Manaless Mage-Chapter 358: Communications cut off

He turned his head slightly and exchanged quick glances with Miranda and Harry, both of whom were already on alert.

Miranda’s daggers gleamed faintly in her hands, and Harry’s calm gaze subtly scanned the surroundings.

Up above, Claire’s voice sounded again through their minds—sharper this time, edged with disbelief.

"They’re... hiding behind the rubbles, but—" She hesitated for the briefest second, her brow creasing deeply. "It looks like they’ve set up a trap... for us!"

The three adventurers below froze for a moment, their expressions hardening at her words.

"What?" Miranda muttered under her breath, her tone low with disbelief. "That’s impossible."

Jack’s frown deepened. The idea itself was absurd. Mana beasts weren’t supposed to be capable of such tactics. They acted on instinct, not intelligence.

The Horned Gorilla, especially, was a solitary stage three beast—large, powerful, and aggressive, but not clever.

They didn’t coordinate, didn’t plan, and certainly didn’t ambush. Yet Claire’s tone carried no trace of doubt.

"Are you sure?" Jack called out, his voice rough but steady as his hand tightened around the handle of his club.

From above, Claire’s voice came again, this time firm and cold. "I’m certain. There are at least five of them, maybe more. They’re waiting just behind the largest rubble in front of us—their mana signatures are faint, but I can feel them clearly."

A tense silence followed her words, the weight of the situation sinking in.

Jack’s eyes darkened. Five? Working together? That wasn’t just abnormal—it was dangerous!

The Horned Gorilla was known for its brute strength and thick hide, even at stage three. A coordinated group of them could easily overwhelm an unprepared team.

His frown deepened as he thought, This doesn’t make sense. They shouldn’t have that kind of awareness... not unless—

He didn’t finish the thought. A low growl echoed faintly from the distance, and a ripple passed through the cracked ground beneath their feet. The air seemed to grow heavier.

A bad feeling crept up his spine, one he couldn’t shake off.

His instincts—sharpened from years of walking the edge between life and death—screamed that something was wrong. Very wrong.

He immediately lifted his wrist and tapped his guild watch. The holographic green circle shimmered to life once more above his wrist, faintly glowing in the dim light of the rift.

"Jack to Guild Base," he said quickly, his tone clipped and urgent. "We’ve detected abnormal activity in the C-Rank Rift. Confirm presence of multiple Horned Gorillas. Requesting—"

He stopped.

The circle flickered violently, and a strange buzz echoed from the device. His eyes widened as the green projection suddenly dimmed — and then, within seconds, it vanished completely, leaving nothing but empty air.

Jack blinked. "What the—"

He tapped the side of the watch again, once, twice — but no response came. Only the faint buzzing sound continued, dull and erratic. Then even that stopped.

His heartbeat quickened slightly.

’The network’s suddenly down!’ he thought, a chill running through his veins. His jaw tightened as his expression hardened.

A faint hum pulsed through the still air as Jack lowered his wrist, his expression darkening.

Then, almost immediately, the same distorted buzzing sound began to echo faintly from the watches of the others around him.

Miranda frowned, glancing down at her wrist, where her watch’s network suddenly shut down.

"What’s going on?" she muttered, brows furrowing as she tapped the surface again, but no response came. The watch screen remained blank.

Above them, Claire’s eyes flicked downward toward her wrist midair, her expression tightening as watch sputtered with the same dull glow before blinking out.

Even Harry’s watch, sleek and dark on his left wrist, gave a low buzz that quickly faded into silence.

Within moments, all four watches had gone dead — their communication links severed, their tracking systems down, and their maps vanished.

Only one faint pulse of mana still vibrated from each of the watches, glowing softly across the transparent waves that clung to their skin like a thin second layer.

Jack clenched his jaw. "The wave armour’s still active," he muttered under his breath, eyes narrowing.

It was the only feature that remained functional — the dense wave shield designed to form a protective barrier over their bodies.

Unlike the other features, it wasn’t tied to the guild’s network or any external signal; it was powered by the watch’s internal core, meaning it could operate even in a completely isolated space.

But the rest... the rest was gone.

There was no way to communicate with the guild now, neither was there a way to properly navigate through the rift.

Miranda’s lips parted slightly as realization dawned. "Don’t tell me..." she whispered softly, her tone barely audible but laced with disbelief.

Harry glanced briefly at his own wrist, his expression calm yet sharp. Even without saying anything, his thoughts mirrored theirs.

Jack’s eyes darkened further as he slowly lifted his gaze from his watch, scanning their surroundings.

The cracked, barren ground stretched endlessly ahead, littered with broken fragments of earth and enormous piles of rubble that looked like the remains of collapsed structures.

The distant mana pulses were erratic, flickering in irregular bursts like dying flames.

The wind had died completely, leaving the air heavy and stifling.

Jack’s grip on his spiked club tightened. His expression hardened, and his brows furrowed deeply.

He looked from one teammate to the next, his voice low but steady as he said, "Be very careful..."

A tense silence followed his words. Even Claire, hovering above, could feel the change in his tone.

Jack’s jaw clenched, and a faint bead of sweat rolled down the side of his temple, gliding down his cheek. His heartbeat quickened, not from fear, but from the instinctual pressure that came from facing an unseen enemy.

His eyes flickered toward the piles of rubble ahead, the faint shimmering heat of unstable mana distorting their shapes.

And then, in a grim voice that carried quiet realization, he muttered, "It seems that... we’ve already fallen into their trap."

The words hit the air like a hammer—quiet but heavy, carrying the weight of danger that none of them could ignore.

Miranda’s grip on her daggers tightened as she glanced at him sharply.

"You think they were waiting for us?" she asked, still confused about the entire situation.

Jack didn’t answer right away. His eyes were still busy scanning his surroundings.

Finally, he exhaled slowly. "Claire," he said, his gaze lifting toward the woman above, "can you see anything from up there? Anything strange at all?"

Claire’s brown eyes narrowed. She hovered slightly higher, the wind around her body strengthening as she focused.

Another wave of wind spread from her body, spanning meters before dispelling.

She could feel faint signatures — distant, scattered — but she needed to focus deeper. She pressed harder, her eyes opening again, scanning across the rubble where the strange distortions were strongest.

The air was thick and heavy. Her breathing slowed, and for a moment, she thought she caught a glimpse of movement between the cracks.

Then suddenly—

Wham!

A massive blur of motion filled her vision.

Her eyes widened in shock as an enormous, hairy fist — twice the size of her head immediately appeared in front of her, barreling towards her face at immense speed.