Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead-Chapter 138: First Blood

There were a few corpses here and there, hatchlings, large-sized basilisks, dead.

Kael’s eyes slid over them without lingering. He knew exactly why they were there. He’d made them that way. The sight still made his stomach tighten, not from guilt, but from the risk of recognition. Too many dead hatchlings could raise questions if anyone paid attention.

"Dead bodies..." The boss said in a low tone.

"Shh, the boss is asleep, we’ll need to use the advantage, don’t talk needlessly." He said as he didn’t want to expose the fact that he had already been here and killed off all the hatchlings.

He kept his voice barely above a breath. The boss nodded, surprisingly obedient for once, and the rest of the group followed with quieter steps. Kael could feel the tension behind him like a physical weight. Fifteen bodies, fifteen sets of nerves, fifteen chances for someone to cough at the wrong time.

The boss nodded and followed behind him. The rest of the group also did the same.

They were about fifteen in total, not including Kael. A good raid group, the only issue was that they were all underleveled for this. So, casualties were a non-negotiable.

Kael didn’t romanticize it. He didn’t tell himself everyone would make it. A basilisk didn’t care about morale. It cared about meat. If this fight went wrong, the basilisk would eat a few of them like snacks. Kael’s only real goal was simple.

Kael just needed to not be among the casualties.

Slow and steady, they made it to the bottom of the dungeon.

Kael gestured with his hand. He signaled the shape of his open, straight palm, making a curved turn. Meaning they needed to go past this curve, then bumped a fist into the palm. An obvious tell that combat was right after the curve.

The boss nodded and raised his weapon, signaling for the rest to be ready.

The group tightened up behind him. Weapons lifted. Someone swallowed. Someone’s armor scraped against stone, and Kael’s spine prickled. He held still for a second until the noise stopped, then continued.

Just as Kael turned the corner, they saw it.

A massive creature, curled around its tail.

It looked like an alligator, but had far bulkier muscles, and a longer tail, bigger limbs, and a head of nightmares that could easily fit three or four climbers in a single bite.

It was dozing off, asleep.

The basilisk’s chest rose and fell slowly, and each breath made the moss light shimmer on its scales. Its body filled the cavern in a way that made the raid group feel like insects. The smell was immediate too, a heavy animal musk mixed with rot, like something that lived in damp darkness and ate anything that moved.

The stench of goblin piss and rotting bodies did its best to cover the smell of the climbers that slowly approached it.

However, Kael forgot one simple fact.

The sleeping Basilisk suddenly sniffed twice. As if remembering a familiar scent.

Kael felt his blood go cold. something was wrong, and he could feel it. The basilisk’s nostrils flared, slow at first, then sharper. That wasn’t random. That was recognition.

The scent’s source was obvious and dangerous.

The grayed-out red dot immediately turned bright red. And the basilisk, which was surrounded, opened its massive golden eye, its iris turned, and then snapped immediately onto Kael.

Kael didn’t move. He couldn’t. The eye pinned him like a spear through the chest. The rest of the group behind him froze in confusion, because the basilisk wasn’t looking at the crowd. It wasn’t scanning for the loudest. It was staring at him specifically.

’Fuck... it can smell the leather of its children!’

Kael realized it a bit too late when the creature opened its jaws toward him. The howl that came out brought everyone down to their knees.

[You’ve already experienced this Fear effect before.]

[You have resisted!]

Every member of the group was struck by horror as they saw the creature prop up and lunge at Kael.

Not wasting a moment, Kael simply jumped back, avoiding the closing of jaws by the skin of his teeth.

"GET A MOVE ON!" the Boss howled as he noticed the creature fully focused on Kael.

A few of the climbers who climbed high enough and saw worse terrors woke up from the effect first. Their clubs, stone axes, stone swords, and makeshift spears were propped up.

The majority of them lunged at the boss at the same time, stabbing it.

However, every stone-made weapon simply bounced off or fractured upon contact.

"Shit, it’s too tough!" one of them said.

But one of the spears didn’t suffer the same fate.

It dug between the scales and drew blood, "Got him!" one of them said as it drew first blood, but that was the last words he ever spoke.

The enraged Basilisk simply jerked its body, the thousands of pounds of muscle reacted as they transferred the full force of that jerk into the thick tail, which slammed the man’s chest.

The first sound that echoed was that of bones breaking, the second was the body splattering against the walls of the cave like a wet rug.

Another howl, this time that of challenge and authority. The beast had woken up, and it was the one that got the first kill.

Kael realized that it would immediately turn its attention onto him, so he aimed with his right gauntlet, locked his elbow with his left hand, and shouted, "Get away from it!"

The closest climbers didn’t even hesitate. Not because he gave them a command, not because Kael had authority, but simply because they saw what happened to the man who was too close to the basilisk.

Pride had no room when lives were lost in seconds.

The boss was still trying to understand how he already lost a member before the fight even began, but seeing the focused and clear eyes of Kael, he believed the kid had a plan.