Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  WING WING WING WING WING!!!

  A storm of windblades formed around the team and scattered outwards. The friends were startled to see each windblade to be three-feet long, and there were hundreds of them. In a blast of miserable screeches, they cut through everything as they passed by — the panthuggers, the incoming beasts, and the rocks behind them. The storm lasted for a few seconds, until no screech was to be heard, only cracking sounds from falling rocks here and there.

  ‘Ho… ly… ma… ma!’ Watching the horrible scene around them, the friends were petrified. They took a while to recover from the shock. ‘What’s that scroll, Alicey?’

  Some of them had learnt that a magic scroll usually carried a very powerful spell within it — for one reason or another, some spells were too powerful to be perfused into magigears for repeated usage; they could only be carved into scrolls as consumables. For that reason, scrolls were usually very precious and rarely seen.

  That day, Alicey had actually used up such a scroll, and the consequence was something that they would definitely remember for a while.

  ‘Did I make… a mistake?’ Alicey was horrified. Her shoulders were trembling. She closed her eyes so that she didn’t have to see the blood and the bodies.

  ‘No! You saved all of us!’ Vivarin hastened to give her a big, warm hug. ‘If not for you, what’s lying down there would be us!’

  The friends spent quite a while comforting little Alicey before they moved on. Thanks to the horrible storm of windblades, most of the beasts were dead — a few fled away in utter fear, with incontinent faeces leaking all along.

  ‘What is that?’ Kriagon looked around to make sure there was no threat left, and saw an odd-shaped dark stone in the middle of some cracked rocks. Thanks to the Light and Fire spells, the stone was obvious.

  ‘A jankide ore?!’ Omifo jumped over, screaming with joy. ‘Is it really a jankide ore?!’

  ‘It is.’ Ericson also walked over to check it, leaving Vivarin still holding Alicey in her arms. ‘It was inside the rocks, but got cut out by the windblades.’

  ‘Alicey, it’s to your credit then!’ Vivarin said gently. ‘Your scroll helped Rodka! Don’t feel bad anymore!’

  The friends hurriedly searched around for more ores, but didn’t find any. Kriagon and Ericson then tried to crack open more rocks with their windblades, but they couldn’t do it because they were not powerful enough. The team didn’t know if more beasts would come, so they had to leave quickly. Before they left, they took all the soulcores — there were dozens of them, ten times more than their previous hoard.

  Strangely, in the next two days, the friends didn’t have any problems with magimals. They didn’t know why, but maybe it was because the magimals that had fled the scene spread the horror around — that windblade scroll had clearly scared the poop out of them. Once, the team encountered several silveinbears again; but unlike the last time, the bears only hesitated one second before they turned around and ran away, screeching in panic. This made the friends unsure whether to laugh or to cry, but they were finally approaching the exit — according to Snower.

  On the other side, Soarame’s team had been searching above ground for jankide ores for the last two days, but they hadn’t had much luck. Instead, thanks to their devoted searching, they found a nest of baby hedgehogs —

  ‘Oh dear.’ Catheray muffled a scream, watching the little creatures. They looked as though they had only been born a few days ago, and their spines were not properly developed yet. ‘How cute!’

  ‘What are they exactly?’ Dileys asked.

  ZI!! Just then, a sharp noise sounded from behind them. The friends turned around immediately, and saw a pig-sized hedgehog staring at them. They could see the anxiety in its little black eyes — it must have been the mum.

  ‘Easy, easy!’ Jemario dragged the team away from the babies, at the same time smiling at the mother. ‘We mean no harm. They are all yours, and we are leaving now.’

  ‘Zizi…’ The big hedgehog seemed to understand the friends. She looked less nervous and slowly walked to her babies. Surprisingly, her body seemed to be bleeding somewhere, and she fell over upon reaching the babies.

  ‘Oh no, she’s injured!’ The friends were worried. It seemed that the mother hedgehog had just had a fight with someone — there were several bloody scores on her back that looked like tooth-prints, and a number of spines were broken.

  ‘What kind of magimal would ever bite her back?’ Kardiac shivered. ‘And it actually broke her spines!’

  The hedgehog struggled to get up, and moved to her babies for breast-feeding. This made the friends feel so sad. Pipi couldn’t help but go over there, jabbering for a talk.

  {Soar, you met a hedgehog?} Snower’s mind-talk came soon enough. {Pipi said that the father was killed. The mother is not good at language, so that’s all Pipi could understand from her.}

  ‘What’s that on her spines?’ Jemario suddenly asked. She noticed some semi-transparent gel remaining on the mom’s back, in between the spines.

  ‘Yark… it looks like the mouth water from whatever bit her.’ everyone frowned at the smell from the gel; no one really knew the answer. The team slowly approached the feeding mother, feeling terribly sad and sympathetic.

  ‘She must have gone out there for food, but didn’t get anything but injuries.’ Catheray grabbed Kardiac’s arm, sobbing. ‘But she still had to feed her babies… Can we do something to save them?’

  ‘Yes, we must.’ Soarame took out some food and put it beside the mother hedgehog. ‘I don’t know if you like it, but that’s all we have now.’

  The mum looked at the food and then at Soarame, and her eyes filled up with gratitude. The friends guarded the hedgehog family in silence, until the mother finished feeding her young and started eating the food.

  ‘Ah!’ Just when everyone was quietly watching the innocent little ones, Julia suddenly muffled a scream. Everyone looked over, and saw her emblem shining and vibrating.

  ‘Guys, my time is up. I’ll have to leave now. Sorry that I can’t go on with you, but I hope you can reunite with your friends soon.’ Julia exhaled a long breath. She wasn’t sure whether she felt happy or sad about leaving at this peaceful moment. ‘It’s been such a pleasure… and you too, my little friends.’ She waved at the hedgehogs, and the babies were watching her without understanding what was happening. Julia walked to the friends for a hug, but before she got to Soarame, she disappeared with a whoosh.

  ‘Wait!’ Kardiac complained. ‘The school is mean!’

  ‘A rule is a rule. So is the rule here in the jungle.’ Dileys sighed. ‘We can’t stay to protect them forever. Let’s go.’

  The team didn’t want to leave, but they finally had to. Catheray left some extra food for the hedgehog family — making Kardiac concerned about how little they had left — and walked away with watering eyes. The mother and the babies watched the friends disappear, groaning sadly.

  ‘Snower, what’s wrong?’

  In the cavern, Snower had suddenly stopped advancing. Unlike before, this time Snower didn’t meow to alert her companions, but looked confused.

  {Chacha. She’s not sure what’s in front of her.} Pipi’s voice sounded in Omifo’s mind. {She thinks there’s something, but she can’t sense it clearly.}

  ‘Hmm.’ Omifo updated everyone. ‘We are very close to the exit, so what could possibly be there?’

  ‘Why don’t we just rush through it?’ Kriagon suggested. ‘With Snower’s enhancement spell, we should be able to make it easily.’

  ‘No, Snower disagrees. She said she senses danger.’ Omifo said in a low voice. ‘Let’s give her some time to confirm it.’

  So the friends sat down for a rest, and watched Snower sit still at the front. But the rest lasted longer than they expected — an hour later, Snower was still sitting there, motionless.

  ‘Snower?’ Vivarin couldn’t help asking.

  ‘Shh.’ Omifo covered her mouth. ‘She’s still focusing. Somet
hing is wrong.’

  ‘How could it be?’ Kriagon was impatient. ‘Didn’t she say that we are only a mile away from Soar?’

  ‘Yes, she did. But danger exists in this final mile.’ Omifo signalled him to be quiet. ‘She’s good at what she does. Just listen to her.’

  Therefore, though the team was bored stiff, another hour passed.

  ‘Soar’s team is coming to our aid.’ Omifo suddenly updated everyone. ‘Snower asked for it, because she’s nervous about the unknown things ahead of us.’

  ‘Is it that bad?’ Alicey was worried. ‘She wasn’t nervous about the panthuggers or the silveinbears, but this time she is?’

  ‘Yes. But it doesn’t mean that our enemies are stronger, it just means that she’s not sure what’s there.’ Omifo shared what Pipi told him. ‘But that itself is odd enough, so let’s keep our eyes open.’

  ‘Well, my eyes are always open, but I still can’t see much around.’ Kriagon humphed. ‘When is Soar’s team coming?’

  ‘They’re on their way.’ Omifo stood up. ‘So we can move on now. Be careful!’

  The team thus slowly marched ahead. Ten minutes later, nothing had happened.

  ‘Snower, how does it feel now?’ Alicey asked.

  ‘Meow.’ Snower didn’t look back, but Omifo translated. ‘She’s still nervous.’

  ‘But nothing is here.’ Kriagon waved his torch around for a look. ‘If we speed up, we should be able to get out after another ten minutes!’

  ‘Ah.’ Vivarin suddenly groaned. Everyone hurriedly checked, and found her stepped on something sticky. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Vivarin tried to get her foot out of it, but didn’t make it after a few attempts. ‘Please don’t tell me it’s a poop of some kind.’

  ‘No, it’s not.’ Omifo lit up his wand for a better look. ‘It looks whitish… what’s that?’ He suddenly noticed that the whitish thing was connected to something transparent. Following that transparent thing, everyone looked bit by bit towards the wall, and realized it was an odd string that connected the wall and the ground.

  Crack… Suddenly, a vague noise sounded from behind them. Everyone instantly turned around for a look, and saw a shadow dropping from the darkness above to the darkness on the ground.

  ‘What’s that?’ Omifo cast a powerful Light spell immediately. This time the cavern was lit up a lot more, but the friends still couldn’t see it — whatever that shadow was, it must be hiding behind the rocks. On the other hand, Snower suddenly started meowing sharply, sending strong alerts!

  {Watch out, they are all above you!} Pipi’s mind talk came in at once, making Omifo’s fine hair standing on end. At the same time, something liquid dropped on to Kriagon’s shoulder, making him look upwards subconsciously —

  ‘AHHHH!!!’

  Right above his head, there was the big, creepy face of a …

  Spider?

  ‘RUN!’ Ericson pushed Kriagon away from the big spider. Almost at the same time, the spider’s mouthparts closed at the spot where Kriagon had been standing, making a sharp crack.

  ‘HOLY MAMA!’ Kriagon was screaming and dashing around like mad. ‘Kardy, I hate you!’

  ‘Watch out, Eric!’ Omifo yelled at Ericson as he saw another spider pounce on him from behind. But in the next blink, Ericson disappeared, leaving only his voice echoing —

  ‘Don’t worry about me, run!’

  ‘I see!’ Omifo was reminded of the boy’s Darkness capacity. He hurriedly dragged the two girls to flee together. At the same time, a series of noises sounded from all around — countless spider-like magimals were diving towards the friends from different angles. Not until then did the friends realize that the spiders could change their colours according to the environment, so that the friends never noticed them when they stayed still. But the spiders were so numerous that it made the friends’ fine hair stand on end just listening to the noises.

  ‘Meow!’ Snower immediately enhanced everyone. The friends cast different spells as they ran around in the middle of a tide of spiders, barely breaking out from the besiegement. As soon as they broke out, a firewall suddenly emerged behind them, burning up the first batch of spiders.

  ‘Hurry up! It won’t hold them for long!’ Kriagon had come back from ahead — he had calmed down a little, so he was trying to help his team escape together. No one spared any effort in running, and they really appreciated the enhancement spell at this moment because it made them run twice as fast. However, their luck didn’t last long — Kriagon stepped on something sticky a few seconds later. This made him lose a shoe and his balance. Then he fell over, rolling over on the ground.

  ‘Shit!’ The poor boy cursed and tried to get up, but suddenly noticed that his hands were touching something sticky too.

  ‘NOOOO!!!!’ Kriagon was freaked out. Flame emerged from his hands, as he was trying to burn the sticky thing up. However, it didn’t work very well — the sticky thing only melted a little, but it was at the cost of Kardiac’s burnt palms.

  ‘It’s spider web!’ Vivarin screamed; she finally recognized the sticky thing. ‘Stop the flame and let me do it!’

  Kardiac subconsciously listened to her, crying with a chaotic mind. Vivarin quickly froze the web using her Water spells, and this time it worked — the toughened web lost its stickiness, and finally became detached from Kardiac.

  ‘NO…’ Climbing up from the ground, Kardiac was scared to see the spiders catching up due to the delay. The team hurried up to cast another blast of spells, but it didn’t help much because the spiders were prepared this time.

  The friends started running again, but they couldn’t ditch the spiders; they were just too swift. A few minutes later, everyone suddenly felt a pulse of overwhelming exhaustion and had to slow down sharply — the enhancement spell’s time was up!

  ‘Teleport!’ Omifo grunted, struggling with the exhaustion. ‘Snower, come to us! Or we can’t take you away!’

  ‘MEOW!’ Snower screamed, shaking her little head.

  ‘Are you crazy?’ Omifo was startled to sense Snower’s refusal. ‘COME TO ME! NOW!’

  ‘HOLD ON!’ Right then, a wave of windblades pierced through the air and landed on the spiders, cutting them apart. In the next second, a figure flew by their heads, launching ferocious attacks along the way.

  ‘SOAR?!’ The friends were madly overjoyed. ‘CAREFUL!’

  ‘GO!’ Soarame yelled, without pausing to look at them — the spiders were enraged by his sudden strike, so they all focused on him. Fortunately, Soarame was very swift, thanks to his flying spell. Although he was fully occupied by the large number of spiders, he could still tackle most of them. In the meantime, everyone struggled to climb up and follow Snower to escape.

  ‘Alicey! Everyone!’ Catheray’s voice could be heard soon after — the two teams finally met up!

  ‘Let’s go!’ The rescue team held up the victim team one by one, trying to help them speed up. But they soon realized something. ‘WHERE’S ERIC?!’

  ‘He spelled shadowcape and split from us!’ Omifo smacked his head; he had almost forgotten that. ‘He will be fine… right?’

  ‘Watch out!’ Kardiac spelled a firebolt to burn up a pouncing spider. ‘We must leave now! Eric is smart, he must have teleported!’

  ‘MEOW!’ Snower suddenly screamed at Soarame — he seemed to be swamped by the countless spiders. Suddenly, a spider web caught his right shoulder, restraining his arm and the wand in his hand. Soarame quickly cut it open and broke out, but several spiders were already pouncing on him.

  ‘Snower, don’t go there!’ The friends were frightened to see Snower diving back to Soarame, trying to help. They grimaced and turned back, about to go back into the battle too.

  ‘Just leave!’ Just then, a figure jumped out of the shadow and cut off a spider from Soarame’s back. ‘I got Soar! You guys all leave, now!’

  ‘Eric?’ Soarame was overjoyed. Ericson spelled a wave of windblades together with Soarame, keeping t
he spiders away from them. The spiders sprayed webs at them, but fortunately Soarame wasn’t too slow to figure out the advantage of Water spells — most of the webs were frozen in the air and cracked on landing.

  The battle went on for a while and, in the meantime, the team was retreating methodically. Thanks to their teamplay as the Resurgers, everyone collaborated brilliantly; the boys surrounded the girls in the middle and kept the spiders out of the circle. However, everyone was overwhelmed, especially the victim team — they were suffering extra exhaustion from the after-effects of the enhancement spell. Therefore, screams could be heard from time to time, whenever someone failed to block a spider and got bitten.

  ‘Kriagon, hold on!’ Kardiac put Kriagon on his back because the boy was too tired to move. He wasn’t happy about that — he finally understood why this boy always complained about gravity.

  Omifo, Vivarin and Alicey were also beyond exhaustion, so Dileys, Jemario and Catheray tried to carry them to the exit; but this tired them out too. Especially Catheray, who was small and not good at physical work. The slowdown then became a big problem for Soarame and Ericson, as the only two designated defenders. Well, there were actually two more — Snower and Pipi, but…

  ‘Guys, come on!’ Ericson yelled. ‘How long do you need?’

  ‘Two minutes!’ Dileys yelled back. ‘We’re trying!’

  ‘But we don’t have two minutes!’ Soarame was already at his wits’ end. He was anxious when he saw that even Volsta’s feather couldn’t scare off the countless spiders, but barely made them hesitate. Right then, the spiders were surrounding them left to right and up and down, and they kept spraying webs at them. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the girls were mostly Water wizards and they kept freezing the webs, the friends would have been done a while ago.

  ‘Ahh!’ Finally, Kardiac got a firm bite on his shoulder for protecting Kriagon using his own body; fresh blood sprayed out of the wound. The poor boy was really freaked out when the spiders landed on him, but he just couldn’t let his friend take it instead.