Scarlett wrinkled her nose in disgust as a disturbingly large mosquito burst into flas a re few centiters from her face, the acrid scent of burning reaching her monts later. At the sa ti, her left foot plunged into the waterlogged soil, forcing her to brace herself against a nearby tree as she extricated her soaked leg.
This had been far less revolting in the ga.
Whatever dislike she might have had for trekking through damp and wet forests, it paled in comparison to her disdain for walking through a literal swamp, all while surrounded by an army of insects.
Using her hydrokinesis to expel so of the water that had infiltrated her shoe, Scarlett shook off the dirt and muck with a scowl. She then continued forging ahead with the other mbers of her party, alongside the procession of Duke Valentino’s n, their path forward intermittently illuminated by the covered lamp carried by so of the knights.
Another insect, the size of Scarlett’s pinky, ventured too close, only to be reduced to ashes by her pyrokinesis.
She didn’t care if they were supposedly ‘harmless’ or if it was a waste of her mana. She wasn’t letting any of those creatures touch her.
A twinge of envy sprang up as she watched Fynn effortlessly weave through the swamp’s underbrush a few ters ahead. He seed entirely unnoticed by the insects that sward around amidst the trees, almost blending in with his surroundings.
If she ever returned here, she wouldn’t take a step into this damn swamp before she got her hands on an artifact or item that repelled bugs or sothing like that. Preferably sothing that helped keep her clean and dry as well. At least she didn’t seem to be alone in her aversion to the current environnt; Allyssa and several of the duke’s n who weren’t wearing heavy plate armor—she presud they were mages and the like—wore grimaces as they moved forward through the swamp, swatting their hands left and right.
The only silver lining was the temperature. Despite being in the middle of the night during December, it wasn’t too cold. The Liverline Marsh might only be at the edge of the Faywild Basin, but it still retained so of the more supernatural features that the Basin did, including a conspicuous lack of winter weather.
As they continued their journey through the swamp, Scarlett narrowed her eyes when she began to make sothing out ahead. Her enchanted glasses allowed her gaze to peer through the darkness and see a dark body of water peeking through the trees.
After a few more minutes of insect-incineration and swamp-trudging, Scarlett halted as the procession reached the bank of a small lake.
“What the—”
“By Ittar…”
Muffled exclamations rippled through the group as they all gazed out over the water.
Encircled by mostly swamp, the lake resembled a blot on the land. Its water sported a gloomy, purplish hue, thick as honey, with black vegetation encroaching from it, gradually creeping onto the shores and into the trees. A putrid odor hung in the air, assaulting Scarlett’s senses. On the opposite bank, a tall cliffside overlooked the lake, featuring a lone cave entrance in its face.
“Baroness, do you know what’s happened here?” a deep voice resonated as Sir Ho approached her, wearing a severe expression while scrutinizing the strange lake. Scarlett wasn’t sure how far he could see without an enchanted item like hers. The knights carrying lamps were directing the light primarily towards the bank, highlighting the black seaweeds and other flora erging from the water, being careful not to let the light spill too far.
“I presu this is not normal?” she said, turning to the man.
He shook his head. “It has been so ti since I last entered the Basin, but I have never seen anything like this.”
“Then it appears we are dealing with sothing beyond our initial expectations. I know of no dragon that leaves this sort of mark on its surroundings, after all.”
Scarlett was fully aware of the reason behind the lake’s unnatural appearance, but it wasn’t sothing she was going to share at this mont. Besides, the man would piece things together quickly enough once they encountered their target.
She pointed towards the other end of the lake. “I do not know if you can see it, but there is a cave on the opposite bank. It is likely that our quarry resides there.”
Sir Ho’s forehead creased together as he seed to consider her statent before turning towards a nearby knight. He ordered them to take so samples of the water for examination, then looked back at Scarlett. “We’ll continue our approach once we’ve confird this doesn’t pose an imdiate threat. anwhile, I recomnd that you stay back, Baroness.”
For now, she followed his advice, retreating to stand among the trees—and the accursed insects—with her party. She observed the captain and his people, who were maintaining a quiet air now. They supposedly used spells to mask their presence, so that the dragon wouldn’t notice them unless they ventured too close, but it didn’t hurt to be careful. Scarlett wasn’t sure how effective those spells were. The Hallowed Cabal’s Adepts used sothing similar in their missions, but their thod wasn’t flawless.
Eventually, Sir Ho seed satisfied and signaled to Scarlett that they were continuing. She and the rest of her party readied themselves as the duke’s n cautiously circled the edge of the lake—each mber prepared for a fight—and approached the cave situated on the other side.
Despite knowing how unlikely it was at this point, Scarlett couldn’t stop herself from scanning the swamp around them, wondering if she might spot Rosa sowhere nearby. If things unfolded as they had in the ga, the bard would co to this place with Malachi soti soon. Malachi was a master of concealnt, though, so even Fynn would have difficulty detecting them at a distance, much less Scarlett.
She was hoping they hadn’t arrived yet, at least, if they were indeed coming here. Malachi was relatively powerful, but even with Rosa’s assistance, it remained uncertain whether they could confront a foe this strong by themselves. Scarlett also wasn’t quite sure how she would even interact with them in a believable manner right now.
As the procession approached the cave entrance, Sir Ho and his people stopped outside it, with Scarlett and her group trailing slightly behind. The captain’s attention was fixed on a set of stones positioned next to the entrance, their surfaces carved almost like altars, bearing traces of blood and deep claw marks.
Feeling that it was safe enough for now, Scarlett walked up to the man, along with her party. He turned to her, his gaze grave. “These were made by people.”
Scarlett glanced over at the stone altars. “It would appear so.”
“Soone or sothing has been collaborating with the dragon in so capacity. This suggests that the attack against His Grace might have been preditated.”
Scarlett nodded. “While I have not heard of many dragons that cooperate with humans, it seems what we are facing is a situation that is far outside the norm.”
The man frowned as he shifted his attention back to the cave. The passage seed to extend deeply into the cliffside in a gradual curve, obscuring Scarlett’s view of what lay beyond. “Is the dragon inside?” he asked.
“That I do not know the answer to,” Scarlett replied. She glanced over at Fynn, whose brows were furrowed in a scowl. “What do you sense, Fynn?”
The white-haired young man shook his head. “I can’t tell. There are too many scents, and the lake is overpowering everything else.”
“I see.” Scarlett turned her attention back to Sir Ho. “Then it would seem you will have to determine the answer for yourself.”
The knight captain gave Fynn a brief but attentive look, then headed over to his n, issuing sharp orders as they changed their formation to prepare for entering the cave.
Scarlett’s focus returned to Fynn as he stepped closer to her, speaking in a quieter voice. “I can sense a presence here, similar to Rosa and that Mistress lady. The lake and this cave are filled with it.”
“While I comnd you for rembering to inform of this first, this ti, that is not a problem. It is to be expected, considering what we are dealing with.”
Fynn looked at her. “…If you say so,” he eventually said, his scowl easing as he went back to keeping a vigilant eye on their surroundings.
Scarlett considered him for a few seconds. “You cannot sense any trace of Rosa, can you?”
He paused, turning back to et her gaze, eyebrows lifting slightly. “No. Why would she be here by herself?”
“Because she can be a thoughtless and self-sacrificing fool.”
Shin and the others got a bit too close to continue that conversation for much longer, so Scarlett simply asked Fynn to keep an eye out for Rosa just in case, then they retreated a bit as Sir Ho and his dragon-slaying contingent started entering the cave in front of them. Scarlett opted to stay about thirty ters behind, a distance that allowed her to observe events without being too close if sothing happened.
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It could be problematic if the ‘dragon’ was away and returned now specifically, but she had enough trust in Fynn that he would at least be able to tell if a new presence like that suddenly appeared behind them.
The thought crossed her mind that such assumptions were akin to tempting fate, but she didn’t place much weight in those kinds of superstitions.
That said, she couldn’t resist the occasional glance over her shoulder, just in case the universe had it out for her today.
Thankfully, that didn’t seem to be the case, as when they ventured deeper into the cave, a guttural growl eventually reverberated throughout the place, its echoes resonating against the damp walls.
Shin tightened his grip on his sword and shield, Allyssa reached for the vials in her bandolier, and Fynn adopted a combat stance. Scarlett paid close attention to Sir Ho and his n as they looked around, cautiously advancing with weapons raised.
Now there was no doubt left whether their quarry was ho or not.
Scarlett kept her eye locked on the group ahead as they disappeared around a corner, and a roar that seed to shake the entire cave sounded out, penetrating into her very bones. Sir Ho’s authoritative voice cut through the noise as spells erupted and knights ran into battle.
Scarlett and her party remained where they were, listening to the sounds of the ensuing combat, gauging the situation. Their foe certainly sounded formidable, with occasional cries of pain piercing the air, but the duke’s n had healers with them. For now, it didn’t seem like they were being absolutely slaughtered, at least.
An agonized scream reached them, accompanied by a tremor that shook through the cavern, as if sothing massive had crushed the stone. Several pieces of loose rock fell down to the ground near Scarlett.
Alright, scratch that.
“Shouldn’t we…help them?” Allyssa asked, a conflicted expression on her face.
Scarlett studied the girl. Earlier, Allyssa had seed concerned about facing a dragon, but now she appeared more worried about not doing so.
“Would you prefer if that scream had co from you?” Scarlett asked, eting Allyssa’s eyes with a raised brow. “They were well aware of the peril associated with this mission, and that it is their duty to face this adversary. Our role was completed the mont we led them to this place.”
The young Shielder fell silent, and silence descended on their party as they stayed where they were, the sounds of fierce combat reaching them from around the corner. More screams, so a tad too similar to death throes, reached their ears as the minutes ticked by. Yet, judging by the accompanying roars of pain, it seed that the duke’s n weren’t the only ones suffering.
Eventually, as the screams waned and both sides appeared to be tiring, Scarlett deed it ti to assess the situation herself. She carefully moved forward, the others following her with slight surprise, and turned the corner that led into their quarry’s den.
Before her sprawled a vast cavern, its jagged walls glistening with moisture. Twisted, luminescent fungi adorned the walls, casting an eerie, ever-shifting glow and painting the chamber in unsettling shades of sickly blue and ominous purple.
Engaged in a brutal battle, Sir Ho and several other armored figures stood defiantly with swords and shields in hand before a monstrous creature, towering nearly to the cavern’s ceiling.
It easily dwarfed the dragon that Empress had left in Scarlett’s courtyard, standing at almost double the size. Its imposing serpentine form was covered in purplish scales and uneven spines that cast nacing shadows as it moved, with one massive wing that was half-folded, veined with strange patterns that seed to pulse with a sinister energy. On the ground lay another such wing, severed and battered from relentless attacks. Its elongated skull boasted wicked, forward-curving horns framing a pair of piercing crimson eyes that seed to bore into the depths of one’s soul, and its maw was filled with rows of razor-sharp teeth.
At first and second glance, most would probably mistake this presence for that of a unique breed of dragon. That illusion was shattered, however, by its open mouth. It revealed a void of nothing, as if peering into an abyss of living darkness. Scarlett’s skin prickled as a billowing, viscous dark light coalesced into a deadly breath before that void, which the creature prepared to unleash upon its foes.
This was an Abyssal Vilewyrm. A demon birthed from the depths of Malevolence, the Blaze of consuming shadows.
Sir Ho barked a terse command as three of the mages at the back of the cavern cast a spectrum of spells, erecting an intricate web of barriers to shield their comrades. The man himself summoned forth golden light from his sword that ford a protective bubble around him for a brief mont.
Scarlett instinctively stepped back behind the stone wall as the Vilewyrm released its attack, an undulating sea of shadows that crashed through the cavern.
After a tense pause, she peeked around the corner once more.
Over half of the duke’s n were strewn across the floor in various states, so motionless, others writhing in pain or simply unable to move. Scarlett estimated that maybe a third of them were likely beyond saving, while the fate of the others hinged on the outco of this battle.
The Vilewyrm, in comparison, had obviously lost one of its wings, and its massive form bore grievous wounds that oozed a dark, ichorous substance, spreading around the cavern in black spots.
A couple of explosions erupted as more spells struck its scales, accompanied by javelins of stone launched by the mages’ spells. Simultaneously, the knights surged forward, focusing their aura into their swords and aiming their strikes at the creature’s lower body. The Vilewyrm responded by slamming one knight into the cavern wall with a powerful foreleg while also lunging towards Sir Ho with its gaping maw.
The seasoned captain deflected the assault with his large shield — an impressive feat of strength, given his adversary’s size. Nonetheless, the sheer force from the behemoth’s size still sent him tumbling several ters back.
The confrontation continued, each side slowly whittling away at the other. Scarlett and her party remained a safe distance away, watching the spectacle unfold. She could tell that Allyssa wanted to help out, but Scarlett was unwilling to jeopardize her team’s safety against sothing like this, especially when Rosa wasn’t present.
Cold-hearted, perhaps, but Scarlett never claid to be a saint. She had her priorities.
That said, it wasn’t as if she intended to abandon all of the duke’s n to their fate. That would be foolish, considering the Vilewyrm could turn its attention to her group next. She kept a close watch over the battle, studying the demon’s condition and capabilities.
As more of the knights succumbed to its relentless onslaught, they managed to sever the Vilewyrm’s remaining wing, heavily damage one of its eyes, and grievously wound its left foreleg. However, the duke’s mages appeared to be running out of mana, their spells becoming sporadic as so of them drank mana potions. At this point, Sir Ho was bearing the brunt of the demon’s attacks to protect his n.
Both sides were nearing their limits.
Finally, as Sir Ho took cover behind his shield and the Vilewyrm flung the man into the cavern wall with one of its blows—preparing to finish him off once and for all—Scarlett saw her opportunity to act.
“Fynn,” she uttered the word.
The young man sprang to action.
“You may assist those who require it,” she instructed Allyssa, gesturing for Shin to do the sa. “Simply be mindful of how many potions you use.”
While she wasn’t short on money, for so reason the thought of presenting the duke an invoice when she got back made her smile inside.
Perhaps this world was starting to twist her even more than she thought.
Leaving that thought aside, she stepped forward and raised her hand. The [Tiara of Benediction] appeared on her forehead along with the [Fireguard Knife] and the rest of her equipnt.
Just as Sir Ho managed to force himself off the ground and weakly raised his sword and shield to confront the approaching Vilewyrm, a blazing sea of flas erupted between them like a barrier.
The Vilewyrm roared in agony as its already wounded head was engulfed by the sudden inferno, forcing its large body to a halt as it pulled back. Its maw opened and a short burst of shadowy flas clashed with Scarlett’s red blaze, creating an otherworldly spectacle as the two devoured each other until nothing remained.
That was when Fynn reached the beast. Like a person-sized cannonball, propelled by invisible winds, he launched into the Vilewyrm’s flank with his ethereal claws out. Despite his comparatively small size, the demon staggered montarily from the blow, and Fynn tore open an existing wound on its scales.
This assault was imdiately followed by an onslaught of Scarlett’s making. Aqua Mines, fire arrows, spheres of fire, and a barrage of attacks converged on the Vilewyrm all at once. Scarlett didn’t hold anything back, running through her mana supplies as her magic illuminated the entire cavern.
This wasn’t about conserving mana. It was about dealing maximum damage as quickly as possible.
For a brief period, Scarlett alone assailed the demon with a flurry of attacks that outnumbered even the combined efforts of the mages. It was clear the Vilewyrm was caught off guard by it all. While not as intelligent as many other demons, it clearly recognized the danger, even though Scarlett’s individual attacks didn’t have much power behind them. It knew that its already precarious situation had worsened.
It responded with a series of guttural roars and growls, shifting its massive fra to address these new threats. Tendrils of ichor erged from the cavern’s stony surface where its equivalent of blood had dripped, reaching for the bodies of those who had fallen. Scarlett recognized this as a late-stage chanic from the ga and countered the tendrils with her pyrokinesis, burning them to a crisp as Shin and Allyssa aided in rescuing the fallen.
The Vilewyrm fixed its remaining eye on Fynn, lunging at him with its gaping maw. In its weakened state, however, it proved too sluggish to catch him imdiately. The white-haired young man evaded as it also swiped a colossal foreleg towards him, tearing off several chest-sized scales in the process.
Sir Ho reentered the fray, joined by a pair of mages who had recovered so of their mana. They unleashed a fresh wave of spells, adding to Scarlett’s barrage against the demon.
With its health gradually dwindling down and its capacity to retaliate diminishing, the Vilewyrm seed to realize how this would end.
It opened its maw once more, gathering a colossal wave of dark energy within the abyss inside its throat. The energy this ti was so potent that it seed to drain the life from the surroundings, including the Vilewyrm itself, forming a concentrated mass of darkness that continued to build up.
An idea ignited within Scarlett.
She ceased all of her attacks, casting the cavern into relative darkness. Then she conjured a small, fiery sun within the Vilewyrm’s open maw. She pushed it through the encroaching shadows and into the abyss that resided within the creature. It was a surprise when the abyss seed to push back. Along with the gathering dark mass that ate away at her fire, the abyss almost threatened to swallow her attack then and there.
But the Vilewyrm was exhausted from a grueling battle.
She wasn’t.
Pouring every ounce of concentration and strength into the miniature star she had conjured, she intensified its brilliance. The fla’s hue transford into a searing crimson, challenging the Vilewyrm’s power with the intensity of a raging forest fire condensed into a single point.
Then sothing budged.
Her fiery inroad pierced the Vilewyrm’s defenses, tearing into the abyss within. And the demon scread. It was a heart-rending noise, as if its very core had been ripped apart. The shrieks resounded throughout the chamber, forcing Scarlett to cover her ears even as she maintained her magical assault.
The Vilewyrm shut its maw, its entire form trembling, a brilliant light radiating from beneath its battered scales. In one final, cataclysmic convulsion, it collapsed onto the stone floor, smoldering from within.
Silence descended upon the cavern. Those of the duke’s n who were still standing turned their gazes towards Scarlett, Sir Ho included.
She kept her eyes on the fallen Vilewyrm for a mont longer before shifting her attention to the knight captain.
“Well,” she spoke in a voice that carried across most of the cavern. “It appears as if we have successfully carried out our goal. Congratulations might not be in order, considering the injuries your n have sustained, but I believe the duke will be quite satisfied. No?”
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