Chapter 18 Chapter Fourteen

Thiberdorf Panter ran along a side road that ran parallel to the tunnel that separated him from his companions some twenty feet to the right.At first he just wanted to make a cautious flanking maneuver, but when he heard the sound of the hammer hitting the door, the sound of Katie shooting arrows, the sound of moaning, and even a growl or two, he couldn't help but start to feel that a person was thrown away. Curse your own luck. The torch-raised Warrior scurried around a left turn, hoping to find the others before the fight was over.But he stopped suddenly, and a strange figure stood in front of him, and the creature was obviously as surprised as he was at seeing him.

"Hey," Warcrazy asked him, "are you Bruno's drow pet?" Panter saw the thin elf stretch out a hand, heard a snap of the bowstring, and the crossbow bolt poked into Panter's sturdy armor, slipped into the crack between the steel rings, and scratched a little skin on the dwarf's shoulder. "I knew it wasn't!" Pant shouted happily, he threw the torch aside, and rushed forward roughly.Make the spikes on the helmet point forward.The dark elf seemed very surprised by such a ferocious attack, and hurriedly took out his sword. Pante, who lowered his head, couldn't clearly see the situation ahead, but he fully anticipated the dark elf's defensive measures.As he approached the target, the dwarf swung his spikes, deflected the thrusting blades, and rushed to the drow without stopping, hugging him feverishly.

They hit the wall, and Drow managed to maintain his balance and lift Panter in the air, but he didn't know how to deal with this abnormal hug. The dark elf let go of his sword and swung it desperately, but it was all in vain.Panter rocked back and forth in his arms, the drow's chest sliced ​​bloody by the sharp edge of the ring armor.The elf squirmed frantically, but his irrational struggle only added more scars to himself.Panter struck the drow with one fist, the spikes on the iron gauntlet kept coming and going in and out of the satin-like black skin, and then the dwarf's knees and elbows joined the attack.

"Mouth!" A thunderous roar erupted from Pante's chest, in a violent leap.He felt the warm blood of his enemies spattering his body, making even the most savage of warlords even more ferocious. "Ho!" Drow collapsed to the ground, and Pan Te lay on top of him, continuing to convulse crazily.After a while, his foe stopped squirming, but Panter didn't give up the attack just yet. "You nasty bastard!" he growled, banging his head against the dark elf's head and face. Under the ravages of the battle mad armor spikes, the hapless drow has been completely deformed.

Panter finally let go of the dark elf, jumped up and placed the decomposed corpse in a sitting position against the wall.Zhan Kuang felt a pain in his back, and only then did he know that Drow had hit him with his sword at least once.But what Pante was more concerned about was the numbness coming from his arm, and the arrow poison was spreading.With another roar, Panter lowered his helmet.Dash at the dead foe, driving the spike through his chest. "I hope you're not Bruno's drow pet." Zhan Kuang suddenly realized that he still hadn't gotten the exact answer to this question, "Oh, well, it's irreparable anyway!"

※※※※ Cooper is using magic to detect the trap ahead.He shrank instinctively, and a silver thread passed his shoulder and shot into the bright cave ahead.The dwarf priest forced himself to concentrate on his work, so that he could complete the task as quickly as possible, clearing the way for Bruenor and the others to charge. A crossbow arrow pierced his leg, but the priest didn't care about the pain like a bug bite and the poison of the arrow. He had cast magic on himself to hinder the spread of the poison, even if the dark elf shot ten bullets at Cooper's body. With a few arrows, he will not fall asleep until several hours later.

Cooper finished searching the hallway, found no traps, and called back to his companions, who were already impatiently moving towards him.The pastor turned his head again, and with the help of the light from the cave, he noticed something odd on the floor: some metal debris. "Iron?" He muttered to himself, subconsciously grabbed a handful of pebble bombs from the bag, lowered his body, and stretched his other hand to the back, signaling the others to retreat. He concentrated, and amidst the chaos in the cave, he heard the voice of a female drow, the chant of casting a spell. The dwarf's eyes grew wide with terror, and he turned, shouting a warning, and sent his friends to flee.He himself ran back as fast as he could, his short legs racing across the smooth rocky ground with unprecedented frequency.He heard the voice of the drow spellcaster suddenly rise.The iron filings rose up to form an iron wall, and then fell with a thud, hitting poor Cooper.

Several tons of iron hit the ground, and a suffocating strong wind blew up. Blood and minced meat splashed out from under the iron wall, and sprayed on the faces of the three partners, who were horrified and absent-minded.With hundreds of explosions, countless sparks interweave a wave of fire in the cracks of the iron wall. "Cooper," the iron wall seemed to be pressing on Katie's chest, making it impossible for her to breathe in air. The magic flash in the distant cave was extinguished immediately, and a dark enchantment appeared at the entrance of the cave, blocking the end of the passage.Then came the second and third groups of dark barriers, extending continuously outside the cave, covering the rear edge of the iron wall.

"Charge!" roared Thiberdorf Panter, rushing past his still hesitating friends. A dark enchantment appeared in front of Zhan Kuang, and he couldn't help but stop.The sound of the hand crossbow catapulting was continuous, and the short arrows arrived like a rainstorm. "Back!" Bruenor yelled, and Katie shot another arrow; Panter was already asleep on the ground after being hit by more than a dozen arrows; Wulfgar grabbed the big nail on his helmet and ran away after the red-bearded dwarf. . "Drizzt," Katie groaned, dropping to one knee and firing arrow after arrow, hoping to cover her friend's escape.

The heart-locking bow trembled, blocking an incoming crossbow arrow for her. She couldn't stay any longer. With one last arrow she turned and followed her father and the others, further and further away from the friend she had come to rescue. ※※※※ Drizzt fell more than a dozen feet before hitting a slope, which spiraled down sharply.He gripped the two knives tightly, and what he was most afraid of now was losing the two knives in the process of sliding, or cutting himself. He rolled and switched his feet to the front.But he didn't expect that the end of the slope was suspended in the air, and this second fall almost knocked him unconscious.

Below was another ramp, which ended in front of a passage when Drizzt regained control of his body.The strong inertia threw Drizzt straight out, and finally he was able to hold down the double knives on both sides of his body in time. He hit the ground hard, rolled several times, and hit his back on the tip of a rocky protrusion. Drizzt Do'Urden lay there stiffly. He can't feel pain because his body is numb.He didn't have the energy to think about the scrapes and bruises all over his body, he didn't even think about Entreri anymore, and though he'd been worrying about his friends, a bigger fear now occupied his mind . He broke his oath. When young Drizzt was leaving Menzoberranzan, he killed Masojj Henet.It was a dark elf just like him.After that, he vowed never to kill a drow again.This oath is even when he is hiding from his family in the Underdark and fighting his eldest sister.Nor was it broken.To avenge Zaknafein and kill the evil Briza was once what he most wanted to do; the deep sorrow and ten years of inhuman life in the Underdark also made his sanity on the verge of collapse, Drizzt Always keep your vows. But now, he had undoubtedly killed the guard above, and the perfect "X" bloodstains drawn by his double knives on the drow guard's throat clearly danced before his eyes. It was just his emergency response, Drizzt reminded himself, and he had to do it if he was going to escape Vierna's clutches.He doesn't want to be violent, it's not something he wants to do.He wants to escape Verna's unjust sentence, he wants to help a friend against a powerful enemy, and his actions should not be condemned. Drizzt told himself that he was not to blame.But he was lying on the ground, and as consciousness gradually returned to his body, this incident cast a heavier and heavier shadow on his heart. He broke his oath. ※※※※ Bruenor led the rescue party blindly through winding corridors; Wulfgar behind him carried the snoring Panter (several cuts from the war-crazed bladed armor); Katie walked beside him From time to time, he turned around and shot an arrow or two at the approaching pursuers. The cave quickly became quiet, only the sound of the team itself remained.It's too quiet for the buddies who have become scared.They already knew from Drizzt that stealth was the specialty of dark elves. But where to run?In this completely unfamiliar area, they could hardly be sure where they were.They had to stop first, get their bearings, and then find a real way home. Finally, Bruno walked toward a side road that jutted out three branches.The red-bearded dwarf led the team to turn two corners and walked into a small cave, which was full of traces left by goblins.There was also a large oblate stone, which Wulfgar used to block the opening as soon as they entered the hole, and sat down with his back against it. "Drow!" Katie still couldn't believe the facts before her, "How did they get to Mithril Hall?" "It's not how, but why." Bruno corrected her calmly, "Why did that elf clansman come to my place?" "And what to do." Bruenor's voice became serious, looking at his daughter, his beloved Catti-brie; and at Wulfgar, the proud young man he had helped to become Such an excellent person now.The dwarf's face was as heavy as a rock, "What should we do this time?" Katie didn't answer him. They had faced countless monsters together and overcome countless difficulties.But this time it was the dark elves, the notorious drow, deadly and evil, and Drizzt had clearly fallen into their hands.Their abilities are not insignificant, and their speed of assistance is fast enough, which caught Zall by surprise.But they fought hard, and ended up with just a fleeting glimpse of a friend in need, and Katie wasn't even sure if it was the real Drizzt. Kitty hoped for support from Wulfgar, only to find him looking at her with Bruno's helpless eyes. The young woman turned her face away. She had neither the time nor the mood to blame the overprotective savage.She knew Wulfgar cared more about her than she did herself, and she shouldn't blame him for that.But the warrior Catti-brie also knew that if Wulfgar was always watching her, he would not be able to concentrate on the danger before him. Therefore, she became Wulfgar's burden, not because of her lack of combat skills and survivability, but because of Wulfgar's own weakness, he couldn't see Katie as an equal partner! ※※※※ Utilizing his natural ability to float in the air, the drow soldier who was chasing him jumped out of the slope, his gaze immediately locked on the collapsed body, and the thick cloak covering his whole body undoubtedly showed his identity. The soldier drew out a heavy stick and rushed forward with a joyous cry.Recapturing Drizzt would no doubt do him great good.When the club head was hit, it unexpectedly made a blunt vibration, as if under the cloak was not a weak body, but a hard rock. In deathly silence, Drizzt swooped down over the exit ramp, crashing directly into the enemy's back. Feeling trapped, the evil drow opened his eyes wide in terror. Drizzt's first instinct was to strike with the hilt of his knife, his heart demanding that he keep his vow never to take the life of any drow again.A well-placed blow would disabuse him of his mobility, and Drizzt could then tie him up and remove his weapon. If Drizzt was alone in these tunnels, if he was just trying to escape Werna and Entreri, he would follow his own kindness.But he couldn't forget his friends still up there, who must be fighting the enemies he'd left behind.He couldn't let the soldier wake up and have the chance to do something that would hurt Bruenor, Wulfgar, and Katie. The flashing blade was in front, piercing Drow's spine and heart, protruding from the front chest, and the red undertones were revealed in the blue flames. Drizzt Do'Urden drew his scimitar, his hands stained with more blood. Thinking of his friends in danger, he gritted his teeth, confident that the blood on his hands would be washed away eventually, although this confidence was not that strong.