Chapter 166: The Wrong Tunnel
"Damn it, just where the hell did they disappear to?" Drake cursed out loud, his grip tightening on the steering wheel as he scanned the ruined streets.
"Wait, I think we found them!" his partner, Leo, exclaimed, his eyes snapping open.
"Where?" Drake demanded, glancing over.
Instead of answering immediately, Leo closed his eyes again, activating a sensory link to share his vision with his magic beast, Chuck. After a brief pause, he began mapping out the route. "Take a left at the next intersection, go straight past the collapsed department store, and look for a descent ramp on the right."
Following the precise directions, they navigated through the debris and soon reached the entrance to a transit tunnel.
"Are you sure they’re in there?" Drake asked, looking at Leo with deep doubt as he stared into the dark mouth of the tunnel.
"Of course. Chuck has never made a mistake," Leo replied smoothly, gently caressing a small yellow bird magic beast that just landed on his shoulder.
"Fine. Let’s finish this quickly. Or else my guild members won’t stop ringing my damn phone," Drake muttered, throwing the vehicle into drive and heading right inside the subterranean darkness.
However, they were not the only ones drawn to the structure. Not long after their vehicle disappeared into the gloom, a screeching pack of gargoyles, formidable fifth-circle monsters, swooped down from the skyline and aggressively entered the tunnel behind them.
Unaware of the aerial threats tailing them, Drake and Leo pushed deeper until the headlights suddenly illuminated a solid concrete wall. They had reached the very end of the transit tunnel.
"F*ck!" Drake cursed, throwing the car into park and stepping out into the chilly air. "A f*cking dead end."
He spun around toward Leo, his expression darkening. He was fully prepared to tell the guy that if he had made a mistake and wasted their time, he was going to fcking kill him.
Before the threat could leave his mouth, his eyes caught the scene around them. The area was a makeshift graveyard: dead bodies of low-ranking monsters were strewn across the asphalt, the residual signature of spent mana still hung in the air, and a massive monster stood nearby, brutally killed with its head completely frozen solid into a block of ice.
"They’re that way," Leo spoke up, completely unfazed by the scene as he pointed toward a shadowy corner of the tunnel.
Using his spiritual perception, Drake extended his senses toward the corner. Sure enough, his radar locked onto a hidden vehicle and the distinct life forces of three people inside it.
"Finally!"
Grinning, Drake headed in that direction.
However, just as they approached the vehicle, the door clicked open. A woman stepped out, a swirling waterball instantly manifesting in her trembling hands. Her expression was pale and incredibly tense.
"W-who are you?" she demanded, her voice shaking but her stance locked in a defensive guard.
Before Drake could speak and potentially escalate her panic, Leo stepped forward. With a casual flick of his fingers, a small spark of light illuminated the gloom, fully revealing their faces.
"Relax, Lady. We are the guys sent by the Bureau to rescue you, remember?" He said, his tone reassuring as he lowered his hands. "Where is Hunter Soren?"
The woman, Clara, let out a relieved breath as the waterball dissolved into thin air. "I’m sorry," she stammered, wiping her brow. "Soren is in—"
Before the words could fully leave her mouth, Drake appeared behind her in a blur, firmly clapping his hand over her lips. His usual arrogant, short-tempered expression had completely vanished, replaced by a solemn, deadly gravity.
"Drake!" Leo snapped his head over, shocked at the sudden antics. "What the hell are you—"
He cut himself off, his own words dying in his throat as a cold chill ran down his spine.
Spinning on his heel to face the pitch-black stretch of the tunnel they had just driven through, he flicked his fingers with aggressive force. A blazing fire arrow erupted into the darkness, soaring down the transit line and illuminating the subterranean gloom.
"!"
Caught in the sudden, harsh glare of the flames were dozens of massive gargoyles. Measuring anywhere from one to four meters in size, the winged beasts were already flying at full speed in their direction.
Drake let go of Clara, shoving her back toward the vehicle. "Get inside."
He stepped past Leo and drew two massive axes from his storage ring, a maniacal grin spreading across his face as he locked his gaze onto the incoming swarm.
"F*cking pests," Drake muttered, his grip tightening on the handles. "They really picked the wrong tunnel."
He immediately activated his ability, and with a sudden burst of energy, dense, interlocking plates of grey stone surged up from his boots and chest, coating his large frame in a heavy layer of rock armor.
"Jonas, out!" Drake roared.
A massive magic circle erupted on the floor, and a towering, armored bear materialized with a deafening grunt. Right beside it, Leo whistled sharply, prompting Chuck to take flight as wind and fire mana began swirling around the yellow bird’s wings.
The gargoyles launched their opening assault, unleashing a collective petrification wave.
[Rock Wall!]
Stomping his foot onto the asphalt, Drake raised a massive rock wall from the tunnel floor, blocking the petrification wave. Almost immediately, he punched the wall, sending it sliding forward like a battering ram.
The gargoyles collided head-on with the moving wall, aggressively tearing and clawing through the thick stone barrier until it exploded into fragments. However, as the dust cleared, they were instantly met with a raging wave of greenish fire unleashed by Chuck and Leo.
The intense heat cracked their stone skin, and before the beasts could even recover from the flames, Drake and Jonas erupted from the smoke right in front of them. Drake slashed down ruthlessly with his axes while Jonas tore into them with razor-sharp claws, turning the narrow transit line into a chaotic zone of flying stone and severed wings.
The violence of the clash echoed through the vehicle’s metal frame.
Inside the car, Clara watched the horrific spectacle through the glass with bated breath, her hands trembling violently against her knees. She turned to Ethea, who also wore a grim expression as she listened to the chaos outside.
Suddenly, Ethea’s breath hitched, her attention snapping instantly toward the front seat.
’Soren?!’
