Chapter 64 - Underground part3

Jack watches the figures dashing toward him without almost no warning, Jack calls upon his rapidly thinning reserves of dragon qi to launch fireballs at the giant figures of armour.

The fireballs fly toward the figures, only a few steps away now, yet they simply sizzle as a strange light shimmers around the figures and negate the entirety of his attack.

The two giant figures of armour are within range as they stab out their brightly glowing lances in unison toward Jack's chest but Jack uses careful footwork to dodge these stabs, the figures foot movements are quick yet their actual stabs seem slow.

'Bunny Dash'

Jack dashes backward away from the figures stabbing at him, almost slipping on the piles of dead insects, blood covers the cliff ledge and rocks surrounding it.

He fixes up his unsteady footwork, but he suddenly feels the need to dodge, ducking his head as he turns to look at the two figures.

*Whooosh*

A lance narrowly misses Jack's head and lands digs into the ground not too far away.

The figures split up, one of them is charging at Jack while still brandishing the lance while one at the rear is pointing its arm at Jack while a light appears within one of the countless holes.

Forcing his little remaining dragon qi into the spear, Jack readies an explosion and takes aim at the figure that is now only two steps away.

A weak point by the figure's neck joint is the target, 'First Motion' Jack thrusts the spear out.

Jack's spear abnormally bends as the figure is a single step away, the figure thrusts its lance out at the same time as Jack yet its lance is much shorter than the spear.

The glowing spearhead easily passes through the shimmering light that surrounds the figure, causing it to shatter into countless light shards before travelling into the figure's neck.

*boom*

An explosion blows off part of the armour on the exterior revealing the interior but before Jack can take notice, the lance it has stabbed out contacts the armour plates under his clothing causing him abruptly retreat away using 'Bunny Dash'.

Jack attempts to land at a spot not too far away when a light from the figure at the background flies toward where Jack is about to land, this happens far too quickly for Jack to do anything about so he's forced to take a hit on the inside of his arm and side of his chest.

The close-range figure is quickly dashing after Jack again while the figure in the background is charging another shot, he retreats again with 'Bunny Dash' struggling to maintain a balance between needing to dodge the attacks from both the figures and the slippery floor.

Jack is panting but a slight break gives him a chance to look at the damage caused to the head of the close-range figure, the area where the spear landed is devoid of any armour revealing many crystals and metal underneath, it looks like circuitry and component boards.

Nursing the wound on his side, Jack quietly mutters and asks himself, "Are these things robots?"

'Robot?'

"Oh, uhh, like… artificial creatures" Jack dodges the close-range figure again as he inspects the uncovered area, the crystals and metal are entirely undamaged underneath.

"Like creatures that someone made from metals" Jack dodges yet the long-range figure takes another shot at him landing near his leg narrowly grazing his clothing.

'Artificial like umm, golems? Ohhhh ummmmm…'

Jack ignores Xueli speaking in his head as he's forced to dodge the increasingly accurate shots from the figure in the distance, a shot painfully lands on the edge of his stomach.

Jack sucks up air through clenched teeth as he looks at the figure in the distance charging another shot, he's able to dodge the lance of the close-range figure but the long-range one is becoming a much bigger threat.

Another shot travels toward him where he has stopped for a moment, it lands a split moment too late as Jack has disappeared from the spot as he's making his way toward the long-range figure taking shots at him.

Pushing his body to the limit as his muscles groan from the constant use of 'Bunny Dash', he calls upon the very last remnants of qi within his dantian and pushes it into the spear.

The spearhead glows and softly vibrates as the two types of qi inadvertently enter the spear causing a slight fissure to appear on the shaft.

He makes another dash toward the long-range figure to dodge the shots that are becoming quicker and deadlier at the closer range.

Two shots of light suddenly fire, one lands on Jack's shoulder while another narrowly misses his ear.

His eyes are quickly scanning the armour on the long-range figure, the joints look worse than the one going in for close-range giving him his targets.

Pulling the spear back, Jack calms his mind in the battle's midst and prepares for his next move.

This will be dangerous as his heart races, 'Second Motion!' he yells inwardly and dashes into range of the long-range figure charging another shot.

The air almost screams as the glowing and vibrating spearhead travels toward the figure, the shimmer light barrier breaks down instantly into countless shards upon contact with the spearhead but it doesn't stop there as it contacts the brittle armour exterior.

*boom*

A minor explosion appears on the surface of the armour, yet it's not the only one as the spear is instantly pulled back and charged forward again taking aim at the joints and other targets that Jack previously picked out in what appears to be two jabs of the spear.

*boom boom boom*

Many explosions sound on the surface of the armour but Jack doesn't have time to admire the sights as the close-range armour figure is quickly approaching, its lance is ready but Jack can hear Xueli in his mind speak.

'Try storing them away'

"Store? FUCK" Jack yells out in frustration, his storage ring is back at the village with Albert and he's far from confident about his ability to use the second storage function he has in this sort of battle, his heart is pounding as the lance travels toward his chest.

Quickly drawing the 'Dragon - Phoenix Sword' that is sitting by his side, he uses it to attempt a redirection of the lance which forces it to pass by his side at this incredibly close range.

Almost dropping the spear in his other hand, he reaches out and touches the body of the armoured figure to store it away, it's a Crapshoot but luckily it succeeds as the armoured figure disappears before him strangely, the lance it was holding drops the ground while Jack almost collapses on the ground in exhaustion.

The remaining figure near him topples over in parts on the ground, twitching and buzzing while a red glow appears in its eyes like it's charging another weapon which Jack notices and quickly rushes over and stores the main body of this second figure away.

Its various parts litter the ground in close proximity yet Jack's eyes remain on the mural where the figures appeared from in the first place, these two figures suddenly appeared from there so it's entirely possible more will appear but time ticks by and nothing happens allowing him to breathe a sigh of relief.

'Hmph, those things were incredibly weak, why are you so tired from that?'

"Give me a break, I'm only at the 2nd stage of my cultivation and 3 weeks ago I was working at a damn supermarket"

'Those things were barely at the 3rd stage, even I could have taken care of them with this reborn body also what's a supermarket?' Xueli speaks in his mind while her body appears from the tattoo around his arm, the little white snake slithers up his arm and curls up in a ball on his head like a hat.

Jack can feel she is drawing upon the stored qi within his forehead but says nothing about it, "It's not important what it is but fighting physical battles like this is incredibly rare, damn the only thing that was slightly familiar were those fucking shots from the distance yet they were made of light and not projectiles"

'Of course, projectiles that aren't imbued with qi are easily blocked by anyone above stage 3 cultivation'

"Is that important right now?" Jack is still panting as he's crouched on the ground.

'Isn't it important information?'

Jack feels like screaming in his mind but he keeps quiet, Xueli doesn't have most of her memories and if she's not speaking about some few memories she has, she'll act very similar to Mai… like a child. Jack takes a slight break before collecting the pieces of the 'robots' including their lance's that are still glowing red on the ground.

Back within the dwarven ancestral village, Jessica is following Glomor, the old dwarf the only one that seems willing to speak the same language as the newcomers.

"Young Miss Phoenix, if you can forgive me for asking but what are you doing here?"

"I was told that there's something close by underground that I need to gather, why?"

"No, you misunderstand me, what are you doing on this… lower plane?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, we were able to detect the energies within your body when you were standing within the hall earlier and I apologise if you find it a transgression but you have the energies of a Celestial within your body and that can only be found on the Immortal Planes so why have you come down here?"

Jessica is stunned silent by this talk, this isn't the first time that she has been told that she's a celestial something yet she has only ever been a villager from a farming village within this region, her entire life was tending to the various orchards and plants around the village.

"Sorry if I have offended you" Glomor speaks up after a few moments after silence.

"No, it's not that, I honestly cannot tell you anything about that as I do not know myself"

"Heaven's will works in mysterious ways…" the dwarf mutters when the lights flicker causing all the dwarves to stop what they're doing and look up; Jessica also looks up but can't tell what's going on.

"Looks like our worries aren't over, seems like the vile creatures have caused the guardians to come out"

"Guardians?"

"Protectors of the sealed tomb of the 'star child', they'll only come out if they detect something that threatens the tomb" Glomor strokes his beard, "they'll also come out if they detect someone with high purity dragon qi too but that'd be impossible to find out in this region" he laughs as though he's telling a joke.

The lights return to normal, allowing everyone to return to their previous tasks, mostly watching the newcomers with suspicious eyes.

Jack has caught his breath and collected the various pieces of the 'robots', he's currently standing before the large door that is now glowing with a mixture of red and white lighting up the various symbols and pictures on the door, using his finger to trace the design it feels strange but as his finger touches a certain area, text floats up like it's some kind of computer screen.

Xueli on his head is silently reading the text, but Jack cannot understand it at all.

'Try calling a white fireball into your hand'

Jack does as Xueli suggested, a glowing white ball of strange heat appears before his palm when the door flashes green before the rest of the mural flashes similarly, this lasts a moment before all the designs on the door change to a large design of a Phoenix in a multitude of colours.

The text changes yet again, 'Try throwing some of your blood on the door'

Jack has no reason to not follow Xueli's suggestion now, cutting his arm causing blood to drip down but quickly wiping it up with a finger and flinging it at the door.

A blinding white light suddenly emits from the door causing Jack to look away but the sounds of the door swinging open can be heard.

The white light disappears revealing what was behind the locked door, a dark room with a large diamond floating in the middle of the room.

The diamond is glowing with a soft silver colour as it slowly spins around, it's taller than Jack and looks very valuable.

"Any ideas what that is?"

'You're the one with a system that can bring up information on items, why don't you tell me'

Jack bitterly smiles at this response and walks forward into the revealed room, unknown to him that countless microscopic threads connect the crystal to the room it's floating within causing the brightly lit up mural outside to fluctuate as if it's losing power.

The tired and exhausted young man reaches the crystal, his clothing littered with holes revealing bloody wounds and burn marks over his body from the countless shots from the 'robots' previously, reaching out his hand he brings up the system information which strangely comes up with the usual weird artifacts that started recently:

'Sealing Crystal - Artifact DSTC, Grade: Unknown, Status: Sealed '

"Sealing Crystal? What does DSTC mean?"

'Sealing Crystal? Does it say anything else?'

"No, just that it's still sealed and an unknown grade"

'Hmm you said it says DSTC? I wonder what that means…'

Jack speaks with Xueli for a few more moments, but it's essentially the blind leading the blind, not uncovering any more information about what this item is, he places his hand upon the crystal when the tiny piece of land throbs within his mind.

The two figures are like statues above the land yet it doesn't seem to be absorbing them like the ant carcasses, Jack forces the crystal into the storage space when his mind is assaulted with a new wave of fatigue but he bites his tongue to concentrate and the crystal appears above the land.

Everything suddenly goes black.

Within the dwarven village, Jessica and Glomor continued walking when the sky suddenly goes completely black with the only light coming from countless little lanterns placed around the tiny village.

"Your group certainly chose the worst time to come across our little group of dwarves" Glomor sighs while stroking his beard.

"What do you mean? Why did the lights go out?"

"Ahh, we've been trapped here for so long without resupply that the power to run this small village is low, we spent many years researching and found that we have enough to last until either the final dwarf perishes due to old age or we can find our way back to the portal yet well, you can see what's happening"

Jessica just looks at the old dwarf with a blank expression, "I see, why don't you leave this village then?"

The old dwarf chuckles, "Most of us would rather perish to the vine than abandon this village but perhaps it is time... The shrine is over there, I need to step away for some time please forgive my rudeness"

Jessica thanks the dwarf and continues to the shrine, a shrine with a familiar-looking Phoenix statue appears while it's surrounded by many pillars that have similar designs to all the murals outside featuring countless dwarves, the designs are all incredibly details and intricate as though countless years have been spent by artisans chiselling into the stone.

She walks up to the statue and touches it, yet nothing happens; the statue is like the one that appeared by the 'Dragon - Phoenix village heart' all those weeks ago but lacks the inscription below it, touching it several times her expression sinks but she doesn't give up.

Back to Jack, within the darkness he's suddenly blast by a wave of energy coming from everywhere forcing him outside the door where it's completely black, literally nothing can be seen except darkness using his divine sense to feel the way he can feel that he's outside the doorway but it's black compared to the slightly glowing appearance before.

The light bridge has disappeared, Jack panics and pulls out a hook, throwing it towards the ledge that is rapidly leaving his range as he's falling down into the black endless abyss.

*Cling*

The hook hits the ledge but can't grab onto anything.

"FUCK!" Jack yells as he's falling down into the black abyss, the black of energy luckily knocking off the endless wave of ticks as he tumbles against it attempting to dig into it with anything on hand, his spear, his sword, the countless climbing tools he prepared yet nothing works.

His hand touches something that feels like a rope, grabbing onto the lifeline for his life but it's not enough as he keeps falling but after about 10 seconds, his foot is looped by something and he halts suddenly turning upside down as the various tools in the backpack fall into the darkness below.

Xueli has wrapped around his neck, struggling to hang on, 'Quick don't let the vine wrap around you'

"Wha..?" Jack mutters but he can feel his energy being sapped by whatever is wrapped around his foot stopping his mouth.

Jack is in a precarious situation; his only lifeline, the vine that is wrapped around his foot, is sucking the energy from his body as he's hovering over an endless black abyss where the sounds of distant screeches are heard sometimes.