B.F.HUUPS
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16. The last of the tribe
🕑 Added 2023-10-08 01:30:08 +0000 UTCHis black furs stained red, Kalgarag turned from the battle and cut a man in two who accidentally blocked his way. His dark eyes glared up at the hulking cyclops one last time as he sneered and disappeared through the human ranks.
Lunging into the chaotic battle, Dordan disregarded safety as he swung wildly, crushing or killing any redcap silly enough to get in his way.
He had gotten stronger and faster than ever before, and he knew without even checking his status that he had leveled up, but he didn’t care. That ugly, lopsided face of the one who had killed his family stood only several meters away now, and not even a crashing meteorite could have swayed his attention.
Haitariki thrashed his club through the air, crushing an armored adventurer as if they were a fly and sending their weapon flying away.
“That all, puny humans?” Haitariki taunted, groaning in pain as a sword cut into his thigh, but only a second later he brought his club back down, crushing the man like a metal can. Simultaneously, his free hand shot forward and grabbed another by the neck, crushing the life out of them.
“To think, bugs such as you would challenge the great Haitariki You are nothing but crushed remains against my soles."
A stream of ice shot through the air, piercing straight through Haitariki's shoulder. The mage worked hurriedly as ice crystalized around his hands and formed another giant spear.
“Balbaclaw!” Haitariki screeched. He had expected to see his legion of shamans casting spells in support atop their ledge but was dismayed to see them overrun. Already the adventurer force of casters had almost entirely cut through their half-sized adversaries.
Snorting, Haitariki flung his oversized club through the air – its trajectory barely altered as it crushed the mage without pause.
“Tavika, where are you!” The cyclops roared, tossing another hapless adventurer aside.
Seeing an opening, Dordan leaped back into action, his axe end cutting into Haitariki’s back as he clung to it amidst the cyclops's wild jostling.
“For my kin, for my father!” Dordan roared, kicking out with his legs as he attempted to dislodge his weapon.
“You dare, insect?” Haitariki howled, swinging his body around before dropping and slamming against the ground.
Dordan spat blood as he rolled away from Haitariki, his weapon still lodged in the cyclops's back.
“BUGS! Annoying pests!” Haitariki roared as he stomped down on Dordan’s head, crushing it to a paste.
Light flickered across Iliana's eyes as she watched through the throng of battle. She halted. The world slowed a little as reality caught up with her.
*****
From what little Earon knew about magic, he was fairly certain that the goblin had been using ritual magic. Ritual magic was one of many schools, with its defining characteristic being slow but powerful. He thought he could remember a bard's song about goblin shamans and their ritualistic magic. It would explain why it had needed to chant so long to ready spells.
Earon was no expert, of course, and he was really just clumsily piecing together fables and things he had overheard.
Tapping his makeshift spear against the ground, he forced his head up and glanced around the cavern. If he was able to get down here, there had to be a way back, right?
Earon noted that the hazy, dim light that barely illuminated the cavern emanated from beyond a ledge not far away.
Slowly, he crept toward it - ever present of his surroundings.
Approaching the ledge he edged forward and peered over. Beyond lay a rocky landscape of stalagmites and winding streams that continued as far as he could see. A hazy blue light originated from a seemingly bottomless chasm that separated the rocky ledge where he sat from the massive cavern beyond.
This was the Scarworld, he realized, where monsters and ghouls crept out to attack the surface races. It was a place of nightmares.
He had heard tales of legendary heroes traveling into the Scarworld to slay terrifying beasts, monsters, and evil spirits.
Earon gulped; he was going to die down here.
A rhythmic, echoing clatter of marching stole Earon’s attention and he narrowed his eyes toward the direction it came.
Nothing.
The sound grew louder and his breath shortened.
Soon an entire army began to march into view from across the cavern, gradually growing closer. “Dwarves?” he mouthed in disbelief as the short, but impressively wide figures draped in metal armor stomped across the rocky cavern.
They might have only stood about five feet on average, but dwarves were more than twice the width of a regular man and moved in heavy armor like most humans did silken robes. Not only that, but their muscles looked as if they were carved from stone itself, and their skin was as thick and tough as leather.
Could this have something to do with what was happening above ground? Earon wondered. It had been over a thousand years since dwarves were said to have visited the surface, and if legends were to be believed, they almost eradicated humankind.
An army of dwarves was an entirely different challenge than even thousands of redcap tribes allied together. If this army was somehow involved in the World Event, something bad was brewing.
Damn it, Earon mouthed. He needed to find a way to the surface now.
*****
"He's dead," Iliana murmured as Haitariki moved on from her dead companion with indifference. She blinked and flashed her specialty ability again. Nothing.
“Iliana, snap out of it!” Fane shouted, clicking his fingers between cutting down a redcap.
“Right,” Iliana nodded tearfully as she returned to her surroundings.
“I hate to say it, but he's done for, and we might end up in the same condition if we don't do something soon."
Iliana turned her sight to the ledge above the cave opening. Even with her Eye of the Seeker, she couldn’t catch sight of Earon; not that it meant a lot from this distance.
"Earon?"
"Looks like they're doing better than we are. I say we fall back, let anyone stupid enough to fight those two monsters go for it." Fane said, eyeing the giant cyclops and minotaur that continued to tear their way through adventurers, albeit with mounting wounds.
Slowly, Iliana nodded. If Earon was still alive, he might just be in the safest part of the battlefield right now.
Once the high ground had been secured by the casters and they were able to support with their own spells, it likely wouldn't matter how strong the two leaders were. The redcaps and skull captains provided little support against an army of skilled adventurers, and they couldn't win alone.
It didn't make sense to risk their own lives at the frontline now, not with Dordan already dead. If Haitariki or the minotaur were to turn their slaughter in their direction, they would be unable to do much.
"So, what are you waiting for?" Fane snapped as he fell back behind an eager line of adventurers.
"Surprised you're willing to see the treasures go," Iliana tilted her head and fought back tears.
"Let them have the world event, we're not winning anyway." Forcing a smile, Fane gestured towards the countless corpses that littered the ground behind the armies as they broke rank. "We've countless bounties to claim. Who knows, if we're quick about it, we might even end up better off than anyone."
He may have acted in high spirits, but Iliana caught the shrouded quiver in Fane's words. She shook her head and nodded.
I know Fane, I'm hurting too. Iliana thought but held her tongue. Now wasn't the best time.
*****
A beam of light smashed into Haitariki’s back, and then a javelin stabbed his chest. "So many insects! Will you never quit?”
“Persistent bastards,” Tavika agreed, holding his arms up in a guarded stance as arrows and spells rained down on him. “The shamans have failed us, Haitariki, we must retreat and regroup!"
"Never!" Bucking Haitariki stormed forward, flinging several warriors across the field in a single movement. "I have not come this far to miss my chance!"
"Madness!" Tavika hissed as more spells smashed into their crumbling line.
Joining others had been a mistake. Working alone had always been how Tavika operated and he wasn't about to get himself killed over someone else's pride. Reaching the next stage could wait.
Slinking behind a failing line of skull captains, Tavika made his way toward the scar's opening, but as he stormed through the crowd glowing, red chains wrapped around his legs and arms in an instant.
“What trickery is this?" Tavika roared and turned to see the same chains whipping across the battlefield as they ensnarled friend and enemy alike.
The giant cyclops looked back at his companion with anger and confusion in his eyes as the chains completely immobilized him.
*****
"Look,” Fane exclaimed, pointing toward the Scarlet Stone that had begun to glow bright red as thousands of chains erupted across the battleground.
Iliana stepped backward, shaking her head. “No, no, no, that is not good. Not good at all.”
"Run!” Fane shouted.
Within seconds, panic gripped the remaining warriors as the chains took hold of the dead and living alike, catching those closest to the cave opening first, and working their way across the battlefield.
Hundreds took flight, and those too slow or wounded were crushed under the stampede, with even redcaps and skull captains running beside adventurers.
Bright red light followed, snaking across the ground as the chains whipped out and cracked the earth. Violent shaking began to send tremors outward from the scar, and the cracks cut through the ground as the very world itself convulsed.
Sections of ground fell to the dark abyss below, and newly forming canyons tore the landscape apart, forcing anyone still able to move, to dodge as best they could or fall to their doom.
Tumbling forward, falling onto one foot after the other, Fane and Iliana managed to continue for a while, but the quakes only grew stronger. Soon they too had been thrown to the heaving earth, bobbing up and down like a ship caught in a wild storm.
Entire formations of soldiers screamed out in terror as the sections of ground they stood upon crumbled beneath them, whilst those who remained were forced to cower and pray.
Groaning, the earth continued to shift, waves traveling through the very ground and leaving nothing but shattered rock in their wake.
The scar itself had been cut, and the wound which once served as a passageway between the surface and the Scarworld had now split the land in two. In its wake, countless weaving and treacherously jagged paths of rock led down to the dark caverns beneath.
A crack slithered between Iliana and Fane, and a second later the ground they lay upon was torn apart, sending them hurling in separate directions.
Neither had time to say goodbye as they disappeared from each other's sight and the world crumbled around them.
