Chapter 9.1

Our squad, thanks to the hisns, quickly moved somewhere deep. Thickets of faintly glowing moss were often found on the walls. But even when it was not there, I could see those around me quite well, and the tunnel was visible for about forty to fifty meters. When we had already moved seriously away from the Extreme Fort, our squad split up - one of the two areks of the Ari left and, supplemented by two senior priestesses who were with Isites, went on a long-range reconnaissance. Two ratsha remained with us - a full five of the Ari of Kriata and a combined five of a pair of Ari of Akrio and a trio of Ari of Rea. They were supplemented by the Ari of Ehayalin, who constantly held in his hands a large, glass-like sphere with glowing greenish dots inside. As Atere explained to me, this was a kind of radar: green dots are members of our squad, if red ones appear, they are strangers, and therefore enemies. The range of such a radar is about three kilometers, but the further it is, the less accurate the information becomes.

The Hisnas quickly carried us into the depths. There were pockets, dark mouths of branches and even deep holes. Suddenly jumping out onto the bank of a small underground river, we rested a little and, having given the Hisnas a piece of dried meat to snack on, set off again.

We stopped for the night under the far wall of a large cave with limestone teeth of stalagmites. That night I did not manage to sleep well - I felt somehow restless, and spent most of the night in warm-up meditation. However, I was not the only one who slept poorly - all the Arir who were not busy on guard duty at night were tossing and turning, and a couple of the Arir Akrio even arranged lesbian games, more like wrestling. But almost no one paid attention to them - apparently, this was the order of things. Realizing that they would not be able to sleep, everyone was busy with different things: someone was meditating, someone was praying, someone was quietly polishing armor and checking amulets, and Isites together with the Arir Ehayalin, staring fixedly and without blinking, into the sphere of the radar. The Changed followed my example, also starting to meditate, warming up their gift.

The anxiety was constantly growing. The tension reached such a level that I could no longer meditate and began to gather myself. Having fed Miss, I fastened myself to his back and froze. The Arir, glancing sideways at me, also quickly gathered themselves and froze, practically not breathing. Nervously, I began to pump my teras with mana. Closing my eyes, I turned my head, trying to determine the direction, and I succeeded. Isites and the Arir tore their gaze away from the sphere and looked at me. I showed the direction with signs, towards the passage where we were supposed to go next. The changed priestesses quickly created the "Cloud of Darkness" - a powerful masking spell that not only hid us from prying eyes, but also absorbed unnecessary sounds. Isites quickly gathered herself and also fastened herself to her hisna. Everyone froze. Five, ten minutes passed... At first I thought that I had only imagined the movement. But here it is – another one and another. And I am already trying to make out in detail the short, lop-eared figure creeping along the tunnel. A goblin. But why alone? Isites makes the sign "waiting". Aaaah. I see. This is their kind of reconnaissance… Well, well… Suicide bomber… Before the goblin figure disappears into the darkness, another group of ten of these creatures appears. What is this? Vanguard or still reconnaissance? I look at Isites – still "waiting". Hm. Another couple of minutes pass, and finally a whole crowd appears, at least two hundred goblins. Dressed in rags. Armed – no better: some short spears with tips made of lousy iron. Rarely does anyone have a poor-quality bow. Behind the crowd walks a pair of goblins, who stand out favorably from simple warriors – a shaman and a chieftain. Behind them, a nearly five-meter tall figure with a club on his shoulder stomps dully – a troll. Isites gives the sign "ready" – I press myself tightly to Miss. "Attack."

With one huge leap, the hisnas take off and fall upon the goblins and the troll. Only at the last moment does the shaman turn his head and look at us with eyes widening in horror. The next moment, he is knocked down by the hisnas of one of the Ari. The slaughter begins - the goblins are so terrified that they hardly think about resisting. Pathetic creatures. Miss sweeps them away with blows of her paws, several at a time. My task is reduced only to pressing closer to his back, but he still throws himself terribly in all directions. Suddenly it all ends. Arek of the reconnaissance, without waiting for an order, rushed after the vanguard of the goblins, catching up with them in less than a minute. Only a couple of distant screams reached us. The reconnaissance immediately returned. None of ours were even wounded. The Ari jump off the hisnas and begin fanatically searching for the wounded and stunned. Having found such creatures, they immediately dragged their prey aside and began terrifying rituals. The Arirs of Akrio and Kriata were especially savage. It must be said that cutting out hearts and removing skin was not the only thing they did, and life in the frail bodies was maintained magically. The terrifying screams of their victims made me shudder.

But the worst thing was that the feeling of tension did not go away. Miss stands next to the slaughterhouse, looking with languid interest at the sacrifices of the Ari. I look at the torn bodies. Something is wrong... My gaze catches on the broken body of the chieftain. Feeling him with my gaze, I notice a strip of skin on his neck. I turn on my magical vision. This is... I scream in the language of death:

- Slave collar!

All the Ariris stop what they are doing and approach the body of the chief. One of them bends down and his voice sounds in the silence that follows:

– Khitan…

Arir Ehayalin rushes to his bag and takes out a radar – it is full of red dots.

- It was a decoy! They surrounded us!

I look at my sister. She just stares at the sphere in disbelief.

- How long until they come to us?

"They're walking slowly... Five minutes at most..." Arir answers.

There are corpses. Some victims are still alive. The Khitans shouldn't have given me all this. I turn to my priestesses:

- Two rituals - Summoning the Eternal Darkness and the Five-Pointed Star of Ascension and Transformation. Quickly! Draw with your terami! - I turn to the Arirs: - Pull all the corpses into the center of the Star, and the living goblins onto the tips! Move! - I approach my sister and sharply clap my hands in front of her face. She shudders and looks at me. - Come to your senses! I need you!

- But there is a whole tatrett khitan there!

- Ha! They shouldn't have given me these five minutes! They should have struck right away! And now it's too late! You and I must summon the Incarnation of Darkness! Pull yourself together already!

My sister nodded and quickly walked behind me.

Jumping off Myss, I summoned my elemental bird. "I need you." And generously poured Fire mana on it. The bird appeared before me, hanging in the air with its wings spread. I poured all my Fire mana into it. The bird... A real phoenix... The elemental grew to three meters in height and croaked questioningly. I pointed to the mouth of the cave from which we came: "As soon as they appear, put everything you can into your exhalation."

I turned away from him and looked at the Arirs of Kriata. Ha! I'm not needed here. Flesh and blood snake-tentacles were already stretching from the pile of corpses towards the five desperately screaming victims. I wonder if even one dead golem will emerge from this abomination?

Turning in the other direction, I headed for the complex seal that the altered priestesses were finishing drawing. The sister had already taken one of the two circles inside, opposite each other. Glancing around, I noted the feverish preparations of the Arir. Each of them was preparing for battle: the Arir of Kriata were finishing the creation of a golem, the Arir of Ehayalin were warming up with a long braid, a group of the Arir of Rea were performing complex steps with dimly glowing crescents in their hands, the Arir of Akrio were completely naked and thickly smearing their lithe bodies with goblin blood, and waves of changes that were by no means painless ran through the muscular bodies of the Arir of Ichitos, stripped to the waist - their faces were sometimes distorted by barely suppressed screams. The latter formation was led by Atere.

The Hisni were unsaddled and without harness. Now they would fight separately from us. One of the senior priestesses was finishing giving them some potion from a bottle. Several empty bottles lay under her feet. Another priestess was preparing her composite whip for combat.

I stepped into the crudely drawn seal and stuck my teras into the three symbols and three signs of the Ancients stamped into the stone. My sister did the same.

- Let's begin, - she said. - Don't forget - a thousand Dark mana in each sign. This is protection! You pump - I call. Agreed?

– Yes!

I slapped the seal with all my might. And my sister spoke in ancient:

– I call upon you, Eternal One! Help us in battle! Blind our enemies! But leave us sighted! Hurt our enemies, but protect our allies!

For a second nothing happened. For a whole second I thought that the Darkness would not answer, but suddenly a tight stream of black gloom hit from the center of the seal, filling the entire cave. Inside this cloud, the world lost its colors and was filled with all shades of gray. It seemed as if a tight wind was blowing around us. The Arirs gesticulated joyfully, looking at us. The seal burned out and disappeared. The sister made a gesture: "It worked." I turned around. The Phoenix croaked discontentedly. The terrible creation of Death, assembled from the corpses of goblins stuck together, took the first step beyond the border of the fading five-pointed star. We are ready.

I had not taken two steps from the seal when the phoenix inhaled deeply and loudly, immediately pouring out a tight roaring stream of flame into the dark mouth of the cave. A moment later, we heard the screams of enemies burning alive. A whole wave of riders on hisnas poured out of another passage. However, it seemed as if they were moving in a thick layer of water. Their movements were so slow. The first to strike at them were the Arirs of Rea, throwing their crescents at them. Their effect on the dense formation of riders was terrible - the crescents cut them along with their armor and hisnas like air. And then the Arirs of Akrio rushed into this dump of chopped bodies, screaming madly. The Arirs of Ichitos flew in after them, laughing, and hell opened up. No matter how much I tried later to restore the complete cause-and-effect relationship in my memories, I did not succeed. The others were just as confused in their memories... Here the infantry running after the hisns raises two lingering monsters, who were only recently the arirs of Ichitos, on their glaives-spears, but a pair of black deadly lightning bolts burst into their ranks - the naked arirs of Akrio tear apart the alien soldiers with their bare hands. Here I get involved in a magical confrontation of the atar - the six of us easily kill eight. My sphere of Darkness pierces the pitiful shield and bursts inside, leaving only empty armor from their atar. On the other side of the tunnel, the phoenix is ​​disembodied, but it only returns to me, inside my gift. The full arek of the high priestesses easily crushes the dead golem into the floor, so that only scraps and splashes fly in all directions. With the same blow they hit one of our arirs of Kriata. I create the "Lash of Terror" and, having pumped it with mana, strike at the enemy priestesses. They put up a shield, but my spell barely notices it and cuts two of them in half. An explosion swells from behind, and I am thrown at the rest. I don't reach them by a hair, but I don't need that - I grab all the remaining priestesses with my teras and, having dumped all my mana into them, begin to strangle them. When they lose consciousness, I pull them into a bunch and rush into hand-to-hand combat - the enemy has no more mages left. There is a terrible cacophony - the screams of wounded Eldar and Hisni, the roar of "Dragon's Breath" - one of the changed priestesses is chasing some nimble shadow, the fighting Hisni are growling in the heat of battle. The sister lifts the alien arira Ichitos onto a spear; he, despite the enormity of his situation, impales himself on the shaft deeper and deeper, trying to at least in this way reach his killer before he dies.

I come to my senses, realizing that I am standing in front of the body of my priestess lying on the floor. She is missing an arm, unconscious, but alive. I slap a Greater Heal on her and scream at the top of my lungs in the language of death:

- Do not finish off the wounded! - Only after this phrase I understand that we have won and, having made sure that everyone heard, I added: - I have plans for them... All energy to provide assistance! If there is nothing to treat, cauterize the wounds with whatever you have! Apply tourniquets! Tie up the prisoners or break their arms and legs! First of all - our arirs! Then the alien priestesses! And only last of all, the ordinary soldiers! Whoever needs help with treatment, immediately shout to me - I have an almost full reserve of Life! Try not to finish off the alien hisn - suddenly they will agree to join us! As soon as you are finished - undress and search the prisoners and wounded! Check their mouths for needles and poison! If you are not sure, it is better to knock out a tooth than to lose a valuable prisoner! Hisn, help find those pretending to be dead! What are you standing there for! Forward, forward, forward! Move!