Chapter 16
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The tall cloaked woman giggled a second time upon hearing the name 'Fallen'. She raised her arm dramatically.
"Fire." She said, lowering the raised arm.
In that instant, hundreds of arrows shot from out of the surrounding foliage, their metal tips glinting in the sun. The old man, upon seeing the tall woman had already activated his familiar armaments, thus he reacted quickly to the incoming arrows.
With a single swing of his gigantic lance, at least half of the arrows were knocked out of the air, whilst the others were knocked off their original trajectory. Arboria on the other hand, created walls made of mud and earth, several metres thick, that blocked off the few arrows which had managed to fly past the old man's block.
Draylen and Arboria's daughter took shelter behind their respective guardians, whilst Draylen had activated his familiar armaments and held Barong in his arms.
"How did they manage to get so many warriors here without us noticing? Just from the number of arrows, there must be hundreds of them!" He exclaimed.
The old man lifted his lance and placed it on his shoulder whilst exhaling slowly.
"No, although it is true that we are out numbered, the Fallen must have used gatling crossbows to fire such a large volley in order to trick us into thinking that we are facing more enemies than we really are." He deduced clearly.
The tall woman from before had disappeared, along with her mount and all that remained was an eerie silence. The earthen walls that Arboria had created crumbled into dust and the four stood facing outward, ready for any sudden attacks.
-Rustle
An extremely faint rustling could be heard from deep in the foliage, which the old man reacted instantly to, swinging his lance and shooting out a large white spear of mana. The spear shot through the shrubbery at twice the speed of an arrow and hit it's mark.
"Aaargghh!" A pained cry came from within the forest.
"There!" Arboria shouted, stomping the ground and causing rocky spikes to rise out of the ground at a rapid pace.
-Squelch
The rock spikes sank back into the ground and the forest sunk once more into silence. Arboria sent out a green glow from her feet before letting out a frustrated grunt.
"What's she doing?" Draylen asked.
"Trying to use her mana to scan the surroundings and find our enemies." The old man answered.
After a while, the dragon lady sighed in exasperation.
"It's no use, they've somehow managed to block my mana sense." She complained.
The old man nodded, as if he had been expecting this outcome.
"Well, tell me now. What kind of grudge do you have with the Fallen in order to make them attack you like this? I'm certain that woman from before was at least tier 8, maybe even 9. That's definitely enough to make her a key player to the Fallen." He asked bluntly.
"I'm not sure either. I haven't taken any active moves against them in the past few centuries... Hold on. Could it be..." Arboria's voice began to trail off as she revealed a thoughtful expression, which quickly changed to a panicked one.
"What is it?" The old man pressed hurriedly.
"They must be after the Earthen Pearl. It's an artifact that belonged to my predecessor, the true earth dragon Gaia and it lies in her tomb. She is the one who guarded this valley before myself and that pearl is the only thing which remains of her to this day." She explained with a worried expression.
"What is so special about this 'Earthen Pearl' which can make the Fallen attack an earth dragon such as yourself over it?" Draylen asked, slightly confused.
Arboria sighed.
"There are many legends and myths about Gaia's Earthen Pearl, such as it granting immense wisdom and vitality to the owner, to the point of immortality, but those are all false. It's true use is to raise the power of it's user drastically."
"You mean..." The old man muttered.
"Yes. It has the power to turn any humans or beasts related to earth mana into 'Ascended' and 'Evolved', but can only be used one time."
The old man's mind seemed to wander for a moment before he came back to reality.
"We can not allow the Fallen to take such a game changing treasure. Take us to it's location, hurry." The old man said quickly.
"Of course. I just hope that a Draconic Elder such as yourself will not be blinded with greed." Arboria remarked.
"I am of the light element and have no need for the wealth that such an artifact could procure. You waste such suspicions on me." The old man said in a hurt manner.
"I hope."
The dragon lady transformed into her true form, a western style dragon which matched the colours of nature splendidly. Her daughter, now in dragon form, the old man and Draylen all got onto her back.
She leapt up before flapping her huge wings, creating a massive gust of wind. Then, the dragon accelerated, instantly leaving the location at which they were ambushed. They soon reached the inner most part of the valley, with high surrounding walls and extremely lush greenery.
A single cave (dammit, I did it again) sat in the centre, surrounded by blue glowing crystals. They pulsated to a rhythm, almost like a beating heart, causing blue light to illuminate the dim surroundings every few seconds.
'This must be a mana vein.' Draylen thought.
'Is this where the Earthen Pearl is stored?'
"They have not yet entered, the seal on Gaia's tomb has not been lifted." Arboria said.
The old man nodded.
"Then we wait."
"They might not know of us arriving yet, and lower their guard slightly. Let's ambush them directly and stop them from entering." Aria suggested.
Throughout the whole time, the dragonling had been extremely quiet. Not directly talking to anyone other than her mother, thus her sudden words caused everyone to be a little surprised.
"Good idea, since it's our playing field, we have the advantage. That means we can use the terrain as well." Arboria replied warmly, giving a congratulatory pat on the head to her daughter.
The old man and Draylen nodded, showing that they had no qualms. Arboria then walked over to one of the sides of the enclosed area which was directly opposite the main entrance and tapped it lightly, causing the earth to sink back to create several small chambers.
"We'll hide there? Can you make a separate chamber for me near the entrance instead?" Draylen asked.
Arboria shrugged and created another hiding spot at the front.
"We won't be able to hear very well from inside, so when I summon a few Quake Golems we'll attack alright?" She said.
Everyone except Draylen nodded.
'What's a Quaker Golem? Oh well, I'll just wait for some loud noises before coming out."
"One more thing, Aria and Draylen, both of you are below tier 5 so don't even think about approaching that woman from before. You know that she may well be tier 9, thus you'll be powerless to stop her. Leave her to me." She reminded sternly.
"Yes, I agree. Also, if you feel that you can't keep up or are injured, don't hesitate to leave the fight, we'll protect you." The old man added kindly.
The two children nodded obediently. In this world, you learned early or died trying. That was how people survived, it was survival of the fittest. This is why the two adults did not exclude their kids, as getting battle experience early on would not hinder their growth, only speed it up instead.
"Alright, everyone get to your hiding positions, quickly now."
Draylen split up from the other three and went to his own earthen chamber. As soon as he stepped inside, it sealed itself up, with a tiny little peak hole which he could see from. A single ray of light seeped through, allowing him to see, albeit barely.
He waited and waited and soon enough, he heard the loud footsteps of a group of people.
"Hahahaha! Did you see their expressions? I told you dragons aren't that scary." Someone bragged.
"Shut up, unlike you, I don't enjoy agitating higher lifeforms." Someone else reprimanded.
Suddenly, a distinct coquettish voice cut in.
"Quiet boys, we're closing in now and I don't want your incessant chattering to ruin my opportunity to win master's favour."
"Yes mistress." They answered apologetically.
"Good."
The loud footsteps quickly became muffled shuffling, with the occasional snapping of a twig.
'Aren't these guys supposed to be the empire's nemesis? Why are they so unprofessional?' Draylen wondered, holding in the urge to laugh.
Soon, a group of people wearing shady black robes entered the enclosed area, with a distinct curvy figure leading the way at the front. They looked around before slowly making their way towards Gaia's tomb.
There were about twenty odd people, carrying a large cylinder on their backs and had wrist mounted contraptions on either hand. Long tubes led from the cylinders to the wrist contraptions, which also had very small but long barrels sticking out the front.
'Those must be the gatling crossbows that the old man must have spoken of.'
'If we win, I'm taking one as a trophy.' He thought.
Suddenly, several large green/brown spell circles appeared on the walls of the enclosure, drowning out the previous soothing blue glow from before. Although the Fallen troops seemed very unprofessional and disorderly, they were well trained when it came to battle.
-Swoosh
They fanned out, gatling crossbows pointing in all directions. In one smooth movement, they were in a strong, solid defensive position. Draylen continued to hide, waiting for the so called Quaker Golems to show up.
He then looked toward the spinning spell circles on the walls.
'Could it be?' He wondered.
-Rumble...
The whole area began to quake, dust fell and trees shook. The earth that was on the walls rolled down before beginning to mash together, forming legs and then torsos, then arms and finally a head with a single green glowing eye.
In a split second, 5 large Quaker Golems had emerged, each one with the height of a horse carriage facing upwards, including the horse. They clenched their rocky fists before letting out enraged roars, once more causing the ground to quake.
'That must be the signal!'
Draylen saw Arboria, the old man and Aria bursting out of their hiding places, with dirt and dust falling off of their armour. He hurriedly followed suite, realising that the wall which closed him in was surprisingly soft.
As he ran out, Charcoal became a set of armour and wrist blades, whilst Barong quickly dived into the nearby foliage, like a hunter stalking his prey. Draylen hurriedly ducked behind a tree.
'If they see me, it's over. I'm an assassin, so I'll attack them when their guards are at their lowest.'
The tall voluptuous lady on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all.
"Open fire!" She yelled, before pulling out a spell scroll and launching an ice arrow into one of the Quaker Golem's fists.
The golem simply smashed it's frozen fist into the ground with a howl, causing cold shards to fly everywhere. Another golem morphed it's arms into massive drills and the golem at the rear dug a massive boulder out of the floor and lobbed it at the intruders.
Hundreds of arrows shot out with a 'pew', burying themselves into the Quaker Golems. Unfortunately, the earthen giants seemed to be immune to the cold weapons and merely shrugged them off.
The old man, Horatio, charged forward recklessly, putting his lance in front whilst protecting his face and head with his left arm. He smashed into one of the frontmost Fallen, causing the latter to howl in pain and fall to the ground, blood coming out of the gaping wound which had opened on his chest.
Arboria wore glowing armour which seemed to be made of wood, she raised her arms theatrically, causing several large roots to shoot out of the ground and impale some of the Fallen. A few quick witted ones managed to escape in the nick of time, whilst others weren't so lucky.
Aria simply tossed out a green fireball, which instantly burnt one of the Fallen into ash. The Fallen on the other had, seemed to be at an extreme disadvantage, having already lost 5 of their members and soon, even more.
Luckily, the tall lady at the front couldn't summon her giant two headed bird familiar, as the enclosed area was already cramped enough with the Quaker Golems. The other Fallen had brandished all sorts of weapons, from crooked hammers to misshapen axes.
"Charge!"
They roared as they ran forward, deflecting several magical attacks with spells of their own before retaliating with physical force. The majority faced off against the golems, whilst a few went for Arboria and Horatio.
The tall lady was shooting several magical volleys, which smashed into the Quaker Golems, often destroying a limb or two. Unfortunately for her, as soon as the golems were damaged, a green earthen glow would pull their pieces back together.
Meanwhile, Draylen looked for an opportunity to strike from behind the tree. However, the battle was too chaotic, with neither side taking up proper formations.
'What if I do that thing where I turn invisible and fly?' A light bulb suddenly popped up in his head.
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The tall cloaked woman giggled a second time upon hearing the name 'Fallen'. She raised her arm dramatically.
"Fire." She said, lowering the raised arm.
In that instant, hundreds of arrows shot from out of the surrounding foliage, their metal tips glinting in the sun. The old man, upon seeing the tall woman had already activated his familiar armaments, thus he reacted quickly to the incoming arrows.
With a single swing of his gigantic lance, at least half of the arrows were knocked out of the air, whilst the others were knocked off their original trajectory. Arboria on the other hand, created walls made of mud and earth, several metres thick, that blocked off the few arrows which had managed to fly past the old man's block.
Draylen and Arboria's daughter took shelter behind their respective guardians, whilst Draylen had activated his familiar armaments and held Barong in his arms.
"How did they manage to get so many warriors here without us noticing? Just from the number of arrows, there must be hundreds of them!" He exclaimed.
The old man lifted his lance and placed it on his shoulder whilst exhaling slowly.
"No, although it is true that we are out numbered, the Fallen must have used gatling crossbows to fire such a large volley in order to trick us into thinking that we are facing more enemies than we really are." He deduced clearly.
The tall woman from before had disappeared, along with her mount and all that remained was an eerie silence. The earthen walls that Arboria had created crumbled into dust and the four stood facing outward, ready for any sudden attacks.
-Rustle
An extremely faint rustling could be heard from deep in the foliage, which the old man reacted instantly to, swinging his lance and shooting out a large white spear of mana. The spear shot through the shrubbery at twice the speed of an arrow and hit it's mark.
"Aaargghh!" A pained cry came from within the forest.
"There!" Arboria shouted, stomping the ground and causing rocky spikes to rise out of the ground at a rapid pace.
-Squelch
The rock spikes sank back into the ground and the forest sunk once more into silence. Arboria sent out a green glow from her feet before letting out a frustrated grunt.
"What's she doing?" Draylen asked.
"Trying to use her mana to scan the surroundings and find our enemies." The old man answered.
After a while, the dragon lady sighed in exasperation.
"It's no use, they've somehow managed to block my mana sense." She complained.
The old man nodded, as if he had been expecting this outcome.
"Well, tell me now. What kind of grudge do you have with the Fallen in order to make them attack you like this? I'm certain that woman from before was at least tier 8, maybe even 9. That's definitely enough to make her a key player to the Fallen." He asked bluntly.
"I'm not sure either. I haven't taken any active moves against them in the past few centuries... Hold on. Could it be..." Arboria's voice began to trail off as she revealed a thoughtful expression, which quickly changed to a panicked one.
"What is it?" The old man pressed hurriedly.
"They must be after the Earthen Pearl. It's an artifact that belonged to my predecessor, the true earth dragon Gaia and it lies in her tomb. She is the one who guarded this valley before myself and that pearl is the only thing which remains of her to this day." She explained with a worried expression.
"What is so special about this 'Earthen Pearl' which can make the Fallen attack an earth dragon such as yourself over it?" Draylen asked, slightly confused.
Arboria sighed.
"There are many legends and myths about Gaia's Earthen Pearl, such as it granting immense wisdom and vitality to the owner, to the point of immortality, but those are all false. It's true use is to raise the power of it's user drastically."
"You mean..." The old man muttered.
"Yes. It has the power to turn any humans or beasts related to earth mana into 'Ascended' and 'Evolved', but can only be used one time."
The old man's mind seemed to wander for a moment before he came back to reality.
"We can not allow the Fallen to take such a game changing treasure. Take us to it's location, hurry." The old man said quickly.
"Of course. I just hope that a Draconic Elder such as yourself will not be blinded with greed." Arboria remarked.
"I am of the light element and have no need for the wealth that such an artifact could procure. You waste such suspicions on me." The old man said in a hurt manner.
"I hope."
The dragon lady transformed into her true form, a western style dragon which matched the colours of nature splendidly. Her daughter, now in dragon form, the old man and Draylen all got onto her back.
She leapt up before flapping her huge wings, creating a massive gust of wind. Then, the dragon accelerated, instantly leaving the location at which they were ambushed. They soon reached the inner most part of the valley, with high surrounding walls and extremely lush greenery.
A single cave (dammit, I did it again) sat in the centre, surrounded by blue glowing crystals. They pulsated to a rhythm, almost like a beating heart, causing blue light to illuminate the dim surroundings every few seconds.
'This must be a mana vein.' Draylen thought.
'Is this where the Earthen Pearl is stored?'
"They have not yet entered, the seal on Gaia's tomb has not been lifted." Arboria said.
The old man nodded.
"Then we wait."
"They might not know of us arriving yet, and lower their guard slightly. Let's ambush them directly and stop them from entering." Aria suggested.
Throughout the whole time, the dragonling had been extremely quiet. Not directly talking to anyone other than her mother, thus her sudden words caused everyone to be a little surprised.
"Good idea, since it's our playing field, we have the advantage. That means we can use the terrain as well." Arboria replied warmly, giving a congratulatory pat on the head to her daughter.
The old man and Draylen nodded, showing that they had no qualms. Arboria then walked over to one of the sides of the enclosed area which was directly opposite the main entrance and tapped it lightly, causing the earth to sink back to create several small chambers.
"We'll hide there? Can you make a separate chamber for me near the entrance instead?" Draylen asked.
Arboria shrugged and created another hiding spot at the front.
"We won't be able to hear very well from inside, so when I summon a few Quake Golems we'll attack alright?" She said.
Everyone except Draylen nodded.
'What's a Quaker Golem? Oh well, I'll just wait for some loud noises before coming out."
"One more thing, Aria and Draylen, both of you are below tier 5 so don't even think about approaching that woman from before. You know that she may well be tier 9, thus you'll be powerless to stop her. Leave her to me." She reminded sternly.
"Yes, I agree. Also, if you feel that you can't keep up or are injured, don't hesitate to leave the fight, we'll protect you." The old man added kindly.
The two children nodded obediently. In this world, you learned early or died trying. That was how people survived, it was survival of the fittest. This is why the two adults did not exclude their kids, as getting battle experience early on would not hinder their growth, only speed it up instead.
"Alright, everyone get to your hiding positions, quickly now."
Draylen split up from the other three and went to his own earthen chamber. As soon as he stepped inside, it sealed itself up, with a tiny little peak hole which he could see from. A single ray of light seeped through, allowing him to see, albeit barely.
He waited and waited and soon enough, he heard the loud footsteps of a group of people.
"Hahahaha! Did you see their expressions? I told you dragons aren't that scary." Someone bragged.
"Shut up, unlike you, I don't enjoy agitating higher lifeforms." Someone else reprimanded.
Suddenly, a distinct coquettish voice cut in.
"Quiet boys, we're closing in now and I don't want your incessant chattering to ruin my opportunity to win master's favour."
"Yes mistress." They answered apologetically.
"Good."
The loud footsteps quickly became muffled shuffling, with the occasional snapping of a twig.
'Aren't these guys supposed to be the empire's nemesis? Why are they so unprofessional?' Draylen wondered, holding in the urge to laugh.
Soon, a group of people wearing shady black robes entered the enclosed area, with a distinct curvy figure leading the way at the front. They looked around before slowly making their way towards Gaia's tomb.
There were about twenty odd people, carrying a large cylinder on their backs and had wrist mounted contraptions on either hand. Long tubes led from the cylinders to the wrist contraptions, which also had very small but long barrels sticking out the front.
'Those must be the gatling crossbows that the old man must have spoken of.'
'If we win, I'm taking one as a trophy.' He thought.
Suddenly, several large green/brown spell circles appeared on the walls of the enclosure, drowning out the previous soothing blue glow from before. Although the Fallen troops seemed very unprofessional and disorderly, they were well trained when it came to battle.
-Swoosh
They fanned out, gatling crossbows pointing in all directions. In one smooth movement, they were in a strong, solid defensive position. Draylen continued to hide, waiting for the so called Quaker Golems to show up.
He then looked toward the spinning spell circles on the walls.
'Could it be?' He wondered.
-Rumble...
The whole area began to quake, dust fell and trees shook. The earth that was on the walls rolled down before beginning to mash together, forming legs and then torsos, then arms and finally a head with a single green glowing eye.
In a split second, 5 large Quaker Golems had emerged, each one with the height of a horse carriage facing upwards, including the horse. They clenched their rocky fists before letting out enraged roars, once more causing the ground to quake.
'That must be the signal!'
Draylen saw Arboria, the old man and Aria bursting out of their hiding places, with dirt and dust falling off of their armour. He hurriedly followed suite, realising that the wall which closed him in was surprisingly soft.
As he ran out, Charcoal became a set of armour and wrist blades, whilst Barong quickly dived into the nearby foliage, like a hunter stalking his prey. Draylen hurriedly ducked behind a tree.
'If they see me, it's over. I'm an assassin, so I'll attack them when their guards are at their lowest.'
The tall voluptuous lady on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all.
"Open fire!" She yelled, before pulling out a spell scroll and launching an ice arrow into one of the Quaker Golem's fists.
The golem simply smashed it's frozen fist into the ground with a howl, causing cold shards to fly everywhere. Another golem morphed it's arms into massive drills and the golem at the rear dug a massive boulder out of the floor and lobbed it at the intruders.
Hundreds of arrows shot out with a 'pew', burying themselves into the Quaker Golems. Unfortunately, the earthen giants seemed to be immune to the cold weapons and merely shrugged them off.
The old man, Horatio, charged forward recklessly, putting his lance in front whilst protecting his face and head with his left arm. He smashed into one of the frontmost Fallen, causing the latter to howl in pain and fall to the ground, blood coming out of the gaping wound which had opened on his chest.
Arboria wore glowing armour which seemed to be made of wood, she raised her arms theatrically, causing several large roots to shoot out of the ground and impale some of the Fallen. A few quick witted ones managed to escape in the nick of time, whilst others weren't so lucky.
Aria simply tossed out a green fireball, which instantly burnt one of the Fallen into ash. The Fallen on the other had, seemed to be at an extreme disadvantage, having already lost 5 of their members and soon, even more.
Luckily, the tall lady at the front couldn't summon her giant two headed bird familiar, as the enclosed area was already cramped enough with the Quaker Golems. The other Fallen had brandished all sorts of weapons, from crooked hammers to misshapen axes.
"Charge!"
They roared as they ran forward, deflecting several magical attacks with spells of their own before retaliating with physical force. The majority faced off against the golems, whilst a few went for Arboria and Horatio.
The tall lady was shooting several magical volleys, which smashed into the Quaker Golems, often destroying a limb or two. Unfortunately for her, as soon as the golems were damaged, a green earthen glow would pull their pieces back together.
Meanwhile, Draylen looked for an opportunity to strike from behind the tree. However, the battle was too chaotic, with neither side taking up proper formations.
'What if I do that thing where I turn invisible and fly?' A light bulb suddenly popped up in his head.
The tall cloaked woman giggled a second time upon hearing the name 'Fallen'. She raised her arm dramatically."Fire." She said, lowering the raised arm.In that instant, hundreds of arrows shot from out of the surrounding foliage, their metal tips glinting in the sun. The old man, upon seeing the tall woman had already activated his familiar armaments, thus he reacted quickly to the incoming arrows.With a single swing of his gigantic lance, at least half of the arrows were knocked out of the air, whilst the others were knocked off their original trajectory. Arboria on the other hand, created walls made of mud and earth, several metres thick, that blocked off the few arrows which had managed to fly past the old man's block.Draylen and Arboria's daughter took shelter behind their respective guardians, whilst Draylen had activated his familiar armaments and held Barong in his arms."How did they manage to get so many warriors here without us noticing? Just from the number of arrows, there must be hundreds of them!" He exclaimed.The old man lifted his lance and placed it on his shoulder whilst exhaling slowly."No, although it is true that we are out numbered, the Fallen must have used gatling crossbows to fire such a large volley in order to trick us into thinking that we are facing more enemies than we really are." He deduced clearly.The tall woman from before had disappeared, along with her mount and all that remained was an eerie silence. The earthen walls that Arboria had created crumbled into dust and the four stood facing outward, ready for any sudden attacks.-RustleAn extremely faint rustling could be heard from deep in the foliage, which the old man reacted instantly to, swinging his lance and shooting out a large white spear of mana. The spear shot through the shrubbery at twice the speed of an arrow and hit it's mark."Aaargghh!" A pained cry came from within the forest."There!" Arboria shouted, stomping the ground and causing rocky spikes to rise out of the ground at a rapid pace.-SquelchThe rock spikes sank back into the ground and the forest sunk once more into silence. Arboria sent out a green glow from her feet before letting out a frustrated grunt."What's she doing?" Draylen asked."Trying to use her mana to scan the surroundings and find our enemies." The old man answered.After a while, the dragon lady sighed in exasperation."It's no use, they've somehow managed to block my mana sense." She complained.The old man nodded, as if he had been expecting this outcome."Well, tell me now. What kind of grudge do you have with the Fallen in order to make them attack you like this? I'm certain that woman from before was at least tier 8, maybe even 9. That's definitely enough to make her a key player to the Fallen." He asked bluntly."I'm not sure either. I haven't taken any active moves against them in the past few centuries... Hold on. Could it be..." Arboria's voice began to trail off as she revealed a thoughtful expression, which quickly changed to a panicked one."What is it?" The old man pressed hurriedly."They must be after the Earthen Pearl. It's an artifact that belonged to my predecessor, the true earth dragon Gaia and it lies in her tomb. She is the one who guarded this valley before myself and that pearl is the only thing which remains of her to this day." She explained with a worried expression."What is so special about this 'Earthen Pearl' which can make the Fallen attack an earth dragon such as yourself over it?" Draylen asked, slightly confused.Arboria sighed."There are many legends and myths about Gaia's Earthen Pearl, such as it granting immense wisdom and vitality to the owner, to the point of immortality, but those are all false. It's true use is to raise the power of it's user drastically.""You mean..." The old man muttered."Yes. It has the power to turn any humans or beasts related to earth mana into 'Ascended' and 'Evolved', but can only be used one time."The old man's mind seemed to wander for a moment before he came back to reality."We can not allow the Fallen to take such a game changing treasure. Take us to it's location, hurry." The old man said quickly."Of course. I just hope that a Draconic Elder such as yourself will not be blinded with greed." Arboria remarked."I am of the light element and have no need for the wealth that such an artifact could procure. You waste such suspicions on me." The old man said in a hurt manner."I hope."The dragon lady transformed into her true form, a western style dragon which matched the colours of nature splendidly. Her daughter, now in dragon form, the old man and Draylen all got onto her back.She leapt up before flapping her huge wings, creating a massive gust of wind. Then, the dragon accelerated, instantly leaving the location at which they were ambushed. They soon reached the inner most part of the valley, with high surrounding walls and extremely lush greenery.A single cave dammit, I did it again sat in the centre, surrounded by blue glowing crystals. They pulsated to a rhythm, almost like a beating heart, causing blue light to illuminate the dim surroundings every few seconds.'This must be a mana vein.' Draylen thought.'Is this where the Earthen Pearl is stored?'"They have not yet entered, the seal on Gaia's tomb has not been lifted." Arboria said.The old man nodded."Then we wait.""They might not know of us arriving yet, and lower their guard slightly. Let's ambush them directly and stop them from entering." Aria suggested.Throughout the whole time, the dragonling had been extremely quiet. Not directly talking to anyone other than her mother, thus her sudden words caused everyone to be a little surprised."Good idea, since it's our playing field, we have the advantage. That means we can use the terrain as well." Arboria replied warmly, giving a congratulatory pat on the head to her daughter.The old man and Draylen nodded, showing that they had no qualms. Arboria then walked over to one of the sides of the enclosed area which was directly opposite the main entrance and tapped it lightly, causing the earth to sink back to create several small chambers."We'll hide there? Can you make a separate chamber for me near the entrance instead?" Draylen asked.Arboria shrugged and created another hiding spot at the front."We won't be able to hear very well from inside, so when I summon a few Quake Golems we'll attack alright?" She said.Everyone except Draylen nodded.'What's a Quaker Golem? Oh well, I'll just wait for some loud noises before coming out.""One more thing, Aria and Draylen, both of you are below tier 5 so don't even think about approaching that woman from before. You know that she may well be tier 9, thus you'll be powerless to stop her. Leave her to me." She reminded sternly."Yes, I agree. Also, if you feel that you can't keep up or are injured, don't hesitate to leave the fight, we'll protect you." The old man added kindly.The two children nodded obediently. In this world, you learned early or died trying. That was how people survived, it was survival of the fittest. This is why the two adults did not exclude their kids, as getting battle experience early on would not hinder their growth, only speed it up instead."Alright, everyone get to your hiding positions, quickly now."Draylen split up from the other three and went to his own earthen chamber. As soon as he stepped inside, it sealed itself up, with a tiny little peak hole which he could see from. A single ray of light seeped through, allowing him to see, albeit barely.He waited and waited and soon enough, he heard the loud footsteps of a group of people."Hahahaha! Did you see their expressions? I told you dragons aren't that scary." Someone bragged."Shut up, unlike you, I don't enjoy agitating higher lifeforms." Someone else reprimanded.Suddenly, a distinct coquettish voice cut in."Quiet boys, we're closing in now and I don't want your incessant chattering to ruin my opportunity to win master's favour.""Yes mistress." They answered apologetically."Good."The loud footsteps quickly became muffled shuffling, with the occasional snapping of a twig.'Aren't these guys supposed to be the empire's nemesis? Why are they so unprofessional?' Draylen wondered, holding in the urge to laugh.Soon, a group of people wearing shady black robes entered the enclosed area, with a distinct curvy figure leading the way at the front. They looked around before slowly making their way towards Gaia's tomb.There were about twenty odd people, carrying a large cylinder on their backs and had wrist mounted contraptions on either hand. Long tubes led from the cylinders to the wrist contraptions, which also had very small but long barrels sticking out the front.'Those must be the gatling crossbows that the old man must have spoken of.''If we win, I'm taking one as a trophy.' He thought.Suddenly, several large green/brown spell circles appeared on the walls of the enclosure, drowning out the previous soothing blue glow from before. Although the Fallen troops seemed very unprofessional and disorderly, they were well trained when it came to battle.-SwooshThey fanned out, gatling crossbows pointing in all directions. In one smooth movement, they were in a strong, solid defensive position. Draylen continued to hide, waiting for the so called Quaker Golems to show up.He then looked toward the spinning spell circles on the walls.'Could it be?' He wondered.-Rumble...The whole area began to quake, dust fell and trees shook. The earth that was on the walls rolled down before beginning to mash together, forming legs and then torsos, then arms and finally a head with a single green glowing eye.In a split second, 5 large Quaker Golems had emerged, each one with the height of a horse carriage facing upwards, including the horse. They clenched their rocky fists before letting out enraged roars, once more causing the ground to quake.'That must be the signal!'Draylen saw Arboria, the old man and Aria bursting out of their hiding places, with dirt and dust falling off of their armour. He hurriedly followed suite, realising that the wall which closed him in was surprisingly soft.As he ran out, Charcoal became a set of armour and wrist blades, whilst Barong quickly dived into the nearby foliage, like a hunter stalking his prey. Draylen hurriedly ducked behind a tree.'If they see me, it's over. I'm an assassin, so I'll attack them when their guards are at their lowest.'The tall voluptuous lady on the other hand, didn't seem surprised at all."Open fire!" She yelled, before pulling out a spell scroll and launching an ice arrow into one of the Quaker Golem's fists.The golem simply smashed it's frozen fist into the ground with a howl, causing cold shards to fly everywhere. Another golem morphed it's arms into massive drills and the golem at the rear dug a massive boulder out of the floor and lobbed it at the intruders.Hundreds of arrows shot out with a 'pew', burying themselves into the Quaker Golems. Unfortunately, the earthen giants seemed to be immune to the cold weapons and merely shrugged them off.The old man, Horatio, charged forward recklessly, putting his lance in front whilst protecting his face and head with his left arm. He smashed into one of the frontmost Fallen, causing the latter to howl in pain and fall to the ground, blood coming out of the gaping wound which had opened on his chest.Arboria wore glowing armour which seemed to be made of wood, she raised her arms theatrically, causing several large roots to shoot out of the ground and impale some of the Fallen. A few quick witted ones managed to escape in the nick of time, whilst others weren't so lucky.Aria simply tossed out a green fireball, which instantly burnt one of the Fallen into ash. The Fallen on the other had, seemed to be at an extreme disadvantage, having already lost 5 of their members and soon, even more.Luckily, the tall lady at the front couldn't summon her giant two headed bird familiar, as the enclosed area was already cramped enough with the Quaker Golems. The other Fallen had brandished all sorts of weapons, from crooked hammers to misshapen axes."Charge!"They roared as they ran forward, deflecting several magical attacks with spells of their own before retaliating with physical force. The majority faced off against the golems, whilst a few went for Arboria and Horatio.The tall lady was shooting several magical volleys, which smashed into the Quaker Golems, often destroying a limb or two. Unfortunately for her, as soon as the golems were damaged, a green earthen glow would pull their pieces back together.Meanwhile, Draylen looked for an opportunity to strike from behind the tree. However, the battle was too chaotic, with neither side taking up proper formations.'What if I do that thing where I turn invisible and fly?' A light bulb suddenly popped up in his head.
