Book 2 Chapter 37: Ancient Evil, Part One

Isolde

"The dungeon core is in the water. Somebody take Nochi and get the core," the giant yelled. "Once it's inactivated, we win."

"Technically, it's an Arena core," someone behind Isolde said.

"I'm going!" the spearman shouted back, starting to undress. His torso had small ridges, like fins, and his hands membranes between the fingers.

"Who's Nochi?" Isolde asked Gurt.

"She's Nochi," the woman pointed out, at a petite, very slim, and cute girl wearing a pair of thick glasses with thin lines of letters, or whatever characters, running in every direction. "She's a Savant. Only she and the Sage who stayed behind can properly extract cores. It's a delicate business."

"Hurry!" the giant yelled.

"Grab me tightly!" the spearman said to the girl.

Nochi nodded and jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. The man executed a Dash and landed directly in the water, sinking and swimming with great speed, in a downward oblique trajectory.

Far away, a new assault approached from the sides of the colony, and this time, the attackers were not harghuz. From all the possible enemies she expected to meet on a battlefield, dinosaurs were the last. Huge T-rexes on the ground, and flying lizards covered in feathers and with six-foot-long beaks in the air, about a hundred of each kind. The worst part was they carried lizardmen riders. The ones on the ground had lances, and the aerial ones bows.

"Kobolds!" Gurt yelled.

"Kobolds? Really? Our kobolds are a sort of little folks who—"

"Fascinating, but maybe we can talk lore later? Can you take me up?" the archer asked Isolde.

"Like on my back?"

"Yes, on your back, duh! If I wanted a throw, there are better people for that."

"I can try. Does anyone have a gun? I can shoot too."

"Bullets won't even scratch them," the archer said. "Their mortal enemies are the dwarves, who use guns extensively. Kobolds tattoo themselves with bulletproof enchantments. Just get me up."

"Come back when they start firing," Gurt said.

Isolde nodded, stretching her wings upward to allow the archer to get a grip. She took flight, ascending in a spiral pattern until they reached the same altitude as the incoming foes, about six hundred feet.

"Can you fly horizontally, parallel to the ground?" the archer asked. She had changed her previous bow for a more compact one, with real arrows.

"I'm trying," Isolde heaved. Having somebody on her back was awkward, even if her flying abilities relied more on magic than on real aerodynamics.

Pulling the string back, the woman released an arrow. The missile was thin and long. Spinning as it arched up, it passed close to a flyer, who veered to the right, before falling directly onto a T-rex and obliterating both rider and mount.

"Were you lucky, or did you aim at it in the first place?" Isolde asked, struggling to keep up.

"Aimed. The fliers are irrelevant," the archer said, nocking and releasing a second arrow. Another T-rex exploded.

Seeing how easily the monsters were dispatched sent a wave of envy into Isolde. She struggled to hover, to offer the archer a stable platform. Ten more arrows followed, bringing the total of kills to a dozen. From a hundred T-Rexes, just a little over half remained, some having been slain by Volwodyn.

The flying dinosaurs arrived at the shooting range and started returning fire. Isolde's Aura blocked a few arrows, but she felt the drain on her Mana.

"Come back. Now!" Gurt yelled.

"Just a few more," the archer yelled back.

"Now!" Gurt screamed.

Isolde followed the Guardian's orders. She turned and descended. The archer shot a couple more dinosaurs on their way down.

On the ground, too many things were happening for Isolde to count. It looked like chaos, but somehow seemed to work. Force fields parried the hail of arrows, while the half-giant had entered a state of frenzy, sweeping his axe, each swing leaving eight-foot-deep channels in the earth and a bisected T-rex. Fireballs and lightning bolts were flying all over, as powerful as artillery. Earth spikes shot up, impaling mounts and riders. Five mages arranged in a circle channeled a spell, with the Monk in their middle. A stream of blue energy flowed into him, glowing brighter by the second. Finally, he stretched his gloves upward. Lightning ran from each spike on his knuckles to the other. The next second, a net of electricity shot up and zapped all the pterodactyls, turning them to flakes of ash that began to rain down slowly.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

When half the distance remained, Isolde's eyes noticed something in the sea. The spearman swam toward the shore, as fast as he could, shouting things that no one heard, because everyone was looking the other way. Nochi was barely holding on to his neck. Behind them, in an area maybe a couple thousand feet wide, the water color had changed from emerald and turquoise to a sickly green, with countless white blobs floating inside. And it was following.

"Help!" Nochi screamed, the sound barely reaching Isolde's ears.

No one among those on the ground turned; it was obvious they couldn't see the change in the water because they were busy with the remaining T-rexes. The spearman reached the shore, the water only to his knees, when a green filament shot from behind, coiling itself around his ankles. Nochi screamed in panic, and only then did some of the champions turn their head. The filament pulled. Pain painted the man's face. He grabbed Nochi in his right hand, and with a last effort, threw the girl in the air, like a spear. She took off, flailing her arms; her mouth and eyes widened in surprise. Then, the spearman was pulled under, and the green water advanced. The girl's trajectory was all but sure to land back in the living water.

Evolved Mega Slime, Legendary Boss, was the tag flashing in front of Isolde's eyes.

There was no time to think. Isolde cast Battle Rezz on the archer on her back, then executed an abrupt halt, like a hose that wanted to get rid of its rider.

"What are you doooooiiiing!" the archer screamed as she fell.

Ignoring her and the crashing sound that followed, Isolde activated True Road, diving with her wings pulled back. The ability didn't teleport her instantly to the place she aimed; instead, it was more like Warped Road, accelerating her at such a high rate that the world around her seemed to slow down. Nochi's befuddled face got closer and closer, and at the precise moment her trajectory stopped at its highest point, Isolde wrapped her arms around the girl's midriff.

Their heads collided, dazing Isolde so hard she started to see double, the image flickering. Closing her eyes, she spread her wings, leaning back. Pain ensued, the feeling that her wings were torn from her. Then, they climbed, and the True Road ended.

Below, only a couple dozen T-rexes remained, scattered around; many were held at bay by Gurt, who was doing miracles with her shield, blocking the riders' spear attacks and even headbutts from the dinosaurs. Some foes were trying to get around, obliging the half-giant and the Monk to run here and there, as needed. Everyone else looked low on Mana, some managing to put up a few force fields. The archer was back on her feet, in shock, with someone helping her stand. She gestured forcefully, finally prompting the champions to turn their heads toward the sea.

"Slime Boss!" somebody screamed.

"Retreat!" Gurt yelled after throwing a glance at the new menace.

The slime pulled itself from the sea and advanced. A skeleton emerged from the green ooze, and it was not hard to guess its identity because it held a spear in its hands. Before it attacked, the half-giant slammed his axe down with the flat side, crushing it into bits of bone.

"I'm sorry, my friend," the champion shouted, tears flowing down his cheeks.

A new wave of harghuz chose that moment to launch another attack, and this time their numbers were impossible to count. Thousands? Tens of thousands? More? It was as if the colony had decided to go after them. Isolde landed, handed the girl to someone else, then activated her Aura to stop the incoming mimics from confusing the withdrawing champions.

Noticing their disguises were moot, the monsters faltered and stopped. The kobolds and their mounts continued, but more prudently, following the champions' group. Everybody sped up, their retreat turning into a jog, with Gurt, the half-giant, and the Monk rotating as the rear guard.

It went well, for a while, gaining on their pursuers. Until they discovered the Boss had bent itself around a mound, trying to surround the group with a giant pseudopod. A healer and one of the shield users were pulled in before they noticed, screaming only for two seconds before their voices drowned in gurgles, and their bodies dissolved.

The archer, coming to her senses, stopped them from being submerged, shooting a few explosive arrows that destroyed the extension. The ooze shrieked in pain, then a few hundred harghuz jumped into it, and the lost mass was restored in no time, the mimics returning as weird skeletons, with no thorax, their bones made of a rubbery substance.

"Activating Ultimate, Canyon," a woman armed with a staff yelled, slamming her weapon's end into the ground.

Everything around blurred and twisted. A crescent-like crack appeared in the ground, expanding to the left and right as far as Isolde could see, and deepening with each second. T-Rexes and harghuz fell into it, and those who didn't were pushed by the half-giant and Gurt. When the earth ceased trembling, a half-mile-wide precipice stood between them and the incoming horde. That didn't stop the Slime, which plunged into the gap, unabated.

"We can't win this fight. To the portal, use your skills," Gurt yelled, pointing at the ooze, whose substance was almost inside the canyon. "I'll try to taunt it away."

"It was an honor fighting alongside you," the half-giant shouted and bowed deeply.

He turned and ran, his strides covering a hundred feet at a time. A few champions activated their own transportation skills, with some taking others along. Gurt let out a loud shout, speaking words in an unknown language. Two pseudopods hundreds of feet tall shot up, then descended toward the Guardian. There was little doubt she was going to be crushed, so Isolde used her common sense. She grabbed the woman under her armpits and took flight, activating her True Road again. Her Mana was almost gone; the speed was much slower, and her Aura flickered out by itself.

"Thanks for the save," Gurt said. "I didn't see that coming!"