Madeen and Rage have been scouring the entire forest for the last three hours, Madeen's ravens were not able to see the ripple in the air that gave away the barrier last time, and Rage's detection skill was still at a very low proficiency level to be able to detect past barriers.
According to Jimmy neither the elder nor the made returned back to the town hall since the previous day, Cedric was handling his father's work in his absence to hide the fact that the elder disappeared.
They thought that the mage might place the elder under a Silentcloak spell and send him back to the town but shockingly it seems like he was taken hostage or killed, Jimmy did point out that scenario the previous day but they all wanted to keep an optimistic mindset about the whole situation.
"Madeen, let's go check the mine, maybe we'll find some traces" Rage called out to Madeen who was dashing through the dense forest together with him.
"Do you remember where it was?" Madeen replied.
"Yeah, just follow me"
After a minute the duo arrived back at the now broken down mine, large rocks and debris blocked the entrance, but they knew about the small alcove on top of the hill that leads inside the passage from Sensei and Varon.
Rage concentrated his aura in his feet as he leapt and started dashing up the hill using his aura to give him momentum on the rocky terrain, Madeen on the other hand summoned a small shadow wyvern that he rode up to the alcove.
"You could've offered a ride you bastard!" Rage yelled as he caught up to Madeen in the small alcove.
"I thought you were having fun so I let you be" Madeen chuckled.
They made their way inside to find themselves in a wide chamber full of dwarven soldiers' corpses, "This must be the place Sensei told us they kept the miners in" Rage pointed out as he investigated the cells and the dead dwarf by the entrance.
They made their way down the spiral staircase to find most of the passway in ruins, the roof somehow held up but loose debris were constantly falling leaving them anxious as they cautiously traversed the tunnel.
"So according to Varon and Sensei this tunnel should lead to a place called Ironpeak Fort, ain't no way we can take on a whole fort on our own" Rage said as he leaned his back on the wall.
"Well we can always go back and call for the others" Madeen replied leaning beside Rage.
"We can't leave the town unprotected, our presence is what's preventing the other players from wrecking havoc in that town, if we all leave we'll come back to some ruble and Cedric's lifeless corpse" Rage scoffed, still weighing his options.
"Are we even sure we can make it there soon? this tunnel looks endless and look there" Madeen pointed out to a crushed cart beneath one of the boulders, "It looks like they used horses to go back and forth from that fort, it can't be near" he continued.
"That's right, but what are our options, the elder and the maid are nowhere to be found and we can't locate the elf's hideout in the forest, this has just gotten complicated" Rage kicked a small pebble on the ground in frustration.
"Wait, didn't Jimmy have a new spell called Gate?" Madeen replied, "Do we know if he can create a gate to that Ironpeak Fort?"
"I don't know but i think you're onto something, we haven't found anything useful here anyways so let's go back to Oakbrook and think about something"
As Rage and Madeen climbed out of the mine and went down from the alcove, Madeen sent out his ravens in a last attempt to locate any traces of the elf, suddenly Madeen's eyes widened, "We gotta go back to the town, NOW!" He yelled as he pulled Rage from the shirt and placed him on his wyvern before they took off.
"What's wrong what happened?" Rage was confused as Madeen was pushing his wyvern to its limit ignoring Rage's question.
After a moment, the town came into view as Rage saw hundreds of players stood in the open field in front of the town's gates, leading them was a very familiar figure.
"God fucking damn it I totally forgot about Rivershade, he's probably here to avenge Seraphina" Rage said as Madeen flew the wyvern right above the gatehouse, in the past two weeks while they were improving the garrison, the town gained a load of money from the players who were hunting and selling their loot in the town's market, which turned in a lot of taxes, Cedric used that to fortify the walls and build watchtowers and widen the battlements, building was easy since the town had Phoenix who was carrying around the stone and materials needed like they were bags of feathers.
Rage and Madeen landed on the battlements beside Jimmy and Cedric, Hunter was stood on top one of the watchtowers as Sensei and Phoenix stood right in front of the town's gate which was closed behind them.
"Go back man, there's no need for bloodshed" Sensei called out to Rivershade who was visibly angry.
"You started the bloodshed mate, you killed Seraphina and mocked the eternal vanguard, what do you think you're still level 400 with SS+ Auras still? wake up" Rivershade retorded raising his voice.
"Seraphina tried to take over the town, this is not a game anymore, you can't just capture a territory and exploit its citizens just because you want to" Sensei replied.
"Oh so you're defending the NPCs now? they're just lumps of EXP, quit acting like a hero" Rivershade yelled back at Sensei who was starting to get annoyed.
"Hey Cedric" Rage called out to Cedric from across the walls.
"Yeah?"
"Are you ready to test out the new security?" Rage smirked as he jumped down from the walls followed by Madeen and Varon.
Fangmaw transformed into his battle form as he growled at Rivershade from across the field.
"What? you adopted a puppy? you're still outnumbered" Rivershade called out.
"No he ain't!" Nyx called out from above the battlements, as hundreds of players who were training and hunting in Oakbrook sided with Highthorn and Cedric in defending the town against Rivershade and his guild of maniacs.
"That doesn't matter, he gave me his blessings, he assured me I'll be victorious, there is no way you can beat the power given to me by him" Rivershade yelled as he manifested a a dark red aura around his body dashing towards Rage across the field.
In an instant a full on war broke out, Rivershade's players started rushing towards the gate with Madeen conjuring a bunch of skeletons as he started to deal with a group of players on one side.
Sensei and Phoenix were guarding the gate, while Varon called out tens of sentinels to fight a large group of players who were trying to flank around the walls.
Hunter and Jimmy were stood on top of the walls, Hunter was percise with his arrows covering his friends' backs while Jimmy conjured fireball after the other throwing them across the battlefield.
Rage clashed blades with Riversahde who was unnaturally strong, Rage was close to level 60 and didn't expect Rivershade to be rapidly leveling up as well, after taking a closer look it looked like Rivershade's body was being reinforced by a strange aura that didn't originate from him, Rivershade did mention earlier that someone gave him power, could it be a demon? a god? a powerful mage, Rage had a lot of questions that he couldn't answer but he couldn't do anything but focus on the fight.
Rage concentrated his aura in his legs as he quickly dashed behind Rivershade trying to go for a back stab only to be quickly dodged and instead counterattacked that he was pushed back.
"Look at you, you're pathetic" Rivershade laughed manically as he went in for another slash with Rage barely parrying it only to be pushed back again.
Fangmaw tried to help Rage but was quickly intercepted by a group of players before he reached him, everyone was pretty occupied which left Rage depending on only himself during this fight.
Rage tried to wait for an opening only dodging and rolling back but he couldn't see any.
"Look at you waiting for an opening like a coward, my power is overwhelming, i will no longer be mocked by you and Adrian, both of you always thought you were better than me, you never cared or even considered me a competitor despite being ranked 3rd, but look at you now" He started yelling as he rapidly attacked Rage who was barely blocking his sword at this point.
Rage manifested his aura into his blade going in for a counterattack, he pushed Rivershade's sword away as he went in for a punch, "You're all bark boy" He yelled as he adjusted his dagger for another slash.
Riversahde was thrown off balance by Rage's punch that he didn't see Rage's legs sweeping him off his feet.
Rage tried to go for a stab in the chest but Rivershade narrowly rolled out of the way as he parried Rage's dagger and leapt back gaining some distance.
Rage concentrated his aura into his legs again trying to close the distance as Rivershade weaved in a magic missile that Rage narrowly dodged.
"You forgot I was a magic swordsman? tch tch, i expected more from you" Rivershade smirked as he tried to weave in another spell before he noticed an arrow soaring his way, he redirected his spell to break the arrow distracting himself for a moment before Rage took the opportunity and released his aura from the tip of his dagger piercing Rivershade right through the hip.
Riversgade fell to the ground unable to move before Rage approached him to deliver the final blow.
Before Rage could raise his dagger Rivershade raised his hand, his dark red aura extending from his arms into a group of nearby players, the players stared to scream in agony as their life force was rapidly depleting before they fell as lifeless corpses on the ground.
Rivershade's wound healed and his aura became more intense as he siphoned more power from another group of nearby players, leaving Rage in disgust.
Rage quickly called out for a retreat as the players who poured out of the gate to aid in the fight started retreating back, as Rivershade tried to reach for them before Rage interfered pushing him back and interrupting his skill.
"You're sick!" Rage yelled.
"Thanks for the compliment, ready for round 2?" Rivershade smirked before he went in for another slash.