons face as a fire erupted around the group encircling them.

“Oh pitiful humans from the world outside the tower, it is unfortunate for you to stumble at the gateway to the Abyss.

I wonder what sins have you committed for you to be thrown in such a place. I makes me ecstatic.

But fear not, I have a way to send you back.” The skeleton said in a horrid voice laced with malice.

“But remember, nothing is free…there is a catch to this.”

Derek looked at his group and then at the skeleton, his complextion was pale as he lost a lot of blood.

“What is the catch to this?” He asked in a weak voice.

“Simple, one of you have to become a slave to be offered to the ’He’ who resides on the farthest edge of the Abyss.” The skeleton declared as the others raised their weapons in the air.

A thousand thoughts formed inside Derek’s mind. What should he do? Who should sacrifice themselves for the rest? But then his worried expression shifted and a grin formed.

He tried saving the kids so far but fuck it, his party members are powerful and had shown great resolve while the kids were extra weight. And even among the kids, Becca had some usefulness if she worked with him but Xior was a lost cause. And even among the kids, Becca had some usefulness if she worked with him but Xior was a lost cause. And even among the kids, Becca had some usefulness.And even among the kids, Becca had some usefulness if she worked with him but Xior was a lost.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep