Chapter 405 - Trapped

With the screeching roars of the monsters behind them, Gabriel and the team quickly fled. Just as they got to the first intersection, they were surprised to meet up with the NWR's soldier who had fled earlier.

"Why are you still here?!" Medel roared.

"Help! Help!"

"Damn these monsters! Get out of my way!"

"These monsters just came storming in from the central pathway! There's too many of them!"

Gabriel and the team looked up ahead and saw the monsters that the NWR's soldiers were fighting against. The soldiers were engaged in a furious battle against a large group of kobolds, gnomes, and other earth-elemental monsters. The monsters sent earth-element magic spells at the soldiers and were pushing them back.

The only reason why they were able to hold out was due to the fact that the armors the NWR's soldiers were using was the imported equipment that their military got after striking a deal with the Silvaria Kingdom.

If they didn't have the Silvaria Kingdom's specially crafted, enhanced anti-monster equipment, the kobolds and gnolls' magic spells would have easily torn through their regular armors and swiftly killed them all.

Fighting against a monster that only used their claws and fangs was easy, but fighting against monsters that knew how to use magic, that wasn't something the NWR was used to.

They could only consider themselves lucky that they had managed to purchase the Silvaria Kingdom's old model equipment that was no longer being used by their soldiers after their craftsmen had developed even better replacements.

"You, how did—Telin!"

The captain of the NWR's forces, named Ipovkah, quickly took notice of Gabriel's team and also his fellow soldiers who were injured and riding on top of the large black monster, Mao.

"C-captain...I'm sorry..." Telin said from atop Mao's back.

"Enough. Move out of the way," Gabriel spoke out.

"Th-these monsters, they're—"

"Just shut up and let us deal with them. We have to move swiftly before the worms catch up to us."

"Y-yes—"

"Everyone, the monsters ahead are Earth-elementals. Shoot them down with Ice element bullets! Go!" Gabriel cut off and quickly ordered his team.

"Roger!"

"Hehe, finally, time for some action!" Tyra said as she quickly swapped out the fire-element clip from her magi-tech gun to the ice-element clip that she hung on her waist. She quickly stored the other clip and pointed her magi-tech gun at the monsters and fired.

A magic formation quickly appeared in front of the gun's muzzle in a split second before a flash of light was shot out from the magic formation, shooting straight towards the monsters.

The monsters that were struck by this icy blue flash of light were quickly frozen. Ian had quickly rushed forwards and smashed them into bits with a swing of his magi-steel axe.

Tyra quickly locked onto her next target and fired while Ian would rush over and crush the frozen monster. On the side, Kira remained on standby and kept sending his Mana Pulse in the direction behind them, keeping track of the distance the monster worms were at.

Since Tyra and Ian had already taken action, Gabriel, Medel, and Angelia quickly jumped into the fray and it didn't take long before the large groups of C to B ranked monsters were cleared away. However, before they could even heave a sigh of relief, more monsters began pouring out from the central pathway.

"Quick! Go! If we stick around here, we'll only be pincered between the worms and these monsters!" Gabriel yelled.

Ipovkah quickly began to urge his soldiers to move while defending themselves against the monsters' attacks. Since Gabriel's team was taking most of the heat off of them, they were able to quickly make it back to the initial pathway that led to the intersection.

They quickly began running towards the exit and it was at this moment that the screeches and cries of the ruins worms were heard. The monsters were just about to catch up to Gabriel's team!

"Captain, we have to move, the worms are nearly here!" Kira hastily yelled. He had kept his Mana Pulse activated so he knew that the monsters were only 200 meters away from them.

"Go! Breakthrough these small fries, Mao" Angelia yelled.

Mao released a threatening roar, his body enlarged a bit and he gathered mana into his body before rushing forwards. Using his powerful body that was strengthened with his mana, Mao quickly plowed through all of the monsters in front of him.

"Follow after Mao!" Gabriel hastily ordered.

With a path being quickly carved out by the large Mao, everyone safely made it through. Angelia had to use Nessie to make sure that none of the injured soldiers on Mao's back accidentally fell off.

The monsters quickly chased after them and up ahead, Gabriel could see Captain Ipovkah and his men waiting for them.

The NWR's captain and his soldiers were currently waiting on the sides of the ruin's entrance for some reason and from what Gabriel could see, it looked as if they were struggling to push something.

Ipovkah saw them and urgently called out to them.

"Move faster! The entrance is trying to close off!!!"

"!"

"Mao, go! Quickly bring those injured soldiers out before you go and help them keep the entrance open!" Angelia yelled.

Mao gave a roar of affirmation and he quickly rushed forwards. The large Mao quickly passed through the gate and he began shrinking his body. Some of the soldiers who were preventing the gate from closing quickly rushed over and helped bring down the injured soldiers on Mao's back.

Once all of the soldiers were brought down from his back, Mao rushed over to help hold open the entrance.

The monsters were nearly catching up to them and the entrance was slowly being sealed. Even with Mao's help, the entrance's closing was only being held up and not entirely stopped.

It was a seemingly desperate situation so Gabriel quickly took action.

"Dammit, Tyra, come here!" Gabriel roared.

"Huh?"

Before the little girl could even say anything, Gabriel picked her up, strengthened his arm with mana, threw her across the hallway, through the entrance, and out of the ruins.

"Kira you're ne—f.u.c.k!"

Gabriel was just about to grab Kira but he quickly pushed the boy away, dashed forwards, and struck out behind him with his dagger.

"KIIEEEEE!!!"

The worms had finally caught up to them and they immediately began their attack. For some odd reason, the worms chose to adamantly attack Gabriel, locking him in place. His only response was to fiercely retaliate in kind. Even though he was being besieged on all sides, Gabriel expertly wove in between the worms' attacks and slashed them apart without taking a hit.

He was able to quickly split apart numerous worms, but the problem was that the more he cut them apart, the more worms that were created after they regenerated. Instead of dying, the worms only continued to multiply with every attack that Gabriel struck them with.

"This is crazy!" Gabriel cursed, the more he attacked the more dangerous things got. He felt that in due time, he would be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of these monstrous worms.

His attacks didn't injure them, but it instead only served as a way for them to propagate in number.

Once Angelia saw the plight her brother was in, she quickly turned around and deployed all of her magic-type monsters to rescue her brother. Her monsters quickly transformed into their battle forms and immediately began shooting magic spells at the worms.

The worms were either, buried, frozen, vaporized, or electrified by the spell bombardment that Angelia's monster had sent. She didn't forget to use her Orobos to send some attacks at the other monsters that were chasing after them.

After giving her brother a momentary respite, Angelia quickly yelled, "Brother! Get back!"

Seeing the situation they were in, Ian and Medel were just about to rush back to help them, but Gabriel quickly yelled at the two, "You two hurry up and go hold the door open! We'll catch up to you guys!"

"A-alright!"

"Let's go, Medel!"

Medel was still hesitating, but Ian abruptly grabbed him and dragged the hesitating vice-captain back with him towards the entrance. The entrance to the ruins was slowly closing and the two quickly arrived next to the two slabs of rock that was slowly moving closer to each other.

They both enhanced their bodies with mana and tried to keep the doors open. The other soldiers of the NWR were also helping out, but the entrance was still only being hindered and not completely stopped from closing.

"C-Captain, hurry!" Medel roared out. The veins on his arms and neck were popping out as he struggled to try and keep the entrance open.

Ian didn't say anything but he was in a similar situation. So were the other soldiers that were struggling to keep the entrance opened.

Gabriel quickly slashed apart the worms and monsters in front of him. He turned around and grabbed onto Kira before quickly dashing towards the entrance.

"Angelia, let's go!"

"Right!"

Angelia didn't send out any of her close-ranged monsters so she was able to quickly run away right when the order was given. However, just as she took a few steps backward in retreat, something wrapped onto her legs and tripped her.

"Uwah!"

Seeing his little sister tripe, Gabriel immediately called out to her, "Angie?!"

Gabriel's pause finally gave Kira the momentary respite to look back on the hoard of monsters that were chasing after them.

He quickly paled in the next instant and yelled, "Captain! Th-there's—"

"Captain! Behind you!" Medel shouted.

"!"

Gabriel quickly felt the danger and he immediately jumped away. He didn't see what had attacked him, but Angelia saw it. She was about to get up to help her brother, but she immediately felt that her legs were caught on something. She looked down and saw horrendous-looking black tendrils wrapped around her legs.

"Captain! Angelia!" Ian called out.

Angelia looked up at her brother and she paled in fright.

"ANGIE!"

"B-brother—"

In the next instant, however, she was quickly dragged back into the horde of monsters that were chasing after them while screaming.

"KYAAAAHHHH!!!"