Change of Plans

I wasn't sure whether Crow was inside the city or not. I asked the Lizards, but they weren't sure either. 'He is probably outside then' I thought. I needed to know the situation with the tunnel, and because I had no idea where Crow was, I headed to the place Vanauts were digging.

For some reason, I didn't meet Crow on my way, nor when I arrived at my destination. 'They should be further away by now. I will check this place, and move slowly towards their camp' I thought, and pressed my ear to the ground. Nothing, not even the slightest sound came from the underground. I followed my plan, but found nothing still. I was getting too close to their camp, which could only mean one thing. 'Was I wrong? Did they manage to dig much further?' I asked myself.

I headed back, and began checking. After a lot of running, I knew something was up. 'Impossible. They couldn't have made so much progress' I thought, then ran towards Sedon again. But no matter how close I got, there were no sounds coming from beneath the surface. 'Something is not right. They wouldn't be able to dig so fast' I thought. Even if Vanauts increased the number of diggers, a tunnel could support a certain amount of them at once. This wouldn't change, even if the tunnel got bigger. The amount of Vanauts would change, but the size would too. Digging a larger tunnel would require similar if not the same amount of time.

'There are two possible solutions. They stopped digging, or there are Formations placed inside the tunnel. Formations that nullify the sound' I thought. The easiest way to check this, was to scout their camp again. I ran towards the Vanauts' camp, but when I reached a point where Mordars should be present, they were not there. 'This can only mean one thing' I thought.

They stopped digging, and abandoned their camp. I quickly made my way towards the digging area. No traps stopped, no ambushes or illusions were there either. This made it even more apparent, the camp has been abandoned. Finally, I arrived at the location of the dig. "No soul in sight", I said to myself. They simply abandoned the whole place, and that's what I feared the most. 'I didn't expect for Voltars to resolve that tunnel problem so quickly. This warned the other camp, and they simply abandoned this place. Who would be stupid enough, to continue digging when an enemy destroyed one such tunnel already?' I thought.

The problem was, 'Where did the horde of Vanauts go?'. They didn't attack Sedon. I refused to believe that the whole camp, was dealt with by Shades alone. 'The forces behind such operation, weren't small. If all the Vanauts attacked Sedon, the Lizards wouldn't simply stay back, and let Shades handle everything' I thought.

Before anything else, I saw someone leaving the cave. To my surprise, it was Crow. I called out, "Crow! Here!". He quickly made his way towards me, and said "They are all gone! I checked the tunnel, no Vanauts are present there. Why would they suddenly abandon this place?". I knew the reason, but I asked a question first. "Weren't you guys notified? With Lizards being everywhere, you should already know". Crow looked at me confused, then asked "About what?". I replied, "Voltars destroyed one such tunnel. Would you still dig, if one of your camps was destroyed?".

He replied elated, "That's great news then! We don't have to worry about that tunnel anymore". I had different thoughts though. "Look at the bigger picture Crow. Don't be too happy so soon. Think about this". Crow did just that, and finally realised something. "Where is the horde of Vanauts, that used to dig in this place?". I replied, "Exactly. I have a feeling I know where they are". Crow narrowed his eyes, then asked "Voltars?".

He continued, "We need to warn them. They might face a large scale battle soon". I shook my head, and said "It might be too late for that, they may be under attack as we speak. There is also the other possibility. Eterians changed their plans". Crow asked "What do we do then?". I said "Voltars will manage, even against such a group. As long as they have Boltier under their control, it will be very hard for them to lose". Crow asked "Do you mean that Crystal?". I nodded, and continued "Yes. With that, they are very strong inside their city. Besides, I can't run between cities like that. Lazar has his network of information, we need to make use of that. I have to go to the Obsidian Mountains anyway… What a pain".

Crow replied "I will send someone to Obsidian Mountains. You can focus on other things". I shook my head while replying, "No, I need to go there. Alicia was supposed to make my new weapon. I can only hope she is back already. Take this for now". I retrieved the Voltic Orb, and passed it to Crow. He looked at it for a while, then asked "What's that?". I smiled while replying, "This is the thing Voltars used to destroy the tunnel. As far as I gather, this has great destructive power, but the source is not concentrated. They released this inside the tunnel, and collapsed it… not without sacrifices though".

Before he jumped to conclusions, I added "That was inside the tunnel. If you activate that, and throw or leave it in the middle of an enemy unit… You can guess the damages it would cause". He nodded, and hid the Orb away. With that taken care of, I said "Your job will be different. I want you to scout the movements of Mordars. I have a feeling they won't stay dormant for much longer". He nodded his head, and we left the abandoned camp.

I didn't return to Sedon with Crow, instead I headed straight towards Obsidian Mountains. 'If Alicia is there, I can finally have my weapon. I have a few questions for her as well. Other than that, I need Lazar to mobilize his network. With Lizards at every city, we can use that to update everyone about present situation' I thought. With this, I could focus on more important matters, rather than run around places.

I had some time at that stage. I decided to test out the Power of Ice, and learn to control it properly. 'I know I can control it properly, because my body already did that. I just have to do it while I'm conscious' I thought. I extended my right arm, and tried to will the Power of Ice into existence. 'Like Aura eh?' I thought, as some mist began forming atop my palm.

The mist got denser and denser, to the point it was becoming slightly blue. I raised my hand up, and then slammed it to the ground. "Shing!", an area of around ten metres in radius, froze solid. 'That is how the wilderness changed into land of ice, but that is not the full extent of this power' I thought. Fortunately, I could control it just like my Aura, which meant it wouldn't freeze me as well. I then repeated the same step. This time though, I held my arm out for my longer, and tried to make the power more concentrated.

"Freeze!". I shouted after a while, and slammed my hand into the ground. "Booom!, Shing!". This time, instead of affecting an area around me, my power produced a single protruding pillar of ice. The pillar looked to be naturally formed, it was also taller than me. "This can have a few uses. I can slowly experiment with that, but the most important thing is, I don't have to touch someone in order to affect them". I was now able to use that power over distance, which was game changing.