Novea lingered upon the edges of an opening ledge. She was deafly silent in absolute, breathing almost as if she were cold-blooded. Novea, obviously, was the most suited of the bunch for such stealthy tasks. Her shadow magic was doing its work.
Before her eyes was the heart of this very cave, a central rocky chamber that was rather wide and spacious—clearly more underground than on the surface. This open chamber of a cavern space was not so excessively lower in level relative to her position. It would require a slight drop to get down and a bit of a climb to get back up, but such would be quite feasible… provided that both hands were free.
Likewise, there was an evidently large tunnel way directly in front which led into this central chamber from the ground-level. It was connected to a greater subterranean ‘under-network’, seemingly.
Such would explain a lot, indeed…
Clinging both to the walls and ceiling of this area were countless monkey-bats… They were not awake, at least, rather in a sort of hibernation. Dozens of growl-hounds, likewise, were at the ground-level, whimpering as if actual dogs.
Yet it was obviously not just monsters infesting this chamber… No, not at all… As made evident by the abundancy of torches which had been so brought and placed.
A tremoring wheeze so shrieked the air around with such ear-vibrating strength; it was hardly ferocious as much as…annoying, as if a giant man-baby was whining away… Though, that was exactly what such was, in a sense.
Standing in towering place at the center was…a giant cyclops. Drool slobbered down from its grotesque mouth, with thick canines protruding out of its underbitten jaw. It had a face devoid of any nose; barely any cognitions taking place within its head, it almost seemed, despite its bald skull being more pronounced.
The cyclops was pale—almost yellow—in skin and was dripping with such sweat. It was considerably bulky; it was visibly clear that it had thick dense bones and massive muscles, with feet and legs being most especially so. It was also rather…wide despite not necessarily being ‘fat’, its ribs stretching to accommodate its proportionately sized lungs. Indeed, each breath it took was even more gargantuan than even it itself—hyperbolically.
It was practically naked besides a giant loincloth… And, of course, it had a giant wooden club to go along with this cave-inhabiting appearance.
The cyclops stomped its large feet, tremoring the cavern, exaggeratively, as it unleashed more whines. “E DUNT GUANNA!” thus it so cried with such a grotesque voice as if mimicking real sapient speech. “E DUNT LIGE PEIN!”
This giant cyclops was not alone, however. Dancing in front of it assertively, waving a dust-wispy staff in hand, was what seemed to be rather the…annoyed goblin of sorts. Wearing a wooden mask along with a ritualistic cloak and attire, it was immediately clear this was no ordinary goblin, being taller than average too.
“[YOU WILL DO AS YOU ARE TOLD OR YOU WILL BE PUNISHED WITH A ZAP-ZAP!]” thus screeched the annoyed goblin, speaking its own abhorrent tongue.
“BUD ME HONGREY!” the giant cyclops whined, its bloated stomach apparently empty.
“MANS EIRE HEERE, EAT EAT ZHE MANS!” the masked goblin specified, now speaking in the local tongue of man… for whatever reason, though in rather the disgusting deep-voiced accent—from a local perspective.
“WAAG! [OBEY ALREADY!]” so impatiently shouted…an orc.
Indeed, this goblin was not alone either. Twelve orcs surrounded them both. Similar to goblins in some ways with their strange-colored skin and pointed ears, though they had smaller noses and more pronounced developed jaws—not to mention large fang-like canines. Rather taller—thus considerably bulkier—than any man, let alone goblin.
“AE EAR ZHEY HAB ZHA MAN-BIDGES! AE GUAND PLEY” so shouted not an orc, but another goblin…
Indeed, there were more goblins than just that one. Though, these ones were smaller than typical goblins, being more grey-skinned than green, and were evidently not as important as the masked goblin. None of them had firearms at least, just throwing spears and javelins.
A goblin nodded with intense agreement; “YA YA! GUE PLEY ZHEN SELL POR MAN-COINS! BUY ZHUNDER SHDIGS!”
“[Purchase such firearms?! Why purchase when we ought to pillage and raid for them! We can have our fun too that way!]” another goblin countered in its own tongue.
“[HEHA! I LOVE SWEET REVENGE!]” yet another goblin screeched in agreement.
The giant cyclops only became more antsy; “E GUAND EAT!” it so declared, stomping its foot even harder.
“NUEGH! [ALL OF YOU SHUT UP!]” the leading goblin shouted, dancing with annoyance as it assertively waved its staff; “[YOU ARE ALL STUPID! TO HEAR YOU MAKES MY HEAD SEETHE!]”
Well, they all seemed quite distracted by that giant cyclops… None of them had bothered to look up even once to eye the only entry point leading to and from the surface… Though, she was more surprised that those growl-hounds had not picked up her scent… Her shadow magic worked on their noses? Or…?
Regardless, her scouting completed, Novea retreated from this edge in haste, returning way to Red and Blue who had been waiting further back and at a distance, the effects of her shadow spell dissipating as she did so.
“Hm. You’re back… So that actually worked” Red, rumbling, acknowledged as the darkness obscured figure that was Novea returned.
“Told you so.” Novea bluntly replied.
Blue, her eyes no longer ignited for there was no longer that illuminating ball of light, stared at what seemed to be Novea…with such glimmering eyes; “So… you are a spellcaster, then… That was…quite the shadow spell… Perhaps it was the darkness, but it was like…you were there but…not… And no card or incantations too, that is so…” She was…fascinated.
Yet Red eyed her; “Blue, save it…”—he turned his eyes to Novea—“So, what’d you see?”
“One giant cyclops surrounded by twelve armored orcs with spears and shields, twenty…probably cave…goblins, one taller…masked goblin—probably a shaman or casting sort—and not to mention the dozens of growl-hounds under some kind of…monster-taming spell, and the legion of monkey-bats hibernating on the walls and ceiling” Novea reported.
“…” Red stared…
Blue’s eyes immediately became quite…unsettled… She slowly turned to Red; “What have you…gotten us into…this time, Red?”
“Gods’ sacred seed-bucket do I know” Red so replied; “…Orcs, goblins, and a Gods’ fucked cyclops giant… Seriously, what the fuck?”
“And more tamed monsters…” Blue added, gripping her staff, before shifting her eyes to Novea; “And you said…magic was at play regarding the monsters?”
“No other explanation… The magical eminence of that…spellcasting goblin’s staff was similar to that of their eyes, being a…”—Novea paused…connections suddenly being made—“lightish…sort of pink…” Indeed, was such not a similar color reported by that Company soldier…regarding those bronze golems?
Blue sighed; “Well, at least there is not a minotaur… I mean, after that, I am sure we can take on a cyclops” she remarked, trying to keep herself…high-spirited.
Red hughed; “She didn’t say an ordinary cyclops, she said a giant cyclops… Those things are as dumb as a cyclops and as dangerous and hungry as a giant… Fantastic…”—he looked into Novea—“And you said… armored orcs, rightly?”
“Yes. And I mean heavy armor… Those orcs were oddly quiet too for what should be bantering meatheads… Very stern and…disciplined-looking” Novea stated.
Red…nodded his head… “Yeah, that doesn’t sound like typical rampaging orcs… Hardly ever see armored ones…” he remarked, his eyes drifting down before…back to her; “So, how’d they…even get in here? Don’t think you can sneak a giant fucking cyclops around…”
“There is another route down there, a wide cavernway…” Novea was reporting…
Yet Red grumbled; “Hugh… Of course… It’s connected to a Trinity’s damned under-network; that’s the only way these Demon-fucks could’ve gotten here unnoticed…”
“So, what is the plan, Red?” Novea plainly asked.
Red’s breaths rumbled; “Well, I would’ve preferred to actually see what the fuck was even in that space myself so I could properly think of one, knowing the layout and positioning, but…” He paused…glancing his eyes in the direction of that central chamber… He began to cogitate, conceptualizing…
“They were concentrated around the cyclops and none of the goblins have firearms, if that helps” Novea specified.
Red merely murmured in acknowledgment, his mind far too focused… Finally, his eyes came lancing back to Novea, or rather…her firearm; “That’s a fancy dwarven shooter, if I remember right… Revolving and seemed caplock… Ten shots… Reloading won’t be fast, and you’d need to be extra careful; one bad reload and you risk chain firing…” he recalled aloud, not actually able to see the firearm in detail…obviously.
Novea…looked at her firearm… Frankly, she knew little regarding such…matters; it was perhaps surprising to her that Red seemed to know.
“Alright,” Red finally began to state, “Plan: Birdy… You and your shooter will remain up here at that ledge, use your shadow magic to conceal yourself and don’t fire until I scream so… Your shadow magic can blind your existence, but not the smoke and noise…”
“Obviously.” Novea simply acknowledged.
“And once you do start shooting, aim for the orcs since you said they’re heavily armored… You’ve got only ten shots, use nine and save the last one no matter what” Red specified further, before lancing his attention straight to Blue; “Blue, I’ll be jumping down there first to grab their attention… Prime your spells, then jump down after me and stay behind me… Once they see you, those goblins might get all horny for you, so that’ll split their attention” he explained.
“Flattering…” Blue remarked, rolling her eyes; “Hmm… Though, maybe I wouldn’t mind… I was always curious…” she jested.
“Gods’ sacred, Blue…” Red’s chain of thought nearly broke.
Blue ahemed; “Anyway, got it… I assume I am to hail them with spikes and lances while you hold the line, as usual?”
“Yeah, basically… First move is to spike the cyclops’s eye; that should cause it to tumble around, then spike the goblins in mass… I’ll hold them off” Red stated.
“What about those…monkey-bats?” Blue asked, turning to Novea; “You said there was…a legion…?”
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“Practically… Whole chamber is infested with them, but they are hibernating… It is likely magically induced, so—” Novea was replying, but…
“So they won’t be waking up unless the caster wants them too…” Red completed; “We’ll have to keep them distracted enough so they don’t immediately unleash them, hopefully even get them to panic and run…”
“Hmm…” Blue began to ponder; “Well, if it is magic, then we can simply kill the…caster, no? The effects of the spellcraft should not dissipate immediately, so that could confuse the tamed growl-hounds while maybe keeping the monkey-bats hibernating long enough for us to—”
“ ‘Maybe’, huh…” Red interrupted; “I don’t like maybes, but maybe…”
“Or…since they are in a confined space, we could just use the…big one? I have the card, after al—” Blue was suggesting…
“That spell’s never been used in a cave like here” Red interrupted again; “It’s both too dangerous and too much of a mana-eater to leave to Fortune’s luck…”
Blue…grumbled slightly, a tad annoyed from his…interruptions.
“Anyway, that’s the basics… Anything more, we figure out on the go… We need to act, now” Red stated.
“Alrightly… Let’s do this, then…” Novea acknowledged.
Thus, they began to move… Yet… Hmm… Novea was hearing…
She paused and immediately inspected behind…
“What’s the hold?” Red asked, halting in kind… eyes unamused.
Yet she saw… “N…nothing, sorry, I thought… Nothing” she replied, before turning around and…recontinuing on.
She could have sworn she had heard a quiet…weird…‘buzzing’ of sorts behind them…
-|-
“[SO, WHEN THEY INEVITABLY ARRIVE ALL DRAMATICALLY, YOU WILL SCREECH TO STUN THEM, WE WILL KILL THEM AND RAPE THEM OR WHATEVER, AND THEN YOU CAN EAT THEM!]” the lead goblin shouted.
“BUD E GUANNA EAT NUW!” the cyclops countered.
The lead goblin sighed the greatest of sighs; “[I swear, it is as if this idiocy is spreading to me! Those stinking elves… What are they even trying to achieve with this?]” thus the lead goblin lamented…
Suddenly, a growl-hound began to sniff and sniff, its teeth beginning to show as it started to snarl. Its lightish-pink glowing eyes then…glared up, right into that entry point above, growling.
“Duh, dha porple-doggos eire narlind ‘gein” an orc remarked.
The masked goblin’s neck nearly snapped as it twistingly turned, staring right into the orc; “…[you fucking…idiot! HAVEN’T ANY OF YOU BOTHERED TO LOOK UP AT WHAT THE HOUNDS ARE GROWLING AT!]”
“Alright, here we go…” Red jumped down, landing fine enough. Gripping his Far Eastern polearm tightly, he began to march forth with such aggressive focused eyes…
The armored orcs and goblin auxiliaries immediately turned their heads and glared with emerging guard. The growl-hounds began to snarl with displayed salivating teeth, waiting to be given the command to sic.
Red’s eyes began to partially ignite with that radiant outline of adventure-green. So experienced, indeed, that the majority of the skills he needed could be activated by deep cogitation. Albeit… “Skill activate: strength five; skill activate: endurance four; skill activate: spear-dance five…” he was…also rapidly murmuring their paired activation commands as well.
Partially activated, partially awakened, adventure-green radiant hue began to dust and wisp from his being ever-so faintly, streaming into patterned grooves engraved within his polearm and towards the blade’s tip. His muscles twitched, almost, as they began to harden, cells being augmented and enhanced.
The lead goblin scowled with glaring eyes; “[Ah… The invading adventurer finally appears… No doubt, it scouted us beforehand…]” it so remarked in its grotesque tongue.
Blue took a deep breath; deeply focusing, she primed something deep down within, prereading for swift casting. She finally jumped down in kind, landing just fine. She gripped her staff with attention, lingering behind.
Many of the goblins, seeing her entrance, began to grin rather the profane grin, snickering; though, others retained their focus on Red.
“[And a spellcaster too… That one smells disgusting…]” the lead goblin remarked… It could get a sense of the potency of her aura, seemingly.
“Duhah! Mur foob!” The giant cyclops grinned. Drool dripped and dropped from its grinning hungry mouth.
“[I am surrounded by idiots…]” the lead goblin lamented ever-more… The cyclops was supposed to scream by now, yet…instead, it was salivating and dropping drool all over.
“WAAG!” Immediately, the orcs lifted their shields and tightened their formation around the lead goblin.
The goblins, seeing the orcs spring to action, did the same. Throwables in hand, they took position behind the orcs, with gaps being left between each orc to allow the goblins to throw.
Red was…somewhat surprised by these actions… These orcs and goblins were…defensive… No…not just defensive, they were waiting for direct orders… This coalition of orcs and goblins seemed to have a much…stronger command to them than ordinary bands.
Well, no time to waste; their lack of action gave him the opening move. Red readied his polearm and took stance; “Blue, now!” he shouted.
Immediately, Blue lifted her staff up and waved it in a coordinated fashion of specific sequences. “Ice queen! Hear my song and lend me your rending lance!” she incanted in shorthand. Her eyes ignited into activation as the sigil of the arcane revealed itself.
Instantly, such potent yet ever-faint dust-wisps of icy-blue radiance flowed out from her being and aura, congregating well above the pointing tip of her staff, which turned its aim to the drooling cyclops’s eye.
The concentration of dust-wispy radiance spiraled as it formed a molding confinement in the shape of a pointed lance, entrapping quite the air within. Initially large, the icy-blue confinement layer contracted as temperatures within began to collapse, the wisp-dusty eminence becoming more…evident.
In a complex process that took only seconds, conjured and ‘floating’ in place…was a thick, albeit hollow, ice-lance. So frigid, the wisp-dusty layer of ignited radiance protecting the lance from the air around steamed with such freezing eminence.
Indeed, this ice-lance was not merely ‘ice’ as much as it was condensed air frozen solid.
Without delay, Blue thrusted her staff forward, both her mind and the staff’s tip fixated on her target. Firing command triggered, the ice-lance went lancing in a trail of sparkly icy-blue dust, straight for the cyclops’s eye.
“[NO! I REFUSE!]”
Yet…as fast as the ice-lance was conjured and lanced, it so abruptly froze in motion, static in the very air; weaving roots of hard-to-see pinkish radiance latching on…pulsed as if axons of charged neurons, the force energy of the stopped ice-lance having not vanished as much as transferred.
It lingered so very close to that cyclops’s eye…as if Fortune was taunting her, the cyclops itself…startled…
“Huh…?” Blue’s eyes widened…
Her ice-lance’s thin layer of icy-blue radiance…began to shift, ‘blinking’ so to speak, as the color began to change… Something deep down within her could feel it… That sensation of losing pieces and roots of itself; a connection forcefully severed as exotic assimilation took hold. Indeed, something deep down within her was just as confused as she.
“Anti-magic… No… That is not…” Blue mumbled…her breaths tensing… Her ignited eyes began to dim despite the spell still being in effect… For indeed, the spell was no longer hers to command.
“[HEHAHA!]” the lead goblin, dancing away ritualistically, derided as his own staff glimmered with dusty radiance of that same pinkish color, with a strange jewel adorning its tip glowing in kind.
Somehow someway, that goblin had snatched not just the ice-lance, but also the very ‘magic’ which so fueled it and the spell commands which so sustained it. Pinkish radiance steamed whence icy-blue had once been. The stolen ice-lance was quickly reforged in pinkish fury, the tip now pointing to Red and Blue.
“Oh shit…” Red muttered… Already, his plan was falling apart.
“HEHEHAHAHA! HEERE, DAGE ID BAGK!” so tauntingly screeched the lead goblin, before the ice-lance promptly came lancing.
“Shit!” Red, without even thinking, dropped his polearm and lunged himself onto Blue, shoving them both onto the ground and away; he laid over her protectively.
The ice-lance, missing, struck the wall behind; it penetrated into the rock before bursting in a frost-glittery poof, the frozen condensed air sublimating almost instantly. The resulting freezing cloud of dissipating gas…could be felt by Red’s neck as if cold stabbing needles. Had they been any closer, even without being struck, the sheer cold could have caused…frost-burning injury.
Blue was startled from the experience. Her breaths were becoming tense…as Red laid over her; though, perhaps not for…exactly reasons appertaining to terror exclusively… Always the wrong moments, indeed.
Regardless, Red rolled off and jumped back onto his boots, quickly picking up his polearm before they could attack… Yet they still had not attacked; the lead goblin was lost in deriding laughs.
Blue also stood herself back up, though was somewhat bruised; “…What do we do? I can’t… My magic…” she mumbled, panicking.
Red glared and gripped his polearm even tighter, his legs being readied for one bullish lance. “One, two, three!” he so shouted, as he thus began to charge with belligerent cry, at speeds unnatural and clearly augmented.
“[HEH?!]” The lead goblin was caught by surprise, “[WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! DEFEND, YOU FOOLS!]”
The orcs immediately readied themselves.
Yet, as if a raging adrenaline-fueled bull, Red smashed right through their line’s gap, and with such speed and force, he essentially pushed the armored orcs aside as the curved blade of his polearm pierced into a hapless goblin. Staggering them, Red leaped back and, in an almost single move, proceeded to slice the exposed throat of an orc before bashing the pommel of his polearm into the eye of another next, smushing it in effect.
This move, however, while certainly creating rather the shock, was done without any forethought—only action. The effects wore off rather quickly; now essentially in the middle of them, the orcs rebounded and immediately pounced.
“WAAAG!” such screeches hurled as a spearhead found itself striking Red’s back, his armor doing its job as the spearhead snapped. Yet the force was still enough to stagger him down.
And before he could rebound, that same orc tossed its broken spear aside and harshly grabbed Red with squeezing grip, before simply throwing him off and away as if garbage; his figure plopped and rolled upon impact.
The growl-hounds only snarled with such foamy drool at the violence being inflicted before their eyes. Fidgeting in suppressed over-stimulation, they only barely contained their lust for blood.
“HEHEHAHA!” the lead goblin laughed, amused greatly.
“Red!” Blue immediately went to Red who…certainly looked battered and bruised. “Red, Red, Red…” she repeated over and over, worried…
Red groaned in staggered pain, trying to stumble himself up, disoriented quite.
Blue…tsked… the shock wearing off. Scowling, she raised her staff in a rapid waving fashion; “Ice queen! Hear my crying song and lend me your freezing rage of impaling spikes!” Her eyes ignited even more than prior, the activated sigil expanding, as wisp-dusty radiance began to bleed.
Starting from one containment of collapsing temperatures, this molding shape split into dozens of thinner ones as a legion of rather small yet rather unhappy ice-spikes were arcanely forged in seconds.
Concurrently, however, the lead goblin was snickering away as it ritualistically danced and chanted, waving its staff which glowed ever-more potently.
“Hope you know how to thieve more than one!” Blue shouted before thrusting her staff forth, unleashing the frost-steaming legion of air frozen solid.
They all went lancing…
Only for each and every single one to be snatched mid-air, icy-blue mutating to pulsating pink.
“…alrightly, so you do know how to…” Blue backed away, her breaths…no longer confident.
“Shit, shit, shit…” Red muttered as he finally managed to stand himself up, the burning pain already partially inhibited by his still-operating adventurer skills.
The legion of spikes were reforged in pinkish fuel, now turning against their creator. The lead goblin glanced at the cyclops towering near; “[I hope you are in the mood for popsicles! You shall eat soon, my one-eyed idiot!]”
“YAY. HA. HA. HA.” The giant cyclops, monotone, rubbed its belly.
Red clenched; “SHIT! BLUE STAY BEHIND ME!” he so screamed.
“HEHEHAHAHA! [LET THIS BE AN OMEN TO THE FATE OF ALL MANKIND!] HAHAHAAHA!” The lead goblin was losing itself.
“…fantastic plan, truly…”
Suddenly, a falling hammer and a clicking bang.
Faster than any of their minds could process, whistling lead pierced through the air and straight into laughing goblin’s head. The bullet struck into the wooden mask, penetrating through the prefrontal cortex at a rather specific speed and thoroughly pulpifying the brain at just the right specific degree.
The lead goblin was dead on the spot. The pinkish radiance and all those invisible roots from which its manipulations so sprawled…rapidly ‘sparked’ in sudden spontaneous decay, popping in pops unseen. A ‘soul’ destroyed, with not even an echo left behind to slowly wither; an existence deleted.
The shot alone had caused a sudden freeze in all, yet before they could even process their leader’s death… all of the conjured ice-spikes immediately came hailing down in sublimating fury—the freezing poofs being far more dangerous than the spikes themselves. The orcs and goblins were staggered utterly.
Red and Blue…were also quite surprised; though, they were not granted any respite.
For indeed, all around, the pinkish glowing eyes of the growl-hounds once enspelled…were now ‘flickering’, returning to their ferocious red.
“[…ORCS, DEFEND US!]” a clamoring shout, before a growl-hound so leaped, tearing into the hapless goblin’s throat.
In a single moment, the growl-hounds’ suppressed bloodlust was finally unleashed; they all turned against their—now former—masters. Thrashing and clawing, the hounds targeted everyone… including the cyclops, clawing at its feet.
“OWY! OWY! ID HORTS! ID HORTS!” The giant cyclops, whining, began to panic, stomping and thrashing its feet and wooden club into anything and everything.
So rapidly did any semblance of cohesion collapse amongst the orcs and goblins.
“You two need to climb back up here, now!” a rather…hard-to-process voice of incomprehension urged from above.
“Gods’ sacred… Right, Blue, with me! Now!” Red, shaking his head, shouted; grabbing Blue by the arm, the two began to run, heading straight for the ledge down from which they had jumped. Indeed, they needed to climb out before they too got caught into this…mess.
Reaching the rocky wall, Red quickly eyed up… Indeed, climbable… “Alright, Blue! You’re… You…” He was saying, but…
Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.
Droplet after droplet dripped and dropped as if foaming ooze drizzling down.
“Uhm, Red…” Blue’s breaths cramped…as her eyes looked up, her forehead feeling the disgusting droplets… “I was…wrong…”
Red…slowly turned his head…to the walls around and the ceiling above, seeing…those dozens of endless waking eyes staring down upside down, flaring in monstrous red… So many squealing squeaks and bouncing snarls began to howl.
Indeed, for it was not just those growl-hounds which had been so freed from their enspelling shackles.