To Be a Hero

As their group slowly treaded through the seemingly never-ending expanse of the underground tunnel, Rick and Delsie tensely observed their surroundings, searching for anything that looked out of place or suddenly moved.

Delsie's eyes scanned over a large pile of collapsed rocks by the side of the tunnel.

While the tunnel was large enough to drive around, something about that pile made her uneasy.

Having a good ten years of service in the military under her belt, on top of being a 2-Star, she had been through more than her fair share of life-threatening situations.

Through the gauntlet of those deadly trials, her instinct was sharpened to become something akin to a sixth sense.

But that wasn't what was ringing her mental alarm.

Instead, it was her mana art.

Mana arts were usually loosely broken into three categories: Combat, Support, and Utility.

Unlike Rick's ability to manipulate the earth, which could be classified as a support-type mana art, Delsie's Mana Art was focused on pure utility.

Its effects were reasonably straightforward, too. At least… On a surface level, that is.

Delsie's ability granted her extremely heightened senses, which generally belonged to Magical Creatures and some Unknowns, at least those that survived on land.

Through those heightened senses, she could sense minute vibrations in the rock pile that weren't caused by their van.

Her bestial senses had already saved her life in more than a couple of situations.

And right now… Those very senses were distinctively warning Delsie of danger.

She silently raised one of her chocolate-skinned hands in the air, signalling the others to stop.

Without diverting her eyes away from the rock pile, she brought her hand down. 

She soundlessly pointed to the target of her trepidation.

Rick threw Delsie a grim look, having already known her mana art's function.

Without being told what to do, he used his mana art to manipulate the surrounding earth and swiftly dispose of the rock pile.

…And hopefully, whatever it was that caused Delsie to sound the alert.

The ground rippled like a liquid as the earthen tides washed over the rock cluster as if trying to swallow it whole.

But before it could be consumed into the ground, the rock pile started to… Move.

The pile of rocks shifted, and several of these rocks sprouted several pairs of chitinous red legs and two sharp red claws.

Their appendages swiftly began to move as the rocks quickly scuttled out of the way of the earthen tide.

One or two of these creatures at the bottom of the pile weren't so lucky. They ended up getting completely swallowed by the ground before the ground once again resumed its normal, non-liquid state.

However, small cracks began to form on the surface of the ground, attesting that the swallowed creatures were certainly not yet dead.

However, Their brethren, who managed to escape, quickly started scuttling toward the light-emitting van.

The singular rock pile seemingly contained ten to twenty such creatures.

As the chitinous noise echoed through the tunnel's rocky walls, several other piles situated further in front also broke up into various clusters of similar-looking monsters.

It wasn't long before they formed a small army of eighty-strong.

As they made their way closer, the rocks lifted higher above the ground, revealing black beady eyes protruding from a head seemly connected to its red chitinous chest without any sign of a visible neck.

Long red antennae sprouted from beneath its long cylindrical eyes, with two sets of sharp chelicerae on either side of a frothing, setae-covered mouth.

Each of the crabs was around 6 feet tall, but half of that height came from their 3-foot-tall boulder-like shells. Their red chitinous bodies comprised the other 3-feet of their height, reaching up to 

"Damn… They're Rock Crabs," Rick murmured as he eyed the rapidly approach tide of moving rocks.

Rock Crabs were rare Magical Creatures, typically between Rank 1 and 2.

Most of the ones found were usually not higher than the Ogre class, with a rare few being Giants.

These creatures were known to have two primary racial abilities.

However, there wasn't much information available about them in the army's Creature Database since finding these creatures wasn't easy.

Their elusiveness was not just due to their habitat, which typically consisted of dimly lit caves, places that humans didn't normally frequent.

Instead, this was due to one of their two abilities.

One of their abilities gave them an extremely tough chitinous exoskeleton on top of their protective boulder-like shell. If the Rock Crab was a Rank-2 or higher, they could further reinforce them with mana to become even more rigid than steel.

While the other granted the Rock Crabs the ability to hide their presence and avoid leaking their mana into the surrounding air. As long as they were completely inside their boulder-like shell, that is.

Given that one of their greatest strengths was their ability to disguise themselves as normal boulders, they typically preferred to launch ambush attacks, catching their prey off-guard.

Like most arthropod-like Magical Creatures and Unknowns, Rock Crabs could enter a hibernation-like state of Diapause, allowing them to conserve energy and survive without consuming food or water for long periods.

This and their disguises made them perfect ambush hunters for their chosen habitat.

As such, most humans that encountered them more often than not died due to those surprise ambushes.

Although Delsie had pre-emptively warned the group, stripping the Rock Crabs of one of their greatest strengths, their sheer number was far too much for the two of them to handle.

In an attempt to buy those in the van to come out and assist them, he roused every last drop of mana in his core to manipulate the ground to push the tide of chitinous monsters away from them.

Beads of sweat began to form on Rick's face as his brow furrowed in concentration.

Delsie, on the other hand, grabbed a small cylindrical object strapped to her belt.

Pulling a circular pin attached to the top of the object, she hastily chucked it at the incoming swarm before she quickly closed her eyes and desperately pulled the noise-cancelling headset resting on her neck up to her ears.

"Deploying Flashbang!" 

Hearing her yell before seeing the flying cylindrical enter his view, Rick quickly stopped using his ability, shut his eyes, and cupped his ears with his hands.

(BANG)

A torrent of light and sound filled the once quiet and dark tunnel, causing the tide of Rock Crabs to fall over and convulse.

A flashbang was already disorienting for regular people, but it was far worse for creatures that lived in perpetual darkness.

The sensory overload was far too much.

Due to her mana art, Delsie would have ended up in a similar situation if it hadn't been for her specially made earmuffs.

As both the group of humans slowly reoriented themselves, the van doors opened, and the people side quickly jumped out.

All of them were fully armed and ready for battle.