Chapter 128: Trap Floor (2)
They pushed forward, boots crunching over broken arrows and shattered ice. The corridor narrowed again, forcing them into a single file. Gas lamps flickered, creating shadows that made depth perception difficult.
As they continued moving, Reinhard’s eyes widened at the sight of mushrooms appearing in cracks of the wall and floor.
He saw blue and yellow ones, the same poisonous varieties Reinhard had seen in the Colin Forest.
The first mushroom exploded as Marie passed it, releasing a cloud of spores that glowed faintly green in the light.
Roana reacted instantly as she created walls of ice that erupted between the mushroom and the group, sealing off the spreading spores. The green cloud pressed against the ice, spreading across its surface but not penetrating.
But then more mushrooms exploded ahead in a chain reaction triggered by proximity or timer. Green and blue spores filled the corridor like toxic fog, rolling toward them in visible waves.
"Back against the wall!" Roana shouted while creating more barriers. Ice formed a protective shell around them and created a pocket of clean air.
But the spores came from ahead too, released by mushrooms they hadn’t yet reached. The toxic fog approached from both directions, threatening to surround them completely.
Scáth’s weapon changed, becoming a massive fan that was easily six feet across, and then she swung it forward. The fan moved with devastating force, creating a wind pressure that roared through the corridor, parting the approaching spore cloud like a curtain being drawn aside.
Green and blue spores were pushed to the corridor’s edges, pressed against walls by the wind’s force.
A clear path opened down the center.
"Move!"
They rushed forward through the opening Scáth had created. Roana ran with her hands extended, creating ice walls on both sides as they moved, and the barriers kept the spores contained to the corridor’s edges.
More mushrooms exploded as they passed, but the ice walls held them back. Some spores got through gaps, but not enough to be dangerous in the brief exposure.
They burst from the contaminated section into a wider open area with high ceilings and another set of large stairs descending to the next level. Gas lamps lined the walls, their flames burning bright and steady.
Reinhard took two steps toward those stairs before the room trembled, and Reinhard sighed.
All around them was the sight of Panels in the walls sliding aside with grinding sounds, revealing what lay behind.
Hundreds of bows mounted on mechanical frames that aimed independently. Each bow was drawn back, an arrow nocked and ready.
"Get ready!" Gran shouted, his Vector Path showing him a catastrophe approaching.
The bows fired.
Arrows filled the air, not hundreds, but what looked like thousands. They came from every wall, from different heights, at different angles, and all rushed down to submerge any trapped below it.
But it wasn’t just arrows.
Sharp metal rods launched from the walls. Six-foot-long poles rushed through the air and spun as they flew while knives shot from ceiling-mounted launchers. And if that wasn’t enough, metal bolts thick as a man’s thumb fired from hidden crossbows.
The air became solid with projectiles, all converging on the group’s position.
Drasil Step.
Time slowed around Reinhard, leading to the projectile storm freezing mid-flight, creating a three-dimensional web of death suspended in time. He could see the arrows aimed at their throats, chests, and eyes.
Metal rods positioned to impale multiple people simultaneously with knives angled to find gaps in defense and bolts targeting joints and other vulnerable points.
Gravity Step.
Reinhard took a step, leading to purple-black energy erupting from the impact point, spreading across the floor in rippling waves. The gravity waves spread out with him centered as they slowed and spread out.
Everything coming at them, arrows, rods, knives, bolts, was all pulled towards him. Their trajectories bent, curving inward toward Reinhard’s position as if he’d become a black hole drawing in all matter.
The projectiles converged, clustering together as gravity forced them into a tighter and tighter space directly in front of him.
Then he released the pull and activated the push.
The gravity field reversed.
Everything that had been drawn inward was now repelled outward with equal force. Projectiles shot away from them, flying back toward the walls they’d come from or scattering across the room in all directions.
One second of frozen time remained.
Shadow Striker.
Reinhard’s shadow spread beneath his feet, expanding rapidly across the floor. Dozens of spears erupted from that shadow, each one branching into multiple copies. The shadow spears formed a dome around the group. Instantly, a barrier of interlocking black spears was formed.
Just as time returned to normal.
The projectiles Reinhard had deflected with gravity crashed into the walls, floor, and ceiling. Arrows buried themselves in stone, metal rods embedded in cobblestone, and knives clattered across the floor.
But some projectiles had been beyond the gravity well’s range. Those who continued their approach, striking the shadow spear barrier one after another.
Arrows crashed into shadow constructs before snapping, metal rods hit and were deflected, knives seeped partially in before stopping, and bolts cracked individual spears but didn’t break through.
The barrier held, though spider web cracks appeared across its surface. Everyone was unharmed, but Reinhard still waited a couple of seconds, ensuring the barrage had fully stopped.
After counting the seconds in his mind, he released the shadow spears, which dispersed into wisps of darkness that faded quickly, revealing the room beyond.
The space was devastated.
Arrows covered every surface and made the wall look like a pincushion. The floor was a forest of metal rods, knives littered the ground, and bolts had pierced holes through the walls.
But the center was clear from Reinhard’s acting.
Scáth whistled, genuine appreciation in the sound. "I’m impressed. I thought it would be boring without any enemies, but this isn’t so bad."
Roana sighed heavily, her golden eyes tracking across the destruction. "Please don’t be. That kind of trap shouldn’t exist."
Reinhard nodded in agreement, already moving toward the stairs. "Let’s go. We’re running out of time."
They descended to the next level, leaving the devastated trap room behind.