Ricard leads the group around the mountain towards a large camp around a cavern. A group of mercenaries stand guard in front of the camp with Glyn and the others casually approaching. Zanrit takes care of the guards knocking them out before they can even let out a yell as Tisha ties them up. Ricard stuffs the unconscious men in a small shed as Glyn stands in front of the entrance to the mines.

“That smell.” He says staring down into the cavern. “Everyone be careful. I can smell some miasma in the air down there. We should be careful to not breathe to much in.”

“What happens if someone breathes in too much of that stuff?” Ricard asks.

“Worst case you could get poisoned and die. Best case you’ll get sick for a while but you’ll recover with proper treatment. If the miners have been stuck down there for a while, then we’ll need to prepare medicine for all of them, especially if their magic users.”

“What happens to magic users?” Mila asks.

“It clings to the mana inside of your body. Magic users naturally have more internal mana inside of them then most other people so we have to be careful down there.” Tisha explains.

Mila nods then turns to Glyn. “But what about Glyn?”

“I’ll be fine. Miasma acts like a natural curse so it doesn’t cling to me since my curse overpowers it.”

Zanrit nods. “The original home of us Orcs is bathes in miasma so I have some immunity to it compared to the average person.”

“We’ll be relying on you out front. And Ricard your job is to get the miners out and try to hold this place until we can take care of the Rooks.”

Ricard nods. “Fine. But don’t think I work for you understand noble brat?”

Glyn shrugs. “Fine whatever. As long as we get this job done that’s all that matters. After this we’ll be one step closer to kicking Fenwick off of this island.”

“That’s all I’m asking for.” Ricard walks forward. “Come on we have to move, don’t we?”

Glyn nods. “Yes. Lead the way if you please.”

Ricard guards the group into the mines as they stare at the repurposed foundation used to keep the cavern held together. Glyn shakes his head as the group enters a large cavern. Inside various young men strike at the wall breaking the stone and extracting shining stones from the walls. More mercenaries watch over the group holding their weapons out to threaten the group.

“Hey you pick up the pace your lagging behind!” One mercenary yells out to a miner. He rises a whip and strikes at the miner scaring his back. “Move faster before we shove you into the deep mine.”

The miner groans as he rises his pickax and strikes at the stone wall moving slightly slower than he was. Ther mercenary glares at him rising his whip again only for an arrow to fly out and pierce his hand.

“What the hell!?”

Tisha stands on top of a rock taking aim with her bow as she readies another arrow. “Do that again and next time I aim for the head!”

“Damn it another Elf!?” He yells out pulling the arrow from his hand. “Intruder! Hey we’ve got an intruder over here!”

The mercenaries gather around staring at Trisha as she fires off a volley of arrows down at the group. “Bring it on assholes!”

The mercs charge towards her only for Mila to leap over and land in the middle of the crowd. She swings her burning tails about pushing them back as Zanrit runs in and tackles one group of mercs.

“What is this!?”

Glyn stands beside Tisha. “This, is a robbery.” He says with a smirk across his face. “Now give it up because you don’t stand a chance.”

Zanrit leaps out into the open swinging his arms out at a pair of mercenaries and taking them out of the fight. The remaining mercs look between Mila, Tisha, and Zanrit and throw down their weapons as Glyn walks towards them.

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“It’s good you’re using your heads. Now if you’d be so kind as to release the miners and then chain yourselves up, we can move about this quickly.”

Relenting the mercs release the miners from their chains and bindings as Ricard rushes to their side. Tisha works on healing their injuries as Glyn examines them sorting them between the injured and the poisoned as Zanrit helps carry those who can’t walk out of the mines. Mila helps Glyn with examining the miners before they take the group out of the mines and into the daylight.

“That was quite productive.” Glyn says looking over the group with a few dozen men gathered around the entrance to the mines. “Fenwick must’ve really invested in these mines to send so many people down there.”

Ricard shakes his head. “No. The mines were a punishment for anyone who rebelled even slightly against him, or refused any of his requests.”

“Let me guess. His request for women.”

Ricard nods. “Yeah. Thankfully a few women volunteered to take their places and we hid the women he wants away in the furthest villages we could.”

“We’ll be ending it soon. Just a but longer.” Glyn turns to the mines. “We have to deal with the Rooks. But they didn’t come when we attacked the mercs. So where are they?”

Tisha turns to the mercs. “There’s one way for us to find out.”

“I like where your head’s at.” Glyn says.

The pair turn to the mercenaries as Glyn reaches down and taps one on the head. “Hey buddy. Are there any more people in the mines? Someone particularly strong?”

“Strong?”

“Stronger than you yourself. Someone that your boss says is important.” Glyn says with a smirk across his face.

The merc looks past him at Tisha and Zanrit as they stare down behind Glyn. “Um….”

“There’s no one else left in the mines.” A scared man says turning to the pair. “This mine is empty. There are two more on the island mostly abandoned since we stripped all the Mythril from them.”

“So did the Rooks move?” Glyn asks.

“I see your playing that little noble brat’s game. A stupid game for the throne of a falling kingdom.” The man laughs loudly as Glyn simply stares at him.

He walks up and pulls out his book putting the edge of the book on the man’s shoulder making sure to make contact with his skin. The man goes pale his laughter stopping as he convulses nearly collapsing to the ground before Glyn pulls the book back.

“What the hell was that!?” He asks.

“A very powerful curse. It drains one’s vitality and maybe your very soul if you hold it long enough. Makes it good to drain mana and magic.” Glyn explains.

The man stares at Glyn for a moment. “There aren’t any living people in the mines left.”

“Living people?”

“I don’t know if they’re these Rooks you’re looking for but there are two things in the depths of the mines chewing up the walls to make new tunnels. They even crap out those shiny gems the boss wants.”

“Golems.” Glyn says.

“Golems?” Mila asks.

“Their mystical constructs fueled by magic. Most of the time their made of stones and used as tools that follow simple instructions.” Glyn explains as he thinks on the subject. “It’s almost brilliant. Enhancing them with large amounts of Mythril would make them nearly indestructible. And with enough Mythril it’d serve as a perpetual fuel source….”

“Hey snap out of it!” Tisha yells out.

“Sorry. I was trying to come up with a plan. We have to hurry if we take too long, we’ll be faced with an unmountable wall.” Glyn stares at the entrance to the mines once again. “Everyone let’s move out and get to work. We’ve got some nearly indestructible golems to smash to pieces.”

The group followed by Ricard goes through the mines moving past the central cavern they enter a smaller cave as the miasma around them grows thicker. The miasma grows thicker and cloaks the area the sounds of stone hitting rocks comes from deeper within the mist of miasma. The sounds grow louder as the group dives deeper into the cavern as a shinning blue light begins to pierce through the cloak of mist.

“Everyone get down!” Zanrit yells out.

Instinctually everyone pins themselves to the ground as a large stone hand comes flying out of the mist at rapid speeds. The hand moves so fast it blows away the mist with a burst of wind revealing two large stone structures shining with a brilliant blue light. The structures move towering over the group as dirt and stone fall off of their bodies.

“We found them. The Rooks in question.” Glyn smiles as he stares at the humanoid figures towering over them.

The stone giants glare down at them as parts of their bodies glow with an odd blue gleam.

“Alright then let’s get this over with. We’re smashing these things apart!” Glyn yells out.

The Golems open their mouths as miasma shoots forth covering the cavern with a thick cloud of dark mist. Everyone covers their mouths trying not to breath in the mist only for a giant stone fist to fly towards them.

Zanrit rushes in taking the attack and redirecting it sending it into the ceiling. Mila leaps forward as her tails ignite with flames. She shoots out a fireball into the mist clearing it away with her flames and hitting one of the Golems only for the flames to dissipate on contact barely leaving a scorch mark on the stone.

“Damn it.” Glyn clenches his teeth. “We might be too late.”

The Golems march forward as everyone rushes back. Glyn instead pulls out his tome and begins to cast a spell.

“This will take me out for a while but….”

Before he can finish an arrow flies out hitting the side of the Golem and managing to leave a mark.

“Don’t do anything stupid!” Tisha yells out.

“Tisha?”

“We’re going to overcome this. Don’t interfear unless absolutely necessary understand!” Tisha yells as she aims at the Golems. “We’ve got to smash their cores and then we’ll stop them and take their pieces. Everyone back me up!”