THAT DAY I BECAME A STAR

"Krieek!!"

As soon as I get inside the dome, Longinus greet me. Two sloins and a prator are already on us like they were waiting for this. There are numerous others ahead as well. The number of crystals I can feel is too much to be counted. This will definitively be difficult.

K'nor shoots down a sloin while the prator is distracted by Willhem. I kill the other one with a bullet and then destroy the prator's head with two bullets.

"Hey, guys!! Leave some for us as well!!"

The muscular woman enters, followed by Davy and Hendrick. She marks her entry with a titanic slash empowered by her hammer. She is using the same weapon as Roderick the fool. I wonder if it is a rule among them overly muscular type..

"Kriek-"

"Kriek-"

She destroys two vanguards instantly and cracks the ground as well. I hope she will be able to hold on because Angas isn't available here. Or perhaps she doesn't know.

"Don't just use your power like that! It won't be replenished in here!"

The priest-looking woman warns her after entering. The rest of the group has finally arrived.

"I know!! But I need to warm up!"

So she knows then. That's good.

"The cave is northeast! Let's go!"

Old Davy pushes forward with his group but they are soon confronted by three prators. His group is composed of eleven people, with three titanies and a woman. They all immediately grouped together as soon as they entered. In fact, all groups did the same.

"Capt'. How do we do this?" Hendrick asks me while calmly dealing with a sloin. A dall comes behind that sloin but Fiz provokes it by poking it with his spear. I shoot it down right after it turns its head to the side to look at Fiz.

"Let's go to the cave first. If any of them need our help on the way, we will help them. The more we are, the better our chances of survival." I can see that the ray feeding the dome comes from the same direction as the one of the cave so it is all good.

"Okay, understood."

"Willhem, let's go!" The guy is already fighting three vanguards on his own. He is too excited.

We follow Davy's group which is almost done with the prators and continue ahead. There is a lot of Longinus but they are dispersed inside the dome. Is it a trap like last time? There is only one way to know.

***

"Two Longinus incoming from the left!"

"Okay!

After some minutes, most of us have formed a dense package, blending together without considering the group anymore. Our present group is composed of twenty-seven people or three groups. The old Davy's group, a woman's group with the muscular woman, the priest, and Lanuvel's double.

It seems the priest has the ability to detect Longinus. As we are moving, she more or less pinpoints the position of any Longinus we are about to encounter. Though I am more precise than her, I still think it is amazing. We are advancing and there is a hill ahead of us. Surely, it is there.

The other group composed of the rest of the mercenaries arrived a bit after us. They act as if they are just tagging along. I don't like that but it is not my problem. Just like it won't be my problem whether they die or not.

"Kriekk!!"

Just to confirm my suspicions, two kirsurks appear, destroying the hill as they erect their giant bodies from the ground. There is a hole beneath them though.

"Kriekk!!"

They almost instantly receive scripts and arrows, which stagger them greatly.

"That must be the entrance!! Let's go!!"

One guy from the other group leads them while we engage the two kirsurks. They jump down the hole while the kirsurks are busy with us. But not all of them make it.

"Kriekk!"

"Gyaa!!"

"Argh!!"

"Stephan!!"

"Argh!! My arm!!"

After about half of them got in, the rest get pinched by the second kirsurk who stroke the ground so hard two guys lost their limbs. The other still managed to get out unscathed though.

"Let's go!"

Davy signals us to move forward and when I turn my head in his direction. I see the kirsurk falling down with a leg missing and his head blown up. I got distracted by those guys and wasn't paying attention. That's not good.

We run and start jumping down the hole as well. It got enlarged by the kirsurks' presence it seems. The passage below is smaller than the hole itself.

"Kriekk!"

The second kirsurk tries to avenge his fallen comrade but I give him a bullet to play with until we come back. Thankfully, it only hurts his claw and throws it back without severing it. Now, the rest of them will have something to play with before joining back with us. Though it would be better if we all went down at the same time. I can feel some pretty strong Longinus presence down there.

Once inside the passage, I start feeling weaker. The effect of the dome is really severe. I sneakily put a crystal in my mouth. Thankfully, I have a bunch of them with the kirsurks and prators I killed. When I raise my head back, Lanuvel's double is looking at me for some reason. Why?

Since she doesn't say anything, I won't say anything either. We continue for a while and notice that there are some traces of blood here and there.

"They were attacked?"

"It seems like it." Davy stops and looks at the wall. There is a big trace of a slash there.

"That's not a human weapon, right?" A woman approaches him and speaks. She seems worried.

"Nope. Certainly not." And Davy doesn't seem too confident either.

"How are you guys holding?"

I take advantage of that to check if the guys are still in shape to continue. We did take almost thirty minutes to reach the cave. That means we have roughly three hours left to find that item and get out of here.

By the way, I don't even know what the item is. And I am not the only one since I heard other mercenaries talking about it as well. Davy said to one of his men that when we will find it, we will know that it is what we were looking for. So either he knows what it is or it is something that we will naturally recognize.

"Yeah. I am fine."

"All good for now."

"I haven't even started yet."

It seems everybody is alright. None of them are sweating as well.

"Kya!!!"

Yep, it has finally started. We hear a scream and everyone grabs his weapon by reflex. Guess it is time for me to bring mine out as well. Maybe that's why that girl keeps looking at me because I am not holding anything.

I bring out my raizen and advance first. K'nor follows then goes ahead. I can hear the others following right after us. There is a really strong Longinus's presence ahead. I can feel five crystals once again. It must be another prince. We continue on the passage which by the way is surprisingly well built. The walls are cemented even.

At the end of the passage, a big hall with some clothes and weapons lying around, but there are no bodies. There are traces of blood as well everywhere. The hall is big enough to contain all of us and there are two hallways on the opposite side.

Does it mean that all those guys got killed here? Were they that weak? There was like what…ten guys at least who went down, right? And none of them managed to hold on until we arrived? That's lame.

"Woof!!"

Suddenly, K'nor barks, and right after I can hear something cutting through the air. The Longinus is coming. I can feel it. I place my raizen to my left and it blocks something. Though it was a powerful blow that projects me backward. I jump back as well to soften the blow.

"Captain!!"

"Stay focused!!" Don't let your guard down now!

Willhem and the others all stay on guard and as I land, I immediately launch a bullet at my previous position. It explodes loudly as K'nor lands near me as well. He followed the action with swiftness, as expected of K'nor. You are the best, I have to say it again.

"Hm…Impressive." Suddenly, an eerie voice resounds in the hall and my body feels like it got thrown into ice. The others seem paralyzed as well. Then, the cloud of the explosion dissipates and a man appears. Well, a man is too much to say. It has a human face but its limbs are that of a sloin. The creature is short. The size of a small child of about twelve years old actually, which explains the legs. The only thing different is the head, in fact. It even has hair. The skin color is different from a human's as well. It has a bluish skin tone, like somebody who is about to die from poison.

I should say that I knew it but nobody would want to hear it now. Still, I will say it.

"Why does it always turn out like this?"