BXBX NOVEL Chapter 634 Fallin'
[Current souls: 9,763/10,000]
The tunnel around the group shattered into a million pieces. Gravity took over, taking the large kinetic ball with them. Keng grunted as he slapped his hand onto the kinetic ball. The smell of the sea filled the ball as Keng\'s tattoos glowed, faintly through his clothing. His tails reached and touched the ball, making the space between Keng and the others a bit more uncomfortable.
"Hold on!" Keng shouted. The group yelped as they slammed into something. The ball bounced and rolled forward as everyone uncomfortable squeezed on top of each other. Liz and Manny pinned Keng into the wall. He could feel everything changing around them. The ball glowed bright white, indicating the kinetic energy absorbed had grown to the max.
"This isn\'t good!" Evan shouted. "I can\'t absorb anymore kinetic energy! I must release it or else It\'ll explode!"
"Hold it a little longer!" Keng shouted. He gritted his teeth and focused on wrapping the ball in a ball of energy. He just needed to get it afloat long enough to propel them forward. The vibrations around him made it easy for Keng to map what was happening. The invisible screen showed the explosion had literally caused an explosive cave-in that flew into different sections of other tunnels. Whatever this place was, the ants had carved their way underground and open areas quickly filled in with stone and earth.
"I can\'t hold it!" Evan shouted. He was having a hard time holding the amount of energy growing. Blood trickled down his nose as his mind felt like it was going to rip in every direction. The ball embedded itself into the rubble, harshly as they came to an abrupt stop.
"Hold it just a little longer, Ev. I know you can do it!" Ritsuka told him. Evan\'s nose trickled with blood as he shook his head.
"I… Can\'t!" The ball exploded into every direction, pushing the group\'s only defense away. Rocks flew at them as Keng quickly wrapped his tails around the group.
"Resonance: Dragon\'s Lair." A cosmic water dragon whipped around them creating a spherical barrier as rocks slammed against it. Evan\'s pent up kinetic energy shattered the rocks below them, forcing them downwards as Keng\'s Negative took him onto his knees.
"Keng!" Ritsuka shouted. Keng kept his tails wrapped around them as his head felt like it was going to split in a million directions. He watched through the starry water sphere below as they flew through the floors of the tunnels. The dragon roared as it\'s tailed pulled away from the sphere, breaking rocks into dust before it rejoined the sphere.
They free fell for a while before landing, roughly, at the bottom of the tunnels. A large dark opening above them and barely lit room filled with rocks and the dragon sphere. The dragon continued to swim round and round, giving off a small light as Ritsuka, Evan, Olivia, Liz and Manny checked if they were fine. Keng slumped over, the blue aura fading as a dim silver aura flickered.
"Everyone okay?" Manny asked.
"Thankfully." Liz sighed in relief. "I thought we were gonna die. Are you guys, okay?"
"I\'ll be fine." Evan pinched his nose and looked up. Rocks spilled around them as the dragon continued to whip rocks that came too close to them.
"Fine." Ritsuka and Olivia answered.
"Are you okay, Keng?" Manny looked for him. He didn\'t see the similar looking Lee Seng Fox Spirit and began to scan below. Although this was Manny\'s first attempt to even talk to Keng, he couldn\'t help but feel a bit guilty when he saw the shape Keng was in.
"Keng!" Ritsuka shouted. Keng\'s tails loosened, pulling back to their master as they covered him. Ritsuka pushed through the group and hovered over him. "Keng! Keng!" The dragon roared bringing attention to the group that it was leaving. The sphere above them flickered as Manny began to bark orders.
"Grab him! Evan, protect us from falling rocks! Liz light the way and help Olivia dust the rocks that come our way." The group moved into motion as the dragon sphere disappeared, raining down on the group like a soft springtime rain. Ritsuka grunted. Keng\'s body had grown hard.
"He\'s… Heavy." Ritsuka struggled to speak. Manny sighed as Evan lifted his hand, producing a large shield above them. Liz bolted some rocks, flashing the area around them. There was only a single exit she noticed.
"Over there!" Liz pointed ahead of them. "Let\'s get over there."
"Here, we\'ll carry him together." Manny told Ritsuka. Ritsuka nodded and moved to grab his legs. "One. Two. Three!" The two boys lifted the heavy Keng up. "Move…!" They slowly moved down the rubble, making sure not to fall as Liz lit the way with a ball of condensed purple lightning. With a slow snail pace and steady coordination, the group eventually reached the safety of the tunnel.
"Go further." Ritsuka grunted as he and Manny slowly lugged the heavy Keng over. When the group collectively thought they were far enough away for any sudden trouble from the room they had just left, Manny and Ritsuka set down Keng and let out a sigh of relief.
"God, I don\'t remember the last time I had to carry him." Manny slid against the rough tunnel wall and rested his head on it.
"Just hope you don\'t have to do it again." Ritsuka commented. He sat at Keng\'s feet, taking a glance at him. "Is he… out?"
"Yeah." Manny answered after checking. Keng\'s eyes were closed, and his tails wrapped around him like a blanket. "Must be nice to have tails to keep you warm." The two boys caught their breaths as Liz, Evan and Olivia looked down the other way.
"Do you think it\'s worth a light?" Liz asked the two. Olivia shrugged while Evan tiredly pulled a handkerchief out and wiped the blood off his nose. His nose had, thankfully, stopped bleeding as he watched the clean handkerchief turn scarlet.
"We\'re probably safe for now, but it doesn\'t hurt to check." Evan gave his opinion. He turned to the girls, addressing the whole group. "Why don\'t we rest for a while? We\'ve been going for a while, right?" Manny lifted his watch. They\'ve been in the dungeon for a couple of hours. He tapped at it, hoping a map would pop up but the wondrous glitch still popped up.
"It\'s been a couple of hours." Manny informed the group. He lowered his arm and turned his head to watch Keng peacefully sleep. "It\'s felt like a short amount of time passed."
"Aren\'t dungeons like that?" Olivia asked. "Most dungeons feel like you haven\'t been going for more than an hour when it\'s been like two or three hours. People\'s perception of time is skewed, and it messes with their bodies or something like that. Maybe that\'s what\'s happening to us."
"True." Ritsuka nodded. "It doesn\'t help we\'re stuck in this hole with no way out now. What\'re we gonna do after he wakes up?"
"We\'ll continue forward." Manny replied. "Not like we can sit like ducks and hope a way out comes on two legs."
"Alright, smartass." Ritsuka rolled his eyes. Manny shook his head and looked away from Ritsuka. There still seemed to be a lot of that energy between them. Manny didn\'t want to deal with it right now. He was too tired and exhausted from the amount of healing and running he had already done.
"Let\'s just rest for a bit." Manny closed his eyes. "I\'m beat."
"We\'ll go look down there quick." Liz pointed. "Come back and rest after."
"Alright, be quick." Manny waved them goodbye. Liz, Olivia and Evan\'s footsteps slowly drifted away as \'quiet\' filled the space. They could still hear rocks tumbling but they had already gone so far that they weren\'t too worried something would happen to them.
\'Ah, crap. Why\'d I get stuck with Ritsuka?\' Manny wondered. It was silent for a while until Manny thought to himself again. \'Everything this sly Fox said was true… Does that mean Lee Seng is really missing and nobody knows where he is?\' Manny peeked a sneak and noticed Ritsuka had closed his eyes, too. He watched as Keng\'s chest slowly rose and fell. The Fox Spirit slept soundlessly like they weren\'t in a dungeon.
"Can\'t take a minute to just not think?" Ritsuka asked. Manny looked over and could barely make out Ritsuka was looking at him. "He\'s harmless. You should take this time to rest, too, Mr. Leader."
"I was keeping an eye out for all of us." Manny looked away. Ritsuka nodded, folding his arms.
"Sure."
An awkward silence fell between them and just when Manny thought it was over, Ritsuka spoke up.
"Tell me something, Valentin." Ritsuka quietly spoke. "How fucked up did things get that you put yourself in your predicament? Did you willingly do it or did you choose to because of Lee Seng?" Ritsuka looked over to Manny but saw nothing. It was pitch black and the quiet sounds of Keng sleeping were the only noise he managed to hear.
Manny looked left. He wondered if the others coming back. He didn\'t want to say a thing. Especially to Ritsuka. Ritsuka shifted in his spot and continued to look in the general direction of Manny.
"Let me put it this way, Valentin… Are you trying to help Lee Seng or are you only trying to help yourself?"