“We should head back to Ikarius and regroup,” I said. “We need more info on what’s going on before we decide to do anything.”
“Oh,” Freya said, sounding a bit surprised. Maybe she’d expected us to charge in blindly, which was honestly what most of my plans sounded like. But this time I had to be careful about what I was doing.
“If the machine from before is not guarded, then the least we can do is see what it is before we head back to the village,” Nyx said.
That’s actually a really smart thing to do, I said, impressed.
“Why do you sound like I only say stupid things all the time?”
Well, not allll the time, I smiled.
I turned to Freya. “It’d probably be a good idea to go check out that machine the Knights were using,” I said. “What do you think?”
She laughed. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“That works out then,” I grinned.
We set off, heading back to where we’d been before. I didn’t use my super speed this time, and walked at my own pace. It wasn’t like we weren’t in a rush. The faster we did this the better, but I think we also understood the necessity to take our time to think about what was going on here, and what it could lead to. And what better to think about things than take a walk?
Although granted, it was a walk in a desert-like land under a pretty tense sun, so not the most ideal of conditions.
There was honestly only one thing that bothered me the most with what had just happened. The machine and the Seal rebound effect were worrying, but definitely not more worrying than the fact that Sage Gorias had openly said there was a big battle coming.
He’d be nonchalant about telling me only if he thought I’d find about it on my own anyway, and that meant this battle was coming up very soon, and was something I might get involved in. However, if there was going to be a battle soon I’d have expected some kind of tension to come up between the Alliances, and so far, I hadn’t really seen or heard of anything like that.
“He never said it was a battle between the Alliances, did he?” Nyx asked.
Oh, I realized. But if it isn’t a battle between them, then who’s it between?
“Hey, I have no idea. I was just pointing out that he never mentioned Alliances.”
Yeah, you have a point, I said.
My train of thought was soon cut short when the top of the tall tower peaked beyond the hot sands. We walked up to the rim of the pit, and a breeze fanned our faces, warm temperatures coating our skins. The tower stood tall from the bottom of the pit, it’s lanky structure reflecting the bright light. I glanced around for a bit but saw no one guarding the thing.
I didn’t really think that was suspicious. Rather it’s lack of security meant this tower probably had its own defense mechanisms.
“Be on alert,” I said, taking a step down the incline. “We don’t know how this thing can attack us, and we don’t want-”
A blaring sound hit the air, like an emergency alarm, and the top of the white tower turned red almost immediately.
“DUCK!” I yelled, throwing myself back up the incline, and down to the sand. A blast of energy surged above me, the heat from the attack singeing my back.
Dammit dammit dammit, I cursed as I picked myself up. I saw Freya ahead of me, her feet racing across the surface. I saw a second energy beam shoot from behind me, and the moment I caught sight of it, I could immediately tell.
It was going to hit Freya.
I stacked on my speed boosts and surged ahead, a sonic boom sounding behind me. I slid for half a second as I approached Freya, and put my arms around her, tugging her to the side. We crashed into the sand, missing the beam by a few feet. Instead, the attack crunched into the ground next to us, and all of a sudden, the sand started vibrating, as though an earthquake was happening.
I quickly stood myself up, but it was too late.
A vortex opened up a few feet ahead, and the sand around us swirled in. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to try and get myself free from the flow of sand. I took one deep breath of air just as we sunk into the vortex. I felt a thump against my back a few seconds later, and sand sprayed onto my face.
I rolled over my side, and slid down the mound of sand that had collected where I’d dropped. I looked up, seeing darkness around me. I focused a bit more, activating my Night Vision skill, and the objects around me slowly appeared within my sight. I could immediately tell we were in some kind of underground cavern, but other than that I had no clue.
I looked for Freya first and found the elven assassin lying on the floor a few feet away from me, trying to get the annoying sand out of her hair. I walked up to her. “Are you okay?” I whispered.
She nodded. “Where are we?”
“No idea,” I said. “We have to-”
A scream ruptured through the walls, echoing through the stone. I could almost feel the pain and helplessness coming from behind it, the tone sending my heart beat racing.
“Come on,” Freya stood up immediately, and strode forward, her hand hovering over her longsword.
I walked beside her, my eyes sticking to the walls around me. A small opening stood ahead of us, a dull light coming from within. I gripped Freya’s hand as we neared the entrance, and tugged her back, stopping her from going in.
“What?” she jerked her head back at me.
“Your emotions are getting the better of you,” I said. “We need to be strategic about this.”
I knew she was focused on nothing but saving the victim, but I still had to make sure everything was safe for us before we did anything. For all we knew, this was just a trap waiting to catch us.
“Zoran, we need to go in,” she argued. “Whoever is in there is being-”
Another scream echoed, this one more hurtful than the last. I could hear sobs from ahead of me, and at this point I knew we had to charge in.
I pushed forward, heading through the entrance with Freya by my side. I could see a form standing ahead of me, illuminated by a dull blue light. On first glance of the shadowy silhouette, I immediately knew what creature this was.
A Kobold.
I turned my gaze to what was in front of him, and my heart froze.
There lay a young kobold, merely a child. His hands and legs were bound around a single pillar of rock, his body squirming in horror and pain, trickles of blood flowing out the deep gashes in his chest. The older Kobold stood before him, and held an axe of sharp steel, letting it hover over the young one, teasing its life with the weapon’s edges.
I immediately recognized the scene.
This wasn't a murder.
It was a sacrifice.
***
CHAPTER SEVEN
My body movements were instinctive and on instant. My feet pushed ahead, my hand already reaching for the sword at my side.
I felt the blade vibrate as I slid it out of the sheath, letting it slice into the air before me. My fingers gripped the hilt and in the blink of an eye I’d sunk the end into the Kobold before me. The creature gasped out and collapsed immediately, the axe in its hand dropping to the floor with a thud.
Blood dripped from the sharp edge of my weapon as I slid it out of the tough hide. I walked up to the young child tethered to the pillar of rock. It was a little more than half my height, and was covered in its own blood. I looked into its eyes and used my Analyze skill on it.
DING!
Race
Earthen Kobold
Level
61
Health
310
Mana
210
Stamina
470
The small creature winced as I neared it, its eyes clenching shut, its face turning away from my presence. I ignored its restraint and slashed, sending my blade through the chains and slicing them clean. The little one dropped from the pillar, collapsing down to the ground in a jumble.
Nyx, I said, can you-
“Already on
it,” Nyx said.
A glow emerged over my hand, and a vial of red formed within it. I uncorked the potion and handed it to the young Kobold. The creature looked up at me, astonishment on its face.
“What are you doing?” it asked.
A boy, I realized. His voice was high pitched, and still childish in tone.
“It is a potion,” I said, pushing the vial closer to him. “Drink. You need it.”
He stared at my hand for a few seconds and then grabbed the vial from me. The little one quickly downed it, and let out a gasp when he had finished. I looked to his health bar and saw it move from the dangerous red zone all the way back to a full solid green.
His hands nervously touched his chest, his breathing hard, his fingers gently sliding across the skin that was no longer cut open. “That was a health potion?” he looked up to me, a sparkle of curiosity within his eyes.
Has he not heard of one before? I wondered.
“Seems like it,” Nyx said.
“Yeah, that was a health potion,” I said to the young Kobold. “A Warrior’s Restoration Potion to be specific.”
“Oh,” he said, looking at the vial, rubbing the glass with its fingers.
“What happened to you?” I asked, kneeling down next to him. “Why was that older Kobold attacking you?”
The boy flinched for a second, and I realized it wasn’t something that he might have wanted to talk about openly, but I didn’t refrain from my questioning.
“I…I’m not sure,” he said, his voice a bit shaken, his fingers sliding across his chest. “The Kobolds attacked me all of a sudden, and everything went black. When I woke up I was tied up here, and that Kobold was maiming me over and again. I don’t really get what happened. He’s one of our most respected teachers.”
“Wait, who is ‘our’?” I asked.
“The underground Kobold colony.”
I paused. “Is your colony linked to this chamber?”
“Mmm,” he nodded.
“We should probably leave this place soon then,” Freya said, already glancing through the chamber. I could only see rocks around us, but I knew it was entirely possible the colony might come up through the small tunnels in the walls.
A loud rumble rang through the chamber, rocks and dust sprinkling down from the ceiling. The young kobold froze up. “They’re here,” his eyes widened.
“What?” I asked.
A line of Kobold warriors poured out of the tunnels, all of them clad in iron armor and carrying well-sharpened weapons. I picked out one Kobold wearing a headdress made of some black metal, and inferred this one was some kind of leader.
“Nazu,” the Kobold said as he looked at the young one.
“Rosiah why is this happening?” he asked, shaken once again. “Why are you doing this to me?”
The older Kobold shot to the young one, his sword ready to strike. I surged ahead, bringing my weapon up and smacking into him with the flat of my blade. The Kobold smashed into the wall and passed right through it, crunching noises sounding as he crushed through the rock.
The rest of his cohort surged onto me, weapons high in the air, a war cry on their lips. I turned to Freya, who had armed her longsword as well. We both shifted into position, standing on either side of the young boy, keeping him away from the other Kobold.
Flurries of strikes came my way, and my hand flew through the air, trying to block every single one. I was tempted to use one of my magical Arts skills, but I knew they were explosive enough to bring this whole place down, and I’d prefer I didn’t do that.
I watched the walls through the corner of my eye, and I could see that there were more and more Kobolds entering the chamber. It wasn’t far from being too much for me to handle without using my powers.
I grit my teeth. These things are pushing my buttons, I grumbled.
“If you don’t want to use your powers to take them on, running away is the only other alternative,” Nyx said.
Run where? I asked. There isn’t an escape route in here.
“Get down the tunnel,” Nyx said.
What? I asked, fending off a few strikes that came at me.
“Zoran, we can’t hold on for too long,” Freya said, defending attacks and piercing through the Kobolds ahead. But for every Kobold that she’d struck, many more took their place, quickly pushing us to an overwhelming situation.
In the span of about thirty seconds we’d been compromised.
Ugh, I have no other choice, I realized.
“Nope, you don’t,” Nyx said, a tone of amusement in his voice.
Let’s hope I don’t bring this entire chamber down, I thought. “Freya, Nazu! Duck!” I yelled. The two looked at me in confusion and dropped to the floor instantly. I forced my inner power into my blade, and it flashed a deep blue just as I swung it in the air, creating a neat circle of light. A pressure wave blast forth, passing over their heads and surging into every Kobold standing. They all flew back, crunching through the wall like meteors piercing a wooden roof.
DING!
Congratulations! You have defeated Kobold Squadron (Lv. 121). Reward: 1,300,000 XP. Reward: Armwraps of the Kobold Warrior(x5). Reward: Stone Gauntlets of the Kobold Warrior(x7). Reward: Warriors’ Restoration Potion (x16). Reward: Wooden Arrows of the Kobold Archer (x30).
The chamber rumbled on cue and rocks fell to the ground as everything began to destabilize around us. We needed to leave, and leave fast at that.
A massive chunk of the roof suddenly broke off, flying down onto us in half a second. Freya instantly threw her hand up, summoning a shield of misty-white light, but that wasn’t enough. The ground beneath her buckled under the force, and gave away immediately.
We dropped fast, falling through the fissuring surface and into a wind tunnel that pushed us deep down. Freya quickly summoned a spell from the Wind Arts, breaking our fall just as we approached the surface beneath us.
“Ugh, that was rougher than I expected,” I mumbled as our feet touched the ground. Freya had Nazu in her arms, cushioning the young one from the fall. She put a hand to the air and summoned an orb of bright light, illuminating the sight before us.
Oddly enough, where I had expected brown sand and featureless surfaces, I found fresh green grass, adorned with flowering shrubs. There was more life down here than had been in the chamber I had fought the Kobolds in.
“What the heck is this?” Nyx asked, voicing exactly what I was going to ask him.
“Oh dear,” Nazu whispered, looking at the grass and the flowers. “This must be the forbidden chambers.”
“What?” I blinked. “What is that?”
“The Kobold elders talked of this place,” he said. “It is said to be the resting place of our colony’s greatest Shaman. He was said to-”
A howl ruptured from the darkness, interrupting his words and all of our thoughts. I immediately looked into the black, turning on my Night Vision skill and trying to see what was causing the sounds. It definitely wasn’t anything good.
All of a sudden, a spirit of phantasmic white shot towards us, its form that of a Kobold. I sensed its attacking intent and immediately put my hand out, forcing my powers into them.
The spirit stopped cold even before I attacked, freezing up like it had seen a…ghost.
“Oh, you’re so proud of that pun aren’t you?” Nyx sighed.
Shut up, I grinned.
“You,” the spirit pointed at me. “What are doing here?”
“What?” the young Kobold blinked.
“Why are you here, Phantom Lord?”
“Phantom Lord?” Nazu looked at me.
I however, focused on the spirit. Though his words seemed like he was indifferent to me, his tone showed that he cared a lot. And that’s what I’d expected. My Spirit King special ability gave me control over every single spirit in existence, so it wasn't a surprise these after-death creatures knew to behave in front of me.
“Who are you, spirit?” I asked.
It stayed silent.
“Who are you?” I asked once again, putting power into my words, compelling him to answer.
“A Kobold Shaman,” he said, restraint in his voice.
Those words validated what Nazu had told me, and that was enough for me to stay calm about this situation. I knew this creature was not going to attack us, at least not when I was still around, and so I thought of the next logical step to take.
“Do you know of a route that leads out of this place?” I asked him, putting more force into my voice this time.
His face twisted a bit as he tried to fight my power over him, but he succumbed to it quickly. “There is a route, Diablo,” he said. “Further down from here is a stream that leads you up to the upper chambers.”
“Very well,” I said, relaxing my mind, and in doing so, my hold on the spirit. It shook itself a bit, as though to completely get rid of my domain over it. I smiled to myself. That had been the first time I’d actually taken control of a spirit like that, and I had to say, it was definitely a nifty skill to have. Especially when someone saw as much death as I had.
“Go back to where you came from,” I said. “And we will not have to cross paths as enemies.”
The spirit looked at me for a moment. “I understand,” he said and moved away, fading into the black quickly.
“You could have taken him out easy if you wanted to,” Freya said. “He was like a fourth the level you are.”
“Yeah, but it was unnecessary,” I said and turned to Nazu, who was still looking at me wide-eyed.
“You’re a Phantom Lord?”
I chuckled. “Yes, I’m a Phantom Lord.”
“What’s a Phantom Lord?” he asked.
“That is a question for another time,” Freya held his hand and led him forward. The little one walked between us and we set across the grassy lawns. We’d merely walked for a few minutes when I heard the sound of water gurgling. A few steps in and I could see a clear stream sprout from the ground. It appeared it had been running under us all along, and decided to make its appearance from this spot.
The Eternal: Dragonborn - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 2) Page 7
