Chapter 18 Chapter 17 Dwarf Secret

"We must move quietly," Xuelin instructed her fellow dwarves deliberately, which seemed to her an obvious precaution.However, Xuelin soon learned that her definition of "quiet movement" was obviously very different from Ivan's and Pikel's.Ivan stomped in his boots, his footsteps echoing loudly on the stone walls, while Pikel's sandals snapped twice with each step.Once on the floor, another on his feet. They wandered through several long, dark corridors, the only light being the torches hung far apart between the iron candlesticks.Rounding a bend and passing an archway, the three companions discovered that the walls were lined with semicircular disks filled with a clear liquid substance.

Feeling the need for a drink to pick himself up, Ivan paused to scoop some up, but Pikel snapped his hand away, wagging a finger in front of his surprised brother. "Uh oh," the green-bearded dwarf begged, before he jumped up and snatched a torch from the candlestick.Pikel tucked a finger under his arm and continued to shake it, touching the liquid with a torch.The substance hissed and sputtered, and a cloud of noxious ash rose, making Ivan pinch his nose.Pikel stuck his tongue out of his mouth, and uttered the word "evil". "How did he know?" Xuelin asked Ivan as they passed the stinking area.

Evan shrugged. "Probably related to druids or something." "Doo!" Pikel agreed. "Yeah, doo da," Ivan muttered. "Or he only knows that this place belongs to Talona, ​​and Talona is the goddess of poisons." The cunning Pikel revealed nothing.He just followed behind the other two, chuckling from time to time, "Hee hee hee." After rounding a sharp turn in a corridor, the group of friends found a group of enemies waiting for them. Xuelin shot an arrow between the heads of the bouncing dwarves, hitting the leader's orc in the chest and causing it to fall dead.

"Frog!" Ivan called, referring to a game he and his brother used to play.Pikel rushed forward to brace himself, facing the second lead orc, and Ivan jumped up from behind to straddle Pikel's shoulders.Pikel fell forward, hooked Ivan's foot, and propelled his forward-flying brother into a downward arc. The orc froze in amazement, standing there with no real way to resist, and then Ivan's ax split its head, right through the stupid creature's head, splitting it almost entirely in two. The action left both dwarf brothers sprawled on the ground, while several enemies stood unhurt (though none of them seemed particularly concerned after seeing an accomplice split right down the middle. rushed over).At this time, the shooting line between them and Xuelin was clear, so their hesitation was quite unwise.

The elf girl launched a fierce attack with a bow and arrow, almost without aiming, and directly fired at the entire group of enemies. After a few seconds and a few arrows, the remaining enemies were all on the run. "Start now, move quietly." Xuelin gritted her teeth and instructed. "Quiet what!" Ivan burst out the words in disbelief. "Tell all these damn things to go together!" "Ooh!" Pikel yelled.Together the agreeing brothers turned toward Xuelin to find the elven girl backed up against the inner wall in the last corner, eyes behind them, bow raised.

"Your wishes may come true," she explained. "Goblin group, there is an ogre leading the way." Ivan and Pikel rushed to stand beside her in the corner, nodding to each other, as if they had a tacit agreement on how to conduct this battle.Ivan bent down, and this time it was Pikel who jumped onto his shoulders, leaning against the wall, one hand raised high, the hand gripping the edge of the wall conspicuously, clearly exposed to the sight of the approaching enemy troops. Yiwen nodded towards Xuelin, asking her to take a few steps back. The ogre came around the corner, expecting a tall enemy because of Pikel's raised hand.As the monster spun around the corner, Pikel let go and jumped away, its swinging club slamming into the empty stone wall.

Ivan's ax cut deep into its outstretched thigh, severing muscle and tendon. The injured ogre couldn't stop his charge, and continued to turn, with his back facing Xuelin.It continued to back up, and when the arrow sank into its shoulder blade, it twitched violently twice in a row, then stumbled and fell backwards.One arrow shattered under the immense weight, but the other was angled straight to the ground, piercing the beast, piercing through the heart, its point protruding abruptly from the ogre's chest. It was only when the goblin, who was two steps behind the ogre, turned the corner, that the leader was dead.

However, those leading goblins didn't even have time to digest the scene.Crouching in the corner, Pikel swept the wooden club across, hit several shinbones suddenly, and knocked the two monsters to the ground - right at Ivan's feet.The yellow-bearded dwarf slashed ferociously with his battle-axe, quickly finishing them off. The rest of the enemy army showed typical goblin loyalty, turning and fleeing on the spot. "They'll come back from the front," Xuelin said gloomily. "Yeah, and those stupid goblins will hear the fighting and come back the other way, bringing a hundred kin along with them!" Ivan agreed.

"Your wish may come true, Ivan," the elf replied gravely. "The full strength of Trinity Wall may soon crush us." Xuelin moved to the corner and looked back, then ran to the front, peering as far as she could, hoping to find someone A branching tunnel, some way to get them out of this densely hostile area. Pikel had realized how critical their situation was and stopped talking to them.He crawled on his knees along the worked wall above, banging his forehead hard on any promising rock. "What is he doing?" Xuelin demanded, clearly disbelieving at the dwarf's seemingly ridiculous behavior.

As she spoke, Pikel bumped his forehead against one of the stones again.He turned to Ivan, grinned an extra-large smile, and screamed. "There's a way!" Ivan growled, kneeling beside his brother, and together they dug their fingers around the edge of the cut stone. "They always dig some secret tunnels beside the corridor." Yiwen explained to Xuelin who looked suspicious. "Drain the water so that it doesn't flood." Xuelin's keen ears heard footsteps coming from both their front and back. "Hurry up," she urged her dwarf brothers, and ran to the wall to grab a torch.Xuelin went around the corner and went as far as she could, then turned around and ran back, tapping a torch on each semicircle she passed and pulling out all the other torches.The entire corridor behind her was soon filled with a cloud of poisonous ash, making it smoky and dark inside.Through it, Xuelin can see the red dots formed by the goblin's eyes with the heat-sensitive vision of both eyes.

"Stubborn," she muttered, and then she ran around the corner and down the aisle, repeating the process.When she returned to the dwarf, enemies were approaching from both sides.A goblin stuck its head out from behind a corner, then fell back, an arrow lodged in its eye. "Hurry up!" Xuelin whispered harshly, and the evil smoke enveloped her, making her choke. "Hurry up yourself," Ivan growled back.He dragged the elven girl toward the ground, nearly shoving her into the entrance, sending her down a muddy chute.Pikel went in afterward, chuckling, placing his club and Ivan's ax on the ramp behind him. "What is he doing?" Xuelin asked, but Pikel just put a stubby finger to his lips and whispered "Shh!" Yiwen rushed to the opposite side, put his back against the corner and closed his eyes to prevent the red light from his heat-sensing eyesight from revealing his position.Goblins shuffled around behind him. The enemy army is moving from the other side. "More than we can think of!" Ivan bellowed in Goblin, a language with sounds like screams and frogs.Beside the dwarf, the goblins peered forward through the disturbing smoke, then took up their weapons. "Come on! Kill them!" Ivan yelled, and as many goblins yelled, the mob rushed toward the approaching army.In a burst of chaos, the two camps fought hand-to-hand, and each regarded the other as an invader who had come to Sany City. The old god Yiwen walked to the opposite side and stood in front of the secret tunnel.Pikel reached out to him, but Ivan froze, lost in the melee.Finally, Pikel's patience ran out, he stretched out his hands, grabbed Ivan's ankles, and then pulled him down and dragged him into the tunnel. Pikel crawled over his brother lying face down on the ground, found the cover a little way outside the tunnel, and squeezed it back into place.Now it was the green-bearded dwarf who stopped, mesmerized by the frenzied movement, and chuckled as a severed goblin head bounced past.Not letting a chance to reciprocate pass by, Ivan grabbed Pikel by the ankle and dragged him across the dirt. It wasn't long before the three friends found their way out of the crawling tunnel and into another stone-worked passage some distance from the scene of the melee.Ivan and Pikel led the way, their muddy faces grimacing with determination. Xuelin shook her head several times in disbelief over the next few minutes, as the two dwarves wandered through the intricate passageway, knocking down everything in their way, including several stunned goblins .But Xuelin didn't tell them to be quiet.She knew that the escape was only a temporary reprieve, that no matter how stealthily they moved, sooner or later they would be met by an organized defense. The elf then broke into a smile, glad that she was beside the rough and stubborn stone-shouldered brother.She had seen the brothers like this before, at the battle of Simista.Let the enemy come, she decided.Let them face the mighty dwarves' thirst for battle! Ivan did slow down as he and Pikel approached a staircase, and became quieter at last.The staircase ascended out of sight, just beyond the four-way intersection formed by the four broad corridors: a perfect spot to lay an ambush.They heard singing on the stairs, a rumbling, giant voice.The corridors behind them and to the left and right seemed to be empty, so they crouched and headed towards the opposite. The stairs went up, and they all thought that was the direction they had to go, but they could see the boots of a giant not far above the stairs.The gigantic beast continued humming out of tune, apparently unaware of the intruders coming to Walled Trinity. "Run up," was Ivan's only explanation to Xuelin, and then the brothers blinked at each other and started to move, using the giant's rumbling sound to mask the sound of their heavy footsteps on the wooden stairs. Xuelin looked around nervously, thinking something was wrong.Yet she heard the dwarves roaring happily, and heard Ivan's ax and Pikel's club strike the giant's legs.Then the whole ground shook as the monstrous beast rolled down the stairs. Xuelin wanted to shoot an arrow at the rolling giant beast, but heard the three corridors behind her being quickly filled with enemy soldiers.So she changed her mind, turned and shot the arrows toward the growing mass rearward, without pausing to see if she hit. Still quite strong, and quite angry, the giant lay on his back, with his head toward Shaylin, his feet still far above the stairs.It struggled to get up, but its huge size filled the not-so-wide stairs, and in that weird position, with both legs injured, it could only wriggle woefully with difficulty. Xuelin drew her dagger and jumped forward, over the monster's face, but almost tripped over the huge nose.The giant reached out to grab her with both hands, but she avoided it, hitting one hand when it came too close.The giant raised a huge leg and bent its knees to form a physical barrier, but Xuelin cut the sword deep into the thick thigh, and the barrier bounced back.As the elf cleared the giant's entire bulk, she saw Pikel come up the other side, rushing under the raised leg. Xuelin yelled, thinking that Pikel would be crushed, but the dwarf was already stuck between the stairs and the giant's huge ass. A large group of enemies swarmed to the bottom of the stairs, some wanted to climb to the top of the giant, others took out their bows and arrows to aim at Xuelin one after another, and Ivan rushed down to pull her. Pikel's pet snake bit the giant's fleshy back, and the giant bounced off as expected, giving the dwarf the momentum it needed.Standing on his shoulders, the powerful little dwarf pushes the monstrous beast until it hits the ground with a grunt of force, erecting a wall of flesh between friend and foe.The giant groaned several times as the arrows hit it halfway, and then, under the constant force of Pikel's stubby legs, the whole giant rolled over and jammed tightly into the low, narrow stair entrance. Pikel patted the pet snake on the head, tucking it back up his sleeve, and ran to join his friends, taking his own stick from Ivan as he hopped briskly past him. Xuelin stood there and shook her head again. "He's better than you think, right?" Ivan asked, dragging her along. They met no enemy at the top of the stairs, and Ivan and Pikel immediately stood shoulder to shoulder and resumed their battle sprint.Xuelin heard no sound near them except the echo of the dwarf's sandals and boots.Although this fact reassured her somewhat, she also realized that by scurrying blindly through the intricate passages like this, she might not get anywhere. Xuelin finally stopped the two dwarves from rushing wildly, reminding them that they must find their way in this maze of tunnels and try to find Cadderly and Danica. When the dwarves fell silent, they heard a sound, a faint murmur, coming from a corridor to the left.Xuelin was about to whisper that she was going to sneak a peek at the place, but her words were drowned out by Pikel's eager "Ooh!" and the reverberating clamor of resuming the dash.