The following morning, the group woke up extremely early once again. Right now, none of them were as extremely tired as on the other mornings. After what they had discovered yesterday, they had decided to sleep almost immediately; all of them were thinking about the black crystal and all the mysteries currently going on.
Their cave was very close to the ruins of an old city. Yesterday night, they couldn't sleep there because the place was full of Krukins. "Hey guys… it's weird," said Liro. The group was passing stealthily next to the city, trying not to be seen, because they were scared of how many Krukins there had been yesterday.
Liro didn't whisper, in fact, he spoke with a normal tone such that even the Krukins in the city would be able to hear him. "What is it?" whispered Darian. As Liro pointed to the city, Darian looked through the brush just to see the city empty; all the Krukins that were there yesterday had completely disappeared.
"Hey, that's weird…" murmured Darian as he slowly got to his feet; with him, the others did the same.
"The Krukins from yesterday completely disappeared…" said Vane as he started to walk directly into the city, followed by Lily first, and then Darian and Liro.
"Maybe they have gone away?" proposed Lily. The group remained close to one another while walking through the ruins of the destroyed city. The few buildings that remained had literal holes in them, and you could see that in a few more years they would completely fall.
"Maybe they discovered that there wasn't anything important in this city, so they went away?" suggested Vane with a confused voice; everyone was just as confused as him.
"I guess you're right…" whispered Liro. As he realized that all the Krukins had gone away, he felt safer and walked around in a more relaxed way.
"But this isn't right…" said Darian as he stopped suddenly. The others, seeing that Darian stood still, did the same.
"What is it?" asked Lily as she got next to Darian. "It's safe, they've definitely gone—" Lily couldn't even finish her sentence before Darian silenced her. "Shh… wait." Everyone, realizing that Darian didn't feel safe like them, decided to put themselves in a defensive pose too.
'I'm sure that in all the ruins I've seen, there were always Krukins… it didn't matter how small the city was…' thought Darian as he glanced around, trying to see inside the buildings to see if he could spot something, but it was too dark inside of them for him to see anything.
"Guys… do you remember that when we went around, we always found Krukins almost everywhere?" Darian asked while turning his head to Liro and Vane, who nodded together. "Well, yeah…" said Liro as he realized that this felt weird too.
"But like…" Vane realized that there weren't any spots where there weren't any Krukins; it began to feel strange even to him.
Lily had never been on the mainland, so now she was starting to get worried too. The group glanced around until, at the end of the street, they spotted something. It was a Bladekruk. "It's a Krukin!" shouted Darian, who was the first one to spot him.
The moment the Krukin realized that everyone was looking at him, he emitted a loud sound from his mouth that easily reached the others, who had to cover their ears. "Dammit, it's so loud!" Hearing this sound, even Snowy, who was still sleeping on Darian's shoulder, woke up.
Snowy immediately jumped into Darian's arms and fused together with him. But while Darian's body began to change, multiple Krukins jumped from the tops of the buildings and threw themselves toward the humans.
The Krukins were all coming from different directions, and there were tons of them; there were Krukspies and Krukwyves mostly. "Everyone get ready!" Darian could only shout as the fight started brutally.
Lily was able to raise a wall of poisoned roots from the ground that was able to block only one side, while there were multiple other Krukins coming in their direction too. The Krukins blocked by Lily's wall stopped almost immediately, as they were mostly Krukwyves. The Krukwyves there spotted some small holes in the wall and started to move their wings extremely fast so that the wind would reach the people behind it.
The moment some Krukspies threw themselves from the top of the building nearby, Vane immediately turned into an eagle and started to flap his wings as hard as he could so that the Krukins would feel the pressure of the wind created by Vane's wings and stop mid-air. Slowly, Vane was able to win against their weight and push them away.
Some other Krukins were able to free themselves from Vane's strong wind and started to fall. Liro had already created another illusion of the same eagle not far from Vane, who was moving his wings; some Krukins fell on top of that, thinking it was the real one. Lily took care of these other Krukins by creating some roots from the ground that started to smash their bodies.
Darian, who had just fused with Snowy, immediately began to shoot at the enemies coming from the last side. They were Krukspies who were sliding on the ground extremely fast, thanks to the wind generated by the Krukwyves behind them with their wings.
'I might not be able to hit all of them…' thought Darian as he started to shoot some powerful shards toward them. "Ice Shard!" shouted Darian as he threw the shards at the Krukspies' bodies. Some of the shards were able to pierce the Krukspies' bodies and kill them, while some others were going too fast and Darian's shards weren't enough to take them down.
The Krukins were getting closer, Vane was becoming tired of moving his wings, and soon the Krukins would all free themselves. The illusions created by Liro were slowly becoming useless as the Krukins understood his magic's trick. "Lily, make us move!" shouted Darian as the Krukspies were about to jump at his face at extreme speed. There were around four of them and it was impossible for Darian to create another spell; the Krukins would be faster.
Lily, without hesitation, immediately raised some roots under everyone. "Vine Walk!" Everyone was transported away by these roots. Liro and Darian were on one side, and Lily and Vane were on the other.
"Vane, resist! I'll reach them from behind!" shouted Lily; she was the only one still on the moving roots. Vane turned from an eagle into a buffalo and nodded. "I'll reach the others." Vane hardened his body while he began to run toward Darian and Liro.
The root wall created before by Lily was just destroyed because of the Krukwyves on the other side. 'I need to take care of the Krukwyves first…' The moment Darian noticed that the Krukwyves had stopped moving their wings, he immediately shot multiple shards toward them. Some Krukwyves were able to dodge his attack by flying higher, but others, not expecting that, could only find their bodies pierced by Darian's shards.
Vane smashed some Krukspies with his body and arrived in front of Darian and Liro. "C'mon, get on me," suggested Vane. Darian and Liro nodded their heads and sat on top of Vane, who began to move all around the Krukins.
Darian, with his shards, was able to kill some Krukspies nearby, and Liro, to distract the Krukins, created an illusion of Lily. "Vane, have you understood what Lily is trying to do?" whispered Liro into Vane's ear. Vane shook his head. "She said she was going to reach them from behind…" answered Vane, a bit unsure if everything would go alright.
"I'm sure she has a plan!" shouted Darian as he shot another powerful shard toward a Krukwyve. The remaining Krukwyves on top of Darian and the others immediately started to dive down toward them. "Move, Vane!" shouted Liro, scared, as the Krukwyves were about to reach them. "I know!" answered Vane as he ran away. Darian tried to shoot some shards at the Krukwyves, but they were going too fast; the enemies easily dodged all of Darian's attacks.
Some Krukspies were distracted by Liro's illusion, but some others jumped and launched themselves at Liro and Darian, trying to hit them. "Look out!" shouted Darian as he lowered both his head and Liro's head; thanks to his action, they were able to dodge the attacks.
"They are here!!" shouted Vane. The Krukwyves had just reached them and were about to swing their claws toward Liro and Darian, who could not do anything as they didn't have the time to react.
"Poisoned Crown!" Everyone suddenly heard a voice, it was Lily, who had planted small roots all around the battlefield while the others were distracted. The roots emerged from the ground and immediately rushed toward the Krukwyves. The poisoned roots grabbed the enemies' legs and didn't let them go.
All the Krukins shouted in pain as their strength was slowly being drained by the poison of the roots. Some of the Krukwyves tried to move their heads down, trying to hit the roots under them.
"I will not let you do that!" shouted Darian as he created multiple ice shards toward the Krukwyves. He was not able to pierce their bodies, but he was able to create a big enough scratch that made them lose even more strength.
"ARHHHH!" shouted Vane as he still moved while in buffalo form, smashing all the remaining Krukins under his feet. Soon enough, the lifeless Krukwyves' bodies fell to the ground.
"It was an ambush…" whispered Liro as the others remained still in the same spot where they had received the attack.
Vane slowly turned normal. "Yeah… I guess they must have seen us yesterday reaching the cave," he suggested.
"So they prepared an attack for us, knowing that we would pass through this city…" murmured Darian. "They're becoming stronger, they've never done anything like this," he added.
"But there were many other enemies, right? I remember seeing even some Krukmongbees yesterday…" whispered Liro. Hearing that, the others felt more scared. "If they haven't gone away like the others… where are they…" said Lily while glancing around.
While the others were glancing around with Lily, they suddenly heard a knocking. It was someone who was knocking on the ground not far from them. The moment the group turned again toward the sound, they spotted the Bladekruk from before.
"Hey, what's he doing…" whispered Liro, confused, as they had never seen a Krukin acting in that way.
"I guess I'll ki—" Vane couldn't even finish the sentence before suddenly the ground under them smashed open, revealing a cave under the city. "DAMMIT!" shouted Darian the moment he looked down. Under them were two powerful Krukmongbees who were only waiting for them with their stingers up. One of the Krukmongbees smashed the ground under them and made them fall right on top of their bodies.