An armored boot steps out, followed shortly by the rest of an armored humanoid. They're at least 8ft tall, barely fitting through the 'hole'. Or, as I now know, the portal.
By the time it's fully out, Jayden, Izaiah, and I are pointing our rifles at it.
Whatever it is, it is clearly stunned to some extent. Blankly staring at nothing in particular.
One of its knees buckles, only for it to force it back to normal.
It looks around, gaze falling on the scientists. I can't see its eyes, but something tells me it's staring directly at Natalie.
Its gaze shifts to Izaiah before looking over at me.
I tense, expecting something— a sign of hostility, a sign of surrender, an attack, anything.
It simply looks away, gazing upon the buildings.
I notice Izaiah guarding the scientists as they back away. They have to drag Natalie away from it.
Something else exits the portal, A young woman.
No. A young-looking humanoid that resembles a woman.
This one is significantly smaller. Only about 5'3 to 5'6.
It has white hair and appears to be wearing ornate clothing.
It collapses instantly.
The armored one slowly looks over, looking at the fallen one for a second, and then blue light erupts from its form.
Walls of blue light materialize around them. Dozens of them.
I hear someone shout in what I think is excitement.
I hear the electrical buzz of the automated defenses beginning to fire. No explosions, just the sound of magnets powering up.
The armored one scoops up the other and bolts backwards through the portal.
The walls of light are torn to shreds in less than 3 seconds.
I remain aiming at the portal, waiting for whatever that was to come back out.
That's until Natalie breaks free from the other scientists and bolts over to the portal.
By the time she gets there, Izaiah is already behind her and dragging her away from it.
"NO! LET ME GO!"
Izaiah doesn't respond.
"THE SHARDS ARE DISAPPEARING, LET ME GET A SAMPLE!"
Sure enough, when I look at the shards of the light wall, they're dissolving into motes of light.
I silently head over to help Izaiah wrangle the frantic scientist away from the portal to, probably, another dimension.
"I miss my vacation..." I mutter into my helmet.
"Before you go into a tangent of self-pity, can you explain what the FUCK just happened?" Nathan's sharp voice cuts through my comms.
"Ask Jayden, I gotta help Izaiah with the scientists."
I hear Nathan cut the connection. I don't know when he opened it.
.
.
POV shift: Wilhelm (Starts just before the beginning of the chapter)
The dungeon in front of me is odd. The mana coming from it is almost impossibly low, even for E-rank dungeons. That shouldn't be cause for alarm; that just meant that dungeons with mana this low were possible, but rare. But every time I looked at it, my gut knotted and my instincts roared danger.
I had brought that fact up with my employer, Duchess Hanna, matriarch of the Elke family. She simply scoffed and told me to do my job. Protect her daughter, Heidi, on her first dungeon raid. I'm a B-rank adventurer after all, I shouldn't be getting cold feet for an E-rank dungeon raid.
I look to my side at Heidi. The highly renowned prodigy of the Elke family. Not even 72 rotations old, and she's already stronger than most D-rank adventurers. She's small, only about 33 marks tall. Her silver hair reached her shoulders, catching the light slightly.
"Lady Elke, I must insist again that your first dungeon dive take place in another dungeon. My instincts are practically roaring at me to proceed with utmost caution."
"You're a B-rank adventurer, and you are nervous about the weakest E-rank dungeon ever recorded? Did my mother do wrong by hiring you?"
I bow slightly. "Lady Elke, my instincts have saved my life many a time, but even so, they have never been this persistent."
I see Heidi roll her eyes slightly. "Then your instincts must be mistaken. It could be that this dungeon is so weak that your instincts can't accept it. Will you accompany me or not?"
I bow once again. "Yes, Lady Elke. But please do know that if anything goes wrong, I will be removing you from this dungeon immediately. My instincts have not once failed me, and even if they are mistaken, I will not ignore them."
"That is acceptable. Now then, Sir Wilhelm, if you would." Heidi gestures for me to enter the dungeon, my instincts roaring at me. Looking at my armored hands, I gaze at my rings under the armor. Magical artifacts designed specifically to help me cast magic. They feel woefully inadequate.
With a small hesitation, I step into the blue portal.
Light and sound. Too much of both.
I can't breathe. I inhale, I get air. But nothing else. Where's the mana?
My eyes sting, lights of differing colors and intensity blind me.
My ears ring, assaulted by a cacophony of unfamiliar noises.
I feel one of my knees trying to buckle. I force it not to.
My lungs burn. I can't breathe. There's air, but where is the mana?
My nose stings, smells I can't describe assailing me.
I force my eyes to focus. There's something in front of me. Multiple somethings.
It looks... like a smaller version of us? It's about the size of Heidi. Is it a lesser mimic?
It has long black hair and a white robe of some kind. It resembles a woman.
There are more of them, around 6, each different.
Wait.
One of them is different. Completely black, and pointing an odd object at me. It's bulkier than the others, a golem?
There are others over there, one closer than the other. Both are pointing those objects at me.
The lesser mimics begin to back away slowly, the golem getting between them and me.
It's so hard to think; my mind feels as though it's filled with molasses.
I have to blink several times, getting water out of my eyes.
Looking around, I see them.
Gargantuan monoliths of steel.
Much of the lights come from them.
Looking up, I see things zipping across the sky.
My mind can't rationalize it; they fly, but they have no wings.
And worst of all, they aren't using flight magic.
Where. Is. The. Mana?
I hear something hit the ground beside me.
Looking over, I see Heidi collapsed to the ground.
That forces my mind into action.
I flare my mana, casting every defensive spell I know.
Heidi must get out.
Dozens of walls of blue light burst into existence around us.
I can finally breathe.
Something makes a noise.
I don't know what.
I pick up Heidi and bolt backward and out of this dungeon.
As I go, something impacts the walls.
Dozens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of impacts within moments. The walls shatter as fast as I had made them.
But I'm already out.