Christine reacted swiftly. The moment he sensed the approaching danger, he threw himself to the side.
He followed it up with a clumsy roll, tumbling away in a heap along with the cluster of slimes clinging to him.
Fortunately, this undignified maneuver saved him from the oncoming mist.
Right behind him, Arthas and Irene leaped into action.
With more time to react than Christine, they were able to dodge the rushing mist with far greater composure.
Having missed its targets, the mist blanketed the spot where they had just stood. A foul, pungent odor filled the air, accompanied by the sizzling and crackling of corroding soil and rock.
“A corrosive poison mist? And... this familiar aura.”
Mid-leap and yet to touch the ground, Irene's eyes narrowed. Her sharp senses instantly picked up on something.
But before she could dwell on it, a deafening rumble echoed from above, accompanied by the violent shaking of the entire cavern.
Irene and Arthas, who had barely regained their footing upon landing, looked up almost simultaneously to see massive stone stalactites, each the size of a carriage, raining down from the ceiling.
Christine had just been about to scramble up from the ground. Seeing this, he let out a weird yelp, scooped up the slimes rolling around him as fast as he could, and without a second thought, dove to the side and rolled away once more.
The falling stone stalactites crashed down repeatedly where he had just been, but they miraculously missed him every time.
On the other side, Irene and Arthas had already unsheathed their chainswords. They darted back and forth to evade the falling hazards, slashing away at any massive stone stalactites that came too close.
Amidst the roaring of the chainswords, dust, sand, and stone fragments sprayed in all directions. Combined with the plumes of dust kicked up by the impact of the falling rocks, the entire area was engulfed in a thick haze within moments, reducing visibility to nearly zero.
Just then, the blue slime perched on Irene's head seemed to detect something. It let out a "Mu-yi!" and extended a tiny tentacle to point in a certain direction, squeaking in rapid, varying tones.
Even without Christine nearby to translate, Irene could guess what the little guy was trying to say—it had likely spotted an enemy in that direction.
With no time to think, Irene, forced into this sudden skirmish, shattered a massive falling boulder above her head with a single swing and stomped her foot hard against the ground.
With a dull thud, she shot upward like a rocket, landing squarely on one of the falling stalactites.
Using it as a springboard, she leaped again.
She adjusted her trajectory mid-air to dodge a thin stream of green mist weaving through the falling rocks, rapidly closing in on the cavern ceiling where the slime was pointing.
As the distance shrank, Irene's heart grew increasingly uneasy.
Through the gaps between the falling stalactites, she could faintly make out a dark green figure hiding behind one of the stone pillars near the ceiling.
The figure was moving nimbly among the stone structures, and with every shift in position, another stalactite would break loose and plunge downward.
“It's probably not a mutant.”
Irene quickly reached a conclusion. Every mutant she had encountered so far lacked any semblance of intelligence or reason.
“Could it be...” A possibility crossed her mind. “A third party hiding in the shadows, covering their tracks as they went?”
Whoosh!
While Irene was lost in thought, another figure surged toward the target at a speed even greater than hers.
It was Christine.
At some point, the guy had managed to toss all his slimes into a safe corner where the falling stalactites couldn't reach them.
Now, wielding a pair of silver spears, he was charging like a knight, thrusting toward the mysterious figure hidden behind the stone pillar.
Whoosh!
Several vines suddenly shot out from behind the stone spires, sweeping toward Christine with a sharp whistling sound.
A fierce glint flashed in Christine's eyes. With no footing in midair, he fiercely swung his silver spear.
The spear's shaft erupted with a silver glow, as if it had been honed to a razor-sharp edge, instantly slicing through the first few incoming vines.
But immediately after, even more vines emerged from behind the stone spires, sweeping toward Christine like a torrential rain of arrows.
Facing the oncoming onslaught, the white dragon disguised as an elf swung his silver spear once more, attempting to repeat the trick.
Yet when he struck the vines, it felt as though he were slashing through empty air.
The silver spear passed right through them.
No, he was slashing through empty air. It was an illusion!
Christine was momentarily stunned.
In the next instant, an endless torrent of vines cascaded down like ocean waves, surging toward him.
It was completely impossible to tell whether these vines were illusions or real!
It seemed they were trying to force him back.
Christine's expression turned grim.
If he reverted to his true form, he could easily resolve this predicament.
In this elven form, the power he could exert was simply too limited.
After a brief hesitation, he only had time to send a mental transmission before charging forward anyway, plunging into the sea of vines.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Christine dodged sideways, evading vine after vine, occasionally slashing with his silver spear. Yet every single strike unexpectedly hit nothing but air.
This caused him to relax, unconsciously lowering his guard. He assumed this abruptly appearing mysterious figure was merely putting up a brave front and had already exhausted their options with the first attack. Now, they could only rely on this cheap illusion magic to delay them and buy time to escape.
But in the very next moment, a dark green vine—several times faster than the others—suddenly pierced through the air, hurtling toward Christine's eyes with a violent, whistling screech.
Having just let his guard down, Christine was startled. He instinctively raised his silver spear to block his face, attempting to deflect the incoming vine.
To his surprise, the vine's toughness far exceeded his expectations. The usually unstoppable silver spear was instantly wrapped in coil after coil of the vine.
In his split second of bewilderment, more dark green vines came rushing in right after.
Christine's eyes widened. Instead of letting go of his spear, he immediately brandished his other silver spear, trying to slice through the vines binding the first one.
This was undoubtedly a mistake. Even though he crossed the two silver spears like a pair of shears and slashed at the vines with his magically sharpened blades, he only managed to cut through the outer bark. At the same time, he was met with an incredibly sluggish, heavy resistance.
In just that brief instant of delay, more vines descended upon his surroundings.
Dark green vines were reflected in Christine's widened eyes.
His limbs were instantly bound by the vines. Moreover, they continued to crawl upward at an alarming speed, completely binding him in a matter of moments, wrapping him as tight as a cocoon.
The tightening vines tore through his clothes, exposing large patches of pale skin. Christine wanted to call out for help, but a vine slid over his lips, forcing him to clench his teeth and resist with all his might.
His sharp eyes darted toward the ceiling of the cavern, the direction from which the vines had come.
Up in the dark shadows of the ceiling, a pair of brilliant golden slit-pupils met his gaze.
With green hair fluttering, the owner of the golden eyes softly chanted a sinister, guttural incantation. A powerful premonion of danger set off frantic alarm bells in Christine's mind.
He tried to struggle, but he could not break free from the vines' grip.
In this life-or-death moment, a fierce look flashed in Christine's eyes. The current situation no longer allowed him to hold back.
The pristine white scales hidden beneath his skin began to surface...
Whoosh!
The figure hiding in the shadows abruptly stopped chanting. Her sharp golden eyes constricted as she glanced sideways, catching the reflection of a roaring chainsword in her peripheral vision.
Irene's gaze was ice-cold. While Christine was buying time, she had already successfully closed the distance. Now, she looked down from above at the green-haired, golden-eyed woman.
Without a shred of mercy, she swung her chainsword toward the woman's neck.
Screech—!
A harsh, metal-on-metal screech echoed through the entire cavern. The teeth of the chainsword collided and grated against green scales, sending a shower of sparks flying!
Witnessing this, Christine, who had been about to reveal his true white dragon form, was stunned, and the scales beneath his skin quickly receded.
Rate on N.U.
