Dante hit the wall, crashed back to the ground, and coughed blood. In a moment, he was in extreme pain, feeling that a few of his ribs had shattered. He couldn't breathe, move a single muscle, or even have blurry vision.
"Don't try to breathe! Relax and calm down, and your body will wake up from the shock!" Alicia shouted as she immediately reloaded another bolt, cocked the crossbow like a shotgun, and fired a second bolt, killing one of the achesouls.
The other two achesouls rushed at her, while the caiman-looking Scarred Beast rushed toward Dante as the tentacle Monster reeled in pain for a second.
The two achesouls jumped directly at Alicia's face, so she lifted her left hand to protect her neck and the achesoul bit it. The other achesoul took his chance and bit her left leg, as both of them tried to tear her apart.
The pain, the agonizing pain! It was far worse than anything she had ever felt in her life. The sharp fangs of those monsters were grinding against her bones, cracking them as they munched. It was so bad that she started crying and wet herself, but with the adrenaline rushing through her veins, she immediately pointed the loaded crossbow down at the achesoul biting her leg and popped it with a bolt to the skull. Then, in rage, she dropped the crossbow into her lap, summoned a short dagger, and stabbed the achesoul biting her hand more times than she could count.
This was a part of her vow. Even though her legs were paralyzed, she still felt the pain.
Dante, on the other hand, had just relaxed a second before the Scarred caiman could tear bite him, so he rolled aside and jumped back to his feet, glaring at the tentacle Monster with pure and utter rage.
"You bastards!" He growled and rushed forward, jumped to the Scarred caiman's side, dodged a bite, and then kicked it with all of his might and a droplet of mana, flipping it on its back and immediately driving his blade down into its soul, where the heart should be.
[You have slayed a Contaminated Caiman]
[Soul Harvested and Cleansed]
[Soul Harvest: 11/666]
Still fueled by pain and rage, Dante rushed immediately toward the tentacle Monster. He didn't use a single droplet of mana to reach and took all of the tentacle hits directly, screaming with a large grin on his face. "You CANNOT! KILL ME!"
At the end, one of the tentacles stabbed Dante through the guts, but he was already close enough. Putting all of his mana into this one hit, Alicia who sent his thoughts screamed again. "Don't!"
But Dante didn't care, using all of his mana in a single hit, he swung his sword with all of his might behind it, cleaving the Scarred Monster in half, killing it.
[You have slayed a Tentacle Ooze]
[Soul Harvested and Cleansed]
As Dante heard those words, he fell to his back in a pool of his own blood and looked at his Soul Harvest. Four whole extra points for that Scarred Monster...
[Soul Harvest: 15/666]
He then passed out from blood loss, and the last thing he could hear was Alicia calling him out.
When he woke up a while later, he found himself still on the ground with Alicia by his side. She had crawled all the way from where her wheelchair got stuck all the way to him. Her face was pale, her eyes bloodshot and red, and the moment he opened his eyes, it looked as if she was about to slap him.
"Sorry... won't do it, right?" He spoke, and she immediately slapped him. "I've told you not to empty your mana like that! Healing magic cannot fix brain damage, and you should know that better than anyone!"
"I know that I'll be fine..." She immediately slapped him twice. "I don't care what you know and think! Don't kill yourself!" She grabbed him by the collar of his armor. "If you want to die, then do it when I'm not around!"
He chuckled and coughed blood. "But... you healed me just fine."
She lifted her hand to slap him again, but then stopped. "You had three broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and the last tentacle ruptured your liver." Her lips and hands were shaking. "You lost so much blood that your heart kept stopping and starting over and over... I thought I was going to lose you. I don't even have a defibrillator or adrenaline here."
He sat up and looked around with a tired face. "I'm alive, and that's what matters. How long have I been out? Did any monsters show up?"
"Half an hour, two more achesouls showed up, but I killed them." She pointed at the two extra dead achesouls on the side. "We should probably move to another place."
As he stood, Alicia looked more stunned than confused. "You... were just on death's door. You shouldn't be able to move."
Dante smiled. "My entire body hurts like hell, my vision is a bit blurry, and I'm feeling like shit. But we can't sit still." He then turned toward Alicia. "What do you say? Should I get you on my back?"
She froze for a second, stared at him with an empty face, and then looked back at her wheelchair. That poor thing isn't exactly made for this kind of terrain. She then looked up at him. "Carry me? On your back?"
"Yeah, that way we can move fast. Of course, we won't be able to crawl through tight spaces, but if we find a space that we must cross, I'll dig it slowly with my magic."
After a while, she agreed. Otherwise, they won't get anywhere. As she climbed onto his back, he used his cloak to secure her tightly to him and finally started moving. They also took an achesoul carcass with them to cook later when they reached a safer place.
The cave felt like a maze of intertwined crevices and winding tunnels that led nowhere. After every corner, there was another corner. Some were filled with water, some were cold, and some that Dante avoided because they had abominations.
After a whole two hours walking blindly into the darkness, they finally reached what looked like a slightly large cavern that was about ten meters wide and four meters high.
"This looks like a boss room." Alicia mumbled into Dante's ear, "I don't think we should go there."
Dante looked around and couldn't spot any soul, but there was a problem. His range was ten meters, meaning that he could see the whole cavern, but not anything on the walls on the other side, where the boss might be hiding and waiting to jump out.
"How about I put you here and go check really quick? If a boss shows up, I'll grab and run away." He smiled, and Alicia sighed. "Fine, but if this place is safe, we can set a nice base and use it to look for the others."
Dante gently sat her down, cracked his neck and stretched his back, looked at the darkness, and rushed inside as fast as he could. There was no living abomination there, but what he saw made him puke. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He immediately turned around and rushed back to Alicia.
"An abomination?" She cried, and he fell by her side. "No, worse. Bodies."