Res-Q
2061 Words
The children were worried as the mythical races went off into the direction of distress and looked up at me to make the next move or decision.
I looked back at them and then to Heather before I gingerly walked over to the parked Dragon Boat and opened up the boot compartment.
I removed the composite recurved bow and I slung it over my back and then a set of the quiver that had 2 sets of arrowheads - the concussive explosive and the armour piercing one.
I adjusted the listening sigil on my ear and then I hung the transmitting one on my neck as I inquired about the situation.
There was silence and there was no indication from both of the airships in the air. I later learnt that the two captains had not been wearing their listening sigil except for the archers as they were swiftly dealing with some unseen forces that had been surging around the area but backed off to a safe distance when the unseen forces were being pinpointed by the concussive explosive arrowheads.
"Children, listen to me. You are needed here to take care of Mummy, alright? The AAV is now busy trying to curb the situation back to normal and I am sure that the situation is not that life-threatening.
Remember, we have 18 AAV and we have 4 archer per vehicle. So you should realise that the odds are against those who were ambushing the guys who were loading the mithril and obsidian pieces."
"Stay here, and be as normal as possible. Here, take this listening and communicating sigil and let me know if you heard or saw anything within this area, right?"
"DEAR...! Bring the Dragon Boat around and don't stay in one place too long. Get as far away as possible from here and store these tins of biscuits for the guys."
"They would be back to collect the things and I make sure they DO come back to get them. Got it, dear?!"
Heather was slightly stunned when she was summoned by me in that manner and she nodded her head as she bundled both the children aboard the Dragon Boat and then followed by the tins of biscuits into the boot compartment.
She knew that I would be going on foot but she didn't know that I would be applying the Lightfoot instead.
Damn it, girl... Do you know how far is Hellsgate and do you expect your hero to go there at normal speed? We do not have the skills to use the vines and this is the only way I could think of.
Those thoughts raced through my mind as I hurriedly kissed my children's foreheads and kissed Heather as well and instructed her to stay safe and be at a distance somewhere she would be able to see any incoming threats.
I immediately deployed Lightfoot and this is the first time I had done so. I was delighted to be able to utilise something which I had not even tried before and after some moments I was able to travel comfortably without banging into tree trunks or tripping over jutting ruts.
It reset my Lightfoot and then I had to wait for a few seconds before I could utilise it again. This time I was using Lightfoot near to the river bank where there would be lesser obstructions.
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"Deploy your armour piercing arrow guys! Keep the concussive explosive ones on standby. We can not see the enemies clearly right now."
"They are using some kind of cloak to come and disrupt our operations. Look... There was not a single one of them that would dare to come within our perimeter and so far they had delayed our work behind for the past hour...!"
One of the archers could be heard screaming on the communicating sigil as he directed the rest of the members on the measures that they were supposed to undertake.
There were no reports of both Aerin and Artemis so it would be difficult to pinpoint their wellbeing at this point of time.
"Guys, this is His Majesty speaking. Have anyone seen any of the two wood elves that had entered here to assist in the movement of the mithril and obsidian pieces?
There were directed to be here to render assistance and right now we only got bits and pieces of information."
I used the communication sigil and one of the archers spotted the two wood elves that were trapped within the perimeter of the invisible barrier that someone had put up to confuse our men.
"Your Majesty, they are within the invisible barrier and due to that their communication sigil was unable to be used with full effect. Right now we can't even see their shadows inside the barrier. This barrier is being controlled by the forces outside it."
"Your Majesty, please advise on the next procedures." One of the archers reported to us and we could see that the situation is not to our favour and Aragorn and the rest of the mythical races were waiting for my responses.
I went over to Aragorn and explained the situation and he scrunched up his face but he had no other choice.
"Aragorn, we would use Doc and Perky to penetrate the invisible barrier from underground instead of from the surface. It seemed that the person or people who set up this invisible barrier was controlling it from a distance and somehow Aerin and Artemis are trapped within."
"What we need to do is to pinpoint their location within 50 feet radius before Doc and Perky pulled them underground and emerge from a safer distance away."
"In this way, the bloody idiots who made this invisible barrier on the surface here would not be able to detect any movements from underground."
"That is what I am hoping for and the chances of locating them would be higher. Doc... Perky... What do you think of this and is there any possibilities or anything that you need to suggest?"
I inquired them since they are the underground dwellers and both underground and above ground dwellers need to come to a conclusion so that they would be able to make this rescue mission possible.
"How is the situation for the invisible barrier? I heard that earlier the three-headed hellhounds were hounding the edges of the barrier and did not proceed to harm our men, am I right?"
"Do you think that they are planning for something and that is the reason why the two wood elves were trapped within? Any other methods to enter the barrier?"
Some of the aircrewmen and the archers came over and squatted on the ground and discussed how they would be entering the barrier.
I saw that the invisible barrier had a kind of miasmic wall and there is nothing that could be seen beyond it. The only time and creatures that came poking its head out and around would be the three-headed hellhounds.
I was wondering how many of these three-headed hellhounds are there so we could defeat them, at the same time rescue the two wood elves and continue the operations of moving the mithril and obsidian pieces over to the airships.
"Your Majesty, the only way we are dealing with the three-headed hellhounds is to wait for them to poke their heads out before we unleash an armour piercing arrow to them."
"It would be a blank shot and the effect might not be as devastating as the other command skills. Right now, what the three-headed hellhounds were doing is to play some kind of psychological mind games with us."
"The only disruption it does was to disturb our concentration, that's all. Presently it does not pose a threat but our archers were keeping on our toes to ensure the three-headed hellhounds does not suddenly pop its head and then intend to grab our men into it."
"Alright, we won't be able to deal with them with effectiveness like this. Since they wanted to disrupt our operations, we would just leave it as it is."
"Right now, listen up well. The dwarves and gnomes would be entering the invisible barrier from underground and from there it would detect the presence of the two wood elves."
"Once the two wood elves had been detected, it would move them underground and appear well away from the point of entry. We would not be able to target those three-headed hellhounds just yet, but we would need some volunteers."
"I and some archers would be entering the underground tunnel the dwarves and gnomes would be digging and we would be able to unleash some hell to these young and innocent puppies."
"So, I would need 5 archers, anyone who would like to volunteer, please step forward. This is a death trap and lets me tell you this, we would not have the time to actually aim at those three-headed hellhounds but we would be able to unleash the 'arching shot' and 'go for their eyes' kinds of commands."
"Once we had performed our deed and wipe out those monstrosities, we can then travel back to the point of entry. Is that understood?"
When I asked for volunteers, the archers were eager to draw first blood and then almost everyone stepped forward to volunteer.
"I just need 5 archers, the rest would settle the ones outside and help with the task of moving the mithril and obsidian pieces. We would be moving now."
I only handpicked 5 archers and they followed me along to where Doc and Perky were. "Let's go, buddy. We are ready. Let's pick up the stranded elves and deal some damage when we had rescued them. Would that be alright?"
Doc and Perky nodded their heads and then Doc summoned a sort of portal gate where it leads underground. It was a safe point of entry which was several hundred feet from the invisible barrier wall.
"I will come along with you too, His Majesty. Doc, my friend... Please lead the way, thank you."
Doc and Perky lead the way as they walked down the enchanted portal gate that looked like an entrance to a cave. It was going underground and it had a slight inclination as we walked briskly.
"Aerin... Artemis...Do you read me, over? " I tried to communicate with the transmitting and listening sigil but had not heard anything but received a lot of white noise that was hissing and spitting over the listening sigil.
"Mars, those things would not work in an enchanted environment. Underground and above ground.
Right now we would be reaching the perimeter of the barrier and we would see if there's a dead-end or not because some of these perimeter walls could be hundreds of feet deep.
But don't you worry, though. The magical effects that we could feel right now are pretty weak. It seems that the person or people who made this barrier is still considered as a novice."
I was neither surprised nor delighted to hear the piece of news from Doc as he led us near to the perimeter of the invisible wall that happened to be right in front of us.
"Sigh...please don't tell me its hundreds of feet below. How many feet are we in right now, Doc?"
"20 feet, Mars. This is neither a novice nor a pro. But i think the person who conjured up this invisible barrier only concentrated the ones on top and not the one underground since I think the person would not have the eyes or interests with the underground dwellers."
"Alright... let's go underneath this wall, Doc. Lead the way...!" I spoke to Doc and glanced over to Aragorn who was feeling rather distasteful in his state since it may be his first time entering a dark and winding tunnel and being so close to the damp earth made his nose twitch.
"No problem, Mars. Aragorn, you may walk with Audemars here if you are feeling a bit uneasy since this may not be the first time and the last time you would be entering this type of place and environment. You may even learn a thing or two."
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Dear friends, if you spot any errors, please leave your comments in the paragraphs or the chapter section. Thank you for the POWERSTONES and God Bless.
- Writer
