Zalia slowly and quietly drew her sword, surmising that her bow would probably not do very much against earthen elementals.
She watched as Larel vaulted over the rail off the walkway, falling to the ground below. The woman vanished into the darkness below making no sound as she impacted the floor. The entire room was lit up for a moment as Indis let out an arc of lightning further towards the centre of the room. In the brief flash of light, Zalia saw the silhouettes of hulking elementals roaming amongst hordes of smaller elementals made of all types of materials from rusting iron to various stones. They were all rough hewn creatures made of jagged edges and shapes. She saw a smaller elemental explode as their Silver rank leader punched straight through it and she saw the two Bronze ranked twins vaulting over the handrail as well. The other group began making their way to the ground in a more conventional manner via the stairs. The room was quickly and more substantially lit up as one of the other groups' damage dealers began throwing fire through the space.
Zalia knew she wouldn't be much help in this fight and stayed back using her healing to keep everyone refreshed as her team followed the others down the stairs. She would play off healer in this fight as Ember took a more frontline role to keep Zen from being surrounded. The other team reached the bottom of the stairs and got to work, their other damage dealing back liner was some sort of gravity or telekinesis focused mage, crushing smaller elementals in swaths while their fire mage focus fired some of the larger creatures, melting through their rocky bodies. They had two front liners in Eston and another. The other man used two large, heavy gauntlet type weapons to smash through elementals, less impressive than Larel but still quite a sight. Eston focused more on defending the two mages and their last member, a healer.
Zalia's team reached the fight soon after and Indis began letting off blasts of lightning. The magic homed in on the larger metallic elementals and failed to do any real damage but the member of their team that really shined in this fight was Zen. He laid waste to the creatures with his large mace and buffed strength attribute, using his taunting abilities to gather the smaller creatures into large groups he could essentially blow up with a few hits. Zalia used rituals to increase her allies' defense and then began using Dodge-vine and Manifest rituals to create small walls that funnelled some of the smaller elementals to add to Zen's grouping efforts.
The room was lit up by molten rock and patches of fire flickering as lightning arced through the air and Zalia could see further into the room as Larel started using her actual abilities in a fight against a large composite elemental made of metals and stones. She only kept a watch on the fight out of the corner of her eye but she could see Larel was some sort of fist fighting ice mage. An icy mantle that seemed quite flexible had formed over her body and she was expertly dodging the slow but weighty strikes of the elemental as she periodically slammed her fist into the creature. A large icy spear grew from the ground, impaling the side of the creature and holding it still as Larel laid waste to its body, smaller elementals exploding just from the force of the strikes. Zalia finally saw the twins as they appeared on the back of the creature using some sort of joint ability to summon shadowy tendrils that snaked across the surface of the creature and began digging into the stone, slowly pushing it apart and cracking it.
Zalia had to properly focus back on her fight, ignoring the incredible display of magic further into the room as Zen took a hit to the side. She focused on healing the man as the fight continued on.
⪼ ⪢ ℋ 𝒶𝓃𝒹 ℋ ⪡ ⪻
The fight finally ended as Larel kicked the last small elemental, dust and stone exploding across the room. Zalia had needed to use Nature's wrath far into the fight when it had looked like the other team was going to be overwhelmed. The ability had held down everything long enough, numerous stone tendrils impaling creatures and holding them still for enough time that the other team could recover. She had noticed one more thing as she had used the ability as two small Tin rank stone creatures had ripped themselves from the ground and gone to work on the other elementals. Now that the fight was done she checked her messages, finding exactly what she had expected.
Congratulations! Escape has gained four levels reaching Tin 16.
Congratulations! Hunter class has gained four levels reaching Tin 16
Congratulations! Nature's wrath has reached Tin 20.
Congratulations! Nature's wrath has reached Iron 1.
Nature's wrath will not gain further levels until all classes have reached Iron.
Nature's wrath - spell - area
Tin - You invoke the wrath of nature. Nearby enemies are bound by vines, sinking sand or other area related hazards. Enemies are also subjected to a damage over time effect relevant to biome that lasts until the restraint has ended. The damage over time effect deals moderate damage per second.
Iron - When used, Nature's wrath now summons two short lived allies of nature. The allies are one rank lower than this ability. The allies are of a type based on the surrounding environment.
Congratulations! Druid class has reached Tin 20.
Congratulations! Druid class has reached Iron 1.
For reaching the next rank, linked attributes of the Druid class have increased significantly. Increase all other classes to Iron to progress further.
Her Nature's wrath ability had levelled during the fight from experience gained by killing the elementals and the added effect had come into play as she used it. As her Druid class levelled to Iron rank she could definitely feel the effects. It was less of a physical feeling like the Herbalist class had been but a mental one. Her wisdom and intellect attributes had gained a large chunk of power and she felt as if she had been half asleep her whole life. Her mind raced, being able to see and understand things so much easier and quicker. The overwhelmingly increased speed of her ability to perceive and think would have taken a while to get used to if not for the fact her mind was now much more capable of dealing with its own improvement.
Zalia looked around the room strewn with broken rock and ore, larger bodies laying still where Larel and the twins had taken care of the higher rank creatures. They hadn't encountered anything above silver and so had remained in the space, the two Iron rank teams remaining far away from where the higher rank people fought.
"What's next?" Zen asked.
"We find out what's through that door," Larel said, pointing to what appeared to be a solid stone wall.
"What door?" Three members from the other group asked simultaneously.
"This one," Larel replied as she walked forwards and punched the wall.
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The wall reacted by promptly exploding inwards.
They filed through the small hole in the wall, one by one. Inside was the scene of a massacre, dried blood coated the walls and floor and within the centre of the room sat a small undulating rip in the fabric of space. Surrounding the anomaly was a ritual in old dried blood,
"What the hell," Zalia muttered lowly.
The sentiment was shared by the others there. A low rumble went through the room, stone shaking for a second as they slowly moved further into the room, examining everything.
"Just a tremor," Eston said, sounding a little unsure.
"Any idea what that is?" Zalia asked, pointing to the strange rippling portal in the middle of the room.
She swore she could see through it into some kind of space beyond, the sight too blurry to make out any details.
"Some, though I need to confirm with the higher ups before I say anything," Larel said.
Another tremble went through the room, dust falling from the ceiling.
"We should get out of here soon," Zalia said.
"A little bit longer," Larel replied.
She was about to argue the point when a message popped up in front of her,
? - Gold rank
She turned to Larel about to tell her what she had just seen but the woman's eyes were wide open already,
"GET OUT!" Larel yelled.
Everybody immediately jumped to action, running from the room from their seperate locations. They sprinted through the battle torn cavern, getting to the stairs and began ascending. Everywhere Zalia looked it was the same message, telling her something Gold rank was there,
"Oh no," Zalia thought.
They sped up the stairs and began sprinting through the tunnel to the entrance, the Silver and Bronze rankers getting ahead. She made it out of the tunnel mouth turning after a few more metres of running before seeing the final person make it out of the tunnel just as the mouth of the mine snapped shut. Two circles much higher up on the rock face opened, molten cores glowing within as Zalia recognised it for what it was: A face.
She turned and ran once more, the rest of their people doing the same. Zalia heard a thunderous crack as a large rough arm ripped itself from the ground, slamming down and flattening the fire mage from the other group. She kept running, as fast as she could, moving ahead of the pack due to her high mobility passive. She saw Larel stop and turn around to face the monster as the ground beneath them shook. Another crack and thunderous boom sounded as another arm ripped itself from the ground and slammed down. Getting far enough away, Zalia turned around in time to see a huge hunched humanoid figure rip itself from the hillside, chunks of dirt, stone and dust sent flying through the air. Standing before the monstrosity was Larel, her silhouette shadowed against the light from the molten cores of the creatures eyes. Time seemed to stand still for a moment as Zalia's heart beat in time to the boulders of stone impacting the ground. The creature opened its mouth, once the mine entrance, letting out a deep grinding sound. Within the pit a deeper red glow could be seen further in. Larel would be the only one with a chance of fighting the creature being significantly faster than the comparatively sluggish elemental. If they let this thing loose it could level cities and towns, destroy infrastructure and possibly even push the kingdom over the edge, as it was already teetering on the brink due to the war.
As she watched, shadowy tendrils began sprouting from the ground and wrapping around the creatures thick trunk like legs and arms. It was standing on all fours as a gorilla would. Larel dashed forwards, though she had said they would run from a gold rank creature this one was slow enough to be defeatable. That was Zalia's thinking at least.
As the Silver ranker sprinted towards the creature it raised its arm to crush her. As it swung down an icy spike grew from the ground intercepting the fist, the creature impaling itself on the spike. It provided a moment for Larel to get to its legs and begin punching, small shockwaves exploding outwards from every strike. It looked like she was focusing down one leg as the shadowy tendrils and icy spike kept it still. The icicle snapped as the creature pulled sideways and tried to stomp Larel into the ground. She dodged around, avoiding the stomps and getting in more strikes whenever she could. Dark clouds formed above the creature and black rain started falling down, sizzling as it landed on the creatures back. The joint magic of two Bronze rankers working to great effect for their rank.
None of the abilities were far enough out to affect the two groups of Iron rankers watching from afar but the raw magic on display was almost tangible to their senses. They watched as a large bladed chunk of ice formed and slammed into the creatures face splitting it a bit. The creature let out another grinding sound at that and opened its mouth once more a now blindingly bright light coming from within. A wave of molten stone flowed out over where Larel was and Zalia thought she might have been caught for a second. As the stream of stone stopped, Zalia could see a section that had cooled and solidified around a dome of ice. Larel exploded out of the structure, charging once more at the creature and going to work on its legs.
A change in pace finally came when the creature tried to stomp Larel once more and its leg finally snapped, leaving it unbalanced. Larel's strikes seemed to get stronger and stronger as she fought, possibly having a ramping skill that made each consecutive strike stronger. Each strike at the start had been visible but now every one looked like a veritable explosion. As the creature toppled sideways, Larel grew ice into a spike that its head impaled itself on. She proceeded to grow ice around its body trying to hold it down. The shadowy tendrils also gripped into the creature, slowly pushing their way in and holding firm. The elemental struggled and pushed, resounding cracks echoing through the area as ice cracked, but held. Larel went to work on its neck, smashing through it at speed. The creature managed to break free, standing unbalanced but as it pulled away its head came free, leaving the stone impaled on the ice spike. The creature seemed unfazed but now stumbled blindly as if it couldn't see. It wildly swung its arms and legs around, desperately trying to smash the little bug pummeling its body, molten rock now freely flowing from its severed neck.
The fight came to a final end as Larel cut more off the same leg, managing to take the whole limb off as it fell this time. The next leg soon followed and the arms not long after, signalling the creature's end. Zalia and her group stood watching from afar in awe, the other group mourning the loss of their friend.
Congratulations! Escape has gained three levels reaching Tin 19.
Congratulations! Hunter class has gained three levels reaching Tin 19.
She watched as Larel came up to them, the twins appearing at her side. She noticed something a little different,
Larel - Gold rank
"Congratulations," Zalia said somberly.
"It came with a price I'd rather not have paid," Larel replied, "I was close and would have gotten there sooner or later."
Larel walked up to the now group of four,
"I'm sorry for your loss," she said gently.
All she got was teary eyed nods or weak smiles.
The whole party slowly made their way back to Endelbyrn over the course of the next few days, taking the trip easy. It was like a muffle had come down on the group, all emotions being overshadowed by the death of the team member. They had tried to find the body but there had been too much rubble and once molten stone strewn about.
Zalia continued training and helping the others to learn hunting as they went back. She checked her messages from the six-ish days of training as they arrived at the city gates,
Congratulations! Mobility has gained five levels reaching Tin 19.
Congratulations! Sword - Weapon proficiency has gained four levels reaching Tin 17.
Congratulations! Teaching has gained two levels reaching Tin 3.
Making steady progress across the board, Zalia re-entered Endelbyrn with a slightly better understanding of the dangers of this line of work and what it could take from you.