User blog:DaWalkinWaffle/King of Steel: Part XXVl

12 ~ l

"Sure did." Chaos said. Winter moved forward and put his foot on it hesitantly. He could feel the tension sapping on his strength.

"We need to move across as lightly as possible. I don't know how long I can hold it. What are you doing?" he asked Chaos. Chaos was doing something with his wolves.

"I had to do something while I was....." Chaos trailed off as the wolves turned towards the forest behind them. A bow appeared in his hands and a quiver of arrows on his back. He notched an arrow. Winter drew Revan and crept forward carefully. He stumbled back as the trees began to move.

"Errrrrr....." they groaned. They lurched towards Winter. Their branches whipped out at them. Winter slashed them in half then ducked from a particularly large branch that was spraying leaves.

"What," he said while ducking, "are.....these?!"

"Ents I believe. Fascinating." Chaos said.

"Not....fascinating! Hah!" Winter jumped forward and chopped the first Ent in half. Its companion screamed in fury. Around it, more trees began to move.

"That's debatable. Now move! I'll hold them off." Chaos shot one of then Ents. Winter ran across the bridge. Normally, he would have blasted the Ents to bits with steel energy but he didn't want to collapse from exhaustion right after. He gritted his teeth as each step put more tension on him. His muscles started tensing up. He stumbled across to the other side and tripped. He breathed in and out deeply and waited for his muscles to relax. He rolled over and found that Chaos's three wolves had followed him across. He looked to the other side for Chaos but found an empty clearing. There was no evidence of the former battle. One of the wolves whimpered. Winter dismissed the bridge and cursed.

"Blast it Chaos!"

What did he do now? Eze asked in his mind.

"Got himself lost somewhere." Winter cursed again. He summoned his units and set them on their normal tasks.

The thought that Chaos was dead never occurred to him.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"Without Chaos, we are gonna have to travel more carefully," Winter told his units. "the Secluded Sanctuary will have lots of monsters."

"So what is the plan?" Will asked.

"You, Hadaron, and Rowgen will play rearguard and watch our back. Eze and Darvanshel will take point. The rest of you will stay with me. Got it?" Winter said. His units nodded. "then let's go." Eze and Darvanshel moved ahead of the group while Will, Hadaron, and Rowgen waited a bit before following the main group. Eze and Darvanshel were able to dispatch any enemies that got in their way.

"I think that this is too easy Winter." Kajah said as they neared the exit.

"I agree. But there isn't anything we could do about it. Besides, sometimes luck does come our way." Winter replied. They exited the Sanctuary. The Cave of Malice stood in front of them, a forbidding presence.

"I've got a bad feeling about this." Rowgen said.

"I do to. But we don't have a choice now do we? Same formation." Winter said and they continued on.

-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

"It's too quiet." Rowgen said. They were deep in the caves with little light. Winter had tightened the formation. Winter turned to Kajah as they reached an intersection. As they got deeper in the caves, Kajah at grown more, dark and demon-like. Probably due to his dark element. His red eyes stood out in the darkness.

"Which way do you think?" he asked. Kajah looked down the two paths. He pointed to the right one.

"This way. I can sense more power this way."

"Why would we go to more power? Doesn't that mean more enemies?" Eze asked.

"If there is more power that way, it mean that is the direction Creator Maxwell is." Winter explained. Eze nodded his understanding. They started down the path. A couple times, monsters rose up to challenge them but they quickly left when Kajah showed them his demon-like power.

"Why is it that the monsters here seem to be weaker than others?" Lario asked.

"I would assume because of Maxwell. The area surrounding St. Lamia Palace is controlled directly by Maxwell. The monsters here are afraid of her. If a powerful monster rises up, they will be crushed by her just so she can exert more control." Winter said.

"I guess so." Lario said.

"You shouldn't talk so loudly. Particularly in a dark cave." Will said.

"Don't worry. Kajah can scare them away." Winter said cheerfully.

"So how are we gonna fight Maxwell?" Eze asked.

And for the first time, Winter realized how large his task was.

As they talked, they reached the exit of the cave. Winter blinked at the sudden light.