In Another World With Omnitrix

The cavern's oppressive silence shattered like glass as the first guardian moved.

It came with speed that defied its bulk, closing the distance between the hunting party and itself in less than a heartbeat. Crystalline limbs sparked with raw mana, and its jagged arms morphed into weaponized blades mid-swing.

Lyra was the first to react.

Frost erupted beneath her feet as she surged forward, summoning a thick barrier of ice that caught the initial strike. The guardian's blade cleaved through it with a shriek, shards flying like shrapnel. Lyra flipped backward, hurling spears of condensed frost at its chest. Each one cracked against the obsidian shell, but none pierced deep enough.

Saria's saber was already blazing, runes lighting the shadows as she launched herself into the air with a battle cry.

"Don't hog the fun!"

She came down like a meteor, blades singing through the air. Her strike met the guardian's shoulder—metal met magic. The impact cracked the surface but didn't stagger it. Instead, the creature turned and rammed her with a massive fist, slamming her into a twisted column of bone-like steel.

Saria coughed but grinned through bloodied teeth. "Yeah, that's more like it."

Behind them, dozens of elite guild hunters engaged smaller constructs spilling from the cavern's deeper veins. These weren't mere monsters—they were calculated, coordinated. Each moved in near-silence, mimicking their opponent's attacks with disturbing accuracy.

Theron stepped in next.

The moment his blade entered the fray, the battlefield shifted.

His sword cleaved through the air, wrapped in a silver-blue glow that tore through the guardian's outer plating. It let out a low, guttural mechanical whine as its arm fell to the ground, twitching like a dying insect.

"Elric! Roots—lock it down!" Theron commanded.

Vines burst from the ground as Elric slammed his staff into the cracked soil. The guardian's legs became tangled in twisting green coils. For a moment, it was held.

Veyra didn't wait.

She surged forward, her obsidian blade trailing blackened sparks as she spun low and carved through the creature's side. Her armor pulsed with corestone energy, feeding each strike.

"Die properly, freak."

The creature reeled, its relic core now fully exposed—a pulsing violet shard encased in cracked crystal. Lyra didn't hesitate.

"Clear back!" she shouted.

Mana condensed around her in a swirling froststorm. Ice spiraled upward in a blizzard column, funneling into a single sharp spike above her palm. She hurled it with a precise flick.

It struck the relic core.

Time seemed to pause.

The shard cracked. Then shattered.

A shockwave erupted outward, knocking back several hunters and sending corrupted mist scattering. The guardian collapsed in on itself, the crimson light in its veins fading.

For a heartbeat, there was silence.

Then came the second wave.

From the depths of the twisted cavern, dozens—no, hundreds—of new constructs began to crawl out from shadowed crevices and warped towers. Some walked on two legs, others on four. Some crawled like serpents, others hovered with arcing mana fields. Each bore a corrupted relic core in their chest, and each locked on to the invading hunters with inhuman precision.

"Formation! Fall back to the second ridge!" Galen called out.

"No time!" Saria shouted, already moving. "We stand here!"

She dashed ahead, sabers flashing, carving through the first wave. Lyra moved to her side without a word—ice wrapping around her boots as she skated into the fray, weaving through enemies like a winter storm.

One construct lunged. Lyra ducked under its swing and countered with a spinning wave of frost, freezing it mid-motion. Saria shattered it with a downward slash.

"Still slow," Saria muttered.

Lyra arched a brow. "Still reckless."

"You love it."

Their blades moved in perfect, practiced rhythm—evidence of past missions where rivalry had bred synchronicity.

Theron, Galen, Elric, and Veyra took the flank, keeping the waves from encircling the guild elites. Behind them, dozens of rankers unleashed coordinated elemental barrages—lightning, wind, fire, shadow—but for every creature felled, two more emerged.

The dungeon was alive.

And it was reacting.

"We won't hold this ground for long," Theron warned. "These are only testing patterns. They're adjusting to our tactics."

"We need to divide them," Lyra said. "Split their focus."

"That's going to split us too," Galen warned.

Veyra grinned. "Finally. It was getting too cozy anyway."

The first major push of the enemy broke as the ground beneath them cracked wide. A massive, worm-like construct burst from the earth, its body laced with shifting plates and dozens of jointed legs. It roared without sound—a psychic blast of pressure that staggered even the veterans.

Elric's vines lashed out to anchor them. "Now would be a great time to reconsider that split!"

Theron slammed his blade into the creature's neck, drawing a cascade of sparks. "No choice. Split the party!"

A tremor split the cavern into three sections—massive stone spires collapsing and walls forming naturally from dungeon manipulation.

The hunting party was scattered.

Lyra and Saria landed on one side of the divide, shoulder to shoulder. Veyra and Elric on another. Galen and Theron on a third, pinned against a shifting wall of obsidian roots.

The horde descended.

From the darkness, a second guardian—larger than the first—stepped through the mist, its four arms ending in bladed limbs and a single massive eye blinking in its chest.

Lyra tightened her grip. "Just you and me again."

Saria cracked her neck. "Don't slow me down."

They launched forward—together.

And the dungeon watched.

End of Chapter.

Thank you for reading.