Walking on the hard black ground Flur was hardly speaking to others, she seemed to be lost in some deep thought. The others kept on chatting to each other and often Perciveus also took part in this conversation but when he noticed that Flur was absently walking toward their destination he decided to break off from the group and ask her if everything was okay with her.
"You don't happen to be afraid, are you?".
"No it's just…. I have this feeling inside that I can't shake off. My instincts are telling me to just leave this place already". Flur was bit worried.
Perciveus placed his hand around her shoulder and started to walk with her, " you need not worry, we all are here and we all have been pretty good fighters in the past. And there is always the option to retreat if things go side ways", Perciveus said patting on her shoulder.
The group continued to ventuere deeper into the land and the landform was changing slightly, with streams of lava everywhere and only a narrow path for them to move forward. From one the narrow stream of lava some bubbles popped and Drupal turned his head to look at the scene when he saw hundreds of lava bugs coming out of the now popping bubbles. The look on his face was dead serious as this was no beast horde rather this was an army's first line of defence.
Drupal and Scrouche had paired together while Flur and Fiona had paired together to fare off better against the first wave of the beasts.
"You all do whatever it needs to stay unharmed I will take the lead", Perciveus commanded as his loud voice boomed the near by people's eardrums and even for a few seconds the beasts had also stopped in their attack not moving from their position.
This pause of a few seconds gave the group of five an upper hand in the fight ahead, as the pairs dived into the group of lava bugs to finish them off in one blow.
The lava bugs were a very special kind of beast army as they best worked to delay the attackers. They had small but strong bodies like a cockroach and travelled in large numbers. They attacked their prey with lava that they spat out throught their mouths. The most important reason to be in the army was that they were not only sturdy but the attacks of the enemy harmed them lesser and lesser as they would very quickly get immune to it and their healing ability was abnormal.
With the pair already having the knowledge about the bugs had made sure to take a small group and finish them in one single blow not making them immune to their attacks.
The group having their weapons and abilities were doing well. Scrouche would use his spear and axe with great force killing two to three bugs in one blow.
Drupal had changed his shield to bow and was firing strongs arrows of energy killing a few beats at once.
Flur was using his his red lightening gun to kill tens of bugs in one strike whereas Fiona's slashes were enough to kill a couple of bugs or to be exact slice them clean.
But the numbers fid not seem to lessen as thousands of bugs were coming out. Looking at everyone Perciveus saw that they were doing good but sooner or later they would tire out and then the second wave of the army would strike making them vulnerable. He did not have time to see how they would do because he already had an idea that the first wave had atlaest a couple thousand of these bugs and they would take long enough to kill the first wave giving enought time for the second wave that would be many times stronger than this wave.
Perciveus started to fight the bugs on his own killing ten in each swing of his hand that were coated in energy to avoid them being burned and later he had ran off into the army itself to kill more, but he was not just killing rather he was leading the major portion away from the group leaving them only a few hundred to deal with.
Once far off into the distance, perciveus stood in between the army, the bugs circling around him. He started to cover his body with energy and was seemed to be in a state of trance. Perciveus was trying to calm his brain down and a red energy was getting collected inside him that once had formed into a compressed ball started to move towards his brain. Opening his eyes, that now were glowing blood red he waved his hands in a smooth motion only to leave his arms extended with open palms at the end. When his hand came to a rest explosion were set on fire, and the brains pf the lava bugs were bursting one after another like a wave that had been passed through them.
This was Perciveus' ability to control minds, which here had caused the minds of the lava bugs to burst on simple command. But this ability only worked on beasts or beings of lower intelligence. Highly intelligent beings could shiel their brains from getting bugged.
Perciveus then sat down on the groud with his palms pressed against the ground and small balls of white light started to leave the bugs and were now entering into his own body.
After a few seconds he got up and started to move towards the group. Around two hundred bugs were still there. From a distance Perciveus had opened his palm and a giant ball of lava was swirling in his hands.
"Move", he shouted and as soon as the others had moved out from their battle, he chucked the lava ball into the group of bugs with great force.
Not a single bug survived and the only question on everyone's mind was the same.
"He never had the ability to produce lava. Then How?".
As if he could read their minds, perciveus smiled at them and said innocently, " I just traced it from them".
...…
Back in the tower the higher ups of the army were surprised from the outcome of the first wave of army.
"Who are these people and specially who is that man and how could he control lava attribute?" A loud angry voice was heard that shook the whole floor of the tower.