“That’s it?” The reverted female Balor said with a snicker. “Not only are you guys a bunch of failures who unlike me are incapable of obtaining a perfect body, but your power also amounts just to so much. Pathetic.”
“Tough talk for a one-eyed bitch, Rhona.” Said a male Balor with three eyes, drawing the glares of most of those present.
Very few Balors had two eyes and having three was considered akin to a miracle.
“Tough talk for someone whose bloodline will die with him, Nouhka.” Rhona lifted the taller and much heavier male Balor by the neck with just one hand.
Her red wing crackled with fire element, multiplying her strength by several folds.
“The only reason I don’t kill you is that your three eyes are hard to replace.” Nouhka punched and struggled at the thin arm that made his neck pop, but to no avail. “Now get back to work. Without more crystals, there will be no new Harmonizers.
“No new Harmonizers means that I’ll be stuck in this putrid hole with the rest of you dregs and you have my word that I’ll make your life even more miserable than mine.”
Rhona’s blue wing lit up as well, draining the heat from Nouhka and with it the little strength he had left. Having exhausted the energy of his eyes to fuel the metal circle, he was completely helpless in front of the reverted Balor.
Fire fusion made her fist as heavy as mountains while water magic made his body stiffer than a punching bag. The female Balor punched Nouhka within an inch of his life under the scared gaze of the other monsters, making an example out of him.
Only when a crying and begging pulp of blood remained of the once proud three-eyed Balor did Rhona stop. Then she weaved a spell that all those present knew very well while her hands conjured the world energy necessary for a tier three healing spell.
White light engulfed the fallen Nouhka, healing all of his wounds except for his still bleeding eyes. Once a fallen Balor ran out of world energy, time and rest were the only way they had to recover their strength.
“Did you see what just happened?” Rhona addressed not only the other Balors working at the crystals, but also at the groups of goblins that were using earth magic to make space in the caves and to search for precious metals.
“This is what we can achieve if we work together like people instead of whining like this little bitch.” She kicked Nouhka to emphasize her words. “Our old bodies, our old minds, and even magic.”
She cast another healing spell on the wounded Balor before conjuring water to quench the thirst of the miners. Small spheres of water floated in front of the workers, allowing them to drink slowly even without a cup.
“At the moment, the Harmonizers works only on a few of us, but if we keep perfecting them, soon all of you will reap their benefits. But only if we work together.” She waved her hand at those that still retained their fallen state.
Yet most of the goblins were so stupid that not only didn’t they understand Tyris’s universal language despite its simplicity, but they also needed their companions to repeat the concept several times before vaguely grasping its meaning.
‘Okay, this is bad.’ Morok said. ‘We are out of our depth. Back when I was non-Awakened and worked as a Ranger, I could barely fight one Balor on my own. Here we have several of them and even a reverted one.
‘To make matters even worse, they are capable of reasoning, have allies of races that usually they would just keep in their pantry as snacks, and can even use true magic. Let’s slowly retreat to the exit and call-‘
Unfortunately for them, Rhona had yet to finish her pep talk.
“This is what awaits us outside! No more hiding in the shadows like rats!” Her red eye and a light elemental spell conjured a perfect replica of the sun right in the middle of the mining site.
It spread a gentle light that moved the creatures of the deep to tears as their brains were now capable of understanding how much they had lost after their fall. The small sun’s warmth seeped inside their bodies, relieving them from the fatigue and filling them with new hope.
Its light also revealed the presence of four human intruders, quickly turning the joy into a blood frenzy.
‘Oh, shit!’ Protector and the others thought in unison.
‘We are too deep in the ground for regular communication amulets to work.’ Morok said. ‘Luckily I always keep my council amulet at hand. You keep them busy while I call for help.’
The others nodded while shielding the Tyrant with their bodies. He pressed Ajatar’s rune, making the white crystal fill the Davross amulet with its power.
Through her blue wing, Rhona felt the water magic imbued in the amulet trying to open the small Gate necessary to open the communication and used the power of her corresponding eye to alter the elemental balance in the cave.
Unlike a sealing array, the Balor’s wing didn’t isolate the amulet. The artifact still worked, but its signal was now jammed, wandering aimlessly through the cave until it faded away.
“Stop the intruders! We can’t let them escape and call for reinforcements.” Rhona said while leading the charge.
Morok and the others stared at the incoming wave of enemies, weighing their options.
The good news was that most of the Balors were so tired that their eyes were still closed shut. Only a few of them had any elemental energy left and even they couldn’t produce more than a couple of shots.
The bad news was that, even if tired, the locals outnumbered them ten to one and that the reverted goblins had sounded the alarm the moment they had spotted the invaders.
It was only a matter of time before more monsters arrived, sealing the fate of Morok’s group.
Quylla tried and failed to Blink at the enemy’s back while also wasting one of the water spells stored in her magic holding rings that she had used to freeze the ground in order to buy some time.
She had no idea that the elemental unbalance sealed water magic unless one knew how to compensate for it, something that not even most Awakened could do.
‘What’s wrong with water magic and why isn’t Ajatar picking up?’ She asked as an over 2.5 meters (8’2″) tall two-eyed Balor who weighed about 180 kilograms of pure muscles jumped on her, pinning Quylla to the ground while biting gums-deep into her flesh.
‘I don’t know!’ Protector replied while shapeshifting into his hybrid form to take on the two Balors charging at him from above while the small goblins just passed between his legs, using their mining tools to cut his tendons.
Morok tried to call Faluel first and then the entire Council, yet nothing worked. The elemental imbalance was a rare phenomenon that was both hard to recognize and to counter.
If not for his past encounter with the relatively weak Gadorf the Wyvern, even Lith would have died while fighting his first reverted Balor, Yozmogh, when the ex-slave had pulled that trick to seal all of Lith’s spells.
