Chapter 67

Dave inspected the female. The mermaid-demon was green-tagged, so she wasn’t hostile.

Zola

Level 400

Ancient-Demoness (Epic Tier)

Danger Level: Friendly

HP 400,000

DN 50,000

MA 80,000

Former lover of Drahma the Berserker. A powerful witch, her hunger for power led to being cursed with her current form.

Dave from Drahma to the demoness, then back at Drahma,“Damn, she’s your ex?!”

“Indeed, Zola is my former beloved,” said Drahma. There was a tinge of extra color in his cheeks.

Lone Arrow looked back and forth between the relatively tiny mermaid-demoness and the enormous Drahma, amused at the exaggerated ‘size’ issue.

“I wonder how they...y’know.” she snickered.

“Stop! I don’t want to know,” groaned Dave.

“What’s going on here, Drahma?” he asked.

Instead of answering, the giant moved to the edge of the river and knelt. He reached out over the flowing magma, and the mermaid leapt completely out of the magma onto his arm, coiling her scaled and finned lower part around it. She lounged back against Drahma’s arm with her human-looking upper body, like a diva sunning herself on the deck of an ocean liner.

“Your decision was a selfish one,” Drahma said sadly.

“You went with the Dead-King for your own reasons. You left first,” Zola replied gently.

“I didn’t have a choice. The death of my tribe…my family and my brethren…only the king,” Drahma said.

“What is done is done.

“Why are you here now? With these, a young Undead and a Living mortal?” the mermaid asked, looking at Dave and Lone Arrow.

Dave spoke for Lone and himself, “We are Drahma’s friends, and are here on a mission. Will you let us pass?”

“You smell diffrently...you must be from the outside world…the underworld has opened I presume?” She coiled around Drahma’s thumb lasciviously, teasing the giant but still watching the two players..

“Yes, it is open. And there will be many more outsiders coming,” said Dave.

“Oh, it's been long since I last ate human flesh…who is that? Is that a tribute?” said the lady looking at Lone Arrow like she was food.

Dave stood in front of Lone Arrow saying

“No, she is not food,” he said Looking at Lone Arrow “At least for now. Anyway, a lot of adventurers are coming here, and I can see that you and Drahma are…acquaintances. I wouldn’t doubt your strength, but numbers beat courage. You should probably leave this place.”

Drahma took the Mermaid Zola’s place to answer saying “She can’t.”

“Why so?” asked Lone Arrow who was feeling left alone.

“She can’t leave this pool for long periods of time…” said Drahma putting the mermaid back to the pond.

“Then she can just hide in the pool, there is no need for her to die meaninglessly.

“Oh, what a caring young undead, he reminds me of you Drahma, back then,” said the mermaid.

The atmosphere was becoming more and more pink for Dave’s taste so he coughed saying “We need to go Drahma, we can’t delay any longer.”

The timer on Drahma’s Anti-Bully was only decreasing.

The pressure was getting more and more unbearable. Dave knew that there was a whole group of players behind them, even if they managed somehow to beat them up, many more will soon know of the existence of Mr. Skeletal here and they will come charging in, in hope of killing him and opening the undead expansion.

Drahma stood back up and moved ahead, followed by Dave and Lone Arrow who gave a final look at the mermaid diving deep into the pool.

“Hey Dave, do you know the history between those two?” she asked.

“I don’t know, nor do I have the time to care. We need to move faster,” he replied, moving away faster.

“Tch, not much of a romancer,” mumbled Lone.

The bridge over the pool was barely enough to sustain Drahma’s gigantic figure, thankfully, even as it wheezed from his weight it didn’t collapse. Dave followed behind him and so did Lone Arrow.

Once they reached the end of the bridge, the walls churned and cracked and a grotto of sorts suddenly opened up in front of them.

“Deeper in, there is a demonic creature of great power. I think I can defeat it, but I am not too sure about keeping you safe,” said Drahma.

“Don’t worry, I will try my best to survive,” said Dave, he didn’t have the choice anyway, staying there would only mean that the group of players will reach him. Without the option to leave this place, he is stuck here.

He has only one choice and it is to move forward, risking survival against a powerful foe, or remain where he was, only to certainly die at the hand of the adventurers.

“Brave indeed,” said Drahma walking toward the grotto.

Once everyone was inside, Dave was able to hear the wind howling deep from within the hole.

“There is an exit down there, it might be the other end of this mountain we are in,” said Dave.

“We need to defeat whatever is there first before you can call it an exit,” retorted Lone Arrow, she was keeping tracks of Drahma’s expression and the deeper they went the more serious they became.

“The one here is the master of all those demons we met before. It is a demon-lord and quite powerful too.” Said Drahma walking down the grotto, with every step shaking the cave.

“You don’t seem to be bothered with the dark now?” said Dave as he remembered how the ‘creature of light’ was so bothered with it when they entered the Dark Threading dungeon.

“What do you want me to do? It’s not my fault that some doggy-paranoid undead was too wasteful with our torches…I just have to adapt,” she said while twirling her purple hair locks.

“It is not paranoia! It was tactics! Werewolves hate fire,” he interjected trying to keep his dignity intact.

“Alright Mr, tactician, no need to get all worked up,” snickered Lone Arrow.

Dave stopped abruptly and Lone Arrow bumped into him, she rubbed her nose saying “what was that for?”

“Look ahead,” said Dave.

There was some light coming from the end of the tunnel they walked through. The light of the broken sky.

“That’s the exit?” asked Lone Arrow

“I don’t think so…” replied Dave

Drahma got out first and immediately said

“Be on your toes, this is going to be cumbersome!” he said propping his iron pole over his shoulder.

There was an enormous opening, more than a thousand feet radius. It was shaped like an arena with tall stone walls, the ground was black as charcoal where you can see cracks all over it. those cracks radiated a magmatic light.

On the walls there were thousands of creatures, some were sitting, some were flying. They all looked like the Demonic-Beastling that Dave fought earlier when they entered the mountain and got the diamonds from.

In the middle of the arena was a lonesome figure, he was almost half as tall as Drahma. He had a demonic air to him, with black horns on the side of his head, of at least ten meters in length. He had red eyes and sharp rows of fangs.

His skin was similar to the stone floor, it was obsidian fire crackling now and then from his body.

The most eye-catching thing was the number of arms it had. He had four, with the two extra emerging from his shoulder blades. And hooves for legs

“Welcome to my humble lodging!, It looks like Ramsha sent in some worthy foes!” roared the demon looking creature with a rumbling voice

Ramsha was, of course, the creature that Dave first met when he entered the Underworld. It was the guardian of the place and probably the strongest being, he also gave Dave the quest for killing as many demons as he could.

Drahma got in first, almost immediately, the bat-like creatures charged in from the side.

“Defeat these first, before you get the chance to fight me!” said the demon then he melted into the floor.

“Its always like this, whenever you wish to fight a boss, he sends in the small-fries…” Said Dave cracking his knuckles readying for a fight.

“Well, if not for that it won’t be fun.” Said Lone Arrow who was readying for the fight.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, more enemies is more EXP, and more Loot!” replied Dave coolly.

“That is all you think about, loot? You are not worried about this fair maiden’s safety?” teased Lone Arrow

“Loot are the dreams of men!” cried out Dave as he charged in after Drahma, attacking any creature in sight.

Lone Arrow could only chuckle as she started showering the enemies with her arrows.

By now, the party of adventurers managed to pass the poisonous lake and entered the mountain cave where Dave and his party were located.