"I hope you will overlook the breach of protocol!" Tere'he said as she casted a tracking spell on the ground that revealed where all the footsteps of previous persons had been, she saw that they had left almost no visible tracks so she took out a ring that was hanging around her neck.
After some quick chants a visible golden thread appeared in the air and guided them in a direction. "What breach of protocol? We are just hunting a drake still right?" Samuel said half joking half serious and Tere although fully serious and worried couldn't help but show her mouth twitch a bit in a smile.
"Let's go then! Also, don't hold back anything!" Tere'he spoke while taking out a small blue rock. She focused on it which made it shine, she quickly threw it into the snow. Leaving behind a marker of sorts.
"Trust me, I am done holding back... I don't care what happens, but I will seriously use my everything!" Samuel exclaimed in annoyance as he followed Tere.
With a few snaps of fingers and spells they were both flying through the air with flight spells. Samuel couldn't speed up unfortunately because it was Tere who was tracking and he didn't know the unique spell.
But the small linear threads seemed to grow in size after about an hour of flying. Both of them relentlessly continue going over the snow filled landscape. "What do you think they wanted with capturing us?" Samuel shouted over the wind.
He had put plenty of thought into it as they had been flying but he had not been able to come up with any good reason, if only he knew what it was all about it would probably be easier to figure out.
Their flight led them on for another good hour or so before they entered a southern mountainous area filled with cliffs and hills and smaller mountains. They both rounded a corner around a mountain side before both of them stopped suddenly.
The mountain ahead of them stood with a built in fortress of stone and ice. It looked abandoned enough, but in reality there were probably a lot of dangers inside, because that is exactly where the golden threads were pointing towards.
"Plan of attack?" Samuel asked and Tere hovered on the spot, considering their options, she knew she really should call for reinforcements now. Attacking a fortress they had no idea what was inside was foolish, but she didn't want to leave the others inside, who knows how long it would take.
"Because I got a very basic idea!" Samuel's words made Tere turn around and look at him, she saw the serious eyes and determination and nodded, she wanted to at least hear it.
Samuel took the go ahead, "I will use every last bit of strength and magic I got to make an aerial front assault, to draw the attention of all the enemies inside. Meanwhile you sneak in and save the others!" He smiled and Tere couldn't help but shake her head.
"There is no way such a simple idea will work, or it might but then it would be like you are sacrificing yourself for me to save the others!" She sighed and started considering other ideas when she falt his hand on her shoulder.
She turned her eyes to him again. "I swear to you! That I will not die! I will be really careful and use distance as my strength. If things get bad enough I will make a tactical retreat and get reinforcements. I promise!" His words made her actually consider it.
They had been flying for almost three hours straight, they were considerably further down south than they had ever intented, and something dangerous was going on here. If they left now then they might never see their companions again.
"Alright!" Tere sighed, "Alright, Let's do it! Give me roughly ten minutes to sneak in close enough to get a head start before you start blowing things up!" Samuel nodded and started counting.
She immediately started heading downwards and casted a invisibility spell on herself, not even Samuel could see her anymore. But he quickly turned back to counting and prepared all his spells. Now was not the time to hold back, just like he said, he would stop holding back.
He got both the sword and staff out, focusing on the little magic he had to recover he quickly found his breathing rythm. There was a bit of a difference to the usual density of a magical forest to snowy plains when it came to plentitude of mana.
However raw nature itself contained plenty of unused mana, so refilling whatever magic he was missing went quite quick. He continued to count for some time before it felt like those minutes had finally passed.
He inhaled and exhaled one last deep breath before opening his eyes with determination and using his spells he created a multitude of shockwaves as he accelerated upwards and then forwards. Until he quickly found himself above the fort, he unleashed every prepared spell with his staff.
Sending a half dozen of fireballs at the fort. They exploded directly on impact creating quite the booming noise and making the ground quake for quite the distance.
He didn't stop there as he summoned fiery birds from his sword and swung them at the fort. Instantly as they were travelling through the air he started breathing in mana again one breath there, one fireball there.
In a short span of a few minutes he had casted almost 50 large fireballs at the fort, the entire top of it had been completely blown apart and a lot of the walls and more was severely damaged. He had yet to penetrate deep into the fort with his magic though, when the first defenders responded to his attack.
Several ice drake golems with ice wings came flying from the mountain directly at him. He quickly brandished his blade in renewed flame and inhaled more mana to prepare for the dangerous bout.
Meanwhile Tere had not wasted a single second of time and found a way into the fort way before he started his attack. An open passageway and no visible guards made it quite easy to slip inside. She continued sneaking further in, the old halls empty and desolate.
Only an eerie silence remained of this old place. She casted a spell in silence to detect signatures closeby and found none. She was surprised and worried to not see a single defender or guards of any kind.
It made her worried for just what was going on in this place. The golden threads led her deeper and deeper, until she stood before a huge door. Still no guards, but the golden threads pointed straight at the doorway, thats when she heard the first rumble. Several small quakes that made the fort shake even down this far.
She nodded to herself and quickly lay her hand to push the door open, the minute she lay her hand on the door a magical circle appeared below her and teleported her inside the room. She blinked quickly and realized to be standing in the middle of a great hall.
She looked around and was shocked at the sights, the hall mostly empty except for piles of treasure in the back. Atop the piles of treasure lay an ice dragon that had a grin plastered on it's face as it stared directly at her.
Below the dragon stood the hooded figure from earlier. "So the uninvited guest finally arrives!" He spoke with a chuckle. "Care to join your friends?" The figure pointed to the right side of the hall. Where several large prison cells were located. Built out of magical ice.
Tere saw inside the cells were all of her companions, fully awake but it seemed like they were severely weakened, in a cell next to their own there were a dozen or so children that were also looking.
"Who are you? What are you doing to these children?" Tere screamed at the dragon and the hooded figure, she was tensed up and scared, there was no way she could defeat a dragon and spellcaster by herself.
"So many questions for an uninvited guest... perhaps ---" Several more quakes occured, even making dust and snow fall from the ceiling. It seemed like Samuel had not been joking around about creating a diversion.
Much to Tere'hes surprise the hooded figure turned to the dragon and ordered it, "Go deal with that! Right now!" Before turning back to Tere'he. "It would seem that someone up top needs a lesson!" If Tere could see his face she could swear he would have a cocky grin.
The Ice dragon quickly reared its wings and stepped on a large circle before disappearing in a poof of arcane energy. Tere suddenly became worried not only for herself but also for Samuel, dealing with a dragon would be too difficult, but the fact that this person had ordered around a dragon and been left alone without it.
Definitely made Tere worried for herself as well, just how strong was such a person?