I Shall Pervert the Heavens

The Black Saber held none of the fear that Amy did. Its life had always been constantly filled with life-and-death battles, making it already understand the rules of the jungle better than her. Even though it was bleeding out from the neck and one leg temporarily pinned to the ground, it growled and struggled to get free, reaching out to bite her on her hand.

Amy subconsciously let go of her sword the moment the Saber's jaw reached her and immediately grabbed the spear the shroom gnome had dropped. She thrust it at the wolf, but it caught it in its mouth and tore it from her grip, inadvertently pulling her within melee distance of it.

She panicked and thrust with her hand, knocking its head to the side but still not strong enough, which gave it the chance to bite into her shoulder, piercing through the leather armor and sinking deep into her flesh, almost crushing her shoulder to shreds. One of the diggers charged forth, albeit not very fast, intending to impale the Black Saber. It was forced to release Amy and defend itself from the beetle three-quarters the size of itself.

"Hurry up!" Zach shouted in her mind, seemingly anxious, like a character watching a horror film where the main character was seemingly making dumb decisions instead of running away.

Amy quickly dashed to where fallen spear was and picked it up again. She had very low strength, but she was very dexterous. She thrust the spear directly into its mouth and back of the throat. Its tip was very sharp, even though it was only stone, but thanks to Zach infusing it with his mana, it directly stabbed straight into its mouth, tearing its throat. Not stopping there, due to being in a state of adrenaline, she repeatedly pulled and thrust it back into its mouth even when the wolf tried to growl but only sputtered blood. The spear kept it from closing its mouth or throat as blood constantly poured out of the wound while it struggled to pull out. But due to the severe injury, it died very quickly, drowning in its own blood.

[Black Saber <Lv. 5> killed!

+ 83 exp]

Amy then pulled out the iron sword stabbed in the ground and retreated back toward the dungeon while nursing an injured shoulder. She could already hear the rustling of bushes and a large number of feet running on the ground coming in her direction.

The monsters retreated at the same time, but the diggers were simply too slow. One of them remained behind to stall the Black Sabers, and the dungeon realized just how useless their carapace was as armor.

None of the Black Sabers were dumb enough to run headlong into its sword-like diggers, instead kiting around it and attacking from the sides and back. Their claws and teeth cut into the carapace and ripped it off like shelling a prawn. It barely slowed the Black Sabers down by half a minute before it died, and its connection to the dungeon was severed.

This was the first death of one of his monsters he had experienced, and it was strange he didn't feel the pain of someone losing a child.

••••

Back in the dungeon, sporting injuries to varying degrees, Amy and the two shroom gnomes defended from the back of the entry tunnel. There were enough traps between them and any Black Sabers that the pack shouldn't even have been able to get to them.

The dungeon noted they were strong, but not so much that they could ignore the plethora of traps waiting for them. The second digger was also caught up by the Black Saber pack and quickly died, much like the first one. It was too slow and simply couldn't make it back to the dungeon in time.

Zach spread his mana tendrils through Amy's body and inspected what was happening inside. Her energy was currently turbulent; a slow flow was leaving it near her shoulders, seemingly having trouble leaving faster due to the resilience of the improved mana network.

"How is your shoulder?" he asked the elf in her head.

"Very painful, but I can manage."

"Good, the Black Sabers will be here any second. Do your best."

Almost as if by prophecy, the Black Sabers appeared the very next moment. They charged into the dungeon in files of two, several at the front dropping into pitfall traps while the rest simply jumped over them.

Amy held the iron sword in front of her, preparing to meet them head-on, although her quivering body revealed the fear she was feeling at the moment.

Five Black Sabers were trapped in pitfall traps after being caught by surprise; seven more jumped over them and filled up the entrance passage. At this moment, all the spear traps were simultaneously triggered, turning the entry passage into a pincushion of stone spears.

[Black Saber <Lv. 4> killed!

+ 83 exp

Black Saber <Lv. 3> killed!

+ 61 exp]

Two Black Sabers instantly died, and while the other five managed to protect their vital points by instinct, they were still gravely injured and would die of blood loss soon enough if left alone.

"The remaining Black Sabers are nearly dead and can barely move. Kill them all."

The dungeon instructed Amy as he used 110 mana to retract the stone spears of 22 spear traps.

The five near-death Black Sabers growled as the young elf woman raised her sword and walked toward them.

"What are you doing?"

"What? Killing, as you said."

"I mean, elves are supposed to be dexterous and graceful, aren't they? You are holding that sword like it was a log. Swords are meant to cut, slice, pierce. It's not a mace," Zach let out, speechless at her. The way she did things had changed his image of elves.

Amy was visibly embarrassed at these words and tried to hold the sword with more poise, but it was very clear that she was a newbie to swords. The dungeon felt there was some redeemability, as at least she was trying now.

The Black Sabers were on their last legs and refused to retreat. They struggled toward Amy with their fangs bared. She quickly thrust the sword into the neck of one wolf which lunged forward and tried to bite her leg.