Tyler Kimball - Lessgently
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Pallesia - Chapter 179 - Double Dragon.
🕑 Added 2024-10-24 00:05:38 +0000 UTCLee peered around the bend where the torchlight flickered, revealing a long empty but lit corridor, roughly a hundred meters long. It was wide enough to walk side by side with another person, but doing so would cause someone to get dangerously close to the lined and interspersed sconces nailed into the walls.
From what he could see, there weren’t any branching paths from this overly long tunnel. If there was a guard post at the end, they would have plenty of opportunities to see their small group coming.
Duck back around out of sight, Lee spoke to the other prisoners. “I’ll lead the way. It’s a long tunnel, and we don’t want to get caught out in the open with no retreat. If we come in contact with red-robed people, they will be healers. That means they’re capable of magic. So, be careful.”
He looked each of them in the eye to make sure they understood. They shuffled in anticipation, some scared and some pumping themselves up in anger. He gave them a nod, then swerved around the corner and broke into a dead sprint.
Encased in the Armaments of Eternity, Lee’s footfalls clanked loudly as his rapidly plodding feet zoomed up the tunnel. His icy armor shifting and filling his ears to block out the sounds of his pumping blood. With his speed, Lee could sprint down a hundred meter corridor in about ten seconds, but with armor on, that was more around fifteen instead. Throwing a quick glance behind, he saw his group of allies close on his heels.
When they made it a little more than halfway to the next room, a flare of sickly green fire appeared at the end. Lee lowered his shoulder, bracing for the unavoidable fire spell as he charged ahead.
With a barely audible swoosh, the vile green flame rocketed down the tunnel, reaching their position in less than a second. With a flick of will, Lee cast a Water Wave Wall ahead of him, blocking the corridor completely. The sickly green orb of flame burst against the wall of water, evaporating the frontal portion with hissing steam as Lee slammed through the back of his own spell and dispelled it.
Next came an arrow, one Lee didn’t even register or see before it had hit him in the shoulder, causing him to fumble a step from the unnatural force of the projectile. There must have been a second one as well, as one of the prisoners behind him screamed in agony. Without sparing a glance back, he trusted his Healer’s Beacon to care for the wound.
Another green fireball came launching down the corridor, and Lee did the exact same sequence to nullify it as before. This time, as he charged through the remains of the water, some of it froze to his armor, creating wispy trails of ice as he rushed forward.
Right at the end of the tunnel, a red-robed mage/healer and a pale-skinned archer stood at the ready. Both looked confused and shocked at their sudden appearance and jailbreak, but didn’t have enough time to come to terms with what was happening.
Lee cast Strengthening and Swiftness as he crossed the threshold into the other room, as as soon as he crossed the invisible barrier, a large war-hammer swung from the side of the entrance, smacking him squarely on the chest and launching him back to smack into the corner of the entryway.
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The glacial ice that made up his chest plate cracked from the blow, but held firm as the hidden man with the warhammer raised his weapon high, aiming to crush Lee’s skull. Before the swing could commence, Sarah, the woman who had previously lost her legs, screamed a battle cry and hopped onto the man’s back. She stabbed with her daggers haphazardly and with fury, causing the man to drop his hammer and reach over his head to chuck her off of him.
Lee disabled Healer’s Beacon, to stop him from healing his enemies, and flicked a Mend Wounds over to the now tumbling Sarah. Then, Lee swung upwards with his glacial sword, missing entirely as the man dipped backwards while grabbing his fallen weapon. The rest of the prisoners were swarming the archer and the healer, none wanting to step toe to toe with someone with a giant war hammer and apparent skill.
After several more unpracticed swings, the man before him smirked. He shot forward, dipping low to avoid a horizontal swing from Lee’s glacial blade, and went to grab Lee’s wrist to disarm him.
It was at this point that Armaments of Eternity’s secondary effect activated. As soon as the man grasped his armor, he screamed and pulled back in a dodge roll. Spinning around to face his foe, Lee saw that the man’s hand was caked in frost and blistering red from the sheer cold. Those who feel the blade feel eternity, and those who feel the armor get fucked.
Expecting a followup swing from Lee’s sword, the man raised his war hammer in a block. Instead of an unpracticed sword swing, Lee launched a hunk of stone from behind the man with Earthen Strike, exploding his head like a melon.
Looking around at his surroundings, Lee saw the archer had fallen to numerous cuts, the final one being a stab through the eye. The red-robed healer was still holding on, using hands full of sickly green flame to keep his melee adversaries at bay. One of the prisoners had stolen the fallen archer's bow and quiver, using it to great effect, keeping the mage on his toes and unable to cast.
Targeting right next to the mage’s head, Lee cast Sonic Boom, rupturing the man’s eardrums and causing his green flaming fists to flicker out. As one, all the prisoners swarmed and stabbed with the daggers, or bashed with their clubs like rabid animals.
They… they continued to stab the corpse for a solid five seconds after the deed was done.
Lee shouted out for them to hear. “If you’re wounded, raise your hand!”
Over half of them did so, and Lee flicked his Healer’s Beacon on and off to take care of their injuries. After a headcount, he found that he still had all seven of his allies alive and well. “Gather up what you can. Weapons, like the war hammer—their armor, anything. We leave in a minute!”
After letting everyone gather and scrounge up the armor and weapons from their fallen foes, Lee saw Sarah move over and loot the bodies of the humans. With a sharp blink and a double take, he watched as their bodies fizzled into sparkles, leaving behind a small pile of coins, a green scale, and a swirling purple potion.
Catching his inquisitive look, Sarah shrunk into herself and explained. “My ability. It gives me better loot.”
Well, that answered why she was captured. At least it is helping against their foes now. “Want me to store the items? I have a bag of holding as an ability.”
She motioned toward the scale and the coins, but kept the potion in her grasp and held it to her chest. With a quick Identify, he found the reason.
Burst of Intelligence (Epic): A magical, alchemical potion which grants a +5 buff to intelligence for ten minutes.
Potions were something he wasn’t even vaguely familiar with, but this one seemed like it would be extremely expensive judging by the effect. He didn’t want Sarah to have a death grip on it as they fought their way out of this hellhole either. “I can store that as well. I swear to the gods that I will return it to you when we’re free. You’ll need your hands free for what's to come.”
Reluctantly, Sarah handed over the potion and Lee stored it in his Hidden Cache. There were only two exits from this room, the one they came from and the other which ramped steeply upwards before flattening out.
“Okay! Time to move out! The longer we wait, the more time they have to prepare or discover our escape!” Lee shouted, causing everyone to line up behind him before the ramping exit.
Unlike the last path which led from room to room, this one didn’t need to be taken at speed. The ramping slope caused both sides to be unable to see one another from one end to the other, but he’d be surprised if nobody heard the commotion of the fighting and then his Sonic Boom. Either whoever, if there were any people, were preparing for their arrival, or they went to spread the word.
The ramping slope was easy to walk, but slightly taxing stamina wise. Hopefully, his Healer’s Beacon lessening the muscle fatigue of his allies.
Once at the top of the slope, Lee peeked over to find that this corridor continued, with several exits and openings. Midway through the path, on the right, was an extremely large curved opening, a suitable and structured empty doorway with supports. On the path, there were several jagged natural openings on the left side—Although he couldn't see clearly from where he was, they might serve as entrances to other paths or rooms.
Wandering forward, slowly, Lee made his way to the first left side opening. Peering around the bend, revealed a small oval-shaped room. The room had a simple bed, a wooden wardrobe, and little else for amenities. It was also empty, with nobody lying in wait for an ambush.
Lee waved the others forward, then proceeded to the next room, finding this one to be similar to the previous. While similar, this one was more lived in by the looks of things. The bed wasn’t made, with sprawling covers toppled over the side of the bed and red-robed laid about on the floor. Lee gestured for everyone to enter inside, just so that if someone decided to walk down the hallway, they wouldn’t be seen.
“Stay here. I’ll go to the next and signal you to follow if the coast is clear.” Lee said, not receiving much of a response other than some unsure nods.
The next opening was the large gateway. Lee snuck forward, praying that his measly Stealth skill was putting in work, and peered around the bend.
Immediately, and with a harsh hiss, a spray of black and green vapor blasted him in the face from the mouth of a green reptile. Its maw had been opened and ready for him. Burning pain jolted through his now watery eyes, his nose felt like he had snorted sand, and his throat seized, slowly squeezing shut, making breathing a struggle.
Without pause, the green reptile lunged at breakneck speed, mouth still open, aiming for his head. Throwing all caution to the wind, Lee used the first Expert spell he’d ever created—Glacial Cascade.
With a sharp and unnatural shift in temperature, the solid stone floor cracked, the air around him fogged, then a pulse of mana sent the sheer cold outwards around him in a circle. In response, the green reptile shrieked and wailed, breaking off its bite to scamper away with a fluidity that bellied its size.
In the second of reprieve he’d been granted by his sudden spell, Lee cast Anestheliosurge and End of the Unwanted. The pain of his burning eyes dulled, his nose returned to normal if slightly uncomfortable, but his throat still seized. He would have been a fool to not suspect poison, so End of the Unwanted surged through his body and veins, causing Lee to vomit a glop of black and green goop through his visor.
HISSSSSS
Looking up at the sound through clear, swirling, rainbow eyes, Lee spotted the form of his foe. It was a dragon, smaller than he’d anticipated, being the size of a large bull, but a dragon nonetheless. Dendros was supposedly the size of a four story house, so this wasn’t him—A slam from the side knocked Lee through the air, tumbling across the rocky ground head over heels, before being smacked into the wall.
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His arm broke at the elbow, which snapped back into place within a second, and his foot unnaturally corrected its rotated position as it healed. Glancing over, Lee saw a separate dragon, the same size as the first, posture and pace as it flapped its small wings and hissed and snapped at its front shoulder. It was red and covered in frost, due to touching his glacial armor.
Then, with unfortunate timing, Armaments of Eternity’s five minute duration timed out. The sheer white and blue icy falling off his body while fading into wisps of deep blue mana, leaving Lee in his Robes of the Genesis.
Lupin - Juvenile Green Dragon (Monster) - Level: 73
Emaz - Juvenile Green Dragon (Monster) - Level: 79
Description: Juvenile green dragons, while not as powerful or experienced as their adult or ancient counterparts, are highly cunning and extremely dangerous. They exhibit a natural talent for deception and manipulation, using smaller illusions to confuse prey and rival creatures. Though their poison breath isn't as potent as that of an adult, it’s still deadly enough to incapacitate or kill their foes. These young dragons spend much of their time honing their skills and perfecting their trickery. Almost always, they’re already plotting their rise to dominance in their territory.
Unlike the monsters Lee’d encountered previously, these didn’t immediately charge and seek him out with mindless bloodlust. The one who’d slammed him aside paced and hissed while glaring at him with wariness. The one that had sprayed him in the face with poison seemed to fade from sight, although it remained unmoving.
Not willing to let the dragon work its illusions, Lee acted with haste, casting a wide area of effect spell, Howling Cyclone. To his surprise, the ramping up miniaturized tornado began to suck up items from its surroundings—Surroundings Lee hadn’t had time to inspect.
Glittering gold and silver coins joined the maelstrom as it formed, battering and flinging bits of metal about and battering the two dragons, causing them to retreat into the darkness.
“Fuck…” Lee murmured, realizing where he was. He was in a dragon's hoard.
Dendros’ hoard.
Comments
Kirisuk3
I feel like this is no longer Dendros' hoard, it is definitely Lee and the survivors hoard.
Wintermelody
Thanks for the Chapter
