Chapter 734: Destinations (2/2)

Already she was past the latitude of Karth and Riverwatch, the locator still pointing west as the mountains lost some height. Ilea slowed down a few hours later, when a valley broke through the ancient barrier, reaching northwards with luscious forests and roaring rivers. Beyond, the mountains continued, the valley a mere dent in what looked like the spine of the world. She squinted her eyes as she landed on a large boulder, neither ice nor cold bothering her in the slightest.

What she saw was smoke. Not a mere column but what looked like a wide spanning weather phenomenon. Entire clouds that slowly moved in the wind, distributed into the forests all around. The territory looked to border the northern mountain chain. She saw a large section of the steep cliffs to be entirely blackened, likely years of ash collected against the mountain side.

Fire Wastes. She watched for a little longer, occasionally seeing tiny flashes. A glance down revealed movement in the distant forests, dull green forms speeding through the high trees. Explosions followed, a few kilometers away, beams of flame and light flaring up before the section stilled once more. A daily occurrence, she assumed. Machines sent through one of the many gates in the vicinity, more added with every passing day.

The gray blotch of land covered in dark clouds looked out of place. As if spewed up by a volcano in the vicinity. The forest retreated from the ash but the barrier wasn’t quite as decisive as she first thought. Smaller trees and other vegetation grew far into the territory, luscious leaves while others were entirely blackened, mere husks in a graveyard of vegetation.

Ilea considered. Her locator still pointed west, straight at the wastes. It was the first Elven domain she had seen, and the downright ominous look certainly gave her pause. She could handle young elves but fighting them wouldn’t be much better than simple murder. And she wasn’t keen on luring out the older generation, let alone the local Oracles. She was interested in fighting either but within their territory and the chance of them ganging up on her, she didn’t like her chances. Not with what she had seen from the Sky Monarch and his voiceless goon.

Circling around through the northern territories was the only option she saw, if only to find out if the key was indeed inside the wastes. But more importantly, her scheduled delving time with her two companions was coming up. Not a time to explore unknown Elven lands. Not with many of her skills still being quite a bit lower leveled than they could be. Couldn’t have been two more monasteries.

She opened a gate to the North and stepped through. Well, it’s just pointing westward. What the hell could go wrong?

Her allies collected, Ilea once more connected two of her portals. This time from the edge of the Meadow’s territory to the depths of Karth.

The light, mana, and air change was immediately noticeable, even with all her abilities to deal with it. She wondered how she would’ve felt down here a few years back. Sweaty was the word that came to mind.

Fey and Kyrian readied their spells and got into position a little behind her. She was the most likely to survive a direct hit from even high level four marks after all. Vanguard by experience.

Ilea knew that Iz was still a long way’s off. I got used to all these additions to my long range teleportation, she thought, quite excited to be back inside an extensive cave system. It reminded her of the Calys mines, the very dungeon they had entered at the start of their descent. The first cavern she had explored. Not exactly by choice either. And now I saw the Domain from where those Elves attacked.

She didn’t find herself particularly involved. Hating Elven kind or even just the fire domain just didn’t make much sense to her. She had known some of the people that had died, but not well enough to leave a deep rooted hatred towards what many considered humanity’s greatest enemy. The Elves she had met, she had fought. Likely individuals who made their own choices. Uneducated and unguided. Impulse controlled teenagers with the power to destroy entire cities. Beings that had known nothing but strife since their creation. If anything it made the Cerithil Hunters more impressive.

Ilea wondered if an appearance in the Wastes and a few fights would earn some respect for humanity as a whole, but she quickly came to the conclusion that more of them would likely come east to look for a challenge. A warning system and teleportation gates were definitely more effective to deal with the occasional Elven incursion. Up until a Monarch decided to lay waste to humanity. Any by then, she hoped to be ready. If the day ever came.

She stepped forward into the dark, the gate behind her vanishing. Distant lava streams glowed lightly, pulsing with heat. Ilea jumped down a few slopes. She slid to a stop a few dozen meters farther down where she locked eyes with a horned creature. One quite a bit broader and taller than her.

[Hadranim – lvl ????]

The creature reached nearly three meters in height. Humanoid with thick arms and legs, its skin a scorched armor like substance, near entirely black. Its head resembled more a goat than a man, two beady eyes taking in the dark. Massive horns extended from its skull, half a meter in length and curved forward.

“Greetings,” Ilea tried, in case the thing was a Dark One of sorts. Its level was close to one thousand.

The being crouched slightly, breathing out as veins of fire glowed on its body.

“Guess you’re not one for talking,” Ilea said before it charged. She raised her arms as the entire mass of the creature slammed into her. It raised her off the ground and ran on, finally crashing her into a nearby cavern wall.

Ilea looked up. “I hope you didn’t think that would take me out,” she said, when its large fists started to slam into her face and chest. She could feel the impacts but all her resistances and regeneration kept her body in mostly peak condition. The monster was fast, heavy, and so far used physical attacks. It was a four mark that wouldn’t exactly awe most that saw it fight, and yet to an experienced adventurer, the simple make would raise a lot of flags.

Ilea started blocking and parrying blows, using her experience against the simple creature that seemed more driven by instinct than anything else. She started to notice mana intrusion with its strikes, similar in nature to her Tempered Seal. It hardly mattered. She couldn’t be stunned, her heat resistance was in the third tier, and she could heal the damage done to her.

“I’ll play a little with this one,” she informed her allies, who quickly moved on to explore more of the cavern.

The Hadranim punched aside her arms and grabbed them, pushing one clawed foot into her armored chest before it pulled.

Ilea could feel her shoulders and arms strain but she just let the creature try. Nothing like a good stretch after a long few days.

It gave up when it couldn’t rip out her arms and instead swung her around, stone cracked as her form impacted the ground and nearby walls time and time again. It crouched above her and resumed the direct punches.

Ilea finally teleported out, the culminating damage from its attacks getting to her organs. The issue with a four mark monster using melee attacks wasn’t one of technique. The creature simply overwhelmed her own abilities much like a four mark’s magic would. Her fighting skills, even with precognition, couldn’t quite bridge the gap to the sheer mass, speed, and ferocity of her foe. Which meant it was a perfect sparring partner. One she would have to learn to overcome. If she didn’t just want to use her fires and spells to kill it. Reverse reconstruction alone could likely take it out, with enough time and dodging.

Seems pretty durable too though, the chap. Probably not as easy a kill as some others in the same ball park.

She watched as the creature opened its maw, a bright cone of flame spreading out. Ilea walked through the magic without trouble, a few of her punches crashing into its armored chest where most of her intrusion was deflected. She dodged the followups and blocked a few attacks before it once again overwhelmed her with sheer monstrous power.

Explosions and roars resounded from another part of the cavern but it didn’t much concern her, Ilea rolling through debris before she once more skidded to an upright stop. The fight reminded her of her kick-boxing days. It felt similar to facing a man with quite a bit of weight on her, anger issues, and not the best technique. Difficult, but not unbeatable. And compared to then, she had the durability of an armored war machine, and enough healing to count as some kind of saint.

The fight continued, Ilea soon avoiding more of the enemy blows. With how instinctual the creature fought, she didn’t assume it would adapt. If it did, that meant thought was involved and its movements would slow down. By now they were exchanging blows. Heavy impacts resounded through the vicinity, neither of the combatants any worse for wear. Sure, there was blood on the ground, a few teeth scattered here and there, but the two continued their punches.

Ilea had switched to purely physical attacks. She could tell the beast had considerable resistance against that too but to a lesser degree than against her mana intrusion. With that she could nearly match its strength. Punching close to the weight class of a four mark. She once again endured a burst of flame, the spell more than anything giving her time to heal the accrued damage to her organs.

“We killed another one of them. They’re rather weak against curses,” Fey spoke. “Do you wish to remain?”

“Of course. Just go and map more of the place while I take care of this one,” Ilea said, dodging four consecutive swings before she slammed her fist into his elbow. She twirled past his extending knee, avoiding the strike before she kicked at his calf. The creature stumbled which allowed for a few more strikes, this time aimed at its spine.

She had already forgotten about her team again, entirely entranced by the battle.