Chapter 158 - Taming the Ancient Ruins - 8
"The numbness in your mana flow will only last a few minutes," Ren explained as he began pressing different points on the door. "It's better that you can't use mana for now... You're going to accompany us."
His fingers moved with precision, following the pattern he had perceived when he first touched the door. It was like playing an invisible melody, each point needing exact pressure at the exact moment. Experience exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire
Ren pressed the symbols with growing urgency as the presences approached at an alarming speed. He regretted not having the fast option, the key.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he worked, but something wasn't right. They were moving too fast, as if something had fundamentally changed.
And then it hit him.
'The interrupted mana flow of my "hostage",' he thought as panic began to bloom in his chest. His fingers trembled against the cold metal of the door.
Any decent perception beast would detect the anomaly, the expelled mana stopping abruptly, like a sudden death amid all the natural flow. A red flag that would send any guard into high alert.
They might think she is dead now.@@novelbin@@
"Oops…"
The six new students flashed through his mind, six presences that now made terrible sense. Their arrival after Julius's visit, their behavior, the way they always seemed to be observing, their minimal participation in classes...
'Guards?'
The thought made his hands shake slightly making it more difficult to open the door.
'Did I just attack and threaten someone under Julius's royal protection?'
As if that wasn't enough, another presence, a strange energy pulsed above for a moment. His imagination playing tricks?
The symbols under his fingers seemed to resist now, as if his own panic interfered with the pattern. The ancient metal felt cold and unresponsive, refusing to yield to his touch.
What had he gotten himself into?
Discovering ancient ruins in secret was one thing, but interfering with the mana flow of someone under kingdom protection...
"They're getting closer."
Ren adjusted his grip on the girl while trying to maintain concentration on the pattern. The girl remained oddly still, as if oblivious to the gravity of the situation.
She was more occupied exploring Ren's torso with curiosity, her free hand sliding across his abdomen. As if she couldn't believe the incredibly hard texture she found there.
The presences were already near the crack when finally the last symbol yielded under his fingers. The ancient door began to move with a sound that seemed to resonate through the entire metallic structure, its echo bouncing off the spherical walls.
"Inside! Quickly!"
The ancient door had barely finished opening when a figure leapt through the crack. One of the new students, her earth wolverine manifesting for the first time since arriving at the academy.
The Bronze rank 2 beast combined with its tamer gave her a menacing air.
Ren shoved Min and Taro toward the interior while his fingers frantically searched for the closing pattern on the internal panel. A second agent was already entering through the crack, her shadow stretching ominously across the metal floor.
'Just a few more symbols!' Ren released the captured girl, throwing her to Min to focus on the patterns, his fingers moving with desperate urgency.
The girl with the Bronze 2 wolverine lunged at him to attack. Her claws found Ren's arm but couldn't break the hydra's crystalline scales, the momentum died with a sound like metal striking glass.
The guard's and spy girl's eyes widened in surprise at seeing the manifestation of a second beast in Ren.
They shouted simultaneously:
"So you were a damned Yino spy, traitor!" the guard snarled, realizing Ren was a double tamer.
"So those weren't steel abs, traitor!" the 'spy' girl blurted, blushing as she realized she wasn't focusing on the important problem… that Ren had two beasts.
"You are lucky she's alive, surrender her now and your death will be quick and painless!"
The second agent who had passed through the crack charged forward while a third figure began emerging from the crack. Taro managed to catch the first one who was in a stalemate with Ren in a bear hug, but the second was already about to enter too.
Ren's fingers pressed the final sequence. The ancient door closed with a metallic groan that echoed through the chamber.
'Yes!' Ren thought, but his relief was short-lived.
The second agent had managed to slip inside just before the door was sealed.
"Damn it."
Now they were trapped with two formidable opponents: a Bronze rank 2 agent with an earth wolverine and another Bronze rank 1 with a Night Ambusher (an evolutionary branch of the Night Excavator Ren had visited in the forest near his house, the ones that dig traps).
The first agent broke free from Taro's grip with an elbow to his side and a fluid movement that spoke of years of training.
Ren raised his guard, ready to fight alongside Taro. The guards mirrored their stance, tension crackling in the air between them.
Face to face, the wolverine one started creating a chunk of earth. The second guard touched the earth with her claws, and before Taro and Min's astonished eyes, the material began to fuse with her extremities.
The claws grew and sharpened, transforming into deadly mineral extensions. They were a devastating combination, the wolverine's elemental power providing the material that the Night Ambusher converted into lethal weapons.
'A duo with good synergy,' Ren analyzed while manifesting more of his hydra, crystalline scales spreading across his skin. 'Like Luna and her team members.'
They were two attack beasts. Earth elemental damage and a high-speed earth controller, the perfect vanguard for the caves.
"Wait," Ren tried to reason, raising his hands. "This is a misunderstanding, we only…"
He barely managed to dodge the first attack from the Night Ambusher agent, her mineral claws slicing through the air where his head had been a second before.
The Night Ambusher moved like a shadow, so different from its base form that it was hard to believe it had ever been a digger designed for ambushes. In this evolution it had sacrificed stealth for pure speed and offensive power.
"Silence, Yino spy!" the wolverine agent spat the words like venom.
"I'm not…!"
"We've already seen your second beast. Only the royal family and select nobles know the secret to achieving that so don't play dumb. Who's your employer?!"
It was clear they weren't going to listen. Taro took up a defensive stance, his Living Tunnel manifesting as well. Ren adopted a defensive posture, hydra scales glinting in the strange light of the ancient chamber.
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