Chapter 65: The Maze (1)

A sharp screech tore through the air.

The sound was as shrill as nails scratching glass, followed immediately by a monster’s pained wail.

The sickening, earthy smell in the air was temporarily dispersed, replaced by the pungent scent of light and fire.

“It’s Lucia.”

Without any hesitation, Machina grabbed Merlin’s wrist.

“Now’s the time. Let’s get out of here first.”

Machina pulled Merlin toward the cave entrance.

However, seeing Merlin’s somewhat stumbling pace due to her new shoes and tight stockings, Machina frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the speed.

“Too slow.”

“Eh? Wait — “

Before Merlin could react, her vision spun.

Her body suddenly went airborne, her back hitting a soft but powerful arm.

Machina actually bent down, one hand passing under Merlin’s knees and the other around her back, holding her steadily in a princess carry.

“Hold on tight.”

Machina’s voice was cold and hard.

Merlin’s face instantly turned bright red; this was even more shameful than wearing those second-hand silk stockings earlier!

She instinctively tried to struggle, but she found that Machina’s arms were as unmoving as iron pincers.

Through the thin layer of black silk stockings, Merlin could clearly feel the heat from Machina’s palm.

“Don’t move around, unless you want to die in a mud pit.”

Machina barked, her toes lightly tapping the rock as she leaped from the cave entrance.

The moment she landed, a crystal-clear ice slide instantly froze over the surface of the surging mudslide. The two of them slid down the steep mountain slope at high speeds along the edge of the mud.

The scene outside was tragically suffocating.

The once lush mountainside of the third mountain was now stained a thick, disgusting yellow by the rampaging mudslide.

In the murky background, the culprit responsible for all this was letting out a deafening roar.

Its massive body was covered in rough, thick, dark brown scales like a lizard’s. It had insectoid eyes that flickered with strange compound visions and giant bone blades like a reaper’s scythe.

Now, a deep scorch mark that revealed bone was left on its indestructible back scales. The scales that originally covered it were peeling off in large patches, revealing the bright red, wet soft flesh underneath.

*Hiss — !!!*

The compound eyes rotated, and countless tiny reflections locked onto the two figures sliding through the air.

A foul stench of breath blew toward them as the shadow of the swinging scythe blocked out the sky.

“Merlin! Hold me tight!”

Machina’s pupils shrank. Being in mid-air with nowhere to leverage herself, and holding a completely combat-incapable Merlin in her arms, she couldn’t counterattack at all.

In her panic, she made her most instinctive reaction.

Mana condensed around her.

*Crackle — crackle — *

Countless ice crystals grew wildly out of thin air, instantly constructing a thick, spherical ice shield around the two of them. Like a giant piece of amber, it tightly encased them.

“…Merlin?!”

On a distant rock, the figure holding a longsword and wrapped in residual flames suddenly stiffened.

Lucia’s face, originally pale from a severe headache caused by using mana, instantly filled with astonishment when she clearly saw the figure in Machina’s arms.

What was going on? Machina was carrying Merlin?

Although Lucia had turned back halfway specifically to find Merlin.

She had also realized that the continuous explosions were the work of an alchemy student.

She had even seen Merlin’s figure flying through the air of the second mountain.

Lucia had planned to hunt monsters along the way while looking for Merlin, but she hadn’t found her.

Eventually, Lucia decided to run to the very front to wait for Merlin. She didn’t expect to suddenly encounter a B-rank monster with a home-field advantage… no, in this situation, it could barely be considered an A-rank.

She concluded that Merlin must still be behind and circled back to look. She didn’t expect Merlin to actually be there, just being carried by Machina.

‘Hmm… given Machina’s gloomy personality, she actually didn’t knock her out of the match first?’

Her brain felt a sharp pain as if stirred by a red-hot iron poker.

“Tsk.”

This was exactly why Lucia hated using mana.

Just injecting more mana into her sword caused such a headache; she didn’t even want to imagine actually using spells.

But Lucia couldn’t care about that anymore; she had to use it.

‘At the very least, Merlin helped alleviate my pain, so I have more energy to use mana now. I can go all out one more time despite the headache, all thanks to Merlin. It would be wrong not to help!’

Lucia squeezed out all the light and fire mana in her body. The sword in her hand erupted with a blinding brilliance, turning into a meteor-like slash that hacked fiercely at the monster’s rear leg that was about to close.

*Squelch!*

The blade of light cut into the flesh, heavily wounding another of the monster’s legs.

However, the monster did not retreat as expected.

A trace of cruel cunning flashed in its countless compound eyes.

Since it couldn’t break the ice shell, it would take the meat along with the shell.

It planned to escape from Lucia first, as her mana countered it too much.

The injured monster didn’t swing its scythe to slash. Instead, it used its intact front limb to push the ice sphere containing the two of them like a giant ball, shoving it hard through the air.

*Boom!*

The ice ball didn’t break, but its trajectory changed under the massive kinetic energy. Just like that, it was pushed toward the underground as the monster dug and shoved.

“Ah — !”

A muffled cry came from inside the ice ball.

Lucia staggered forward.

Now, Machina and Merlin had been pushed into the tunnel, with only half of the monster’s body still showing.

She endured the headache to give the monster one last sword strike.

*Hiss!!!*

“I’ve had enough. This hide is way too thick!”

However, only a layer of armor fell off the monster’s back, revealing the bright red soft flesh.

Lucia hated these defense-specialized monsters that couldn’t be finished off quickly. Both physically and mentally.

*Rumble — *

Forget it, she’d just chase after them.

Machina didn’t matter, but Merlin still had to be saved.

Lucia stared at the mud and ran, intending to follow through that tunnel.

As the monster fully burrowed in, the unstable geological structure collapsed again. Countless dirt and rocks tumbled down, completely sealing the crack.

Lucia was left standing alone in the messy yellow mud, listening to the vibrations fading into the distance.

“Tsk, I’ll have to find another way.”

***

Inside the falling ice sphere.

The moment darkness descended, Merlin felt that the person holding her didn’t let go, but instead held her even tighter.

Machina’s warm, rapid breath hit her ear, sounding exceptionally clear in this narrow, enclosed, and rapidly falling cold space.

Machina looked at the Merlin in her arms. Once upon a time, she had been the girl curled up in Merlin’s arms.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine…”

“I was careless. I wanted to cooperate with Lucia while the monster was heavily injured, but I didn’t expect to be countered in mid-air.”

Machina took a deep breath.

“Get ready. I’m afraid the monster’s labyrinth is right below us.”