Chapter 104 - Under The Hole!
Ban landed smoothly under the crack with only a little shake on his knee. He recovered a while later and he then waved the lamp to illuminate and observe his surroundings.
He noticed that the area under the crack was actually spacious. The space was spherical in shape and on closer look, Ban could tell that it somehow resembled a huge tube.
He looked at the front and the back alternatively to determine where he should go. The soil or the platform he was standing on right now was a little damp. Ban also took notice of the streams of dark water flowing right beside him smoothly.
Ban observed more and after a little while, he finally managed to find a clue left by the Two-Tailed Rats. There was a clump of brownish fur, flowing alongside the dirty water. Ban no longer thinks about anything as it was already obvious where the other Two-Tailed Rats are.
As he did not know about the layout of this underground facility, he made sure to be careful on his steps and properly illuminate the path forward.
Ban had the thought of using the Rogue Red Termite in combination with the Skill, 'Possession', and try his luck about obtaining its Skill that lets them see in dark places, but he immediately discarded that idea as there is so much risk about it. The probability of him obtaining that skill was slim.
And if an unfortunate thing happened and he did not manage to get that night vision Skill, he would be wasting the Skill, 'Possession' that has quite a long cooldown of four hours. Ban thought that using Eva's Skill, 'Sensor' was more practical. And even though it also has a long cooldown of fifteen minutes, it was at least better than nothing.
With the lamp, Ban could already see five meters ahead of him without a problem. However, he still choose to let Eva use the Skill 'Sensor' as aside from it having a wider range of ten meters, the information gained on it would also be directly transmitted to Eva's antenna, which means she could spot even those who are hiding behind the walls as long as its within the ten meters radius around here.
"Little Eva, Sensor!" Ban commanded in a low voice in which Eva did not hesitate to follow.
HE antennae stiffened and their tips glowed a little, resembling the Luminous Stone that was inside the lamp that Ban was holding. After thirty seconds, the Sensor's duration ended along with the shutting off of Eva's glowing antennae.
Eva immediately reported what she saw with the Sensor Skill and it was only after he confirmed that the area was clear that Ban decided to move forward.
Ban thought that they would at least need to use three or four Sensor 's in order to reach their destination but it seems that lady luck was on his side right now. As after Eva used the Skill, 'Sensor' the second time, they found another path that clearly does not look normal.
That path's entrance was the broken wall of the huge 'tube'. The cracked walls were piled up on the side and at the front of the hole as if it was a barricade. The reason why Ban felt that he was lucky was because of the fact that those broken walls that were piled up were actually coated with brownish furs that clearly came from the Two-Tailed Rats.
Ban prepared himself and checked all of their available Skills as well as the ones that are on cooldown. On Eva's side, the only Skill she could not use was Sensor which she just used earlier. She could also not summon her Guard for now as it got beaten up by the Elder Red-Panda earlier. It needs time to heal before Eva could summon it again.
Ban also checked his set of Skills and aside from the Skill 'Greed', the others can be used just fine. However, Ban does not plan on using Possession for now as he wanted to preserve it in case something unusual came up. He also prohibited Eva from using her Wrath as that Skill also has a long cooldown and he figured that they should not waste those kinds of Skills on small targets just like the Two-Tailed Rats.
Eva can only use her Fluid Release, and Bite Skill while Ban can only use the Blood Contractor and the Reinforce Skill that can be used twice in a row. Ban wanted to summon the Rogue Red Termite but upon observing that it still hadn't healed, he just let it off the hook for now.
"Let's go!" Ban said as he hopped above the pile of broken walls to get inside the barricade made by the Two-Tailed Rats. Eva followed suit and while she's at it, she slowly transformed into her combat form while in mid-air.
Her wings sprouted and her figure became taller before finally settling on a form that could stand up straight in two legs while her four other legs transformed into four slim arms.
Ban brought four lamps in total and he plans to scatter them on different locations while fighting to properly illuminate their surroundings.
SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!...
As if sensing their arrival, multiple squeaks were immediately released by the Two-Tailed Rats as if warning them not to come any more closer. The ground shook a little as if a minor earthquake was occurring when the Two-Tailed Rats moved and intercepted Ban and Eva coordinately.
Ban and Eva halted immediately and within a split second later, their breathing synchronized perfectly as they entered the Perfect Harmony state without batting an eye. Ban and Eva smiled at the same time as they felt as though they were one with each other.
"Reinforce! Reinforce!" Ban casted his Reinforce Skill twice in a matter of seconds to boost Eva's defense.
Even if Ban only used one stack of Reinforce, his summon can still experience a huge leap in their defense.. And if he used it on a Defense Type Summon, then its effect will more than double to the point that the Summon will become semi-indestructible on the duration of the Skill and as long as the one that hits them are also those at the same Rank as them.