Chapter 88

Except, nothing happened to Stone. It flowed down and hissed on the ground as it slightly melted the rocks.

Stone was angry, but another, much more powerful attack came swiftly after it, this time from the goblins' side. Harkon was too busy fighting the increasingly more enraged Ogre and couldn't protect them in time.

A spear with a bloody mist enveloping it landed next to them, the crimson mist slowly spreading.

Stone felt danger from it. He had never before felt danger. Until today. "Meatbag Jarka! Grab the other meatbag and follow!" Stone grabbed Lucifer and ran from the rocky hill.

"Side! Go to the wall!" Lucifer pointed as his perception sphere was much more potent.

Harkon covered their retreat and protected them from powerful spells and runes.

The rocky hill exploded, propelling debris everywhere.

"Stone! Careful!" Lucifer yelled as a quite large rock entered his sphere.

Stone suddenly stopped and spun around. The bluish <Mana Shield> enveloped his body as he raised his chiselled-like, smooth arm and carefully caught it. He lovingly put it down and began to sprint again. His 15 dexterity put him on the Earth Olympic sprinters' level. Though… for Orbisia it was barely basics.

The spellfire got more intense the more they left the battling leader's duo. Under their clashes, the whole immense cavern shook. Fortunately, the enchantments held, otherwise everyone would have been already buried.

When they were reaching a small, forgotten mineshaft, their way was blocked by Tafur and a squadron of 6 dwarven warriors, each of them on 3rd-rank.

"A druegar female, a blighted dwarf, an Ethereal and the largest piece of mana crystal I have ever seen," Tafur dismissively proclaimed. Stone could see the greediness in their gazes. "Seize them!"

"Fight!" Stone ordered, seeing the meatbags powering their skills. Tafur stood in the back, clearly not wanting to waste mana.

However… They made a grave mistake.

Stone's and Lucifer's full-powered <Mana Missile> spells began to barrage their armours, denting them, before they could even launch forward.

Jarka's instincts of a hardened warrior kicked in and she took down the nearest one to her with a snap of his neck. She equipped herself with the dwarf's axe and clashed with the other two, bloody mist leaking from her forearms.

A goblin appeared seemingly out of nowhere behind a surprised dwarf, slashing his spine with a curved knife, instantly killing him.

"Kretin!" Stone had completely forgotten about him. The 3rd-tier goblin had evaded his and Lucifer's perception spheres.

Kreting was battling the last dwarven warrior, who was also at the 3rd-tier

Tafur got nervous. This was not going as he had planned it. He activated his <Rune Shield> enchantment, tattooed on his forearm. Then he conjured a rune with droplets of acid around it.

He wanted to shoot it towards Jarka to free his warriors who were bombarded by Lucifer's and Stone's missiles. They were barely holding their defences up, however, their cooperation was impeccable.

Stone saw the last magical dwarf and got an interesting idea. He conjured the ants' souls near the Tafur and led them under his enchanted robe.

"Hahahahaha!" The runemaster apprentice began to madly laugh and the rune fizzled into motes of mana.

"What? Where?" Dafur suddenly woke up on the hard, cold ground by the familiar laughing.

Lucifer was out of <SuperFlux> after his panicked barrage. "Stone!" He pointed at the battling, injured Kretin.

Stone shot a few <Mana Missiles> in the way of the dwarven warrior who was standing over the cowering goblin. The blueish missiles hit him between the armour and the helmet, instantly killing him.

<You have killed 3rd-rank dwarf>

<You have gained 5.3% experience>

Kretin jumped towards Jarka and helped her to dispatch the other two before Stone could kill them himself.

"My experience packs!" He smacked the goblin, making Lucifer giggle.

Tafur was on the ground, abruptly laughing amid his moans of pain and screaming, as the ants' souls took turns either nibbling on his very private areas or tickling him.

"Tafur?!" Dafur confusedly looked around. First, he thought he died and he was in hell. Then he asked himself if the hell would be so chaotic. Before he and the rest of the group could gather their bearings, Therdreag, along with a Baelgin appeared with a gust of air before them.

"Your apprentice lost. Pay up!" Baelgin grinned, stretching his hand towards the 5th-rank runemaster without hesitation.

Therdreag grabbed the pouch with the mana crystals and handed them over, suppressing the desire to kill the 4th-rank runemaster on the spot. And then Tafur, for disappointing Therdreag's Expectations for the first time ever.

"Who are you?" Stone asked, observing the powerful dwarfs before him. His newly gained sense of danger flared. He focused and he could feel the ambient mana flowing around them differently. Similarly to him.

"You were right, Baelgin… I am sorry I doubted you." He looked at Lucifer in his son's body with an expressionless face but his eyes betrayed his true feelings; sadness and fury.

"Oh… Shit…" Lucifer was feeling the end coming.

"Luci?" Stone asked with his rocky voice.

"It's Dori and Eriv's dad…"

"Who?"

"The two bodies I was inhabiting."

"Oh… And?"

Lucifer sighed. He should have explained to him a lot more… He was too caught up in the murderous Stone's rampage and levelling up, the insane events. "It's bad."

"Will we die?"

"Probably."

"Oh…" Stone's process was simple; if there was nothing to lose… He powered a blueish <Mana Missile>, his most potent spell, and sent it towards the bigger threat.

Therdread just slightly smiled and waved his hand, deflecting the missile with ease. Still, it damaged his metallic gloves.

"You were telling me that it was only a pebble."

"You… wait… Didn't you see how they arrived here?"

"Nah. I was just having dinner. Ah! Watch out!" He cast a powerful <Runic Aeon Shield> around them. A powerful wave of silvery light hit the barrier, destroying it, but not before the Shield negated its force

"Well… Let's bag them up." Therdreag observed the battle between Harkon and the Ogre which was growing fiercer by the second.

Stone powered another missile, but it got deflected again.

"Stop it… Be happy they don't want to kill us immediately," Lucifer grimaced. He prayed to all the gods so hard, he thought that he would change his path to a classed <Priest>.

His prayers were listened to for once; as Therdreag reached for Lucifer, the ground opened below him and he fell through. So did Kretin, Jarka, Dafur, Tafur and Stone.

"Well… I did not expect this!" Therdreag frowned, preparing himself for the pursuit. Baelgin stood behind him, his mouth gaped.

But before the two could open the ground with powerful spells, two portals opened a few metres from them; one green and one red.

Two beautiful women emerged from them, wearing red and green dresses.

Therdreag paled. Then yelled; "SHADOW MAGES!" He grabbed Baelgin and retreated as fast as he could, activating every single movement enchantment he had. "HARKON! SHADOW MAGES!"

The Ogre looked confused as Harkon hastily retreated.

Meanwhile, the two women stared at each other, two auras battling over domination over each other.

"Sia."

"Tia."

As this was all happening, Stone and the rest were falling again. He was getting fed up with this theme already.

They stopped soon after, just a few metres below the battlefield on a heap of mushrooms.

"Guardian! You changed so much!"

"Holy… fucking… shit…" Lucifer could not believe it.

The Queen Ant had returned!