The monster fell for a few moments - which seemed for Adam to be an eternity.
Horses stopped.
Fenfallal started to move as soon as he raised his head, towards the flaming spider- he pushed Adam back, giving him a clear sign to hide behind him - and looked at Algier, whose horse stood side to side with his.
"Please protect the boy, we will take care of the danger." While Algier was the overall leader of the travellers, Fenfallal's authority in moments of danger was absolute.
The wind mage seemed hesitant - looking madly between Adam and the falling monster. Eventually, the craze in his eyes gave way to focus, and he nodded at the Royal Swordmaster - he decided to follow his orders.
A loud thud reverberated through the surroundings. The sound bounced back and forth between the steep mountain slopes, guarding the path from both sides - as the spider collided with the earth. The flames on its carcass burst forth around him, then vanished for a moment only to reappear in a few seconds.
"Step down, we have no room to manoeuvre," Fenfallal ordered his subordinates while getting off his horse.
"Too little space for formation, augmentation?" Stellmo asked immediately.
The spider squirmed on the ground, its burnt legs maniacally grasped the air and flailed around. Clouds of dust were raised into the air, as the boulders around the stream disintegrated under the creature's enormous strength.
The golden warrior thought for a short moment.
"Yes, archers - fire at will, rest go with augmentation," Fenfallal said, and immediately his armour started to shine in golden light under his coat.
Compared to Adam, he was clad in a heavy and robust piece of metal hidden under loose fabric- but for him, the masterwork of smiths and forgemasters wouldn't be heavy even without its lightening enchantments.
The warrior reached to his saddle, taking out a helmet from his saddlebags - fully golden, with beautiful marks adorning it from all sides, just like his armour. The helmet had a flap - covering his whole face if lowered, and shined in golden light just like the rest of the set.
In the back, two warriors took out their bows and prepared to cover their leader's back.
The rest - five knights, stood next to their horses with their chestplates emitting soft light, of varying colours. Their weapons were drawn.
As the guards prepared, the beast managed to get on its legs and stand up.
At first, it stood with its massive abdomen turned to the travellers, but hearing Fenfallal's commands, it turned around - Fury burning in its numerous eyes.
Massive fangs sticking from its head scratched against each other as if the beast wanted to scream, howl in anger at the group of humans that appeared in its sight.
Suddenly, the legs moved.
The beast raised its carcass up, and its abdomen moved under its head, pointing at the travellers.
A green mass burst out, flying at the group of humans with ferocious speed.
Two bowstrings singed, and gigantic holes appeared in the tangled up web, of worrying colour.
The rest of the dangerous substance was blown away by a curved blow of wind, arching next to Fenfallal and sending the web into a mountainside, far above them.
The beast made its move and the obvious action was retaliation.
Fenfallal dashed forward with unimaginable speed - after quickly drawing his sabre and ending an arch of lightning on the beast. Adam had to close his eyes, as the golden light coming from the warrior intensified, as if solidifying.
Thunder boomed, as the arch leaving warrior's weapon fused into a bolt, and struck the opponent almost immediately.
Golden lighting danced on the spider's abdomen, numbing him and rendering him unmovable - it didn't deal much damage above that.
Another thunder was heard, as Fenfallal appeared near the spider's burning leg. With a swift slash of the sabre, the golden champion cut off a major part of the creature's body.
The spider was agitated, it woke up from its stupor and moved its still electrified, body in pain.
The monster's retaliation was unsuccessful, warrior clad in lightning dashed to safety as soon as he dealt some damage.
Arrows flew through the air, helping to distract the beast from the swordmaster. They didn't have nearly enough power to deal any damage to the beast though - everyone apart from Fenfallal and Stellmo was at most in the advanced realm, after all.
Spider lost another leg to the warrior's nefarious tactic and was forced to step back a bit in the passage.
Fenfallal attacked again, at the nearest leg.
Yet, this time the monster was prepared.
Its back legs burst with power, letting it rotate in the canyon and step on the steep mountainside.
Fenfallal found himself between the spider and another wall of earth. With no time to change course, his sabre hit the spider's leg - which lit in a sickly green hue a moment before.
The weapon got stuck to the leg, burrowing itself in hard, sticky light.
Fenfallal found himself without a weapon and at that exact moment, lightning vanished from around him, he looked around frantically.
His armour was still shining though, when the creature spat another salvo of sticky web out of its mouth - directly at the warrior.
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When he saw the danger coming, lightning returned, and while he got caught in the web, he at least managed to fend off the liquid's corrosive power.
The spider neared its stuck prey, unbothered by the archer's salvos, or even Algier's attempts at breaking the beast's balance - despite losing two legs, the beast lord had still enough of them to keep itself up under the barrage of wind sent by a mage realm below it.
The fangs cackled as if laughing at Fenfallal's misfortune - who still couldn't move a finger.
The beast lunged at its prey, but fortunately for the warriors, failed to do so.
When its legs were about to bring it to speed, a torrent of flames descended from the air, pinning it to the ground and burning it alive.
The beast sprawled on the ground, frantically trying to put down the flames, which seemed to have consciousness of their own and attacked only the arachnid, leaving the surroundings intact.
All of the travellers looked up in shock, everything they were doing until then just stopped and whatever they kept in their arms fell to the ground. Only Parcas seemed not to change.
High above them, numerous kilometres above the highest peaks - an enormous beast stayed in the air.
A gigantic red lizard with bat wings sprouting from its back blocked the sun, hovering above the passage.
The massive figure invoked fear and admiration - those who cast their eyes at the Dragon couldn't move them away, neither were they allowed to stare. The longer they looked, the greater the dread became - numbing their thoughts and feelings, putting them in a near-vegetative state.
The warriors and Algier stood up and looked at the sky again - only to see a much smaller version of the Dragon dive into the gorge.
The beast picked up its prey and bouncing from the passage's floor, flew up again, leaving the traveller's sight in moments.
Fenfallal's sabre fell from the sky, embedding itself into the dirt - the dragon took what was it's, and left what belonged to humans alone.
------------------------
Minutes passed, and the stream's surroundings were still as a mountain lake.
Humans stood in silence, not daring to move in fear of the predator's presence.
There was an exception though, Fenfallal managed to undo the spider's bindings in that time, burning the sticky liquid with enormous amounts of electricity. He didn't have time to spare and stare at the sky.
Horses didn't seem as agitated as their owners - they were scared but stayed calm just like when the sole danger was the spider. As if the Dragon never appeared.
But it didn't seem like the animals didn't notice the beast in its entirety - Parcas calmly looked up - staring at the spot where the humongous lizard had been just moments before - and then looked around, as if proud of his bravery.
As Adam woke up from the stupor and looked around the site, he noticed something had changed - namely, the stream had gotten much bigger, as if the snow melted and dripped down the mountains.
Considering the situation, the sudden heatwave wasn't very unbelievable.
A few moments later, the warriors and Algier started to move again. The mage went to his horse quietly and took out a metal bottle with a weird curvy shape.
The warriors, on the other hand, picked up their weapons and rushed downstream - to help their leader gout out of his bindings.
As his subordinates aided his friend, Stellmo approached Fenfallal's blade - stuck in stone and red from heat.
"That... was something." He said while picking up the weapon with a hand covered in red hue.
"Yeah.. wtf." Someone from the little warrior crowd commented.
Sellmo locked eyes with his leader, both of them looked at the other with fear and worry.
When Fanfallal finally walked some distance away from the grease left behind by the burnt web, he stood alone and looked at the sky - contemplating.
His second in command neared him, and standing side to side, followed his gaze.
"What now? Do we return to report about the Dragon?" He asked with worry.
"Do not talk about 'It' openly." Fenfallal strictly ordered. "Such powerful beings can feel when someone calls them out."
"Isn't that a name of the species though? That would mean I am calling out gods every time I say 'human'." Stellmo argued back.
"How many humans do you know? Probably hundreds, and you have seen thousands of them or even hundreds of thousands. When you have only one, or two references - calling even the vaguest name may gain their attention." Fenfallal calmly explained.
"Oh..." The warrior seemed to give in and acknowledge his leader as the one being right.
Seeing the warriors congregate near the place where the sword fell, Adam left the wind mage with his flask and approached the group.
"Wha.. what was that about?" He asked reaccelerating near Fenfallal and Stellmo, he then looked at the sky - similar to them.
The stoic warrior didn't say anything for a while, as if considering the answer.
"We entered the apex predator's area of influence. You heard what I told Stellmo?" He eventually said.
"Yes, I heard. So, does that mean the future city is in danger? If we are in its territory, the settlers must be too." Adam concluded. He was worried, and it was clearly seen on his face.
"No - I don't think so. The beast's presence isn't a new thing for us, rather than that, we are shocked by its appearance... and its ancestor's." Fenfallal said, still looking at the sky with an unreadable expression.
Stellmo nodded at his friend's statement, assuring Adam that their opinion was the same.
"Are we returning, or do we go on?" Adam asked after a few moments of silence.
"If it was my decision We would continue the journey, but tomorrow - we have to rest after such a stressful encounter. But it's not mine, ask Algier before he drinks too much and loses the ability to answer." Fenfallal responded, pointing at the wind mage supporting himself on his horse, with a metal flask in his hand.
Hearing that, Adam made his way in his senior's direction. He picked up Paras on the way - putting him in his pocket and petting his fluffy head.
Algier seemed to have managed to drink a considerable amount of the liquid inside his flask. his legs wobbled under him in such a way, that the only thing keeping him upright was his horse. His long brownish-blonde wavy hair was wet in one spot - that stuck to his attire. The drink must have been powerful, as the mage got considerably drunk form from a small amount of it.
"Can you talk?" Adam carefully approached the drunk mage.
"I... can," Algier answered with struggle.
"Do we continue the mission? Yes or no." Adam gave him a hand and supported him with his shoulder. The young mage worded his question in the easiest possible format to answer, to help Algier's foggy mind.
"We... will continue... help me sit.. please." Algier's face was completely relaxed as he talked as if he had already begun to sleep.
Adam helped the man walk to the steep slope at the side of the passage, where he put him down to rest.
Next, he helped the warriors with arranging the camp and preparing food for dinner.
They sat around a campfire, in their blankets and talked half the night, most of the travellers got drunk - similarly to the expedition's leader. It was simply too much for their minds to handle at the moment, the dread and danger were nothing like they had ever experienced - it was painfully obvious that with just a word, the dragon could have obliterated the whole group.
They had no chance to retaliate, defend, escape or whatever their minds thought of - in the beast's presence, they were like specs of dust, worthless and unworthy of attention.
Everyone apart from Adam was aware of how generous the humongous beast was - they experienced its power directly and were truly grateful to the Dragon for sparing their lives.
The appearance of the two scaly beasts was unexpected and terrifying - and the travellers would bear a mark of the encounter for the rest of their lives.
As time passed, and the story spread - the memory of the day would be engraved in the mountains and the minds of people, and the shallow river's gully would be named the 'Fiery Mercy' passage.