I sat in my workspace and reflected on the last minutes, trying to understand the motivations of the crowd and how I could have dealt with it easier. Just then I was interrupted by a thought from Galen, 'Master, I have Kalla here, who wants to talk with you. I would also want to have a word with you as I think I have discovered something strange about Cusian, the guy who opposed you.'
I didn't sport the feeling of a talk with the princess right now, but Galen had spiked my interest, so I sent him an invite, watching him appear only seconds later.
“The princess wasn't happy that you refused to talk with her, but I told her that I would try to sooth your anger. For now she has gone back to the people and will try to win back some trust. You should have warned us at least about your experiment, not that I wasn't impressed with the result. It could save our bacon with a weapon like that at our disposal.”
I remained silent and Galen didn't press me which I appreciated very much. Having an old geezer like him with all his life experience and therefore knowing when he has to shut up, reassured me that I made a good choice selecting him as a city guardian.
After some minutes of pleasant silence I looked at him and nodded, “Now, you had discovered something?”
Galen smiled and took a deep breath, “When I searched for any threats beyond that idiot I used my mana sight on Cusian, because his behaviour irritated me. I have known this fellow for more than 40 years and he was always a rebel, but this aggressive role of a leader didn't fit him. So I searched for something extraordinary and I was successful. I sensed some kind of mind magic influencing him, but it dissolved extremely fast. Whoever manipulated him into attacking you, he was very skilled and can do things with magic no one else is able to.”
That surprised me and I was angry about not checking the guy, but it meant that we had a powerful enemy in our ranks, one I had to discover fast if I wanted the be the victor when the goblins attacked us.
I nodded to Galen and sent him back outside, following him only seconds later.
“Nala and Kitara will guard my core, Galen and Chara be ready to strike at once when I detect our hidden friend. He is in my territory and therefore I should be able to sense his mana signature, now that I'm aware of him.”
I had gathered the signature from Galen's memories, the connection to him as a guardian useful again. Then I searched my entire domain with my mana, using almost my complete mana pool in the process, searching for this wicked feeling mana Galen had sensed.
In most of the dungeon stories I had read on Earth dungeons could always feel their complete territory, but I didn't and that was unfair. I had to use my resources to find anything, build anything. Dungeons had it so much easier than me.
Suddenly I felt something at the edges of my domain and flew at once in the direction trying to catch whatever it was. At the same time I ordered Chara and Galen to follow me as fast as possible and take Andarin with them. He might be useful in a close combat fight.
As I shot over the grassland I saw an elf with long brown hair running away from the city at full speed straight to the forest in the distance. Coming closer I saw that he was in fact a she and her body was covered in a full body leather armor made from boar skin. She held a bow in her left hand and on the right side a long dagger, almost a short sword already rocked with her long strides over the grass.
I didn't recognize her at first glance, but I hadn't paid much attension to the common elves besides Dorien and some of the crafters. Soon she would leave my influence and I had to find a way to stop her somehow.
Maybe it was impossible for dungeons to influence their territory when hostiles were near, but here was a clear advantage I had over them, because I could manipulate my terrain. I dug a hole right under under her next step almost 3 meters wide and half a meter deep, using most of the mana I had left. I told Nala and Kitara to dump their mana into me which they did at once.
The elven maid lost her footing and crashed into the ground and I used the dirt I just had dug and dumped it on her, calling more from inventory and burying her like I did my father at the beach in my childhood.
I heard her swearing and trying to get out of her misery, but with every second the weight on her got bigger and made it harder to get air into her lungs.
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Andarin came running like the wind now, his body enhanced by the use of mana. He had drawn his blade and grinned like a madman coming to slaughter the innocent. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to make him a paladin, he seemed to enjoy fighting very much, more than necessary.
I didn't have time to reflect on this thought because the earth I had thrown onto the woman flew away with such power behind it, that I would have been hurt quite badly if I'd still had a body.
The woman glowed with mana enhancing her muscles and her eyes flashed with anger, “Stupid core! You should have let the elves and goblins just kill each other and then you would become the core of a mighty empire with me as your ruler, but now you have awoken my wrath and I will teach you some manners. First I will kill your toy soldier over there and then I will show your pathetic elves their place. “
'Nice speech there, lady, but I have used the time to thread a mana fibre into your body to siphon some energy from you.' I thought, 'Villains talk to much!'
I had to admit that she was powerful. Although I sucked on her mana pool like crazy, filling my own quite fast, she didn't seem to care and ran to meet with Andarin, drawing her dagger and screaming loud enough that everyone in a kilometer distance could hear her clearly. No elven woman should be able to do something like that!
I concentrated harder on her to get a reading of what she'd hidden, but her fast movements made it hard to get any information.
Andarin and the gal clashed and their weapons screamed out like mistreated animals. The metal of their blades wasn't built to withstand their enhanced strength and deep impressions were left where they connected.
To my biggest surprise Andarin could hold his own against this mysterious foe. I used my own powers to support him any way possible by creating traps for the woman's feet or dropping heavy boulders on her, making her rage even more.
“This is an honorable fight between me and him, core, so stop messing around. I will fight you later.”
Is this girl for real? That's my land, my people she attacked, and she had also done so with very unfair means. Coldly I answered while I threw some stones at here, “Shut up, bitch! You played dirty first, now stop complaining if I do too. As soon as you lay dead at Andarin's feet I will mop you up and dissect your sorry corpse to discover your secrets!”
Now she got really mad. She attacked Andarin like a madman, ignoring her defense completely. Not that her opponent would have been able to use that for himself. She was so fast and deadly that any attempt to attack her would result in a blade between the ribs.
Andarin was pressed harder with every moment and his movements became slower with his mana pool depleting fast. So I had little hope that we could win the fight, when a small fireball came suddenly from the city, hitting the crazy woman in the back. Throwing her attack wide to the side and giving my fighter the chance to strike right into the sweet spot into her stomach, he drove the blade through her and then gave her a solid headbutt.
She gasped when the blade ran her through and tumbled back when Andarin knocked her down, pulling his sword out of her. I was sure that she was done for, but she jumped more than 10 meters away and then her body dissolved into a kind of blue mist, getting more than 5 times bigger.
A second fireball came flying and smashed into the mist, followed by a loud and animal-like scream. The mist solidified and revealed a green reptilian-like body with wings that measured 5 meters each and a 4 meter long tail that was almost as long as the rest of the body. The fascinating fact was that these wings were not like that of bat but more like a bird, with feathers that looked slightly metallic and quite sharp at the edges. One of the wings was obviously damaged as more than half of the feathers were missing, looking like someone had burned them away. Her reptile head was surrounded by bone spikes and her teeth were 20 centimeter long daggers.
A deep wound in the stomach disrupted the otherwise glimmering green scales and bled dark red blood onto the grass.
This elven woman was a fucking dragon! Okay, I knew some women whose character wasn't quite off this one here, but I had never seen the real thing. She was beautiful.... and quite angry.
She drew a deep breath and I wanted to yell at Andarin to run away from her, but then nothing else happened.
“My magic, you stole my magic! You bastard, I will get back at you for humiliating me before these damn elves.” The dragon jumped away from Andarin again and tried to get some distance to get airborne, but Andarin followed her, not so fast anymore but he too was low on mana.
Again a fireball came flying, followed by another stronger one, but this time the dragon was fast enough to dodge them by throwing herself to the side, even if that meant that she lost some momentum.
Andarin struck out with his sword and hit as hard as possible at her tail, cutting off half a meter with blood spraying everywhere. The dragon screamed out in pain and ire, turning back to the attacker when another fireball almost hit her head, missing it by a hand's width. Her reptilian eyes went wide and she seemed to realize that her death was imminent now.
Although she bled like a pig and was hurt severely she moved with uncanny grace and surprising speed away from Andarin, giving him no further chance to hit her again.
I saw another person running at us from the direction of the forest, with a drawn bow and releasing arrows in fast order. The dragon saw them at the last possible moment and turned her head to the left, but two of the arrows pierced her near her right eye, eliciting another scream of pain from her.
With great effort she accomplished to get airborne, crying out with every wing beat and dying the grass under her crimson.
“I won't forget this, Marcus! I will come back and destroy your city! You will be my slave!”
Sure bitch! Come back and we will wipe the ground with your sorry ass.
She was hurt quite badly but even then she was competent enough to avoid the fireballs and arrows targeted at her, rising into the sky fast and getting distance between us and her.
Chara and Galen reached us a moment later and looked at the approaching woman, who I now could clearly see. Galen's face, although he gasped for breath, lit up and he ran at the female with outstretched arms, “Niece, I feared to never see your face again!”
The woman hugged him tightly with closed eyes and tears forming. They stood silent for some moments and nobody said a word, Andarin watching the sky and the departing dragon.
Galen turned around, his right arm still around the female elf's shoulders, “Allow me to introduce my niece, the lovely Ildara.”