Ascension of the Dark Seraph - Chapter 125

Chapter 125: You’re Still Weak Chapter 125: You’re Still Weak In class, academy hunters are taught every single detail about taking down dungeons.

Because of that, the group could recognize this massive creature as none other than a Rock Sentinel.

A notorious monster inside a blue dungeon-known for their impenetrable defense that even five-star Acolyte Hybrids couldn’t breach.

An assault team’s bottleneck for most blue dungeons that hosted its presence.

Based on the professors, the Rock Sentinels usually guarded the Teal Coin.

However, in this case, the Stone Orcs must have taken the Teal Coin from it and placed it on top of the mountain peak.

Lucivar, and the others, were fortunate-it would have been quite impossible for them had the Rock Sentinel guarded the Teal Coin.

‘It’s a teenager…’ Leandra wiped the blood drizzling down from her nose.  From a quick glance, the Rock Sentinel’s size was several feet shorter than stated.

Leandra assumed that it hadn’t matured because of that, so the situation was not as bad as she initially thought but even then, the alien energy it radiated was suffocating.

Fighting the creature would’ve been a suicide.

“Run!” She shouted and turned to sprint away.

Compared to the unknown danger lying beyond the precipice, the Rock Sentinel is worse.

A second later, Lucivar snapped out of his trance and ran in the other direction.

Ravenna, Mirel, and Nerissa were already way ahead.

Panting roughly from the mouth, Lucivar infused ether into his legs to run like hell.

But in that second, his pupils dilated seeing a dark trail of energy the size of his arm-coiled from behind, and connected to him.

Lucivar’s heart skipped a beat, he looked back and saw the Rock Sentinel lifting its massive foot.

Proselytes have the ability to sense life force as well as ether.

And the reason they had that ability was because all Crossers could do that.

Sensing the sheer thickness of Lucivar’s life force, the Rock Sentinel targeted him instantly.

Boom!!

Once the Rock Sentinel slammed its titanic foot down upon the snowfield, with a thunderous force, the earth cracked beneath the sheer magnitude, of its weight.

Around the impact site, the pristine snow erupted skyward in a dazzling plume, scattering shards of ice and frost.

Lucivar thought of this as an intimidation display but it was not.

A deadly chain of explosions followed.

Five meters ahead-another surge of snow, blasted into the air, then another-and another, each explosion unfurling at precise intervals, carving a trail of ruin across the icy expanse- the shockwave relentlessly surged forward.

Seeing the approaching devastation, Lucivar felt the tremor beneath his feet growing.

He reacted quickly, grabbing Leandra and flaring his wing to make a high leap.  But the force was too swift to evade, its crescendo struck Lucivar as he was about to leap.

Lucivar and Leandra were thrown high into the air-spinning like ragdolls and landed on the snow ground roughly with a grunt.

Groaning in pain, Lucivar pushed himself up and glanced at the Rock Sentinel again.

‘It’s so strong, I don’t know how to beat it…’ He pondered, his face paled from all colors.  Seeing that the creature was still approaching at a slow pace, Lucivar climbed up to his feet, but his eyes then widened.

He had faced death and he suffered pain, but at this moment, he saw a trace of fear.

Out of nowhere, his knee buckled, slamming into the forest ground with a muted thud.

His breath hitched-eyes widening in disbelief as a tremor coursed through his entire body.

So violent it felt as though his very core had been unmoored.

Lucivar lowered his gaze, confusion, and unease warring within him, only to find both his legs and hands trembling uncontrollably-against his will.

It was a sight so foreign to him-that he was rendered momentarily stunned.

Never had his body betrayed him like this before.

Raising his gaze again, he saw the Rock Sentinel yanking out a chunk of the ground.

It couldn’t reach Lucivar fast so it decided to cripple him instead by throwing this boulder.

‘Come on, move!’ Lucivar shouted inside his head, he wanted to avoid this attack but he was frozen in place.

His legs would move as if there were nails-pinning them to the ground.

Just as the Rock Sentinel threw the boulder, Leandra pulled him out of the way.

Using her telekinetic ability, she pulled him from the boulder’s way.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Leandra asked in complete shock.

“Let’s get out of here first” Nodding his head, the two continued on ahead, leaving the Rock Sentinel behind.

Reaching the narrow path between ridges, Lucivar and Leandra, saw the others at the end of the path, waiting for them.

Once they regrouped back, Leandra instantly turned towards him, “What was that?

Why didn’t you move out of the way?” “I…

I don’t know,” Lucivar replied silently.

It was the truth, he really didn’t know why his body refused to listen to him back then.

Leandra was about to snap as Lucivar picked the worst time to be like that but Ravenna-on the side, came to stop her.

She held Leandra’s shoulder and smiled, “Let’s see your wounds, your nose is bleeding” Reluctantly, Leandra turned away and went over to Nerissa.

Ravenna cast a glance at Lucivar before she went to check on him to see if he was wounded.

She said nothing as she did it as Lucivar seemed to be in deep thought.

Moments later.

Knowing that the Stone Orcs were keeping an eye on them from the mountain peak, Lucivar and the others decided to use a small forest west of the mountain as cover.

Leandra as well as Mirel were meditating-regenerating their ether from the earlier battle.

Lucivar did too but he was done earlier than the others.

He leaned his head back on a tree trunk and sighed.

“What happened earlier…?

I don’t understand” He muttered, still fixed on that moment.

If Leandra hadn’t pulled him out of the way, he might’ve eaten that big boulder.

As he contemplated in silence, a wind of dark bronze energy appeared a couple of meters, to his side.

It was Sha, she sat on the snowy ground and gazed at Lucivar piercingly, “You’re not ready for this dungeon.

It is not too late to turn around, you can find another way around that professor’s approval” “Tch…

if you’re only going to mock me, don’t come out” Lucivar retorted.

“I’m not mocking you.

I’m telling you” “I was only caught off guard.

It’s a simple mistake, it won’t happen again” “Mistake…?” Sha approached, her paws sinking into the snow with each step.

She went to sit in front of Luciva-her tail playing behind.

“All this while, you planned or at least had a rough plan on what to do, but it wouldn’t work in a place like this.

This place requires you to adapt.

You might be good in a duel-but this kind of place is completely different, it’s unforgiving and it won’t give you time to think” “And what’s that have to do with me freezing earlier?” “You’re crumbling…

you don’t have a plan and you don’t know what to do against that thing” Upon hearing this, Lucivar frowned deeply.

He didn’t want to believe that he was crumbling in the face of the Rock Sentinel.

It was true that this was his first time actually entering a dungeon-subconsciously, he might be nervous and knew that he could easily die here unlike in the real world, as a dungeon isn’t a magical phenomenon or something that the world offered.

No…

it was practically a battlefield between two worlds.

One belongs to Humanity while the other belongs to the Primordials.

“Ridiculous,” Lucivar averted his gaze away.

“I’ve faced similar situations like this” “Still don’t want to accept it?” Sha smirked, her fangs poking out as she went closer.

Now she sat between Lucivar’s legs, forcing him to look at her, “If you don’t want to accept it, I should tell you-that when you met Caldaros earlier, you froze…

your body was shaking too.

You might not realize it but it happened.

You are forced to kill Caldaros-but you do not know how to do it, so you crumbled” “In other words,” Sha continued and leaned forward.

“you’re still weak…” Deg!

Lucivar could feel those words cut deep into his heart.

He gritted his teeth-a surge of wrath igniting his veins like molten fire.

“Never say that to me again, I’m no longer weak…” Lucivar replied raspingly.

His eyes glared sharply at Sha.

For a moment there, he forgot that Sha was practically a God and glared at her warningly.

Upon seeing his reaction, Sha was pleased.

“Anger beats fear, that’s good.

But nevertheless, you must accept your weakness or else you will never grow.

In the face of an overwhelming opponent, you froze, fix that-and you will be stronger” She advised.

Surprisingly, she was encouraging him instead of mocking him as usual.

Despite his reluctance, Lucivar knew deep down that she was right.

“How…

How can I fix that?” He asked.

Hearing this Sha’s body began to dissipate slowly, turning back into a lump of bronze energy.

“Fear makes the wolf bigger and you fear of not having a plan.

In order to fix that-you must confront what was in front of you first because, in truth, you are not that powerless.

You are the Blessed Oracle, after all…” “Keep your laser-focus on the price, do not waver from it even in the face of the strong” Once Sha disappeared, Lucivar was left alone once again.

Recalling the moment earlier, he did find the Rock Sentinel too overwhelming.

He didn’t know how to beat it and thus he froze.

“Do you consider yourself harmless or do you consider yourself as dangerous…?” Lucivar’s mind was thrown back to what Gandr said to him.

“I’m the Blessed Oracle, I’m dangerous…” He uttered, his eyes flashing with a deadly light.

About ten minutes later, the group moved once again.

Even though Leandra’s bloodline-was able to keep the portal sealed, they didn’t have much time, until the portal shattered.

If that happened, Professor Victor would probably consider it a failure.

Before that happens, Lucivar and the others should get the Teal Coin.

Due to that, once they recovered their ether-they made their move again.

Having not a single piece of information, about the Stone Orcs, other than they were taunting them to climb the mountain, the group decided to circle the mountain through the woods and see if they could calculate the Stone Orcs’ forces.

Climbing the mountain with the Stone Orcs around would be an impossible task.

It would be a clear disadvantage for them as the Stone Orcs have the upper ground.

Gathering more intelligence is their top priority at the moment.

Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be anyone inside the forest, the coast was clear.

Ravenna and Mirel went on ahead to observe the Stone Orcs on the peak.

Currently-the group was already on the back side of the mountain-and could check if the Stone Orcs had more numbers than they showed earlier.

Lucivar-and the others waited for the two to return but then, Nerissa caught sight of something in the distance.

A light that seemed to come from torches.

Sneaking closer, Nerissa’s eyes sparkled, “A village…?

It’s the Stone Orc’s village!”