Chapter 25: 24- The Lost Prince (2)

The bright flash of orb moves in a beautiful archway with a violet trail of lightning bolts, shaped in countless crawling snakes licking air with their 1000watt tongues. Hitting that annoying rattling tail squarely, it dropped right in the center of the coiled Disco-Serpent…

"Booom!"

A rumbling bolt of lightning flashed, joining the ground and the ceiling; like heaven and earth. Immediately following the coiled serpents whole body, covering and basking it with infinite tiny violet snakes leaking from the inside of it. And then came the horrifying shriek of someone, who just got the first hand experience of mental patients shock therapy: Frying their brain to mushes. 

"Shkkkkaaaaaa!!!"

It's the only orb out of all ten of them whose reaction time, intensity, focus of attack, exact  input needed to charge is all but a mystery. He couldn't for the double life of him determine any of these, maybe it needed a fucking Mana meter to determine such things? Maybe it needed a special combination of orbs he doesn't know? Or Maybe it's indeed supposed to be used as a grenade? For all he knew, this orb might as well be broken or an unfinished prototype of sorts. 

'And that's why I never used it even once in combat' thought the wall hugging cockroach-goblin. 

Being the preparator he obviously knows what would be coming next. And so, he backs away from the bone-plated serpent. While the Hob-goblin at the back, eyed the beautiful bright ball with shocked face, then the Oscars' fearful retreat into the small wall-cracks; connecting the dots, he too instantly followed in his footsteps which couldn't get unnoticed by the goblin behind him, which in turn became the chain reaction of little goblins stuffing themselves in the wall cracks with no apparent reason and knowledge of what's coming next. 

But to one Hob-goblin, that doesn't matter; the shock of seeing a lesser goblin using Magic was enough of a shock. Though, it wasn't impossible for a lesser goblin to use magic in his tribe but those were far and few in between; like one shaman in every 50 batch of goblins, and even then they needed time and maturity of one evolution before they could pull the feat of this level. That this lesser goblin, who had most likely been born in an uninformed or lost batch and left to fend on his own without any elder goblins guide, had done with such an ease that it might have been a legenda-!? 

Stopping himself from continuing the thought, The Hob-goblin suddenly remembered the failed attempts of his [Ancestors-Psyche] on this same lesser goblin, and the skill only works with a higher order to lower one. So what if the said goblin was of lesser species, but the soul was of the reincarnated legendary prince-!!!, 

'No!' 

'what if…' 

'No… a skill?' 

'But…elders also said it' 

'and the timing is also the same…as the prophecy' 

'it can't be…' 

'right…'

He debated on his own, reviewing each legend regarding the prince and trying to draw the line between the prince and this rogue goblin. Afraid of making any mistakes. But the proof that one saw with their own eyes is hard to ignore, more so when your brain is mostly muscles and one 1percent reasoning; furthermore, you have the said legend, which had been retold and modified countless times in the history, for the identification. 

'Ma… maybe he's the one?' Fearfully, the Hob-Goblin thought at last.

                                                            

There was smoke coming from the center of the coiled serpent. And then a giant burning head within the cracked bone armor, rises high above to catch the breath. 

"Ssshhhkkkaaa!!!" Unhinging its jaws wide, it bellowed yet another painful wail as the fire could be seen burning its insides. 

Its head, looking much like a white worm without eyes, whipped around the air but seemed ineffective. Even though it wasn't a significant damage to its nigh high HP and the fire would blow off on its own, given a moment. The newly spawned, less than few hours old, Rattle-Puppeteer didn't have the patience for it, nor did It care in Its spur of maddened panic. From the moment It got spawned, It had followed its instincts and relied heavily on its tails' echo-location for seeing and attacking -as in, invading the mind- without it, It was technically blind and unarmed. Moreover, the culprit… that green insect, which it had let its puppets to devour, was alive and must be still nearby, ready to throw another of that dangerous ball, planning to burn It alive… No!

"Ssskkkaaaaa!" Horrified of that experience. The Rattle-Puppeteer darted away, deep inside the cavern, while ordering all its thralls to kill that green insect at all costs. By instinct, it was a puppeteer and not a combat oriented monster, it would leave the ground should it felt threatened and its few hours old mind only works on instinct rather than consciously thinking anything. 

"Grrr…"

Moving its 20m long body with surprising speed and maneuverability, it uncoiled in an instant before hastily slithering ahead blindly with a burning wide open jaws, leaving a trail of thick black smoke in its wake. While a dozen Clawed Centipede immediately moves to the goblins location, with no giant puppet masters body obstructing them.

*Scrii!* 

*Scrii!*

But search as they might, the hungry centipedes couldn't find a single goblin in there, dead or alive. The wall cracks are empty, the large boulders were all cracked and checked, the ceiling was also vacant, all in all the whole space was devoid of goblins…leaving the confused Centipedes to scratch each others head with their jaws, before finally spotting the red scared shitless kobolds and twin green kobolds glaring at them…no, they're glaring ahead, to their puppet master to be specific for the reason unkno-! 

Taking a double take. The centipedes with antennas for eyes, suddenly noticed an unusual green line waving with their masters' head movement, left to right, right to left; like a lone hair, grown on their masters' otherwise bald head, swaying in the storm. 

                                                            

"Yeeeehaw!"

Wearing the same ugly gauntlet, and the equally ugly tongue attached to the otherwise smooth surface ahead. Oscar stood atop the burning snake, as he barely managed to maintain his foothold for the brief moment. Only to lose the second his ride swayed its enormous head sideways, in order to make the next slither. 

"Ghaaaaaaaa!" 

Sending him screaming his lungs out, just like his brothers hanging behind in a chain. Not out of fear but because of the pain, as the whole goblins' chain was hanging through his fragile legs acting as the first line in rope. 

Glaring behind. The living-rope saw that Hob-goblin was trying to dig his claws into the snake and stop their dangerous swings, but so far, he had only put some dents over it. Meanwhile, the rest of the 15 or so small critters were busy trying to claw their way up ahead, climbing over each other, refusing to be at the end where the risk of being thrown by force was high. Hence, effectively making a cluster of living goblins in the shape of teardrop by the end. 

Glancing at [BackstabLv1], Oscar briefly entertained the thought of levelling this skill right here and then. Or more like he almost did it, but knowing that Hob-goblin would bite his legs off before he could release himself free from his grasp does curb that suicidal thought of his. 

From this high above. Oscar saw all the monsters giving a wide berth to their Ride just after seeing its enormous size and the horrifying way it waves its burning head around, whose fire has dimmed a lot by now. The dungeon floor was a mess, crowded with numerous monsters and their mindless brawls while there were many cracks in the walls, in the ceiling and the equal number of monsters eager to hop and add their number into the crowd through it. The scene was enough to make his skin crawl, just by the thought of crossing it by his own on foot.

'Something is wrong here…' after what he had seen and experienced today, Oscar would have to had a brick for a brain to not taking notice of these anomalies: Firstly, the number of adventurers is rather high in his routine routes. Secondly, those odd barriers separating the caverns was making him feel repulsive to cross it; probably a monster repellent barrier if he had to guess. Thirdly, this high number of spawn rates; like the dungeon was working on an overdrive to churn out monsters per hour. Making the dungeon too dangerous for a lone goblin like him to live in peace. 

Oscar has many questions but no one to ask from. No, he does have someone now, even though that said someone was a two word speaker. Thus, turning to that Two-word man/goblin. Oscar was about to ask what the hell was going in the dungeon, but stopped immediately the moment he saw him baring his sharp teeths… not at him, but at the centipedes running behind, or the kobolds riding the centipedes to be specific… 'wait! Kobolds again?'

Near the slithering tail of the snake, the surviving six centipedes could be seen closing on them fast. Their countless tiny legs moves in a raging waves of motion, pushing their 2m flat ribbon like body onwards. And surfing these off-beach living long-boards were the twin green kobolds with a focused and determined expression… or whatever expression one can make with an alligator face. Many monsters tried to catch them, but they still couldn't match the centipedes' speed of gliding on land.

'Seriously?!'

To say, Oscar was frustrated wouldn't be the right word for what he's feeling. 

He was annoyed, yes. But also mildly surprised and felt a bit of respect for their persistence; almost rivalling that of the traffic police chasing a car just because it dared to overtake them on an empty road.

'Kobolds are well… monsters of focus, commitment and sheer hatred for goblin' thought the said target of kobolds hatred, as he prepared to welcome their persistent pursuers with an evil smile. 

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'Khe! Khe! Khe! let's see' 

"Seatbelts on!" Came the cheerful shout of the pilot. Too bad there's only one audience who could understand him -barely- and even that tilted his head on his words, but Oscar isn't a goblin of words either. 

And so came the dreaded multipurpose, multi ammo wand of stolen orbs with the last few mana stones. 

Oscillating over the straining the rope with the weight of well over 15 goblins, as it glued to the snakes' pendulum like moving head. Oscar waited as they reached the maximum side of left, before taking aim and blasting a bout of fiery fire right into the opened jaws of the eyeless snake; adding the fuel to their burning train like any diligent worker would. 

Some flares, streaking through the air, bombarded the snakes wide opened jaws as it panted heavily after finally being able to put away the fire at last. Only for that hateful green insect to reignite it again, adding fuel to its panicking engine, constantly and recklessly. 

"Bang!" 

"Bang!" 

"Bang!" 

Each oscillation completed, more and more of these fire bombarded its jaws until it reached the previous state and the pain that comes with it. And with pain comes the maddened wail of agony as it blindly slithers ahead leaving behind its pursuing puppets to eat dust. The snake had known the moment those centipedes caught the sight of many green Goblins hanging over its head, and so it ordered them to remove it at all cost, which also meant ignoring the kobolds altogether as they ran like missiles trying to catch their target on their masters' back only to see their master being this uncooperative… 

"Shhhhkkkkaaaa!"

Like a well whipped horse, The burning snake picked its pace as its body slithers more vigorously over the sparsely crowded dungeon caverns. And guiding it, was a small goblin who was busy screaming with a mad gleen as he tried to navigate the wild burning snake to his sweet home. 

Bombarding its left face to take the right turn, blasting its right face for diving into the left caverns. Oscar didn't know which route he's taking, nor was he aware if they're even on any route at all. Having deemed their guide, Hob-goblin, as wasted since he was doing nothing but staring at him with a disturbingly dazed expression. Oscar decided to take the matter in his own hands and to reach the safety of his home first and foremost, he couldn't put away the foreboding feeling he's getting from the current dungeon situation.

                                                             

Having just woken up after a good night's sleep, Bucky comes near the entrance to get some fresh air

The safety-cave was well and above 10m high with a small entrance, and a large cavity for his whole team to get the well needed rest. It's been a week, they have been destroying each and every magic formation they encounter and following the trail of those nameless cult, non-stop. And just yesterday, they have finally caught the group of five people responsible for wide-spreading these strange formations around the dungeon; in order to harvest the rising Mana in the time of overflow and summon an unknown entity called 'The Nameless'

But that's not important to Bucky, fighting and beating the bad guys was all and good. But the joy of beating the monsters was what made him the most happy. Unlike human-bad guys, they're not this conniving and deceptively blends with the other good guys, forcing him to use brain and restrain his punches, making him feel suffocated and tired just to identify them before each fight. The monsters are bad but in a good way, they don't blends with other good humans, nor does they force him to use brain and unlike human-bad guys, they're too easy to differentiate from humans. Sometimes, Bucky does wonder why he even tried to differentiate?

"Whaaaa~ Mom said, help the good guys and beat the bad guys~ only then will you become the hero" Yawning, as he stretched. Bucky remembered why he even came to Orario- to become a Hero.

"And Heroes are the best" 

Repeating the line of his mother, Bucky saw the safe route cavern. Even after taking the precautions, the safe routes are also starting to fill with monsters, albeit at a much slower rate. The empty cavern is now sparsely populated. And it won't be long, when they would fill each nook and cranny of it. Just by thinking of it, makes Bucky excited as he waits for the much awaited overflow to come… 

Just then, a loud rumble resounded through the cavern. Accompanied by the bizarre scene of a fire breathing snake slithering with a horde of goblins swinging like a pendulum behind its back and one particular goblin at the top shouting a "Yeeehaw!" As they zoomed past the Bucky…Following the snake and the goblin duo came the four centipedes skittering behind with all their might. While one particular centipede carried the twin green kobolds on its back without a problem, both glided through the floor like they're riding a magic carpet… 

"Waazir! Wake up! You won't believe what Bucky saw" And so, came the giant Half-orc to annoy his partner, much like any other day.

While the one in charge to keep a watch at the cave entrance, silently muttered to himself. 

"The hell is going on in this dungeon nowadays…"

                                                               

"Whiiieeeee" 

The newborns were swinging like crazy, the Hob-goblin was clenching his jaws like he was in pain, and the preparator of this all was calculating the distance like his life depended on it, because it literally is. 

Oscar didn't know when they have crossed one such barrier and have entered the Safe Zones, But if the number of times he has seen his traps getting activated as the mad snake, with a worm like appearance, walked over them unimpeded is of any indication, then he was indeed getting closer to his home. 

Which was good, because if he keep experiencing these nauseating swings anymore, then he might not be able to stop vomiting for the next two days; only if he survives to see the dungeon ceiling for another day that is. 

"Bang!" Another trap activated, but does nothing to stop or even slow the snake. Making the Oscar frown in worry. As he questions himself, how is he going to land from here? They couldn't even stop their dangerous swings for the whole flight, it would be a tall order to stop the snake and let them down peacefully now. And considering the torture it has gone through his hands, it would be good enough if it swallows him whole rather than cutting him into thousand pieces. 

And at another turn, his sight caught the mouth of his ghost cave at above 30m. And with the speed they're going from, it won't be long before they gets past it. 

"Ack!" Out of time and out of options. Oscar grits his teeth and activates the [Cavemens-Aggression], his heart beat accelerated with a forceful expansion and deflation as it pumps the amount of blood it wasn't capable of; like it was possessed by something. 

An unknown yet sinisterly cold energy drains his life at a rate that was faster than bathing with the poison, while giving him the sudden burst of power in return, making his muscles bulge by an inch further. As he tries to hold his breath, his mind starts slipping in between conscious and blank state. His mind starts hearing some ghostly whispers, which he couldn't understand nor could he turn them off; like a broken radio. Making his head bulge in abrupt madness like a fiend, but his already high numbers in INT does curb it -somewhat- as this was also the reason why he was even able to raise this demonic skill till Lv5 without becoming a mad dog. 

In essence, It was a skill that relied on burrowing the powers of the fiends in exchange for their blood. That Oscar only got to know when he used it for the first time, and almost let his mind be taken over by them. After that, he wasted a whole day trying to ask for a refund and accusing the dungeon for cheating him of his SP and not giving him a thorough description of the skill at the time of purchase. Which technically isn't true, the skill did say he will get extra power in exchange for blood, but it didn't say from where. As for not disclosing all the information, it was applied to each and every skill- no mutation or skill description actually said what he will actually receive, it was nothing but blind guesses; like it was designed by some cunning demons themselves. 

"Eeeii Khe! khe! khe!" His ears stood sharp, fangs waiting to tear some flesh, claws itching to claim the lives, and his bloodshot eyes dripping with madness with a sharp and calculative gleen shining within it. 

Looking behind at the Hob-Goblin, The living fiend gives a chill inducing smile for no particular reason. 

Before it abruptly withdraws the sticky tongue back inside its gauntlet, right when they reached the maximum left swings.

"Ghaaaaa!"

"Ghiieeee!"

The whole chain of goblins does a backflip mid-air, with the fiend at one end and a cluster of little goblins at the other end. Right when the fiend faces the upper side of the wall, it clicked the 'Escapinator' inner mechanism. A sticky-tongue of a monster swished past with the speed, hard to notice with the naked eyes. 

"I'm cumming!" 

Gurgled the fiend as it daringly slingshots itself straight to its house, hence came the home-coming of Oscar with the wailing goblins in tow.

Though, Many of them loses their grip and falls to their death with this height. While the snake continued to zoom past ahead, as if planning to make the round trip of the world in one go; taking the centipedes and the horrified kobolds with it. 

"Bang!" 

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