Adventures of the last Wild Dragon-Chapter 211: The Depths
The journey to the dungeon would take the expedition around 2 days. Their destination was not onto the surface as Violet had first thought, no, it was deep underground.
They were led through a ever expanding maze of tunnels that led them deeper and deeper into the depths of the world.
However, that was for the future, currently they had just left the city. Their group of 40 adventures making good speed, their strength was varied.
The majority of them were in the early stages of the 4th tier, around 10 were in the middle stages, that being levels 100 to 130. Then 4 individuals were in the late stage of the tier from 131 to 149.
The 4 individuals in the late stage took on the commanding role for the group as a whole. After all it only made sense, in a world where strength ruled for the strong to take command.
The guide was one such individual, he was also the highest leveled individual and was closing in on the last couple of levels until he reached the lauded tier 5.
Then their was a Drow, a variant of elves that thrived in the depths and rarely ventured onto the surface. She was a mage based on her robes and staff, she led a small group of adventures as the obvious leader of her group.
The third was a strange man, he was a mousekin. Yet was also the singularly most rotund man that Violet had ever seen, he was almost as wide as he was tall. Yet he wore heavy plate armour and moved with an ease irrespective of his size.
The last member of the expedition in the late stages was a curiosity, particularly for Luna. For he was a snow leopardkin, the first one that she had seen ever since she was last with her clan.
She felt a conflicted whirl of emotions upon seeing him, a sense of excitement to see someone of her old race, coupled with the pang of loss from the uncomfortable reminder of her lost family.
It also seemed like that man also spotted Luna, although instead of the surprise that she expected to spot on his face she instead saw recognition and then excitement. Both luna and Violet were curious at this, even more so when he began to make his way over to them.
As Violet and her friends were walking towards the back of the group, the snow leopardkin simply slowed his pace till he came in line with the girls. Once there he flashed a warm smile at them as he spoke, his voice was mature and held an air of command, like one so accustomed to being in charge that it bled through into his ever action.
"Greetings, it is rare to see one of our ilk so far from the northern realms. How, if you don't mind me asking did you end up in these parts?"
Luna took a moment to contemplate her response. "I have never been to the north, I come from the far west. I think my clan was originally from the north but had to leave for reasons I would rather not discuss." Her tone took on a slightly bitter tone towards the end, the pain of loosing everyone she ever new still fresh despite the time that has passed.
"Ahh I understand, the Wilds are a dangerous place, even when prepared for its trials ~ but, where are my manners, my name is Masin, it is a please to meet you~?" He trailed off as he awaited a response.
"Luna, my name is Luna, well met Masin. Are you from the north as well? What is it like?" Despite herself she had some excitement in her voice, after all she only knew of the north from the stories told to her as she grew up. To her it was an almost mythical place, the birthplace of her race and so much more.
Masin smiled a touch awkwardly at her question, causing her to raise her eyebrow in question. "Well I am afraid that I am not from the north either, I come from the city of Syan. Their is quite the conclave of snow leopardkin living there, even the current king is of our race." He spoke with obvious pride at that, the man clearly held a lot of respect for his king.
"Oh I don't think I have heard of this city before, where is it?" Luna asked.
"It is quite far away, it is quite close to the eastern most edge of the Endless Forest." He explained. Yet that just brought more questions to the girls, one such question that Violet couldn't help but ask as she had begun to have a bad feeling about something and this man's appearance seemed to coincide with that strange feeling.
"So what is it that you are doing so far from home?" Her gaze then fell on the 5 others that had clearly come with him, based on the shared motif of their armour which reminded her of what the guards of Cragkieth wore. "And are you all soldiers of Syan?"
Despite the question he responded easily. "Ah well yes I suppose we are all a part of the Syan military, but we are not exactly soldiers. We are part scouts part diplomats I suppose, we have been sent here by our king to carry out a quest."
That peaked the girls interest so Luna asked the question they all were thinking. " oh what is your quest? If you don't mind us asking…"
"Well it is two fold really. One part is to strengthen our ties with the independent city's of the Forest. But the other part is a touch more sensitive, and something that I had very little hope of ever actually achieving."
Whilst his words seemed calm and collected, Violet was unable to help but feel a sense of anxiety bubble up in her chest the longer that they spoke with this man. She could not place why she felt as such, but with her powerful mind dedicating itself to understand the man standing in front of her, she did not fail to miss when he said that he 'had' no hope. Not that he has no hope of succeeding, but that he had no hope. That simple use of the past tense in his words causing that bubble of anxiety to turn into a steady stream.
And so it was with reluctance that she asked the obvious follow up question. "And what would that part of your quest be?"
He smiled directly at Violet then, a twinkle of hope clear in his expression. "Well it's something that I'm sure quite a lot of people are doing. I'm sure you remember the world wide announcements a couple of months back yes?"
Violet slowly nodded her agreement. "Well my king tasked me with locating the newly born Wild dragon." He simply said.
That feeling of anxiety came to a fever pitch then. A sense of unease nearly overwhelmed her, she did not understand why she felt this way, but her instincts were screaming at her to do something, what? She had no idea, just, something.
As she froze up in consternation, Luna who clearly felt her companions growing unease smoothly stepped up to carry on the conversation. Yet she was unable to hide that hint of coolness that seeped into both her tone and the world around her.
"Oh. What what would be your objective once you had located this dragon?"
Masin readily answered the question, either oblivious to the reaction his statement brought about or simply choosing to ignore it. "Well to help her obviously, a Wild Dragon showing up after all these years is quite the miracle, so naturally everything possible should be done to protect them and~"
His words were interrupted when everyone present felt a sudden and violet surge of mana.
Violets head whipped around, instantly locking onto the location of its origin.
The group was currently in a wide cavern, the curling only visible due to the ever present glowing fungi. Yet right now their was a tear, a rip in the fabric of space opening up in the air right above the group of adventures.
Mana surged through this wound in space, its intensity enough to send some of the people closest to it stumbling back in shock.
The edges of this rift were widening at an alarming rate, with what looked like obsidian claws grasping the edge of the spatial rift.
Odrin suddenly bellowed out, catching everyone's attention. "Group up! We got a rift, beasties will soon be crawling through to tear us a new one! Fighters at the front, mages get ya damn spell ready!"
The adventures after the initial shock of the sudden situation, reacted with professionalism born from experience. They moved as one, backing away from the epicentre and forming a wall of shields, blades and magic.
As the rift reached a critical point they finally bore witness to the creature that had initiated this event.
From within the shifting space of the first a creature stood. All that was visible was the nebula of shifting blues and oranges that defined its eyes, the rest of its head clad in impenetrable darkness. Then as if its appearance was but a phantom, the nebulae closed and a tide of beasts rushed out of the rift, their eyes filled with hunger as they charged straight towards the assembled adventures.
