The wolf spiders would then wrap their dying prey and took them to the far sides of the great hall. There were some wolf spiders who were not able to choose the proper victims.
When some of the wolf spiders tried to wrap an injured fire salamander or a crested newt that still had some fight in it, the wolf spiders got bitten with sharp teeth instead.
The gnawed on wolf spiders were eaten by the larger monsters. Smoke took notice of everything that was happening below him.
He thought that he should take a page from the wolf spider, but made sure to kill his targeted monster. He took out his powersaw bow and looked for any crested newts or fire salamanders with less than 15% left on their lifebars.
With his target chosen, Smoke released 8 poison arrows and killed the crested salamander. He received a significantly lesser amount of experience, but he knew that this process would still net him a higher amount of total experience.
The crested newts and fire salamanders kept on attacking each other, and did not notice the poison arrows that were fired from above them.
However, the wolf spiders were aware of the intruder who kept on killing their precious meals. The wolf spiders preferred their prey to be alive before they wrap them up in their sticky spider web.
The wolf spiders started to scale the pillars and went after Smoke.
"Igniz! Quickly, cover the entire ceiling with your flames."
Spiritedly, Smoke's symbiote flew around him in a circular motion, and started to cover the ceiling with fire. The intense heat blocked the wolf spider's path, and the monsters were not able to go near the DarkElf.
Smoke used his powersaw bow, and attacked the wolf spiders on top of the pillars. He aimed two of his arrows on the wolf spider's front legs, and his third arrow on one of the monster's eyes.
The damage from the first two arrows made the wolf spider lose its balance, and the last shot to the head knocked the creature down. The drop from 40 meters dealt a substantial amount of damage.
Some of the fallen wolf spiders died while others were eaten by either the fire salamanders or the crested newts.
There were 50 wolf spiders left on top of the ceiling, and Smoke dealt with each one of them with the same three arrow technique.
After he finished all of the wall climbing monsters. Smoke resumed his attention on the beasts below. There were 280 wolf spiders, 175 fire salamanders, and 189 crested newts left.
The wolf spiders only targeted the dying monsters and left the monsters that Smoke killed alone.
Smoke happily spent the next hour dangling on the ceiling. His free ride on attacking the monsters ended because all 4,000 of his arrows were now on the ground below him.
The wolf spiders had gathered enough of the wrapped up fire salamanders and crested newts, and went on to one of the tunnels.
There were only 179 monsters left on the ground fighting. The fire salamanders finally had an upper hand with 96 of their kind left while the crested newts had 83.
These surviving monsters only had less than 20% on their lifebars. Smoke released the metal anchors that held his harness. He leapt from the roof and glided down using his hooded cloak.
The smaller area of the previous tunnels impeded him from using his most destructive weapon. In mid-air he equipped his deadly Rzeka glaive.
THUD!
He made a Stunning Landing attack behind the the group of fire salamanders, and went after their heads.
Smoke killed one of the fire salamanders as he severed the monster's head when he landed. The fire salamanders on the back heard the loud sound and faced him.
He used his own special attack called the Mountain Split, and repelled the six fire salamanders that were about to run up to him.
With some distance between him and the six fire salamanders Smoke switched weapons and used the bullwhip. He chose the monster with the lowest life and held him captive with the electrically charged whip.
He plunged the end of the whip into one of the Corinthian pillars and electrocuted the fire salamander to its death. He switched back to his Rzeka glaive and went after the five monsters that were facing him.
The rest of the fire salamanders were still busy fighting the crested newts in front of them. Smoke chose the two fire salamanders on the right and leapt over them.
Using his Mountain Split ability, Smoke divided the fire salamander's skull in half and killed it. He then proceeded to swing his Rzeka glaive and lopped off the second fire salamander's front legs.
After they saw what the DarkElf did to their kind, the three fire salamanders hesitated. They began to fear him. Smoke smirked. He was proud of himself. He had instilled fear into these monsters.
Smoke used a horizontal Mountain Split and attacked the ten fire salamander that were facing the crested newts.
When the monsters turned their backs to face him. Smoke swung his Rzeka glaive and slashed the throats of the three fire salamanders that were near him.
The monster's blood gushed out from their throats and all three fire salamanders died. The ten fire salamanders who had just seen Smoke were shocked at the sight at the death of their fellow fire salamander.
Smoke used this opportunity, and he performed a 360 degree turn and and swung his Rzeka glaive once more. He repeated this cleaving motion for a third time and finally killed three fire salamanders out of ten.
The DarkElf removed the electrically enhanced bullwhip from the dead fire salamander. He cracked the whip on a new flame beast. The monster cried out in pain as the tip of the whip stung the monster's eye.
An hour passed, and Smoke had started to thin out the numbers of the fire salamanders. He stopped attacking the outnumbered creatures, and climbed up one of the pillars.
From the ceiling he crossed the area where the fire salamanders and the crested newts were fighting below him.
When he was directly above the last line of crested newts, he leapt off and glided downwards until he was in range, and performed his Stunning Landing attack against them.
In the same manner as the he attacked the fire salamanders, Smoke used a horizontal Mountain Split attack and pushed the crested newts backward.
He fluidly switched weapons, and took out his bullwhip. He got a hold on one of the crested newts. When the beast was captured, he was amazed to see the damage from the electric jolts that the whip was inflicting on the crested newt.
As Smoke had witnessed, the crested newts were weak against electric attacks. He struck the tip of the bullwhip on the floor and trapped the crested newt to its death.
He climbed up the Corinthian pillars and stopped when he reached the ceiling. He attached his harness onto the ceiling, and took out his Rzeka glaive and electro stone. He started to sharpen his glaive with the elemental stone.
After he finished enhancing his glaive. He stowed the electro stone, detached the harness, and dove downwards with another Stunning Landing.
Igniz created a firewall after the tenth crested newt. The firewall gave no damage to the monsters, but he felt that he needed to do something in order to help Smoke out.
As ineffective as the firewall was at damaging the monsters, it did serve a purpose. It became a fiery screen which blocked the view of the other crested newts.
With the enhanced damaged from the electro stone, Smoke massacred ten crested newts with his Rzeka glaive, in under twenty minutes.
Smoke maximized the bullwhip's potential and kept on catching one crested newt to its death. He pulled out the bullwhip and searched for its next victim.
Igniz floated closely near Smoke as he got ready to take on his next batch of crested newts.
"Good job creating this firewall. Now, can you cancel it out? I need a new batch of monsters. Next, place a new firewall after the fifteenth crested newt."
The dark ember sprite obeyed. The firewall blocked the crested newts view and forced them to turn around. Smoke greeted the bewildered monsters with his cleaving attacks.
Forty minutes later, and Smoke climbed up the pillar again. He went to the other side, and attacked the fire salamanders.
It was a tedious strategy, but it was the only way he thought of that could wipe out more than 400 monsters by himself.
Six hours passed. He was left with twelve fire salamanders and eleven crested newts. The two species of monsters stopped fighting against each other, and faced the lone threat that was bent on killing both of their kind.
Smoke was panting hard, but a grin was clearly visible on his face. He made a strategically retreat upwards and rested above the monsters, with his harness attached to the ceiling.
The crested newts and fire salamanders remained focused on the dangling DarkElf. Smoke activated his necklace, Heart of Reente. His life rejuvenated rapidly.
Five minutes later and his health was fully recovered. He leapt off the ceiling and dove head first with his Rzeka glaive pointed at the ground.
He performed a Mountain Split attack and blew away the gathered monsters below him. The strong attack caused a cloud of dust to rise.
This gave Smoke cover as the visibility inside the dust was nil. He relied on his Cunning of the Dire Fox to locate and attack the hidden monsters within the dust.
The monsters tried to slash at anything that was in front of them, but all they managed to hit was either a fire salamander or a crested newt.
As the cloud of dust settled. Only seven monsters were left. Three fire salamanders and four crested newts growled at the glaive wielding DarkElf.
With only seven monsters remaining, Smoke thought to brawl with the monsters head on. He lifted his Rzeka glaive over his shoulders and swung it horizontally.
Four monsters were blown away from Smoke's attack. He focused his attention on one monster. He switched weapons and took out his bullwhip. He captured one of the crested newts with the whip.
Next, he switched back to his Rzeka glaive. He held his glaive like a spear with the sharp edge pointing upward.
The targeted crested newt lifted its right front leg and scratched Smoke's chest plate. He was damaged for 3,200 points.
Smoke braved the damage, and positioned his glaive under the crested monster's belly. In an upward motion, he sliced the crested newt in half.
With the five monsters remaining, Smoke decided to repeatedly use the Stunning Landing attack against them.
He used the long length of his Rzeka glaive as a pole vault, and with tricky precision he unequipped his glaive at the maximum point of his jump.
The force propelled him upward into the air, and with the help of his hooded cloak he gained some altitude by soaring upwards.
After Smoke turned around in midair, he re-equipped his Rzeka glaive which increased his velocity downwards.
Smoke's Stunning Landing immobilized two of the the monsters. He slashed the monsters a few times before he flew up into the air once more.
He repeated the process until the captured crested newt was killed by the bullwhip. He removed the bullwhip from the place where it held the monster. He unequipped his glaive and captured a different crested newt.
Twenty minutes later, Smoke had officially cleared out one of the many great halls of Zuchthaus Labyrinth.
He gained one level from cleaning out all the monsters inside the great hall.
Fervently, Smoke gathered all 4,000 of his arrows on the ground, next he collected the loot that came from the dead beasts.
White spider silk, gold spider silk, salamander meat, newt scales, and various item drops from the dead monsters.
* * * * * *
Smoke had been stuck in the labyrinth for more than a day. Yet, he still hadn't seen any of his old markings.
The map on his Beggar's tablet only became larger and larger. He completely had no idea what the shape of this labyrinth was.
He had passed through similar chambers and had gone to solve similar jigsaw puzzles. It felt like everything he was doing was repetitive.
Not until he reached another great hall. However, this time the monsters were almost double the amount from the previous great hall.
Smoke positioned himself on top of the ceiling. He was psyched up to gain another level. As he started to pick off the dying monsters, a young man came running out form one of the tunnels.
The youth had black hair and fair skin. His black leather armor reminded Smoke of the armor that James Jackal and Howard Hide gave him.
The mysterious youth looked back at the tunnel where he came from, and sprinted faster into the throng of fighting fire salamanders and crested newts.
