"This is where it's coming from"
Eliza muttered under her breath as she arrived before a wall of fallen rocks scattered around and covering a tunnel pathway.
To everyone here, it seemed like they had come to a dead end. Enzo thought so too. but Eliza looked excited as a gleam appeared in her eyes.
This place was releasing a pulse energy very similar to something she had seen in the humanities capital museum back on her home world. If it was what she thought….then she might very well be on the fast track to becoming truly powerful.
"I told you I would make it granny" she smiled then with a casual wave of her hand she said to the group.
"Step back"
Then she approached the collapsed wall and stretched her hand out feeling the rocks before her. Immediately after, the air around the tunnel became cold, as patches of ice quickly formed around the rocky collapse infront of them and spread fast.
In little more that a few second, the wall of rocks was engulfed and a second later.
-boom!!!
The rocky wall was blown into fine dust particles completely opening up the tunnel way.
"What the hell??" Enzo's eyes widened with shock at this scene from behind as he watched this unfold.
Reopening a collapsed mine tunnel took months of backbreaking work, chipping away at the rock bit by bit until it finally gave way.
However, Eliza here just opened it up with a swing of her hand? What kind of monster was she? He knew she was strong but this strong?
'Sigh'
At this point he had no idea if it was the right idea following her or not. From his observation, she was not only strong but also ambitious, even with her policy of avoiding monsters and fights, he could tell that sooner or later he would be dragged into something far beyond him.
'Do I have a choice though? There's no alternative'
Enzo thought to himself as he sighed, he was already in it, there was no going back. So he reached the dagger on his side and held it tightly as they made their way into the previously collapsed tunnel.
It was dark and grimy and to an extent wet. It felt like stepping into the gut of sleeping giant. At this point, they were very deep inside the mountain and light was scarce with the glowing man being the main source of light leading the way.
"Kid, come to the front with us, Eliza wants you at arms length" The bearded man Daniel suddenly appeared beside Enzo and tugged at his shirt.
The kid was Eliza's little project, she wanted to be able to protect him so she asked him to come forward. Of course the way he phrased it was as if he cared more about the canister on Enzo's back.
"Okay" Enzo agreed with a nod then quickened his steps heading towards the front. But as his steps quickened a series of small temors was felt under his feet.
One after the other they rang out intensifying with each step until Enzo lost balance and fell to his knees.
"Everyone down!!" Eliza suddenly realizing something was amiss barked as she reached forward and covered Enzo who was closest to her.
Outside the mountain a turrent of iron spiked plasma bullets rained down from orbit breaking apart the hard surface of the mountain causing peaks to fall and tunnels to cave in.
Within the mountain there was absolutely pandemonium as bodies were crushed under rumble and rocks, and flames ignited from the the myriad of mineral vines.
The mountain was being seiged.
"Haaaaa" a gasp of air rushed into Enzo's lungs as he abruptly stood up from atop a heap of rocks. He had blacked out for a few minutes there as the pandemonium set, now he was looking around...
He couldn't help but look grim
They were quite deep inside the mountain so the quakes didn't do as much damage, however there were still bodies littering the floor as from their group of 8, around 4 were left.
And the glowing man was dead.
"Fuck!! There's a type 7 planet bomber in orbit." Daniel cursed as he looked at a screen infront of him.
This kind of destruction was too methodical. It couldn't be a normal earth quake, clearly something overhead had caused it.
"That looks like a pirate ship, this is bad. we should get out of here" Daniel looked back at Eliza who was seated not far away on a rock with her sword on her shoulder resting.
The anomaly had been noticed by someone powerful and now they were here to collect whatever treasures were down here.
This was indeed bad.
They couldn't compete with a strong force on their own.
"Yes, that makes sense"
Unexpectedly, Eliza agreeed with a nod. It was way too dangerous to face a powerful force on their own. Escape was the best thing they could do.
"Ummm how do we do that?" Enzo's voice resounded from the side as he raised his eyebrow, looking at the caved hole above him.
The orbital strikes had caused tunnel they were previously in to cave in sending them several levels below where they were previously.
Finding a way out was…. Difficult.
"Ahhh" Daniel also frowned, Enzo was right, how were they supposed to even start? Could they just start breaking rocks? Leading to where? There were lost through and Through.
If the glowing man was here it would have been a little better, but he was also dead.
"That's not our only problem im afraid" Eliza shook her head.
She would really like to get out of here too, but unfortunately that was impossible right now, that is unless they could beat what was right before them.
-grrrr
A low growl resounded in the dark tunnel infront as two pairs of glowing eyes looked down at them from the distance.
"Hm?" Daniel finally noticed it causing his frown to deepen even further.
"Kid, just stay back here and look after the Windsly, Daniel and I will clear what's in front" Eliza said calmly standing up and unsheathing the sword in her hand.
For the first time Enzo felt the pressure from Eliza heighten as a cold intent of slaughter and blood poured into his nose. It was overwhelming to think this aloof ice queen could release something so foul.
"Sigh" Daniel did the same, stepping forward and taking point with Eliza.
They had to get out of here before the pirates in orbit land, so this had to be quick. But was that realistically possible? Well they'd just have to find out!!