Maybe even Doric herself didn't expect that this investigation, which she thought was very simple, would be more difficult and longer than she imagined?
Anyway, she certainly didn't expect to be able to return in just three or two days as she had said when she left Neverwinter a few days ago.
Although when she set out on the first day, she was intercepted and tormented by a bad little guy all night, which delayed a lot of time, but no matter what, she could not deny her investigation this time. The fact that the event did not go well.
Isn’t this?
At this moment, when Serge's red-robed wizard and the army of death led by him had captured the Junction Fortress and were slowly pressing towards Neverwinter City, she was still in the center of the Swamp of the Dead, in that area covered in mud. In the ancient building fortress submerged in the water pool, he searched in the maze-like passage.
Now Doric has turned into a fruit fly that is very common in swamp areas, and it is flying around like a "buzz", searching carefully in the black dragon's lair.
She already knew about the fall of Leilong Town. After all, she saw it with her own eyes. She also knew that the red-robed wizard, the black dragon, and the army of death summoned from the Swamp of the Dead were heading towards the intersection fortress and even towards Neverwinter City. Go, and the reason why she was indifferent and did not rush back to report the news was naturally because she had the intention to investigate the other party's lair while the black dragon was away!
Because she knew that the defenders and Simon who originally planned to support her at the intersection fortress would definitely send an alarm back to Neverwinter City. Even if she rushed back now, it would not help. Therefore, her first priority at the moment was of course preparation. Let’s rescue Hunk first.
Of course, the premise is that Henk, who was said to be captured by the black dragon, and the fat giant dragon Fat Orange were not killed by the black dragon?
That's right!
Yesterday, by monitoring the conversations of several followers of the Dragon Cult under the Black Dragon, she got an important piece of information, saying that Henk and 'Fat Orange' were indeed killed by the adult Black Dragon 'Black Death' and 'Greedy Predator' Captured alive instead of killed, and now imprisoned in this ancient lost fortress?
As for why they were both members of the Dragon Worship Cult, the two adult black dragons brazenly attacked Leilong Town and completely destroyed the place. They wiped out all the Dragon Worship Cult's grassroots and leaders there, and then joined forces with the Ser people. Preparing to attack Neverwinter City, Doric is unknown.
Anyway, all she knew was that before the two adult black dragons came back, this was her perfect chance to find Henk and rescue him!
This was also the main reason why she did not choose to return to Neverwinter City immediately.
After all, instead of going back empty-handed, she thought it would be better to rescue Henk first, and there were Anne, Simon, Edkin and others in Neverwinter City, plus a large number of Neverwinter guards and sturdy The city wall, she felt, should be worthy of a druid like her.
'Buzzing...'
In this way, the female fruit fly that Doric transformed into continued to search, and after getting rid of several wild male flies that came to harass her and wanted to mate with her, she was able to continue in the maze-like passage of the ancient fortress. Searching deeper.
'Buzz buzz...'
She began to fly forward majestically along the dark cave-like passages, constantly searching for the black dragon's lair. In her ears, there was only the buzzing sound of her own wings vibrating at high speed and the faint sound coming from far and near. The friction of scales and the noisy chatter of some low-level followers and slaves of the Dragon Worship Cult.
She has been searching for two or three hours. Ever since the two black dragons left, she has been looking for the whereabouts of Henk and the useless red dragon 'Fat Orange', but unfortunately, until now, She hasn't found any useful clues.
'Buzz...'
! !
suddenly!
When she flew through a stone door, she actually felt a familiar breath?
That made her subconsciously stop and turn back, and felt carefully in front of the stone door. Then, she really felt the powerful and familiar sacred energy.
Of course, strength is relative to her current fruit fly size.
'Buzz...'
then!
Feeling the direction of the sacred energy, she hurriedly passed through the stone door and went down the steps behind the door. After narrowly avoiding a sneak attack by a gecko on the wall, she soon discovered a dark cell area. .
There were two napping guys standing outside the door of one of the cells. Judging from the other party's service and the mark of flames with eyes and burning on the dragon's claws, Doric didn't need to make too many guesses. I know that the other party must be a member of the Dragon Worship Cult, and he is also a low-level ordinary thug, so he will definitely not be able to detect her.
Therefore, she did not rush to clean up the two men, but flew straight over and flew in through the dark opening on the steel cell door guarded by the two guards.
'! ! '
As soon as he entered, Doric was surprised to find that in the dark and damp room, in addition to several red symbols of darkness, destruction and evil flashing, in the center of the symbols, there was a mentally depressed person. people were imprisoned there.
And if you take a closer look, who is that person if it’s not Henk?
At this time, the opponent looked very weak and tired, and the weak sacred energy on his body was fighting against the formation-like rune. Even if he was not a mage or warlock with a family background like Simon, Doric himself could know that, That thing must be used to continuously drain Henk's energy and prevent him from recovering and escaping.
'Buzz buzz...'
Seeing that he had finally found his target, Doric was overjoyed and immediately flew to the other person's eyebrows, hovered there and began to call softly.
"Henk?"
"Hello!"
"Wake up!"
"Henk?"
"Wake up, I'm Doric!"
"Henk?"
Unfortunately, I don't know if it was because Doric's voice was too soft, or because Henk was tortured so miserably that even though she shouted several times in succession, the other party didn't even bat an eyelid.
As a last resort, Doric immediately transformed into her delicate Tiefling form in this cell, and then prepared to step forward to untie the rope that bound Hunk and wake him up.
But...
I don’t know if the runes she stepped on the ground triggered some kind of early warning mechanism, or if she touched the rope and caused some magic to be activated? In short, before she could rescue and wake up Henk, there were waves of angry roars coming from the distance outside the cell. It seemed like some heavy-footed guy was rushing towards here?
then!
Doric hurriedly transformed again, directly turning into a small gecko and climbing onto the damp stone wall above the cell door, and soon saw a dragon man negotiating with the two guards guarding the door. Then he rushed in with a roar.
Immediately afterwards, the three men began to search around the empty cell with suspicious eyes.
"..."
Although the visitor was just a dragon man and two ordinary Dragon Worship Cult guards, and there were no troublesome Dragon Worship Cult wizards or mages, the other party should not be able to detect my own, but looking at the wide-open Looking at the three enemies below who were still looking around at the cell door, Doric made a quick decision and decided to take action now.
"!!"
The next second, the gecko transformed by Doric immediately jumped down, and then silently turned into a ferocious owlbear in the air.
Then, before the three enemies below could react, she bit the unsuspecting dragon man's neck with a 'click'. Then, she inserted one claw into the chest of one of the guards, and the other claw Then the other guard's throat and arteries were torn out in one fell swoop, and he could only stare with wide eyes for a moment as Doric slowly changed from owlbear form back to tiefling, and In vain, he used his hands to cover his throat, which was gushing blood crazily, and slowly knelt down, and finally fell to the ground helplessly.
"Well……"
"Do-Doric..."
It was only then, when the three enemies fell to the ground, that Henk's weak voice suddenly sounded, and Doric was overjoyed and hurriedly approached again.
It turned out that he was awakened by the sound of Doric killing the three enemies just now.
"How will you be here?"
"you……"
"Caught by them too?"
Seeing the familiar figure of Doric, and then looking at the three people who were dead, Henk asked weakly, as if he thought that Doric had also been captured, and then he just rose up and defeated the three enemies. of.
"No!"
"I'm here specifically to save you!"
Doric was a little dumbfounded, but he still stepped forward and quickly untied the rope from the other party's hands.
"hurry up!"
"We need to get out of here quickly."
"There are more of them!"
"There seems to be some kind of surveillance magic in this cell. I can't guarantee whether they will have more support coming later."
Doric said anxiously after untying all the restraints on Henk.
It was a sneak attack just now, so she was able to deal with three enemies neatly. If it were a head-on confrontation, it would be okay to face the ordinary Dragon Worshiping Cult thugs, but if she faced those strong Dragon and Worshiping Cult thugs, it would be fine. As a Dragon Sect mage, she was afraid that she would not be able to protect herself, let alone save Henk.
"!!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Doric heard a burst of rapid footsteps from above. Doric was frightened and hurriedly turned around and walked quickly to the cell door to peek outside and listen.
She could tell that the heavy footsteps were made by dragons, and there must be more than one!
"Henk!"
"Can you stand up?"
"We have to hurry!"
Therefore, after roughly judging the number of enemies, Doric immediately turned to look at Henk, who was still sitting sluggishly on the floor of the cell, and asked and urged anxiously.
"it should be OK……"
Hunk reluctantly raised his head, but he still looked very weak.
"but……"
"You'd better help me destroy this rune first?"
But he soon looked at the runes on the ground with a wry smile that were still consuming and absorbing his power, and motioned Doric to destroy them in any way.
After all, now that the enemy has been alerted, there is no need to use any method, just destroy it with brute force.
Hearing this, Doric didn't say anything. She just picked up the ax of a Dragon Cult guard she had just killed and went forward to slash a few times, causing the red runes on the ground to disappear one by one. It became dim.
"Can you do it?"
"Can you still fight?"
Then, seeing that Henke stood up without the suppression of those runes and her face became much better, Doric handed the battle ax in her hand towards the other party.
"Um!"
Henk responded, and then didn't say much. He just weighed the weapon in his hand and nodded towards Doric after feeling that he had taken advantage of it.
"Then you have to follow closely!"
It would be much easier if there was only Doric, or if the opponent was also a druid.
But the other party was just a paladin, so Doric had no choice but to transform into the strong owlbear again, then signaled Henk to follow him and rushed out at the lead.
"!!"
"over there!"
"not good!"
"The prisoners are breaking out!"
"quick!"
"Stop them!"
"We must not let them escape!"
"kill!!"
When the two of them just ran to the stone door where Doric noticed the abnormality before and pushed out the door, the dragon people and the people from the Dragon Worship Cult also happened to arrive, so the dozen or so people on the other side were shouting and shouting to kill. At the same time as the crowd came up, the owlbear Doric transformed into also roared, waved its claws and rushed forward, actively fighting with the dragon-men.
Although her claws are very sharp and each attack can cause serious damage to the dragon-men with fine scales on their bodies, it is still difficult for her to deal with so many at once in a head-on confrontation.
But fortunately she is not alone. Although Henke behind her is very weak, he is a legendary paladin after all. In addition, the terrain of this fortress passage is not suitable for the opponent to use their numerical advantage, so with her around With the front acting as a human shield, he could still give full play to his extremely high combat skills and fight those dragons. After the two of them cooperated and chopped down several dragons, they broke through the enemy's siege and rushed past.
"!!"
"?!"
Unfortunately, the two of them were not happy for a long time. They soon found out that another group of enemies rushed out in front of them?
"Damn it!"
"Why are there so many?"
"hateful!"
As a last resort, after lamenting, although he was a little out of breath, Doric, who transformed into an owlbear, took the initiative to rush forward again.
In this way, Doric and Henke killed the enemies all the way, rushing forward, but no matter what, this was the enemy's lair, and there were too many dragons and followers of the Dragon Worship Cult.
Moreover, the enemy's attacks became more and more fierce, and Doric even saw the figure of a mage starting to appear behind the enemy. In addition, Henk was already starting to be out of breath, and she couldn't help but feel more and more worried. He became anxious and confused.
"We can't continue like this!"
"Doric!"
"This way!"
At this time, before Doric could continue to rush forward towards the enemy, Paladin Henk signaled Doric to follow him, and then rushed to an uninhabited cave entrance to the side.
"no!"
"It's locked, I can't open it!"
However, the front of the cave was locked by a huge iron door and iron chain. Doric stepped forward and tried to pull it with his claws, but it had no effect at all.
"Step aside!"
Fortunately, Henk, who came from behind, had a solution.
I saw him starting to chant something, and at the same time his voice became louder and faster. Then, suddenly a sacred light spurted out from his hand and made his ordinary battle ax light up. Then he slashed with his hand, and the thick chain was cut off like tofu by his axe, and the fracture was still in a red-hot state as if it had been burned by high temperature?
"really not bad!"
"Well done!"
Doric couldn't help but admired, then hurriedly tore off the chain, opened the huge iron door, and got in with Henk.
However……
When the two of them continued to move forward, they found that there were more Dragon Cult believers, slaves and thugs ahead, and even a large number of dragons, which made Doric lament.
"Are you sure this is the direction?"
"Why are you running further and further down?"
As a last resort, Doric, who did not dare to confront so many enemies, could only follow Henk who took the initiative to lead the way and ran towards another huge passage cave. At the same time, he couldn't help but ask.
Because when she came in to find Henk, she had already been searching downwards in this maze-like fortress nest, and now the two of them were still going downwards, so there was no doubt that this was not the way out!
"Of course this is the direction!"
"Doric!"
"You must not have imagined that I have a brilliant idea now!"
After taking a look behind him, he found that the enemies were still pursuing them tirelessly and there were more and more of them. Henk suddenly said with a smile.
"What is it?"
Seeing that Henk was still laughing at this time, Doric couldn't help but ask subconsciously.
In her opinion, the best idea now is to run away quickly. For example, should she directly turn into a mosquito or a fruit fly and take advantage of the chaos to escape?
Of course, Doric would definitely not do something like abandoning his companions now. After all, it was not the time to do so yet.
"Ah!"
"You'll find out soon enough."
Unfortunately, Henk didn't say anything, but kept it secret and continued to run forward wearing Doric.
"strangeness!"
"What the hell is this place and why aren't there any guards?"
"Isn't it a secret exit?"
While running, Druid girl Doric quickly discovered something was wrong.
Because just now, she and Henk fought their way out, and no matter where they went, they encountered more or less enemies, but it was completely different here. It became more spacious and desolate as they went down, and there were no enemies at all?
"Secret exit?"
"No!"
"no!"
Hunk smiled wryly and shook his head as he ran.
"That….."
"With the dungeon world?"
Doric asked again.
If it was connected to a dangerous dungeon world, although it would indeed be very dangerous, she would still be more willing to enter that kind of place than to go back and confront the group of enemies behind her who might have gathered at least hundreds of enemies. Dangerous and unknown dungeons.
"No!"
"!!"
"Then what's the reason?"
"Because there is danger here!"
"D-danger?"
"Don't worry, that's relative to the guys at the back, so we don't have to worry."
"ah?"
"Why?"
"..."
In this way, the two of them continued to run downward while asking questions.
Finally, after arriving in a larger area, Doric finally understood why Henk said that danger is relative, because...
In the huge pit in front, who was imprisoned and sleeping by chains and magic circles, who was that chubby dragon if it wasn't 'Fat Orange'?
"Did you see that?"
"Although for some reasons, it is no match for the two adult black and red ones, it should be more than enough to deal with those behind!"
"If we can wake it up and let it help us, then we have a chance to escape."
"The premise is that the two black dragons won't suddenly come back?"
As he said that, Henk sighed with some emotion.
Back then, he specifically asked Anne for permission to take Hibberchard, the red dragon named 'Fat Orange' in front of him, to the Swamp of the Dead and Leilong Town to investigate, but the result... then... The process is really hard to describe!
"good idea!"
"Then let's get started!"
After knowing Henk's purpose and seeing that the fat orange in front of him was not killed, but just fell asleep, Doric was overjoyed, and then hurried forward, using the claws of the hero to destroy the seal on the ground crazily. Magic circle.
"correct!"
"Don't worry, Henk. Those two black dragons will never come back. They have all gone to Neverwinter!"
"Otherwise, I wouldn't dare come in to find you!"
Then, while he was busy, Doric did not forget to explain to Henk who was about to continue to perform some kind of magic in order to cut off the chains that bound Fat Orange's limbs and wings.
"!!"
"They really went to Neverwinter?"
"Then we have to hurry up!"
Not long after, before the enemy behind them arrived, the two of them used brute force to destroy the magic circle. At the same time, Henk also used his old tricks, using the remaining sacred power to cut off several key chains.
Then, when they finally used their weapons to slash at the gap between the scales on Fat Orange's lower jaw and neck (?), a certain round red dragon let out some dissatisfied roars under the stimulation of severe pain. After murmuring, he finally slowly opened his eyes.
"Hey!"
"Fat Orange!"
"It's us!"
"Wake up!"
"The enemy is coming!!"
Then, seeing that everything was going well, the two of them ran up to each other's huge head and waved their hands vigorously.
"..."
Soon, the red dragon's huge vertical pupils slowly opened, and then it was a little surprised when it dared to see Henk and Doric.
but!
When it saw the chaotic Dragon Worshipers, slaves and the black dragon dragons running from a distance, it quickly understood what had happened and suddenly became extremely angry.
Then……
'Moo! ! ! '
As the round fat orange let out a deafening roar, soon, before the frightened Dragon Worshipers, slaves and the black dragon dragons could turn around and run away, a scorching red dragon breath instantly overwhelmed them. .
But that's not the end!
Because, without the restraints and seals of magic, the fat dragon immediately used brute force to break free of more chains and continued to roar angrily. Then, completely ignoring the dissuasion of Doric and Henk, he began to use his brute force to confront each other. Some short limbs supported the huge round body and slowly climbed towards the top of the cave.
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(End of chapter)
