Chapter 20: Sinking
Translated by: CHua
Edited by: TN and Elkassar
That one-eyed human leading the pack had suffered a severe stab by an orc, coughing violently every few steps. A trickle of blood leaked from the corner of his lips. He was terribly frail as his buddy supported him to trudge forward.
After several hundreds of metres, that elf had no plans to travel together. As if he had preserved his strength the most, he kicked off against the snow and sped down the mountain route. The dwarf caressed his thick beard, his eyes flashing with an astute brilliance, as he kept up behind Sheyan’s 3 man team.
Bloodied flayed skin, merciless casting off the mountaintop, strange fiery basin, soaring devilish raptor……such factors interweaved in Sheyan’s vision. After escaping from that calamitous stage altar, his thoughts had never ceased.
Slowly, bit by bit, inch by inch, Sheyan seemed to be grasping onto something. Things were linking up, just that crucial element.
The path down was challenging. Their surroundings piled with deathly white snow, slippery glaciers, and the bottomless icy abyss, there was no way out but down. Reef and Sheyan were unfamiliar with this route, completely unable to increase their pace.
Even Melody seemed to show no clues of awakening, occasional whimpers could be heard. The effects of the ‘Mucus of the Ocean-freak of Moria’ was still persisting, restoring the vitality lost during her forceful casting of the divine art ‘Living Flames’. The longer they dragged on, the more health they regenerated.
Gradually descending, after roughly an hour, they had only reached around halfway down the treacherous icy mountain path. Just as they halted for a short break, they suddenly met face to face with a pack of uruk-hais on this narrow route!
There were at least a dozen uruk-hais, led by an exceptionally tall and mighty uruk-hai. Its features sinister, a crisscross scar latch carved into its chest. Starkly naked under this harsh environment, the uruk-hai bared its ugly teeth, its strength seemingly comparable to Lurtz!
This uruk-hai leader was wielding an incomparably tough monstrous mace in its left hand, a blood dripping head in its right. That head shockingly belonged to that elf that sprinted ahead of them!
More horrifying was that some distance below, they could vividly see the headless corpse of that elf still twitching wildly. Beneath it was a tough layer of ice, yet shattered cracks muddied with blood formed beneath the corpse! The corpse was still fighting with terrifying vitality, surely it came from the incredible ‘Mucus of the Ocean-freak of Moria’.
Although Sheyan and company had been travelling for long, they were still trapped in this never ending ice descending valley. Beside them was the impregnable wall of ice. To be able to pinch of the head of a relatively strong elf without a sound, these uruk-hais were definitely elite; their strength was unimaginable.
Sheyan and Reef glanced at each other. Face to face with this bunch within a narrow path, it could be said that they had zero chance of victory!
But at this critical juncture, on the ice peak of the next mountain, a black illusion formed. This illusion appeared abruptly, but differentiating it closely, Sheyan could determine its familiarity. Because its shape was shockingly similar to that of the demonic wizard tower!
Abruptly, the pinnacle of that wizard tower illusion erupted with a dazzling flash! This flash was a thousand time more intense than the sun, flashing straight into the heavens. Closely examining, the flash was shot towards a destination in the sky, that was close to that metropolis of the orcs!
The flash beam was so abrupt, the sky separated into a hollow. But in the next second, faint black mist exuded, followed by an infuriating howl! The howl wasn’t new, it was indeed that same piercing howl of that enormous offspring of Thorondor!
This devilish raptor was good at illusory arts! Naturally, the main presider over the emulsion of that ray was no doubt, Saruman’s doppelganger.
(TN: the reason why the bird is said to be good at illusory arts, is because that beam seemed to have struck nothing, but it was actually the bird in disguise in the sky)
When a wizard exhibits its might from its own wizard tower, the terrifying might could be amplified several times. Naturally, he was able to summon enough energy to break through the perfect illusory disguise of that devilish raptor.
The clutter of black mist the bird, was the evaporating ripples formed when the flashing beam struck against the devilish raptor.
In this instance, the keen Sheyan realized a crucial point – the flying posture of this gigantic devilish raptor was rather odd. Carefully observing, he realized its claws were gripped onto something. That thing revealed an astonishing clue of crimson red, yet it was hard to determine due to the far distance and the billowing snowflakes.
At this moment, a shockingly loud shout boomed from behind. It came from that dwarf at the tail of the ground. His body trembled vigorously, as it gazed into the skies in a daze.
For dwarves who constantly tunneled through mines underground, their vision was normally outstanding. If someone was able to see clearly what the gigantic bird was holding, that would be him.
“That…..that……” The dwarf slumped to the ground lifelessly, panting in huge breaths. His gaze leaked a strange fear, as though he had forgotten his current predicament.
Sheyan was about to approach the dwarf to inquire what he had seen, but after a few steps, he suddenly retracted his attention to that illusion of the Wizard tower. Even in this visionless raging snowstorm, Sheyan’s perceptive sensing displayed its immense potential. He could grasp the overall network and tempo of the battle scene.
If I was the aggressor! Then there will definitely be a second strike!
An intense flow flickered and shot forth!
After releasing that beam, the illusion of the wizard tower turned dimmer. This time, the devilish raptor ‘Offspring of Thorondor’ started flapping its wings ferociously, churning up a massive blizzard.
Its defense was indeed terrifying; after being struck by that dreadful beam, it seemed to have lost only several feathers and did not show any obvious wounds. Yet this time, this offspring of Thorondor was naturally prepared. The blizzard hailed violently, surging against and colliding with the incoming light beam.
Above the icy peak, an oppressive explosion boomed out; snow and dust dispersed in a thousand fragments in the air, enshrouding the sky like a fog. Yet a regiment of dim glow remained, like the unyielding truth in history.
Sheyan’s heart shuddered. This familiar sensation was indeed due to the awe-inspiring might of Saruman’s doppelganger. “Unless the reason why these orcs went through such trouble, was to hunt down that offspring of Thorondor in the Misty Mountains?”
Faraway atop the icy peak, the illusion of that wizard tower was repeatedly flickering, obviously about to dissipate; its energy consumption was nearing its limit. Similarly, that gigantic ‘Offspring of Thorondor’ was no better. It croaked sorrowfully, loosening its claws. The item within its grip fell, dropping somewhere near the orc encampment.
The gigantic bird could no longer maintain its balance, wrestling to flutter its wings as it heavily crashed into a snowy mountain peak!
The monstrous strength of this devilish raptor was domineering. Even an ancient, unyielding mountain ice peak trembled violently.
The snowy peak that the gigantic devilish raptor collided into, was coincidentally a few miles above their current mountain path. The accumulated heaps of ice and snow trembled violently, rumbling as it suddenly poured down in torrents! Against this tremendously titanic avalanche, a human was like a tiny grain of sand, despairing to the extreme limits of weakness!
At present, no matter Sheyan nor Reef, they had not experience such an insanely terrorizing avalanche. Facing death pouring down on them, Sheyan’s mind flickered as he immediately focused his attention onto the group of uruk-hais ahead. This was their habitat, naturally they would understand how to deal with an avalanche.
Instantly, he saw the group of uruk-hais pressing closely against the mountain wall in succession, trying their utmost to position their heads beneath any protruding ice edge above. Likewise, he imitated them.
In a short few breaths, the thousands upon thousands of pounds of accumulated snow showered down like a waterfall.
Sheyan’s vision was enveloped by darkness, the screaming snowfall echoing thunderously behind him. Yet the solid ice edge above him was like a cornerstone, blocking the fatal rains of snow and ice; providing him a tiny surviving space.
But just as he was celebrating internally, the ground beneath him gave way! It was as though the world was crumbling chaotically around him! Thoroughly sinking in and crushing him in!
This snowy peaks if the vicinity were hailed by the orcs as ‘De los de la tieera’, its meaning was ‘Origin land of the gods’. They have been towering for millenniums and centuries, and would continue its majestic disposition for centuries to come.
After an endless baptism of time, the snow accumulated over these snowy peaks had coagulated like steel. It was hard to deal even a fraction of damage to it, even sparks would fly when a chisel struck against it. Even flames could not dissolve it. Thus, Saruman’s doppelganger had devised a method to construct a spiralling mountainous path to ascend the snowy peaks. His method wasn’t the traditional ones of ‘destruction’ cutting and breaking his way up, it was a unique and creative method of ‘creating’!