Rise of the Nightmare Crestmaster

He coughed blood, the tentacle didn't pierce the chest armor at least not completely but it dented it and cracks appeared everywhere. The impact was enough to cause Aldrich internal damage.

After all it was a grade one monster. Equivalent to a true Crestmaster.

Aldrich landed on the sand and rolled, he had not felt like this since his first fight against the armored husk.

"Haaa!"

Aldrich tried to breath but everything felt out of wack until he shook his head and the daze he was in with it. With a roar he regained his composure.

Aldrich looked at the scene in front of him, Frank was suspended in the air by four tentacles. But it was not the same Aberrant acolyte that attacked Aldrich, it was the first mate.

There were two of them.

Aldrich ran towards the suspended Frank with the spear that he was still holding onto but he suddenly raised the spear horizontally and took three steps back.

The Aberrant acolyte captain attacked with his tentacles and he used the pole of the spear to block. The hit made his hands shake, the metallic pole of the spear was bent with that blow, not too much as to impede use.

The Aberrant captain didn't move from his place but his tentacles were extremely long and fast, crossing ten meters in the blink of an eye. In fact if it was anyone else they would already be dead taking these two hits.

Aldrich used his Light step skill once again, he had to get Frank and get out of here before it's too late. Without even looking he knew the rest of the pirates were already rushing here.

Besides there was a bigger chance now when these monsters were not going all out yet. The Aberrant acolyte was not known for its brute strength but—

"Aghhhhaaaa!!!"

Before he could think anymore he was struck with an invisible attack, the Aberrant acolyte did not make any move at least not physically. In the back of his mind Aldrich realized it this is [psychic Lash].

His mind felt like it was suddenly and violently seized and flung into a sea storm. He could only think of that time when he received the armored husk's memories.

It was only thanks to his already powerful will and mind that he was able to keep himself from losing consciousness and with that he took one step towards Frank before being stabbed twice.

One shattered the remains of his chest piece, the armored plates splintered like broken glass instead of metal, and tore into his guts. The second was to his upper right chest.

His blood painted the sand with red droplets and that pain sobered him up enough to attempt to stand again after falling on his knees but another shock rattled his body.

This was [Spark Shock] an attack that sent some kind of energy into the bodies of the victims and stunned them.

"F-Frank!"

Aldrich could hardly think anymore let alone save anyone. He watched in horror as the second Aberrant acolyte pulled at his limbs from four different directions at once.

"Aaahghhh!!!"

Frank who had lost consciousness at some point, regained it in the most painful way possible and screamed his heart out as the sounds of tearing and dislocating rang out in the area.

'Please, hold on!'

Aldrich needed to recover mentally, that was where most of the damage he got. The flesh wounds were terrible but he knew he still had some fight in him so long as he got a few seconds to recover his messed up mind.

In fact thanks to this psychic attack even the flow of thoughts was slowed down.

But time waited for no one.

"Aghaaaaa!!!"

Frank's limbs were about to be torn up now, at this moment not a few seconds later.

Suddenly.

Frank's eyes release blue light and the saber that fell down on the sand, the monsters didn't care for it. That saber released the same blue light and flew into the air of it's own accord to Frank.

*phwooosh!*

A blue arc of Ether suddenly cut off all four tentacles holding Frank, he fell on the sand, the saber besides him. Frank didn't move an inch after falling and his eyes were shut.

Aldrich used the chance when the monsters were stunned, he pulled out the tentacles that were stuck in him and jumped over Frank, he loaded him on his back and didn't forget to take the saber with him.

Aldrich sensed that the acolytes were not giving chase and he didn't care why not either. He used his last Light step skill, after which his Ether would be completely depleted.

Fortunately it was a straight line back to the other cave. The others were fending off the other pirates and they all ran back through the tunnel when they saw him.

Aldrich didn't care about his body now, he pressed on even after the ten seconds of the skill duration ran out. He passed through the tunnel to the bat cave which was much smaller.

The others were dumbly waiting for him on the other side. He threw Frank off of his back and struck the walls of the tunnel in quick succession.

"Hit the walls!" He yelled at them desperately, "NOW!"

The walls of the tunnel were already unstable they started demolishing it, he unleashed a barrage of strikes on the walls of the tunnel and didn't stop even after the spear became a blunt piece of crap.

The wall started falling off chunk after chunk filled the tunnel, Aldrich could feel them on the other side. Suddenly he was hit again with a [psychic Lash] from the other side.

Aldrich fell down and felt a pair of hands pull him from the back, in his groggy stated he said, "more don't stop!"

Maybe they were lucky.

Suddenly the entire bat cave started shacking and huge chunks of rock and stone fell, making for a sufficient barrier.

"Aldrich! Can you hear me?!"

But maybe they were also unlucky. Because…

"The cave! It fell down from both sides, we can't get through to the basement of the lighthouse."

'So we're stuck.'