Within the catacombs of the cave, Steve was being harshly dragged by a panicked Horatio. Having recently killed one of the cave members Horatio knew the cave would be aware of his attempted prisoner breakout.

"Why don't you kill him," One of the soldiers asked, motioning towards Steve.

"No. No one else will die," Horatio replied, giving him a glance that looked sweaty and unsure.

Steve's bindings were pulled so hard he almost slipped.

"You're pulling too hard, just let me walk,"

Horatio stopped and turned to him. A sudden crash could be heard throughout the tunnel as if sections of the cave had just collapsed. 

"We need to hurry," Horatio announced and pulled Steve along with more gusto.

They rushed thorugh more of the tunnels, Horatio getting increasingly more worried.

"Something's coming," he announced, pulling out his bow, a drop of sweat rolling down his face. To the others, it was just silence. A fog appeared around the corner as they stared and suddenly there was the sound of metal dragging on stone. Red eyes appeared in the distance and Horatio shot an arrow. He heard a ding as if it was swiped out the air.

"RUN!" He shouted,

The group bolted through the tunnels quickly coming to a fork in the path.

They had stopped waiting for directions, Horatio stared down one of the tunnels, waiting uncomfortably within the eerie silence. There was a sudden crash as one of the walls burst open. A giant of a goblin swung his sword through the stone and dust towards Horatio, missing him by a panicked and quick dodge.

The warlord goblin slashed at the prisoners killing one and kicking another to the side. Horatio shot arrows toward the beast in haste; getting two off before a stab of the beast's zweihander shot towards him. Horatio blocked with a quickly pulled-up sword, but his sword's flat side backed into him and he shot across the tunnel. 

The goblin barely seemed to notice the arrows protruding from the gaps in his armour when the prisoners tried to latch on. Grasping his arms and legs as Horatio tried to catch his breath, severely winded and his sword now broken. 

Aku moved without impediment, he pulled one of the prisoners off and plunged his sword through their chest. The entire five feet of the blade sticking through his chest before it was swung and the prisoner flew off into the wall in pieces. 

Horatio once again pulled back his bow and for him, time itself seemed to slow for a bit as he focused. He looked for weaknesses but found none. He instead pulled his bow back further and in a slight prayer aimed for a specific bit of the rock ceiling. Firing, he hit, chipped a bit off and rebounded to the floor. The great goblin beast looked across to Steve with a show of disappointment before that section of the tunnel began to collapse, and he disappeared.

Horatio dragged one of the prisoners out from the rocks, knowing they would be ok but he others could not be saved. The now smaller group carried on down the clear path in the fork, but soon they heard the patter of footsteps behind them. 

"Stop you bloody fucks," shouted a man with short red hair, in what seemed like an Irish accent. Horatio shot an arrow to slow him, but the man moved slightly for the arrow to miss and stopped.

"You're shooting me now, Ray?" asked Hans, the scoutmaster chasing them.

"We need to stop this!" Horatio shouted back. Then he saw the demeaning figure of Aku, the giant ghostly red-eyed goblin slowly appear behind Hans.

There was another crash as the unstable rocks began to fall around them.

..........

In the upper cavern, the fight still raged on — the high elf against remnants of the cave's top fighters. The elf had clearly in a short time mastered her new armour. Immediately arriving, killing three members and significantly injuring another had put the cave members on the defensive. Now they hid behind boulders and obstacles about the cavern taking opportunistic pop shots. Their ranged damage dealers, Leeroy and Griffon currently out of commission.

Adil was hiding behind one of these boulders; he poked his head out to see the high elf hovering above. A burst of energy shot towards his face, but he ducked back just in time to see a large chip come off the boulder in a blaze of mana. The high elf charged another shot and Adil backed away just before the boulder exploded into dust and pebbles. Now in the open, he had little chance run.

Seras, seeing an opening tried to give some cover fire, launching another slice of vibrating mana towards the elf, but it was easily dodged. The elf after the slight movement shot at Seras, the blast launching Seras back into the cave wall. After that, she focused again on Adil. 

Adil, with his impaired air manipulation was barely able to avoid two of the crescent attacks before one was clearly going to hit. He turned and cut it with an electrically charged attack, but the fog that came from it burnt his skin like acid as the electricity from his sword bounced across it. He felt sick, and a small icon of a blue person throwing up was in the corner of his awareness. His hands showed blue veins appear for a brief moment as he looked across them.

The cardinal too threw small amounts of glass at a time, occasionally trying to launch a larger amount but finding it appeared like a gloop. He was barely noticeable, and before anything could happen, Adil had made it back into cover.

"What are you doing?" the high elf asked.

"I uh, I can't..." The cardinal looked at the elf with pleading eyes. He seemed utterly distressed and amazed at how useless he had become.

"Just don't get hurt again," she replied dismissively.

The random boulder's scattered across the cavern seemed like the cave member's only hope, each member of the cave using them to avoid the attacks of the high elf. The high-elf hovered just out of range and focused on them with scythes and balls of glowing blue mana, fully aware of her advantage. 

Adil looked up to the elf in exasperation, amazed at the control she now had of her armour. 

An alien and strangely robotic voice came through the communication drone from Urakle.

"cha---... crys.....diot," he said before it appeared to cut out.

"What?" Adil asked through it.

"w....tuh?" He got in return, now knowing it was hopeless.

Adil looked around at the slight glints of crystals still held around the cavern, realising how they must be getting stronger as the ambient mana in the area increased. He only needed to prolong the fight and then maybe... Maybe it could still work.

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"Keep moving. We still have a shot, just don't give up!" he shouted. 

Adil sped from the boulder before it was blown up into another storm of pebbles. He tried to exert as much control over the air as he could muster, just barely avoiding the projectiles attacking him. 

He arrived at one of the remaining boulders and saw the kid from earlier there. Griffon's apprentice, also hiding.

"How do we fight that, we have no ranged weapons," the, probably about 14-year old kid pleaded.

"We don't need to fight, just drag it out. Cover me whilst I make a move."

Adil tried to focus and use his mana vision. He saw everything in the area was slightly illuminated as the battle built mana in the area. The high elf was a torrent of mana, a concentration larger than anything he had ever seen. Further, he managed to see that the soldiers from the collapsed section were climbing up.

Each crystal embedded in the cave's rocks were shining, some more than others. Adil checked out one with a larger concentration than the others and came up with a slight plan. 

Griffon had somehow, with only one leg, made it to the site of Leeroy's demise and now held a pile of arrows beside his bow, leftover arrows that could not be soul bound to refill his otherwise destroyed ammunition. Unbeknownst to Adil, Griffon was using his affinity now. A trail of blood leading to the location made it hard to believe he would have reasonably made it there without being noticed. Now Adil saw why. As Griffon channelled some form of energy, his hand glowed with light and morphed a shining globe around an arrow until it disappeared. Only with mana vision could Adil now see the coating of light energy around a now invisible arrow.

Griffon fired at the elf; she squinted before in alarm she moved a slight amount and felt the arrow slice past the side of her forehead. Adil looked on in amazement as the angry elf decided on her new target.

The elf woman flew towards Griffon and Adil looked on patiently. He saw the elf lady pass by one of the more vibrant crystals just as she was closing in on Griffon. Adil charged air behind a rock and launched it at her, making an audible clink as it hit her leg armour. She lost control and spiralled downward, catching her balance just before reaching the floor. She looked around but could no longer find Griffon, instead, frustrated; she changed targets to Adil.

A message appeared in Adil's awareness:

Simulating..... skill acquired.

learnt skill:

Catapult 

Your master over manipulating air currents combined with your precision and aim have granted you the ability to launch projectiles with incredible accuracy. 

She quickly appeared just over the boulder, but instead of findng Adil, she found a child of about 15 looking up at her. She was confused for just a second before she was blinded by a blast of light. Then Adil had jumped onto her back.

The elf went into a panic, shooting mana in every direction and trying to regain her balance.

"Get off!" she exclaimed.

"Make me," Adil replied.

The elf let out a burst mana, knocking Adil off but appeared to take a decent backlash and so released more mana in an attempt to heal. 

The soldiers had just about finished climbing up to the top, Adil felt as if it wasn't going well when he looked to see he would soon be surrounded. Then almost on cue, cries began erupting from that direction.

The ground began to shake again as rocky tendrils shot out from the ground, tree-like roots pulled soldiers back into the hole, many before they had even managed to climb the top. Appearing in the midst of the hole was the dryad. The dryad's eyes were glowing a faint silver as if she was channelling the rage of the whole cave. She appeared, lifted into the sky on top of her roots, around her appeared to be a gathering of small creatures, headed by a fire-cloaked Swift.

The elf had her sights set and dove for the dryad. Launching attack after attack, but this time they did not break through the roots. They did not even seem to impede them. She could only back further away into the sky as the dryad closed in. the animals shot across the field, appearing to change form as if empowered by the elements. They dove towards the remaining soldiers rescuing Adil from near-certain death.

"You are finished, lay down your weapon and beg for forgiveness," the dryad announced moving towards the elf as the elf frantically attacked the roots, trying desperately to push them back.

The high elf feverishly glanced around, worried for invisible arrows, surprise lightning attacks, and whatever other secret plans of attack the cave had stored. She was beginning to now notice the severe lack of power she had, and how it was slowly getting worse.

The elf appeared to grab a crystal near the core of her armour, it glowed a deep and dark blue before a huge glow emanated from her suit, coming from a glow in her chest like the early stages of a magic ironman suit. 

Her eyes left a trail of blue as she raised further into the air and shot out beams of blue light from her hands.

Now, blast after blast she shot back the tendrils, obliterating them, she cleared the area of the strange animals and started firing at the remaining guild members. Adil could only look on in shock. Swift collapsed to the floor and only managed a fleeting glance his way before he was engulfed in the blue chaos. 

The boulders were no protection, as another blew up, Griffon's body appeared out of his invisibility in a dismembered pile, seeming not even to disappear as the spawn crystal's mana was fully depleted. Adil gripped his sword and stared down the high-elf, ready to charge.

He dove forward and was about to be engulfed by the blue light when the kid, Griffon's disciple, pushed him out the way. Not knowing what to do, if anyone would be coming back after this, he could only look back to the child as the light blasted away all of him but the one hand left outstretched. The flashing 0% of the spawn crystal's mana was hammering away in the back of his awareness. 

The location began to collapse, rocks falling. The cavern in pieces. The elf collapsed to the floor, blue veins along her cheeks started to recede as the metal of the armour began falling apart piece by piece. Under her armour were burnt clothes revealing the elven skin underneath. One of the soldier's that had made it to the top carried the dark gold-trimmed robe the elf seemed to have taken off and quickly delivered it to the girl. 

..........

Somehow Steve was left alone, further away from the prisoners that had abandoned him in their escape and ignored by Aku and Hans as they chased them down. He could only really think about how he probably wasn't worth it to them. Even he didn't know what side he was now on. The sudden collapse of the area took apart the cavern's walls and gave glimpses of sunlight up above, shining through the dust.

He climbed higher and as the dust began to settle he saw the crusading army in the midst of it all. The resistance in pieces, Adil seeming to be crawling towards the high-elf who was coated in her robe while she was on her knees, guards around her. Before Adil could get close enough, the army's crusaders seemed to surround him with swords, holding him in place.

Steve carried on, walking forwards into the chaos. He saw behind him how the cave had collapsed. Horatio and the prisoners appeared to be climbing out. Many prisoners now present on one side against the crusading army on, the dismembered bodies of the cave's higher-ups in the centre.

Steve walked through the surreal state, no one seeming to notice until swords and arrows began pointing from the soldiers in his direction.

"Stop!" The high elf shouted to Steve.

The armies stood, facing down the approaching captives. Desperately Adil held on staring down his captors. The core's functions were shut down as it tried to gather more mana, no one able to resurrect.

Steve had walked far enough that he stood in the midst of the battlefield.

The cardinal was flustered as the high elf moved towards Steve.

"Move out the way, we are finally going to finish this,"

"You know you dont have to."

"Of course I have too, now move or I will have to kill you too."

"I won't move."

The high elf grew angry, conflicted. The cardinal looked towards her with an imposing yet ashamed look that conflicted his respect with a demand to continue. The high elf drew her hand. Steve then started to speak, before the elf could do anything, the feeling of his mental manipulation spread into her. She felt betrayed, somehow, her misplaced feelings held against her because of her lack of focus to the rules.

"Não há vergonha na felicidade."

She felt her heart flutter. She knew what was said to her somehow was not a command, not something to force her to do anything. Instead, it was like his words poured into her soul. She could feel a conflict raging within herself. As if her core identity was being attacked. She dropped to her knees.

"He has attacked. Kill them all!" The cardinal commanded. In the moments before they attacked Adil could see within the high elf a sort of storm, her essence was raging and taking control, struggling with an unimaginable force.

Adil stretched out his tendrils of energy and tried to penetrate her internal mana, it was hard, especially with many crystals still active and the army was rushing towards them. Steve seemed to look at Adil, to the high elf and then reached out with his mind and grabbed the ethereal string of energy, somehow giving enough power to break through.

As time appeared to slow down Adil's mind was transported into a time long since forgotten, a time of great conflict and a time of great peace and a time of development, but also a time of destruction it was a time of the citadel and time of the orc.