Chapter 264: Gravenovarish's Weapons [IV]

The two of them slowly nodded their heads in response.

"The rest of you will follow us from a distance, hopefully by the time you arrive up there we'll have taken out all the guards," Lucius said, now looking towards the other members of the group.

As they waited for a sandstorm, Lucius continued to use his earth sense to try and get a better read of the battlefield.

Though he had mentioned the presence of several massively powerful entities somewhere within the volcano structure, there was one entity in particular that he was wary of.

It wasn't so much the intensity of its signal, but rather the sort of 'ambiance' it was giving off. He had come across a similar energy signal only a few days ago and had nearly died trying to slay its owner.

~Seems Eiknyr isn't the only one using that odd magic... perhaps it's more common than I thought,~ Lucius thought to himself, though he doubted it.

Regardless of what sort of society the Forest Council was trying to forge, there was no way that abhorrent magics like the one Eiknyr used were allowed. It sacrificed allies for greater power, and was capable of summoning abominations not of this world - or atleast not of natural origin- with but a few chants and symbols.

~Though I suppose this just means there's something worth taking in there,~ he thought to himself with a false smile. A tinge of fear igniting within him like the first embers of a forest fire.

However this wasn't fear for himself, no, this was fear for his children. Fear that they may fall at the hands of this strange enemy. In the past he would've given up on the mission and told them to go back, but time had taught him that he wouldn't always be there for them.

It's better they learn how to fight insanely powerful enemies beside him now, than for him to shelter them away even as they plot war against the Forest Council.

"Lighted One," Pagan whispered, pulling Lucius out of his daze.

A massive shadow approached in the distance, dwarfed only by the angry brown cloud above it. It was a sandstorm, the biggest they had seen thus far.

"Prepare yourselves. Cynomys, Furtong and Castors, for this mission you'll be known as the Argonauts, Bear-man you'll be known as Ursa," Lucius explained quickly.

"Argonauts, attach yourselves to Ursa. The storm looks tough, it's likely that some of you might be blown away without proper anchorage," he continued before looking to Ghost.

"Ghost, time to go invisible. Begin your ascent and only engage once the sandstorm arrives, no need to take unnecessary risks."

With that Ghost's figure vanished into the darkness of Lucius's shadow, and he could just faintly make out her energy signal moving towards the volcano.

The sandstorm arrived just three minutes after she left, and it descended upon them with the wrath of the wind gods itself. Even with both of Lucius's tails anchoring him to the ground, he struggled to keep himself rooted to the ground.

Thinking of a quick way to provide even more anchorage, he instructed Pagan to get on his back so that their combined weight might keep them both grounded. And though this idea worked to an extent, it required all the strength Lucius had to keep Pagan from flying off his back.

The bear-man chief however seemed to be having better luck. His massive body was enough to shield the Argonauts from the harsh winds, and his weight was sufficient to keep him on the ground without much struggle.

Lucius considered using the bear-man as a windbreak, however it would put the other members at jeopardy in the event they were attacked on the way up the volcano structure. So he gritted his teeth, squinted his eyes and took on the raging tempest head on.

What was already quite a dangerous trip became one of great peril, several times Lucius found himself having to save the Argonauts from certain death after one of them had stepped into unseen crevices, or after stumbling and somehow falling out of the bear-man's windbreak.

It didn't help that he himself was susceptible to missteps, as the sandstorm reduced visibility to just past his hands. The only reason they were not lost -or hopefully not at least- was because he had memorized the path up the mountain.

~I really need to look into acquiring some armor, because this is...~ he thought to himself, as he inspected the many wounds that now plagued his body, courtesy of the rock material being flung around within the sandstorm.

~Should be easy enough with all the different forms of Elmando we have at our disposal. I'll have it done as soon as we get some materials from this mine,~ he decided.

Lucius and Pagan reached the top after 20 minutes, and still it did not seem like the sandstorm would die down any time soon.

Lucius spread out his earth sense as far as possible, trying to pinpoint the location of the guards within this cloak of dust and sand. However he found no energy signals present close by, all of them were coming from somewhere within the structure.

~Did they retreat inside because of the storm?~ he thought to himself, before instinctively swinging his tail to a location right behind him.

He had sensed the sudden but faint appearance of an energy signal, suspicious to say the \least. However right before the hit landed, he stopped it midair.

"Ghost, I warned you about sneaking up on me," he shouted, trying to get his words over the howling of the winds.

"I got them all," she replied, one of her spider legs raised into the air. She had impaled three venari heads with it as if she were trying to make some sort of kebab.

"Toss the bodies over," he replied, gesturing towards the area where they had been hiding earlier.

Whilst Ghost was getting rid of the evidence, Lucius proceeded to what should've been the crater of this would-be volcano.