Elyenora and co had been waiting for over an hour and a half already, closing in on two hours. Their worry had been way too apparent at this stage, for a fight to last two whole hours would be a miracle in any form of fighting between two individuals, and that worry only grew worse once a shock wave came from the sphere holding Mon’Ter’s pocket dimension together. Said shock wave had enough force to even knock them back a few steps.
"What the hell?!" Samuel said, widening his eyes at the sphere.
"Just what was that?" Namir questioned along, unsure whether to think of it as a good or a bad thing.
"Did this happen at all last time?" Lanos quizzed for his own experience from the first floor guardian he’d vanquished.
"No, this is surely new," Sereia stepped back once more, a cold sweat running down her face, she worried enough for her legs to start shaking in anxiety.
"We should all get back a bit," Elyenora cautioned. She clenched he
As the party neared the end of the staircase, a rocky surface greeted them at the bottom. The air felt thick, with a musty scent, almost like a fetid tomb. They could finally feel a sense of warmth down here. The humidity of the area was apparent, and there was a weak smell surfacing too, like mold and decay. Past the end of the staircase, a straight cavern with a pathway leading to what looked to be daylight on the outside had been revealed."Sunlight?" Elyenora quizzed."Doubt it," Lanos interjected, "probably some more artificial light sources, let's go check it out before our rest."The group ventured down the pathway, which was flanked by large crystalline stalagmites glowing with a faint white light. The path sloped downwards gradually, but upon reaching the bottom of a small descent, what greeted the group was a rather stunning sight."Is that..." Sereia mumbled, her lips slowly curling up into a smile."A jungle?" Samuel raised a brow. "Und
Everyone stood on edge as they made their way closer to the cave's exit, it had been their sole protector from the poisonous jungle ahead of them for the past ten hours or so. With their camp equipment all stored up back in the princess' ring, they were ready for an attempt. Elyenora turned to each of her companions, looking at them one at a time. She took a breath of the still fresh air sitting in the cave, then readied herself for the outside. "Alright then, here goes nothing..." With a wave of her rapier, she began gathering whatever wind there was in the surroundings, granted, not much, but a decent amount for an underground world. "Namir! Do your thing!" she shouted whilst spinning her hand in a circular motion, with the blade raised high and weaving air like thread. "Aye! Aye!" Namir nodded with his hands crossed in an X formation, he grinned widely as hurricane winds began to bubble up amidst the magical energy surrounding the environment. Each
The throngs of winged creatures circled above like a plague of grasshoppers. Their heads were round and yellow, their beady eyes small and cast the brightest of glows, like the fire in a blazing torch, their eyes glowed red like wards of a devil.It was a flock of harpies, enormous and menacing. They glided through the treetops like a hurricane of feathers. Their crowns of green, black, and white feathers drew in the light as if they were part of the sun itself. With their beaks, claws, and armored talons pointed down at the ground. Fringed wings and leathery skin replaced their human arms and hands with talons covered in razor sharp feathers. These harpies do not speak, their language is a deafening cry to the prey they relish.And now, as it seemed, they had taken an interest in the windy sphere below them. As well as the creatures moving within it, our party."Danger birds is definitely a good synonym..." Samuel grimaced in reply to Mon'Ter's previous comment
Total utter silence.Mon'Ter didn't dare to croak as much as to speak in this situation. His eye stood wide open as a bead of cold sweat started gently streaming down the side of his cheek. He balled his hand into a fist, suppressing the urge to bite his own lip in an effort of self calming."Well," the feminine voice spoke again, digging its nail further into Mon'Ter's neck. The blood started spurting out like a fountain and painting the chimera's white mane in crimson. She continued. "Your answer? Little man?"He stood almost petrified, without taking a single breath or doing anything to stop his bleeding. It wouldn't stop on its own either, there didn't seem to be any innate regeneration happening at this moment. Instead, a searing pain crept all across his upper body, as the place where the unknown enemy’s nail had dug itself melted into mush.Mon'Ter quickly opened his left eye to reveal an auburn brown colored iris, the griffon's eye. 'If I mo
The Runes which Samuel drew glowed with a bluish luminosity, creating a gate right in front of the two warriors who readily rushed through. Sereia and Lanos hopped out of the other end, just a hundred meters above the Harpy Queen, as they readied their individual attacks.Of course, she noticed them first and looked up at them. "Hoh? Trying to take the height from me? Fools."Her wings expanded as her grin erased any beauty she might have possessed prior to the smile. It was ominous, bringing fear to even the most hardened of warriors with just a glance. But despite that horrific look on her visage, a sudden surprise took her off guard and ruined her advance."Huh?" the harpy queen took her gaze to the side, where yet another portal had manifested itself."This is all on you, Sereia!" Samuel bellowed from underneath, having created two portals on each side of the Harpy queen. The last set of runes he'd written activated and formed a torrent of water that
“Unforgivable...” Mumbles amidst ashes sounded, the jungle trees nearby burned down to nothing, crumbling as if made from sand. The surroundings all darkened, becoming a murky black color which liquified everything as if turning it to ink. “Unforgivable!” the harpy queen roared into the distance. “Do they dare?! Do these vermin dare?!” her throat almost ached from her screeching. “Do they dare fling me away like that?! I’ll have their intestines paint my canopies!” Her saliva dripped down from her razor filled maw, her breathing ragged from pure anger rather than exhaustion, and her nails grew out to the length of a foot long in a matter of moments. “They’ll pay for this... All six of them will perish on this floor if it’s the last thing I do...!” As she seethed, her dark pupils began to emanate with more and more black light. It pulsated, slowly shimmering as the boiling oil over her wings began to expand to her body, covering her skin down to the so
As the noble lady knight walked to the front of her friends, her eyes not moving an inch away from those of their foe, Elyenora couldn’t help but stare at her comrade and mumbled.“Sereia… That’s…” her eyes widened as brutal memories from not too long ago came back. ‘It’s the same as that assassin girl…’In that next moment, Sereia brandished her sword and pointed it at the harpy queen, grinning with her other hand at her hip. “Alright bird brains, let’s duke it out! Me and you, one versus one!” she rested her blade onto her shoulder. “That’s my usual shtick I love, anyways.”Still taken aback, the queen mumbled in a defensive state. “...That attitude will get you killed… Little girl…”“Guess we’ll see which of us is right on their statement then?” Sereia took a stance, right leg forward, while her left leaned back
The party tended to Sereia after she’d finished her battle, Namir made sure to cast his healing magic on her too, albeit it didn’t seem to have any effect. Elyenora, on the other hand, took care of patching up the surrounding barrier. She made sure there were no holes or deformities present while Samuel simply looked over the unconscious Mon’Ter. Namir couldn’t find any way of waking him up quite yet, it appeared that the harpy queen had inflicted him with something bad, and his body was still fighting it back.“I’m sorry guys,” Namir downcast his gaze as he healed Sereia. “My healing was supposed to be useful, and yet…”Sereia looked at the child who was doing his best at getting her back to her feet. “It’s completely alright, Namir! Just let me rest up and I’ll be fine later, okay?”“Okay…” he stood up and went to walk around in their tiny safe area.