by TurtleMe
“Tell me more about the fights happening in front of The Wall, Helen.” I turned back to the leader of the Twin Horns.
“Look, Princess,” Adam Krensh spat. “Fights that happen at The Wall aren’t bedtime stories that your nanny reads to you inside your fancy canopy bed. It’s war! People die—on both sides.”
The spear wielder with a head of red hair that looked like the burning fire we were huddled around glared at me as if he was scolding a child. I was about to say something when Durden got in between us. “You can’t take Adam’s words to heart or we’d have all killed him more than once in his sleep.”
Unknowingly, I was already standing up when Durden intervened. His words quelled my anger enough for me to sit back down, but I was still glaring at the lanky emberhead. Arthur had mentioned how Adam could be when he described the Twin Horns, but I didn’t realize how much of an understatement his words were.
“Adam, go set up our tents around one of the empty fire pits,” Helen ordered with a surprising amount of authority in her voice that wasn’t there when she was talking to me. “Angela, can you go help him out?”
With a cheery salute, she herded the grumbling Adam away from our camp, leaving only Helen, Durden and Jasmine—who had been silent since they had first arrived.
“Despite how his words came out from that defective muscle he calls a tongue, Adam only said that because he didn’t want you to know,” Helen sighed. “You think you’re over here fighting beasts, but in actuality, the Alacryan soldiers are much more monstrous than any mana beasts here. At least the creatures you battle here fight for survival and instinct. They fight to kill, and to some extent, that’s merciful.”
“What do you mean by that?” Stannard asked, his face pried away from the weapon he had been cleaning once again.
There was hesitation on Helen’s face as she tried her best to sugarcoat whatever she was about to say until Jasmine had stepped up and explained for her.
“Information is the most important in a war,” she said evenly. “Both sides, they’re trying to get information out of each other. That means kidnapping… torturing.”
We were all silent for a moment as even Darvus’ usually aloof expression hardened.
“Battles here are black and white—beasts are bad, you are good. When you’re fighting other humans, elves and dwarves that can all talk, scream in pain and beg for mercy… things become more gray, and it becomes hard to distinguish what is right and wrong,” Jasmine continued, her face a stone mask despite the horrors she was describing.
The once lively atmosphere of a reunion had turned tense as I exchanged glances with my teammates.
Suddenly, a series of loud smashes made us all turn our heads toward one of the gated entrances that led deeper into the dungeon.
“Please, hurry, let me in!” A muffled voice yelled from behind one of the doors. The sentry in charge of that entrance quickly verified the man’s identity before unbolting the door and hauling it open.
The entire cavern was deathly quiet as everyone stationed inside or resting after an excursion was standing up, their hands gripping their weapons and their gazes focused on the entrance.
As the two heavy doors slid apart, the man that had shouted from the other side fell through, lying unconscious.
“Does this happen often?” Helen asked, her bow ready in hand as her other hand was already at her quiver.
“No, it doesn’t,” I answered, my hand leaning on the pommel of my sword.
The sentry immediately pulled the scout inside before closing the doors.
“Get me a medic!” the sentry roared, hoisting the bloody scout on his shoulders. There weren’t any emitters stationed here since most were at the Wall, healing the wounded there. However, there were always a few people well-adept at medical treatment on call.
“Do you want to see what that’s all about?” Stannard glanced up at me.
“Do we have the clearance to go inside?” Helen asked, her neck stretched out to see.
“Being a princess is a kind of clearance, right?” Darvus shrugged, eager to know what had happened.
Letting out a sigh, I motioned them to follow. “Not everyone, though.”
Eventually, Helen and Stannard volunteered themselves to come with me. Arriving at the white canopy tent at the opposite wall of the entrances and closest to the exit back to the surface, two guards stopped us from going inside before recognizing who I was.
“P-Princess. What brings you here? Are you injured?” The slightly larger of the two armored guards asked, dipping his head to get a better look at me.
“No. I know the scout that just arrived and I’m worried about him. Do you mind letting us through?” I lied, giving him a solemn smile.
The two guards exchanged hesitant glances, but eventually, they opened the removable tarp that served as the entrance.
I’d expected a lot more noise to be going on inside, especially from the shocking entrance of the scout, but the tent was empty except for the medic, her assistant, the leader of our expedition and the scout—who was still unconscious in bed.
At our arrival inside, the leader of the expedition, a rather barrel-chested augmenter named Dresh Lambert, and his assistant, stood up from their seats.
“Princess? What happened? Are you injured?” Dresh asked, worry etched on his face. He turned to Stannard then Helen before his face lit up. “Helen Shard?”
“Nice seeing you, Dresh, or I guess I should call you ‘leader,’ right?” Helen stepped up and shook hands with the bulking man, whose armor seemed to contain his muscles rather than protect them.
“Haha, please, you’re more than fit to take my place and more.” His smile faded as he regarded us in wonder. “So what brings you two here? Is everything okay?”
“Don’t worry, Leader, everything’s fine.” I nodded.
“The princess here is probably curious about what news our little slumbering prince brought to us, right?” the medic, an elderly woman with a hunch and a naturally scowling face to match, confirmed.
“Haha, I can’t hide anything from you, Elder Albreda.” I scratched my head.
“Bah! Does this poor excuse of a treatment center look like a gossip wing to you?” she grumbled as she organized a shelf full of herbs and plants.
“Of course not,” Helen chimed in. “But I was brought here with my team to help find the S class beast that was turned into a mutant and send updates to my superiors back at The Wall periodically. I thought I’d find out fastest what was going on by talking to this guy.” Helen pointed to the unconscious man lying in bed with her eyes.
“You’d be right in thinking that, but unfortunately he hasn’t woken up yet,” Dresh sighed, looking over his shoulder at the scout sleeping peacefully.
Stannard carefully approached the man. “What happened to him?”
“Dehydration and massive fatigue. The lad isn’t injured but it seemed like he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for a few days and by the state of his feet, I’d say he’s been running nonstop for who knows how long.” Elder Albreda lifted the sheets to reveal the scout’s bandaged feet, splotches of red already seeping through the gauze.
“I see,” Helen responded. “Dresh, can you let us know as soon as he gets up?”
“Sure.” The leader of this dungeon expedition nodded.
As we were about to leave the tent, however, a sharp gasp made us turn back around. The scout had gotten up with a series of dry coughs.
“H-How long have I been out?” the scout sputtered in between fits.
“Calm down, soldier. One of the sentries recognized you; your name is Sayer, right?” Dresh had his arm behind Sayer’s back, supporting the scout.
“Yes, sir,” he answered before greedily gulping down the cup of water the assistant had just handed him.
“Well, Sayer, it’s been only about ten minutes or so since you’d come back. What happened? Where is the rest of your team?” our expedition leader questioned.
&
nbsp; “Dead, sir. I had stayed behind…” the scout named Sayer hesitated. “I had a disagreement with my teammates so I had stayed behind.”
“Disagreement?” Dresh repeated.
“I felt terrible for letting my teammates go deeper by themselves so I trailed behind them almost immediately after they had left!” Sayer added, guilt practically etched on his forehead. “But they’d unknowingly walked into an ambush of gnolls far deadlier than the ones up here, sir.”
Everyone in the tent was silent as we processed Sayer’s words.
“There must’ve been hundreds of them, sir. A-And there was this large door behind them. As though they were protecting whatever was on the other side!” the scout stammered, taking another large gulp of water before continuing. “I think we found it, sir. I think we found the mutant’s den!”
Chapter 132: Drawing Closer
STANNARD BERWICK’S POV:
My stomach lurched at the scout’s foreboding words.
This is it, I thought. This was what we were down here for. After this was over, I would be able to go back home for a bit and sleep in a real bed, eat a seasoned meal cooked for taste, not for sustenance. Yet why was I so afraid?
“Leader, I was able to do it.” The scout let out another pained breath. “I managed to set up the mass-teleportation gate near the entrance.”
“You did good, Sayer.” The leader, Dresh, squeezed the scout’s arm before heading out of the tent.
“Come on, we should prepare as well,” the woman named Helen Shard advised, following behind.
Tessia nodded firmly in response, motioning for me to follow. But I couldn’t.
My legs felt like they were anchored to the ground, as if my very body protested against the fact that following them might just lead to my death.
“Stannard? You okay?” Our team’s leader tilted her head, locking eyes with me as she lifted the tent flap.
“Yeah, I-I’m fine.” I said this more to convince myself than anything else.
We arrived back at our team’s campsite where Tessia relayed the scout’s news.
“Finally!” Darvus groaned in relief. “I can take a hot bath after all of this is over.”
“Can you at least try to say things a spoiled child wouldn’t?” Caria shook her head as she headed over to her tent.
“What? Everyone’s thinking it anyway, right?” Darvus turned to me. “Tell her, Stannard. You’re just itching for a hot bath after this, right?”
“Uh, yeah. Sure,” I replied blankly as I sat down with my mana launcher in my hands.
“Something wrong, Stan?” Darvus asked, raising a brow.
Letting out an annoyed sigh, I replied, “No, I’m fine. I just want this to be over.”
It was pointless to say anything. Darvus, Caria and Tessia all were genius mages and combatants. They didn’t need to feel fear in situations like these. They wouldn’t understand.
“All right. Well, we’ll head to our camp and prepare as well. Samantha and Adam have no clue of what’s going, on after all,” the short-haired leader of the Twin Horns announced as the rest of team trailed behind.
A few minutes after the Twin Horns had left, Dresh’s voice echoed through the large cavern, alerting everyone of the scout’s message. Soon, the entire place was filled with a frenzy of movement as over a hundred soldiers scurried around to prepare themselves for the impending battle.
Beside me, Caria had already equipped her battle gear, which consisted of a light leather armor covering her vitals without hindering her mobility. She lay sprawled out beside me, stretching her limber body in ways that I would’ve normally deemed impossible if I hadn’t seen it for myself.
Darvus, sitting across from me by the fire, was juggling the smaller axes he used for throwing. The normally lax expression on the spoiled fourth son of the Clarell Family was gone, replaced by the calm and focused mask he normally had during a serious battle.
I turned to our leader, Tessia, who was actually the youngest on our team—losing to me in age by just a year—but was actually the most composed. She had already equipped herself for battle, adorning her toned and slim body in a light armor. Our leader wore a tight-fitting black leather wrap underneath a chainmail plate protecting her chest. An elegantly curved, metallic cover decorated with intricate designs of flowing branches rested on top of the shoulder of her dominant arm. Her wrist guards were of the same design as the single shoulder plate armor and the faulds that protected her hips and thighs.
As Tessia tied her hair back, revealing the nape of her cream-colored neck, I couldn’t help but avert my gaze. I could feel my face growing hot as the image of Tessia’s elegant figure burned itself into my skull.
Get yourself together, Stannard. She’s out of your league! Besides, she’s in love with that Arthur guy. I shook my head as I tried to concentrate on counting the ammunition I had. We wouldn’t leave for a few more hours, which gave me some time to load more beast cores with spells.
I had about twenty-five low-damage rounds, and about eight high-damage cores. After roughly calculating, I had come to the conclusion that about five more low-damage and two more high-damage rounds should suffice.
Looking up, I observed as the mages began preparing the connection between the teleportation gates so that we would be able to arrive right where the scout had placed the artifact. As the shimmering portal enlarged, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of my body growing heavier by the second.
I had done well the past three months we’d been here. However, this was the real thing. I had fought mana beasts before all of this, but it would be the first time fighting against a mutant.
“Come on, Stannard. You should stretch too. It’ll be bad if your body suddenly cramps up while we’re in battle.”
Caria’s voice shook me out of my daze, her bright eyes looking down at me from beside the fire as she held out her hand.
A smile managed to escape my lips as I accepted her hand. “Go easy on me.”
After about two hours, the gate was ready and teams were already heading toward the gate, eager to be the first ones to go through. I gripped tightly at the handle of my mana launcher to keep my hands from trembling.
“Let’s go,” Tessia finally announced. A newfound fire burned in her eyes, determination practically leaking out of her pores.
“Aye, captain,” Darvus responded, a snarky grin on his face.
We approached the mass in front of the teleportation gate capable of transporting a few dozen at once.
“Are you guys ready?” a familiar voice chimed in from the left.
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Tessia responded, a confident smile on her face as she locked eyes with Helen and the rest of the Twin Horns.
“Vanguard teams, brace yourselves upon arrival. We’re not certain how many mana beasts will be there on the other side,” Dresh yelled beside the portal. The teams he had specifically chosen beforehand would be the ones to lead the charge, as teams like ours would be more towards the rear, fighting any stragglers until the main battle came.
“Charge!” Dresh roared, unsheathing this longsword and taking the lead. The mass that gathered in front of the teleportation gate began dwindling as teams charged in with weapons at the ready.
Tessia, who was in front of our team, looked back at us over her shoulder. “We’ll all get out of this alive and eat a nice, delicious meal. Agreed?”
“Agreed!” we all shouted in unison as we stepped through the glowing gate.
I let out a crazed yell as I stepped through the gate in time to see an augmenter from one of the teams ahead of us get hacked down by a pair of hyena-faced gnolls.
“Grannith!” a woman beside him desperately cried out before the same pair of gnolls jumped on her.
As I quickly loaded my weapon with a low-damage core, Darvus had already sprung into action. With a powerful leap, he had cleared the distance and arrived above the gnolls that assaulted the female conjurer that had cried out for her dead comrade.
Unclipping his two short axes from his back, he brandished his weapons in the air. The air around him swirled, coalescing into his two axes as he let out a fierce battle cry.
Instantly, the two gnolls’ heads were severed clean. Blood had only spurted from the base of their necks a second after as he checked on the state of the conjurer.
“Damn it!” he swore, sending one of the decapitated bodies tumbling off with a firm kick. “She’s already dead.”
“Come on, don’t stay in one place too long. Stick together, but we need to move around,” Tessia ordered as she looked around us.
It seemed like a fair-sized group of gnolls and orcs had been waiting for us, because the few teams that preceded us were all locked in battle with mana beasts.
We were in a cavern about half the size of the main encampment. For a second, I thought we had arrived in front of the towering doors that the scout had speculated was the place where the mutant was, but peering ahead, there was only a narrow entrance to a hallway darkened by shadows.
“Stannard, to your left!” Caria’s voice called from behind.
Immediately, I whirled around, taking a step back just in time to dodge a crude head of a halberd. Raising my mana launcher in line with the orc’s chest, I fired off a low-damage beast core, burning a hole into the center of the beast’s heart.
The monster crumbled to the floor, dropping its weapon with a heavy thud. I had no time to rest as another gnoll hastily approached.
“Got it,” Caria called out mid-dash. She bolted close to the ground like a speeding cannon as both her fists were tucked closely to her chest, ready to fire.
“Hahp!” Caria exploded up at breakneck speed with the help of a small earthen platform she had raised to accelerate herself. She brought her arms over her head, as if she wanted to dive straight into the approaching gnoll—her fingers pointed like the tip of a spear.
With a resounding thud, Caria’s gauntlet pierced through the stomach of the gnoll that had been about twice her size. As the giant dog-faced monster faltered, its grotesque face crinkled in shock, I delivered the final blow with another low-damage core.
