Drummen took a long drink from his wine skin and looked at the strange troliath in front of him. "Not bad... It seems you can survive a pummeling."
"Hahaha... You call that a pummeling? I call that tiny bites from a bloodsucker... You're weak, you keep turning into a sand turtle, hiding behind your wall... Weak... That's not strength at all."
Drummen put his wine skin back in his robes and spun his staff around. "Hahaha... If they're just bites, why is your ugly head and arms bleeding... I also see some broken bones... A very bad joke."
"ROARRR!"
He watched as the trolaith came towards him, and than stopped when he was out of his staff range and looked at him. "Watch this weak human..." Drummen cursed as he watched the body of the trolaith repair itself, and change. He jumped in to attack, but was pushed back by it's staff.
He defended and raised his hand sending earthern spikes towards the back of the troliath. "Nice try... I've already seen this trick... Boring. Weak human." Drummen frowned and used the stone beneath him to move backwards out of the range of the troliath's staff. "Same tricks... I've learnt your way of fighting... Now you'll die, and I'll get to eat your body."
Drummen shook his head. "I don't think so... I have a family to go back to, and they'd punish me serverly if I let some ugly beast like you beat me..." He raised his hands and formed another staff. "However... Lets see if you can deal with this." He pointed his hand at the troliath and sent two staffs towards it both attacking at the same time. He smiled as he formed two more staffs and sent it to the back of the trolaith. "Cheating... That's cheating... There's no fight of strength here... Cheating." Drummen smiled. "Fighting with strength is boring... I'm a person who fights the way I want to fight... You don't make the rules in how I fight... Idiot beast."
"ROOARRR!"
He smiled as he saw the troliath about to jump and raised his hand as large wall of stone blocked the trolaith from attacking him. "Stupid human turtle..." Drummen smiled as he watched the staffs continue their attack. "Not stupid at all... This is how I fight..."
"I'm going to eat you, and all of the people that are related to you... Stinky HUMAN!" Drummen lowered his eyes and stood looking at the beast. "Say that again... I dare you."
"I'M GOING TO EAT ALL THE PEOPLE YOU KNOW AND CARE ABOUT! Hahahahaha... Did you hear me now?"
Drummen stood and looked at the beast. "You can call me whatever names you want, and I won't care... But since you brought my family into this... You need to be punished... I'm the one who is going to punish you... The first thing I'll do is take that head of yours." Drummen took a step forward.
"BOOMMM!"
"This again... Old trick... Human." Drummen watched as the trolaith was shot into the stone roof and smiled. "Not an old trick... Here's something new..." He pushed his hands together and watched as two large walls of stone pushed together, squashing the beast as it started to fall. "That was a new one... Wasn't it?" He took out his wine skin taking a long drink and waited as the body of the trolaith fell to the ground in a heap. He walked up to the mess of the body, and pushed all of the staffs into it, causing the body to turn into dust in front of him. He took a step back letting the staffs fall back into the stone floor. "Good work husband..."
He looked at the door he had come through and saw Raven and her parents looking at him. "He waved at them as they approached him. "Protecting your family it seems... Hahaha..." He felt his face turn red as he was hugged by Raven and stared at by Daikish. "That sounded very heroic... Defending our honor... A real guardian..." Drummen scratched the back of his head with a smile. "Just wasn't nice what the beast said... I couldn't fight it with strength, so I had to use my skill to beat it."
"You should of just started with that, so than you could of stayed with the others... You're the last one, they're all waiting for us at the top." Drummen looked around. "What do you mean? Did they all finish already?"
"Yes husband... They finished while you were playing with the beast... But it seems you've learnt from that fight." He nodded. "I learned a lot, so we might as well join the others than."
"Apprentice... In future, I hope you finish them off quickly, and not just play around with them to test your strength..." He lowered his eyes at Daikish and nodded. "I understand... Still I know my strength, and limits."
"Wife... Daughter. Let him breath... He's fine. As he said he wanted to test his strength... That's something we all did long ago... Or have you forgotten your first time?"
"Husband, that's not the point... With his little testing of his body, we've become late... We better not be seen as the weak ones." Drummen shook his head. "I don't think we'll be seen as weak... Everyone will be happy to see us... Lets just go."
"BOOOMMM!"
He looked up as the stone roof exploded and felt the stone push them up through the hole until they stood at the top with the others. "Brother!" He ran and hugged Cliffhopper. "Good to see you again big brother... You should of seen me fight... I killed many of them... Even your family was impressed with my skills..." Drummen nodded and patted him on the shoulder. "We'll have to see that later." He looked at Stainnar. "You're arm... What happened to it?"
"Nothing much... What do you think of it now?" Drummen nodded. "It suits you... However, it seems it isn't what it looks like... Must be something special from yourself." He turned and saw the others, with Mouse standing next to the old shadow. "Did you get him Mouse?" He cursed when he saw Mouse shake his head. "Don't worry... He was wounded, and will take time to heal from it... We have a victory here... It should be a celebration... You've all done well, and we're all proud of you."
"Not all are here..." He turned to the priestess in confusion. "What do you mean? I see you're here in one piece, and I can feel you've become stronger too."
"The one who was with me left..." Drummen waved his arm at her. "Don't worry about those old farts... You're alive, which means we can keep moving forward."
"Don't worry about that one Star... He's always been like that, he's always watching. Even now he's around keeping an eye on us, and you..." He looked at the old shadow. "So if we're celebrating, we can bring out the wine, and finally leave this shitty place." He smiled as he pulled out his wine skin taking a drink and offering the skin to Raven. "Its not time to celebrate now... You can drink and enjoy this small victory, but while the Supreme is still around and his allies are hiding, and healing to regather their strength... This is the time to attack them at their weakest moment, but we don't have the strength to do it."
Drummen nodded in thought listening to the old shadow. "Your right father in law... He does talk a lot... Mood killer too."
"Shut it husband... You too father." He smiled at her father as they nodded and drank together. "You should listen to her... Its important if you want a happy life... I'll tell you more about that later." Drummen nodded and gave him a thumbs up.
"Have the both of you finished discussing about the virtues of married life yet?" Drummen looked up at the old shadow and nodded. "Good... Since we don't know where they went, and we know the Supreme is dying, security is going to be tight and difficult around the Capital... I suggest we turn our attention to either the queen or the one we call the master."
"You mean Marcule?" Drummen looked at Harnio. "You know the master's name?"
"Yes... I read all his research, and his documented experiments that were stored here... Scary stuff." Drummen smiled. "Than you know how we can kill them?" He cursed as Harnio shook his head. "That I don't know... They're very independent... They're only born from alphas, and will die out if alphas are not giving birth to them."
Drummen clenched his fists. "So all we have to do is find where the alphas are, and than kill it... That doesn't seem to be too hard." He looked up as Mouse started to sign at him. He looked around. "What did he say?" He saw the old shadow look at him with annoyance. "I can see what you mean about him Mouse..."
"Heyyy... What did he say?" Drummen frowned at the old shadow. "He said, he knows of one alpha, but we don't know if there are any more." Drummen nodded. "So who or where is this alpha you know of?" He watched as Mouse pointed to the distance. "He's talking about Marcule... He has become one the alphas, and has trolaiths growing inside him... Terrible thing he has done, especially corrupting Tofana's work that way."
"Tofana? You mean Marcule really did it?" He looked at his father in law who was also clenching his fists. "Calm down husband... We all know that you treated her like a sister." Drummen scratched his head. "It seems I've missed out a lot of information here... I'll ask Harnio about it later."
"Yes, big brother its better to ask later..."
"Cough... Cough... Back on topic... After Mouse's and my encounter with Marcule... It seems the rumors were true after all... Mouse has also told me that Marcule ripped out each insect in her body one by one to figure out how she did it, and has implemented that into the alpha troliaths... Including himself." Drummen cursed. "What should we do?"
"Stannir... What is your idea?" He looked at the old man with the black cane staring at Stannir. "Yeah, Stannir... What are we going to do?"
"We need to find the both of them, and than we can attack... But the thing is how can we find them?"
"If you want to know where someone is... You ask a shadow. Hohohoho... Isn't that right Mouse?" Drummen looked at Mouse nodded and smiled signing at them. "He said he knows where the queen is... Also, the direction of where Marcule went... However, as we saw we're not strong enough to fight them yet..."
Drummen cursed. "Than what are we going to do? We can't just sit here and wait for them to gather their strength again."
"Correct Monk..." He looked at the old shadow. "Does that mean you're going to fight?"
"No... I'm old, and we're all tired... We haven't seen each other for a long time, so I think we'll be staying here in the firelands for a while..." Drummen cursed. "So if we're not strong enough, how are we going to get stronger?"
"Idiot monk... That wine is starting to get to your mind." He looked at the priestess smiling sourly at her. "Its not the wine, its everyone speaking in riddles... I'm not Harnio... Just tell me straight, and I'll do what's needed of me."
"See... He has a good heart..." He looked at Stannir as he walked towards the old man with a black cane. "What's going to happen is easy... We're about to undergo hell training..." Drummen cursed and took a step away from Daikish. "Stannir really? Hell training?"
"Tap... Tap... Tap..."
He felt his body freeze up as he felt tapping on his shoulder, and turned around looking at Raven and her family smiling at him. "Daikish... Not more of those things..." He let out a long breath as she shook her head. "My job is done with you... I was to prepare your body... The one who's going to be training you now is your brother in law and father in law... I'll just let you know, they're tougher than me." Drummen cursed as he felt being dragged away from the group.
"Helpp... Brother... Cliffhopper..."
"I'll be here training too, but in my way brother... See you." He cursed as he tried to get out of Raven's father and brothers grip. He watched as he descended into the stone room, and below into a large cavern. He looked around in confusion. "Where are we? Why is it so hot down here?"
"This is where you'll be training... Let the fun begin son."
"Yes father."
"BOOOOMM!"
Drummen cursed as he flew across the cavern into a wall."
"Again..."