Moving up the tunnel, the team found that the fake wall Alyx had made was still undisturbed. It was surprising that their fighting still hadn’t alerted the rest of the warren, but it was good for them.

With that in mind, Lili pointed out that from there on, the fight would get much more intense. She said that the silver-furred bunnies in the next area needed to be taken down fast because, more than likely, the fighting there would alert the wererabbits in the connecting cave. And according to Lili those were the real threats.

Brrp.

So, the plan was simple: rush and take down as many of the silver bunnies as possible. To that point, Alyx volunteered to start the fight with a fireball, and Lili quickly took up the idea as well. She wanted Alyx and her to blast the area with a big area spell, melting the snow and dealing some good damage to the bunnies.

Tesilim, hearing the plan, had begged to be taught a fireball spell but was quickly shot down.

“No, Tesilim, learn it yourself,” Alyx said, not backing down from his earlier statement of not wanting to teach him incantations.

“Not the time for this, Tesilim,” Lili said in her instructor's no-nonsense voice.

So, Tesilim stood quiet and, for what had to be the first time, saw the exact same spell cast with two different incantations. He knew so because the words didn’t sound the same, nor did the tone match exactly. The one thing that was the same was how they did the spell circles. Both of the words in their chants materialized as they were etched into reality using their wills via their presence. Even more interesting was that their circles were slightly off from each other.

Alyx’s circle was much more flame-like. Its colors varied in a gradient from yellow at the core, which was followed by orange, and finally, the last edge was red. Meanwhile, Lili’s color scheme was red, with hints of lilac purple and void black spreading throughout the entire thing.

Tesilim understood the difference in spell circles when comparing their chants. However, he didn’t understand how Lili’s words affected her circle or why she had used that specific chant. One thing that came to Tesilim’s mind during the chants was whether he could somehow manipulate his Chaos Mana to empower the spells of others. It was an interesting idea, but it was one that would have to be explored another time as the two casters finally finished their chants.

“By flame’s wrath and blazing core;

I summon fire to rage and roar;

Gather heat and fury all;

Unleash the blaze, a fireball!”

Alyx finished, holding a small flame sphere that, just a second ago, had been the runic circle. It was interesting that they could hold the spells like that and something that Tesilim wanted to be capable of one day. Anyways, a split second after Alyx, Lili finished.

“By flames of chaos and destruction's call;

I forge the blaze, a burning ball;

Gather fire, wrath untamed;

Unleash destruction in your name!”

Unlike the gnome's flame, and still like her spell circle, Lili’s small flame sphere still had hints of black and light purple. However, Tesilim didn’t get much time to explore their magic since they had been a few feet from the next cave entrance, and with the spells done, the gnome and elf ran up to the entrance and launched their spells simultaneously.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Both quickly ran back, hurrying the rest to move back down the tunnel. Not that it did any good since a few seconds later, the tunnel shook as the two spells released, and another second after, they were all hit by a wave of heat.

The heat melted the snow on the ground and the ice on the walls, showing the power of the spells. Just then, Tesilim wondered if he would ever get kill notifications. Sadly, he didn’t wonder for long as they ran right back towards the cave entrance.

Looking inside the expanse, the snow that Lili had described earlier was gone, and there were only puddles of water here and there. The cave without the snow felt very barren, and the team found it relatively flat, though it had some dips. Still more important was the fact that around six charred corpse bunnies were lying on the ground. The team took in the scene quickly, Rose having to enhance her eyes in order to see in the dark, a problem no one else in the team had. That was an issue that was their own doing since the flames had also destroyed the plants on the walls.

As the team moved deeper into the expanse, they all saw the light. A few bunnies had survived. They were a bit injured, some of their fur having been burned off but it was clear from their positions that they had been behind some of the rocks in the area. And now that they had targets, the bunnies began to glow silver. Of course, this meant that the team now had targets as well.

Still following Lili’s earlier advice about eliminating them fast, the team quickly reacted. Tesilim threw a dagger that was dodged. Lili rushed forward, Rose following behind, both targeting two different bunnies ahead of them. Meanwhile, Jasmine was able to catch one off guard with her binding skill. Her quick thinking allowed Drex to unleash his breath. A stream of acid struck the bunny right in the face, melting it right off and killing it.

Alyx had been watching Tesilim and had timed some magic missiles that struck the bunny right as it dodged out of the way of Tesilim’s dagger. The bunny, in response, unleashed a blast of silver energy that tore apart some of his missiles, but a few still struck it.

Rose and Lili’s engagement went a bit different. Both bunnies bolted, leaving a streak of silver behind. Lili was able to quickly catch up to hers due to her C ranker speed and stabbed it once on its side before it unleashed a pulse of silver, giving it yet another speed boost. This caught Lili by surprise, mainly because the bunny changed directions unbothered. The stab would have inconvenienced a regular bunny, but these silver ones were about the size of a small boar, so it simply annoyed it.

Opposite Lili, Rose was quickly left behind, and she chided herself, promising to make some sort of binding skill as she continued her chase.

Tesilim, like always, knew his dagger would be dodged, so he aimed it with that in mind. So, as soon as he saw the bunny move to the side he activated the teleport ability. A second later, he felt and saw the bolt from Alyx strike the bunny and he threw his dagger once again, this time knowing it would strike. When the dagger hit the bunny on its side, he teleported to it again, and the bunny's face met his other dagger.

Lili’s bunny escaped for another three seconds before she caught up to it and tore it apart with her daggers. After that, the last bunny was quickly taken down as there was only so much it could do. With all the bunnies dead in less than a minute, the party quickly regrouped and walked towards the entrance, which led to what Lili believed was the last expanse.

They didn’t make it far before they were stopped as cold winds started blowing.

The winds grew in intensity fast, and soon enough, the party was blasted with a cold that all of them felt. So far, they hadn’t really felt the cold, and the area where they would have felt it had been heated up rather nicely. However, now, with this mini blizzard in the next expanse and snow once again starting to fall from the ceiling in the silver bunny area, the cold quickly caught up with them.

They could all feel it. Well, except for Lili.

It was an insidious creeping thing, gnawing at the edge of their consciousness, and with every passing second, the feeling grew. It wasn’t just the cold at that point but one of the dangers of heading into the Realms and being exposed to their mana. Realm mana was a slow, insidious thing that saw to corrupt and turn everything into creatures belonging to them. And fey mana was no different. The team hadn’t noticed at first since their bodies naturally fought against this corruption. In fact, the body was the first defense of the soul to stop it from being corrupted. However, they had been in the cave for a while now, and the more time they were exposed to it, the more tired they became and the more prevalent the intrusion felt.

And now, much deeper into the fey cave, almost at the source of its mana, the party was beginning to really feel the effects. They still had a while before it did any true damage, but the feeling was a reminder, especially for Tesilim, of what they were fighting for. What other worlds were fighting against.

The Realms weren’t going anywhere, and if left to their own devices, world after world would fall as they were slowly corrupted.