Vale had heard rumors of such an ability existing. In fact, one of the people his shitty father put away was able to turn himself practically invisible through…

'Light refraction…'

'That's what shitbag called it, right?'

'How does that even work on me?! I thought my vision would be unaffected in the dungeon?'

Vale shoved his whip into the Nexus of Beginnings and took up his sword once again.

The Chamelon Warrior, which had been lashed twice now, seemed to give up its stealthy desires entirely and took up a stance opposite to Vale.

Vale was confident, or more so, sure he'd be able to decimate his foe… but that only applied to a one-on-one fight. Vale's weakness in one-versus-many fights was exposed when he faced the frog people – a weakness he still possessed in spite of his tireless training.

Even with the Warrior with him, the hand-to-hand combat fighter, they were still at a disadvantage.

[Your Warrior, Lulu, has been slain by a challenger]

[+5 Aether]

'Seriously?!'

He wasn't even allowed that.

Another chameleon had appeared from invisibility behind his Warrior and assassinated them with a hidden knife made of bone before once again fading into the background, letting the corpse of his soldier crumble to the ground and sink into it…

Vale continuously listened to the dreadful melody in his head and felt an influx of Aether being absorbed into the dungeon. As he did, the bloodied reptile charged at Vale, revealing a bone knife it had been hiding in its furled tail.

As much as Vale wanted to punish this idiotic attack, he knew it was bait. There were still the other three foes undetected, and potentially more. Sure, they could have marched past him and gone for the core. But, these things were somewhat intelligent, or at least had enough instinct to recognize Vale as the Master of the Dungeon. They didn't need to make it all the way to the core if they killed the master.

Vale jumped to the side just in time to dodge one of the chameleon's assassination attacks. Then, he focused his Aether into his legs and kicked off the ground, jumping over the charging one.

As he rose, the first chameleon ran under him. Vale placed a foot on its shoulder and kicked it down into the ground while also guiding his flight just enough to dodge the attack launched by the third chameleon on the wall.

Vale had managed to dodge all of the attacks, but it wasn't done with grace.

Vale's large body flew through the air, and he landed on his shoulder, audibly popping some bones out of place.

Perhaps because he was an aether construct, or maybe it was because of the adrenaline, but he didn't feel it; he only heard it.

Or maybe it was something else…

Vale rolled and shot to his feet just in time to face the bloodied chameleon who once again stood alone facing him, the other two either fled further in, or they dissolved into the background.

Vale smiled and surveyed the chameleon as it stepped closer once again…

While he would have loved to go on the offensive, he didn't want to charge into a losing battle. His best chance was to trust Awilix to guard the core and for Ximena to deal with whatever threat was at the entrance, then help him.

With that in mind…

Vale jumped away as the bloodied chameleon began charging again.

'That damned orb…'

Vale wasn't dumb; in fact, he was brilliant for an autodidact.

He knew that the beasts were not going invisible per se, but that their bodies were bending the light from the orb and hiding them. How exactly was Vale, who could see fine in the dungeon, affected? He didn't entirely understand that part.

Either way, his goal was to buy time while possibly taking care of the orb.

Vale reinforced his legs with Aether and once again launched into the air just in time to dodge a strike aimed at his nape. Then, as he flew toward the nearby wall, he kicked off of it to the other side of the corridor and aimed a sword strike at a misshapen part of the wall.

'Gotcha…'

[You have slain Nascent Chameleon Warrior]

[+5 Aether]

Stalling didn't necessarily mean he had to be passive, of course…

His sword slid into the rock, which was actually the body of a chameleon, and sank deep into its back. A euphoric sensation coursed through his body as he watched the corpse of his victim spasm and the flicker of life extinguish from its aloof eyes.

Vale fell to the ground and shook his foe from his blade and rolled away as two more of the beasts collapsed and struck where he once was, plunging their bone knives into their brethren's corpse as it sank into the dungeon ground.

Even if its body was disappearing, the savage beasts cared not that they'd just mutilated their comrade's body…

Vale laughed internally, then joked aloud as he watched the whipped one face him again and numerous other ones blend back into the shadows.

"No class. No decorum. Don't you know where you are?"

'How many are there now?'

Vale had no clue. All he knew was…

'Too many.'

Vale stared at the orb on the ground, a little behind the bloodied chameleon, and began a mad dash toward it. Just when he was about to reach his foe, he jumped back and slung a strike to his right.

His momentum was stopped as his attack slammed into the bone knife of one of his assailants, who'd been cloaked nearby. However, the force behind the attack was so strong that it smashed the little reptile against the labyrinth wall.

As Vale jumped away and took a stance once again, he watched as the chameleon disappeared. He tried to gauge his opponents' numbers, but it was fruitless when most of them were invisible.

[Affiliated Awilix has slain Nascent Chamelon Warrior]

[Aether +5]

'Shit!'

It seemed at least one had decided to push past Vale and make for the core.

This situation was desperately terrible…

'So why do I feel like this!'

Vale's blood was pumping, and he was raring to go.

"This is how I like it! Hard and rough!"

Simultaneously, four chameleons revealed themselves from their stealth and attacked Vale from all angles. Vale, despite its resource consumption, engaged the bracer armor and let it cover his body once again. Once the gold plate covered his form, he just let the frail bone knives clash into it.

Two of the knives shattered against the plate, while the other two were just sent flying from his attackers' grips.

But, even if now weaponsless, Vale was cornered with barely enough room to swing his sword.

A slight chill wafted through the room as Vale smiled and lunged toward his unwelcomed guests.

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