Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

The enormous dragon claw descended towards the dark grand mage. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he felt danger unlike anything he had ever experienced before. Every fibre of his being was telling him to run for his life, yet he knew there was no escape from that thing.

'Am I… going to be defeated here?'

'NO!'

He could not let that happen. The dark grand mage decisively threw the bronze goblet at the encroaching dragon claw. Determination glimmered in his eyes as he stared at the goblet with a steady gaze. The dark grand mage clutched his palm.

"Detonate."

BOOOMMMM!

Instantly, the rank three bronze goblet artifact self-destructed. A giant explosion of mana erupted from the goblet as it shattered into innumerable pieces. The dragon claw had shrunk in size after breaking through the previous walls summoned by the dark grand mage's rank four artifact and was now consumed by the explosion. Waves and waves of mana travelled through the air, reaching every corner of the floor, and the entire mines.

Drake instinctively poured mana into his robes and summoned his light and water barrier. However, being this close to the explosion, he was still pushed back several steps.

Cough! Cough!

'He self-destructed a rank three artifact!' everyone gasped in shock. Although they weren't as rare as rank four and above artifacts, they were not easy to come by.

But… Drake began wondering. If the dark grand mage was resorting to detonating his artifacts, he must be desperate.

At the front, Drake could sense that the dragon claw was still present while being swallowed by the explosion - barely.

Straining his eyes, Drake activated acute sense, attempting to peer through the explosive collision. On the opposite side, the dark grand mage was coughing out blood and panting for breath while taking out several handfuls of pills from his storage pouch. Just ahead of him, in between where he and the dark grand mage were, were the three, rank three artifact inheritance of the mines.

'This is my chance!' Drake exclaimed internally. Pouring more mana into his robes he strengthened his barriers and dashed to the artifacts. Unfortunately, he had to move closer to the collision which put great pressure on his barriers. If they broke this close to such a powerful explosion, it would be the end for him.

'I can't think about that now!' Drake screamed, forcing himself to focus and pour the last reserves of his mana into strengthening his barriers. The artifacts were so close!

Just… a little… more…

BOOMMM!

Another explosion resounded through the mines as the fire dragon claw finally gave in to the pressure and collapsed, releasing a wave of aura. The last of the energy released by the detonation of the bronze goblet combined with the dragon claw, and dispersed into the surroundings.

Cough! Cough!

Everyone coughed as dust filled the entire floor. It took a few moments for everything to settle down and the crowd looked towards the end.

Standing near the wall, with three artifacts at his feet, was Drake!

"YOU!" the dark grand mage gasped. 'How did he manage to get there so fast?' Drake already stole the rank four artifacts from the secret inheritance and made him detonate a rank three artifact. He couldn't lose these too now!

"Don't play with me boy, step back and give me the artifacts!" the dark grand mage spoke threateningly. He could tell that Drake was pitifully low in mana. It would be easy picking to finish him now.

However, Drake smirked. He looked down at the artifacts, and then around to see that the other dark mages had fallen into a disadvantage, being outnumbered. Even Theo was having a hard time dealing with Kurt, Alistair and Blaze. All he had to do was delay the dark grand mage from escaping for a while and then everyone would be able to take over from there.

Thinking so, Drake smirked and turned back to the dark grand mage. Seeing him ignore his warning, the dark grand mage scoffed.

"If that's how you want to play…" he mumbled. Then, the dark grand mage reached into his storage pouch and took out a horn-shaped artifact.

Drake furrowed his brows. 'A rank two artifact?'

However, Blaze and Farisa grew pale as they recognised it.

"Watch out Drake!" cried Blaze.

"That thing can summon an army!" yelled Farisa.

An army!

Everyone was shocked to hear this and turned to look at the dark grand mage in the middle of their battles.

"Ha ha!" laughed Theo as he swung at Blaze. "If you can gang up on us, we can do the same!"

"Screw you!" Blaze yelled as the horrors of fighting the shadow demon army appeared in his mind once more. He swung at Theo even more ferociously, eager to finish him off while they were yet to be summoned.

The dark grand mage looked at Drake again. "This is your last chance," he warned. "Hand over those three artifacts, the rank four artifacts you two obtained from the secret inheritance, and get your friends to back off, and I will let you all go now."

Drake didn't reply. There was not a trace of fear in his eyes.

"Stupid kids are too crazy these days," the dark grand mage mumbled, then spoke loudly. "Very well then, just remember that you were responsible for this."

Stolen story; please report.

Saying so, the dark grand mage held the tip of the horn to his lips, and blew.

Deathly cries arose from the horn, echoing through the turbulent air, becoming louder, and deeper with each passing second.

As the notes grew louder, the ground began to tremble. A black miasma covered the floor, casting the area in darkness. Wicked cackling echoed from every corner of the floor simultaneously, and shadows began to writhe and dance, filling the air with the scent of decay and sulphur.

A cold wind whipped up in the surroundings. The wall torches closest to the dark grand mage were snuffed out, followed by the next two, and the next two. Quickly, every single torch in the floor died out, drowning the room in total darkness.

Pairs of red lights appeared around the cultivators. The eyes were enveloped in dense shadows, which quickly condensed into humanoid figures. The condensed shadows grew in size as they began surrounding the cultivators. Blaze and the others gathered together while the dark mages retreated.

Suddenly, all the torches lit up again. Another cold wind swept through the surroundings, dissipating the dark miasma.

The cultivators looked around and grew dismayed.

'There's… so many of them!!"

For a moment, nobody could believe what they were witnessing. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, if not more than a thousand figures composed entirely out of shadow, filled the floor. Each shadow demon stood tall and firm, brandishing various weapons including swords, spears, axes, bows, hammers, daggers, and more; while radiating the auras of servant class demons. Many of the figures also radiated the auras of warrior class demons. The combined aura of so many servant and warrior class shadow demons was so powerful it exerted physical pressure on everyone in the group.

The dark grand mage laughed as he joined the rest of his dark mages. While Blaze and the others had quickly formed a large group, Sylvia was still unconscious. So Corvus stood next to her on his own, surrounded by hundreds of the shadow demons, and the remaining vultures. Likewise, Drake was in a similar position, being surrounded by demons on his own, at the end of the mines. Unlike Corvus however, he had very little mana left to fight.

"Do you idiots understand? Understand now? Understand my true power!? HAHAHAHAH!" the dark grand mage laughed maniacally. "This could have all been avoided, if you had just listened to what I said!" the dark grand mage yelled, facing Drake. However, Drake still stared back at him without a trace of fear. This annoyed the dark grand mage even more.

"You! Do you really think you can get out of this situation!?" gasped the dark grand mage. However, Drake smirked. He bent down to pick up the rank three artifacts.

The dark grand mage wondered what he was going to do with them. Was he planning to take the treasures and cause the inheritance to collapse?

If so, he could just use the shadow demon army and the rest of his spirits to stall them until they were buried by the mines, while escaping with his dark mages. Even if Drake and his group managed to make it out, he and the dark mages could then wait outside to pick them off when they were exhausted.

It was suicide!

Thinking so, the dark grand mage smirked. 'Go on then, do it!' he dared Drake internally.

However, what he did next, made his jaw drop.

Drake took the rank three metal pickaxe artifact and… threw them at the dark mages!

'What!? Was he giving up? At this juncture?' the dark mages were confused.

Just as the artifact reached them, however, Drake smirked.

"Detonate!" he yelled, clenching his fist.

BBBOOOOOMMMMMMM!

The artifact exploded, releasing tremendous power. On instinct, the dark mages used various defensive spells, artifacts and techniques. But the explosion was too powerful. Cracks instantly appeared on their defences as they were on the verge of breaking.

"Arc blast! Arc blast! Arc blast!" the dark grand mage ordered his lightning rhino beetle to shoot a stream of arc blasts at the explosion. Simultaneously, many of the shadow demons which hadn't already gotten caught up in the explosion, moved in front of the dark mages protectively and used various defensive weapons and techniques.

The rest of the cultivators took the opportunity to recover and heal. Seeing this, the shadow demons began attacking. However, with all of them standing together, they could much more easily hold them back.

Drake watched Blaze and the others and smiled, before focusing on the dark mages again. The explosion had released a vast amount of mana and was now dying down. Although the dark mages were mostly unharmed, more than a hundred shadow demons had died.

'You're not getting away that easy,' thought Drake. He focused on the sword artifact this time and began casually rotating and swinging it.

Seeing the detonation die down, the dark grand mage heaved a sigh of relief. Suddenly, he noticed Drake playing with the rank three sword artifact and had a sinking feeling.

"What are you watching for!? Attack you idiots!" the dark grand mage commanded the shadow demons. Immediately all the shadow demons turned to Drake and screeched.

'Hmph!' Drake smirked and threw the rank three artifact at the dark mages again. When it was close, Drake clenched his fist.

"Detonate!"

The sword artifact disintegrated into an unbelievably dense collection of mana and exploded. Giant waves of explosive energy cut through the air, destroying anything in their paths.

"You!" The dark grand mage was furious, but he was helpless. He and the dark mages summoned what remained of their mana and started putting up their defences, while numerous nearby shadow demons forgot about Drake and jumped in front of the dark mages as meat shields. The ones further away tried to attack Drake but were easily blocked by his light and water barriers. Being summoned by a rank three artifact, the servant and warrior class shadow demons couldn't break through them easily.

Drake consumed several mana pills. However, instead of recovering his mana, he began coughing.

'I've already taken too much. They're not even working anymore!' cursed Drake internally as he felt a small trickle of mana appear in his inner realm. He hesitated briefly, then reached into his storage pouch, pulling out a handful of mana stones. Drake willed and mana began flowing out of the mana stones, into his inner realm. As it did so, the mana stones began reducing in size.

'Such a waste,' Drake thought. Mana stones were far more expensive than mana pills, so it was not cost-effective to use them. However, this was an extreme situation, so he had no choice; not to mention Drake had obtained thousands of mana stones on this trip, so he could afford to use a few.

Within a few seconds, the mana stones significantly decreased in size. Drake recovered quite a bit of mana but then started coughing again, and the flow of mana reduced dramatically. If he tried to continue absorbing mana, the backlash he'd suffer would be severe.

Drake pocketed the remaining mana stone pieces and faced the dark mages who had almost finished dealing with the explosion. By this time, the rest of the cultivators had also regrouped with Corvus, and they all stood protectively around Sylvia. As the last of the mana was expelled from the explosion, a small breeze whisked through the surroundings, gently fluttering Drake's robes. The large dust cloud began settling, revealing the destruction within.

Several hundred shadow demons were now dead. Moreover, one of the dark mages was unconscious, and two more were very severely injured. The rest were covered in bruises and were gasping heavily for breath, including the dark grand mage himself.

The dark grand mage was appalled. He had never felt so weak before, not in a very, very long time. When he entered this inheritance, he had not imagined being pushed to this extent in the slightest. And all for what? He didn't even obtain any of the artifacts here!

This was a humiliating loss!

"Good.. very good…" the dark grand mage mumbled. "Congratulations. Your group is the first to ever make me fall into such a state," he spoke. "However, this is where-"

"Shut up," Drake interrupted him coldly, holding the last artifact - the copper urn - in his hand.

'Was he crazy? He wouldn't right? If he detonated the last artifact the inheritance would collapse. None of them would be able to escape! Did he want everyone here to die? No way right?"

A flurry of thoughts ran through the dark mages' minds, seeing Drake's crazed expression. Even Blaze and the others were shocked. However, Drake ignored all of them. With a smirk, he threw the copper urn at the dark mages.

"Detonate."

Hearing that word turned the faces of the dark mages pale. Immediately, the copper urn exploded, releasing intense waves of mana.

At the same time, the earth began to shake as the mines started collapsing.

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