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The Great War
Written by Enly
Story by Enly & Roja
Edited by Annatira, Phildaburn, and Roja
Artwork by Roja
Chapter 6
"Yyer?" Durron called, worried, no response. He quickly moved to the back of the line. It wasn’t much of a line anymore though. It was a group huddled around the edge of the last bend in the tunnel. Durron’s feeble torch didn’t cast light around the corner and it was only a dark void.
They fidgeted nervously, unsure of what to do. An enemy they could see they would face any time, but something unseen in the dark made them uneasy. At last, Jeeve gave them a disapproving glare for their cowardice, boldly grabbed the torch, and stepped around the corner. Everyone followed after him, weapons raised.
Yyer lay on the ground with a dead feros. They had apparently killed each other.
"Poor guy," Jeeve murmured. A dwarf knelt to make sure he was indeed dead. She nodded her confirmation sadly at Durron; he was dead.
"Come on," Durron grabbed the torch from Jeeve. "We need to keep moving." someone grabbed Yyer’s torch from the ground and swiftly relit it, then handed it to Zeeh who took up the rear in Yyer’s stead. Before they could get far, however, another feros appeared from behind and attacked Zeeh. She quickly dropped her torch and killed it. This time more were coming and the tunnel behind them was filling with feros.
"Run!" Durron called. They followed him swiftly as they ran down the tunnel. The feros growled and came after them, but they didn’t seem to be in too much of a hurry. A horrible thought crossed Durron’s mind. The city was already taken and the feros knew they were just running toward more trouble.
"Durron?" Jeeve asked worried. "What if they’ve already taken the city?"
So he had not been the only one with that on his mind. He didn’t respond and Jeeve nodded solemnly in understanding. If the army had taken the city, they would be trapped. In that case, Durron had no idea what to do, so he did not respond. Jeeve knew his leader well; they all did after months together. Sometimes no answer was necessary.
"Durron! I see torchlight ahead!" called a dwarf surprised. Durron slowed slightly to look ahead, he could indeed make out a flickering torch in the distance.
He came to a complete stop, what to do? On the one hand, this could mean more feros or some other monster, but on the other it could also be draegoni from the city trying to escape as well, in which case the situation hadn’t changed. They were all still trapped.
Zeeh was still patiently guarding their back; the feros hadn’t run after them, only walked. Their slow walk down the tunnel seemed more ominous than them running would have been.
Durron watched the tunnel ahead of them, worried, as the faint light drew nearer, until he could spot the vague shadowy outline of a draegoni. They drew nearer until a tall purple-haired draegoni looked down at Durron.
"Durron?" the draegoni asked surprised as he looked at the sturdy black bearded dwarf.
"Maz!" A grin spread over Durron’s face as he recognized his old friend.
"Why are you coming into the city?" Mazhiez asked shocked. "Turn around, we have to get out!"
"The city is taken?" Durron asked worried, his fears were being confirmed.
"It is, now hurry! Turn your group around, there are likely monsters behind us," Mazhiez pressed.
"We can’t," Durron pointed down the tunnel. Mazhiez looked and his shoulders slumped as he saw the feros coming ever closer.
"Durron, now would be a good time for us to move," Jeeve growled coming forward, lightly flipping his dragon blade in his hands.
"And where do you suggest we move to master orchan?" Mazhiez demanded. "The city is filled with this infernal army, and we are trapped here by the feros closing in."
"We should have attempted to sneak over the walls," a draegoni behind Mazhiez muttered. He gave him a sharp glance.
"We will fight our way through the feros then," Mazhiez said confidently, his sword already drawn and clasped in his hand.
"We might not have to," Meer said quietly. They turned to look at him; he was examining the ice toward the roof of the tunnel. It was not a high tunnel and the tall draegoni could scrape the ceiling with his hands. As he started doing so, it seemed as if he was brushing away a silvery coating from the ice.
"What are you doing?" Durron asked.
"There’s silver powder here," Meer said simply, as if he expected them all to instantly understand.
"And this matters to us why?"
"It’s used to make the crystal ice foggy, so no one on the outside can see through it. It would only be used in a tunnel like this if it was very near the surface." Meer didn’t look at them, but continued to examine the wall.
"Crystal ice?" Jeeve raised his eyebrows.
"It's an old draegoni secret. We make ice so it never melts and is nearly as strong as stone. Old draegoni magic," Meer said.
"And why does this matter to us at all?" Durron cried exasperated, their conversation had taken only a matter of seconds, not even a minute, yet time was growing increasingly short. The feros were speeding up now that they noticed their prey had seemed to be stopping and setting up for a fight. They had gained a good distance from the monsters with their mad dash, but the torches of the feros seemed to make the tunnel shorter.
Zeeh was standing patiently with her back to her friends, alongside a dwarf named Helene, waiting for the feros to draw near enough to fight.
"It matters, dwarf, because this ice must be thin; it's close to the surface," Velor butted in this time, he did not know as much as Meer did about the construction techinques of his people, but he was beginning to understand the logic.
"You said the ice would never melt and was as strong as stone," Jeeve pointed out. "Are you hoping to somehow break through it?"
"Crystal ice has one severe disadvantage," Meer said, finally turning to look at them. "If you can find where it has been fused together with other blocks of crystal ice and apply enough direct and sudden pressure, it shatters."
Durron’s eyes lit up as he finally understood. If Meer could figure out how to shatter the crystal ice, they could get out of here. However Zeeh let out a warning yell as the feros jogged up and struck at the back of their small group. A short scuffle broke out and Zeeh and Helene brought down several feros. They managed to use the bodies to block the tunnel somewhat and stab at the others over the barrier.
"Durron! Give me your axe!" Meer cried over the screeches of the feros. Durron didn’t hesitate. His axe was precious to him, but he knew Meer from many years ago and he tusted that the draegoni was likely the only one who could get them out.
Feeling defenseless, Durron looked around confused. He pulled a short sword from his belt and waited to see if the feros would be able to make it past the barrier Zeeh and Helene were making.
Meer hefted the heavy axe and rammed its base into the ice; it glanced off barely making a mark. Meer swore under his breath and examined the wall again. He was running his fingers across the small curve where the wall became roof. He stopped and examined a certain area again. Once more picking up the axe he cautiously aligned it with the spot he had been looking at, then rammed it into the ice another time. This time it made a sharp cracking noise, and hair thin cracks surrounded the spot where the axe had hit. He smashed it in the same place a final time and the ice shattered.
Durron threw his hands over his head and ducked as ice chunks broke off, then a flood of snow rushed in. They had broken through to the surface. The green haired draegoni Velor jumped up and crawled over the mound of snow and out through the jagged hole that had been made in the ice. The others slowly scrambled after him, into the bright sunlight. The curve of the tunnel had brought them back near the pass into Dra Leont from Iscalrith.
The city was to the south east, and they could see monsters still crowding the gates and shoreline. Durron was sure that the pass into Trassian in the south west would be completely blocked by now, but it seemed the way to Iscalrith in the north was clear. Retrieving his axe from Meer, Durron tucked his short sword back into his belt and waited for the rest of the party to get out of the tunnel.
Zeeh was the last to climb out, one of the draegoni rapidly shot arrows with delicate aim between her back and the ice, felling the feros who tried to come after her. As soon as she had hauled herself out of the tunnel, they ran.
The feros growled at them and jumped out of the tunnel. Their screeches were ignored, however, as their prey made their way swiftly away from the snowy hole and toward the pass.
Breathing heavily Durron moved incredibly fast for his short legs, if the others had bothered to look they might have noticed he looked rather comical with his black beard bouncing on his chest as he ran for his life. They were all much too concerned with escaping the feros however, and all focused on the pass ahead, running as hard as they could. Durron could only hope that news had reached Iscalrith City of the attack. If it had, help might be near. If it hadn’t, they had a long way to run.
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