Special Chapter XVII - Invisible Attacks (part 1)

Meanwhile, still below the rabbit hole, the captain and the others are running into the deeper cave. 

They arrived at a large room where the floor is made of light crystals. On top of the crystals are piles of corpses from the undead, as well as puddles of black blood.

Seeing the scene of the battlefield, everyone stared in awe as they tried to understand.

"This… is what she had been doing? We were so busy fending off dogs, but she was busy taking down a whole army...?"

Gajah commented while studying a nearby corpse.

On the top of the hill, there is a corpse of a giant dragon. Everyone else stared at it, not believing that it's an actual corpse of an undead dragon.

The head of the dragon was nowhere to be found, because it exploded. There are also signs of heavy fight on that side, which means someone was fighting the dragon and won.

The captain turned his gaze to the left, where a body was dropped on the ground next to the entrance.

"Must be the conjurer. Rize did come out alone, and all the corpses are dead."

The captain muttered. He stared at the conjurer's corpse for a while, and turned to the others.

Gajah walked to the conjurer's corpse and studied it. He found a hole in the chest that looks to be a stab wound.

"Do you think she..."

"I don't think so. She isn't one to kill people. Plus, it's not our right to know whether or not she killed the conjurer. All we know is that the conjurer is dead."

The captain said while still gazing around the room. Hearing the answer, Gajah nodded while standing back up as well.

"You are right-"

BARR!!

Explosions can be heard outside, at the cave from before. But over time, the sound of the explosions were getting further. Everyone knows that Rize was able to lure Prym away from the cave.

"We should leave this cave. If the trio of destruction knows we are here, then so might the kingdom. We can't fight an entire kingdom by ourselves."

Gajah said as he slowly approached the captain and Belmar from behind. Everyone else also regrouped, and they all turned to the entrance.

"Right. Let's go."

The captain began walking forward, and everybody else followed. But a hand landed on the captain's shoulder.

"Captain."

A voice calling the captain while holding his shoulder. The captain turned his gaze back, and found Kirene staring at him sharply.

She wants something.

.

They finally arrived at the smaller cave. Rize and Prym are nowhere to be found. They must have gone out of the cave from that hole in the ceiling.

"Let's go through the entrance where we came in."

The captain said as he led the way. The group follows him walking past the mountain of rocks. But before they arrived at the entrance, an explosion came from the left.

BLARR!!!

Everyone quickly moved backwards to move away from the explosion that came from the side, and immediately unsheathed their weapons. They all stared at the giant hole on the wall, where Elbrado and Merida crashed. 

The explosion came from somewhere within that hole. They all know that those two were still alive.

After a while, steps can be heard coming from the inside. It sounded light, so it didn't belong to the giant guy.

A few seconds later, Merida came into the light. Her whole body is messed up and covered in wounds, and her right hand is holding the right side of her face that seemed to be bleeding heavily. She must have lost her right eye. 

When she came out and saw the bunch still alive, rage welled up inside her.

"Ants...! You are still alive!??"

A heavy pressure can be felt once more. Merida lifted her left hand and pointed them towards the group. Seeing this, the captain immediately screamed.

"Look out!"

The captain shouted, but Belmar couldn't see anything. Without realizing what's going on, his body got pushed back by a powerful force, really far away until it crashed on the wall. Belmar's body is now stuck on the wall, and he looks unconscious.

"Belmar!!"

Gajah shouted at his friend, and immediately created more distance from the evil witch.

The evil witch was still trying to regain her balance, since her wounds are way too severe. That crash by an anvil at the speed of a bullet would have killed anyone. But she was able to survive it because she created a magic barrier pretty quick. But that still doesn't clear her out of the danger.

She was squashed between a thick wall and a giant muscular anvil with the speed of a bullet. If it wasn't for her ability to conjure wind barriers to protect herself, she would have been turned into juice.

She fell down to her knees for not being able to properly concentrate on standing up. Her right hand is no longer holding her right eye. And now her only eye is glaring at the group with immense pressure.

"I… will… fucking kill you all!!"

The witch used both of her hands this time. She formed a claw form with both of her palms facing forward, and she pointed them at Gajah.

Another invisible attack was launched, but the captain was able to sense it. He pushed away Gajah just in time for the attack to miss. However, the invisible wind magic had grazed his shoulder just slightly.

Blood spurted out from his shoulder, luckily it wasn't that deep.

"Captain!!"

"I'm fine! Go with the others and secure an escape route! I will handle her!"

Gajah nodded at the captain. He knows that he will only become a weight in this fight, so he just had to leave it to the captain. He turned around to the others and commanded them to follow him.

"Are you kidding? We aren't going to leave the captain-"

"We are just going to be a hindrance to him! Let's go!"

Gajah shouted at one of the knights who complained. The knight turned his gaze at the captain, but the captain only grinned and gave a thumbs up.

The knight nodded firmly while saluting, and immediately turned around to call the others to follow him. Before long, everyone else had left the cave.