Reincarnated As A Plant Life
chapter-268

"We're looking for a precious mineral, it's more likely that the creatures down here are in tunnels with such materials," Lucius explained, already making his way towards the aforementioned tunnel.

"Pagan, come to the front," he whispered, gesturing for Pagan to come.

"Follow through after ten breaths. Once you enter, focus your attention on the far end of the tunnels, I'll have already dealt with those close by. And don't use bursting trace, they'll probably furtong around, I don't want them getting hurt," he instructed, before looking towards Ghost.

"Ghost, stay behind with Ursa and protect the Argonauts. In case an enemy slips past us, you guys are the final line," he added, before rushing towards the tunnel.

He planned to blitzkrieg them, taking them out before they even knew what was going on.

The tunnel led into a small cave, around the size of a house, with a ceiling at around the same height as a four-storey building.

There were seven furtong in the cave, all of them slaving along the edges of the walls to extract a black rock -which at first glance looked to be obsidian.

Apart from them, there were three venari guards, all of them around the same height as a fully grown human male. Two of them wore yellow robes, whilst the third -and more powerful one based on energy readings- wore a purple tunic.

Before any of them had even realized he was there, Lucius used his tail to grab one of the yellow tunic guards -who was the closest to the entrance- before dragging it back towards him.

Quickly he slammed the guard against the wall, with enough force to shatter bone, knocking the guard unconscious.

At this point, the others had realized something was off. However, Lucius was already rushing towards them.

The creatures were in shock at the sight of him, never before had they laid their eyes on such a creature. Lucius was the stuff of nightmares, enigmatic even amongst these wild creatures. If they told their children stories of the boogeyman, he would be it.

Whilst the yellow-tunic guard fumbled to call out their crux, the purple-tunic already had theirs out, positioning themselves against the far end of the wall as they tried to get a scope of what was going on.

As Lucius sent out three quick jabs towards the yellow tunic- two to the throat, and one to the side of the head- the purple tunic was already chanting something.

Its mouth moved at unfathomable speeds, chanting faster than Lucius could ever hope to. As it did, the purple crux that floated right beside its head began glowing with power.

Luckily for Lucius, he didn't need to chant.

~Solar beam,~ he thought to himself, releasing his crux, and sending out the spell with less than a second delay between the two. He had never done it before, but after using his crux for so long, this level of proficiency felt normal to him.

The beam came out as a very thin line, around the width of a branch, with tinges of violent tainting its radiant yellow colour.

Right as the purple tunic's spell was about to go off, the beam of light shot through its head, killing it instantly. Its body stood up straight for a while as if confused over whether it was dead or not, before falling to the ground.

Pagan arrived a split second after the fight had ended, his solar crux already glowing with power as he dashed into the room.

"I-If I may Lighted One, please leave some for the rest of us next time," Pagan said, a sort of embarrassed look on his face as he spoke.

The furtong were huddled up against the walls, shivering at the sight of the intruders who had killed their wardens. One would think that they'd be grateful for being freed, though Lucius understood that as a lower-tier creature, it was hard to trust anyone with power as immense as his.

"We aren't going to hurt you," he announced, speaking fluent furtong.

The creatures seemed surprised for a moment, however, their fear quickly consumed that, and they were back to pushing against the walls as if they hoped it would swallow them.

In fact, Lucius could see that one of them was trying to create an escape path behind them.

"Don't, I won't be able to help you if you disappear into the walls. I'm Havon, and I'm here to save you," he said -cringing slightly- before using [Spacial Solar Cleanse].

Waves of radiant energy pulsated from his crux, causing the furtong to glimmer as they were healed of whatever minor injuries they had.

Their bodies relaxed for a moment, and their eyes drooped, as if their fatigue were only now catching up to them right now.

~They must've been really injured if solar cleanse is draining them of this much energy,~ Lucius thought to himself, before looking at Pagan.

"Go get the Argonauts, maybe they'll trust us more if they see we're already walking around with some of their own," Lucius whispered.

Pagan quickly disappeared back towards the tunnel they had come from, returning a few moments later with the Argonauts.

"Explain to them that we're here to help," Lucius said, gesturing towards the furtong. There was a quick scramble between the Argonauts over who would talk, with the elder furtong coming out on top.

He quickly approached them and began explaining to his brethren that Lucius and his group meant no harm.

As the elder furtong did that, Lucius frisked the unconscious yellow-tunic guards, in search of any valuable loot. However, it seemed they were just low-level scrubs, with nothing -apart from their tunics- in their possession.

He quickly used the vines he had packed in his sack to tie up them up, before dragging them towards Ursa.

"You think you can carry them the rest of the way, big guy?" he asked, to which Ursa nodded solemnly, before picking them up and hoisting them over his shoulders like they were sacks of potatoes.

Lucius then approached the purple-tunic guard and frisked him as well. Based on the way the guard reacted to his attack, Lucius could tell that it was of a considerably higher level than the yellow tunics.

And luckily this showed in the sort of loot it had.