Chapter 315 Quiet

The earth shook beneath and all around Lee Seng as he tried his best to keep his balance.

"Tremors!" Lisa shouted. "Hold onto something!" Lee Seng immediately latched his tail onto the metal pole. He roped himself in, pulling himself off the ground as everything shook. He could hear the worry in his teammates' voices as he listened to the tremors.

The tremors lasted as quick as they came. They vanished in no time and the noises grew quiet.

"Does it always do that?" Ritsuka asked.

"No, not always." Caleb answers. "Sometimes the large underground caverns have tremors. They're too weak to notice."

"Should be good to let go now." Lisa announced. Lee Seng released his tail and landed into the ground. "Everything fine over there?"

"Yeah, it's quiet again." Lee Seng answered. "Honestly it's way too quiet." He pressed forward.

He followed the path until he saw the carnage of the recent goblin and shifter events. The earth was uneven in some parts, pulled and pushed in random directions. They had apparently tried to cut the metal poles but couldn't.

"What's these made of?" Lee Seng asked aloud. "They didn't dent these but they smashed the light poles like they were mailboxes."

"If you want to, Lee Seng. You can set two poles near the broken spots." Lisa instructed him.

"Alright. Do you want me to check the end of Zone 1R, Manny?" Lee Seng asked.

"You don't hear anything from there?" Manny asked. Lee Seng twisted his ring, muting the comms. He could hear the techs and his teammates far behind him. He slowly moved forward, listening for anything out of the ordinary.

Nothing.

No noise.

Nothing but the crunch of loose dirt and the stuff on him. He twisted the ring, unmuting everyone. They seemed to be chatting about structural integrity.

"Nope, nothing but the stuff in my back and the loose dirt crunching underneath my feet." Lee Seng reported.

"Well," Manny sighed. "Just do what Lisa wants you to do. Be careful. We'll be there soon."

"Roger." Lee Seng adjusted his light glasses, turning on the lights. He had forgotten to turn them on.

'I should be careful, right?' Lee Seng thought.

'Your friends know you can see in the dark. You should be fine.' Keng told him.

'I should keep them on just in case.' Lee Seng decided. He pulled his backpack off and set it on the ground. He removed two poles and set them near the damaged poles and slowly worked his way forward.

By the time his teammates and the techs were here, he was finishing up setting the fifth and sixth poles down at the third area.

"You can set the poles ahead. We'll start our work here." Lisa told them.

"Do you want us to preemptively set up yours too?" Liz asked.

"To be safe, let's keep ours on us."

"Formation we were talking about?" Evan asked.

"Mmm." Manny nodded. Lee Seng set his last pair down and pulled the backpack onto him, clipping the straps together.

"What's wrong?" Ritsuka asked Lee Seng. Lee Seng turned to look at Ritsuka and then further into the "darkness."

"It's too quiet." Lee Seng told him. "It's bothering me."

"You wanna check out 1R then?" Olivia asked. "A couple of us could go just in case."

"Yeah, but our priority is the techs." Lee Seng reminded them. "I'll scout since that's what we agreed I would do. If I find anything, I'll pull back if I need to. Is that alright?" Lee Seng turned to look at Manny and the others.

"Yeah, just like we planned." Manny nodded. "We'll set the poles where they need to go ahead but you'll only be the one going ahead."

"Alright." Lee Seng followed Ritsuka, Evan and Manny. He watched them as they set their poles down, flicking his eyes towards the darkness.

Lee Seng passed his friends and wandered deeper into the darkness of the dug out cave. Each step made him more anxious. What would he see? He moved for quite awhile. He noticed he was really far away from the others according to his map.

"You're coming up on Zone 1R." Marcus told him. Lee Seng continued forward, spotting the large opening before him.

"Can goblins be this quiet?" Lee Seng asked. "They're usually known to be rowdy, even when they aren't pillaging and/or destroying things."

The long cave opened up into a large room. Zone 1R had large metal pillars that reached high.

"The pillars are still in place?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah. There's no noise. Nothing. It's like they just came and went." Lee Seng answered.

"Strange. Do you see any indication they might've went somewhere? A new opening we don't know about?"

"I'll check." Lee Seng turned and followed the left wall. He slowly made his way to the end, checking for an indication the shifters and goblins were even here. "Left wall cleared."

He turned right and started to follow the wall. He got about halfway before the sound of dirt falling made him turn.

'Just dirt.' He sighed in relief. He turned his attention back to the wall he was following.

"Second wall is clear." Lee Seng spoke. He turned right and followed the wall.

The amount of silence in a huge space like this made Lee Seng's senses rocket. He was anxious something would happen and found himself hovering his right hand onto his katana on his side. Lee Seng started to pass the halfway point of the parallel wall to the entrance he came from, when Marcus's voice came over the comms.

"Stop." Marcus ordered. Lee Seng immediately stopped and turned to look around. "There's a strange reading near you. Do you see anything?" It was just dirt walls and a support pillar nearby. He shook his head when the sound of something moved near him. Lee Seng shifted his left hand over to the katana and turned towards the wall he was following.

"Something wrong?" Marcus asked.

"I heard something moving… from here." Lee Seng slowly pointed at the wall.

"Strange. Is there any indication the wall has been sealed or tampered with?" Lee Seng slowly started to back up. His gut was telling him something was about to happen. With each step he took back, he sent out small blips of gravity.

They were small but they allowed him to sense anything from his surroundings. He was about a fourth of the way back when he started to get loads of pings in his head.

"Shit." Lee Seng immediately stopped. "Why didn't I notice all of these false holes until now?" He could feel one a couple steps away. The map inside his head was telling him he was lucky. If he had taken any other path he would've fallen into a trap.

,m "What's wrong?" Tiffi asked. "Did you spot something?"

"There's traps all over this place." Lee Seng told them. "I was lucky in the path I took."

Step. Step.

The earth shifted somewhere in front of him, again.

"They know I'm here?" Lee Seng whispered. He held his position. It wasn't too uncomfortable but he needed to do something.

'I can't use gravity outright. I'll cave this place in with one wrong move.' Lee Seng reminded himself. He gripped his katana and felt his Dark Matter energy resonating around him. He had to force himself to not activate his aura and pull the katana out.

"Do you need help?" Manny asked. "How badly fucked are you?" Lee Seng's ears twitched. He could hear something moving below him. Quiet noises that wouldn't get picked up by a normal person.

His ears could pick up on the distant smashing of metal into the ground.

"Heh." Lee Seng chuckled quietly. "They know." He emitted more tremor senses. He moved it further and deeper in all directions. His eyes widened as he turned his head to look at the way he came.

"Shit… Don't tell me they were aware ever since–"

The ground erupted. Earth flew in all directions.

"Shit, they're here!" Olivia shouted.

"They've been waiting for us!" Lee Seng shouted. The earth opened up around him. Goblins shot out of the ground, all shrieking as they surrounded Lee Seng.

"Lee Seng's been trapped!" Tiffi shouted.

"Crap, the techs and the rest of Zephyr are trapped too!" Marcus shouted. "What do we do?"

"Oh shit, oh shit!" John shouted. "We need to clear out!"

"Graaa!" Goblins shouted. Lee Seng turned to watch as a bunch of goblins were making their way through the tunnel.

'They're gonna get to the others before we can do anything!' Keng shouted. 'What do we do?' Lee Seng's aura lit the room up in gold light. He smiled as the goblins all snarled at him.

He turned his body, lowering himself as his hand moved to his katana. He would have to clear the way and fight at the exit point. He shot himself forward, ripping through the goblins as he came closer to the exit.

"Heh, little Fox thinks they can get out?" A woman's voice spoke. The earth erupte around him forcing him to stop. "The path is closed, little Fox. Amuse us."