The Box: Fate
Chapter 29 — The Vanguard of the Abyss
The air in the Temple catacombs was thick with the scent of ancient dust and stagnant mana Following the loss of Aaron Moses a heavy silence had settled over the group but it was Axel Hatanaki who finally broke it He stepped to the front his golden aura flickering like a torch in the damp darkness
Listen up! Axel voice boomed, echoing off the stone ribs of the ceiling We can't just walk down here like we're mourning Aaron died as a shield and if we move like shadows we're insulting his memory From here on the front line belongs to the hitters
Sharky Bee stepped up beside him his eyes glowing with a sharp predatory green light His Silent Tracker skill was pulsed at maximum intensity mapping out every vibration in the dark tunnels Axel is right Kataki and Zanaki have their own burdens We are the scouts the ones who see the blade before it swings I'll lead the way and Axel will clear the path
Kataki nodded slowly his Void Sight blindfold shimmering Lead us The energy below is chaotic I will focus on the macro-flow of the abyss but the immediate threats are yours to handle
Sharky Bee moved with fluid lethal grace He didn't just walk he glided his senses extending into the very stone of the catacombs Suddenly he raised a hand and the sixteen players froze
Multiple heat signatures Sharky Bee whispered his voice barely audible They aren't shadows They're Void-Ghouls—the failed experiments of the Architect They're hiding in the ceiling recesses Wait for my mark
He pulled a set of silver throwing knives from his belt his fingers dancing with a blurred speed Now!
As the knives left his hands whistling through the air with pinpoint accuracy Axel Hatanaki exploded forward He didn't use a weapon; his fists were his thunder
Titan Strike: Overdrive! Axel roared his punch connecting with the lead Ghoul chest The impact was so immense that the creature didn't just fly back—it disintegrated into a cloud of blackened bone and ash
The catacombs erupted into a chaotic battlefield The Ghouls were fast their claws dripping with a paralytic venom but Sharky Bee was faster He moved like a ghost among the monsters his twin daggers carving through their throats before they could even scream Every time a Ghoul tried to flank the group Sharky Bee was already there his green aura leaving a trail of spectral light
Is that all you've got? Axel laughed his golden aura intensifying until he looked like a miniature sun in the darkness He grabbed two Ghouls by their heads and slammed them together the shockwave shattering the nearby sarcophagi
Murasaki and Hina watched from the center of the formation amazed by the sheer violence of the duo's coordination While Kataki and Zanaki held their ultimate powers in reserve Axel and Sharky Bee were proving that raw skill and relentless aggression were just as vital
The path is clearing! Sharky Bee shouted his Tracker sense locking onto a massive iron door at the end of the hall The Class Advancement Shrine is right behind those gates But something big is guarding the mechanism
As they reached the iron doors the ground began to tremble A massive iron-clad guardian thrice the size of Axel stepped out of the wall Its eyes were hollow pits of blue flame and it carried a mace that looked like a fallen star
Axel Hatanaki didn't flinch He cracked his neck and looked at Sharky Bee You take the joints I'll take the core?
Deal Sharky Bee smirked spinning his daggers
The sixteen survivors watched as their new vanguard charged This wasn't just a fight for a shrine it was the restart of their journey They were no longer a group of scared players—they were a legion and Axel and Sharky Bee were the tip of the spear
The iron doors groaned as the battle for the shrine truly began