Chapter 98 The Light and Dark Trail
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“Salamander!” Sig shouted. A red komodo dragon with fire on its tail came forward. I find the lizard very relaxing since its presence lighted the gloomy dark cave. “Water or ice magic would be the most effective!”
“On it!” Edelweiss held her staff, and two ice spears pierced its head. Alistar then finished its head in one slam of his axe.
“That’s easier than I thought.” Alistar started to get excited.
“This is just the beginning. Salamanders are most dangerous on lava. In the passageway, they are nothing to be afraid of.”
“Watch out. Something up ahead,” Lhorne shouted as he readied his bow and shot his arrow. It hit something, but even we could not be sure what it was. We just see a dark mass wiggling at the dark cave with purple eyes with Lhorne’s arrow hanging on it. If Lhorne didn’t warn us, we would not have noticed it.
“Shadowcreeper,” Sig said. “Watch out! They can climb to the ceilings!”
“Shiro!”
“On it.”
As if it was our cue, I cast three fire spears and burned the wiggling mass of flesh as it dropped down from the wall. Sig and Lily chased it and finished it, earning me a level.
You have leveled up to level 22
“Good eyes! Never thought we would be working with an elf here!” Sig smiled, “Those buggers always caused problems in the dark area of the dungeon.”
We found another two of those shadows, but they pose no problem, thanks to Lhorne and Joseph spotting them.
“It is getting hotter,” Alistar commented.
“We are nearing the lava zone.”
“What’s lava?” Edelweiss asked.
“It is something like molten metal or rock,” Sig said.
The cave glowed orange at the end of the tunnel a burning blaze graced our faces. The heat blazes around, and even though we still stood inside the tunnel, the heat grazed our faces as if we stood right next to a huge bonfire. In contrast to the dark tunnel, the room was glowing red as a long snaking bridge grew from the end of the tunnel. Below it was a boiling molten metal that sometimes burst from the lake into the bridge.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Are you serious? Do we really have to pass this bridge? This one looked like that game section where you die a lot due to falling to the fire.” I thought while gazing at the lava lake and the thin bridge above it. The bridge was barely a meter wide. If we got attacked, we could not dodge.
“We really going through this?” Alistar asked.
“Yes. I will lead the way. No matter what, don’t fall on the lava. Helmet, Lend me one of your shields!” Sig shouted.
“No! Let me take the lead!” Helmet then walked forward. Sig only chuckled and let him while he nominated himself as the rear guard. Like a duckling following its mom, we formed a line and strode the narrow bridge.
“Lily!” I moved the shield immediately as a needle hit the buckler straight in the center. Some lizards were shooting needles at us.
“Lhorne! Edelweiss!” Alistar shouted, and they returned the shot.
“Thor! Ugrek! Prepare your crossbows! Helmet! Walk quickly! Don’t fall under any circumstances!”
Edelweiss and I cast our magic spears. This time it was rock and Fire spears, and they pierced the lizard and dropped them into the lava. Since they needed to crawl on the ceiling and walls, I surmised they were not fireproof. The lava quickly roasted them alive, leaving nothing but scrap feystones that melted by the heat of the molten metal.
“Kyaa!” a needle shot at Edelweiss, but Alistar blocked it with his shield.
“Don’t panic Edelweiss!” He held her as she was about to dodge the attack on reflex.
“Don’t dodge! Use your shield! If you move, you will fall to your death! Their spikes aren’t poisonous!” Sig shouted, followed by a whisper, “Except the green ones….”
“Don’t worry! Even if you got poisoned or injured! As long as we find a place to rest, Edelweiss can heal you!”
After about twenty minutes of waddling through the twisty bridge, we found a shelter. It was a concave-like cave at the corner of the wall. Some lizard still shot at us, but this was far easier to defend than before. Lhorne tried to retaliate, but Alistar asked him to conserve his arrows. Rhander tried his best to cast earth spears as a retaliation against the shields held by dwarves.
“Alright! You are good now.” Edelweiss healed one of the dwarves with her healing magic. Her hands glowed green, and the flesh regenerated.
“Thank you!” Niece said as she rubbed her arm where it was stabbed with green needles.
“Sorry, but it was difficult for me to use magic while running.” Edelweiss said, “Next time, maybe we should start using those antidotes.”
“Next one!” Alistar shouted. Joseph and Rick were the next on the list of wounded. The wound was far from fatal, but Sig asked them to be healed or rest whenever possible. The next stop would be more than an hour.
“Hah…..” everyone except dwarves had a hard time as their breathing started to get ragged. The heat has gotten into them. Lily offered to drench their clothes in cold water, and it was accepted immediately.
“It was nice we have a lot of blessed mages in our team this time.” Helmet said as he held out his big shield and parried whatever needles that came our way.
”Lord Lily, I apologize.” Rhander gave me five empty feystones, which I filled immediately without caring about my consumption of mana. Edelweiss also did the same with her wizard staff as I could see the glow on the feystones brighten again.
“We are ready.” Alistar gave a shout.
“Go!” Sig shouted, and we got into the same formation as before.
“Fireballs!” Sig shouted, “ From below!”
I scanned my surroundings, and the salamanders spat lava from the molten lake. I quickly parried them with my own fireball, and the explosion from our fireballs hitting each other managed to ward it off. I continued doing that until we reached the end of the bridge.
Another dark cave awaited us at the end of the tunnel.