“There are seven…”
Hidden behind some trees, Neledia observed the situation and analyzed her enemies, lowering all her murderous intentions to a minimum, just dedicating herself to observing them. “And they are well armed, those bows are adjusted just enough, I even see that some of them are growing, it will give more power to the arrows they throw.”
“I confirm that short swords are the common weapons that everyone possesses, either as their primary or secondary weapon, and surely those who possess long swords know how to use them.” Sebastian analyzing and giving his opinion about the weapons carried by the enemies, “I sense that, to a greater or lesser extent, each of them could be good close-range fighters.”
“Neledia,” Christopher called out this time, adding something useful to the team, “those two over there… seem to be a lot stronger than one would think. Do you think we’ll be able to outwit them without being noticed?”
“Is fighting against them an option?” A very good question from Anita, Mathias, at her side, dedicated his full attention to Neledia’s answer.
Diana continued to be surprised by the observation skills her brother and his friends possessed, it was truly incredible.
“Our mission is not to fight them,” Neledia replied. “It is true that we must finish off anyone who gets in our way, but this time that will not be necessary. The team in charge of distracting them while we infiltrate is already in the vicinity. I can hear them and I assume you can hear them too, Mathias.”
“Yes,” the demihuman replied, his ears twitching, “and one of them is coming towards us… no,” he looked around, “it’s already here.”
First of all, there was a very good reason for it being done this way.
It would seem that it would be enough for a single team to eliminate the vigilantes and then infiltrate them, but that was not an option.
That first team would not only eliminate the guards, but would also act as bait, drawing all the attention of potential enemies. That way, the second team will be able to infiltrate much more easily since all the attention will be directed at the first team.
Obviously. The first team won't be able to take on everyone with only seven members, as it's very likely that the seven opponents won't be the only ones. As the battle progresses, new enemies could join, which is why they would wait for more teams to join the action.
Semelio appeared from the darkness smiling at everyone in a very good way, he observed the dark circles that each of the boys had under their eyes but this was not a good time to talk about that. “It's good to see that everyone is okay.” He smiled at them with true happiness, looking calmly at Neledia.
“I’m glad you’re safe too, sweetheart.” Neledia smiled with true happiness at the werewolf. Why wouldn’t she if this person is her beloved husband? He’s her family, the love of her life, the father of her children and also the right hand of one of the ten strongest.
She looked at her husband smiling at her and for a brief second a tiny drop of tear could be seen “I didn’t doubt you were safe, but, I’m really glad you’re okay.”
The boys looked at Neledia quite surprised, they had always seen her very happy, they had also seen her leadership side and how she operated in the mission. But this was the first time they saw this side, the one of love and about to cry seeing her husband safe and sound.
They didn't say anything, they wouldn't interrupt her moment because she was the one who took care of that.
“Well, that’s enough. This is not the time for this stuff,” Neledia shook off her thoughts and once again adopted a much more serious attitude. “We are in the middle of a mission, so give us all the information you have gathered regarding those mercenaries guarding the entrance. Do you think they pose a danger?”
“Yes,” he nodded, still smiling. “Whatever you say…” he tilted his head. “My life…”
...
Like Neledia, Semelio adopted a much more serious attitude, totally in keeping with the situation. He positioned himself behind a tree and pointed with his fingers towards two men who were among his enemies.
“Do you see those two over there?” Semelio asked and Neledia nodded in affirmation “of all those over there, those two are the strongest and the ones who could pose a problem.”
“It is just as you said, Christopher.” Sebastian agreed with his friend who, before Semelio confirmed it, had already noticed the strongest ones “now that I see them better, their fighting ability could…”
Everyone fell completely silent as, in the distance, rising above the great sea of trees and vegetation, a trail of light marked the beginning of something very big.
Semelio's eyes widened, knowing that the signal was that the next phase of the operation had begun.
Without saying a word, without waiting even another microsecond, without even saying goodbye to anyone, Semelio ran from the safety of the trees and headed towards where all his opponents were.
The battle began.
…
Neledia's group had their eyes open, all of them were able to see the exact moment when from a specific area, where Semelio's group was apparently located, a bunch of magical attacks were shot out from the bushes like torpedoes, whether they were fire, water, earth, among many others.
…
A few moments before.
The mercenaries were completely at peace, carrying out their security duties and, in the process, getting high and consuming a lot of alcohol.
“He's pretty calm, don't you think?” asked one of those two who were apparently the strongest of all the guards, the question was directed towards his companion of equal strength and seriousness.
“Isn’t it always like this?” he answered a simple question by asking another “there is never any action.”
“No,” the first of the two turned his gaze to the sky, taking in the majesty of the millions of stars shining in unison and the beautiful full moon shining softly, “tonight, I feel different. It’s usually calm, but, the calm that tonight brings is different. As if it were the prelude to something truly great and terrifying…”
“You always say this kind of thing when you smoke that ‘Laughing Weed,’” his partner sighed, “I told you to avoid smoking it when we have to stand guard, especially if it’s with all these guys who all they do is... what is that?”
Something caught the man's attention, he pointed towards the trail of light disappearing into the skies. His eyes widened and his alarms went off. Although it was a bit late, because it was too late for him to realize everything that was happening, one way or another, his partner had been somewhat right.
“WE ARE BEING ATTACKED!” He shouted, standing up and quickly unsheathing the two swords he had tied to his waist.
His partner did the same, even though he was quite high.
The effects of smoking the infamous "laughing herb" had disappeared instantly. His weapons were different from those of his companion, as they were two small battle sickles, completely black, camouflaging themselves with the darkness of the night, and with skull decorations on the handle.
“Air Elemental Magic: Tornado Field.”
Even though just seconds ago the mercenaries were jubilant, all of them were fast enough to summon defensive magic in order to avoid being hurt by those magical attacks that were rapidly approaching them.
Around the age of five, the winds began to swirl until they literally created a tornado that rose into the heavens and defended them from all attacks.
BOOOOOM
The explosion thundered with force, all the magic attacks crashing against the strong barrier like a tornado. Everyone was completely unharmed, at least for now.
“ALL OF YOU” one of the two strongest shouted quite loudly “RETURN YOUR GUARDS AND PREPARE FOR A FRONTAL ATTACK...”
He had barely finished giving his orders when a rather long, double-edged sword appeared in the field of vision of these two and was rapidly approaching them.
That long sword as if it were a propeller.
The black hilt with red patches, what would be the cross, was replaced by a wolf's head with an open mouth from which the blade emerged.
Both men raised their guard with their respective weapons facing forward, preventing the aforementioned sword from slicing their necks. What should have happened was that the sword collided and simply fell to the ground, but that was not the case; the blade made contact with the defense of those two.
Sparks flew everywhere, it was two against an inanimate weapon, no one was wielding it or using force, but still, the sword seemed to keep moving forward as the feet of those two sank shallowly into the ground as they backed away.
“REINFORCEMENT MAGIC” shouted the one with the sickles, making a tremendous effort to stop the trajectory of the sword, trying to push it forward. “BUT WHO THROWN IT?”
From among the dust that the explosion had caused, several silhouettes were visible running and entering towards where everyone was.
The distinctive sound of clashing swords, groans and thuds served as music to any onlookers watching.
And it was music in very bad taste.
From outside the action, only dark silhouettes were visible moving around, attacking and defending against their opponents' attacks. A few magical attacks managed to emerge from the thick cloud of dust and found their way outwards, exploding far and high into the skies.
Finally, the owner of the sword, the character who had thrown it, appeared, running with a firm and strong step towards them.
“THAT THING IS A WEREWOLF!”
The more awake of the two shouted, now clenching his teeth tightly.
At the same time, both of them sank their feet deeper into the ground. All of this was due to the amount of strength accumulated in their legs, and displaying incredible strength, the two of them deflected the great sword towards the sky, focusing their gaze forward, towards where the werewolf was no longer.
Unconsciously and more out of pure instinct, their eyes moved towards the skies, more precisely, towards where the sword had been fired. There they visualized the great werewolf who had traveled several meters in one go, positioning himself at a great height.
Despite being suspended in the skies, Semelio remained completely calm, looking down at his opponents, who were fully prepared for the fight. He gripped the handle of his long sword quite tightly and sent magic towards it. The magical energy was such that it was even visible, his sword was surrounded by a bright blue aura.
“Tagus Wolf Pack”
He launched his magic technique by swinging the sword diagonally, vertically and horizontally.
Luminous blue waves shot out from the great sword, traveling at high speed towards those it considered the enemies to be eliminated.
For those two, the apparently strongest, it seemed that everything was getting complicated because from one moment to the next all the waves that Semelio sent towards them took the shape of the head of a furious wolf, with its jaws open.
In martial arts, there are an infinite number of movements already known, and any practitioner can create a martial arts movement and name it as he or she pleases. These created movements would be personal techniques because they are unique to each person, a strong or final movement that tips the balance of a battle in one's favor.
If one combines these movements with the fighting style he handles, it would enhance it even more.
These techniques require you to be imbued with magical energy to execute them and are called "Magic Techniques."
And Semelio has just performed a magical technique of his own.
This is the magic technique that he created after hard training. It is not a magic attack because it does not go with any of the types of magic, because what Semelio recited was not a chant or magic spell, it was simply the name of the magic technique.
In order for the magic techniques to be launched, the user must imbue their technique with magical energy before launching it, in these cases the same thing will happen as what happened with Semelio. His magic technique, «Wolf Pack Slash» each of the slashes that traveled towards his opponents had taken the shape of a wolf's head.
His enemies barely dodged them, otherwise they would have dug their graves, and this was confirmed by the hole in the shape of a head left in the ground. He would simply kill them.
...
“It seems that Semelio’s opponents are much stronger than they appear,” Neledia thought nervously. “Just by looking at his opponents, he is able to discern whether they are strong or not, and it seems that those two are. After all, he is using his magic techniques that he only uses against serious opponents.”
...
“That damn werewolf,” the short-sword wielder complained, “is not only strong, but he also knows how to use powerful magic techniques. It’s best to focus fully on this fight.” He gripped his swords tightly. “I don’t feel like dying.”
“It's because of these things that I hate the beastmen race,” the one with the sickles commented annoyed, revealing a face that reflected true annoyance, “they always come up with some magical attack or magical technique that is a real pain in the ass, and add to that their extraordinary strength.”
Semelio fell at high speed towards the ground, his legs would be able to withstand the impact given the force they contained within.
Although their plans were quite different.
“Air Elemental Magic: Air Jump.”
He leaned forward and while in the air he jumped, as the name of the magic chant indicates, the Aerial Jump consists of being able to use the air around one's feet as a support point. But not only that, the momentum obtained in this way is beastly.
A small ring of air appeared beneath Semelio's feet just as he extended his feet and shot forward at tremendous speed. He, sword in hand, headed towards his opponents, who watched him in astonishment.
The momentum obtained was beastly, the distance between the place where Semelio had recently been and his opponents was covered in just seconds.
“THAT WEREWOLF IS TOO STRONG.”
The men with their swords and sickles facing forward, their legs positioned to obtain the greatest possible support using the hard ground as a base.
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His companion did the same. Gritting his teeth, the action did not last more than three seconds as Semelio already arrived where they were clashing swords.
The clash was of such magnitude that a shock wave shook the bodies of not only the protagonists of this confrontation, but also that of everyone else. For a short period of time their bodies were shaken to the core, a very unpleasant sensation that they had to endure and continue to endure.
They were in the middle of a battle to the death, they were not allowed to be distracted by anything in the world, not even for a mere second. The contenders pushed the other trying to make him give in, but it was in vain, Semelio is also very strong and will not let himself be defeated by anyone.
“I wasn't wrong,” Semelio said, showing a grimace of exerting some strength. With that, he caught the attention of his rivals who did not give in to sustaining his attack. “You were the strongest among everyone here, it is you who I must eliminate first.”
“Oh! You know how to give compliments,” the one with the sickle mentioned, a small smile appearing on his lips. “Even though your race disgusts me too much, I must admit that it feels good to receive a compliment from a rather strong and capable beastman.”
“Yes.” Now Semelio smiled at him, “and just so you know, this filthy beastman will be the one to end your ill-fated life.”
The three of them tightened their grip on their respective weapons and clashed again, this time engaged in a fierce and terrible fight where sparks flew everywhere. Dust surrounded them and was instantly dispersed into the air.
The distinctive sound of clashing weapons echoed, signaling a tremendous clash.
Semelio is strong and there is no doubt about it, he is facing two people at the same time and by himself.
What's more, it appears to be slowly overtaking them.
...
“They are strong.” Mathias said, looking at a demihuman who was fighting on his side.
This half-human cat fought the same way he did, but was several times better and more experienced than him. “They are fighting on equal terms against the mercenaries.”
“Yes.” Anita looked genuinely surprised, looking at one of the girls who was fighting on equal terms against a guy who really looked tough. Their swords kept clashing, the back and forth of their bodies didn’t stop and neither of them backed away even half an inch. “I don’t understand how it’s possible that there is so much difference between one rank and another.”
“Raising the ranks is much harder than you think.” Neledia looked serious and never took her eyes off her husband. “The Guild will never let people who are not yet ready even be considered for the exam. The world of adventurers is difficult, but even so, being PORCELAIN rank, there are certain ways to rise in rank by doing some good for Kosmos.”
Diana, hypnotized by the movements that Akalia and Damorio executed with total naturalness, all against a man who at first only wanted to make fun of the two by seeing on both their identifiers that marked them as PORCELAIN-rank adventurers.
The mercenary was greatly surprised to see how these two could confront him by working as a team.
And this was what had Diana so captivated, it was obvious the disadvantage those two had and yet they could still confront and defend themselves quite well.
Christopher, Sebastian and Selestia were the exceptions. All three were quite surprised at how the higher ranks, the more experienced ones, fought, but there were other facts that were in charge of stealing all their attention.
“It's true that they are incredible, so far none have fallen, but…” Christopher looked somewhat nervous, his eyes scanning for a path forward “...I can't find any way to get to the entrance, besides, I feel that if I just took a step towards the entrance, I would die without even being able to get close.”
"Then we have the same thoughts" Diana turned her head focusing all her attention on her Sebastian, she had learned a lot from her brother so far on this mission, "in the heat of this battle I don't see a way we can advance without being discovered."
“The only option I can think of is for us to join the battle,” Selestia didn’t like this idea, but apparently, she was somewhat right “we could help them finish everything faster and that way we can go in to rescue the captives.”
“But...” Christopher added again, “that is an extremely unviable option, isn’t it? Neledia.”
“You are right about that, it is not viable for our objective to join the battle” Neledia observed all the chaos of the battle “it is true that until now we are still unable to see an escape route, but it is only for now, please trust Semelio and his team.”
Now Neledia looked ahead, watching as her husband single-handedly fought fiercely against his opponents. “They will manage to create an opening for us to continue with our part of the mission.”
“If that’s the case, there must be a reason why he’s prolonging the battle.” And what Christopher mentioned was true.
“That’s right,” Neledia replied, “he must have a reason, he must have noticed or is aware of something, and he is looking for a way to find a solution to it. I know Semelio… after all, he is my handsome and beloved husband.”
...
“Why are those guys taking so long to give the signal?” Semelio thought, looking towards the cave, where he could see a few people sticking their heads out. “Call your reinforcements now, empty that damn entrance, otherwise Neledia and the others won’t be able to get in…”
No matter what race you are, it is a must to know how to use your head.
Semelio noticed that a number of people had been gathering inside the cave, it seemed like they were reinforcements from the mercenaries.
This was part of the plan, to empty the cave of potential opponents so that the others could enter and not feel the need to continue fighting.
If Semelio and the others finished them off, there was a chance that those inside would cower and go looking for even more reinforcements. They had to keep them in good spirits, so they couldn't end the fight quickly. But that wasn't exactly the reason for not obtaining victory quickly.
The enemies were strong.
“Disgusting werewolf.” Those two dodged a diagonal slash from Semelio and together they tried to land some tremendous punches to the werewolf’s ribs.
Semelio's instincts kicked in and he quickly took a few steps back trying to dodge his rivals' attack. He succeeded and was about to counterattack, but something happened.
He felt magical energy gathering in the left and right arms of his opponents.
“Will they release magic techniques?” Those two took him by surprise.
«Penetrating Wave»
Side by side, those two struck forward, one with the right and the other with the left.
It seemed like they simply hit nothing, but it wasn't like that because instantly a strong pressure hit the place, some cracks formed around the feet of both.
Meanwhile, clenching his teeth tightly, Semelio raised both arms in front of him, forming an X, waiting for the impact which was not long in coming.
-Uck-
Semelio groaned in pain, the impact was painful and powerful enough to cause him to spit out a small amount of blood. Unable to continue standing in the same place, Semelio was thrown out and crashed into the cliff.
BOOOM.
A lot of rocks, branches, wood and other debris flew everywhere.
The impact was so monstrous that even the boys' eyes were wide open, they stopped thinking completely about the problem of getting into the cave, focusing all their attention on that tremendous impact.
A small part of the cliff could not remain intact, it lost too much support due to the rocks thrown everywhere, so it fell on top of Semelio, burying him even further.
...
“That was quite a powerful magic technique,” Christopher muttered, Sebastian at his side nodding as they were both familiar with these techniques.
Both of their parents knew how to use it and owned some truly deadly, destructive and devastating ones.
“Don’t worry.” Despite what happened with Semelio, who in the opinion of each of those present was not dead, but extremely injured, Neledia still looked very calm and naturally kept her cool “it is true that these combined attacks could represent an end to the life of many of those who are here... but not for Semelio... just look.”
...
“That bastard is still alive,” complained one of the two strongest mercenaries, “he's tougher than I would have liked him to be.”
“It's better to attack him from a distance,” his companion added. “If that dog is so tough, I can't even imagine what it would be like to receive a blow or some kind of attack from him... let's kill him as soon as possible.”
“Then I'll take care of it.” For a very brief period of time, the man searched his mind for all the magical attacks he knew until he finally found one that was seemingly deadly.
His palms faced each other as he recited the magic chant.
“Earth Elemental Magic: Earth Bite.”
The earth began to take shape right in the area where Semelio had crashed.
Little by little it turned into the head of some beast with its jaws covered by thousands of sharp rocks making these teeth and fangs. The jaws of earth completely covered the landing area and finally the jaws of earth closed with great force, it was so much that it caused a rumble that was quite audible around the place.
...
The boys belonging to Neledia's group could not believe it; they finished off Semelio without much difficulty. Although he fought fiercely, he perished without being able to defend himself from that tremendous attack.
Christopher, Selestia, Sebastian, everyone and especially Diana had their faces full of disbelief.
“What are we going to do?” Christopher asked himself, while Selestia slowly and haltingly looked at Neledia expecting to see her broken and crying. He was even more surprised to find none of that. “There is no way she is still alive after that deadly attack.”
“Don’t worry,” Neledia tried to calm them down, “he’s still alive...”
...
The jaws were closed and catatonic, not moving even a single millimeter, “with that he should already be dead, totally crushed and pierced.”
“(Sigh) then we would only have his other companions left.”
“Why don’t you just let them handle it?”
A small rock fell from the highest part of the jaws, followed by another and another.
More stones began to fall until: “Huh?” a pile of dust rose before the whole area exploded into the air. Raising a huge cloud of dust and bits of pebbles that fell like rain, a rather painful rain.
“No matter how strong you are,” said the one who had launched the magic attack, “or that you belong to the beastman race, it is impossible for you to make it out of that death trap alive!”
“Perhaps you, who are humans, cannot survive such an attack.” A voice came from the core of the small explosion, the dust did not allow to see clearly, but, even so, a silhouette forming could be seen with some difficulty.
The silhouette gradually became clearer and more noticeable, "but we beastmen tend to be physically stronger than you, although I confess that I had to use quite a bit of my magic to defend myself."
“He's a fucking filthy wolf.”
Walking and already out in the open, Semelio, with a very unfriendly look, cracked his neck, one side and then the other.
Various threads of blood could be seen running down from his head to his face. Not only on his head, but in many areas of his body you could see how his already dark fur was getting even darker.
That was because of the injuries that everything that had happened had caused him. He had no other broken parts, but many wounds and cuts. There was even blood dripping from his tail.
“That attack is very dangerous, any of my friends would die just by receiving it, you have really done your best to use a tremendous amount of magic in that magic attack. But it all ends here.”
Semelio spread both of his legs, “You have no choice but to perish for the sake of Gignit.”
“ALL OF YOU, GO OUT AND FINISH OUR ENEMIES ONCE AND FOR ALL.”
Then a total of ten more mercenaries emerged from the cave, fully ready to join the fight.
Christopher and the others' eyes widened as there were indeed more reinforcements waiting and they were so close. If they had moved forward earlier, they would most likely be in serious trouble by now.
“LISTEN TO ME.” The scream came from deep inside Semelio. “HOLD ON AS MUCH AS YOU CAN, DON’T LET YOURSELVES BE OVERWHELMED BY THE FEELING YOU’RE SURE TO FEEL.”
His team members knew what he was referring to, and so, bloodied and already with many wounds, they took a step back.
Each member of the team prepared for what was coming.
Except for Christopher and the others, Neledia knew what her husband was referring to. “Guys, Semelio is going to use racial magic that will probably knock you out for a few moments. Try to resist him as best as you can and don’t forget that he’s on our side, this isn’t aimed at us.”
She walked over to Diana and pulled her closer to her with her hands. “You, Diana, stay close to me and use me to calm yourself down.”
They all nodded and prepared for whatever was coming.
Semelio stepped on the ground quite hard, digging his feet and claws into it.
He sighed and with a truly serious face he inflated his lungs. It seemed that he was preparing something truly big and powerful.
“Race Magic: Intimidation of the Beast”
He took a step forward and then and there released everything he had inside.
-RRROOOOOOAAAAAAAAR-
It wasn't a howl, it was like the roar of some imposing, tremendous and enormous beast.
Expressions of pure fear and dread graced the faces of all those who could not bear it. They trembled in fear, even taking a few steps back.
His eyes wide open, breathing with marked difficulty.
"NOW."
Semelio gave the order and all his companions went into action.
Given the action they took in order to appease the race magic released by Semelio, they were not in the same state as the others, because of that, they were able to resume the fight more quickly and some already had the opportunity to kill their opponents.
“Damn wolf.” One of the two complained with one of his eyes closed, trying to get rid of the bad feeling produced by the race magic cast by Semelio. “Don’t think that you have already defeated us with that, you are just prolonging this battle too much.”
“And you realized it all by yourself?” Semelio said in a contemptuous manner, and yet his face did not show the slightest hint of a funny grimace or signs of having smiled, “it seems that they are also intelligent, let me tell you that my intention was always that, but it is time to end the fight, we also have orders to follow.”
Out of the corner of his eye he glanced towards the bushes where Neledia remained completely calm, as if the racial magic cast by Semelio had not affected her in the slightest.
At least that's what it seemed.
Just at that moment, the boys were uncovering their ears, although they looked somewhat affected but not too much. With just the leader's nod, they already knew that the mission was about to continue.
“So,” one of Semelio’s legs moved back again, the eyes of both subjects widened thinking that he would cast that annoying race magic again but it was not like that.
On his right arm, the concentration of magical energy was visible, even small particles floating around it.
Christopher analytically observed the scene, the posture, the movements and the way of gathering the magical energy that Semelio had.
His friends and leader were in the same boat, and because of that, none of them were able to see the exact moment, that brief, very brief period of time where Christopher's sclera began to shine again accompanied by the greenish glow of the iris, not even he noticed it.
Just like the shine went out.
«Earth Destruction»
Once again Semelio brought out another of his strong magical techniques, the powerful blow was not directed towards his opponents, but rather towards the hard ground which gave way with the contact of the powerful blow.
BOOM
A pile of rocks and dust flew into the sky, and not only that, due to the impact, small pillars of stones rose up and raised even more dust.
Even though they were far away, the debris, dust and sand managed to reach Christopher and the others.
“Now!” Neledia exclaimed, taking the first step forward. The others, already recomposed, followed her very quickly. Taking the first step, then another and another. Running through the cloud of dust and rocks that still continued to dominate the environment, greatly obstructing the view of the place.
Diana looked from one side to the other, it was really too difficult for her to keep up without being able to see what was in front of her. It was not an exaggeration, there was so much dust that it added to the darkness of the night which only achieved an effect of impenetrable fog.
Even more so considering that Diana has no experience in this type of situation, the only thing she was able to see was a figure in front of her, quite close, that seemed to be running in the same direction as her.
“I got you!” And it wasn’t her who said it, she felt a hand holding hers rather tightly. Her agitated heart managed to get some relief when she heard the owner of that voice “please, don’t leave me.” Christopher went to help her and take her by the hand.
Just a few meters from the cave, a curtain of smoke could be seen that did not seem to dissipate; within it, the deaths of many people were evident.
The moans and the faint sound of blood spilling were an unmistakable sign of that truth. Suddenly, a few figures seemed to emerge from the dust, taking some of it with them as one by one they left, and at high speed they hurriedly entered the cave.
One would like to say that it was towards the safety of the cave, but that was not the case, the inside was even more dangerous than the outside.
Now they were in enemy territory, every area, every part, every corner and every square centimeter within the labyrinthine base composed of rocks was enemy territory.
The team had to take care, they had to be careful because one wrong move and they would be defeated and death would be the best thing that could happen to them.
At the same time, a lot of skirmishes and heavy battles were taking place in many places.
Valentina and the others' plans did work, as the attacks were stealthy; most of the enemies didn't know what was happening, and when they realized it, they only had less than three seconds of life left.
...
And in the midst of everything that was happening, which in one way or another could be called war, Valentina was right there leading a group of four people.
"So..."
Valentina said this with her voice turning sharp, with her gaze so strong, cold and murderous, looking at a handful of mercenaries who were trembling with fear.
They recognized her immediately.
Valentina has many aliases or nicknames such as: The Cursed Elf, The Lady of the Snows, The Black and White Spider, The One Who Cannot Have Children. The latter was born rather from some rumors that had spread to everyone who was considered to be Valentina's enemy.
But there was one that described her perfectly, that really described her in such brief, but perfect words.
“She ir...” muttered one of the many who stood in front of her with their swords extended forward, sweating and trembling with fear.
They watched both Valentina and a woman from the reptile clan who sporadically stuck out her forked tongue as if tasting the air, Ambe're.
To a man who apparently used a prosthesis made from minerals, Tadeo.
To a woman whose mere presence and integrity seemed to emanate darkness, Espínetre.
“She will kill us all” they said again with their eyes turning teary.
“It can't be, she is «The Woman of the Cold Darkness»”
And the aforementioned was very upset, from afar Doraida, wounded and bleeding, could observe how from the hair of the Lady of the city, black and white particles began to emerge, representing darkness and cold.
Coming from the left side of his body was an icy aura like a cold mist that emanated from his own body, while from the right side an aura of pure darkness seemed to suffocate the environment and cause panic in the minds of his poor enemies.
Both eyes shone with their characteristic color, her cold presence-imposed fear on others, and she is not evil, it was simply her fury and coldness speaking through her power.
“I will not repeat it …”
Valentina mentioned it looking forward again, towards the great cave that adorned her field of vision and all her opponents who, trembling with fear, had decided to face her.
“Bring me those nasty old men...”
Ambe're prepared to fight, Espínetre smiled maliciously and Tadeo hardened his face.
Valentina looked into the eyes of everyone present as the last of her patience spoke in her place, her cold voice and final words chilled and shook the bones of all those mercenaries.
“...And tell them to prepare to die.”