Return to Jorgaldur Volume II: the druid archer

Chase in the tunnels (II)

"What is this!? A door!? Has she gone in?" asked the arachne, after having stopped in front of a huge metal door.

The tracker studied the door and carefully observed the prints.

"The door has been opened, and something has come out, but she hasn't entered. She has continued through the tunnel. She goes faster than us, the distance has increased.

"Shit... Let's go! I hope something stops her."

The opossum-woman nodded, and they both resumed their pursuit. They were feeling their prey slipping through their fingers, but still had hope. They assumed that she had found the tunnel by accident, and that she might have no way out.

On the other hand, they hadn't had a problem from being attacked either. They were slower, but all the inhabitants of the tunnel had hidden when noticing their aura.

They had been running underground for a day, and had found several doors. Some were closed, and others had been disabled, either by the passage of time or deliberately.

They had slowed down slightly and consumed potions to increase energy recovery, plus the elf had used Energy Link each time she could to transfer hers to her sister. With this, they had managed to maintain a balance between speed and fatigue.

"¡Mmmm! These cream cupcakes are delicious. How tender this meat! That's a very refreshing drink!"

They ate while running, and the feline took the opportunity to make her winged sister envious, who was beginning to regret not having entered with them. She might be claustrophobic, but her mouth was watering.

They had passed through more than one tunnel, which had been separated by pairs of totally destroyed doors, apparently with violence and long ago. This was one of them. They hurried across it, but suddenly a silhouette leaped over them.

It was a level 61 spider, which had dug into the earth to find a place to lay its eggs, and had ended up there. There was no spider web, because perhaps this species wasn't capable of creating it, but it was capable of ambushing and attacking by surprise.

The feline's reflexes allowed her to dodge the lethal attack, but that didn't prevent her from being hit and injured. Despite this, she regained her balance and landed on her feet.

The elf, who had taken off, used Float and Support Wind to regain her balance. Her speed pushed her against the wall, but she was able to stop the blow with her legs, as if she were jumping, albeit towards a vertical wall. Then, she used Float again, and just stood there, by latching onto the wall with Suction Cups. She wielded the bow and aimed at the spider.

The predator charged again towards the lynx, whose ability to react had been diminished by the paralyzing venom that now ran through her veins. She was barely able to use Jump to get away from it. She was struggling to remain conscious, but a poison 6 levels higher was difficult to counter.

However, the spider soon had other problems. Faced with the critical situation of her sister, the elf didn't hesitate to invest as much mana as necessary.

Three arrows struck the spider, which turned to the origin, from which three Twisters were heading toward it. They were slow and easy to dodge, but three more arrows dug into the ground around the arachnid, to trigger a Wind Trap. It didn't take long for it to free itself from the trap, but immediately another was activated, and another.

It was a high mana expenditure to activate them continuously, but the distance between them was short. Therefore, the Twisters soon arrived, and engulfed the spider. Although slow, they can be maintained while there is mana left. Maybe, they were low level relative to the spider, but there were three of them, their damage was continuous, and arrows kept hitting.

The worst thing for the spider was that it didn't realize that its enemy had come down from the wall, had approached, and had added three more Twisters. They drained the elf's mana, but increased the attack on all sides.

Completely overcome, 6 more levels were unable to survive the Goldmi's brutal attack, who had added a Wind Pillar, and rushed to reach her sister.

There, she couldn't use Antidote, as there were no plants in those dark tunnels, so she quickly healed her wound, and give her a potion against poisons, which had no effect. Not only was it several levels lower than the poison, but it was only capable of fighting poisoning, not paralysis. Besides, Basic Healing could only heal wounds.

"I'll be fine in a while," assured the lynx, although the elf couldn't be sure if that would be the case.

With nothing else for her to do, she waited there, anxious and worried. The elf could pick her up and move forward, but not only would she go much slower, but she would expose them to dangers in which, perhaps, she wouldn't be able to protect her sister.

So, while waiting for her sister to recover, Goldmi began to create traps around her as the mana regenerated.

When the two bounty hunters reached what had been the junction of two tunnels, a Wind Abyss activated on them.

"One of these again? They are harmless... Aaahh!"

They might be more than 10 levels higher, but twelve traps activated at once was a challenge even for them. It is true that the power wasn't added up, but the number of small cuts and the force of the wind that they had to go through did.

Furthermore, the arachne was especially vulnerable to such a number of cuts, as she had many eyes to protect. As if that weren't enough, with those twelve Abyss of Wind there was one of Light. Although it didn't harm them, it did blind and annoy them.

After a while, when they managed to back away, their bodies were full of cuts, although it wasn't something that a potion couldn't heal.

"Damn elf," the tracker was furious.

The clothes she was wearing over her leather protections had been ripped apart, and her hair and fur had suffered quite a bit of damage. In addition, her bowstring had been broken.

The arachne had also suffered cuts to some of her eyes, though they were being healed by a potion. To that must be added that she had lost a good number of the spiders that were hiding in her body, as she was unable to protect them all.

"This has gotten personal," she mumbled. "Are there more traps?"

The tracker observed and felt her surroundings. She was dumbfounded at what she perceived.

"Yes, many of them. It's full of traps."