Huge built resembled a bear as well as big hands. Dark green fur cloak was spreading down on the ground when the warrior descended to the hole in the hill foot. Behind his back there hang a long two-handed sword made of oak-wood. He looked at the bear, sleeping peacefully in his lair and said:
“Potapych, stop pretending to sleep.”
“Nothing gets by you, does it, Crassus?” the bear sighed and looked at the old friend.
Crassus, ReiTerra’s Dense Forests Keeper, level ???
“While I was talking to Silvar I noticed strange energy in my forest,” said the wood goblin. “So, tell me.”
“It was a beetle that you have noticed,” the bear grumbled
"Wow," the warrior was surprised. "They can't leave their dungeon, can they? I don't remember how many years even."
“There appeared one, and he was undead.”
“Hm… a beetle and even undead?” the warrior frowned. “What kind of level did he come from?”
"From the first one soon of all. He was lower than the fiftieth level," Potapych answered.
“Why didn’t you kill him then?”
“He seemed strange to me,” the bear scratched his chin with his long claws. “That’s why set a spell on him and brought him to me to look closer. And you what confused me? He had no evil in him that’s why I decided to let him go and see what comes next.”
“Surprise me,” the wood goblin folded his arms in front of him.
“He freed two captives from the slave traders and they helped him after which all of them went to the cave.” Potapych showed his fangs.
“You did surprise me,” the wood goblin shook his head. “Hm…” the warrior sank on the ground and wondered. “Well, there will be the Keepers’ Council soon, so I need to train a student, that’s why I leave the beetle to your concerns. Watch him and see what he is going to do next. And by the way, why didn’t you kill the slave traders?”
“Actually, I sent the beetle to them, using the spell again, and saw what he would do,” said the brown forest defender.
"Such lazybones you are, Potapych, look at your sides you have grown," the wood goblin pinched the bear's sides.
“Gonna grow them more,” the bear waved his hand. “You just don’t prevent me.”
"Khe-khe," Crassus laughed. "Ok, I won't. But watch the forest carefully, otherwise, you won't grow to your former strength again." Having said that, the wood goblin turned into a snag immediately growing into the wall and slightly supporting the ceiling of the lair.
“I will grow,” the bear answered calmly and turned to the other side watching the forest carefully through the eyes of its inhabitants. “You will see.”
***
Helen
Helen was coming back from the surface and together with the squad, she has come out of the tunnel, leading to Kroark's lair. She had many thoughts spinning in her head, but one of the main ones was the following: "Where do I find a new healer?"
Heal was gone because of all this rubbish and no group can exist without a good priest. Hyde cheered her up, saying it was nothing wrong, but she knew – just a few from the clan would join her team.
After all, she was very bad-tempered, no matter how hard she tried to improve it. Nothing worked out. Either she didn't have patience enough, or any trifle could get her furious.
Taking a deep breath, the girl looked at the exhausted members of the squad, which were just sick and tired getting defeated by the Lord of the Underworld.
Only six people left, but they were most loyal. So, she could feel happy at least of something and she shouldn't be discouraged and let them down again.
“What are you going to do next?” Hyde asked.
“Gonna deal with our total upgrade and read the guides to find out everything about this cave,” Lintirionel answered. “I was too arrogant when I came here without preparing properly and it is very hard for me to accept my mistake, so don’t bother me, please.”
“It’s alright, don’t worry so much,” the knight waved his hand. “Mintakor means no evil to you, it’s quite the opposite.”
"I know, but I am twenty already, and the father acts as if I'm five." The girl sighed and wanted to adjust the cloak but remembered she didn't have it anymore and that fact made her angry again. "Wish I caught that beetle."
“Then you should thank him for saving one of your men, though I should thank him as well.”
“But you were killed.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Hyde said. “There is never too much gratitude.”
“I’ll thank him. And then I’ll kill him.”
“What’s there in the distance?”
“Looks like a fight,” the girl frowned. “Let’s go and see, I need to lose some steam. Guys, let’s go!”
The elf's squad got ready for the fight and coming closer they saw the fighters at last. On the one side there was quite a big squad of spikers, on the other side there were some beetles but then they could see one familiar bug.
It was him, who took her cloak. The beetle has changed a bit, but definitely, it was him. These beetles protected the little ones, so after some thinking, the girl decided to help them.
Chapter 52
The spikers attack. Unexpected help. Heavy fight.
Sel Er
The spikers attacked without warning as if they had been waiting for us at that place. This time their squad was three times bigger than ours. That was not at all good.
We made the little lads step aside, covering them. But we didn't manage to take them out of the blow since the spikers surrounded us almost from all the sides and were slowly pushing us to the iron vein.
Skal surprised me greatly as he started to form the death energy spheres and throw them at the spikers, which were hissing with pain as soon as the spheres hit them.
Mohr was waiting for something, that is why he didn't waste his energy, Mulf dissolved in the air and started to bypass the spikers from the flank. Gard and two other strong beetles were covering us in the center, the others were on the flanks.
The healer-girl suddenly used the whole set of spells and everyone felt much stronger and more enduring and many of us had their health replenished. The dwarf took out weight, the part of its chain I had destroyed with the death energy and started to knock the spirit out of the approaching enemies.
I didn't stand aside and threw some death energy charges at the nearest spikers.
Suddenly I saw rippers' squad in the tunnel direction and got scared a little at first. But then I noticed them be the two-legged from the Cascade of Stars. But the main thing was that they were heading to the spikers.
In a couple of seconds, some two-legged were hit by fireballs exploding deep in the enemy rows. The spikers became very angry, but it was really difficult to fight against the seventieth levels.
Lintirionel parried the attack of one of the beetles with the sword, and Hyde, jumping over the girl, brought a powerful blow to the enemy. The magicians used almost all their skills and tools before some of the enemies could get closer to them.
Though they didn't have time to attack them since a warrior and an archer entered the battle. These two rippers repulsed all the enemy attacks, but they were badly damaged as well, so they had to drink the healing potion.
Gard was fighting with a big spiker, who seemed to be developing similarly and they were trying to knock each other over. The Death Herald finally entered the battle and began to destroy the enemies mercilessly using some incomprehensible death spells.
Derergon showed his sword skills, fighting three enemies at once, skillfully parrying their blows and not forgetting to dodge occasionally.
There came a roar from the enemy side. Mulf appeared from nowhere and attacked the enemy leader damaging him badly, however, all the spikers rushed to him and he had nowhere to run.
I threw the last explosive ball there. A powerful explosion knocked over half a dozen enemies, but could not cause any particular damage, but this attack allowed Mulf
to make a powerful breakthrough and get out of the encirclement.
Alyona had to work harder and heal us faster as the spikers got mad and attacked us with even greater rage. First, one mercenary fell then another one and a piker broke through our row and rushed to the little lads.
“I won’t let you!” Derergon rushed to the front and was able to stop the enemy warrior, but two more came to the rescue.
Other mercenaries managed to repel the attack of the spikers and ran to their leader, but they were late. Another spiker appeared behind Derergon and struck down a whole combo of powerful blows. The mercenary’s health flashed red, but before the warrior died, he used some skill and knocked off the killer’s head.
“De-e-er!” Gard pushed a heavy spiker off and throwing away all the enemies rushed to the dead leader, to block the spikers way to the little lads.
The mercenaries regrouped and slightly pushed aside the warrior beetles, but the spikers still pressed hard, and it became very difficult for the mercenaries to fight back.
“Hyde, stay here, I’m going to help the beetles!” Helen shouted and made several rushes.
Another jump and circular blow killed two enemies and threw another three. The girl used a variety of skills and barely avoided problems by activating invulnerability.
A heavy spiker could not damage her greatly and wasted his most useful skill. Alyona updated the buff and threw a few more on Lintirionel. The paladin girl nodded in gratitude and, smiling, delivered a powerful blow with a two-handed sword.
Even despite the help of the two-legged and her squad we still got pressed hard and I didn’t know what to do. The death charges turned out to be very effective, but I have emptied the reserve twice replenishing at the expense of the dead. How long shall we be holding them back?
I wasn’t afraid, at least concerning myself, since I have already died, and I had many rebirths at my disposal. But we can’t let the little lads be killed since most of them have no rebirths at all.
Skal was fighting at his best, I couldn’t even imagine the gravedigger being so strong. Everyone was fighting, even the little ones, using the skills of their kinds.
Despite their losses, the spikers still were crushing us having killed the half of mercenaries squad. Only Gard, Mulf and Death Herald were seen here and there on the battlefield. Lintirionel's health could creep to the yellow sector even, constantly being at on the edge of orange shifting down to the red one.
But for Alyona's help, she would have died long ago, as well as all the others. I could never have thought a healer could be so important for the whole squad.
“Damn!” I saw one of the spikers broke through to the little ones. Why on earth do they need them so much?
I threw a death charge at him but could not stop him, though Rald could do this, having jumped on the spiker not letting him kill the smaller relative.
But before we could help the brave one, the warrior cut him into two pieces. Several death charges dug into this spiker's eyes and the dwarf finished the blinded enemy.
The mountain master showed himself in all his glory, throwing the enemies away with the broad hits of his improvised weapon. When I started to think we are all going to be killed, Mohr entered the battle.
He slammed his staff on the ground with such force that it even rang in the auditory organs. The dark violet wave of the death energy spread on the ground and green lights shone in many places after which the zombie-warriors began to rise. That was the turning point of our battle. It was the risen warriors that could overcome the enemy.
Chapter 53
The results of the fight. The agreement with the elf. Karataruna’s kiss.
Later we were able to breathe easy. The zombie-spikers stood around us and the rest dragged the bodies of the rippers and some mercenaries, including Derergon’s.
“That was a great fight,” the dwarf wiped away the sweat and flopped onto the ground. Then he took his bottle with orange liquid and took a couple of deep sips. “But that was hard.”
“You bet,” Alyona flopped next to him. “I and going to restore some mana and heal our men.”
"How come?" one of the mercenaries was surprised and at the same time he surprised me since I thought only Derergon and Mohr knew the language of the inhabitants of Reynea.
“Phew,” the girl gasped out took the staff firmly and having aimed it to the body of dead Rald used her skill. “That’s how.”
A white ring with ornate symbols stretching along the edge appeared around the little bug. There came a sudden flash and instead of the ring sat Rald in great surprise not understanding what was going on.
“I had three rebirths left, I died, but I still have the same amount,” the bug was bewildered. “How come?”
“I don’t know,” the girl scratched her head and asked. “What rebirths you are talking about?”
“It’s a long story,” Mohr sighed. “I’ll tell you a bit later. Do the same to the others if it is not difficult for you and I will have some rest.” The last spell seemed to exhaust the Death Herald greatly, that is why he just lay on the ground.
“I can help,” Skal said.
“Don’t bother,” Mohr shook his head. “Save your energy. You may need it later.”
“Look… Tes Sel Er,” Lintirionel addressed me. “Give me my cloak back.”
“Hm,” I looked at the exhausted mercenaries and frightened little lads and came up with something else. “Let’s do it another way.”
You offer the task “The Squad Escort!”
The goal: Accompany the squad of Derergon to the fork of the tunnels.
Additional goal: Do not let anyone else from the squad die.
Waiting for the answer…
“As soon as you do it, wait for me at that place,” I said. “Then I’ll return the cloak and discuss something more interesting with you. I will try to return quickly.”
The task accepted!
“Good,” the girl nodded without even asking where I was going.
Meanwhile, I came up to former captives and closed their tasks, almost forgot about it. They were greatly surprised at something, especially the girl, who said she hadn't expected so many experience points for such a simple task. They might have got more experience because of the battle, though it hadn't been discussed earlier.
“Mohr, I’ll be back soon, and you go back without me as soon as Alyona heals everyone,” I said and headed to the cave lake.
***
I have understood today, how strong the enemy is, that we can’t defeat it without substantial help. I am afraid all the mercenaries will not be enough for this and will be able to hire only four squads.
I thought I could involve Lintirionel by giving her another task of killing Narr Nutt, but I have to offer some award.
But I am afraid I have nothing valuable for the two-legged of so high level. Well, it’s alright, I’ll see to that. I could have kept the cloak, but I needed to have thought about it earlier, now I will have to devise something else.
Checking the map, I headed to the centipedes. I don't know how to lure them to my side, but I must try since Kroark will certainly refuse to help us because he can't leave his realm for a long time and he will hardly get along with the rippers.
I moved quite fast and even didn't feel tired, the lungs didn't want to jump out of my chest and the heart didn't beat like mad. There are some advantages to this status, though there are still more disadvantages since I can't develop anymore.
By the way, I got five hundred experience points for this battle for supporting the allies, so, all in all, I gained two thousand and four hundred with something points. That means I will be able to evolve sufficiently to become much stronger.
Step by step I didn’t feel anything special in the airless area. Inspired by the success I went straight ahead, not paying attention to oxygen sources. This time I covered this distance much faster and immediately slowed down. Even though I was already dead, I was still scared.
I had
been moving for quite a while before I noticed a shadow in the distance. Remembering that I was killed quickly, I did the only thing that occurred to me.
“Do not kill me! I’m not hostile!”
“I wouldn’t say that,” came the rustling voice of a centipede, whose head was behind me from which a chill ran through the shell.
Karataruna, The Successor of the Ancients, level 132
“I see you come to us for the second time, only this time something strange happened to you,” said the second, who was on the side where there was no one else a second ago.
Tarnaragun, Aerial Killer, level 123
“So why did you come to us?” Karataruna asked.
“I need your help,” I said, looking at my interlocutors.
That time I looked at Karataruna from a distance, she was beautiful, but looking closer I saw her being even more beautiful. I was just sinking in these big emerald eyes. But her interlocutor was interesting too.
He was slightly smaller, and his shell was not black, but dark brown, and on his back with sharp spikes, there were some holes.
Tarnaragun’s eyes looked like huge lapis lazuli and eyes whites were wrapped in sky blue. Beautiful creatures, as I have already said.
“Such an interesting guest we are having,” I could hear some surprise and joy in the voice of Aerial Killer. “He has passed through my barrier for the second time already and has come back, in spite of the fact that we have killed him.”
"I tell you more," there was something different in the voice of Karataruna, I guessed it was the interest. "In spite of the fact that we have killed him and that he is afraid of us he likes us, and he is admiring us."
“A curious beetle.”
“Very curious one.”
“So, what did you come for?” asked Tarnaragun.
“There are small bugs in our cave as well as many other types…”
"We know that get to the point," Karataruna shook her hand.
“Among the spikers there appeared the one, killing other bugs, and he almost completely destroyed the gravediggers. And recently he wanted to deal with our squad using pretty much forces. The spikers can’t disobey him, and we can’t defeat him. Help us, since we don’t have enough strength,” I said and sighed deeply.
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