The Gamer's POV-Chapter 187: Home of the Hollow Ones [3]

After several more steps, the muddy, swampy ground finally gave way to a hard, paved floor.

Aside from the soot in the air, there was also the foul stench of decaying corpses.

As they moved further, the mist finally cleared completely, revealing a vast paved ground leading to the city. There were lots of dead creatures of different species and sizes on the ground. And even more skeletons were scattered across the landscape.

In the far distance, two statues could be seen with their backs turned toward the group.

Statues like that were stationed in points surrounding the city, and from what Cedric knew, those statues changed their positions on their own after certain intervals. The times varied for the statues, and in the case they caught sight of an intruder, they wouldn’t stop until they had pulverized them.

At first, when the cadets saw the statues, everyone froze like statues themselves.

A few seconds later, when they confirmed that the statues were not looking in their direction, Aurora raised her whisperscript to her mouth and whispered into it.

"Let’s keep moving."

She moved first, creeping forward as slowly and cautiously as she could. A beat later, the other cadets followed behind her in the same manner.

Among them, Cedric also silently crept forward while keeping his eyes locked on the statues in the distance. This was the first time in a while that he had to rely on only his eyes. In a place like this, even creatures like birds didn’t fly in the sky, so he very well could not have his ravens out.

Also, despite the fact that he was currently wearing his regalia, the only property that was currently active was the [Shadow of the Fallen], which made him harder to track in low-light conditions.

It was an ideal property for this particular place because, with the cadets currently within the territory of the Hollow Ones, the greenish tint that had been in the misty marshlands had completely faded, so it was night here, with the only light being the moon in the sky.

The minutes passed and as they crept forward, the cadets got close enough to properly see the statues.

’God, they are huge.’ Cedric thought as he stared at the two statues standing side by side not too far away.

Of course, he had come across them once in the game. However, seeing them now, he was not exaggerating his surprise; the statues were indeed huge.

Both were over twenty meters tall and sculpted from smooth, black obsidian. They looked like massive, obese naked humans, except, instead of two hands, they each had four hands, with the two extra ones protruding out of their backs.

And all the hands held a long spear that looked more like a pillar of sharpened iron than a regular weapon.

Cedric would be lying if he said he didn’t feel fear looking at these statues, which could simply raise a leg and crush him like a bug. But despite that fear, he managed to stay calm. Lately, he had been working privately on his anxiety and trying to remain level-headed in all scenarios.

Many of the other cadets, though, looked pale from fear. Some were gripping their weapons so tightly that their knuckles were white, while others kept glancing up at the obsidian giants with wide, darting eyes.

Then all of a sudden, one of the statues moved. It straightened properly, turned right, and took a heavy step, followed by another, before freezing again.

During the time it had moved, all the cadets had immediately stopped in their tracks, holding their breath as if even a single heartbeat might be too loud. They stood like statues themselves, frozen in whatever awkward positions they had been in when the obsidian giant shifted.

A few tense seconds passed, and then... the cadets breathed a collective sigh of relief and slowly began to relax their rigid postures.

Even Aurora relaxed and reached for her whisper-script.

However, while they were moving again, the statue suddenly turned its head towards the cadets.

Instantly, everyone hurriedly tried to freeze back into place, hoping they hadn’t been fully spotted. But it was too late for some people. The obsidian giant’s neck creaked with the sound of grinding stone, and its featureless face seemed to lock onto all the cadets.

People began to pray that they had not been caught. Even Cedric prayed too because he had also moved during that brief moment.

’Shit. Hope I’ve not been caught.’

In the next instant, the statue hunched its back and began moving toward the cadets.

Cedric swallowed.

He could hear a cadet beside him suddenly curse in a really low whisper. "Shit."

The blue-haired boy was stuck in the most awkward position. He had been forced to freeze mid-stride with one foot hovering just inches above the ground and his body was tilted forward at an angle that was impossible to maintain for long.

Cedric watched out of the corner of his eye as the boy’s face turned a deep shade of red, and sweat beaded his entire face.

’Hold on, man. Or you are going to die. That’s if you have not been caught already. Wait... why am I thinking of someone else. What if I have been caught?!’

The massive statue stopped in front of the group, then it crouched really low and remained in that spot as if it were studying the cadets.

Nobody moved.

And everybody prayed that they had not been caught.

The seconds ticked on in tensed, heated silence.

Then, the statue slowly straightened.

At first, it didn’t do anything and just remained standing. But right when nobody expected, it suddenly raised his hand and brought its spear down on a cadet.

The spear struck the cadet and pinned her to the paved ground. Her torso was completely crushed with her insides smeared on the ground.

But the statue didn’t stop there. It raised all its hands simultaneously, then brought them down on cadets, killing more one after, another.

Those that were not yet killed couldn’t move... or breathe. They just remained frozen in horror and prayers.

Magic was pointless against the stone statue, and since it was as tall as a six story building, fighting it was out of the question, so everyone just remained frozen.

Unfortunately, due to the impacts of the spear on the paved ground, the blue-haired cadet some meters beside Cedric finally tipped over. The moment he fell, he scrambled backward in a panic, and his voice cracked as he screamed, "No, no, fuck!"

He pushed off the floor and began running, only for the statue to raise its foot and stomp him. The sound was like a heavy slab of granite hitting the earth.

When the statue lifted its foot to return to its stance, nothing was left of the boy but a flattened mess of blue hair and broken armor pressed into the stone.