Inside the ancient mausoleum.
Click.
"Hmm?"
Aeridar raised an eyebrow, glancing down at a stone tile that had just sunk underfoot.
Click—click—click—click...
The unmistakable grind of triggered chanisms echoed through the corridor. On both sides of the narrow stone passage, countless pin-sized holes dotted the rock walls.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—whoosh...
A sudden hail of arrows erupted from the holes, fired so fast they blurred into dark streaks, a storm of deadly shadows converging like a black cloud. They swept toward the center with lethal precision, filling every inch of space.
"Another trap?! Seriously?"
Aeridar let out a sharp, annoyed huff, but even before the breath had fully escaped, his arms flung wide.
Whhhhoooosh—!
In the blink of an eye, a violent shockwave burst forth from his body. Like a hurricane condensed into an instant, it ripped through the corridor, shredding the cloud of arrows mid-air. tal shafts clattered to the ground in shattered heaps.
This wasn't the first ti. On this trek alone, Aeridar had triggered at least seven or eight traps; collapsing floors of quicksand, rolling boulders, labyrinth illusions... And that wasn't counting the already-destroyed chanisms left behind by the Triangle Pirates, or the reanimated stone sentinels activated by "Lion"—knights, beasts, guardians of old.
Even with his ability to sense Lion's movents, Aeridar had taken multiple wrong turns in the maze-like tomb. Each dead-end was rigged with its own deathtrap, but brute force had always been his answer.
One ti, he'd broken through so violently that the entire corridor caved in, burying him alive. He still clawed his way out.
So of the chambers he explored were complete dead zones, lined with nothing but traps. Others stood hollow, scattered with rusted relics, likely already looted by the Triangle Pirates.
After rounding another bend and descending a dozen stone steps, Aeridar finally reached what looked to be the end.
The corridor opened up into a chamber, dimly lit by torch sconces on either side. In front of him stood a massive stone gate, five ters tall and engraved with fierce beasts frozen mid-roar, every carving steeped in the weight of ancient ti.
But that wasn't what caught his attention.
Two statues stood flanking the door, knights forged of dark steel, their polished armor gleaming dully in the firelight. One gripped a sword, the other a shield.
And they moved.
Their tallic pupils rotated with a chanical grind, locking onto Aeridar with unblinking intensity.
"Intruder. Eliminate."
The cold, rigid voice rang from both statues at once as they stepped forward in perfect sync, weapons raised for the kill.
"Annoying."
Aeridar clicked his tongue and vanished.
In the next instant, he reappeared between them, his fists already pressed to their breastplates.
"Impact Fist!!"
His low shout preceded a focused blast of kinetic force.
BOOM!
The twin knights exploded outward at the chest, their bodies fragnting into thousands of razor-sharp tal shards. The debris riddled the stone walls and door behind them, leaving it pocked and cratered.
Clang—clatter—!
Their ruined halves crumpled to the floor. Silent. Still.
Aeridar didn't even spare them a glance. He walked up to the towering stone gate and gave it a push.
Nothing.
He braced both hands against it, muscles bulging beneath his coat as veins surged like cords along his forearms. His boots sank slightly into the stone from the pressure—
Still nothing.
All he managed were two deep handprints in the surface.
"You've got to be kidding . I could shove a Class-3 Marine warship with less effort."
He stared in disbelief.
Grumbling under his breath, Aeridar began feeling along the edges of the door and the surrounding walls, searching for any hidden levers or triggers.
No luck. After several long minutes of probing and muttered curses, the gate remained impassive.
He sighed, staring up at the door once more.
"Alright, fine. I admit it, I don't have the knack for tomb raiding. Worst case? I get buried again."
He stepped up, placing both palms on the stone once more. His eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped into a quiet command.
"High-Frequency Impact: Shatter!"
His palms twitched ever so slightly, and for the briefest instant, a faint white shimr pulsed outwards.
Crack.
Crack... crack crack...
A subtle fissure appeared, then, radiating outward from beneath Aeridar's hands, more and more cracks spiderwebbed across the gate's surface. In just a few heartbeats, the entire five-ter-tall gate was covered in a dense web of fractures.
RUMBLE—
With a deafening crash, the massive stone gate shattered completely, collapsing into a heap of rubble and kicking up a cloud of choking dust.
Climbing atop the broken stones, Aeridar finally got a good look at the gate's structure. It was nearly three ters thick, and the sliding tracks on either side were ingeniously engineered to diffuse external force.
That explained why his first attempt had been entirely ineffective; the force had been redirected, nullified.
Crossing the rubble, Aeridar stepped into a space that took him entirely by surprise.
Before him stretched a vast plaza, a massive square at least two hundred ters wide. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of torches blazed along the surrounding walls, illuminating everything in a flickering amber glow.
The walls themselves were adorned with intricate murals and high-relief carvings, and far overhead, the vaulted ceiling bore a colossal engraving of a savage beast, so lifelike, it looked as though it might leap down at any mont. It must've been fifty ters up, maybe more.
And at the very center of the plaza stood an enormous statue of a black dragon.
It was the lizard-like type, crafted entirely from black tal, at least forty ters long. Its coiled body radiated a nacing grandeur.
But that wasn't the point.
The point was: the black tal dragon had co to life.
Its gem-like crimson eyes began to glow, swiveling in their sockets. The grotesquely large head swung left, then right. Its horns curved like a devil's, and the sheer weight of its presence bore down like a mountain. Every breath it took stirred the air; every claw left deep gouges in the stone floor.
"You're fast, mutt. Sll's sharp as ever, but damn, you look like hell."
A scathing voice laced with anger echoed from the dragon's body.
The dragon spoke?
Of course not.
Aeridar looked up, and saw "Lion" in human form again. Pale as a ghost, gasping for air, his clothes were little more than rags now, coated in gri and blood.
"You look like death ward over. What, your kidneys give out?" Aeridar sneered, lips curled in mockery.
In contrast to Aeridar's healthy flush, "Lion" really did look worse for wear.
"The hell they did! Your whole family's kidneys are shot, damn it!" "Lion's" face darkened with fury, snarling back in frustration.
Truth was, he'd taken a serious hit earlier and only barely recovered thanks to sheer grit and willpower.
Since then, he'd been burning through stamina nonstop, using the Living Glove to animate the stone and tal sentries one after another. That black tal dragon alone had nearly drained him dry.
The Living Glove had one fatal flaw though.
To animate lifeless matter, they consud the user's physical strength. The larger and denser the object, the heavier the toll. And bringing the black tal dragon fully to life? That had nearly killed him.
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