Yondra had stopped wheezing, but she was still far from being strong enough to fight. Lith gave her an alchemical flask that Solus had prepared for him which contained all the necessary nutrients for a speedy recovery after being injured.
“Thanks for the offer, but I already took a tonic. One more would do nothing but drain my energy.” Yondra politely refused.
“This is no tonic. It will complement the effects of the potion you already took. Also, I’m going to give you a bit of life force. I can’t afford to lose you.” Lith insisted.
Yondra gulped down the potion. It had a really weird taste, as if someone had blended together grape juice, steak, and vegetables. The problem with tonics was that even though they enhanced the metabolism, they still required food to work.
Yondra had eaten but she had yet to digest the food, whereas Solus’s concoction could be instantly assimilated.
Lith used Invigoration to give her a bit of life force and mana back. Not enough to arouse her suspicions but enough to clear her head.
“This thing tastes like shit, but I feel much better.” Yondra said, appreciating the full effects of both Solus’s potion and Invigoration. “Let’s move.”
She quickly cast an array detection spell, making the Odi’s magical formations become visible. With another spell, she made all the protections crumble, leaving only the card reader lock in place.
“Once I open the door, I need to stay behind to check the corridor and activate the elemental blocking arrays in case one or more Golems appear.” Yondra said. “Lith, Morok, you clear the room and call me as soon as you’re done.
“Rainer, Ellkas, you two stay between the Rangers and I. Support us to the best of your abilities. Ready? Go!” A flick of her wand made the light above the card reader turn green, releasing the lock.
Lith entered the room and used one of his personal spells. It revealed that the compound shared the same protections that he and Phloria had found in the Teks’ breeding ground. There was a fire, darkness, and air based magical formation.
The room was 20 meters long and 10 meters wide. Along the walls, there was a long line of cylindrical tanks holding adult Teks in what looked like suspended animation. There were at least 40 magical beasts, each one as big as a closet.
He, Morok, and Ellkas took down one array each while Rainer neutralized the security cameras. They were all casting from behind the door, to keep both their numbers and identity a secret.
Lith cursed when he saw with Life Vision that several Gates were about to open inside the room, whereas the corridor where Yondra had placed her arrays was empty.
‘Fuck! How many of those accursed Golems do they have prepared and why didn’t they use them in the war?’ Lith received all the answers he needed when he saw that the creatures stepping out of the Warping arrays were no Golems.
A small army of Thorns was filling the room while the tanks holding the Teks were being opened.
“There’s too many of them!” Morok said. Based on his estimate, even if he went all out as a Tyrant and burned his cover as a human, it would still take them too long to clean the room.
On top of that, they would be too tired to hold their ground in the case a Flesh Golem appeared.
“I got this!” Ellkas said, glad to be useful for once. The Professor messed up on purpose with his Disarray spell, so that instead of dissipating the magical protection, he sent it haywire along with the others.
Ellkas closed the heavy metal door just a second before the resulting combined explosion made the wall tremble.
“Ellkas, you idiot!” Yondra said. “You’ve probably alerted the entire base. What if you destroyed the rune? There’s a limit to the damage I can repair.”
“Better than being butchered!” He replied. “Or do you expect us to take down dozens of creatures in just a handful of seconds?”
Morok opened the door again, discovering that despite the fact that most of the creatures had been heavily injured or maimed, most of the Teks were alive and so were the Thorns.
“There’s one thing I have to try.” Lith said, unleashing his spell, Death Zone. A huge cloud composed of darkness magic invaded the room, killing the Teks as if they were a bunch of flies.
“Stop that spell!” Morok cursed. Instead of taking damage from Death Zone, the Thorns were getting bigger and stronger by the second.
“Trust me!” Lith kept the spell active until all the wounds the Thorns had sustained from the detonation of the arrays were completely healed.
“You idiot! You made them stronger. Infiro!” Morok’s human eyes turned red as his fire eye charged his short swords making them emit a deadly heatwave.
Contrary to his expectations, instead of just pushing the Thorns back, the ray burned the first row of creatures to a crisp, stopping only when the Thorns managed to combine their efforts to conjure a protective wall of darkness.
“The fuck?” Morok couldn’t believe his own many eyes.
After fighting Irtu, Lith had learned that some creatures were able to absorb darkness magic and use it to heal themselves. During the battle in front of the elevator, he had noticed how the Thorns weren’t affected by the darkness element, so Lith had used their ability to his own advantage.
To heal wounds that severe and grow their bodies, the Thorns needed nourishment. Sure, they were now bigger and healthier, but also exhausted, making them easy prey. The Thorns started to feed upon each other, reducing their numbers and helping Lith’s group to clear the field even faster.
A new set of Gates opened, letting an army of Koas swarm the room.
“There’s no end to them. Yondra, you need to find the goddamn rune and fast!” Ellkas used his alchemical tools to mow the magical beasts down while still being able to speak and, if necessary, prepare more spells.
Yondra ran inside the room, giving a little red mana crystal to Rainer.
“You keep guard in my place. Do not activate the arrays unless all the Golems step into them. Don’t hesitate to run if you think you can’t handle the situation.”
Yondra Blinked near the door leading to the next room, past the enemy lines. Lith followed her lead, to provide her cover while she cleared the path. He engaged the Koas physically, triggering their bloodlust so that they would only focus on him.
The Koas’ hard scales made blades useless, so both he and Morok employed blunt weapons to damage their internal organs. To resist deep-sea pressure, Koas had sturdy and compact bodies, yet their organs were packed so tight that the shockwave of each hit easily propagated through them.
Unfortunately, living or dying didn’t matter to the Koas. They attacked the Rangers in waves, simply stepping over their fallen comrades. Their lightning-enhanced claws managed to pierce even the Skinwalker armor, sending shocks through Lith’s body that made him almost spasm more than once.
The Koas had no qualms about using lightning bolts even against their own, using the magical beasts in front as a cover for their spells. A Koa was nothing compared to Lith, but there seemed to be no end to their numbers and his body continued to sustain wounds. To add insult to his many injuries, Lith had to prevent the Koas from getting past him. If even one of them disturbed Yondra’s work, she would have been forced to start again from scratch.
