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[The will of the origin - 42/?]
[Part of the origin.]
Effect: Not yet known
*Yes, no, it's obvious.* Avan thought about the two messages again for the first time as he thought back to them. He stomped straight out of the lake on the other side and didn't even notice the people in front of him, who were staring at him in surprise and with wide eyes. How he came marching out of nowhere, dry-footed, out of the lake, not carrying a drop of water. The women whispered among themselves, but the children had less trouble just saying what was on their minds. "Look mom! A wizard!"
It wasn't until Patris laughed, next to the amused Jen with a still slightly sad look, that the ice broke and several of the women and children chuckled. This time it was Avan's turn to look around in confusion, because his head was still busy with the things that had just happened, until he finally understood the new situation in front of him.
He scratched the back of his head apologetically and slightly ashamedly and looked at his comrades with raised eyebrows.
"Shall we get on with it then?" He asked the question in order to devote himself to the more important topic for the here and now, and quickly brought the others back down to earth.
*Whereby it seems to be good, that especially the trapped women came to other thoughts for a moment...*
Dani had just watched Avan shaking her head and now led the others again, in which she went ahead and always ran with enough cover from the fortress, which was in the meantime further away, in the direction of one of the exits.
Meanwhile, Patris joined Avan and patted him sympathetically on the shoulder, as if he knew exactly how to deal with odd or embarrassing situations in his life. "So, did you get there? Did it do anything?" Came the obvious questions directed at Avan, which he had already expected, since he had halfway enlightened Patris earlier.
Avan took a few steps and hung in silence with his thoughts for another minute before answering. "Yes, and no. I have a certain... ability that gives me strange situations when I touch dungeon cores. And I thought I might learn something from this one about the vampires, but alas, that was not the case."
A short pause, and he explained further. "Except that the dungeon definitely has the blood element and so the dungeon can be categorized with blood magic, I had seen a vision, or memory."
Now it was up to Patris to look at Avan with raised eyebrows as he walked along beside Avan.
"Don't look at me like that, Patris. I'm serious. But I need to think about this calmly first. AFTER we've escaped here and reported it to the guild. And then when I find out something that's important, I'll share it with you. Agreed?" Avan looked at Patris urgently, and tried to tell his companion silently that he should keep what he had just heard to himself until Avan shared it with others.
The young warrior looked at him thoughtfully and seriously, and almost tripped over a stone when he did not pay attention to the ground in front of him. Cursing briefly, he then laughed once. "Don't worry, friend. I won't say anything until you've put your own thoughts in order and share it freely with the others."
Grateful for this promise from the otherwise always cheerful and slightly clumsy Patris, Avan placed his right hand on Patris' shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze while nodding at him.
Soon Dani, followed by Jen, had reached one of the many entrances in the cavern wall that was only a few centimeters above the ground. This was in contrast to the entrance several meters above the ground that had brought Avan here.
"So, from now on, it's all about being quiet! Patris and I will lead the way, Jen will walk with you in the middle, and Avan our mage will back us up!" The young ranger explained to the women and girls with a calm but commanding serious tone. Many of the women simply nodded, and the mothers gripped their daughters' hands extra tightly, while some looked back skeptically, wondering why a mage was covering our backs. Normally this was strange, because mages and healers actually ran in the middle to avoid being stabbed in the back, but Avan was not a normal mage, as Dani knew.
To demonstrate briefly, Avan raised his right hand and made short and clearly visible movements with his fingers, as if he were a puppeteer whose puppets danced all around him.
He had gotten into the habit since this dungeon, and especially with the extremely high mana regeneration down here and the density of mana thanks to the dungeon he was able to incorporate, and his Akkalons forms were now permanently in an invisible fog around him, just waiting for his instructions.
His hand movements were totally superfluous, but served a successful demonstration of magical might, as suddenly all around him the mist first became visible, and then became various mana spears, swords, spheres, and visible wire ropes.
Judging by the expressions on the faces of the women, and even his team mates who were surprised at the sheer numbers, he had succeeded and they all seemed pleased and suddenly felt much safer with him at their backs.
Jen helped the women and young girls into the dark cave entrance, while Avan looked around for danger behind them, distracting himself from thinking about the meaning of the vision.
Patris, still armed only with Avan's short sword and a small axe in his left hand, stood at the front, and Dani behind him, also armed with a new bow that Avan had taken out of his inventory. A brief explanation that he possessed a spatial artifact and his friends should please keep quiet about it, and the mysterious appearance of weapons, equipment and even food was immediately explained to everyone.
He had only had 3 iron arrows with him from the dead adventurers at the beginning of his journey on Eos, but Dani had assured him that it should be more than enough, since she had certain skills that made it harder for her arrows to break during use. The bow itself was of inferior quality to her own former bow, but would serve its purpose for now, as would the already well-used iron dagger Avan had given her in case of close combat or when the arrows were shot.
Jen had gotten the [Oak staff of focus] from Avan, which he had bought in Tria before the trip, in order to at least be able to heal smoothly, since he didn't need anything himself to work his magic.
A few dried berries, candied fruits for the children, and an iron spear, already heavily worn by use, Avan had also distributed to the women to satisfy some hunger and to equip at least one more fighter with a weapon that would otherwise only gather dust in his celestial storage, now that he had mastered his forms so well.
When everyone finally disappeared into the dark tunnel entrance, the search continued through the partially narrow and damp corridors, while all involved marched tense and quietly through the darkness, illuminated only by two airborne spheres of Avan that hovered above him and emitted extra light.
Avan's teammates knew about the elite vampire guards patrolling these caves and tunnels, and everyone expected a collision with them around the next bend, or that they would be pursued after their escape was noticed.
But so far, much to Avan's amazement, everything remained quiet, and they found themselves half an hour later at a staircase that looked like it would lead up.
A short meeting of all involved and also the spear fighter among the women, who had introduced herself as Anna and served as city guard in Tria before she and her daughters had been taken away, and the group was discussing the further course of action and the possible confrontations with the wolves on the upper levels if they had already respawned. In a naturally occurring dungeon, other laws often applied, since these dungeons were still very young and no structure had formed, which resulted in a sporadic or even sometimes no respawn of monsters for a very long time.
Just as Dani was talking about the strengths and weaknesses of the monsters on the upper levels, there was a sudden hiss from one of the other tunnel entrances leading into this cavern, where the stairs and the group of refugees were located.
Avan immediately spun around and went into a fighting stance, looking for the hiss that sounded an awful lot like the language of those vampires. Sure enough, two pairs of glowing red eyes stared out at the group from the darkness, and not a second later, two evil smiling vampire guards emerged from the tunnel, spears in hand, ready to fight.
[Elite Vampire Skirmisher - 251]
[Elite Vampire Skirmisher - 248]
"Too high level! Run, I'll back you up!" Avan shouted to the others, who immediately ran towards the stairs and up, while only Jen stayed behind and had to be pulled along by Dani with loud protests. "Avan can't do this alone! Let me help him!" She begged her friend in vain, but she would not let go and pulled her mercilessly behind her up the stairs.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The two vampires, the one on the left with the slightly higher level and the one on the right, hissed angrily at each other and the one on the right gestured to the stairs while pointing at Avan.
Avan himself understood very well, even without knowing the language itself, what the two were up to, and took the initiative. His two spheres, which were still hovering above him, suddenly became brightly shining drills that spun faster and faster, and without waiting for the discussion between the two to end, he tensed his feet and jumped forward. At the place where he had just been standing, slight cracks formed in the ground, due to the pressure that Avan had projected under himself during the jump, and a cracking sound in the stone unfortunately announced his attack to the two vampires.
Both sprang around, their conversation immediately forgotten, and the combat experience and it immediately became apparent why both were considered *Elite*. The left of the two dropped his spear carelessly and grabbed his two double swords hanging at his waist left and right, and repelled the celestial borher flying towards him with a loud clang! He slipped half a meter backward with the force of the spinning drill, but except for a slight scratch on the sword that had to serve as a defense, he was unharmed.
The other guard whirled around with the spear, and with a masterfully aimed and almost imperceptible to the human eye directly executed a spear thrust forward. The tip of the blood red metal crashed into the tip of the celestial drill, and both weapons exploded under the force of the opposing power colliding at the smallest point.
Splinters of the blood spear scraped across the face of the surprised vampire, who had not expected this odd drill to have such force. A blink later, a furious hiss to his comrade, and he too had his two dopel swords in his hands, the splinters of his former spear already banished from his memory.
Avan himself was also momentarily surprised, but knew from past battles that his celestial forms could be destroyed, and directly summoned the missing construct again, while his other 20 forms formed various weapons and things out of the mist.
A wire rope sped toward the weaker of the two elite vampires, but only scratched harmlessly across the surface of the blood armor that encased the entire body like a second skin. *Damn, this armor prevents me from taking them out as quickly as the other vampires!* came Avan's briefly frantic train of thought as he had to focus on the left vampire, who jumped right at him and took advantage of the distraction.
But both swords, contrary to the attacker's expectation, bounced back against a thin barrier that had formed in a flash thanks to a mental command from Avan.
One of the two forms needed for this shattered, and Avan immediately conjured it up again, suddenly feeling a painful burning sensation on his right shoulder. The other vampire had taken advantage of the opportunity, and unlike all the anime and posed films Avan had seen and wondered about the stupidity of the attackers not attacking together at the same time, these two did! Only a broken spear of celestial energy had softened the attack that Avan did not lose his entire arm right at the shoulder, and only caught a cut deep to the bone.
"Fucker!" He now hissed as his body began to heal, but his mana regeneration was visibly weakening as he noticed. The deeper healing of a body required multiplied mana to cast as spells, and worked together with the body's nutrients to speed up the healing process so massively.
Infinite healing was not possible, even if the mana regeneration was sufficient, because at some point the bitterly needed nutrients in the body ran out and you could actually heal someone "to death".
Avan seethed inwardly over the stupid beginner's mistake and knew that he must not suffer too many injuries, otherwise he would become weaker and weaker, which would result in the lack of reflexes in battle.
He jumped back, and was just thinking about how to get to the mortal flesh of his opponents under all the armor, when both vampires jumped forward at the same time and tried to attack him from the front right and left. Avan instinctively knew that purely defensive tactics would be useless here, especially against two such experienced fighters.
A thick barrier formed in front of him in a semicircle, consuming 6 of his forms, and while the two were again surprised and enraged by the barrier and would have passed through in a few seconds, the other 16 forms materialized first in thick ropes, and some of them in small pointed needles.
The ropes flew ahead, trying to immobilize the superhumanly strong vampires as much as possible, while the needles went for the known weak points of armor. The bends of the arms, the base of the neck, all the places on the body where parts of the armor normally scraped against each other or overlapped.
The ropes held for a short time, but tore very quickly in a few seconds under the sheer muscle power of the vampires. The needles themselves did not find any weak points, except for the one that Avan had aimed directly at the right vampire's eyes. He was just able to lift one of his swords and protect the right eye, but was still caught by the other needle with a loud painful roar in the left eye.
Before the needle could penetrate deeper, however, the vampire had grabbed the form with his other hand, dropped the sword carelessly on the floor, and with a roar, angrily pulled it out and broke it.
A furious hiss to his comrade and the now one-eyed vampire threw himself at Avan in a furious rage, but this time only with a sword in his hand and the other hand ready to hand in case Avan tried something like that again.
So it went on, Avan defensively, but sometimes couldn't react fast enough and reaped some light or even deeper cuts while trying to slow down or ward off the two vampires with barriers. At the same time, however, he frantically with new attempts how he could add injuries to the two.
Only when he came up with another idea, to use pointed crow's feet in smallest powder form, similar to what he had seen in historical films, he had finally found a way to seriously injure the two!
His barriers remained as a defense, while the other 16 forms formed into mist, but formed the smallest pointed grains. Avan had dredged up the inspiration from somewhere in his memory, where a smaller army had defeated a much larger one by crushing all the glass they could get into small powder and then sending this glass mist flying at the enemy army with magical wind. The glass powder settled on the skin, even partially in the pores, and literally ate away at the eyes and lungs as the opponents blinked the powder deeper into their eyes and breathed it in!
The same thing now happened to Avan's opponents, as the mist suddenly descended mercilessly upon them, being inhaled and injuring the eyes so quickly and severely that any blinking or even closing of the eyes was already too late.
Not a minute later after Avan had started with this idea, the fight was finally over. Deep cuts on his arms and shoulders were still healing, and he plopped down on the stairs, exhausted.
The weapons of the two and the armor immediately disappeared out of habit in the Celestial storage, while the Celestial fog decomposed all the blood and remains of the two vampires into the smallest atoms and the remains of the attackers disappeared completely or partially absorbed into his dungeon as materials.
When Avan's wounds showed only slight superficial cuts a few minutes later, he stood up and slowly walked up the stairs.
His stamina was as low as it had last been in the practice fight against Eve, when she had trained and challenged him mercilessly.
Health: 465/800
Stamina: 78/725
Ambient Mana: 8600
Souls: 531/1000
His life was still only just over 50% despite almost completely healed injuries from the outside, as the body could not conjure up nutrients out of thin air and still carried the weakness after the fight despite healed injuries. For a full recovery, he needed sleep, a proper meal and rest.
His stamina itself was also so low that he could only climb the stairs slowly on slightly wobbly legs to avoid collapsing completely. Again, he knew from experience that a big fat 0 in his stamina reading would make him pass out.
The two vampires, on the other hand, had surprisingly brought in 33 souls. "I wonder if the sucked out victims of the two vampires have been absorbed in some form by the blood and that's why 33 souls in total came about?" He muttered while observing his resources and the increased number of souls.
When he finally reached the others, who had lined up at the top of the stairs ready to fight, waiting for Avan or, in the worst case, for the vampires, they greeted him with cheers. Jen immediately attended to his injuries with extra healing, and some of the women offered him dried berries and an apple that he had just given them earlier.
Grateful for the gesture, he accepted the food to regenerate his HP a little more, and the group continued on to the surface.
This time there were no further complications, and fortunately the monsters had not respawned yet. Soon the group emerged from the hole in the ground in the small clearing, and the women and children were crying happily, while the group of four just watched them, smiling.
Outside it was just cool night, and the starry sky greeted the group with a cloudless sky.
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