Chapter 55
There was a sense of urgency as the now larger group headed for the abandoned fort. Thankfully, it wasn't too far from the fight area. They hurried past the broken gate and into the lone building.
"Get my bedroll out and lay her on it," ordered Lamy as she ran through the building's rooms in search of a container. She grinned when she found a dried-up cistern that still seemed usable. She then chanted as she stretched her arms out to the cistern and the previous room, "As I pray to my goddess, bring us sustenance that we may survive the coming night and we see the beauty of the sunrise once more."
Food materialized in the previous room while water appeared and overflowed the cistern. At first, dirty water flowed as the cistern was cleaned out but it was eventually replaced with clean water as the grime was washed out of the stone receptacle.
"Come, bring your waterskins," she called out, "Refill them and help cool Mel's body down."
Appa Ninny yipped and started picking out food to eat while ARC and KDR refilled their party's waterskins and did as Lamy directed. Her party also took this chance to do the same. With everyone mostly feeling overheated from the desert sun, they took this chance to rest as well. While Nene and Polka were quite curious as to why the kobold took to adventuring life, Lamy and Aloe were talking to the two warforged. Botan went to the rooftop to look around and keep watch.
"...and after that, Appa runs away from bandits and hides behind Kiloman and shoots Magic Missles," said the arcane trickster animatedly, much to the awe of the other two.
"...so, after getting him out of his slump, we made it just in time to get Appa out of the sacrificial circle," explained the shorter warforged.
"Well, that was unexpected," said the cleric in surprise.
"Praise the Forge father that we got the kobold out," grunted the larger warforged before pointedly saying, "Suffer not the fiend to live, lest their deceiving nature be your downfall."
The succubus frowned at that, muttering, "Just great, another one of those."
"I know not why they travel with one such as you. That is a matter up to them," he stated as he rose from his seated state to tower over her, "I will tolerate for now, but step out of line and I will end you."
Her brow twitched in annoyance when he said that and she growled a little. She fell silent when she felt Lamy's hand over her shoulder. She glanced over and the cleric shook her head as they locked eyes.
Botan sighed as she looked around. She knew she said she would keep watch but it began to get a little boring as the only thing out here was sand, sand, and more sand. It didn't help that she was getting more overheated the longer she stayed out here. After an hour, she decided to go back down to get into the shade. However, as she was halfway down the stairs, her senses tingled; her ears twitched as she heard a faint buzzing sound and she caught a faint waft of something foul. Behind her. She spun around and was surprised to find a hooded figure wearing a black robe as well as a half-orc wearing simple clothes.
"Who-" she started to ask before the half-orc threw a few darts at her. Reflexively raising her armored hand, one pierced her hand while the other two bounced off her armor. "Nene!" she shouted, putting everyone on guard.
At the same time, three other people came into the building with weapons brandished; a green-skinned woman with a veil over half her face wearing a chain shirt, a gnome in a chain shirt, and a hobgoblin wearing half-plate. The woman had a shortsword, the gnome had a mace while the hobgoblin held a greatsword.
"Get her to safety," shouted Nene as she led the others to defend themselves while the warforged and the kobold carried their unconscious employer down the other set of stairs.
"Kill them!"
Botan glanced up to the hooded figure, who continued to shout, "These are the ones who need to die. He demands it!"
"Tch," the archer sounded to herself. Going down the stairs means going straight into melee as the bottom of the stairs faced the doorway outside. Staying up here means having to tangle with the hooded figure and the unarmed half-orc, who she assumed was like Polka. Deciding to keep them up here, she shot at them.
One of the arrows pierced the robe and slammed into the shoulder of the hooded figure. He grunted, stretched out his hand, and sent three beams of crackling energy at her. She ducked down and they barely passed over her head. Around the same time, the monk charged in and started throwing punches at her. Growling, she blocked with her armored arm. After three punches, she pushed back as she roared loudly, her ability activating before dropping her bow on the step and slashing him with her claws.
However, as she fought back, her mind began being assaulted by a sudden cacophony of whispering. She stumbled back in surprise and yelled in pain as her head felt like it was going to burst. Thankfully, she got a hold of herself before the enemy monk could take advantage of her state. Blocking off his barrage, she fought back and again, not making much impact. The half-orc's skin was rather tough, in her opinion. As she fought him off, the hooded figure sent another three beams of crackling energy, all three blasting her body.
As the half-orc came close again, a sound like a thunderstrike exploded between her enemies. Glancing behind, she noticed Aloe hovering behind her. Grinning at the backup, she pushed through her pain and weathered the half-orc's attacks with her armored arm. At the same time, Polka suddenly jumped up and pulled herself up the side of the stairs. Deftly getting to her feet, she started making her move on the enemy martial artist, who was surprisingly quite good in blocking and parrying her attacks.
However, before Botan could do anything to help, the roof suddenly caved in; the hooded figure, the martial artist, and the fennec monk fell down into the room.
"Aloe! Don't kill them!" shouted Nene.
The three enemies on the ground floor suddenly started to focus fire on Lamy after she threw a knife made of ice at the hobgoblin. The lady taunted and let off an explosion of sound. The gnome summoned his own spectral sword and shot a flash of light at her. The hobgoblin charged in to attack her. While they did so, the rest fought back indiscriminately. Aloe dropped an explosion of sound in the middle of them. Polka started drinking and staggered over to the gnome and slapped him silly, and she went to help defend the cleric from the charging hobgoblin.
"Weakling cleric! Your god cannot save you now!" taunted the green-skinned lady after getting stabbed in the side by Lamy's spectral sword, "We will sacrifice your friends to ours!"
"I have trust in my friends!" she shot back as she fended off the next few sword swings with her shield, "We will not fall so easily!"
It was then the succubus' dagger slamming into the hobgoblin's neck, the body keeling over backward. That prompted the lore bard to shout at her, who replied with this shout, "Spur of the moment! Sorry!"
"Good night!" exclaimed the fennec fox monk as she continued attacking the gnome priest. Slamming her elbow on his head, she feinted with a punch and he covered his face. Smirking, she kicked him in the privates and sent him crashing into the wall. He slid down unconscious, passed out from the impact and the pain.
"Alive, Aloe! Alive!" shouted back Nene as she went in to stab the lady with Anya. The blade pierced through the chain shirt and blood spurted out of her shoulder.
She then pushed the lore bard off her and said, "Fool! Our god will-" A ray of frost shot into her chest and frosted it over. She sank to her knees and started breathing heavily.
"Nothing more out of you," stated Lamy, herself breathing heavily as well.
"I'll go help Botan," said Aloe as she ran out of the building. A second later, a loud boom came from the roof.
"Wait for me!" shouted Polka as she climbed the stairs.
"Hmm… alright, let's try this," stated Nene as she took up her lute.
After plucking a note, she then raised her voice to a very high pitch. A loud boom rocked the room, surprising the half-snow elf cleric with a yelp, who was stabilizing the veiled lady while noting her slit-shaped irises. The stone ceiling collapsed and dust flew and filled the room. As they waved the dust away from their eyes, a half-orc suddenly jumped out of the cloud and started attacking the lore bard. She doubled over as she got punched in the gut. Then, she fell to the ground as she got an elbow to the back of her neck and a knee to the chest. She groaned as she hunched up on the floor.
"None of that!" shouted Lamy as she slammed the pommel of her mace into his head, sending him into the wall, and knocking him out immediately. She then hurried over to the lore bard and asked, "Hey, are you alright?"
"You all will pay for this!" declared the hooded figure, who was revealed to be a dog-folk, as he disappeared with a buzzing boom.
"Tch, just what is his problem?" grumbled Aloe with a frown, "You attack us, you get beat up. Not hard to understand."
"Geh, come on. Let's check up on the others," muttered Polka as she pulled the succubus with her into the next room.
Most unfortunate that the remaining food was wrecked when the ceiling caved in and a thin film of dust coated the filled cistern. As the duo had entered the main room, Botan had come down the stairs and Lamy was helping Nene to her feet. Then, Appa Ninny poked his head out from the other set of stairs.
"Is fight over?" he asked with a yip, "Can Appa and friends come out now?"
"Ah, yeah, sure can," said the lore bard with a pained smile as she leaned against the cleric, and then blinked as a healing potion was passed to her. She smiled a bit more softly, "Oh, thanks."
"Appa also has good news," the kobold added as he scampered out of the way, "Mel-mel has woken up again."
"Thank you for taking care of me," said the mysterious lady happily as she came up the stairs. Meanwhile, the fennec fox girl and the lion girl used up her rope to tie up their captives.
"That's a relief," piped up ARC.
"The Forge was truly with us this day," declared the other warforged. Looking at their captives and the dead hobgoblin, he continued, "You captured most of your attackers. Impressive. Do you wish help in interrogating them?"
"I don't see why not… but we'll have to wait for them to wake up," replied Nene as she stared at them.
Nodding, he trudged over and stepped past them to exit the building. He then poked his head inside and said, "What shall we do now, Miss Mel?"
"Ah, I suppose we can get to the ruins now?" she mused as she tapped her cheek with a finger, "It is said to be built into a mountain and-"
"Didn't we come from there?" quipped Polka.
"You did!? What was the layout? Did you disable the traps? Did you meet anything inside? A library? A-"
"Calm down," stated Botan as she pulled the curious, presumed archaeologist, away from the monk, "There is one guy still sane in there, everything else has gone mad... I guess. Not much of a library there and it was a prison, not a place for keeping knowledge."
"Oh, what else?" asked Mel as she mystically produced a piece of parchment and scribbled down notes.
"Whatever that was imprisoned there had escaped and we are now going to… destroy it as there is no other way to contain it anymore," explained their cleric. Glancing at their captives, she continued, "I begin to wonder if they are involved in releasing the abomination."
"If this is true, then we must assist you." spoke up the warforged cleric, "We shall banish the abomination back to where it came from."
"But the ruins..."
"Hey, don't worry, Miss Mel. We'll get there," assured the shorter warforged, "But… well, you know how KDR gets."
"We welcome the help," said Nene with a smile, "After we kill the abomination, we'll be going back to the prison anyway, so he's right. Although… never mind. We'll let you know when we get there."
"Anyway… back to interrogating them?" asked Aloe, noticing the captives slowly stirring.
"Maybe get out of the desert first," suggested the lion girl, "Easier for us and them."
With everyone agreeing with that suggestion… well, except Aloe, who suggested putting them neck-deep in the sand, they packed up their stuff and headed back to the main road. Their three prisoners were quite reluctant but eventually, they were coaxed to move with them, especially after KDR's warhammer started glowing yellow. It didn't take too long, but by the time they reached the main road again, it had become evening. And after they reached the main road, they stopped by the roadside and made the prisoners sit down.
"Alright, now that we're out of the desert, let's begin," declared the lore bard as she stood before them, "Now, mind telling us why you attacked us?"
The green-skinned woman and the half-orc were silent but the gnome spoke up, "Like we'd tell you anything. Glory to the Old Ones!"
He suddenly jumped up and burst from the rope, his skin suddenly darkening to a purple hue, and his face suddenly morphing and mutating to sprout tentacles. Before he could do anything else, KDR destroyed his head with his warhammer with a sickening squelch. Botan and Aloe stood there stunned. Mel, Nene, and Polka ran to the treeline to vomit. ARC covered Appa's eyes, who gave no response. Lamy looked a little sick but steeled her mind, though she did turn away from the sight. The remaining prisoners looked shocked and terrified by what happened.
As the bulky warforged dragged the body away to toss into the forest, the cleric then composed herself and asked the prisoners, "Ahem, so… can either one of you please tell us what we want to know?"
"I don't know anything! I'm just a merc!" the half-orc hastily said.
The lady hissed in annoyance, "Same here. We were not privy to whatever secrets our contractor had. The hobgoblin was in the same pot as us by the way, if you must know."
"Hmm, and after you captured or killed us, what were you going to do?" asked the archer.
"Never said anything to us," the half-orc replied, now looking a little calmer, "I did overhear the priest talking about returning to some mine. As far as I know, the nearest mine is at the town down the road here."
"I see. Thank you for your cooperation," said the half-snow elf. Turning to the others, she said, "Does anyone know anything about the next town?"
"Never been there before," stated ARC with a shrug, "But the town's name is Kurimo."
"Wait a minute, I lived there!" exclaimed the monk, she and the other two recovering and rejoining the group, "Are we going there next?"
Blink.
"Er, hold that thought, Polka," stated Aloe, "What do we do with the prisoners?"
"We shall take them to the city and turn them over to the royal guard," declared KDR, "Then, we shall rejoin you at the town to eliminate this threat."
"Well, that's all very reasonable," quipped ARC, who then asked, "Who will you be following, Miss Mel?"
"...I guess I'll follow them?"
"Very well. We shall be done with this as quickly as possible," stated the larger warforged as he picked up the rope and pulled the prisoners along, much to their discomfort, "We shall meet again. May the Forge be with you, Miss Mel."
AN: Hello again, readers. Welcome back.
So, it seems that Mel has some heatstroke. Bringing her back to the abandoned fort they passed by before, they tried to cool her body down. At the same time, they tried to get to know the group they saved. Appa was a bit more friendly than KDR, who immediately riled up Aloe. However, all is not well as they got attacked by an unknown party. All is not lost as Holo5 handled them well enough, even capturing a few of them. Sad that the warlock escaped capture... but we will see him again.
After dragging their captives with them, they got out of the desert. An... unfortunate incident occurred when they tried interrogation. Yeah, brutal. Real brutal. Also, a good showcase, I think, about KDR. He isn't a stranger to violence. After that showing, they all decided that ARC's party will bring the other two back to the capital while Holo5 and Mel go on ahead to Polka's hometown. And of course, we will get to meet some people she mentioned before. Hmm, so... the only depictions I haven't shown yet are Lamy's family and Nene's family. Honestly, not sure if I have enough time to showcase that but we'll have to see.
Next chapter, we do just that. Thank you for reading and have a good day, dear readers.