The cold air immediately hit Kanos's face the moment the giant stone door slid open. A complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree difference from the roasting heat in the corridor earlier.
The room behind the door was insanely massive. The size of an indoor soccer field. The ceiling towered high above, covered in dimly glowing red crystal stalactites. In the dead center of this giant cave, there was a massive mound of dull coins, broken weapons, and pure metal ores scattered in a messy pile.
"See, what did I tell you," Garrick whispered. His voice bounced softly off the cave walls. The man smiled broadly seeing the mountain of treasure in front of them.
Before Kanos could even let out a sigh of relief, a loud explosion made his ears ring.
BAM!
The giant stone door behind them slid shut with an absurd speed, then partially collapsed. Boulders the size of wardrobes rained down, blocking the exit. Thick dust instantly plumed around them.
Kanos coughed, covering his nose with his sleeve.
Belida immediately spun around. The giant man tried pushing the remaining rocks blocking the path, but they were jammed dead. Their way out was completely sealed.
"Dammit!" Garrick yelled in a panic. He ran toward the door, kicking the rocks even though it was useless. "The door mechanism is rotten! We're trapped!"
"Stay calm," Belida's voice boomed through the dust. His right hand had already drawn the greatsword from his back. "We'll find another way out. A cave this size must have an air v—"
Belida's sentence was cut off.
The ground beneath their feet trembled softly. A small earthquake. Not from the collapsed door, but from the center of the room.
Kanos turned his head slowly. His heart suddenly felt like it stopped beating.
The treasure mound in the middle of the room caved in. Coins and metal ores tumbled to the floor. Something nearly three times the size of Belida had just woken up from its slumber beneath the pile of loot.
The creature stood on all fours. It looked like a cross between a silverback gorilla and an ancient tortoise, but its entire body was plated in natural armor made of sharp, gleaming black obsidian. Its eyes glowed a fiery red in the darkness of the room.
Along with the creature's low roar, the transparent blue screen in front of Kanos's eyes lit up brightly. It was blood-red, flickering so wildly it made his eyes hurt.
[ WARNING! AREA ANOMALY DETECTED ][ BOSS MONSTER: OBSIDIAN GOLIATH (LEVEL 67) ][ THREAT LEVEL: FATAL ]
Level sixty-seven.
Kanos felt the blood drain to his feet. His hands were ice-cold. This monster was on the wrong floor. A monster this thick and massive should be in the twentieth floors, not on floor six which only had wolves and spiders.
"Garrick..." Kanos called out. His voice was shaking violently. "That's level sixty-seven."
Garrick took two steps back. The brown-haired veteran's face was deathly pale. "Impossible. Treasure rooms are never guarded by a monster this strong. This... this doesn't make any sense!"
The Obsidian Goliath beat its chest with its two giant fists. The sound was like thunder exploding inside a closed room. The soundwave alone was enough to make Kanos stagger backwards.
The creature instantly lunged forward, charging straight at the three of them. The cave floor cracked every time its feet stomped the ground.
"Kanos, get to the corner!" Belida yelled.
The gray-haired knight didn't take a single step back. Belida dropped into his lowest stance, raising the black steel sword Kanos made with both hands, ready to take the impact from a monster the size of a semi-truck.
Garrick snatched the back of Kanos's collar, dragging the young man roughly behind a stone pillar at the edge of the room.
"Nos! Listen to me!" Garrick gripped both of Kanos's shoulders tightly. The man's eyes stared straight into Kanos's panicked ones. "We can't run! The door rocks are too thick to smash!"
Kanos was panting hard. "Then what are we supposed to do, dammit?! Belida's sword will snap if it hits that thick obsidian!"
"That's why you have to draw a new weapon!" Garrick fired back quickly, his voice half-shouting over the monster's roar behind them. "Draw the strongest weapon you've ever thought of! Use the spider blood we collected earlier! Make something that can pierce stone!"
BAM!
A deafening clash of metal against stone erupted in the middle of the cave. Kanos peeked from behind the pillar. Belida managed to block the monster's punch with his greatsword, but the giant man was dragged backward until his feet carved long trenches into the dirt floor.
"Belida and I will hold him off to buy you time!" Garrick drew his short sword, which began to glow yellow. His face looked incredibly desperate. "Hurry, Nos! Our lives are in your hands now!"
Garrick immediately ran off, leaving Kanos behind, leaping into the center of the fight to help Belida break the giant monster's concentration.
Kanos dropped to his knees behind the pillar. His hands were shaking so violently he struggled to unzip his cargo pocket. He pulled out his leather sketchbook and one bottle filled with thick, red spider blood.
"I can do this. I have to," Kanos muttered, more to convince himself. He popped the cork of the bottle open with his teeth. The sharp smell of monster fluid instantly stung his nose.
Kanos dipped the tip of his rough brush into the thick blood.
He needed something with insane piercing power. If slashing wouldn't work, it had to be a stab. A drill spear. Or a steel pile bunker. His brain spun rapidly, assembling and disassembling the structural anatomy of weapons he used to draw for fictional character designs.
Out there, Belida roared loudly, trying to slash the monster's legs even though it only sparked. Garrick ran back and forth, thrusting his sword to draw its attention.
Those two men were laying down their lives to protect him. He couldn't fail.
Kanos pressed the tip of his brush, soaked in monster blood, onto the old parchment paper. His eyes bulged in focus. The red ink glowed a faint blue at the tip of the wood.
Please, please, I have to... Make a weapon that can kill this damn monster.