Rachel led the way with her glowstick hand and Lily stayed close behind to give her directions just in case there were forks or junctions. Kyle followed with vigour as if he wanted to push the women forward to go faster. Ollie, being the smallest one, crawled the most leisurely in the vent. Erin didn’t even bother crawling. She just slid. Gale brought up the rear, Breath of the Void’s tendrils checking what’s behind them and in front at the same time all the time.

Cool air breezed through the vents, something they haven’t felt for a while. The civilian path had been completely stuffy mostly due to the flesh creep blocking the vents.

After several minutes of crawling, the duct slightly narrowed as it entered a junction. An opening appeared on the right. Peering into it, it led to a cylindrical chasm. Multiple vents lined the walls from below and above. Massive blades spun below that fed those vents that led to who knows where.

“Continue straight,” Erin said from behind Ollie. “Do not get distracted by meaningless detail.”

“I know,” Lily replied.

They pressed on. For what felt like several minutes, crawling was everything in their minds. It was a lull from the fight they just had against Lament. Who would ever willingly change their bodies to become a monster just for a chance at immortality? It was laughable.

Maybe the Proctor had manipulated her or everyone else that he had transformed. Surely, Abel wasn’t. That thing wanted to kill his own father, which would probably be the Proctor.

Twenty minutes into their crawl, Rachel stopped. “Exit ahead.”

Breath of the Void confirmed that long before she had said that. The grates for the duct at the other end were blocked by flesh.

They inched forward more, and it was obvious that Clyde was near. Kyle’s expression said it all. The twin connection. He was even looking in the direction where his brother was, to the right, which made his hands stumble on Lily’s legs.

A loud bang echoed through the duct as the grate ahead suddenly blew outwards in front of them.

The team stopped.

Something looked inside. Human.

Breath of the Void’s tendrils fed Gale the visual and audio of what was happening at the front.

Analyze.

[Sacred Garbage Disposal Crawler]

[Stage: Tainted]

[Description: The Proctor made these crawlers for the sake of housekeeping and cleaning unwanted litter.]

A skinless face where only muscle and bone could be seen. Its eyes were that of red ocular lenses that rotated to make direct eye contact with Rachel in front.

It screamed. It roared. Screeched maybe. It was all three at once. Electronic and organic at the same time. The mouth was in the shape of a circle with mechanical rotating teeth.

Shadows moved behind it. Dozens upon dozens of the same crawlers swarmed the opening of the duct.

“Back!” Rachel shouted.

The once secret tunnel to the final destination transformed into a nightmare scenario. They couldn’t turn around. The duct was too narrow to rotate their own bodies. All of them crawled backwards at a speed that didn’t match when they crawled forward.

The thing in front skittered along the walls, pulling itself through the duct. Multiple limbs struck at the vent walls for grip. But then, the very first crawler started to get pushed by those behind it.

“Faster!” Kyle shouted, elbows and shoulders scraping against the duct.

Gale moved as quickly as possible, phasing himself and then rotating his own body. He crawled forward, letting the others move as fast as they could. Erin just slid backwards while Ollie, although small, still had to crawl backwards.

The first creature gained half the distance to Rachel in minutes. It kept screaming as the flesh behind it gushed forward.

“Junction!” Gale called back.

On reaching the opening, Ollie rotated himself with the wider space. Kyle couldn’t afford to. Too big. It would take too long to rotate.

Before Lily could rotate, Rachel shouted, “SHIELD!”

Lily immediately formed a shield in front of her with her palms. Three layers. It expanded from top to bottom, end to end on the sides.

Rachel pushed her hand forward, open palms. A jet erupted. Flames blasted forward. The duct funnelled all that flame forward in a deafening roar. The temperature skyrocketed even with Lily’s shield.

For a full five seconds, Rachel maintained her jet, swallowing the screams that came from the front. When she finally cut off the jet, the walls of the duct in front had glowed white hot while behind glowed a dim orange.

Her hands reached to the side of the duct’s walls and pinched them together. She did the same to the top and bottom, creating a wall that blocked the duct.

From the 5 seconds alone, everyone had their clothes and armour soaked in sweat. She called out to everyone, “Everyone good?”

Skittering sounds came from ahead of the path. Tendrils showed more of those crawlers skittering through the vent.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Let’s go, go, go,” Gale said quickly.

Everyone rotated their bodies using the open path to the fans, only Erin didn’t as she continued to slide backwards with her still emotionless expression.

Sounds of banging and clawing came from behind them. Those crawlers were clawing away at the makeshift wall. It probably wouldn’t last long.

They quickly reached the exit, and Gale squeezed through first. Erin slid backwards, landing on her feet. Ollie was next, jumping off. Kyle pushed through and Erin followed. Rachel came last and nodded to Gale.

“Go go,” Gale said. A large banging sound echoed through the ducts. The crawlers skittered forward immediately.

“GO!”

The team raced down where they came from, passing by the damaged flesh creep caused by Lament. From the looks of it, they were already recovering as threads of flesh pulled at the gaps of where the wound of the flesh creep would eventually close.

As they entered the bend to the right, the screeching and screaming of the crawlers could be heard from down the hall as bodies gushed out of the narrow vent.

The team moved faster, running through the straight after the bend. Breath of the Void’s tendrils saw the count of monsters behind. A couple of hundred of them were already out. Bodies flowed like a river through the vent. They could fight it head on, all of them were just at an Attuned stage, easy pickings for this group, but that would tire everyone out.

Survival rule number 1, don’t waste energy.

The right bend soon opened up to the junction where they fought Lament. The centipede’s massive body still lay coiled against the wall with the occasional spark from its wires.

“Straight,” Erin said. It was the route to Path 2 that contained too many turns.

But before they could cross the middle of the junction, the crawlers behind them came into view like a flood. Hundreds were in front of them, and probably thousands behind the ones in front. All of them had the same red ocular lenses on one of their eyes. All of them had at least four arms and legs.

In this moment, Gale understood what they all told him.

This was a literal tide.

“Rachel,” Gale pointed up at the weakened ceiling above the junction’s entrance. “Blow it up!”

Rachel’s hands immediately thrusted forward up above. The heat came first. Then a white hot orb in front of her gauntlet materialized. When she punched that orb, the world exploded.

The corridor shook. Metal bent all around from the quake it generated. Creaks came from above where she hit the ceiling. In a flood of rebar and pipes, it covered the entirety of the entrance to the first path, swallowing up all the crawlers that were under it.

Two crawlers managed to slip through.

Kyle threw his dagger, passing through its head, while Lily crushed the crawler’s skull when it lunged at her from below.

“That’ll hold them,” Rachel said, lowering her hands.

“We were so FUCKING close,” Kyle shouted. “We could’ve took all of that. Look at this shit?” He picked up his dagger. “One shot, dead. I could throw my shit all day. ALL DAY.”

“Kyle, listen to me.” Rachel moved closer to him. “We’re still on the mission. You still feel Clyde, right?”

“Yeah, so fucking what? He was CLOSE,” Kyle yelled.

“But he’s still alive. And we’re still in this fight. Don’t forget that,” Rachel said.

“I understand you’re worried,” Rachel said. “But charging into suicide isn’t going to help him.”

“That wasn’t fucking suicide.”

“Eight hundred at minimum,” Lily said. “Just from what I saw at the front. We can’t take all of that. Gale’s probably got like 1500 bullets left in his storage. We can’t spend more than half of that on this skirmish alone.”

“Then use your fucking brains. We got other ways to kill those shits,” Kyle said. “All of them were just Tainted. One-shot kills for all of us.”

Ollie moved to lean against the wall. “And then what? We wasted our resources and then after that we still have to probably fight more hordes.”

“You could just take dust and squish all of them, but you won’t, eh, Glory? You save Mia, but you’re not willing to do the same for Clyde. Just fucking say it, Glory!” Kyle shouted.

“That’s not what I said. I’m in this fucking fight, aren’t I?!” Ollie shouted back. “Calm the fuck down!”

“He was right there! Rachel could’ve blown them all up instead of having to blow up the fucking ceiling.” Kyle turned to Rachel. “That’s your specialty, right?! Blow up lots of stuff!”

“Kyle, I’m…” Rachel turned to Gale, eyes looking for an answer from him.

He knew that look. He could’ve told her to blow up the horde instead of the ceiling. That was his missed call. Clenching his fist, it was his fault. But it wasn’t certain that Rachel would be able to keep blowing them up. Even now, his tendrils saw the vent pouring out even more crawlers. All of them crawled on the walls, the ceiling, and the floor. It didn’t stop at the three thousand.

“We could’ve done so much more,” Kyle said, clenching his fist on his dagger. “SO MUCH MORE.”

While Kyle continued his tirade, Gale no longer listened. He moved, looking up at the man having a complete break down.

Kyle looked down on Gale, “Wha-“

Fist connected with Kyle’s cheeks, sending him to the wall. He held up his hand to his cheek and looked up at Gale from where he fell.

Rachel’s hands went over her mouth while Ollie sighed. Lily and Erin were the only ones that stayed calm as the situation unfolded.

“Gale, it’s best not to fight…” Rachel said.

Gale gave her a soft smile before slowly walking over to Kyle. After this was done, she’d understand his position. There was no other way to calm the man down. He understood the feeling of loss all too well.

A slap in the face was the best way to diffuse this situation. Or maybe a punch. She understood though. Her actions gave no sign of making any move to stop him from what he was doing.

Crouching down to Kyle’s eye level, Gale said, “There’s over 6000 crawlers behind that wall right now, clawing at the fucking wall. If you wanna go fight that, go ahead. Do it.”

No response from Kyle, just his eyes trembled as he held his cheeks.

From where Gale was, he could see the small amount of tears that were only suppressed by the man’s anger.

“Clyde’s still alive, right?” Gale said, not needing an answer. “We’d all die before we can get to him if we went through there. Now fucking stand up, and we’re going over to the second path. This fight ain’t over. We’re getting him back.“

Gale held Kyle below the shoulder and stood him up. “We’re not abandoning Clyde. In the next path, we fight no matter what.”

Clenching his dagger, Kyle stood up straight and stared at the second path.

“Are you with us?”

“Fuck yeah, I’m with you. Let’s kill these fuckers,” Kyle said.

The team fell back into formation without discussion. Everyone followed Lily in their designated positions. Walking at a jog’s pace, they moved through the junction. The straight this time took around a couple of minutes until they hit the corner that turned to the left.

Lily reached the corner first, peeking her head around it. She pulled up her hands, signalling behind her, Two flesh pounds. 20 metres ahead.

Gale glanced at Kyle. “Want to handle this one? You take right, Lily takes left?”

“I’ll take both.” Kyle pointed his daggers at the flesh walls. “Don’t need stealth anymore. Look at the flesh shit on the walls. Veins already pulsing faster. They know we’re here.”

He was right. The veins on the flesh creep had begun throbbing fast compared to before. It could only mean that the abominations were now on high alert.

Kyle moved to the corner before Gale could say anything. Wrist flicked forward. Dagger flew out. Blade embedded itself in the right flesh pound’s throat.

His body flashed blue and then appeared where the dagger was. In one smooth motion, he spun the dagger around the neck and threw it at the ceiling.

The flesh warrior’s head fell off the neck as Kyle blinked to his dagger on the ceiling before the other flesh warrior could tackle him down.

Another flick of his wrist; the dagger flew and drove into the back of the flesh warrior’s neck. Blink again, spun the dagger at the neck, and the flesh warrior’s head once again fell on the floor.

Two dead in under 2 seconds.

“Clear,” Kyle said.

“Let’s move,” Gale said, already moving forward.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep