24 Raid 2 (1/2)
-”Lord Rodrick” Said the servant inside the knight's quarter respectfully bowing to the lord.
Rodrick stood up from his desk and walked towards the window – ”What is it Albert?”
-”We received a report that the assassins ceased to follow the boy.” Informed the servant.
-”And why is that?” Rodrick asked turning towards the servant with an angry face.
-”They are demanding more money sir… they said that the contract was for the boy alone, but he is always surrounded by strong people… one of them the princess… they said that the price for handling a princess is much higher….”
-”What?!” Said the lord loudly, turning around facing the servant. His face was red and his eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, such was his sentiment towards the proposition.
-”The princess was given a royal seal my lord, she left with the boy to roam the city days ago… and now as you know, he is participating in the incursion with the army.”
Rodrick punched his desk in anger. – ”That gross, loamy bastard assured that the assassins would not fail… they not only failed, now they are even demanding more money!”
Rodrick faced the servant once again… calming himself down, then continuing - ”How much more do they want?”
-”They said they want triple the initial payment” Answered the servant promptly and with a calm tone.
-”Outrageous! I already paid a fortune… and now they demanded triple that price?” The lord paused for a moment and sighed… - ”Tell them to stand down for the moment… I will deal with the boy myself.” added the Lord.
The servant bowed once again acknowledging the order.
-”Yes my lord. And regarding today's plan? Do you wish to proceed?” Questioned the servant in a calm voice.
-”No, the king changed his mind and put the first army in charge of protecting the royal wing… he is on to something, we may raise too much attention if I try anything now…”
Rodrick walked to a table by the wall and took a chalice and a bottle of wine from it, poured the wine in the chalice he began drinking slowly.
-”I will wait for the incursion to end and the dust to settle… It will be foolish to try to rush my plans… not now that Maximilian is finally gone, the boy is a mere pawn and can be dealt with later. It's only a matter of time…” Rodrick said taking another sip of his wine.
---------------------
The tingling sensation was still bothering him greatly, it was not something he could not withstand, but he still had to constantly remind himself that it was the spell's effects and control himself to not scratch his eyes furiously.
Riou dashed through the mine towards the corridor to the right, where the mages' groups split up, and the one he still needed to investigate. Once he arrived there he calmed down, with care he began to walk paying attention to his surroundings as more enemies could be lurking nearby.
He could see the mine very clearly with the spell active, and easily spotted footprints in the dust. Following them to the next opening, Riou noticed that the mine there just had natural rock formations which were commonly seen in the other parts of the mine, but this one had a very big natural structure at the very center of it, serving as a big central pillar, probably solely responsible for holding the ceiling.
The room was as big as the entrance. Riou was following the footprints in the dust and soon noticed that the straight line of steps which he followed since the beginning of the corridor suddenly became erratic and dispersed, as if a person turned to inspect his surroundings in search of something. Riou was not a tracker but he could clearly see several different shoe sizes that walked in that direction, which almost simultaneously began to do similar rotational movements on the same spot.
”The darkness haze spell was cast when they were here…” Guessed the boy… looking in front he also saw marks on the stones, on the ceiling and the ground… to the ceiling and nearby stalactites debris he saw a scorched surface, very similar to the ones Ursula's flames did, meaning it was a mage able to produce high temperature flame… and nearby there was a liquid substance on the ground… Riou approached it and touched it with his hand… it was cold and not sticky. ”Cold water… Ice magic perhaps?” He guessed since there was no water sources nearby. He searched around and noticed strange transparent formations, erupting from the ground in a wide wall formation… he also touched it… ”Cold… As I thought, Ice barriers…”
”They battled here… against an invisible enemy…” thought the boy looking at the footprints…
They were all over the place, and suddenly broke formation, four of them to one side… two ran to the other… And the remaining two ran together forwards, to the opposite end of where Riou came from…
”Did the shadows purposely force them to split up again? Or was it just panic?” Tried to figure out the situation while he followed the four that stuck together…
Riou walked towards the right wall, following the footprints that showed concern, because they were very near each other. It did not take long for the boy to see a pile of bodies… four soldiers dead, mutilated in a horrendous way. Blood spatters reached the ceiling which was very high, covering the wall and the rocks nearby. It was impossible to know which part of the body Riou was looking at, much less to which soldier it belonged to. Since no footprints came out of that place and by the sheer quantity of body pieces… He concluded that all four met their end here…
He quickly retraced his steps back to where all footprints came together… Following the footprints on the left side… he quickly after a few steps, noticed a woman's body impaled on the ceiling stalactites… he couldn't figure out who it was, due to the different shades he was seeing… but by the size of the body, he knew it was not Lilly's.
Looking around once again, he saw many broken stones and splintered stalactites at the floor, as if they were blown off.Someone put up a fight with powerful magic, really close to the woman's corpse… Powerful enough to destroy some of the rocks there
”They were near each other in pitch black darkness… She screamed… the other mage heard and shot all his spells in her direction…” Trying to make sense of the situation, the boy looked at the direction of the rock debris probably came from, while walking towards the most likely position of the other mage.
After a few rocks and shattered stalagmites, Riou saw a sword held by a hand… just a hand holding a sword, no body attached to it… and yet another trail of blood.
That trail led the boy to the rest of the hand's body… it was leaned against the wall, still pressing without strength against his wound with his left hand, in an attempt to stop the bleeding of where his right hand should be. It was Nolan… Riou rushed at him hoping he'd still be alive… but as he approached he noticed that there was no more blood gushing out and aside from the right hand, there was also 4 big puncture holes in his chest.
”Evil creatures… they torture and abuse their victims…” Thought the boy once again returning to follow the last footprints that let toward the center pillar. ”Lilly and Serena…” concluded the boy.
Riou sped up as no sign of shadows could be seen nearby…
The footprints continued, they were in a hurry, the distance of the steps showed they were running and hit the pillar, cautiously going around it and towards the wall in the opposite side from where Riou came.
Many ice barriers and scorched marks were found in that trail, which told the boy they tried to prevent anything from following them as they tried to flee from that place.
Getting near it Riou noticed movement in that direction, near the wall…
3 shadows were lurking nearby a corridor entrance, contorting their bodies looking and analyzing the corridor, clearly trying to avoid something… since nothing happened, they suddenly and very quickly entered the corridor until they came back again a moment later … followed by a massive fire wave that raged outside the corridor near the shadows that leaned on the walls to escape it.
Riou stealthily got closer. He noticed that the shadow beings were not whole anymore. It seemed that many parts of their bodies have been hit by the intense fire… ”Seems like fire can cause damage to them as well… to the point they fear a full hit of the spell, this is most likely Lilly's fire as she is a fire specialist” Realized the boy while watching as they tried to go in again … and contorting themselves as the waverepelled them once more.
Riou waited for the moment they went inside and quickly approached the entrance… As he noticed that another fire wave was coming, he quickly erected a mana barrier to prevent the shadow fiends to escape this time.
”This must be some tactic taught in the academy… or could it be just coincidence….”He thought unsure if it was a known tactic or plain survival instinct that led Ursula and Lilly to the same situation.
Suddenly the shadow fiends appeared at the barrier, unable to get out they contorted their bodies to find a gap at the edges of the barrier, but as it was made of mana, there was no gap for them to exploit. Riou could notice a hint of despair in the shadow fiend's erratic and fast movements. It did not take long for them to be hit by the flame…
And as soon as the shadow fiends were engulfed by the fire the dark haze immediately dissipated. Riou could see firsthand the effects of a high level fire spell on these shadow fiends as they contorted and launched themselves against the invisible barrier silently languishing. The 3 shadow figures died slowly as the remnants of the fire consumed their inexistent physical body until the shadows dissipated into oblivion.
Riou dispelled his mana barrier and his vision spell as well to his relief, it was a blessing to be rid of the sensation. Imagine yourself to be finally rid of an eyelash that got stuck inside your eye for a few hours… the moment it is removed is a blissful feeling of relief. That was how Riou felt as his vision returned to normal and he saw a gold colored flame finishing up the last parts of shadow fiends…
”Intelligent, this must be some kind of holy fire to be able to affect the shadow beings this much.”Concluded the boy sneakily looking inside the corridor.
There was another opening to the outside to circulate the air inside the mine, and a faint light also came through it. He could see Lilly and Serena standing there watching the fiends being consumed… they looked tired, but not exhausted.
-”You got them Lilly!” Said Serena in a happy and relieved tone ”Let's get out of here!” she added.
Lilly was still breathing heavily as she watched the shadows being consumed by her fire. She nodded to Serena – ”Let's go, we need to see what happened to the others” Said Lilly beginning to move.
The mages were relieved when they saw the burning shadow fiends… and quickly began to retreat towards where Riou was…
It was a moment of decision… If he helped the mages back, he would be interrogated to how he survived… and would probably be prevented from going inside the mine again…The boy showed a grimace of disapproval. He leaned towards the wall concealing his presence…”The path behind me is clear, they won't have any trouble getting back… I have more pressing matters at hand” he thought to himself while he watched the two mages rush by, towards the direction of the exit…
Once they were gone from sight… Riou entered the corridor and followed it as the opening in the ceiling was enough to light his way through it.
----------------------------------
A small and simple fire was burning near the entrance… there was no fuel enough to create a fire to provide enough light to guard the entrance from the shadows that could come out of it.
-”Prepare to destroy the entrance pillars, get something to break or force them out! We must be ready to collapse this entrance if necessary!” – Shouted the knight commanding his men.
Suddenly all attention went towards the entrance as two figures emerged from the darkness inside.
Ursula's eyes widened and a relieved expression took over– ”Lilly!” she shouted
Bhalrom and a few soldiers rushed towards them to help in case they were injured. But only Serena had a small cut on her arm, nothing threatening.
The two mages were out of breath as they rushed all the way back after casting strong spells for a long period of time. Bhalrom helped them moving towards Ursula who was far away from the entrance in an improvised bench. Ursula went to intercept them and embraced Lilly tightly who was still recovering from all that happened inside. When she released her Bhalrom quickly asked.
-”Tell us what happened” Said the knight to Serena
-”Shadow fiends… they lured us in and then attacked after they casted a darkness spell.” Said Serena
Bhalrom nodded acknowledging that he already knew that much… and requested to keep going.
-”As the dark veil came I knew we were up against shadow fiends… If we stayed in the open part of the mine we would die. I shouted to everyone to search for cover… but I could not see where they were… our group got attacked so I grabbed Lilly's hand as she was still near me and ran… I kept using ice barriers and wind magic to try to find a safer place… luckily we reached a corridor, we stood our ground there and began retaliating. I knew they would try to get to us and so we kept changing the intervals of the spells to try to catch them off-guard. It took a while but Lilly's flame wave was finally able to catch them.” She said putting her hand on Lilly's shoulder…
-”She killed 3 Shadow Fiends on that corridor and the darkness dissipated, allowing us to come back here.”
Ursula looked proudly at Lilly who faintly smiled back, clearly shaken from what she experienced moments ago…
-”The others?” asked Bhalrom already knowing the answer…
Lilly was holding back her tears, as Serena sadly shook her head…
Bhalrom sighed… and returned to the topic at hand…
-”You said three Shadow Fiends? Are you sure?” Asked the knight inquisitively.
”Yes” Answered Serena with absolute certainty.
-”It took a high mage of Argos with great knowledge of death magic to summon one of these creatures… to be able to summon three… it's unheard of… and if the dark spell was dispelled we have reason to believe that the mine is free of the fiends…” The knight said thinking out loud.
Ursula nodded in agreement to his theory.
Bhalrom looked once again to the two mages… with very serious eyes
-”Did you see the boy… or his body on your way out?” he asked to the surprise of the two mages…
Lilly blinked a few times as if waking up from a lucid dream.
-”When did he enter the mine?”
Asked Lilly trying to understand what happened.
-”He went in after none of you reported back… he rushed in and brought back Ursula with him… then before we knew it, he went back inside… probably looking for your group.” Answered the knight.
Lilly looked towards Ursula unable to believe what she just heard.
-”No, we didn't see him” Answered Serena confidently. While Lilly couldn't help herself and looked towards Ursula and Bhalrom.
-”What do you mean by brought back?” She asked still trying to make sense of that affirmation.
Ursula looked down – ”Somehow he was able to bring me back outside… as my whole group suffered the same fate as yours and the dark haze was still covering the mine” She said with a sad voice and face.
That was hard for Lilly to believe… she had come to terms that the boy was not as weak as she first assumed, but to be able to throw himself against that kind of situation and still live… the only way that would happen in her mind was if the monsters had all converged towards Lilly's group after Ursula was alone… that was the only way she could see how he would survive, but it still wouldn't explain how he was able to blindly roam effectively through the mine carrying her.
Bhalrom looked up to the sky once more… the night was approaching fast… he had to make a decision. And so he looked towards the 3 mages…
-”I know this is a lot to ask… but we will not be able to come back down before nightfall. I will give you a few moments to recover… and then we will storm the mine once again. If 3 shadow fiends were involved there are enemy mages inside… we will need your help to defeat them.” Said the knight with a serious tone.
Ursula and Serena with a serious and determined expression nodded in agreement, followed by Lilly who also nodded a moment after them.
-”Prepare torches… I want 10 men to follow me and the Mages into the mine once again, we will put an end to the enemy and avenge our brothers!” Shouted the knight to the first army soldiers who shouted back in unison- ”Ahh!”- They shouted, fearless and confident in their victory.
-------------------------
After following the corridor for a while it ended abruptly with collapsed rocks and dirt… Riou casted another white light on his hand to better see his surroundings…
The rocks seemed recently moved, as the older dust on the floor was moved away from the location that the rocks fell, it was not uniformly distributed anymore. Riou estimated that it was a day, maybe two since it collapsed.
”So there is more to this mine… now, how to pass through this without collapsing the whole tunnel?” He though bringing his hand to his chin and looking towards the rocks and dirt in front of him…
As if deciding the method, he moved his head from side to side, stretching his neck and back muscles… bringing both his hands to his sides near his body, he began to fill the tunnel with his mana, enveloping everything around him in a layer of his magic power… once everything in the tunnel was secure he began to bring his hands up towards the ceiling, slowly but steadily…. With his hands, the rocks in front of him began to tremble… shaking until they finally went up, floating slowly towards the ceiling, from where they came from… as the rocks and dirt moved, gaps began to form and as soon as they formed, the magic mantle Riou formed instantly penetrated through the gaps. It quickly stabilized the rocks and dirt… the mantle went upwards through the ceiling penetrating the rocks above as well.
He moved everything as a single body, bringing all up simultaneously in a slow movement. Quickly a passage formed. He passed by once it was big enough, and he did so very quickly while holding everything up in the air.
The collapsed area was a few steps wide inside the corridor, and once Riou traversed it he slowly began to bring the massive body of rocks back down, calmly and slowly, avoiding any more pressure than was necessary…
Once everything was in place once again, Riou could move forward inside that mine.
The corridor went on and reached another open area full of old mining equipment, crates, mining carts and pickaxes… there were many old stools and improvised beds near rests of fire pits and pots used for cooking. They were all old, rusty and with a big layer of dust. In the ceiling he could barely see another breathing hole.
That room in the mine was not nearly as big as the others and was completely made by the miners as it was a square like room with another corridor on its end.