Chapter 70 - Thirty-First Floor (3)

Jaina Repellista Zahard was playing a video game while keeping an eye on her Opera, where she was observing Lumen. She noticed that he grabbed his Pocket and said. "Contract with the Guardian."

"Oh!" Repellista exclaimed. "He is going to take a Test from the Guardian? I can't wait to see what it will be like. I never got to see one before!"

A moment later, the Ghost Ship disappeared from her view.

"What?" Repellista exclaimed. She had never had a situation where she wasn't able to observe someone with her Opera Lighthouse. The only exception was the 1st Floor, but that was Headon's personal domain.

"Where did they go? Did the Guardian kill them all? What happened?" She questioned in confusion.

Repellista wasn't the only person that was confused about the situation.

A blonde man with weird irises was just as surprised. He had been keeping an eye on Lumen since the incident on the 30th Floor. Especially considering one of his old teammates had interfered in that fight.

"Huh? I can't see them?" He questioned, and an Opera appeared in front of him. Even with the best Lighthouse in the Tower, which was supposed to be able to see all of the Floors, he wasn't able to locate Lumen and his group.

"I really can't see them? I wonder what did he request for this to happen?" The man questioned.

Meanwhile, with the group.

"Are you sure this will work?" Androssi asked Leesoo.

They were all currently grouped in a bubble made of several Shinsoo qualities.

The outer layer was made Aleksai's miasma. His quality had the highest resistance to poison.

Under that was Leesoo's water mixed with Tiana's purple tulip. Any poison that gets through Aleksai's miasma would hopefully be purified by it.

And finally, the last layer was made of Anak's green scales. In case any poison gets through the other two layers, hers was the last line of defense.

All four of them had to be constantly making sure that the Shinsoo bubble had no openings. Otherwise, they would all end up dying here.

Merrie was using a blue B8-Rank Lighthouse to boost everyone's abilities. While Laure would use his wind quality to push the bubble and make it move.

"Definitely!" Leesoo lied, but he couldn't tell her the truth. Otherwise, she would kill him. They also didn't have other options considering they had to find the Hydra hearts as soon as possible.

"We don't have time to waste. The Hydra heart is a long-distance away." Merrie stated, and the group started moving in the direction she pointed at.

The bubble entered the poisonous sea, and a bit of the poison go through Aleksai's miasma. However, it was purified by the purple tulips mixed with Leesoo water.

"It's working!" Leesoo exclaimed and let out a sigh of relief.

"What are you sighing for? Didn't you say it would definitely work?" Androssi asked him.

"Shh, I have to concentrate. Don't disturb me!" Leesoo replied while sweating buckets.

"You will see how I will disturb you after we are done with the Test!" Androssi said.

They continued moving towards the direction of the Hydra heart, but a few minutes later, Merrie exclaimed. "Something is coming." She had sensed a presence moving towards them.

"You've got to be kidding me," Leesoo exclaimed. Moving through the poisonous sea was hard enough, but now there was something that would be attacking them.

A winged fish made of bones was moving towards them at high speed. In a few moments, it would end up colliding with them if they didn't do something to stop it.

The problem was that only Aleksai's miasma had a chance at persisting in the poisonous sea, and that was with Merrie boosting its power with her Lighthouse. They had to think of something, and they had to do it fast.

"Androssi, use the Thorn!" Merrie called out. That was the only option that she was able to see with her Guide abilities.

"I got it," Androssi replied. The bandages around the Thorn unwrapped as the red object floated behind her shoulder.

In its dormant state, the Thorn boosted all of her abilities, but when activated, those abilities were improved tenfold. Her Shinsoo control increased to the point where it was higher than a normal Ranker.

A pink, heart-shaped arrow appeared in front of the bubble and flew towards the incoming enemy. The arrow decimated the bone fish, and Androssi immediately deactivated the Thorn since she couldn't use it for long periods of time. The bandages wrapped around it as it returned to its dormant state.

"Damn." Leesoo cursed. "Hopefully, there won't be any more of those coming."

Just as he said that Merrie sensed two more bone fish swimming towards them. "Two more are coming. Androssi, prepare yourself. You are the only one that could deal with them."

"Leesoo, I will kill you after we are done with this Test!" Androssi said while activating the Thorn once more.

Androssi created two heart-shaped arrows and shot the incoming bone fish.

"Surely..." Leesoo got interrupted by Androssi before he could continue. "SHUT UP!"

She was about to deactivate the Thorn when Merrie stopped her. "A dozen more are coming."

Androssi created a pink orb while starring daggers at Leesoo. A dozen heart-shaped arrows flew out of the orb and destroyed the bone fishes that were coming towards them.

The group continued journeying towards the Hydra heart in that manner.

Aleksai, Leesoo, Tiana, and Anak would focus on keeping the Shinsoo bubble stable. Laure would push in the direction that Merrie pointed, while she would call out the incoming bone fish, which Androssi would deal with.

Half a day later, they got closer to the location of the Hydra heart. The group reached a massive cave opening, where the poisonous sea was repelled by a barrier of some sort.

They entered the cave and were finally able to release the Shinsoo bubble. By that point, the four that were keeping it stable were beyond exhausted. They had to keep it stable for a half a day, and that drained them.

Androssi was also exhausted for having used the Thorn to destroy all the bone fish.

There were multiple tunnels in the cave, and the group was looking around when Merrie called out to them. "Don't let your guard down! Enemies are approaching."

"Let me handle them." Hatsu stepped up. He was itching to fight since he couldn't do anything while staying inside the Shinsoo bubble.

"I will ȧssist you," Vespa said and stepped up with him.

"Me too!" Verdi called out. Lumen was her big brother, so she would do anything she can to help him out.

In a moment, hundreds of bone snakes popped out of the tunnels and slithered at high speeds towards them.

Hatsu jumped to confront them head-on, acting as the Fisherman. He held Ryu and Donghae in each hand while multiple spinning blades were floating around him.

With each attack from Ryu, he would freeze the bone snakes while burning them down with Donghae.

The spinning blades around him would block the attacks from the bone snakes and grind them to dust.

In mere moments, Hatsu was able to slay a big part of them on his own.

Vespa was zapping pass the bone snakes while attacking them with her needles and stinger, but her attacks weren't as useful as Hatsu's. They mostly dealt piercing damage, which wasn't that good against the bone snakes.

After a few failed attempts, she got angered by that and started shooting Shinsoo beams at them. With that, Vespa had more success and started racking up kills.

Verdi had manifested her squid and summoned her octopus. The two of them were smashing the bone snakes using their tentacles.

Bubbles was in a frenzy, and he was trying to destroy as many as he could. He couldn't allow the stupid squid to destroy more than him.

Ten minutes later, the three of them had managed to destroy all of the bone snakes that came out of the tunnels.

By that point, Merrie had already found the correct path that led to the Hydra's heart.

"This way," Merrie called out to the group and led them into one of the tunnels. They were tired from the journey through the poisonous sea, but they didn't have any time to waste.

The tunnel was long with a lot of twists and turns. Despite knowing the correct path, it still took Merrie two hours to lead them to their destination.

The Hydra heart was located in a massive chamber. It looked like an orb made of bones and was situated on a giant pedestal.

"There it is!" Merrie said as she watched the bone orb steadily throb.

Their objective was right in their sight, but nothing was that easy. In front of the Hydra heart, was a giant alligator made of black bones guarding it.

"ROAR!" The bone alligator let out a roar, and a black Baang of Shinsoo gathered in front of it.

"Enna Core." Merrie stepped up with her Lighthouse in front of her. Splits formed on the Lighthouse and divided it into nine smaller parts. She frowned with a pained look on her face due to the difficulty of the task.

The reason she used this was because of her next technique.

"Mystery Sphere." In front of her appeared a blue sphere filled with hexagonal tiles that looked like a honeycomb.

At that moment, the bone alligator fired off a black beam towards the group. The attack had such a high concentration of Shinsoo that a Ranker would surely die from it.

The black beam hit one of the hexagonal tiles and disappeared. It then appeared out of another one and flew back at the bone alligator. It's own attack hitting him head-on, but there wasn't even a scratch on the alligator's black bones.

"ROAR!" Angered that its attack didn't work and was redirected back at it, the alligator dashed towards the group.

However, a blue blur flew past it at that moment. Vespa had gathered a large Baang of Shinsoo and was about to shoot the Hydra heart, but the bone alligator jumped back before she could do it. Its massive jaws chomped down on her previous location, but she had already flown away from there.

"Hatsu!" Merrie called out with a pained look. Keeping the Mystery Sphere active was taking a toll on her mind.

"I'm on it," Hatsu replied. "Ignite Ryu!"

Ice covered his sword as he Ignited it. He slashed with Ryu and sent a massive wave of ice towards the bone alligator. "Ice Annihilation."

The bone alligator got frozen from the attack, but that wasn't enough to keep it down. Cracks started forming on the ice that covered it already. It will escape from its imprisonment shortly.

Merrie immediately used her Mystery Sphere and sent it towards the frozen bone alligator. She trapped it inside and called out to Vespa. "Quick, destroy the heart!"

"I'm on it!" Vespa was already in front of the Hydra heart with a massive Baang in front of her. She shot a beam of Shinsoo and the bone orb, but she wasn't able to destroy it in one hit.

"Vespa, hurry. I can't keep it for long!" Merrie called out to her as a bit of blood flowed out of her mouth.

"I'm trying!" Vespa replied and formed another two Baangs. She shot two beams at it, and the Hydra heart finally crumbled to dust.

"Now, run!" Merrie called out and teleported the bone alligator to the end of the chamber.

The group quickly made their way out of there.

"Verdi, destroy the opening of the tunnel!" Merrie said and stumbled. She was dizzy from the technique she had just used.

"I got it!" Verdi created her squid and made it destroy the opening of the tunnel. Rocks fell down on the squid, but it was only a Shinsoo quality, so she wasn't worried about it. Verdi could always manifest it again.

Vespa flew behind Merrie and picked her up. "Let me help you."

Merrie gave her a thankful nod. "This way!" She then led the group to a location where they would be safe for some time.