Chapter 237: Ruthless Monsters

The first thought that came into Alex’s mind was to dodge the attack. However, as he tilted his head, his Advanced Battle Instinct Spell sent a series of frantic warnings through his mind, telling him that if he dodged, the attack would hit Petra and kill her.

Still, Alex couldn’t block this attack. There was no time to think about why his instincts were warning him or try to understand the attack itself, and all he knew was that he couldn’t block or deflect it.

As he continued to dodge, his Superior Body Reinforcement Spell was pushed to its limit. It worked together with his Advanced Battle Instinct Spell as his hand shot up and grabbed the black blur that was flying past his shoulder.

Pain immediately spread through his palm, making it feel as if his entire hand had been ripped apart while the force traveling through the spear nearly tore his shoulder from its socket. Alex gritted his teeth and tightened his grip instead of letting go, refusing to allow the weapon to continue toward Petra.

The attack pulled him backward, but Alex quickly created several mana threads and anchored himself to the ground. His feet slid across the stone for a short distance before the threads stopped him, allowing him to hold onto the spear without being dragged away.

Alex immediately released several mana pulses while looking at the weapon in his hand. It was a tiny black spear covered in rapidly dissipating Origin Energy, and although it felt similar to the Origin Energy surrounding the Warrior Badgers, there was an important difference between them.

The Warrior Badgers’ Origin Energy was more stable, while the energy covering this spear was sharper and far more lethal because it sacrificed stability for greater destructive power. It would lose its strength quickly, but during that short period, it could probably dispel other energies much more effectively.

Alex finally understood how dangerous the attack had been.

If he had tried to block it directly, the spear would have punched through his body by vibrating his mana and disrupting its structure. If he had attempted to deflect it with his Mana Sword, the concentrated Origin Energy would likely have destabilized the sword and dispelled it before he could redirect the attack.

Thankfully, he had grabbed the shaft instead of the tip. The shaft was not covered in nearly as much Origin Energy, so his mana had not been destabilized or dispelled when he caught it.

Alex raised his head and looked toward the three tunnels. He couldn’t sense where the attack had come from, so he repeatedly fired mana pulses at different angles while carefully checking his surroundings, but nothing appeared within his senses.

"Stay alert, everyone. This isn’t the end," Alex said.

The others remained tense, while Frank continued struggling to remain standing after the previous battle. Alex swept his gaze across the tunnels once more, searching for any movement, but there was no sign of the creature that had thrown the spear.

Suddenly, a loud screech echoed through the dungeon.

Alex immediately sensed tremors beneath his feet, and three badgers rushed out of the rightmost tunnel at almost the same time. More badgers came from the other two tunnels. Seeing the few badgers emerge from the same tunnel where the previous group had appeared made Alex finally understand what had happened.

The badgers they had sensed fighting something in that tunnel earlier had been bait.

The monsters had deliberately created the impression that they were already fighting another group, making Alex believe that the badgers were distracted when they had actually been preparing an ambush. They had sent a small group to deal with Alex’s team first, and if that failed, they would finish Alex’s group with a surprise attack while Alex’s group thought they had won and rested.

The spear had most likely been part of that plan.

Alex looked toward the tunnel with a grim expression as more badgers rushed out. They had apparently realized that their surprise attack had failed, so instead of waiting for another opportunity, they were now trying to overwhelm Alex’s group with numbers.

’This level of strategy is extremely high. Just how intelligent is the leader of this dungeon?’ Alex wondered.

He tightened his grip around his Mana Sword, but a faint smile appeared on his face. As he had expected, a dungeon filled with Mid-rank Species was completely different from what they had encountered before, and the level of coordination, planning, and ruthlessness these monsters displayed was surprising.

They were even willing to use some of their own kind as bait if it gave them a better chance of killing their enemies.

More and more badgers rushed out of the tunnels, and Alex counted fifteen at a glance. Four of them were Warrior Badgers, making the situation considerably more dangerous than the previous battle.

Alex quickly created a Fire Bullet, but instead of making it powerful enough to kill the monsters, he modified its structure so that it would create a large explosion. He needed to disrupt their formation and restrict their vision rather than waste too much mana trying to kill them all at once.

The Fire Bullet ripped through the air and struck the first badger rushing toward the group. A large explosion immediately erupted, filling the area with flames and smoke, but as expected, the weak explosion did not kill any of the badgers caught inside it.

However, it achieved exactly what Alex wanted.

Alex fired his Mana Shuriken into the smoke at that moment. The construct made a sharp whirring sound as it tore through the air, and it cleanly sliced through three badgers before burying itself deep inside a fourth and killing it.

At the same time, Emma took a shield out of thin air and passed it to Frank, who was wobbling slightly as he stood. Frank immediately raised the shield in front of himself, preparing for the next wave of attacks.

Alex gave them a quick glance before creating another Fire Bullet.

This one was considerably more powerful, but Alex still kept its strength below the level that could collapse the tunnel. He fired it directly into the middle of the badgers, and the projectile struck deep inside their formation before exploding.

A powerful shockwave spread through the tunnel, throwing several badgers into the air while badly burning many of the others. The force was strong enough that Alex’s own group struggled to remain standing, while loose chunks of stone fell from the ceiling as the tunnel shook.

Alex quickly scanned the area and confirmed that many of the badgers had been gravely injured. Their movements had become much slower, which would make them considerably easier for his team to deal with.

However, there was no more time to think about the injured monsters because three Warrior Badgers suddenly rushed toward him. All three were completely unharmed, and their speed was far greater than that of the other badgers.

Alex raised his Mana Sword and stepped forward as the first Warrior Badger reached him. He swung his sword toward the monster’s claw, meeting the attack head-on as the powerful Origin Energy surrounding its claws collided with his mana sword. Alex immediately used his Mana Distribution Blade Spell, making the mana forming his blade vibrate at a different frequency from normal mana in an attempt to resist the Origin Energy.

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