Chapter 21 Chain Traps

The deep and remote tunnel seemed endless. The group had been walking for nearly an hour, but they had encountered nothing. Neither the enemies they had anticipated, nor anything else. In short, there was nothing here, only an expanse of emptiness and silence.

"How much longer do we have to walk?"

The serpent-man captain twisted his body, his four arms tightly gripping long swords, glaring ahead. Noticing the serpent-man captain's gaze, Tevlin in front turned around, giving him a cold look — as a natural spy and thief, it was natural for Tevlin to take on the task of scouting and searching.

"How would I know? These tracks show those damned ones drove the merchant's underground lizards here. You know those big fat worms can move for days and nights without eating or drinking, let alone that these are traces left several days ago. Who knows where they would go? Maybe these guys would run into an abyss and dig a hole!"

Elice walked in the middle of the team, frowning slightly, feeling somewhat worried about the situation. This patrol team was indeed the most elite unit of the Black Onyx City. But for this reason, the relationships among the team members were also tense, just like now — the serpent-man was eager to fight with the imagined enemy, while Tevlin had no interest in a suicidal fight. They were trying to avoid all unnecessary battles as much as possible. Seeing Tevlin's expression, if the serpent-man captain dared to expose their position with more yelling, Tevlin might not be able to resist killing him. The half-vampires were just surrounding her, their only goal being to ensure her safety. It was imaginable that if something went wrong, these half-vampires would definitely flee with her at the first opportunity.

In Elice's view, the best solution was actually for each of the three races to send a patrol team, rather than acting together like this. She could keenly feel the tension in the team and quickly discovered the hidden dangers she did not want to see.

"Hope so, you hoofed creatures better not be lazy! Even if you're lazy, you'd better not let me know!"

"What did you say? You cold-blooded bastard covered in scales..."

"I said..."

Just as the argument was about to escalate into a full-blown conflict, Elice had to step in, but before she could finish her words, an unexpected event occurred.

With a "whoosh" sound, the floor under one of the serpent-men suddenly sprang up like a bellows. The unfortunate one was caught off guard and flew out like a cannonball, shocking everyone. They hadn't even had time to react to what had happened when they saw their companion flying past them with a howling wind.

However, the most confused was the unlucky one himself. As he was flung into the air, he instinctively screamed and raised his hands high, trying to grab onto something. But it was all in vain, because in the next moment, he hit the side wall heavily, and before he could react, darkness engulfed his vision.

"Boom!!"

The heavy stone slab slowly rose, carrying dripping blood and scattered flesh. Everyone stared blankly at the spot — just seconds ago, the serpent-man was thrown against the wall, then crushed into debris by the stone slab falling from above. Now, all that was left of him were those red pieces of flesh and white bone fragments.

"..."

For a moment, the entire tunnel fell into a silence as if death itself had descended, until the serpent-man captain, furious, walked up to Tevlin and slapped him hard.

"Scouting?"

He roared angrily, his long tongue lashing out of his mouth in agitation, making a "hiss" sound.

"Is this your damn scouting? Can't you hoofed freaks pay a little more attention and not mess things up so badly!!?"

"Hey! What does this have to do with us, you dead snake head!!"

Tevlin leaped up, his hands pressing and flipping at his waist, and in the next moment, two daggers appeared in his hands.

"We haven't seen anything here, haven't found anything, and you've walked through here too, without anything happening! How could you blame us?"

"Then how do you explain my team member turning into a pile of Nord roasted meat?!"

The serpent-man captain's long sword was already raised high, his eyes bulging with rage, wishing he could slice the fool in front of him into pieces the next moment. Facing the imminent threat, Tevlin simply shrugged indifferently.

"How would I know, maybe he was just unlucky?"

The serpent-man captain didn't speak because, in the next moment, his long sword was swung in a crisscross pattern. But the shining cold light failed to tear through Tevlin. As the sword light flashed, his body quickly turned into a whole black mist, twisting and dodging the attack, then swirling like a whirlwind to reconstitute into his physical form.

"Hey, I advise you better not force me to act, snakehead, or I'll definitely skin you to make a leather bag!"

"With you lot of trash?!"

"Enough!"

Seeing the situation getting out of hand, Elice couldn't help but shout angrily, interrupting their words. After confirming that their attention was focused on her, she sighed imperceptibly and said.

"This trap was triggered by magic."

"Magic?"

Hearing this, both the serpent-man and Tevlin were surprised, staring at Elice in disbelief. No wonder they were so astonished; in everyone's understanding, traps were usually activated by mechanisms. That's why Tevlin was so careful in scouting, although there were magical traps on the surface, those were made by compressing magic power with magic runes, essentially condensing a spell that would activate when stepped on.

This was also why Tevlin was so suited to being a thief, being a half-demon, he was extremely sensitive to magic, and with agile movements, whether it was any mechanism or a hidden magic circle, they could feel it.

But this time it was as if they had seen a ghost, clearly, everyone saw that serpent-man was smashed to death after being flung into the air, indicating it was a trap mechanism, but Tevlin failed to notice any signs of the mechanism's activation, nor did they detect any fluctuations of magic energy.

How could Elice say it was triggered by magic?

In fact, for Elice, it was also a coincidence. The vampiric kind inherently had far superior qualities than other races, and Elice was a perfect specimen among them, so her physical qualities need not be mentioned. The unfortunate serpent-man was walking not far in front of her, so when the serpent-man was flung into the air, Elice saw the whole situation clearly. Although it was only a few seconds for others, in Elice's eyes, it was like slow motion. For this reason, she clearly saw that when that piece of the floor flung the serpent-man guard into the air, the originally dim and lightless stone slab surface emitted a faint glow from the red patterns. And when the stone slab returned to its original position, the light disappeared.

"But we really didn't feel any magic fluctuations!"

Tevlin and the others realized the seriousness of the situation, their faces turning pale. No wonder, such a trap was unheard of and unseen by them, they had no idea what it was! Not to mention them, even Elice herself had not detected any magic fluctuations, if not for her sharp eyes, she might have overlooked it as well.

"I think there's something wrong with this place."

Thinking this, Elice spoke again, the strange feeling she had when they first entered reemerged in her heart. For some reason, after entering here, Elice vaguely felt as if someone was watching her. This made her very uncomfortable, originally she felt something was off, and now seeing this scene, she decided it was best to be cautious.

"I think we'd better retreat first and see what happens."

"This...."

"No matter what, the safety of the lady is the most important."

Seeing the others' worried expressions, a half-vampire clearly became unhappy. He quickly backed away while gesturing to Elice.

"Lady, for safety's sake, we should..."

But before the half-vampire could finish speaking, there was a loud bang, and the stone wall behind the half-vampire burst out, hitting him hard.

Although the vampiric kind had better physical qualities than ordinary people, the activation of this trap was completely unexpected. The poor guy was like being hit by a speeding truck, flying to the other side immediately. However, he was quick to react, spinning in the air and attempting to dodge.

But just as the half-vampire was about to dodge, a metallic friction sound echoed in the darkness, and in the next moment, several metal chains shot out from nowhere, biting into the half-vampire's limbs like the open jaws of venomous snakes, followed by a series of "clattering" sounds. The next moment, the half-vampire was pulled tightly against the wall, and before he could do anything, the stone wall slammed into him.

"Boom!!"

The dull thud echoed in the dark tunnel, like a heavy hammer striking the hearts of everyone. All faces turned pale as they looked at the stone wall that blocked their way back. As for the unfortunate one — the regenerative ability of the vampiric kind was indeed strong, but being crushed into debris was just as fatal.

Seeing this, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts. With their retreat blocked, what should they do now?

Could it be that they really had no choice but to continue downwards?