[POV: Ren Takashi] [Location: The West Tunnel Entrance - The Gnoll Warlord's Grave]
The carcass of the Gnoll Warlord was still there, lying in the center of the junction like a gruesome monument to their failure.
Ren stared at it. The massive body was slumped against the wall, its chest cavity ruined where Daigo had bashed it and Ren had stabbed it. But it wasn't the monster that held Ren's attention. It was the blood smeared on the floor nearby.
Reiji's blood.
"We held the line here," Reiji said, his voice tight. The Paladin was leaning on his sword, his ribs wrapped tight under his armor. He pointed a trembling finger toward the gaping maw of the West Tunnel. "When Vance ran... I told Hinata and Toru to take Mei and go deep. To hide."
"You told them to run into the dungeon?" Daigo asked, adjusting his shiny, mended shield.
"The pack was pushing us back toward the elevator," Reiji explained, guilt etched into every line of his face. "The West Tunnel was empty. It was the only way out. I thought... I thought I could hold the Warlord long enough for them to find a safe spot."
"You did," Ren said firmly. He clapped a hand on Reiji's shoulder. "They're alive, Reiji. I can feel it. Now let's go get them."
Ren turned to the group.
"Formation!" Ren barked.
They moved with a discipline born of trauma.
"Daigo, point," Ren ordered.
"On it!" Daigo stepped to the front, banging his shield.
"Yui, back him up. If anything gets past the shield, you punch it."
Yui Kanzaki nodded. She was in 'Low Battery' mode, looking like she was about to fall asleep standing up. She yawned, covering her mouth with a small fist. "Okay. Punch. Got it."
"Reiji, take the right flank. Don't overexert yourself. Just be a wall."
"Understood."
"Sayaka, Noa. Middle. You're the artillery. Keep your eyes open."
Sayaka nodded, clutching her black notebook. Noa was busy mixing something in a small palette she held, looking utterly bored.
"Hanae," Ren turned to the nervous girl adjusting her glasses. "You're floating. Keep a barrier prepped on Ayaka. If we get ambushed from behind, I need that bubble up instantly."
"Already done," Hanae whispered, her wand twitching. "I have a 360-degree detection ward active. If a pebble moves wrong, I'm bubbling everyone. Statistically, the rear is the most vulnerable point for a pincer attack."
"Rika, you're my shadow," Ren said, looking at the Rogue. "Left flank. Stay close."
"Always," Rika smirked, though her hands were gripping her daggers a little too tight.
"Toby, Itsuki, Ayaka—rear guard. Protect the Healer."
"I shall protect her with my life!" Toby declared, raising a rusted iron bar he had found. "And this sturdy piece of rebar!"
"Just don't hit yourself with it, Toby," Ren muttered. "Move out."
They crossed the threshold.
The transition was instant. One moment, they were in the junction, lit by the faint glow of moss and mana lamps. The next, they were swallowed by the West Tunnel.
It was darker here. Heavier.
The air smelled like wet fur, ammonia, and old meat. It cloyed at the back of Ren's throat, making him want to gag.
"Torches," Ren whispered.
Itsuki and Toby struck flint. Two torches flared to life, casting flickering, orange pools of light that barely pushed back the encroaching shadows.
They walked in silence for ten minutes. The only sounds were the crunch of boots on loose gravel and the heavy breathing of the squad.
"It's too quiet," Daigo whispered, shielding his eyes. "Where are the dogs?"
"Sleeping?" Yui suggested softly.
"No," Ren said, the hair on his arms standing up. "[Divine Guidance] is buzzing. The lines... they're static. Like interference."
Suddenly, a sound echoed from the darkness ahead.
Heh. Heh. Heh.
It was a dry, raspy chuckle. Like sandpaper on bone.
Everyone froze.
"Contact," Reiji hissed, raising his sword.
Heh. Heh. Heh.
The laughter multiplied. It wasn't coming from in front of them. It was coming from the walls. From the ceiling. From the floor.
"They're all around us," Rika whispered, her eyes darting around. "I can't see them. Why can't I see them?"
"Because this is their home," Ren realized. "Defensive positions! Circle up!"
They tightened the formation.
WOOSH.
Something flew out of the dark. It wasn't an arrow. It was a stone, thrown with terrifying precision.
It hit Toby's torch.
The flame sputtered and died instantly, crushed by the impact.
"Hey!" Toby yelped.
"Light! We need light!" Daigo yelled.
WOOSH. WOOSH.
Two more stones. One hit Itsuki's torch, snapping the wood in half. The burning head tumbled to the ground and was stomped out by... something invisible.
Pitch black.
The darkness was absolute. Ren couldn't see his hand in front of his face. He couldn't see Daigo. He couldn't see the lines.
"Hold the line!" Ren screamed. "Don't break!"
Then, the attack began.
It wasn't a charge. It was a dissection.
"Gah!" Reiji grunted from the right. "Something bit my leg!"
"Get back!" Daigo roared, swinging his shield blindly in the dark. CLANG. He hit a wall. "I can't see what I'm hitting!"
Snarl. Snap. Tear.
The Hyenas were moving like ghosts. They would lunge from the shadows, bite an ankle or a wrist, and vanish before anyone could counter-attack. They were bleeding the squad dry, piece by piece.
"Ayaka!" Itsuki yelled. "Light spell!"
"I'm trying!" Ayaka panicked. "But I need to focus on healing Reiji! He's taking damage!"
Ren swung his sword at a sound to his left. He hit nothing but air.
"Dammit!" Ren cursed. "They're too fast! Rika, do you have eyes?"
"No!" Rika cried out. "My darkvision isn't working! It's magical darkness! It's a debuff!"
Ren felt a set of jaws clamp onto his leather pauldron. He spun, ripping the armor free, but the beast was already gone.
"Incoming! Rear quadrant!" Hanae shrieked, her voice shrill with terror.
CRACK.
A faint, hexagonal blue light flickered in the abyss—Hanae's barrier. A hyena had lunged out of the dark aiming for Ayaka's throat, but it slammed face-first into the magical wall instead.
"I can't hold it!" Hanae sobbed, the blue light fracturing under unseen claws. "The kinetic force is too high! They're everywhere! Barrier integrity is critical! 10%!"
We're going to die here, Ren realized with a cold jolt of terror. We're going to be picked apart in the dark, and we'll never even see the things killing us.
"Boring," a voice sighed in the darkness.
It was calm. Flat. Unbothered.
"Noa?" Ren asked.
"Gouache," Noa's voice cut through the chaos. "Fetch."
There was a wet SPLORT sound.
Suddenly, a soft blue glow illuminated the center of the formation.
Gouache No. 1—the blue slime—was vibrating. But it wasn't staying a blob. Under Noa's will, the paint began to shift, stretch, and harden. Legs sprouted. A tail whipped out. A head formed, complete with floppy ears and a snarling snout.
It wasn't a slime anymore. It was a Paint Beast. A dog made of glowing, viscous watercolor.
"Go," Noa commanded.
The blue dog launched itself out of the formation. It didn't bark. It splashed.
Gouache slammed into the darkness to the left.
SPLAT.
A yelp of surprise echoed.
Suddenly, in the pitch black void, a glowing blue shape appeared. It was the silhouette of a Shadow Hyena, coated from head to toe in sticky, glowing paint.
"Found you," Noa muttered.
The paint didn't just glow. It was heavy. The Hyena shook its head, trying to fling the goo off, but it stuck like glue. Its movements, once lightning-fast, slowed to a crawl.
"Daigo!" Ren shouted. "Ten o'clock! Blue target!"
"I see it!" Daigo roared. "EAT SHIELD!"
Daigo didn't need accuracy. He just charged the blue light.
CRUNCH.
The shield connected with the painted Hyena. The sound of breaking ribs was satisfyingly loud. The glowing blue shape flew backward and smashed into the wall.
"More," Noa said, dipping her brush into her palette. "Gouache. Multiply."
She flicked her wrist. Three blobs of paint flew from her palette, landing around the formation.
Red. Yellow. Green.
They wriggled and grew, forming three smaller, puppy-sized versions of Gouache.
"Hunt," Noa ordered.
The paint dogs scattered. They weren't trying to kill. They were kamikazes. They threw themselves at the invisible sounds of breathing, exploding on impact.
SPLAT. SPLOSH. SPLAT.
Chaos erupted in the tunnel.
"What is this stuff?!" a goblin-like voice hissed from the dark (wait, do hyenas talk? No, it was just confused yelping).
Within seconds, the darkness was filled with neon graffiti. Six, seven, ten Shadow Hyenas were now coated in vibrant, glowing colors. They looked like a rave gone wrong.
"They're visible!" Rika screamed, her fear evaporating instantly. "And they're slow! The paint is slowing them down!"
"Counter-attack!" Ren ordered, his eyes locking onto a Red-painted Hyena.
[DIVINE GUIDANCE: ACTIVE]
The lines snapped into place. The enemy was no longer a shadow; it was a glowing red target.
"Yui! Right side! Yellow target!"
"On it," Yui's voice was different now.
The 'High Battery' switch had flipped.
Yui Kanzaki launched herself over Reiji's shoulder. She moved with terrifying grace. She didn't use a weapon. She pulled her fist back, mana gathering around her knuckles.
"ORA!"
She punched the Yellow Hyena in the snout.
BOOM.
The impact created a shockwave. The Hyena's head snapped back, its skull caving in. It didn't even have time to yelp.
"Next!" Yui yelled, grinning like a maniac. She spun, delivering a roundhouse kick to a Green Hyena that was trying to flank Sayaka. "Stay down, doggy!"
"Sayaka!" Noa called out. "Combo!"
Sayaka nodded. She saw three Blue-painted Hyenas grouped together, trying to wipe the goo off their eyes.
"Liquid conducts," Sayaka whispered. She opened her notebook, a spark dancing in her eyes.
[SPELL: STATIC DISCHARGE]
She pointed her finger. A bolt of white lightning shot out. It didn't hit one Hyena. It hit the paint.
ZZZZZAAAAAAP!
The electricity chained between the three wet, painted beasts. They convulsed, their muscles locking up as the voltage fried their nervous systems. They dropped to the floor, smoking.
"Nice," Noa nodded approvingly.
"I'm helping!" Toby screamed.
The Squire was standing behind Ayaka. He picked up a rock the size of a grapefruit.
"Take that, you cur!" Toby yelled, hurling the rock with all his might.
It sailed over the heads of the front line. It hit a glowing Purple Hyena right in the eye.
Bonk.
The Hyena stumbled, stunned.
"Reiji! Now!" Toby pointed.
Reiji didn't waste the opening. He stepped forward, ignoring the pain in his ribs, and thrust his sword.
SHUNK.
The blade pierced the Hyena's heart.
"Good throw, Toby!" Reiji gasped.
"I... I meant to do that!" Toby stammered, looking shocked at his own success.
"Clear them out!" Ren shouted, slashing through a Red Hyena. "Don't let them retreat!"
It was a massacre. With their stealth negated and their speed crippled by the heavy paint, the Shadow Hyenas were nothing more than glorified wild dogs.
Ren moved through them like a reaper. Slash. Dodge. Pierce. The golden lines guided his blade to every weak point.
Yui was a blur of violence, juggling a hyena with a flurry of punches before slamming it into the ground.
Daigo was a bulldozer, bashing anything that glowed.
And in the center of it all, Noa stood calmly, painting on her hand, directing her neon pack like a conductor.
Finally, silence fell.
The tunnel was littered with colorful corpses. The air smelled of burnt fur, wet paint, and victory.
"Is that... all of them?" Rika panted, wiping Hyena blood (and some yellow paint) off her cheek.
"For now," Ren said, sheathing his sword. He looked at Noa. "Noa. That was... incredible."
Noa shrugged. Gouache No. 1 trotted back to her, looking proud, though he was dripping with enemy blood. He sat down and wagged his tail.
"He's a good boy," Noa said, patting the wet paint head. "But he's fading. The mana cost to keep him solid is high."
"Can he stay as a light source?" Ren asked.
"For a bit," Noa nodded.
Gouache glowed with a steady, soft blue light, illuminating the path ahead.
"Let's move," Ren said. "Before the paint dries."
They continued deeper.
The tunnel began to change. The dirt floor gave way to ancient, cracked stonework. The air got colder.
After ten minutes of walking, they reached it.
A fork in the road.
To the left, a narrow, winding tunnel that seemed to slope upward slightly.
To the right, a wide, gaping archway that led downward into oppressive darkness.
Ren stopped. He looked at the two paths.
"Which way?" Daigo asked, looking between them.
Ren closed his eyes. He tried to feel it. He tried to think about where Toru would go. Toru was scared. He would want to hide. He would look for small spaces.
"Left," Ren said, his gut twisting. "I feel like they went Left."
"Wait," Itsuki interrupted.
The Sage walked to the mouth of the Right tunnel. He sniffed the air. He adjusted his glasses.
"Smell that?" Itsuki asked.
Daigo walked over. "It smells like... ass."
"Precisely," Itsuki nodded. "Fecal matter. Rotting biological waste. High concentration."
"Gross," Rika wrinkled her nose. "So?"
"So," Itsuki turned to the group. "Basic biology. Predators drag their prey to their den. A den accumulates waste. If the Hyenas took Mei and the others... they would take them to the source of the smell."
Itsuki pointed to the Right tunnel.
"Logic dictates that the Right path leads to the nest's core. That is where we will find them."
Ren hesitated. "But... what if they ran? What if they aren't captured?"
"Reiji said they were being chased by a pack," Itsuki countered. "The statistical probability of three exhausted, low-level students outrunning a pack of Shadow Hyenas in their home terrain is less than 5%. It is far more likely they were captured or cornered near the den."
Ren looked at the Left tunnel again. It was quiet. It smelled like dust.
"I say we split up!" Toby suggested, raising his hand. "We send a scout team Left, and the main force Right! Cover more ground!"
"No," Ren, Reiji, and Ayaka said in unison.
"Never split the party," Daigo added, shaking his head. "That's how people die in movies, Toby. Do you want to die?"
"I withdraw my suggestion," Toby squeaked.
Ren looked at Reiji. "What do you think?"
Reiji looked at the Right tunnel. He looked pained. "Itsuki's logic is sound. If they were taken... we have to go to the nest."
Ren looked at the Left tunnel one last time. His [Divine Guidance] was silent. It gave him no hints. Just a cold, sinking feeling in his stomach.
But he trusted his team. He trusted Itsuki's brain.
"Okay," Ren sighed, turning away from the Left path—the path where, miles away, Toru was currently burning goblins. "We go Right."
"Toward the poop smell," Rika grumbled. "Yay."
"Stay sharp," Ren ordered, stepping into the wide archway of the Right tunnel. "If this is the core, the Alpha won't be far."
They marched into the darkness, following the glowing blue dog.
They didn't notice the markings on the floor of the Right tunnel.
They didn't notice that the scratches on the walls weren't from hyenas. They were from massive claws. From things that were much, much bigger than a dog.
And they definitely didn't notice the sign—etched in crude, ancient common on the wall of the Left tunnel, hidden by shadows—that read: goblin territory - keep out.
They walked Right. Straight into the Boss Room.
And behind them, the darkness swallowed the fork, sealing their choice.
"Does anyone else hear... breathing?" Yui whispered, her ears twitching.
"Probably just Daigo," Rika dismissed. "He breathes like a pug."
"Hey!" Daigo protested.
But Yui didn't laugh. She stared into the deep dark ahead, where the blue light of Gouache barely reached.
"No," Yui whispered, her knuckles whitening. "That's not Daigo."
Something in the dark shifted. Something colossal.
And then, a single, massive eye opened in the gloom. It was red. And it was looking right at them.