8 Zeyn vs the Jungle

"That will be enough." With a never before shown confidence, Adriano willed the ground before the charging horde to obey him. Suddenly the earth opened up like the maw of a beast, swallowing the first row of riders that couldn't react on time.

However, that wasn't enough to stop the motivated desert warriors. The rows behind were already able to jump over, and those who couldn't, just circled around the giant fissure in the ground. Unfortunately for them, Adriano wasn't a quitter either, giant spikes formed before his feet and with a wave of his hand flew forward, impaling those who tried jumping over.

Crimson flowers of blood bloomed where the rock spears meet the raiders they screamed in pain together with their mounts. As confidence filled him, Adriano thought he was untouchable, like a god amongst men. Shaking his confidence, his terrain manipulator activated without him doing anything and formed a wall right in front of him. Before he could understand what was going on, numerous arrow tips poked through the wall. Had it not appeared in time, Adriano would have become a human porcupine.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead and before he could do anything else, from the sides of his wall-obstructed view, two raptors had entered striking range with their spears. He forcefully calmed his mind and created two spikes below them, willing it to go upwards and make shish kebabs out of them. Unfortunately for him, one of the raiders had barely been able to avoid the spike and, as his raptor died below him, he leaped forward with his spear.

The distance had been reduced so much that Adriano could see the red in the eyes of the rider and even count every single scratch on the spear point. "So this is how it ends...." he thought closing his eyes, however, the spear never arrived.

Confused, he peeked a little and found himself in the core room. It had evolved a lot from its initial state, instead of its cylindrical shape with smooth walls, it had now become the insides of an ancient temple. Granite blocks supported each other as vines and other plants grew from the gaps and hanged from the ceiling, and, in the middle of it all, the core glowed like the sun from above a small golden altar.

"Core? did you activate the teleport module without my permission?" Adriano asked with a thoughtful expression. 'was she also the one who activated my terrain manipulator at the last moment?' such thoughts crossed his mind.

[Yes.] the reply came immediately, it was short, too short for Adriano.

"And you also activated the terrain manipulator? can you use all the devices in the dungeon?" he asked again, this time a hint of fear flashed by his face. If Core could use all the devices it also meant that with a thought she could deactivate the artificial atmosphere of the dungeon and fry all life forms with the unfiltered light of the sun.

[Yes and Yes.] her short replies confirmed Adriano's fears. However at the moment, he didn't have the luxury of dealing with Core, an army was marching towards them.

"Core, call the goblins, it's time we perform the 'welcome party' plan."

[I already activated the plan, would you like to watch?] before Adriano could reply a screen hologram appeared in front of him showing an advancing army.

---

Zeyn led his men through the jungle. From the moment Adriano had disappeared out of thin air, Malik and he had followed his scent, from its intensity, they would be able to catch up to him in less than twenty minutes. They had been slowed down by the sky suddenly turning dark.

However, a rancid smell suddenly entered Zeyn strengthened sense of smell. It smelt like rotten meat, dirty water and dog sweat. "Goblin ambush!" he screamed and as if proving him right, dozens of arrows came from everywhere.

In the weeks prior to Zeyn's clan invasion, Adriano had wisely invested his remaining credits into buying some troops for his dungeon. While he could have bought a few decent monsters, he thought about how good his three goblins had been until now, so he decided to favor quantity over quality, ordering around 200 goblins for 25 credits each.

Adriano hoped to have an army ready at a moment's notice, instead, he received a clan of savages, if not for Core stopping them at the last moment, the goblins would have gladly assaulted and eaten Adriano long ago. Thankfully between Core's limited control on any dungeon contracted life form, and the three black goblins who became idols among their weaker cousins, Adriano still managed to acquire the army he wanted.

"Take cover!" someone said before getting an unlucky arrow to the knee, "oh no! my adventurer's days are over!" suddenly the arrows stopped and many leather packages were thrown towards the raiders. Zeyn himself saw one of them coming towards him and he cut it in half right in front of his face.

Suddenly it exploded releasing a toxic fog that blinded the eyes and the noses. Taking advantage of the smoke bombs, liana swinging goblins swooped in with an acute battle cry, joining the fray. Wielding short daggers the goblin first attack was surprisingly effective, over a dozen riders received fatal wounds and died instantly while another forty only got superficial wounds due to reacting in time.

However a scratch was all it needed, amongst the many different plants living in Adriano's jungle, many of them had poison properties. Goblins had always possessed a knack for living in jungles and concocting toxic substances, that's why after a few weeks of peace the little army had all of their blades poisoned.

Some people dropped right away, the venom in their bloodstream clotting and causing organ failures. Others with improved physiques managed to withstand the deadly effects and fight back. As the skirmish started reaping victims in both sides, especially the goblin side, an unexpected help came from the sky.

The flying riders who had separated early on to scout the surroundings came back and started sniping the goblin archers hiding on trees, this caused the now crumbling goblin front to run amok in all directions.

A short distance from the skirmish. three black goblins were ordering their smaller brethren trough Core's communication tools. The current strategy they were employing was to harass the advancing army trough gorilla tactics throughout the jungle until they reached Core's temple where they would make their final stand.

Adriano saw all of this through Core's screen and felt like applauding, however, he still knew that wasn't enough to stop Zeyn.

"Core, I need you to do something..." Adriano seriously addressed his second in command while staring straight at the blazing dungeon core and he could somehow feel the core staring back at him.

---------------

Zeyn advanced through the jungle cutting lianes and goblins alike, dozens had died under his blade alone while his men got rid of the others. Almost two hundred goblins had met their eternal rest in less than one hour taking with them over a hundred of Zeyn's warriors. He could only grind his teeth at the thought of rank F monsters killing his men who were at least rank D to C. He himself was a rank B+ with Aluc right below him at rank B.

The Thunders in the distance told Zeyn that Inshallab was satisfied with them and that the final battle was getting closer.

He cut through a particularly nasty net of vines using Malik's claws and finally saw the last stand of the enemy. A small luscious hill stood in front of him with a forlorn temple standing on its peak. He could see enemy fortifications and goblins scattered all over the way to the top.

With a laugh, he gestured to Aluc and her flying corps to swoop in and test their defenses. to which they obliged with pleasure, the giant ishintir leading the other flying beasts down to attack, Aluc had already readied her bow with an arrow ready to fire when tragedy struck.

A lighting appeared out of blue, its shape like a tree and every branch heading out like snakes towards the flying beasts. In a moment Zeyn's smile became a horrified expression as he saw Aluc's ishintir getting hit and falling to the ground while smoking. Following her example, most of the flying corps got shocked right out of the sky.

Zeyn could feel that wasn't an incident, "that bastard did it!" he screamed in rage as the second lighting bolt fried the remaining flying beasts. Before a third could strike, Zeyn made Malik rush forward into the hill, in a few minutes he managed to run around the fortifications avoiding fighting and reaching the top.

As Zeyn finally the temple entrance, the hairs on his arm suddenly got up, his sixth sense warning him of impending danger. He wanted to tell Malik to dodge, however, he never got the chance. A lightning bolt hit the wolf's head felling Malik in an instant.

Zeyn fell forward face first on the ground. His mind shook as it entered and exited unconsciousness. Suddenly he felt Malik pain in his mind, turning around he saw his beautiful wolf whimpering on the ground, the fur on his head had been scorched black, however, it was still alive!

He gave it one last look before rushing inside the temple. Against what he thought, the layout of the place was pretty simple, just a single tunnel who led straight to the Core room where he finally found Adriano enjoying the show.

As he stepped forward two jet black goblins came out of the shadows slashing towards his chest. An attack like this would have worked against normal opponents, however he was no normal opponet.

A thick golden fur suddebly grew out of him and with an unmatchable speed, he beheaded the two goblins attacking him from the front, and with a second movement he grabbed the third goblin who was coming from his back.

This move, friendly called "the shocker" by the goblins would have worked if not for his incredible nose able to detect all the goblins even before they decided to attack.

Finally alone with Adriano, the blood boiled in his veins as he gripped his sword, the time had come to make him pay for the death of all his men