The Amber Sword

v3c356
Requiem(6)

The Mother of Spiders sprung her forelimbs out and swept at Brendel’s back like a sharp machete, the air vibrated as it swung past, creating a transparent band of light in the dark underground.

Brendel heard a shrill sound that resembled an explosion, it was as if the shriek that was just heard had already moved behind him. This was the power of the most powerful creatures; at that moment Brendel remembered the several attack patterns of Anarons’ forelimbs, he pushed the princess forward at the last second and laid the Halran Gaia on his back with a backhand.

A teeth-aching loud ‘bang’ was heard. Although Brendel could not see it, he could feel the moment the Halran Gaia bent due to excessive force, and the power that could not be filtered out passed through his body; he felt a massive force from behind, and he was sent flying.

The distance between the cliff and himself seemed to suddenly become much closer.

But Brendel knew it was an illusion, instead, he was flying over the crag and over the abyss. Luckily, the Willpower attribute had strengthened his nerves’ tolerance, otherwise, his body’s self protection system would have been triggered and caused him to pass out from pain. Brendel did not want to fall into the abyss while unconscious.

He was shot forward like a cannonball and his body was flopping in mid-air. Despite the sharp pain rubbing against his nerves like fire he gritted his teeth and thrusted the Halran Gaia towards the ground of the cave.

With the Elemental Awakening power exerting full force, the Halran Gaia pierced directly into the rocks for more than a foot, and a trail of golden sparks appeared in the darkness.

He stopped and stretched out his arm to prevent anyone from moving forward. Everyone was slightly stunned because they did not feel anything abnormal at all. But they have all went through a few battles already and had a certain level of tacit understanding, so no one opened their mouths to question Brendel. After a moment, they saw several black shadows emerging from a crack not far away.

The knights exchanged glances as encountering other human-like creatures in this crisis-ridden underground was obviously a little beyond their expectations. But only Brendel could see that they were cavemen.

He made a silent gesture as cavemen had surprisingly good hearing, especially in the silent underground where sound mostly traveled only in one direction. Fortunately, Brendel’s senses were also a hundred times keener than normal people after he had obtained the Elemental Awakening, or else they would have been discovered by the other party first.

There were very few cavemen who stray beyond the Underground Lord except for clans like the Firbur who had left the underground and fled to the surface. One clan was already really rare, and Brendel did not think that he was so lucky to encounter such things one after another, the only possibility was that these were part of the Jorgendy Ridge Underground Army.

But how did they get here? Did the other party discover this secret passage too?

Brendel thought that this was unlikely, unless there was a passage around here that connected to the undergrounds of Jorgendy Ridge? This was quite possible, and he could not help but frown as he watched the cavemen slowly and leisurely burrow their way through another crack.

The underground world was connected by pathways everywhere, but most of the naturally occurring passages were dead ends. Some of them also led to the lairs of magical items or to traps. But Brendel remembered that that path was supposed to lead towards the Hall of Ancient Ruins.

The other party seemed like they were yet to discover the secret gate mentioned by Babasha.

He was slightly relieved. After the cavemen walked away, the knights asked, “Lord, they?” These knights of Anthony used to address Brendel as “mister” but now they’re just addressing him as “Lord”.

But Brendel did not realize that the change in this appellation was not just due to the fact that they respected his capabilities, but more due to the fact that Eikkel had been speaking of his deeds in the Long Song Forest among his knights for years. These knights might have originally scoffed at their Lord who was full of knightly thoughts, but now it seemed that even Eikkel’s place in their hearts had risen quite a bit.

Unfortunately, Brendel did not know these details, or he would have felt ashamed. He waited a moment before answering in a small voice, “The cavemen know way more about the underground world than we do, so it’s not surprising that they could discover this place. This doesn’t mean anything, let’s just move on.”

Everyone nodded their heads, with a feeling of “whatever-Brendel-says-must-be-right.”. But in fact, Brendel was uncertain too, he just hoped that the old witch Babasha was not lying to him.

The secret passage better be as secretive as she described, or it’ll be a waste of effort. And finding the way out would be another problem.

He could not help but glance at Babasha. Unfortunately, the old witch’s face was hidden under her hood so he could not tell, but she did not seem nervous.