As they advanced deeper into the forest landscape, the path beneath their feet gradually grew wider, smoothing out until it resembled something close to a paved road. The trees on either side spread further apart from one another, rising taller and thicker than the ones they had passed near the starting point of their journey.
Several other paths branched off and narrowed as they wound through the forest, twisting away into the shadows between the trunks, but this particular route stood out clearly as the main road of their journey through the dungeon, the one path they would need to follow if they truly hoped to reach their goal.
A thought crossed Mark’s mind then, and it left him with a quiet, gnawing sense of unease. It had to do with returning late from his school permitted leave, a worry that had been sitting in the back of his mind since they first entered the dungeon.
If the flow of time inside this place differed from that of the real world, even by a handful of hours, let alone several days, it would spell serious trouble for him. The school administration was known to be strict about such things, and any unexplained absence would likely bring severe consequences crashing down on him the moment he returned.
He might end up trapped here long enough that even his sister, who rarely worried about anything, would begin to notice his sudden and prolonged disappearance and start asking questions he wasn’t ready to answer. Still, he reminded himself there was little reason to dwell on such anxious thoughts, not when he had a powerful summon fighting at his side.
This time, unlike before, he intended to join the battle himself rather than simply observe from a safe distance while Cassandra did all the work.
Mark walked steadily alongside the towering Amazon woman, her every stride easily equal to nearly three steps of an ordinary human being. It meant he constantly had to quicken his pace, sometimes breaking into a light jog just to keep up and avoid falling behind her long, purposeful steps.
He had made the deliberate choice to walk on his own two feet rather than ride comfortably in her arms or against her shoulder, since doing so simply did not sit right with him, not as her summoner, and certainly not as the one who was supposed to be her master.
Along the way, they came across more of the evolved chimpanzees scattered throughout the forest, though these particular encounters proved far easier to handle than expected. There was little meaningful difference between them and the very first one Cassandra had already dealt with back at the start of the dungeon, and so each fight passed quickly, almost routinely, without much trouble at all.
The trees around them continued to grow taller and more sparse the deeper they traveled, rising like ancient, colossal pillars stretching anywhere from ten to twenty meters into the canopy above. Their sheer height dwarfed even Cassandra’s towering frame, though it did nothing at all to diminish her raw strength or overwhelming power. Still, the sheer scale and grandeur of the place left one wondering, almost uneasily, just what manner of creature could possibly call such a vast and imposing area its home.
That particular thought did not linger for long, however, as a series of deep, guttural growls rose suddenly from the trees surrounding them, low and grating like stone dragged harshly against metal.
The sound drew both Mark’s and Cassandra’s full attention at once, their eyes scanning the shadows above. It seemed the creatures hidden among the branches wanted to intimidate their prey first, using sound and presence alone before closing in for the actual attack.
It was, admittedly, a rather clever strategy, one that hinted uncomfortably at a level of intelligence not so far removed from that of humans themselves.
But Mark and Cassandra were far from easy prey waiting to be picked off. If anything, they were the true predators in this exchange, come to finish decisively whatever these creatures had foolishly decided to start. Cassandra’s eyes gleamed with a fierce, unmistakable fervor and eagerness as she slipped smoothly into a defensive stance, her heightened senses giving her a remarkably clear view of the enemies concealed among the towering trees.
Mark could tell, simply by watching her, that she was savoring a moment she had not experienced in a very long while. Battle and duty were woven deeply into the very identity of a member of the ancient Amazon Order, practically inseparable from who they were as warriors, and in that charged moment, Cassandra radiated both without the slightest hint of restraint or hesitation.
Six chimpanzees soon emerged from the canopy, swinging with practiced ease between the branches on vines as thick and broad as a grown human’s outstretched hand. These particular creatures, however, were clearly unlike the ones they had encountered before, their fur a dark, tough shade of crimson that looked more than capable of resisting a fair amount of physical harm.
Their canine teeth jutted sharply past their lips in long, jagged, unsightly points, far more pronounced than before, and their muscles bulged with noticeably greater size and density beneath their thick fur.
Despite their bulkier, more intimidating frames, they still moved through the branches with the fluid, almost unsettling grace of skilled acrobats, their prehensile limbs carrying them effortlessly from branch to branch like seasoned warriors born and raised among the trees.
At the sight of them, Mark quickly chose to activate Echo, a valuable attribute that allowed a summoner to temporarily draw upon the natural traits and abilities of their own summon. It was, notably, the very same technique Derek had once used against him, back during that tense encounter when he had tried to intimidate and belittle Mark while clad proudly in his summon’s gleaming jade green armor.
Without wasting a single moment, Mark also activated Symbiosis, another crucial attribute that granted a summoner temporary access to fifty percent of their summon’s raw, formidable strength. The two attributes worked together seamlessly, complementing one another with an almost perfect synergy that flowed naturally through his body.
Mark had spent countless quiet hours studying summoners through extensive personal research, determined from early on to fully understand how best to harness such powerful attributes for himself when the time eventually came.
His body surged instantly with an immense, almost overwhelming rush of power, as though some hidden battery deep within him had suddenly been charged to its absolute limit.
The strange, exhilarating sensation of carrying half of a giant’s supreme strength settled deep into his frame, spreading through every fiber of his being. Every muscle in his body grew taut and remarkably powerful, and even his bones themselves seemed to harden and thicken slightly beneath his skin, bracing him for what was to come.
Cassandra moved with startling swiftness, catching one of the chimps effortlessly within her iron grip, her sheer size and strength making the capture look almost laughably easy. Two more of the creatures rushed forward at once to aid their trapped companion, turning their combined assault toward her, while the remaining three broke off and came for Mark instead, snarling viciously and snapping their powerful jaws like a pack of feral hounds closing in for the final, decisive kill.
The distance between Mark and the charging beasts vanished in the span of a single heartbeat as they lunged at him all at once, moving with the coordinated ferocity of a hunting pack of wolves. Their assault came so fast and so sudden that it seemed, for one terrifying instant, almost too late for him to react in any meaningful way. And yet his legs moved entirely on their own, guided by pure, ingrained instinct, carrying him just barely out of reach of a snapping set of jaws aimed squarely at his throat.
As the remaining chimps pressed their advance together, moving as one coordinated unit, Mark’s legs carried him fluidly through their combined attacks with a surprising, almost effortless elegance, weaving smoothly between grasping claws and snapping teeth as though he had rehearsed this very dance a hundred times before.
It was only then, in the middle of that chaotic exchange, that he suddenly realized he had inherited a trait from Cassandra’s own signature battle technique, the graceful and deadly art known as Diane’s Dance.
With his fists clenched tight and humming faintly with half the raw, borrowed strength of a giant, Mark drove a devastating blow straight into the jaw of one chimp, the sheer force of the impact shattering its entire head into a gruesome mess of bone fragments and blood.
He spun sharply on his heel and delivered a powerful, well aimed kick to another creature’s exposed abdomen, the blow throwing it hard across the churned ground, where it was promptly crushed beneath Cassandra’s heel into little more than smeared bone and torn flesh.
Facing the last remaining chimp, Mark settled calmly into a familiar boxing stance, his eyes narrowed and sharply focused on his opponent. The creature, to his mild surprise, mirrored his exact posture almost perfectly, a clever and rather unsettling response clearly meant to counter whatever fighting style he chose to bring against it.
Kickboxing was the very sport Mark had trained in relentlessly since early childhood, patiently taught to him by his late grandfather during his ordinary, mundane years, long before he had ever become a summoner or even dreamed of entering a dungeon.
It was one of the very few skills he had ever allowed himself to openly display back at school, and even then only carefully and sparingly, since holding back had always felt like the safest and most necessary choice in that environment. But here, standing face to face with a genuine dungeon beast, there would be no such restraint left in him.
With a sharp, controlled grunt, Mark launched a high kick that the chimpanzee managed to deflect easily with its thick, muscular arm, but the strike had only ever been intended as a feint from the very start. In the very same fluid motion, he slammed his fist hard into the creature’s exposed neck with precise, calculated force, staggering it instantly and throwing off its balance.
The chimp let out a furious snarl and clawed desperately at him with hands powerful enough to crush solid rock with ease.
Mark twisted his upper body sharply and slipped just out of reach before retaliating with a relentless, unbroken barrage of punches, a rapid succession of jabs, hooks, and crosses flowing seamlessly one into the next, before finally finishing the exchange with a brutal, bone jarring uppercut that sent the creature soaring nearly five meters straight into the air.
Cassandra met it there without hesitation, striking it with a powerful, decisive kick as though it were nothing more than a discarded object, the sheer force of the impact bursting it apart instantly in a violent spray of blood and torn flesh.
For a brief moment, the entire clearing fell into complete silence, and Mark blinked in quiet, genuine astonishment at the sheer efficiency and brutality of her strike, thoroughly impressed despite himself by what he had just witnessed.
Cassandra, meanwhile, simply stared down at her own feet, now stained thoroughly with dark, vile blood and scattered bits of gore, before she let out a low, drawn out groan of pure irritation at the mess.
Mark could only respond with an exaggerated shrug of his shoulders, whistling innocently under his breath as though he had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the state of her feet.
A/N: I hope that you’re enjoying it so far. Don’t forget to support with a powerstone or two and adding to your library. I would also like you to do me a favor of giving reviews.