The paths winded left and right like snakes and the total darkness gave way to the torches light, as they headed deeper inside.
With unhurried and measured steps Derrik forged a safe path for the others to follow, sidestepping all the traps along the way, until he came to a sudden stop.
"What's wrong?" Jona asked and looked around, getting ready to fight.
"There is a huge amount of shadow stalker webbing ahead of us" He answered, a bead of sweat running down his forehead.
"Didn't we expect this though?" Hannah questioned him, since they had already taken precautions.
"Sure, we prepared for the risks of walking through shadow stalker territory …"
Derrik took another look at the strange construction in front of the group.
It was a mass of stretched out shadows, knitted together like several spiderwebs stacked on top of each other.
"… this looks like they are trying to barricade themselves in here"
"In other words, they're action strange and we should be on the lookout for the cause?" Jona summarized and started thinking of the implications.
"Exactly" Derrik confirmed "But since there wasn't a blockade like this at the entrance, I assume the problem lies further inside, maybe even from our target itself. So, what do we do boss?"
"How close are we to our goal?"
"It should be right behind this, but as soon as we touch this a bunch of shadow stalkers will be on our asses" He warned.
Jona remained silent for a few seconds before announcing his decision as the leader.
"Drink the fire resistance potion. We'll use Hannahs fireball to force our way through. Derrik will take the front, while I guard the rear. The shadow stalkers should give up once we exit the tunnels"
""Roger / Understood""
A minute later the three had drunk the potion and Hannah was already charging her skill.
As the fireball slowly grew in size, the shadows wriggled in response behind her.
"I'm ready" She exclaimed, waiting for the leader to give the signal.
"Good" He took a look around, drew his sword and primed the round shield on his other arm. After a particularly long and deep breath he announced "Now"
Upon hearing that Hannah pointed her staff forward and fired her skill.
BOOM!
In a brilliant blaze the tunnel lit up and the shadow webs were torn apart, the pieces falling to the ground like autumn leaves in the wind.
Derrik took charge and started running, followed closely by Hannah and at the rear was Jona keeping his guard up against the movement in the shadows.
While the group ran the shadows stirred and a dozen creatures emerged from them.
The shadow stalkers looked like a mix between cats and spiders, resulting in a 2m feline insectoid.
With a lean body and eight long legs, that ended in sharp claws, they skittered around the tunnels. Two pairs of eyes, one big, one small decorated their faces and allowed them to see in total darkness. The fur covered bodies blended and fused into the shadows, which made them practically invisible. It was this trait along with their kindred skill [Tangible shadow], that earned them their name.
The shadow stalkers resided within dark places like overgrown forest or deep tunnels, as such the tunnels within mount Ignaz were close to paradise for them. They nestled in to the ecosystem and became something like guards, who preyed upon any who tried to enter or leave.
Their kindred skill was perfect for them to fill that role, as [Tangible shadow] could not only create shadow webs but also allowed them to travel within the shadows. Thus whenever an unsuspecting prey stepped on one of their webs, they would burst out of seemingly nowhere.
This was the reason why Derrik had to use his class skill to avoid these traps and carried a torch to keep them away. A simple light source was considered a solid but not always reliable method to keep shadow stalkers at bay. Especially when dealing with multiple at once.
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
Jona, who looked back while running, saw more and more creatures emerge from the shadows and barely managed to not shit himself, as the 2m monstrosities began chasing them.
"Shit! Shit! Shit! Run faster" He urged his companions with increasing urgency.
"We can't go any faster or we'll get stuck in the shadow webs" Derrik protested, using his torch to burn away any webs ahead of him.
Hannah, who in response decided to help, pointed her staff backwards. She couldn't charge another big fireball while running and she also didn't want to risk the explosion of her fireball to potentially hit Jona, thus she used her special move she had been practicing.
[Lesser arcane bolt]+[Illuminate]
By combining two different skills she managed to create an entirely new skill.
[Lesser light bolt]
A ball of light appeared atop her staff but unlike before it didn't remain stationary, instead it shot straight towards the shadow stalkers like an arrow.
FLASH!
The ray of light hit the ground and exploded in dazzling flash that lighten up the tunnel, which momentarily made the shadow stalkers flinch.
"Good job, Hannah" Jona praised, as the group continued running.
But despite the usefulness of her skill, the beasts were deterred for only a few seconds before they resumed their pursuit.
The group ran as fast as they could without getting entangled in the shadow stalkers webs, while the beasts trampled and stepped on each other to tear into the intruders.
One of the shadow stalkers was smarter than the others and used its [Tangible shadow] to travel through the shadows, got ahead and swiped at the nearest human.
Clang!
Jona blocked the attack with his round shield, followed by a quick swing of his sword, which sunk into the beasts flesh and almost got stuck. Once the beast stopped he pulled his sword out and quickly rejoined his party, as they raced towards the lava filled inner chambers of mount Ignaz.
Unlike them, who drank fire resistance potions, the shadow stalkers would avoid those areas at all cost. The scorching heat and illumination from the lava pools would render them into helpless and easy prey.
"There it is" Derrik yelled "I can see it"
"Hurry" Jona screamed, dodging another claw aimed at his neck.
As they got closer to their goal more and more shadow stalkers stopped pursuing them, leaving only a few incised bunch. Less than minute later they reached the tunnels exit, which lead to the inner chambers.
"Finally, we did it" Hannah huffed, her breath ragged.
"Don't relax just yet"
Derrik warned, but he too felt a little more relaxed having reached what they assumed to be safety.
"GET DOWN!" Jona used his momentum to tackle both of them to the ground at the last second.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Multiple fireballs passed overhead and decimated the shadow stalkers still following them, as the trio laid on the ground.
The Salamander stopped their bombardment once everything in sight ceased moving.
"What the hell is going on with this accursed mountain?" Hannah cried, seeing half a dozen lizards rise from the lava.
"Out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh?" Derrik commented in exasperation.
"Calm down, both of you. We came prepared to face a Salamander queen, so few lesser lizards are nothing to be scared of" Jona stood firm gripping his sword and shield, while motivating his party "Hannah use ice to attack, these beasts are used to living in scorching heat and are extremely sensitive to cold. Derrik didn't you brag about having a special weapon against the lizards? Time to use it. Even if we're outnumbered 2vs1, unlike us they are simple iron grades"
The two rose to their feet and surveyed the situation again.
A few Salamaders were ready to attack them but the shadow stalkers either stopped chasing them or died to the volley of fireballs.
Now all that was left were the Salamanders, who had been part of the mission from the start if they stood in the way between them and the queen.
"Good, time to try this thing out" Derrik announced with a gleeful smile.
Meanwhile Hannah raised her staff and got ready to use her skill.
"I'll intercept them, you guys focus on dropping them" Jona ordered and then clanged his sword and shield together to draw attention on himself.
Unfortunately for him it didn't work and two of the Salamanders spewed a fireball at Hannah. He immediately jumped in front of her and use one of his skills.
[Power guard]
A semitransparent energy surrounded his shield and exploded outwards, neutralizing the fireballs and their subsequent explosions, which allowed him to chain another skill as a counterattack.
[Retaliation strike]
The same energy from before glew around his sword as he threw it with increased strength.
His sword traced a beautiful line through the air and sunk into the Salamanders skull.
At the same time Hannah activated her skill [Icicle shard]. A spike of ice materialized and flew directly into the other Salamanders head, where it quickly melted and released steam, as the wound hardened like cooled lava.
Meanwhile Derrik was fighting in his own style as a rogue, activated his class skill [Quickstep] to disappear from sight and sneak around the Salamander. Once he was behind them, he tossed a bag containing a glittery, silvery powder that fell on the nearest Salamander.
BOOOOOM!!!
The powder made contact with heated scales and resulted in a massive explosion, instantly killing two Salamanders, creating a crater on the ground.
All three companions laid on theirs backs, having been knocked down by the sudden blast.
"What in the goddess name was that?" Jona and Hannah complained simultaneously.
"Whoa … I didn't think it would be this powerful" Derrik exclaimed in surprise.
"You didn't answer, what was that?" Jona pressed further.
"Just something I bought from our friendly neighborhood blacksmith. He called it aluminum powder, said it would make a nice fireball when exposed to heat"
"Fine … just be more careful next time"
"You got it boss" Derrik agreed without any complains.
Skreee! Skreee!
Both surviving Salamanders took off running and screeching.
They're going to alarm the queen" Hannah warned her companions.
"Isn't that a good thing? Won't that save us some time if she comes to us?" Derrik turned to Jona for confirmation.
"I guess so" He shrugged in response, before standing up "Let's get ready to welcome her"
After waiting for some time, they had expected the queen and a bunch of Salamanders to rush at them, but nothing of the sort happened.
"Do you guys think they'll show up?" Hannah asked, since nothing had approached them yet.
"I doubt that explosion was enough to scare the queen from this distance … say how long do the fire resistance potions last?"
"Every potion lasts for 12 hours" Derrik reminded his party leader.
"Then let's wait a little longer and if nothing changes, we'll go explore and finish the mission"
"If we've got some free time, I wanna gather some toxin-"
He was about to get distracted with his side mission, when suddenly a massive lizard burst out of the lava, aiming to bite Hannah in half.
[Power guard]
Jona barely reacted in time to activate his skill and ram his shield against the queen, pushing her away from his companion.
"Shit, she bypassed my traps by swimming through the lava" Derrik observed in annoyance, seeing how none of his measures were activated, not even by the smaller ones following the queen.
"I'll stop her from moving" Hannah pointed her staff at the queen and charged her spell.
[Frost wave]
A wall of cold and frost appeared from her staff, heading towards the queen.
But instead of stopping the queen, she simply started charged her own attack, while two Salamanders got in the way and set their bodies on fire snuffing out the spell.
"Here comes a big one" Jona warned.
"Watch out" Derrik threw a bag of powder at the queen, only for her to dexterously bent her body like a cat and dodged. Once she finish her evasion, she opened her mouth and let loose a big fireball.
With a perfectly timed [Quickstep] he avoided the attack itself, but then got blasted aside by the force of the explosion.
Derrik laid disoriented on the ground, his ears still ringing, as he looked up to see Jona block a claw swipe and get flung away.
The queen closed in on Hannah, but for some reason he didn't understand, he felt compelled to look up.
There he saw a crimson colored bird swoop down with incredible speed, like a falcon descending at unsuspecting prey. It left behind a golden trail, as if it possessed an elongated tail made of energy.
But he wasn't the only one to notice. The queen looked up as well and hissed upon seeing it.
She was now solely focused on it, thus the queen got ready to jump and swallow it whole in a single bite. She simply waited for it to come into range.
Derrik knew that at such speeds the bird wouldn't be able to change course and be killed immediately. So he needed to make the best use possible of the few seconds the poor creature would buy them. A couple seconds were enough to give Jona a potion.
One moment later the queen jumped in the air with unbelievable ease for a creature of her size.
In response a strange circle appeared beneath the bird, containing patterns and letters none present recognized. Immediately afterwards a small boulder materialized where the circle used to be, carried forward by the birds momentum, instantly turning into something akin to a small meteorite.
THUD! CRACK!
The boulder and queen smashed into each other, producing a crunching sound, before falling to the ground. Both hit the earth with a heavy crashing sound, rattling the bones of the nearby observers.
Once the dust settled everyone could see the motionless queen, whose head and front legs were bent in an unnatural way.
"By the goddess's holy curves! That thing oneshoted the queen" Derrik exclaimed in shocked.
From the corner of his eyes he saw the strange bird, who swerved at the last second before the collision. It now flew with its chest held high, seemingly full of pride.
"Seriously, what was that?" He watched on, as it slowly disappeared into the distance.
The three gathered around the queens corpse. The Salamanders accompanying her ran in a frenzy after her death. As such they no longer were in a state of alertness.
"So anyone got an idea of what we just saw?" Jona asked his team.
"Maybe a new species? Nothing in the Associations records mentioned a creature like that" Hannah suggested.
"Wait, if that's a new species, does that mean we get to name it?" Derrik got excited. Discovering a new species typically meant getting paid a neat amount for it.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. We can discuss the details after we get back" Jona ordered.
"But I already got a name for it" Derrik flashed a big smile "The crimson comet"
"Before this idiot gets carried away, what about the fragment?" Hannah asked in a concerned tone.
Their mission couldn't be considered as completed unless they it brought back.
"… if the queen didn't have it, then it must be gone. A beast like her would rather die than let it go, since it could be their only chance to evolve to the next grade" Jona concluded "First lets shave of the queens scales as proof, then we'll report back to the Association"