Chapter 207: Strange Crystals
Chapter 205
"Where are we? And most importantly; how do we get out of here?!" Van shouted as he looked around the place confusedly, his voice echoing off the damp, jagged walls.
Finally, after regaining his breath, Ray pushed himself upright and so did Van as the duo stared at the entrances to the holes or tunnels carved into the rock.
’My perception, for so reason, can’t spread that far from . I wonder why,’ the boy thought with furrowed brows, frustrated by the unseen barrier limiting his senses.
"Ray? We can’t just keep standing here. We need to find an exit out of this place."
"And you think I don’t know that already?" Ray muttered with a slight frown on his face, his mind racing through various survival scenarios.
Then he turned toward the holes and sighed again, the weight of their situation pressing down on him. "I don’t even know which path we should take."
Van snapped his fingers as his eyes lit up with sudden inspiration. "I know how we can decide."
Ray turned his head to face his friend, his eyes lighting with hope while watching the boy step forward confidently.
With a deep inhale and exhale, Van lifted his hand and pointed it forward while Ray watched eagerly.
’Does he have a tech that can help us navigate this place? If so, then we can actually escape here unsc—’
"Eeeny eny, miny moe, which path shall we take?" Van shouted as he moved his finger from one tunnel opening to the next in a rhythmic motion.
Ray froze.
His eyes blinked in confusion. Shock. Bafflent. And even more confusion.
"Eh?"
Ignoring his friend, Van continued his movents and words as if they were a sacred mantra of so sorts, eliminating any tunnel his finger pointed to until only one single passage remained.
"There. Let’s go there."
Ray was dumbfounded as he stared at his companion in utter bewildernt.
"Di-Did we just leave our survival to pure dumb luck? No... not even luck, but a stupid childish decision ga?"
Van shrugged indifferently as his chanical spiders scurried over his right arm, encasing it in a full tallic-looking robot arm of so sorts with a hole at the end of his knuckles that almost resembled a gun muzzle.
He stared at the weaponized limb for a few seconds before tapping the arm of his strange contraption, which shone with a blue radiance again.
"Let’s go," he ordered, beginning to walk confidently toward the path he had picked, leaving Ray frozen in shock for a beat.
"What a dumb genius you really are!" Ray shouted at his friend’s back but, nevertheless, followed suit imdiately afterward.
.....
Walking in the tunnel quietly and cautiously, Ray looked around the damp environnt.
Small drops of water were falling from the ceiling overhead, which didn’t look that far away.
If he wanted, with a little jump, he could easily touch the damp earthen ceiling above.
But he kept walking, as only the echo of their footsteps along with the rhythmic plop of water could be heard.
A few minutes later, they could see the exit to the tunnel staring at them like a wide, dark mouth.
Bracing themselves, Ray quickly equipped his pair of advanced-ranked gauntlets, ready for anything that might co his way.
Van, on the other hand, pointed his fully encased arm forward as they cautiously approached the tunnel’s end.
Reaching the exit spot, Van was forced to deactivate his illuminating tech because they were suddenly hit with a wave of shining crystals that emitted a bright blue light at them.
Casting a quick, nervous glance at each other, they jumped down and landed into a wider cavern that seed almost empty, except for the shining crystals that almost looked like diamonds with their crystalline shape.
They illuminated their surroundings, allowing the duo to see much better—not like Ray needed the help though.
Staring straight ahead, where the crystals’ glow couldn’t reach, was a deep darkness that led deeper and deeper into the cavern.
For so reason, Van wasn’t too eager to explore that void, as he even shuddered a bit by just staring into the abyss.
Curiously, Ray began walking toward where the crystals were embedded.
They covered almost every available surface.
The walls and even the ceiling overhead were adorned with these strange gems, which continuously emitted a steady, ethereal light.
"Hm? I wonder what these are," Ray muttered inwardly.
He stretched out his hand to touch one of the facets, only to quickly withdraw his fingers before making contact.
"... What if it activates sothing here? I don’t think it’s wise to touch anything in this place recklessly."
’Guys? Do you know what these could be?’ he projected toward his internal companions.
??Nope,?? Elyon replied with a ntal shrug.
??Just get lost,?? Bruce replied with a low growl.
’I guess that’s a no from Bruce.’
Beep, Beep, Beep—!
"Hm?"
Turning around, Ray could see Van tapping on his chanical arm as if a screen were projected onto it.
And that was because there was a small, almost tiny screen on the back of where his palm would have been if it weren’t buried beneath the mound of chanical spiders.
’His ability—I really don’t know how it works. It seems like sothing too incomprehensible for my brain to grasp,’ Ray sighed.
"Uh... what are you doing?"
Van didn’t reply for several seconds, as he seed completely engrossed in his task.
"Trying to see if I can reconfigure this bracelet the Corps gave to us."
Ray lifted a brow in curiosity.
"Why is that?"
Van went silent for several more seconds before finally replying,
"Because they have a feature to scan beasts and plants, right?"
Ray nodded. "Yes?"
"... So I’m trying to see if I can reconfigure them to scan a much wider area. Instead of just identifying beasts and displaying their ranks, it should scan for a viable exit out of this place."
"Oh." Ray nodded, seemingly impressed by what his friend was attempting.
Before he could actually make a follow-up comnt, his ears perked up.
He imdiately snapped his head to the side to stare into the encroaching darkness.
"Uhm... Van?"
"Hm?"
"We’ve got company...." Ray uttered as he quickly shifted into a battle-ready stance.
Hearing the worried tone in his friend’s voice, Van quickly looked up while pointing his arm forward.
His eyes began gleaming a bright blue while the rounded muzzle on his contraption started glowing with a white light.
And soon enough...
Growl—! Growl—! Growl—!
Multiple growls echoed through the cavern, causing the boys to gulp loudly in worry.
Stepping out of the shadows, the creatures revealed themselves.
Shivers ran down their spines at the sight.
The entities looked like nightmares stitched together from bone and hunger.
Their bodies were long and low, built like predators that thrived close to the ground, yet every part of them was fundantally wrong.
Jagged white bones ford their outer structures, layered like a natural armor that had grown outward instead of within.
Sharp spikes erupted along their spines and shoulders—uneven and brutal—giving them the silhouette of sothing that had never known peace or stillness.
Between the gaps in their skeletal fras, a dark, fleshy interior pulsed faintly, streaked with glowing red veins that looked like heat trapped beneath the surface.
It was as if the creatures’ bodies were barely holding themselves together, yet that instability only made them appear more dangerous.
Their limbs were thin but powerful, ending in clawed feet that dug into the stone with a predatory grip.
Their joints bent at unnatural angles, allowing them to crouch low, ready to spring at any mont.
From their backs extended a long, whip-like tail, segnted and lined with vicious spikes.
The tail arched high above their bodies, coiling slightly as though it had a mind of its own, ready to strike or lash out with lethal force.
Their heads were the most unsettling part.
Narrow and elongated—almost skull-like—they carried no softness.
Their eyes glowed a deep, nacing red; small but piercing, they were locked forward with relentless focus.
Their jaws were tight and angular, built for tearing rather than chewing, with a sharp, pointed snout stained in crimson.
The creatures didn’t look alive in the normal sense.
And these were what the two teenage boys were ant to battle.
"One... two... three... four—four of these beasts? Crap. We are done for," Van groaned aloud, his hands trembling at the sight before him.
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