Free Web NovelChapter 305: Hunting the Heralds
Boots splashed into the stagnant muck of the subterranean drainage network beneath Tarnstead. Marcus gripped his broadsword tightly, letting the golden radiance of the blade illuminate the slick brick walls.
Elena held his left hand, her fingertips glowing with restorative pink magic. Twelve other Earthlings crowded the narrow tunnel behind them, coughing as they scrambled to find their footing in the dark.
"We split up." Marcus pointed his weapon down the branching tunnels. "Four down the eastern runoff pipes. Four to the lower filtration chambers. Keep moving and find a surface grate."
The survivors splintered immediately to follow the command. Four mages veered into the eastern corridor. Another four fighters scrambled down a rusted maintenance ladder leading into the depths. Marcus squeezed Elena’s fingers and led the remaining four warriors straight down the central aqueduct.
A massive stone slab shattered above the primary sewer junction just seconds later. Krax crashed onto the brick floor, fracturing the masonry under his boots.
Iron-Scale dropped right beside him, tracking the distinct magical signatures radiating through the intersecting tunnels. Novus, Syra, Hawl, and Gulag landed in unison, crowding the tight intersection.
Syra crouched by a fractured pipe. She traced a claw over a puddle of glowing golden mana left behind by the fleeing targets. The magical residue formed three distinct trails branching into the dark.
"They divided their numbers," Iron-Scale observed, noting the diverging paths. He pulled his star-iron dagger from its sheath. "Syra, take the eastern route. Hunt the casters."
Syra melted into the shadows cast by a broken support beam and vanished completely.
"Gulag, Hawl. Secure the filtration chambers." Iron-Scale turned his emerald eyes toward the lower shaft. "Immobilize them."
Hawl channeled crackling blue lightning into his boots and vaulted down the maintenance ladder. Gulag cracked her knuckles and simply jumped into the dark hole after him.
Iron-Scale looked down the central aqueduct. The golden light from Marcus’s broadsword still painted the distant curved walls. Krax hoisted his greataxe over his shoulder, the violet Ley-Crystal sparking brightly against the metal. Novus brought his Centipede Shield forward. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
"We claim the leader," Iron-Scale ordered.
SPLASH~!
Sludge splashed against Ethan’s boots as he waded through the eastern runoff pipes. Three glowing orbs of golden mana drifted above his head to cast glaring light across the slick brick walls.
He gripped a steel shortsword and waved the others forward. Olivia walked right behind him to scan the subterranean network with her magical radar.
Lucas and Isabella brought up the rear with their weapons drawn against the dark. Syra crouched on a rusted pipe near the vaulted ceiling to watch them splash through the ankle-deep muck.
She dropped from her perch and manipulated the ambient shadows around the pipes. Black tendrils shot upward from the masonry to crush the hovering golden spheres.
Absolute blackness swallowed the corridor.
"I lost the radar feed!" Olivia screamed, bumping into Ethan’s back.
Ethan muttered a rushed incantation to conjure a cluster of white sparks between his palms, casting erratic illumination and overlapping silhouettes against the curved brickwork.
Ethan, Olivia, Lucas, and Isabella backed themselves into a tight circle with their weapons raised outward.
Syra stepped out of the shadow cast by Ethan’s own legs and drove her boot into the back of his knee to force him face-first into the wet bricks.
Ethan summoned a kinetic barrier to protect his head from the impact. Sinking back into the darkness, Syra evaded a sweep from Lucas’s sword to travel flawlessly through the twisting silhouettes projected on the walls.
Emerging behind Isabella, Syra kicked her shins out from under her. Isabella hit the ground with a wet thud and began to exhale a cloud of corrosive mist.
Syra gathered the darkness and forged a dense spike of black mana, driving the construct straight through Isabella’s gauntlet to pin her wrist to the floor.
The poison magic sputtered out instantly. Lucas spun around to manipulate the metal rivets in Syra’s armor. Syra appeared beside Lucas and stomped on his casting hand before securing his limbs to the wet masonry with two stakes of solid shadow.
Lucas yelled as the magical constructs pierced his flesh. Olivia blindly swung her staff at the empty space. Syra ducked under a wild horizontal slash and swept Olivia’s legs with a low kick. She pinned her arms and legs to the surrounding bricks with four rapid strikes of condensed darkness.
Ethan dropped his kinetic shield and sprinted back down the tunnel. Sinking into the stone floor, Syra reappeared directly in front of Ethan to drive her palm into his chest plate, throwing him against the curved wall. Black spikes pinned his wrists and ankles securely to the bricks.
Ethan and the others struggled fruitlessly against the shadow constructs as Syra appeared in front of them.
"So much for being called the strongest," she chuckled.
Syra hauled the iron chain connecting the four bound prisoners up the final flight of stone steps. Ethan stumbled over the uneven masonry and dragged Olivia down beside him.
Syra kept pulling the rusted links to force the captives out of the tunnel and onto the cobblestone plaza of the Transted Palace. Lucas and Isabella collapsed onto the pavement next to the others. The four captives gasped for breath against the unforgiving stone floor.
A fractured portal of darkness ripped open near the ceiling of the courtyard. Glitch dropped from the void and landed on all six legs.
Glitch padded over to Ethan and opened its small jaws. A stream of blinding white light tore away from Ethan’s chest and vanished into the anomaly’s mouth.
Olivia lost her pulsing blue aura next. Isabella’s corrosive green magic faded into nothingness as the creature eagerly swallowed the hijacked power. Lucas woke up and thrashed against his bonds while the anomaly bit down on the silver energy tethered to his body.
Glitch swallowed the concentrated magic whole and chewed on the physical laws before gulping it down.
The four Earthlings gasped awake simultaneously.
Ethan coughed violently and tried to summon a kinetic shield to his hands. Only ordinary sweat beaded on his palms.
Lucas pulled against the metal chains while staring at his normal, unblemished skin. Isabella scrambled backward across the dirt and rubbed her bruised wrists.
"My magic," Olivia panicked. She stared at her bare hands and scratched at her forearms. "Where is it?"
