The Erudite was dressed in a mage robe that looked to be of great quality but his eyes seem to be vacant, "This is the floating Island controlled by the Great Poison Dragon, Venekius and it is known as the Tenebrous Sanctum. I am a member of the knowledge seeking race known as the Erudites, and throughout the years we were able to develop illusion magic that was able to fool the Scaleborns and as a result we were able to construct a portal to the Realm in the Sky"
"My name is Pythagoras and I am a level 50 Illusionist member of the Council of Truth in the great city of Odus and I'll will be your point of contact during your time here. Since you are here, you must have been sent by the Alliance to weaken the forces of the Great Dragons and delayed their invasion upon our side of the Realm"
"WOAH… This is really cool Bato, I am really inspired to give my life to complete the mission just by listening to him" said Rahz
"It's amazing, isn't it"
"The average level of your group is 36 which barely qualifies you to obtain the first mission 'Create a path towards the temple'. Accomplish the mission, and we can cement our foothold in this floating island". Follow the river upstream and defeat Captain Halar a scaleborn warrior of the Fourth Tier, he is ruthless and seem to hold an important position among the Dragonkin guarding the entrance. Do not leave anybody alive, you know what they say... only dead people can keep secrets".
"Oh I almost forgot! take this two things …The first one is for you to rub on your bodies, It will help you fool that old thing at the center of the temple but beware, it will only last 5 days. The second item is the scale of a Chaos Scaleborn, leave it somewhere by the entrance. Old rules apply, anything you kill is yours to keep and if you run into trouble I do not exist...if you bring them back here I'll kill you myself"
Gulp! Jazz tremble in his boots while Rahz took out Apocalypse but before he could take a step forward he was knocked on the back of the head by the Erudite.
"Put it back quickly!!! This is a stealth mission, Dragons are very sensitive to natural law so no Realm Weapons allowed. Just steal one of the soldiers weapons, they are better than anything the alliance can produce anyways"
Rahz frowned immediately, if they were like anything like what they experience in the fifth gate, only Riddicks Polearm could hurt them. Surprisingly enough Bato took a pair of fist weapons that looked like a the head of a Tiger and glowed with red Runes all over.
The weapons were a present from the leaders of the alliance that tried to recruit the Temple of the Rising Sun to fight against the Dragonkin. They were made from Adamantite and were enchanted by a famous Erudite Enchanter, last name Fizzlecast.
"It has three enchantments on it, Penetration which allows some of the force to bypass the external defense of the enemy, Gale Force Striking which sometimes increased the attack speed of the wearer allowing him to attack twice, and the last one was a rune that gathered Kinetic energy and transformed it into an Electric current that was discharged against the opponent once it was full". Said Bato with a smile on his face.
The revelation of the Fist Weapons left Rahz burning with jealousy and also being the only one without a powerful weapon that could easily penetrate the skin of the Dragonkin.
"The Erudite is right, I could always take the weapon from a Scaleborn Soldier".
The group made their way up the road and discovered that the illusion reached all the way to the edge of the island and made it look like there was nothing but a precipice there.
The Tenebrous Sanctum was not tenebrous at all, instead, it look like a prehistoric island with the vegetation and flora to match. Every creature they saw was humongous in size, from the 2 feet mosquitos to the wyverns, and basilisk that walked the land at their leisure.
In the background of the landscape, the silhouette of a pyramid in a style similar to the aztecs stood tall, the structure was so far away that the group was not even able to see the sentinels patrolling on it.
The river depicted by the Erudite during the briefing was really easy to find as it actually split the island in two and it seem to come from the direction of the pyramid like structure.
"Well, let's get to it" said Rahz as he looked towards Jazz that immediately trembled with fear.
"Don't worry buddy, it would be ok" said Riddick.
Rahz took out a knife and started moving slowly towards some bushes while Jazz played Accelerando and left to gather some prey.
It was not too difficult for Jazz to get a group of monsters together and in less than 3 minutes he return followed by 8 mosquitos that radiated killing intent.
CHAOS CHAINS!
The mosquitos were level 35 themselves and they struggled to get free from the chains that bind them. It was at this moment when Bato appeared behind them and used, Whirlwind Dragon Punch.
TA TA TA TA…
The sound of strikes resounded in quick succession while little energy shockwaves left from the opposite side the mosquito was stroke from. Rahz was in perfect position to see the skill being performed and the moment 100 wind dragons hit their targets it was magical.
Rahz was so amazed and focus in observing the beautiful skill, that he forgot to close his mouth and he almost puke when a piece of mosquito meat that had some hair on it came flying in.
Spit… spit … Eeek, I almost choke.
HA HA HA!
The team laughed for a second until a little lizard with bright green scales appeared in front of them and then it puff up like a balloon, BARFF!.
Acid like liquid came out of his mouth forcing the team to jump out of the way while Rahz instinctively activated Immolation and jump in front of the stream.
SIZZZZZ!
The sound of Liquid being burnt at high temperatures was heard and then a couple of Chaos Blades flew towards the little lizard and hit him straight on the chest.
SCREECH!!
"Oh SHIT!" Said Jazz looking frantic while Riddick took out his polearm and stab the reptile on his neck.
"We got to move, NOW"
The Screech that was cut short by Riddick was followed by a very powerful shout in the distance and the feeling of an Earthquake that was coming their way. The accelerando movement enhancement allowed the team to relocate in a matter of seconds and actually wait for the beast to arrive.
The earthquake was caused by two massive creatures, one was a Saurolisk that look like a 20 ft komodo dragon with spikes on his back and the other was a creature that Rahz knew quite well a Basilisk.
The body of the lizard laid on the floor in the middle of the two beast that were glaring at each other but neither dare to act rashly.
There was always a struggle for superiority in the Tenebrous Sanctum, and fights among the creatures were ever present. The stronger the creature, the closer to the Temple it could reside, and the more likely it was to benefit from the aura emanated by Venekius that was extremely beneficial to dragon like creatures.
The little snack on the floor was merely an excuse for the two creatures to go at it. The first to make a move was the Basilisk. It slithered extremely fast towards the Saurolisk in an attempt to Bind it but out of nowhere the spikes covering his back double, and then triple in quantity as he made himself into a ball.
It was a smart move and now if the basilisk wanted to bind it, then it would only hurt itself. It was not difficult to see that in the Tenebrous Sanctum most of his inhabitants had an inclination towards nature and the use of poison and disease to attack which meant that in terms of the poison in their bodies, both were about even in strength.
The Basilisk stopped it his tracks and swung his massive tail encase in a grey aura against the ball of spikes standing in front of it, but the Saurolisk uncurl himself and at the same time release all the spikes in his bodies.
BOOM!!
SCREECH! … ROAR!
The Saurolisk was sent flying but several spikes penetrated the body of the king of serpents and Rahz and the others could see the two poisons fighting each other on top of the Basilisk's skin.
The sound of trees falling and rocks shattering reverberated through while Rahz and the others ran around dodging a few missing spikes dripping in poison that came their way.