She grinned. “C’mon let’s go try it.”
We headed back up the staircase, in what was becoming a very repetitive movement within the chamber. When we reached the door, I put my hand on the ice next to its hinges and tapped it with my knuckles, trying to gauge how thick it was. I couldn’t really tell much other than that it definitely wasn’t thin.
But that was also something that I’d expected since it wouldn’t be practical for a massive door like this to rest on a thin slab of ice.
“Do you think you can melt it?” Freya asked.
“We can always try,” I said. “However, if I’m going to do this you should probably step back. Just to be safe.”
She nodded.
I took a small step back as well and put my hand forward, letting it hover before the ice. I focused on the energy within me, channeling it to my needs. “Oskis!” I yelled and a burst of flames shot out of my palm and straight into the ice. The transparent solid heated up to a deep red, and my face and skin felt a gentle burn, sweat forming on my brow quickly.
But with all that heat though, I couldn’t see any water forming, and that bothered me quite a bit. What was going on?
I cut off the flames, and paused for a second. The ice before me was red hot, but not a single drop of water had been shed. I watched as it slowly lost the shade and cooled down to the transparent slab it had been before.
“Huh?” Freya blinked. “Did that ice just not melt at all?”
“Maybe it’s special,” I said, wondering if the Ulhur mountains had ice with special properties. Then again, I’d had no problems melting the ice in the previous chamber.
“It’s possible this place has multiple enchantments on it,” Nyx said. “After all, this is the door that leads to a chamber with a Dragon Clan’s sign.”
All of a sudden I heard a deep rumbling, and the staircase shook violently. I put my hand to the wall, steadying myself against it as the slabs of ice beneath me trembled. Freya latched onto my shoulder and I held her steady as the tremoring around us increased.
The massive door of rock suddenly creaked, and I realized what was going on. I immediately threw myself back, pulling Freya along with me. We fell onto the staircase, the elf in my arms, and slid down a few steps before coming to a stop.
I glanced up, just in time to see the door before us thunder open, slamming into the ice with a blazen speed. Men of dark armor and cloaks stood at the entrance, and there within their ranks, bound in chains, was a young Kobold.
Nazu, my eyes widened.
A man with a hooded cloak walked out of the group and stood before them all, a well-known familiarity about his presence.
“Well, well, well,” Jelal chuckled. “We meet again, Eternal.”
***
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Jelal,” I muttered.
“You don’t seem pleased to see me, Diablo,” the Dark Commander chuckled, amusement in his voice.
“Should have figured you were here.”
“I’m quite surprised you are here actually,” he said. “What brings you to such a discrete location?”
“You kidnapped one of my village’s citizens,” I said, annoyed. “I’m here to take him back.”
“The Kobold?” he glanced at Nazu.
“That’s right, and I’d like for you to hand him over. Now.”
He laughed. “Well, this is interesting,” he looked right at me, and his voice went deadpan. “Sorry, but that isn’t possible.”
I paused for a second, thrown back by his sudden assertiveness. “What do you want with him?” I asked.
He sighed. “I feel like you don’t understand the whole point of a silent operation,” he said. “There’d be no use to keeping it silent if I went around telling every person who asked me now would it?”
I grit my teeth. “What do you want with my friend, Jelal?” I asked, being more assertive with my tone. “Why did you kidnap him?”
He chuckled. “You know, you may be powerful, Phantom Lord. But you’re not the brightest of men.”
I thrust my palm forward. “Osulier!” I yelled, and the shadows beneath Jelal jumped up, consuming him whole.
“You’re going to have to do better,” he said and the shadowy binds around exploded, shattering to bits and dissolving instantly. He stood there as before, only now his hood had been torn clean off.
He looked at me, his pupils as red as blood, a wicked smile on his face. Jet black hair flowed down his neck, long and straight. I stepped back, unease spreading across me.
“Well, I’d have removed my hood at some point,” he chuckled. “I guess it’s fine it happened now.”
I quickly realized that the Knights standing behind him were just as uneasy as I was, and that bothered me quite a bit. If they feared him, then there was definitely something about him to be wary about.
His appearance did bother me quite a bit. One didn’t have red eyes unless there was something different about them, and the difference might not be something that was comforting to me. My eyes of course shifted to behind him, to Nazu, who was sitting atop a horse, his legs and hands bound together with chains. He had a gag around his mouth, but didn’t seem hurt otherwise. His eyes looked at me, and I could see he was fearful of everything that was happening.
I’ll get you out of this soon, I said silently.
“We need to gauge what Jelal wants first,” Nyx said.
I nodded and focused my eyes back onto the red-eyed man. “Jelal, it’s fine if you don’t want to tell me what’s going on,” I said. “Give me the Kobold and we won’t have to meet again.”
He raised an eyebrow. “And what makes you think that’s a deal worth my investment.”
“Because it’s the only one where you don’t have to end up injured.”
He froze for a second and then laughed loudly. “Gutsy, Diablo,” he said. “I have not been threatened like that in a long time now.”
“I’m giving you one chance, Jelal.”
He chuckled. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that the Dark Alliance is not here on its own,” he said. “The Black Guardians believe in what we’re doing. They will stand behind us all the way. Do you really think you are strong enough to take both groups on at once? Even you-”
“Okay, I’m done,” I shot forward, my hand reaching for Dawnbreaker immediately. I planted one foot right in front of Jelal and swung around, pulling my sword out and slashing at him in one motion. I heard some words uttered mid-strike and a grey shield of light formed between us. My Void Blade however sunk right through, cutting the layer and shattering it. Pieces of transparent light dissolved into the air and Jelal used the distraction to move away, heading to the back of his pack.
“You coward,” I muttered.
The men dressed in black shot forward, wielding their weapons as they charged at me. “Uher!” I yelled, and my dark phoenix rose out of the ground. Its black flames surged into the men, sending screams rupturing into the air and dead bodies falling to the floor.
However, with every man that fell, more seemed to take their place. I realized that the enemy forces were being quickly replenished by the backup they were receiving. More and more knights surged in from the sides, probably from a base they’d established close by.
I could see that the forces were slowly starting to reach overwhelming numbers. I summoned a few more spells, but I could only take out so many men at once without causing too much damage to the chamber we were in.
And I most certainly didn’t want to go all out.
It was too risky.
“I’ve got this,” Freya tapped my shoulder and walked before me, sliding her sword out. “You go get Jelal. I’ll handle these guys.”
I nodded, and shot forward without hesitation. These forces were around Lv. 100, which was less than half of what Freya was. It was probably unlikely she could take out all of them at once, but she could certainly hold them back for long enough.
I ran through the forces, avoiding the blades sur
ging at me. I quickly caught sight of Jelal, just as he was pulling Nazu down from the horse. He jerked around just as I shot to him, my sword pointed at his chest. He threw his hand forward, and like I’d expected, a shield appeared once again.
But he didn’t stop with just defense this time.
The moment I cracked down his layer of light, a blast of darkness shot from behind the shield, surging into me and throwing me straight up into the ceiling. I crushed through the ice, hearing it crack as my body pushed into its hard surface. My lungs puffed out as I sucked in air, and I dropped back to the ground two hundred feet beneath me. I cratered the ice on impact, and when I looked up again, Jelal was gone.
Dammit, I cursed.
I turned around and saw Freya backed against a pillar of ice, struggling to fend off the Knights who were clearly overwhelming her now. In less than a minute their numbers had effectively doubled, and that was too much for someone like her to handle for the moment. The good thing was that their backup seemed to have stopped.
I picked up my sword and shot through, cutting through some of the knights, and bunting others when I could. They pressed down on us fast, their numbers playing into their favor. I fought my way to Freya and stood by her side, facing these men.
“We need to get out of here,” I said.
“Where’s Nazu?” she asked as she took down a couple of Knights with a carefully planned arc of her blade.
“Jelal took him and disappeared,” I said, using one of my Fire Arts Spells and cutting through a line of Knights.
“Teleportation?” she asked.
“Possible.”
“Fine,” she said, pushing a row of knights back a few yards. “Let’s get out of here. We have a kobold to find.”
We shot forward, but not even ten seconds had passed when a shudder passed through my spine, and I immediately froze, even though there were a barrage of knights charging after us.
“Zoran!” Freya yelled from ahead of me. “Let’s go!”
I thrust my hand in her direction. “Oskis!” I yelled. A blast of fire shot out and she immediately ducked. However, the attack didn’t even reach her. It cut off halfway through, as though something was blocking it.
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the air, and the air around us folded, revealing Jelal and a bound Nazu hidden within.
“Dammit,” the red-eyed leader cursed, in what was his first display of annoyance. “Did not think you would find me that easily, Diablo.”
“You need to step up your tricks,” I shot at him, sword in hand. I slashed with Dawnbreaker, but he simply put his arm up, blocking my blade with the back of his hand. I stood confused as I put pressure on my strike, but watched him harmlessly hold my sharp blade.
“What a weak blade,” he said and thrust his hand at me. A blast of darkness summoned from his fingertips and I went reeling back, through the air and down onto the ice.
“He’s using some kind of physical enhancement skill,” Nyx said. “There’s no way he could have caught your blade otherwise.”
How many tricks does this guy have? I muttered.
“Probably a lot more than we do.”
The tap of footsteps came from behind me and I realized the Knights were charging up to us. There wasn’t much time left. I noticed Freya was still behind Jelal and he hadn’t noticed her presence at all, or if he had before, he’d certainly forgotten about it now. I decided to keep him occupied and hope that Freya had the presence of mind to get Nazu away from him while I did. All this hopefully before the Knights overwhelmed us once more.
I surged forward again, slashing at Jelal with my sword. Only this time, I wasn’t afraid to pull out my box of tricks as well. I slid to a stop a few feet from him and sunk my sword deep into the ice. “Erkiela!” I yelled, and the ground beneath us tremored for a second, the ice destabilizing from the sheer heat of the attack. Jelal quickly jumped away, falling back to out of the attack’s range, but the ice quickly restructured, freezing back to solid in a flash.
“The Fire Arts,” Jelal said. “I have to say that’s impressive. The Phantom Lord has traditionally used nothing but the Dark Arts and the Death Arts.”
“Well I’m contemporary,” I said. “Oskis!” I yelled, sending a beam of flames right at him. He didn’t put up a shield this time and instead shot out of the way, with a speed I was not aware he possessed.
I looked out the corner of my eye and noticed Freya running away with a still-bound Nazu, a few fallen knights behind here. Good, I thought. They were both out of danger. For now.
“You are interesting, Diablo,” Jelal said, walking up to me calmly. “However, I wonder. You’ve hesitated to use the Death Arts whenever you battled me. Surely, those spells are the strongest you possess, and correct me if I’m wrong, but I am definitely one of the stronger opponents you’ve faced.”
“What’s your point?” I muttered, keeping my eyes on him as he approached me, being mentally alert to whatever trick he was planning here.
“Well, it just almost seems like you’re…” he paused. “...Afraid to use the Death Arts,” a smile curled onto his face. He pushed his hands out, and a beam of darkness shot at me. I quickly slashed at it with my blade, my strike causing a pressure wave that cut through his beam and smacked into him. He slid along the ice, and came to a stop, a smile still on his face.
“What are you smiling about?” I asked.
“You think you’re smarter than me, don’t you?”
I froze. What’s going on? I panicked.
“Zoran!” I heard Freya’s voice call out to me, and I immediately turned around. Only to see a large group of Knights press her back against the ice, with another group hauling away the bound Kobold. Their numbers had nearly doubled all of a sudden.
“He planned this all along,” Nyx said. “He must have held back a few of his forces to surprise us with them.”
“Dammit,” I cursed. I shot towards the second group, slicing through a few of them, but their numbers were too many for me to attack. And I certainly couldn’t use a strong spell here because I’d end up hurting Nazu and Freya as well.
I blocked the strikes of the men in front of me, and through the corner of my eyes, saw Jelal make his way to Nazu’s side. The Kobold immediately trashed about, smacking the knights around him multiple times in a row.
Jelal placed his hand on Nazu’s chest. “OBEY US, YOU STUPID CREATURE,” he boomed out of nowhere, and a blast of darkness surged out. The young kobold flew into the air, smacking hard into the doors of rock that stood in front of us. I froze as he slid down to the ground, his body curling up as he dropped with a thump.
The ice on the surface went from a crystal blue to dirty red, and I immediately realized his blood was staining the floor. The young one was bleeding. And profusely at that.
“What the heck are you doing to him, Jelal?!” I yelled, jumping over the men as I shot to the leader of the Dark Alliance. He strode to the young Kobold, who was now desperately crawling up to the large door. His scaly hands touched the rocky surface, his weak fingers only managing to trace a line with his own blood.
The ruins suddenly began to shudder, massive quakes running through the surface, sending the cohort of Knights and men down to the floor in a flash. Ice and rock broke from the ceiling and fell to the ground, crushing many Knights in the process.
A thundering roar struck the air, blasting away any silence within the chamber. Ears went deaf and screams went unheard as the tone echoed through the walls, sending fear striking into every heart in there. Including mine.
The earth beneath us immediately cracked, fissuring into two halves. I quickly jumped away, picking up the Kobold in one hand and picking Freya up in the other. The Knights on the other hand were not as lucky. The whole cohort was split apart, and they all stumbled into the wide fissure, their screams of pain drowned within the after-echoes of the roar.
“What the heck was that?” Nyx asked, concern in his tone.
No clue, I sa
id as I jumped to the edges of the chamber, safe from danger.
“We need to get out of here,” Freya said as I still held her in my arm.
I looked up, at the ceiling of solid ice above us. There was no way I was going to be able to get through that, and Shadow Travel still hadn’t recharged completely yet.
“Those Knights,” Nyx said. “They were all coming through some entrance around here. If we use the same thing we can try getting out.”
I immediately surged forward, heading to where I’d seen the back-up forces surge in from, and as expected, there was a moderately sized tunnel in there. I quickly walked in, not wasting any time.
My Night Vision skill kicked in immediately and I rushed through the path. About a minute in I could see two forks in the route, with one of them showing me a bright light at the end.
“That one,” Freya said, pointing at the light, and I agreed, pushing right towards it.
In seconds we were out in the open, only this open was the calm mountainside as opposed to whatever snowstorm we’d in before. I’d expected to see a camp from the Dark Alliance here, but there was absolutely nothing. I looked down the mountain slope, and saw that we were still high up on whatever this mountain was. The peak was about a few miles up and had dark clouds around it, which were probably the cause of the snowstorm we’d seen before.
DING!
Congratulations! You have completed the quest: Save Nazu. You have gone to great lengths to pursue the young kobold and take him out of enemy hands. Reward: 1000000 XP. Reward: 1600000 Sol. Reward: Save Nazu II.
DING!
You have obtained the quest: Save Nazu II. Even out of the clutches of the Dark Alliance, enemy threats loom near. Get Nazu and yourselves out of danger’s way by leaving the Ulhur Mountains.
I closed the screens as I knelt to the ground and lay Freya and Nazu down onto the ground. The young Kobold was half-unconscious, his eyes not really open, but not closed either. His breathing was rough, but at least he was breathing.
“He needs to heal up,” Freya said.
The Eternal: Dragonborn - A LitRPG Saga (World of Ga'em Book 2) Page 13
