by Edward Brody
You have failed to inspect.
You have failed to inspect.
“I can’t read them either,” I said.
“Level 57 Lava Elementals and aggressive,” Mordok said. “We need to avoid them if we can. It wouldn’t be easy to fight them without some sort of water magic.”
The molten pool in front of us grew wider as we continued closer to the where the liquid was pouring from Mount Ardorflame, giving no easy path past the lava. On the left side, however, were a few rocks jutting from the cliff face, and strangely, there was a stack of old, sanded pieces of wood stacked a few feet from it. Several meters into the pool was a slightly elevated slab that wasn’t covered by lava.
We took a few steps back to avoid aggroing an elemental when it turned and drifted closer to where we were standing. If it had been any other creature, it would have acknowledged us by now, but the lava elementals didn’t seem to have a particularly wide sensory range.
The other two elementals drifted randomly as well, and there was no obvious pattern to what they were doing.
Mordok took a deep breath and scanned the area before pointing out the processed boards resting near the cliff face. “The wood there is curiously out of place. We should check it out, but we need to wait until the elemental moves further out of range.”
Rithnar crossed his arms and scowled. “Ergoth could already be moving on the Freelands.”
“Anything is possible, but we have no other choice, unless you have a better idea,” Mordok explained.
Rithnar gripped his axe tight, looked towards the lava and furrowed his brow. After coming up with nothing he asked, “Don’t you have some sort of magic that can defeat the elementals?”
Mordok shook his head. “They’re too high a level to take the risk. We don’t know what they’re capable of.”
“Get back,” I said as I picked up a rock. “We’ll see what they’re capable of.”
As I launched the rock towards one of the elementals, Mordok’s eyes went wide and he held his hand out to try to stop me, but it was too late. As the rock arced through the air, we all ran back to make sure we were plenty out of range of whatever was about to happen.
The rock smacked right into the base of the closest lava elemental, causing it to twitch and stop in place. A low wheezing moan emanated from the elemental’s mouth, and it turned its head slowly, looking for a threat. The rock sank into the lava, and we all watched for another ten to fifteen seconds as the elemental stood in place, scanning in all directions around it, but then it simply began drifting around randomly as it had before.
I shrugged and turned to Mordok. “Doesn’t seem all that bad…”
Mordok wrinkled his nose and snorted. “I’m not so convinced of that. I hate to waste the resources, but I suppose we can check for sure.” He slammed his fist together, closed his eyes, and waved his hand in front of him.
A swirl of arcane energy formed on the ground near his feet, and then an arcane elemental like the one he had summoned inside Mount Ardorflame sprung from it, charged with electricity. Once it was fully formed, Rithnar sent his summon towards the other elementals, and it didn’t seem to take damage when it hovered over the lava pool.
The closest lava elemental jerked when Mordok’s summon was about three meters away, and it immediately turned and let out the same wheezing moan as before. The monster seemed to melt and disappear into the lava pool, but quickly rose back up right in front of Mordok’s fiend. Mordok’s elemental was nearly twice the size of the lava monster, and when it pulled back a large, electrified fist, it looked like it would cause some major damage.
Sparks and tiny embers flew when the lava elemental lifted its arm to intercept Mordok’s punch, and then it simply opened its mouth and belched out a spraying blast of hot lava. Mordok’s elemental howled as it jerked back from the damage and seemed confused at the numerous hot particles that were stuck to its body and continually doing damage.
The two other lava elementals took notice of the fight and each of them hurled balls of fire at Mordok’s elemental, smashing it in the chest with enough force to push it back several feet. The closest elemental slammed its fist into the ground, causing a long, thin spike of lava to erupt right under the dazed arcane elemental. The spike pierced through its center all the way up through its head.
Mordok’s summon stopped in place, moaned, and the magic that made up its body quickly faded away.
The orc mage looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “Not all that bad, huh?”
I scratched the back of my head and grinned shyly.
The victor elementals continued to stand in place and scan the area for another ten seconds before they resumed drifting around the lava pool aimlessly, still seemingly unable to spot us from a distance.
“We’ll wait,” Mordok suggested again. He sat down and began to meditate.
We waited around a good fifteen minutes or so, eyeing the elementals and expecting the closest one to drift far enough away that it wouldn’t aggro when we moved towards the boards, but each time it seemed just out of range, it would turn and drift back to a spot dangerously close to the edge.
“This is growing frustrating,” Rithnar growled. “We must find a way to move forward.”
“Your axe isn’t going to do anything against these,” Mordok explained, “And I have nothing that will be able to take them out easily.”
“The magic you used to kill the gremloyl lord,” Rithnar suggested. “Blast it away!”
“Let me remind you again, that it’s level 57,” Mordok said. “I’m certain that the—”
“Try it!” Rithnar shouted. “We must do something.”
Mordok sighed. “Fine.” He took several steps forwards, held out his hands, and began channeling. “Step back in case lava is thrown this way.”
A triangle of light blue energy formed between his hands, and it began to spin clockwise. Seconds later, an orb appeared on each side of the triangle. Mordok focused his attention on the closest elemental, thrust his spell forward, and we all watched as his magic zoomed through the air and powered into the monster’s body.
Lava was thrown back and splattered to the sides when the triangular attack hit the center of the elemental’s body, leaving a large hole in its abdomen. The monster hissed, sank into the pool below, and immediately rose back up, showing no damage at all. It turned in every direction, searching for the attacker.
Rithnar slumped his shoulders and clenched his teeth.
“Perhaps a powerful type of earth magic would be effective against these elementals,” Mordok said. “I have no arcane spells that are going to work, and there’s little chance my lightning magic would do anything.”
I crossed my arms and thought back to the teachings of the Mages Guild. While water magic seemed like the most obvious counter to lava elementals, magic in Eden’s Gate was situational, and every branch theoretically could defeat another branch. Simply none of us had any spells at that time that were effective.
Clumsy would do us no good, and my arcane spells wouldn’t be enough to help Mordok defeat them. My fire magic was just as developed, but I figured casting a Fireblast or Fire Curtain on the elementals would be more likely to heal them than anything. It certainly wouldn’t do any damage.
As I considered the ineffectiveness of my fire magic, another thought crossed my mind. If my fire magic wouldn’t hurt the Lava Elementals, would the Lava Elementals be able to hurt fire magic—specifically a Fire Elemental?
“What if I cast a Fire Elemental?” I asked.
Mordok raised an eyebrow. “What on earth makes you think a Fire Elemental could defeat them?”
“Not defeat them,” I said. “Distract them. The lava elementals would have trouble killing a fire elemental, right? And if that’s the case, maybe I can use my elemental to lead them away.”
“Use it to lead them away…” Mordok muttered, and then he cracked a smile. “That’s clever thinking, Gunnar.”
“I don’t have
any Sulfer’s Ash though,” I said.
“Here,” Mordok said as he reached into his bag. He pulled out the required reagent and handed it to me. “Sulfer’s Ash is easy to find on Mount Ardorflame, and there’s probably some lying around here. Take one of mine for now.”
“You use it?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “I keep a variety of reagents at all times for my higher-level spells. Sulfer’s Ash is required for my Arcane Slave.”
I tossed the Sulfer’s Ash on the ground and began channeling my Scorching Fire Elemental spell. In seconds, the reagent dissolved, and in its place came a spark, then a small flame that quickly grew into a flaming humanoid.
Name: Scorching Fire Elemental
Race: elemental
Level: 17
Health/Mana/Stamina: 140/140/130
Status: friendly
The air was already so hot that the additional heat from the elemental made things almost unbearable, so I quickly sent it away and towards the lava monsters in the pool.
My fire elemental floated over the molten lava and into range of the monsters.
The lava elemental hissed as it had before when it spotted my summon, and it immediately sank into the lava and reappeared in front of it. Right when it appeared, it swung its arm at my elemental, and upon contact, I watched as the health bar of my elemental was depleted by 10% but immediately jumped back up about 8% as if the attack had healed it as well.
The lava elemental opened its mouth and belched out lava at my elemental, and when the spray of molten lava hit my elemental, the same thing happened. My elemental’s heath bar popped down a good 10 to 15% and then immediately started to rise back up. My elemental struck back, and as soon as it connected with the lava elemental, its health bar was restored to nearly 100%.
“It’s working,” I said. “They can hurt it, but not much and not for long.”
“Lead it away,” Rithnar ordered.
I urged my elemental to ignore the attacker and float to the other side of the lava pool, and it did just that. It turned, floated away, and the much slower lava elemental drifted behind it and ineffectively began hurling balls of fire into its back.
“Let’s go!” I said when it was clear that all the elementals were far enough out of range.
We all ran for the pile of wood near the wall, and Mordok immediately picked up the first piece of wood. He turned it on each side, looked towards the cliff face and then back down to the wood. He sat it down and picked up the next one. “It’s as I thought.”
“What?” I asked.
“It’s been deliberately placed here,” he said. “Look.” He stood up and walked to where the cliff face met the edge of the lava pool. He leaned forward and slid the board onto two protruding rocks, and it fit flawlessly. “They even have grooves carved into the bottom to prevent it from slipping.”
“Who would do this?” Rithnar asked.
“I’m not sure,” Mordok answered. “But someone has been crossing this lava pool.”
I heard a hissing noise and turned back to see that the other two lava beings had joined in on fighting my elemental. They had all closed in and were wailing on it. My elemental jerked and jittered as the three of them repeatedly banged on it from each side and spewed lava all over it. My elemental wasn’t dying yet, but the onslaught of attacks seemed to prevent it from fighting back in any way.
I looked to my elemental’s stat bars and could see that the lava creatures were whittling away its health. While it was still healing after each contact, some of the hits were still managing to net a small amount of damage each time. It would probably take them a while, but if they continued to overwhelm it, they’d eventually be able to defeat my elemental.
“It’s slowly taking damage,” I said. “We’ve got a couple minutes at most.”
Mordok pointed to another small stone a couple of feet above his head. “If we try to cross, there’s another stone here where we can get a grip.” He glanced between Rithnar and me. “Do we move forward this way?”
“There’s no other choice,” Rithnar said. “Let’s go.”
Mordok homed in on me, and I just nodded.
“Okay,” Mordok said, worry etched across his face. He was clearly concerned about the deliberately placed wood, but he didn’t offer any pushback. He scooped up the boards, grabbed the stone jutting from the rock face, and pulled himself onto the first plank that he had laid across the protrusions below. A few inches ahead of that one, he sat another wood plank across two other protruding stones, walked onto that and repeated the process three more times, laying a total of five planks spaced unevenly but closely enough that they were easy to navigate.
Rithnar and I followed right behind him.
When we reached the end of the last board, it took only a small hop to step onto the slab of stone in the middle of the pool, and once we were on it, I realized that it wasn’t just a slab. On the cliff face behind it was a crevice just big enough for a body to slip through.
Mordok looked at the crevice then turned towards Mount Ardorflame. We weren’t quite at the center of the volcano but somewhat opposite it. “This couldn’t be it, could it?”
“The entrance?” Rithnar questioned.
“I’m not sure,” Mordok explained. “The volcano should mark the entrance, but there is said to be a door leading downwards. This isn’t quite a door.” He walked to the edge where the ground met the lava pool and continued for some distance, ending further down the Cataclysm. “We can’t go much further. If this isn’t it, the eruption may have blocked the entrance into the Gilgaroth’s seal.”
Rithnar growled. “You didn’t think of that before we came?”
Mordok turned around and creased his brow in anger. “I’ve never been here, fool! No one comes down here!”
“But you knew that there would be lava! Why did you waste our time?!” Rithnar roared.
“To save you,” Mordok growled, “and to give us an actual chance of stopping this war!”
“Hey!” I shouted as the increasingly frustrated orcs. “Relax…” I turned to Rithnar. “We don’t know that this isn’t it… yet. If it isn’t, we’ll figure out what to do afterwards. For now, let’s just check it out.”
“We should go back now, and I will fight Ergoth!” Rithnar shouted.
“Fool,” Mordok barked.
Rithnar reached for his axe, before I shouted again.
“Hey!” I said harshly. “I went through a lot of trouble getting the infinite mana shard. Not only that, but I risked my life coming to Wastelands so that you can see your child again. Let’s just stay calm and check this place out before we do anything crazy.” I looked intently at Rithnar. “Please…”
Rithnar let go of his axe and relaxed his muscles. He lifted his upper lip so that his fangs were fully shown. “Quickly.”
I watched as the two orcs stared daggers at each other, and I was reminded of the differences that orcs had with other races. Sometimes they seemed normal, like any other race, but they were also hot and cold, ready to snap at any moment. Even Mordok, who was the least orcish of them all, seemed unusually temperamental at times.
“You guys can keep gazing at each other,” I said as I pushed past them. “I guess I’ll go in first.”
I turned my body sideways, slipped my arm into the crevice and started to shimmy through. Halfway in, I realized it was a bit dark inside and cast Divine Sight on myself. My face nearly touched the stone during the tight squeeze, so I knew for the thicker orcs, getting in wouldn’t be comfortable.
The crevice was only about two meters long and opened to a large gray cave filled with stalagmites and stalactites. Several of the natural spikes were broken and lying sideways, partially crushed on the ground. There was a small open doorway to the left of the entrance, a thin hallway near the back of the room, and the smell of rot hung in the air.
Mordok and Rithnar grunted as they pushed through the tight crevice, and once they were through, I cast Divine Sight on them bo
th as well.
Rithnar rubbed dirt off his face as he scanned the area. “It smells like something has died in here.”
“No,” Mordok said as he walked around him and pointed toward a layer of torn cloth spread on the ground between two thick stalagmites. The cloth looked like it had been fashioned from two or three old robes and sloppily tied together to form a blanket. A few chunks of torn leather were stacked near the top of the blanket and a misshapen clay bowl sat beside it. “Someone has been living here…”
Rithnar turned his head left and right. “Who would live down here? Certainly not an orc…”
Mordok took a deep breath but regretted the smell and wrinkled his nose. He shook his head in disgust. “A goblin deserter most likely—a smart one if he’s managed to survive here.”
Rithnar lifted his axe and pointed it towards the door on our left. “Judging by the smell, we’ll probably find him dead in there.”
Mordok nodded.
We headed for the open chamber in question cautiously, and when we stepped inside, it was unlike anything I could have expected or had ever seen in Eden’s Gate.
A shoddy wooden table had been erected in the center of the room, and sitting on top of it was the body of a limbless orc child. Its arms and legs had been amputated, and dried blood was everywhere. On the floor were several other orc bodies in various stages of decomposition, all of whom had had their arms and legs removed, all of whom were children or teenagers. Bits and pieces of rotten skin and organs were scattered all throughout the room, and various bowls lay around with chunks of old flesh, organs, and liquid inside.
“What the hell is this?” I asked as I stepped inside. I instinctively grabbed my throat as my eyes scanned over the atrocity. It didn’t seem real. The bodies didn’t seem real. The limbless figures seemed more like props than anything.
“Who would do this?” Rithnar asked as he walked close to one of the dead bodies on the floor. He knelt and placed his hand on the small dead orc’s blank face and immediately pulled back as if the cold of its skin frightened him.
