Chapter 19: The Fortress
1391 Words
“Ugh, this place is really a hellish crap!” Merek groaned as they endure the bombardment of the ever rising blizzard.
Despite Lugiel’s effort to shield them from the blizzard’s strength, it’s still placing a serious toll on them especially towards Merek and Athena as they uninterruptedly receive the mental toll of the visual input.
“Well, my parents once told me,” Lugiel remarked. “Ignorance can be blissful and luckily for me, that’s the case right now.”
Not seeing the crappiness of the circumstances has its perks.
-This would have been done by now if it was just the two us. (Magnum)
Magnum suddenly spoke directly to his mind. Due to the entrance restriction, he is sealed in his Soul Realm. If he materialized, one of them will be randomly ejected.
‘Can’t be helped,’ he replied. ‘That’s not my identity with them.’
He’s Lugiel the blind Alchemist right now, not Wanda the Dragon-riding Gunslinger.
“Also,” Lugiel continued before either of his cousins could return a remark. “We’re here.”
*Whoosh!
As if the entire thing was a lie, the blizzard disappeared revealing a calm snowy field with a fortress made completely out of transparent ice at the heart of it.
With the blizzard gone, Lugiel had then extinguished the Blaze Field which what had been keeping them warm as they walked up to the fortress.
The interior is massive and dark, and without prior knowledge, one would have wandered aimlessly just like the walk through the blizzard outside. Fortunately, survivors from prior expeditions had either sold or shared their intel and the Grimlands had spent some serious crests to secure them.
“According to the teams that at least made it here,” Athena started. “The fortress is a maze and the outline changes randomly. Then, according to the teams that made it to the final chamber, it is guarded by a humanoid demonic beast called Ice Witch. It’s not an expert-tier but it’s halfway there.”
“Most under twenty can’t really handle that,” Lugiel said.
“We’re not most,” she retorted.
“Fair point.”
“Anyway, lead the way cousin Lugiel.”
Detecting heat signatures. As the only one who can do that, even here, he has the most ‘eyes’ against incoming attackers.
Just as Athena had just relayed, the outline changes randomly but ultimately, like any other ruins, the most secured and the most clustered with demonic beasts would always be the final chamber and its surrounding areas. Follow the demonic beasts and the final chamber will eventually reveal itself.
*Eeeck!!!
Soon, they’d engaged into their first combat.
Plaguing the Frozen Fortress are the ape demonic beasts called Yules. They average at the height of three meters and their fur are snowy white. As for strength, they are at least twice stronger and faster compared to the Ckhans, the lion demonic beasts outside.
The leading of the three Yules that engaged them blocked Athena’s swords with its forearm. However, when flames rose from underneath its feet and an arrow ripped on its left eye, its defensive stance was thoroughly disrupted, allowing Athena to plunge one of her swords through its neck.
*Bang
Before the slain’s corpse could reach the ground, the succeeding two were already mid-action. The one right behind the slayed hammered its strong arms against the ground, *Boom! Boom! Boom!* sending a chain of collapse towards them while the third accompanied the aforementioned attack with a bluish beam it barfed out of its mouth.
*KABOOOM!!!
Unfortunately for these Yules, a silver shield projected from Merek’s bow blocked their attacks and from Lugiel’s hands, two bottles volleyed towards them, breaking and flooding its orange content against their heads.
*AACKK!
Both the Yules screamed in pain. Just as it is right now, the concoction held by those bottles were already harmful to one’s skin.
“Nock!” Lugiel demanded from Merek which he complied by impulse. After that, he set its arrowhead ablaze. “Hit those potions.”
He instructed and Merek released the arrow, grazing both the drenched heads of the Yules.
*Swish!
Blaze then *Boom!*. Their heads combust before exploding like watermelons, allowing them to finally proceed.
◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇
After tackling the trials of the Frozen Fortress’ maze over the past couple of days, Athena, alongside her cousins, Merek and Lugiel, had finally reached the final chamber.
Then, as soon as they entered, *Bang!* the huge double door were slammed shut by itself and several white spheres the height of a full grown human rolled out from the corners to surround them.
“Into formation!” Merek commanded and she immediately stood in front of her cousins.
“Are those golems here?” Lugiel asked just as the white spheres morphed and adapted the form of giant beetles.
Ice Golems.
Cited by the intel, they are the underlings of the Ice Witch and the major culprit of the prior failures. If it is just the Ice Witch’s Sorcery, she barely reached halfway to the expert-tier. That being the case, there should have been some of the teams before them that are more than capable of defeating her if it weren’t just for the protection and versatility these Ice Golems provide.
Merek erected his silver shield and released a red and twice larger arrow from his bow.
*BOOM!
The Ice Golems directly in front of them were shattered to pieces. Then Merek shouting, “GO!” Athena understood right away. Brandishing her swords, she leapt out of the silver shield and charged.
There’s a gap of half a minute between the arrival of the Ice Golems and the awakening of the Ice Witch. Thus, before the two could join forces, they must eliminate as many Ice Golems as they could within that timeframe.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!
But as she struck down the Ice Golems, several explosions had also risen from the front and sides that is not a courtesy Merek’s arrow. Glancing briefly back to them, Lugiel could be seen pulling out and throwing dozens of potions from his storage device.
This is another unexpected pleasure of him filling into the team. Provided by the strategic experts from the Clan, they already made a projection from venturing the blizzard and the fortress up to this point against the Ice Golems. However, Lugiel had been proving to be more combat effective than their initial assumptions, reducing their troubles greatly.
“She’s almost here!” Lugiel cautioned before either her or Merek could notice the white smoke descending from the staircase behind the Ice Golems. Checking the countdown too, there’s only five seconds left.
Suddenly, Athena entertained an idea of pushing their luck with Lugiel not only to make things quicker but above all, increase the likelihood of their success.
“Hey Lugiel, do you have anything louder?”
She implies his exploding potions and the answer is a yes.
“It won’t be safe.”
Realizing her intention, Merek demanded from him, “Can you protect yourself?”
“I can.”
“Then let us worry with ours.”
Lugiel nodded and pulled out a slimmer bottle with greenish content. He then took one of Merek’s exploding arrows and strapped it near its arrowhead.
“You know what to hit,” he said to Merek, handing him back his arrow.
Merek nodded and aimed at the white smokes as it takes shape.
“Take cover!” Lugiel warned.
Athena complied by slicing a protection talisman. A golden light wrapped around her body. Merek did so too after releasing the arrow by manipulating his silver shield to be a dome encasing him. Lastly, Lugiel utilized the same protection talisman she has.
*WAAAAAAA!
The Ice Witch shrieked loudly the instance her frame was fully manifested. Unfortunately for her, her performance was cut short when Merek’s arrow struck that same shrieking mouth.
*KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!
- Writer
