"Big." Kia said, staring at the green canopy above her.
"Yea," Iris shared the awe of the short necromancer. "How does that even fit under the city?"
"I think we got teleported much deeper underground when we passed through the fog."
"Sounds logical," Iris replied. This dungeon looked very different to the dungeons the elf explored. The dungeon resembled a valley with mountains surrounding the huge expansive forest. The conventional floor system did not appear to exist. "I have no idea what we will find here." She began to head towards the centre of the forest.
"Entering {Acorn Grove}"
A system notification suddenly appeared in the top right corner of Iris's vision. The trees high above them swayed in the wind causing something to fall beside them with a dull sound.
"Something caught your attention, Kia?" The elf asked the usually noisy girl.
Before the girl could answer a sound of wood creaking sounded from around the two undead. Unnatural screechy gasps, groans and clicks come from the direction Iris was headed before Iris spotted many small creatures moving toward her.
[Inspect]
[Young Oak Dryad Level 17]
{Young defender of the forest.}
* Knowledge partially shared due to [Anchor] trait.
{Approximet saturation of elements; 45% Earth 60% Life 5%Pure}
Iris watched as a horde of dryads rushed towards them. Their bodies resembled tree trunks in a roughly humanoid shape and as they blindly charged at the undead their body twitched and flayed as if the dryads barely controlled their own bodies. Many of the forest defenders fell before they reach Iris desperately clawing where Kia's spells hit them. The dryads which managed to get close to Iris were swiftly destroyed by her. One of the dyads leapt at the elf and was snatched mid-air. As the monster flayed in Iris's arm swiping blindly towards her. When the risen used [Touch of Decay] the dryad's face started to melt or rather decompose turning into a soft gooey mess which caused the lower body to be torn off under its own weight.
Seeing the gruesome scene the rest of the dryads continued their fruitless frontal assault. The spear-wielding undead continued to kill her attackers, sidestepping and blocking their weak attacks giving Kia time to cast precise spells toward the dryads.
*Crunch*
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
A part which acted as a brain for the dryads cracked under Iris's weight as she walked through the field of corpses toward emotionless Kia.
"You were about to say something or were you about to say something about them?" The elf raised her thumb over her shoulder pointing at the carnage behind.
"Mmmm." Kia nodded. "About them."
The two undead resumed their walk heading ever deeper into the forest. Both of them took short glances at the leafy roof above them underneath which long rays of yellow light shined.
The forest sometimes loudly echoed the screechy sounds dryads made.
"There." Iris pointed at another group of dryads standing almost perfectly still with the exception of the constant violent twitches.
Kia looked at the elf for a moment before casting a spell at a dryad close to them. Lighting arced toward the closes dryad, as the lighting hit it passed through the wooden monster curving steeply towards the rest.
To her surprise, Kia's spell did not kill the dryads causing the damaged monsters to charge in a direction of the caster.
The hoplite stepped in front of the mage trying to recast the spell.
Instead of just raising her hand lazily Kia took on a pose facing the monsters. She whispered quietly to herself raising her arm, the two extended fingers arced with lighting before she released another spell which hit most of the monsters dropping them dead.
Iris quickly dealt with the weakened survivors, piercing their bodies with her spear or stomping on their fragile bodies.
"Something happened? Maybe you should rest a bit?" The concerned elf walked up to the necromancer, maybe she should not use her mana so often.
Kia opened and closed her hands staring at them with a hint of a smile on her face. "I have to get used to this." Her long black dress whispered softly as she quickly closed the gap between her and Iris and wrapped her hands around the elf's forearm.
"Auch, that stings" Iris yanked her hand away from the necromancer's frigid touch. The moisture gathered on the elf's skin froze into it, even with physical resistance the thin sheet of ice flaking off her skin stung badly.
"Kia, be careful before you touch someone."
"Sorry, sorry I just forgot." The necromancer quickly apologised, hurrying Iris to move.
"What got into you?"
"Nothing!" She spun on a heel and started to stroll forward cutting the elf off.
"Entering {The Zarada Woods}"
Iris stopped seeing the message after a long time walking in relative peacefulness, observing the forest immediately in front of her for potential threats. Kia wandered slightly ahead climbing onto a large mossy rock to sit on, waiting for the risen.
The tall undead resumed her stride followed by the necromancer.
Bored looking Kia as she stepped on a pile of fresh leaves. "Ahhhh!" Her face quickly changed as she was pulled into the air by her ankle.
"Kia!" The worried elf quickly sprinted towards her fellow undead.
The boulder beside Iris stirred violently causing nearby rocks to fly towards it. As the golem was still assembling its body, dark orange ambers stared at the elf from above as a stone fist hit the ground where she stood. From behind, she could hear more dryads charging at her.
[Inspect]
[Fey Golem Level 66]
{Construct of war against the defilers of forests.}
The undead dangling high above Iris unleashed black lighting onto the golem charring its stone skin burning off the green moss growing on it but accomplishing little else.
The soft dark soil moulded itself into an imprint of a fist when a hand triple Iris's size hit the ground. The raw force caused the rocks to be pulled away from the hand snapping the orange links holding the monster together.
Iris riposted with her spear, her strike harmlessly bouncing off the stone.
"Curses." The elf cursed under her nose as enemies slowly surrounded her, her mind pushed itself to find a way to harm the stone golem staring at her with two emotionless jewels. She could not spot a core of the lumbering anomaly to attack and attacking it with her weapon seemed more than pointless.
The first of the dryads reached Iris, swiping her long talons at the elf's back. She turned around just in time to catch the strike with her weapon, pushing the hilt into the crazed spirit's body giving herself some distance from the dryad.
The golem swiped his arm close to the ground sending the fallen leaves into the air in a large cloud.
"[Mana Shockwave]!" The spell franticly yelled and shooked the stone limb detaching weakly attached stone from it.
Iris felt the momentum transfer into her body through her armour as she was swept by the arm. Her world was turned upside down as she flew through the air. Her boots dug long straight tracks into the soil as her shoes slid on the ground.
[Inspect]
[Forest Fury Level 32]
{A relatively young dryad drove insane but the forest sorrow.}
The undead stared at the dryad with purple lines pulsing with rage on its body. The sharp claw sliced the top of her head spilling blood onto the forest floor.