“So, what do we do?” Cowl asked, fiddling with the hilt of the sword at his side. “I can’t say I’ve been in many catacombs, but this one doesn’t look particularly small. How dangerous is it?”

Angel cleared his throat. “Well, it’s still hard to tell. Catacombs can vary a lot in their make and danger. Some fancy ones are actually quite safe, and some plain looking ones are incredibly dangerous.”

“How about a general estimate?”

“Make peace with any gods you believe in,” Angel suggested. “Just to be safe. Now, give me a few moments. I need to map out a plan for this room.”

He sat down on the platform and set his chin in his palm, examining the room with a trained eye. Aside from the doors at the far end and the pattern covering the ground, the room actually looked quite empty.

It was too large to easily place any sort of trap along the walls or ceiling, but there the copious amount of machinery surrounding them was indicative of the room serving some other purpose. Then again, the doors were so large that Angel doubted any human could have opened them on their own.

The pattern covering the floor was very tight. It would have been borderline impossible to walk in between the lines, especially for non-Seekers. He briefly considered having Cowl just fly over and push the door open, but he scrapped the idea almost immediately. There was a good chance the Catacomb would somehow separate the two of them from him and they’d be in an even worse position.

“I’ve figured it out,” Angel said, standing up and brushing the dust off his knees. “We’re going to step on the lines.”

“I thought you said not to do that,” Vanessa said doubtfully.

“I’m amending my statement. Don’t do it on accident,” Angel said. “If we’re ready for the trap to activate, we’ll have a better chance of beating it. The patterns usually don’t have enough energy to activate multiple times, so once we set it off, we’ll be good.”

“What will it do if we step on it?” Vanessa asked, turning a small dagger over in her hand. Angel doubted that it would have been much use against a monster, but anything was better than nothing.

“Probably summon an ugly. Maybe a few of them,” Angel said, scratching his chin. “This is the first room, so I doubt it’ll be anything too scary.”

“What if it is?” Cowl asked.

“Then we all die in a horrible, painful manner. Monsters use our bones as toothpicks and push our bodies into a mecha-latrine or something,” Angel grumbled. “What do you want me to say?”

“Just making sure,” Cowl said, cracking his neck. He drew his sword and placed the strange disk onto the hilt. The weapon whirred as it expanded into a massive shimmering blade nearly the width of Cowl’s shoulders. “Ready when you are.”

“What should I do?” Vanessa asked, doing her best to look confident.

Given the situation, Angel decided that she was doing better than he would have, had he been in her shoes. “Just don’t get hit.”

“I can do that. I think.”

“Make sure you do,” Angel said. He turned to Cowl and gave the Hunter a small nod. “You ready?”

"I always am."

Angel popped a canister out of its socket on his shoulder and slid it into the slot in his arm. He flexed his fingers, then gingerly stepped out onto the pattern. The lines beneath his feet lit up with bright white light and a hum filled the room.

He averted his eyes just before a brilliant flash lit up the catacomb. When he turned back, three hulking creatures had appeared in the center of the room. They stood more than two times taller than Angel and strongly resembled demonic gorillas. Their banana-sized fangs jutted out the bottom of their mouths and their hair was matted and shimmered in a way that looked eerily similar to armor.

Angel flicked his eyepiece down. The gorilla in the middle lit up with orange light as he scanned it and text sprung up on the screen before him.

Race: Gorant [Old World]

Level 70

Status: Disrepair

Information accuracy: 92%

Strength: 103

Intelligence: 12

Nimbleness: 20

Toughness: 57

Rating: Incredibly Dangerous

Weak point(s): Not Enough Information (0/100)

Element(s): Earth

Error: Unable to analyze further. Information incomplete

“The look on your face isn’t filling me with confidence,” Cowl said dryly.

“I was just holding back a sneeze,” Angel replied, rolling his shoulders as the three monsters all turned to look straight at them. The creature in the center was slightly larger than the other two, and a quick glance revealed that the flanking Gorants were both level 60. “The big guy in the center is the strongest.”

“Couldn’t have figured that one out on my own,” Cowl said, adjusting his grip on the sword. “Make those spells of yours count.”

They dashed forward. The Gorant in the center let out a loud roar and pounded its clenched fists against its chest before lumbering towards them like a runaway steam engine. Every step the beast took shook the ground.

The ceiling was too far away for Angel to shoot a grappling hook at, but there was more than one way to use that particular tool. He pointed his palm at one of the smaller monsters and the barb whistled out, sailing through the air and punching into the beast’s matted fur.

Angel yanked his arm back and leapt upwards, swinging up and over the large Gorant. He ripped the grappling hook free midair, turning his palm to aim at the massive creature. A blast of crackling lightning screamed forth and slammed into the creature’s head, causing it to stagger.

The spent canister ejected itself from Angel’s arm and he twisted midair, dropping into a roll as he hit the ground several feet behind the two smaller monsters. He popped to his feet and dashed to the side moments before one of them leapt at where he’d been standing, crashing into the ground with enough force to crack the stone.

Angel’s grappling hook whipped back into his palm with a click and he spun to see the effects of his attack. A small stream of smoke rose up from a blackened portion of the Gorant’s head, but the creature didn’t look particularly injured. It let out a furious howl, spinning to track Angel.

Cowl took that moment to shimmer forwards, blurring through the air and bringing his massive blade down on the creature’s shoulder. A loud clang rang through the room and Cowl darted backwards to avoid a powerful swipe.

His strike hadn’t done much more than dent the monster’s thick, armorlike hair. Angel gritted his teeth, but he didn’t have time to think further. One of the two smaller Gorants lumbered towards him.

It raised its hands to pulverize Angel. He dove forward, sliding between its legs and popping up behind it. The creature let out a howl as its prey escaped and spun, reaching out to grab him.

He launched the grappling hook straight into its forehead and launched himself upwards, pulling the creature’s head forward. With his free hand, Angel grabbed another canister and fitted it into his arm. Twisting his arm, he retracted the grappling hook.

Angel hurtled towards the creature’s head. Its eyes widened in surprise at the crazed seeker and it instinctively flinched, raising its hand to protect itself.

The Seeker ripped the barb free of the monster’s head and angled his body to fly in between the Gorant’s hands and its head. As he passed, he thrust his palm into the monster’s face.

A blast of frost ripped out of his palm. It hit the Gorant square in the face. The creature staggered backwards, clawing at its features as ice enveloped its head and neck. Angel didn’t give it a chance to recover.

He grabbed a fistful of the monster’s thick, musty back hair and heaved himself upwards with his left hand. Then he reared back and drove his mechanical arm into the monster’s skull with all of his might.

The Gorant’s head shattered into dozens of shards. Thick, frozen blood oozed out of its neck as the beast swayed in place for a moment before falling backwards and crashing into the ground with a violent thud.