Boom! The charges went off. A swarm of spiders emerged from the opening. Hikari unleashed a stream of fire from her handcannon, setting the entire entrance alight and incinerating those caught in the flames.
Charred spider corpses dropped from the ceiling. A few slipped through the flames. The men opened fire.
"Sharpnel! " Rey's speakerphone sounded as his launcher lobed a bomb into the breach. His men with motors did the same. A series of explosions ensued, along with the sound of shrapnel pecking against Hikari's shield.
The remainder of the swarm scurries away.
"It's clear up ahead."
Sheela's mana form allowed her to see through the walls, allowing her to provide a detailed explanation to Rey of the room ahead before breaching.
The mana presence was getting stronger as they got deeper underground. So too did the resistance they faced.
It was unavoidable. The fastest way through to the wyvern's lair was through an existing route to an abandoned mining shaft up ahead. The path actually curves downwards for a stretch into the danger zone.
On the plus side, and also perhaps an odd phenomena, the deeper one goes, the brighter the caverns. At their current depth. The mana crystals and luminous vegetation alone were enough to illuminate the caverns. At least until they are harvested.
The ventilation down here is surprisingly good. The natural wild life such as the spiders had dug a countless number of narrow interconnected tunnels for themselves. Its a good bet that any given tunnel had an excellent chance of eventually reaching an opening to the surface such as the craters to a mana vein.
Hikari pressed forward through the breach. Her smaller companions huddled behind her, more tensely than before.
After she made it into the cavern without anything clanking against her steel shield, did they fan out and began burning the spider eggs and webs.
While the breachers swept the room, Hikari studied one of the dead spiders she burnt. Its mineral shell actually blocked most of her flames. It would still eventually burn to death, but it could have leapt and caused some damage. On the other hand, the shrapnel was able to get through its shell, stopping it instantly.
"Rey's pretty good at this." She thought.
Then she noticed something. She bent down and pressed on the spider with her finger. It seemed to have trace amounts of the same mana she absorbed from the dark crystal she recovered from the mana vein guardian.
It had a unique signature which she had yet to come across. Also, it continued to regenerate mana after she drained it, a rare phenomenon since mana crystals are normally nothing but containers for the raw energy known as mana. She has to wait until the end of the expedition to study it. For now, a mana battery was pretty handy.
The squad formed up for the next breach. Hikari scanned the next cavern.
"There's something big ahead."
"Can you tell what it is?"
"Four legs. Crystals on its back."
"A stalagmite beast. Anything else in there?"
"None."
"Makes sense. They are extremely territorial beasts. Hold your shield tight this time. You might even need to reinforce it. "
"Plan?"
"I need you to tank it. Slowly step into its territory, it will eventually challenge you to a melee. Use your hammer, your sword is no good until its mineral carapace is sufficiently chipped. Avoid its bite, it's strong enough to break your sword in half. Oh, and don't use your flames, it takes a while to burn through its carapace, making it much more likely for us to get burnt by it instead."
"Got it. I'm ready."
The breachers primed the charges and nervously ran behind Hikari.
Boom! The wall was blown. A deafening roar came from the cavern beyond, followed by a hail of spikes pelting against her shield. Hikari picked up her shield, pushing out the spikes that penetrated the steel enough to get themselves stuck.
She advanced. Another barrage came through the smoke.
She put up a telekinetic field, deflecting the trajectory, causing the spikes to hit the curved sides of her shield.
She advanced unimpeded into the stalagmite beast's lair. On the opposite end, she saw the huge rock that was constantly growing deep blue spikes and firing at her.
Undeterred, she pressed on. She could sense the rising heartbeat of a creature buried beneath the stone.
The beast, realizing that its spikes were useless, unburrowed itself, revealing its full size as bigger than a steam tank. Its thick arms could match Hikari's at least in size.
It crawled close to the ground, growling as it slowly approached Hikari. Its crystal teeth glittering as the blue light from the mana crystals reflect off of it.
Suddenly, it shot its mouth out, making a loud sound as its jaws closed around the empty air.
Hikari stood her ground, unintimidated.
The beast stopped closing the distance and instead switched to crawling sidewards. Hikari turned slightly, maintaining her shield facing it.
The creature's mouth snapped forward again.
Then, after a few tense moments, it snapped again.
But Hikari didn't even flinch.
After growling frustrately, it started to back off, crawling backwards towards its burrow before lowering its head back down into the ground. Hikari could sense it tunneling away.
After a pause, the rest of the breaching team cautiously makes their way into the cavern.
"Well! That works too. I can't believe you just beat a stalagmite beast in a staring contest. From the reports I read, the beast immediately charged the shield line the moment the raiding party formed up inside its lair. "
Hikari puts away her hammer. She stretches her shield arm and her back and then her waist. It was a little stiff after holding the heavy chunk of steam tank platings up for the whole duration of the standoff.
"Thats why I hate shields"
Rey began scanning around the cavern. His armoured suit clanked against the rocky ground as he moved.
"Hikari. Could you find a huge ball of organic material wrapped in stone?"
"It's over there."
"Perfect! Now could you crack it open. Get ready to burn it once you do."
Hikari raised an eyebrow.
She walked over to the boulder, placed her hand on it and channeled her mana. As the boulder cracked open, a pungent odour seeped out from inside. The breachers put on their gas masks.
"Quick! Burn it!"
Hikari ripped open one of the sides and torched the inside with her handcannon. The pungent odour gradually faded as the sticky matter hardened from the heat. She pried away more of the rock and kept burning it to make sure to really kill that odour.
Once the once sticky matter has hardened, Rey walked up and drilled several holes on the surface, allowing Hikari to pry it open with her hands.
It was a treasure trove inside. Filled with glittering stones of a myriad of colors and textures.
"Praise the golden monkey! The beast is known to come up to the upper levels to stash its loot into a cocoon made from its own dung. With this, well, we won't be making every miner and soldier retire with their own farm with just this. But we can definitely cover all our expenses, pay everyone, and even throw a celebration afterwards. You especially, are going to eat well later."
Hikari's eyes lid up.
"I'd better. Or I'll eat you instead."
"Umm….! What!?" Rey exclaimed.
"I bet you taste good"
"Umm…! No, I really don't. I'm all bones."
"I jest."
"Phew! I really thought you were going to do it. I get it, the rations are really dry. But once this is over, I'd make sure to buy a whole cow and a pig for you. Don't make jokes like that, it's frightening for your size."
"Let's move."
"Certainly, the most dangerous part is behind us. The next cavern onwards is going to be an upwards slope. More tiring to climb, but we should face less resistance. Once we take the shaft, on paper, at least, we can consider our jobs done."
"Form up then" Hikari walks to the next breach.