?Hyunsuk's luck was heaven-defying.
It was not even an exaggeration but a reality.
His stick fell randomly on the ground and following its direction, everyone eventually arrived at a cave emitting a malevolent aura.
Lith had gone past many caves and to arrive at a specific one such as this, it just meant they had reached their destination.
Lith heaved a relieved sigh. If this was true, then there was a lot he needed to prepare for.
Hyunsuk and Shi were definitely not someone who randomly bumped into him. As mentioned a lot many times before, there were no coincidences. He had to wait until his return back home to thoroughly check into this matter.
Until then, Lith had to be on guard and move along with whatever was being thrown at him.
Lith looked at the rest and said, "Prepare yourselves. This place may have a devil within it. Judging from the aura, if it's powerful enough, it may have already guessed our presence."
The rest nodded their heads and prepared themselves.
Lith walked inside the cave and the first thing he noticed was the stickiness at his feet. The humidity was high and it was damp everywhere.
The deeper Lith and his party ventured, the stronger the malevolent aura got.
Their path became narrower too and eventually, they entered a tunnel with nothing but darkness in front.
Shi hesitated from venturing further, Hyunsuk had no reaction, and Lith simply charged without bothering to talk or comment.
Through experience, he knew that if it seemed dangerous, then they were on the correct path.
After a while…
"Ugh… I can't move…" Shi desperately tried to lift his leg and cried out.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Same," Hyunsuk added.
Lith and Dennis looked down. They were having difficulty too but not to a degree like those two.
"Have we fallen into a trap?" Dennis asked.
As if he made a command instead of a question, an eerie laughter resonated in everyone's ears.
"Keke… Have you?" The voice came from a figure nearing towards the four from the dark path ahead.
Soon, the four saw a half-human half-mantis figure. The face and upper body except the arms was that of a lady while the rest were that of a mantis.
There were thin green wings behind this figure, and a faint smile flashed on her face, as she knew everything was under control.
"W-w-what is that!?" Shi cried out. This was the first time he was looking at a monstrosity like this!
The expressionless Hyunsuk also had a small change on his poker face with his brows knitting up.
Lith and Dennis, unlike the two, were calm.
One had the constitution of an Emperor Rank while the other had a Legendary Rank's.
There was no monster or aura under Emperor Rank that could scare the two.
The female mantis however had other thoughts. It thought that the four in front were terrified of its presence and smiled.
"I like the fear in your eyes. Unfortunately, even if you beg for mercy, I'm told to finish the two of you non-humans off. As for you two humans, you'll become my master's meal, keke."
The mantis dashed at Lith who was at the forefront, its wings fluttering and creating afterimages of it.
"NOOOOOOO!" Shi screamed. He didn't want to die! And neither wanted to become a devil's meal!
Hyunsuk took a few steps back as sweat dripped down his forehead. From the mantis' aura, he guessed that it was a powerful foe he had no means to defeat.
The two did not have immunity to auras like Lith and Dennis, neither did they have rich battle experience to stay calm in the face of calamity.
What the two saw was the afterimage of the mantis, and in the next few seconds, it neared them.
Their hearts pounded intensely and their brains screamed at them to run.
However, their legs were glued to the ground below and they couldn't move.
Sweat dripped from Shi's forehead and he was about to scream again when,
Clang!
A loud metal-hitting-metal sound was heard by him.
He was looking at his master's figure and saw a flash of spark.
The afterimage of the mantis stopped and in the next instant, the humanoid mantis' baffled figure could be seen by Shi and Hyunsuk.
"How—" The mantis exclaimed and fluttered its wings, distancing itself from Lith. "How is this possible?"
Dennis shook his head and said, "Do you think a canon fodder will pose a threat to His Highness?"
"What…"
The mantis was about to ask a question when it saw Lith's figure disappear from the front.
In this instance, the mantis' instincts screamed for it to run. There was grave danger and its life could be extinguished at any moment!
"Ahhhh!" The mantis screamed and was about to run when darkness flashed in front of its eyes, cutting off its scream.
With a loud spurt, blood gushed out of its neck and its head flew away.
Lith was right behind the mantis and with a sword slash, he did not just cut its neck, but also chopped the female mantis into multiple pieces.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Uwaaaghh…" Shi puked looking at the grotesque image of the humanoid mantis getting cut.
Hyunsuk covered his mouth as well and tried not to empty his stomach's content.
The two had never encountered such a scene!
Dennis looked at the two and said, "Why are you two acting like that? Get a hold of yourself."
Despite his comment, Shi continued to puke. The scene of a woman being chopped into pieces was not something he thought he would see.
Even though it was only half a woman, it was still a human nonetheless!
Lith, who was at the front, did not see what was happening with Shi and the rest.
Instead, he squinted his eyes and stared at the darkness in front. There was a faint rumbling sound he could hear from there.
The rumbling sound amplified itself as seconds passed and in no time, the ground and the walls around Lith started shaking.
"Oh no!" Shi exclaimed once again. "I can't move! Am I going to be crushed by a boulder!?"
In a narrow passage, if there was a rumbling, anyone could guess that a boulder was charging from the front.
The glueing of their feet was also another hint for it.
It was exactly as Shi had guessed— a boulder covering the whole narrow passage rolled towards Lith and the rest.
From the looks of it, the boulder seemed ordinary, but Lith frowned and immediately turned back, running towards Shi and Hyunsuk.
Lightning flashed beneath his feet and a streak of purple light formed a trail as Lith rushed towards the rest.
He took Dennis, Hyunsuk, and Shi in his embrace and cast a Space spell to teleport outside.
However, there was no element of Space around. The spell failed!
"Shit." It was Lith who cursed this time. Dumbfounding Shi and Hyunsuk.
'I am really going to die now!' Shi cried out internally.