Fandral Staghelm certainly didn't want to be crushed into mincemeat by a giant beast weighing at least a dozen tons. He had no choice but to interrupt his spell. Before the creature could pounce, he instantly transformed into a burning bear, and with a powerful thrust of his legs, launched himself forward in a bear rush. In that instant, he unleashed the fastest speed of his life, dragging a long trail of flames behind him.
A violent tremor ran through the ground behind Staghelm as the giant Naru landed, nearly knocking him off his feet in his bear form. He could only imagine the horrific scene if he were to be flattened by this monster – he was sure he'd be squashed into a pancake.
But that wasn't the end of it. Before Staghelm could even look back, he felt a gust of foul wind from behind. He didn't have time to react. The giant Naru's thick forelimb slammed hard into Staghelm's bear backside, and the sheer force sent him flying. Staghelm's head crashed violently into the cave wall before he tumbled back to the ground.
Staghelm was already reeling, but the Naru wasn't finished with its combo. The Titan-made hammerhead appeared in its hand, now a trump card in the form of a square metal block. With a shrug of its shoulder, the powerful muscles unleashed unparalleled strength, and the hammerhead transformed into a bolt of silver lightning, hurtling towards Staghelm's head as he struggled to rise.
Even Sorcerer-Emperor Thaurissan, a demigod, couldn't withstand the impact of this hammerhead, and Staghelm was no exception. However, Staghelm had lived for tens of thousands of years and possessed unparalleled combat experience. Just as the metal hammerhead flew towards him, he suddenly shifted from bear form back to his humanoid form, shrinking his body several times over. The hammerhead grazed his scalp and slammed deep into the cave wall, and the flying dirt and gravel nearly buried him alive.
Thankfully, he had managed to dodge that blow.
The giant Naru, having vented its anger, quietly reverted to its smaller Naru form. The massive monster vanished, but Staghelm dared not underestimate this seemingly cute but incredibly dangerous little creature.
To make matters worse, during the time he was attacked by the Naru, Khadgar had already destroyed the spell he was channeling. Broll and the others were surely converging on his location, and he knew that escaping by teleportation was now a pipe dream.
At this point, he had no choice but to force his way out.
Staghelm glared fiercely at the little Naru, whose large eyes revealed a human-like disdain, as if saying he was utterly vulnerable.
Staghelm was furious! But he understood even more clearly that if he didn't leave now, he'd never escape.
He transformed into a panther wreathed in flames, and without looking back, charged towards the exit of the tunnel. As for the little Naru's taunts, he could only swallow his anger.
Staghelm hadn't run far before he ran into another uninvited guest.
Khadgar was blocking the exit, leaning on his staff. Seeing Staghelm run out, he called out, "Staghelm, turn back!"
"There's no turning back for me!" Staghelm spat out human words in his panther form. His eyes blazing with anger, he growled, "Get out of my way, or die!"
"I don't accept your threats. Let's fight first!" Khadgar wouldn't budge. He wasn't the type of mage to swallow his anger. Before his words even faded, he immediately raised his staff and began to cast a spell.
Staghelm lowered his body, charging towards the mage like a red bolt of lightning.
At his speed, Khadgar would only be able to cast one spell before he was upon him, and then the other could only blink away. That way, his path would be clear!
Khadgar could indeed only cast one spell, but it wasn't a powerful single-target spell, nor was it a wide-area group spell. Instead, it was a giant barrier of ice!
A ball of icy blue light shot from his staff, sweeping across the cave walls, and instantly, a wall of solid ice several meters thick appeared abruptly between the two men. It completely blocked the tunnel, preventing Staghelm from advancing an inch.
Khadgar was on the other side of the ice, watching the helpless Staghelm, who had no choice but to stop, with a leisurely expression through the translucent ice wall.
A mage must learn to fight with his mind. He always remembered Medivh's teachings from back then.
Now, he didn't need to fight Staghelm at all. He only needed to stall him until reinforcements arrived, at which point the other would have no choice but to surrender. Given that, why bother laboriously casting other spells?
However, Staghelm wasn't willing to be captured so easily. He transformed back into his humanoid form, reached out, and pressed his hand against the extremely cold ice wall. The essence of flame gathered around him, and a terrifying heat radiated from his hand. The magic-created ice began to melt rapidly, and the evaporating mist enveloped Staghelm entirely, obscuring the situation on that side.
"You can't stop me, mage!"
Staghelm's somber voice passed through the distorted ice barrier and reached Khadgar's ears.
The mage frowned slightly. He hadn't expected that this druid would have such an ability. If it were an ordinary druid, upon encountering this wall, they would either try to destroy it with brute force or wait for the spell's duration to expire and the ice wall to collapse automatically. But a flame druid happened to have a way to counter it.
"Alright, you win." Khadgar shrugged as the ice wall vanished by a third in the blink of an eye. "Goodbye, druid!"
The light of teleportation flared, and before Staghelm could destroy the ice wall, Khadgar had completely disappeared, denying him any chance for revenge.
—
The main force on the other side had already locked onto Staghelm's position. Broll and the others joined up with Shen and headed in the direction of Staghelm's escape.
They chased for a while and saw Naru at a fork in the road.
Naru hopped towards Nidalee, making a series of "ee-yah, ee-yah" sounds, pointing at one side of the fork and then the other.
The others couldn't understand what it was saying at all, but only Nidalee could discern its meaning.
The huntress translated Naru's words. She pointed to the fork in the road and said, "Staghelm went this way, and Garona went the other way. That's what Naru said."
Broll immediately made a decision, saying, "We'll chase Staghelm. That female assassin doesn't have teleportation spells, so she can't escape from here!"
Ekko volunteered, shouting, "I can go after that female assassin!"
"You?" Broll gave the Zaunite youth a suspicious look.
In his mind, this unreliable kid was indeed highly skilled in reconnaissance and foresight, but as for combat, he hadn't really seen it.
"Hey, hey, bear-skin uncle, don't look down on people! I'm the best assassin-buster!" Ekko retorted, raising his chin. "Don't believe me? Ask Akali!"
Akali turned her head away, responding disdainfully, "I won't be a witness for cheaters!"
Shen said, "Then let him go. He has special abilities and won't suffer any losses."
Ekko made a face at Akali and said to the others, "Rest assured and wait for my good news. Maybe I'll get there before you!"
After he finished speaking, he chased after the direction Garona had left.
Shen thought for a moment and said to Lissandra, "Madam, please keep an eye on him. You know Ekko's weaknesses, and I think it will be difficult for him to succeed."
Lissandra didn't answer, but still walked towards the other side.
"Then let's hurry up and chase Staghelm!"
—
Garona, after all, had left later. In addition, she was injured and had to be careful to hide, so she hadn't gone too far.
A few minutes later, the legendary female assassin sensed someone approaching.
She hadn't fought Ekko before, but she didn't know what special abilities this kid had.
At first, Garona thought that the main force of pursuers had arrived. She immediately became nervous and carefully hid in the shadows, preparing to scout. But what entered her sight was a callow human kid! She didn't understand what was going on at all. After confirming that there were no other pursuers behind him, Garona even thought that this was just a passerby who had accidentally strayed in.
Although, generally speaking, there would never be such a thing as a "passerby" in the Ragefire Chasm.
It wasn't until she heard the content of Ekko's mutterings as he walked that she truly became angry.
Ekko chased for a while, fortunately not encountering any forks in the road, but he also didn't catch up with the other party. This made him somewhat suspect that the half-orc female assassin had hidden herself.
"That lousy female assassin, run, why aren't you running?"
"Half-orc, I see you, come out and fight me!"
"Let me teach you what a real top assassin is!"
"Come out, don't force me to act, or you won't have a chance to fight back!"
He kept saying trash talk along the way, wanting to anger the other party. Because Ekko felt that if he were the escaping assassin, he definitely couldn't stand such provocation, and he would have to turn around and fight the other party no matter what.
However, not finding the female assassin for several minutes made Ekko somewhat suspect whether his "taunt" level wasn't high enough, so that the other party wasn't stimulated at all.
The actual situation was similar to what he guessed. Having suffered losses several times today, Garona no longer dared to be the slightest bit careless. She didn't know if this human kid had any special support behind him, just like how Shen suddenly possessed Akali from a very far away and joined the battlefield.
If a few more such ninjas suddenly teleported over when she made a move, then she really wouldn't be able to escape.
When Ekko said that at first, she really thought that the other party had already discovered her whereabouts—just like when she failed to assassinate Akali before. That human female assassin seemed to have known that she was hiding at the top of the cave, so Garona's sneak attack was countered, and she ended up getting injured.
She was afraid that the other party really had some special tracking method, but just when she was almost exposed, her assassin's instinct still made her suppress her impulse and lurk for a few more seconds. It was these few seconds that allowed her to realize that the other party was bluffing her…
If she really fell for it, then she would really be "an eighty-year-old mother tripping over her own feet," and her lifelong reputation would really be ruined.
So she prepared to let this foul-mouthed human kid go, ignoring him.
"Strange, really gone?" Ekko frowned. He was silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth and said, "It seems I have to use my ultimate move!"