Chapter 218: Chapter 218:Closing In [2]
Chapter 218: Chapter 218:Closing In [2]
As the sunlight slowly disappeared from my filling in the hole, Han grabbed an arrow from his quiver and placed it on the wall.
The next second, the tip of Han's arrow exploded, creating a small fire on it that allowed the arrow to serve as a torch.
Air wasn't a problem in this cave as there were multiple cracks that we made in the surface, allowing small bits of sunlight to pour in.
However, the holes in the ground were discreet and too small to be noticed by anyone... at least we hoped they were.
It wasn't like we could plant a tree down here for oxygen... could we?
Wait, could we?
Brushing off the stupid thought, I finished filling in the hole before heading over to Jin and Han who were making progress on the tunnel towards the center.
Checking the map, I made sure that our pace of digging forward was faster than the pace at which the borders closed in.
Thankfully, our pace was fast enough...for now, so we didn't have to worry about that as long as we kept digging.
Shoveling at the wall ahead with the corrupted shovel, I sighed.
Was this even a battle royale anymore?
First, we camped outside a tower for an hour, made a quick detour to rescue Han, and now we were just shoveling.
Stopping for a moment, I stared at the two boys ahead of me, realizing how stupid we were.
This wasn't Earth... why the hell were we using shovels!?
We were in a world of magic... why the hell were we limiting ourselves to some physical objects that could be found anywhere on Earth!?
Turning around, I made sure that there were no drones in the tunnels, and thankfully, none had gotten through when we made the initial hole.
De-manifesting the corrupted shovels, I watched Jin and Han confusedly stare at their hands, wondering why their shovel had just disintegrated in front of them.
Wrapping my arms around their shoulders, I said.
"Hey...hear me out on this..."
...
...
...
*BANG*
*BOOM*
*BANG*
*BOOM*
"Why... didn't we just do this in the first place...?"
"I'm not going to lie... I didn't see the vision at first... but I... believe you."
Looking at the tunnel, which used to stretch only two feet and could barely hold all of us inside, completely transformed, I smiled.
Leaning against the wall, I responded to the gazes of admiration from Jin and Han by saying.
"Think outside the box!"
In reality, I had just recalled something that my chemistry teacher had taught me back in school about explosions.
First, I used my corruption to manifest a makeshift storage area that had walls around it, preventing things from leaking out.
Then, Jin infused his odachi with the water element before striking it into the corrupted storage area, causing a flood of water.
Once the water was fully spread out across the pool, with none of it leaking out, I used the Dragon's Inferno, or blood-red substance in my body, to cast a fire spell.
The fire, combined with the water, created a massive amount of vapor, covering the whole cave and blocking our sight.
Despite all of that, Han took out an arrow, which had embued with Earth magic when he had found it in the chest, and nocked in his crossbow.
Not wasting a second, Han released the arrow forward, creating a hole in the wall of vapor that had formed.
Then, just as the arrow was about to go inside of the water and fire, it suddenly disappeared.
Instead, a wall appeared, covering the pool of water from Jin's odachi and fire from my Dragon's inferno.
Then, as the vapor slowly faded way, no more vapor came out as the pool of fire and water was fully blocked off.
Then, as the vapor wasn't able to escape, pressure began to slowly increase and increase until the pool finally burst out, causing an explosion.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
In less than a second, the area of our small tunnel had more than ten times its size!
Looking away from Jin and Han, I glanced at the map, seeing the pace at which the boundaries were closing was starting to increase.
Due to the massive explosion, our tunnel had gotten closer to the center, but there was still a way to go.
Thus, for the next hour, the three of alternated between mining forward, reinforcing the tunnel so there wouldn't be cave-in, and resting.
As I manifested corrupted pillars that stretched from the floor of the tunnel to the roof, Han used his sharpshooter ability, "Tempest Barrage," to shoot countless arrows from his crossbow at the same time.
These arrows were so sharp and piercing that they would not only fly straight through the rocky walls but keep going for another couple of meters.
After enough holes in the wall were created by Han's arrows, Jin would use his odachi's ability, "Void Cleaver."
This would cause his silver odachi to be outlined by a dark black, and with each strike Jin dealt with, the odachi would cleave, dealing damage to everything around it without actually physically hitting it.
The wall, already weakened by Han's arrows, would fall from the Jin's slashes, which hit the wall not only at the point of intersection but all around it due to "Void Cleave."
Subsequently, I would finally manifest yet another corrupted pillar, keeping the cave from collapsing in on itself.
You might be wondering why I would use corruption to keep the cave from collapsing when it was so important to me.
However, by using corruption, I could de-manifest the pillars at any moment, making the cave collapse forcefully.
As we reached the center of the circle, according to the map, we finally rested.
Dropping his odachi on the floor, Jin slumped against the wall before looking upward at the ceiling.
"So...everybody else is up there right now?"
Nodding my head, I replied.
"We're not the main targets... so our disappearance won't be noticed in the slightest."