As the dawn broke, the droplets trickling down the dew-covered leaves were falling to the ground as if lined up. First, those swallowing as much of their kind as they could swallow left the leaf, right after, those taking their place continued to absorb the ones coming from behind.
At this sunrise, there were also some others lined up one after another like train cars. Out of the eleven people trying to climb down the slope of the valley where the rising fog reduced visibility to almost zero, only one looked relaxed.
Sometimes, the path wide enough for two people to comfortably walk side by side was so indistinct in some places that a single wrong step would cause you to fall meters down. Even though Nafız and the Elemental Ten, who had been trying to climb down the slope resembling a cliff for about half an hour, hadn't yet fallen victim to an accident, the fact that it could happen at any moment was enough to tense their nerves.
"Hold on a little longer, the place Hueso described must definitely be here. Once we reach the ground, we will be halfway there!"
Learning that they hadn't covered half the distance didn't seem to please the druids much; especially the chalk-colored face of Alator, who managed to walk with difficulty on his own, was saying he wouldn't be able to complete the journey.
"Ma'am, could we take a little break?"
He would know his condition best, but the person addressing Nafız was the deputy leader. Siomha wasn't shying away from doing her duty; even if it meant crossing swords with the person who put her leader in this situation, she wouldn't hold back.
"Did I tell him to lose himself and push himself this hard? Like everyone else, he will keep walking too; if you want, you can take turns carrying him on your backs, but there's no stopping until we reach the Reward Dungeon, otherwise, you can settle for waiting in front of the door!"
Nafız had no mercy; if Alator didn't take this personally and understood the purpose of the action, he would be the owner of a great gain. Whenever she thought of these moments, she would remember that due to her impulsive actions, she put not only herself but also her subordinates who trusted her in trouble. Being a leader was sometimes stepping forward, but sometimes knowing when to step back even if it meant being stepped on.
It was hard to guess which path Alator would choose, but judging by his stopping Siomha just as she was about to speak again, it was clear he wanted to enter the Reward Dungeon. Sometimes stumbling, sometimes leaning on his subordinates beside him, he continued walking and managed to follow the trail of the blood-colored hair a few paces ahead of them.
When they finally set foot on the dirt, they saw the fog had thickened several times over; the water molecules were so dense that with every step, they felt as if they had to pull a gray sheet off themselves and throw it away. Despite everything, the ground they stepped on was no longer dangerous enough to kill them at any moment, or so they thought.
"Get ready, it's starting!"
Right after Nafız's voice echoed in the area whose borders were invisible, weird moans arose, accompanied by the ear-grating sounds of bones hitting each other, sounds that made the hair of some stand on end the moment they heard them.
"The entrance to the Reward Dungeon is a hundred paces away, but first we have to get past those who failed. Whether you want to try your luck by running, or stay where you are and fight, the choice is yours!"
When her speech finished, Nafız, turning into a crimson light, disappeared from sight; she had left behind ten druids raising their staffs and taking a fighting stance. The fighting method of the Elemental Ten was different from their ancestors, but formally they were tied to the same molds.
By muttering their magic words, causing a magic circle to appear under their feet, they were calling the elements around them to their aid with the help of their staffs. Meanwhile, it was unlikely for them to step outside the magic circle, and the moment they did, their spells would break.
In the current situation, if they ran they would be defenseless; they didn't have the chance to fight while moving like Nafız, and if they stayed where they were, since they didn't know the number of the enemy, it was also a mystery how long they could hold out.
If Alator wasn't in this situation, maybe running could be an option for them too, but judging by them taking him in their middle and forming their magic circles, they had chosen to fight. As the elements they called through their magic circles accumulated around them, the dense fog within a five-pace distance retreated. They could see very clearly the things coming at them; entities having nothing but their bones—no skin, flesh, or blood—were running, clattering their teeth.
First, the druids using the earth element made their move; they must have realized it was impossible to fight against the enemy coming from all four sides, so they made a maneuver that allowed them to focus their attack power on a single point.
Using the Earth Spikes that were of absolutely no use against Nafız, they enclosed themselves inside a half-moon-shaped barricade. Even though the enemy consisted only of bones, besides their body structures shattering at the first blow, they also couldn't escape taking damage when they tried to pass between them.
Seeing that the shattered bone bodies didn't reform, the druids were relieved; if they dismembered the enemy once, there would be nothing to worry about. With the enthusiasm of having seen this, the two druids who were ice element users started raining down walnuts-sized hail on the enemy gathering in a line.
Their three sides were secured by Earth Spikes, the area in front of them by Hail Rain, but the number of the flocking enemy was increasing moment by moment. Even though the bags of bones entering between the spikes shattered, they formed safe areas to step on for those coming from behind, and as the number of those perishing in the very first collision increased, their chance of jumping over the spikes also increased.
Two of the four fire element users turned backwards and shouted at the same time after their muttering finished.
"Fire Snakes!"
Hundreds of snakes shooting out from the wooden heads of the staffs, ignoring their handspan-like sizes, dove among the piles of bones stuck between the spikes. While burning everything they passed to ashes, they disappeared before seeing the end of the thorny path, but no one could say they didn't do their jobs.
Their successors using the path they opened and burning the bone piles accumulated in front of the earth barricade couldn't have achieved this without them. The earth element was also getting its share of being baptized with fire; black and red, getting along well with each other, didn't get in each other's way as long as they stayed in the same place, on the contrary, they strengthened each other.
The spikes eroded by the bone piles were more successful in shattering the enemy at the first blow after hardening with fire. When the fire snakes, strengthening the friend while destroying the enemy, came to an end, the surroundings of the Earth Spikes were even cleaner than when they first appeared.
If they had done the same attack towards the front where the small ice spheres fell, they wouldn't just hinder themselves, but by creating a fog layer that would make it impossible to see the creatures, they would also weaken their defense.
Even if they had effectively lost their leader, Siomha, who was a dark element master, could manage and direct her friends perfectly well. Despite this, the attacks seemed to have no end; neither teamwork nor correct tactics could take them a step beyond the place they were trapped in.
"Hey, aren't you planning to come? Look, there are no enemies here!"
Along with Nafız's voice, her blood-red energy also reached where the druids were, and truly, exactly as she said, there wasn't even a single bag of bones around the weirdly shaped stone she was sitting on. The distance was almost a hundred paces, but even though the fog blocking visibility along the way had dispersed, the enemies were right in their places.
"Listen to me carefully, we will get out of here with one last attack!"
When Alator, who had remained silent until then, spoke, his subordinates turned to him with hopeful eyes; if anyone could get them out of this dead end, it would be their leader again. They had managed to create a ten-second gap for themselves with their last attacks, and their leader, who couldn't hide his weak breaths from the others, only had this much time to explain his plan.