The troublesome event Greem hoped to avoid had somehow meandered its way into his path.
Despite doing things differently and even taking a different route to the surface, he had somehow ended up in the same place the original Greem did after leaving the resource mission site.
At this point, he wondered if the planar consciousness was directing things or fate was reasserting itself so that he stumbled into this ambush.
He was inclined to believe it was the latter.
Fate was a real and tangible force in this reality, and it could be a real bitch. It also made those that manipulated it some of the worst and most aggravating people you could come across.
Whatever the truth of the situation was, he and Mary were about to be ambushed… by three of the most powerful and versatile Pseudo Adepts in the Underground world.
Sighing, Greem kept his senses connected to those of the golem core and commanded it to exit the rapidly hardening soil around them. He then prompted Mary to get ready, connecting their Spirits together so they could engage in spiritual whisper.
Inside a wet, pitch black tunnel that wove and meandered like the bowels of a giant monster, the oppressive and pervading silence was interrupted.
A portion of its walls began to bubble like liquid before a stream of dirt and two people, one big and one small, were spat out.
Catching themselves on the ground easily, Greem and Mary got on their feet none the worse for wear and brushed the dirt out of their clothes and hair, silently communicating with each other.
"Anything?" Mary asked while patting herself down.
Greem shook his head, his co-opted earth earth elementium senses showing him no sign of the ambushers. "Nothing. You try."
Nodding, the vampire randomly chose one end of the tunnel, puffed up her chest and released a loud and piercing screech.
The strange sound wave travelled and rippled through the tunnel, bringing back information of the situation ahead, the vampire closing her eyes and focusing her expression to comprehend the wealth of it.
"The tunnel is about three hundred, three ten meters long, curving upward at the end. There's a cavern there, and…,"Mary paused for a moment, "There are two men. They just moved. They're coming this way. Fast."
Opening her eyes at the last part, she looked at Greem with an alarmed and questioning expression, the 'What's the plan?' going unsaid.
Greem floated the currently useless alligator core to his hand and stored it, moving his gaze to the opposite tunnel end.
"We run. This entire region is covered in an effect that hardens earth elementium and makes it difficult to control. Those two went through all this trouble to set this trap for us.
That means they are aware of our abilities and have been chasing us for a while. Running here at high speed also means they are confident they can deal with us. So yeah, we run."
Mary scowled at the 'confident they can deal with us part', but nodded all the same.
Grabbing the smooth and dainty hand of his girlfriend, Greem looked down at her and said, "Let's go," before breaking into a mad sprint.
The vampire mimicked his actions and moved, both of them vanishing into the darkness and reaching their top speeds in seconds.
Mary was a tad slower, but that was only due to Greem's high tier Agility type magical equipment and her lower, Advanced level Agility. His tight but gentle grip on her hand allowed her to keep pace with him, her black and red tinged blur matching his dark indigo one.
They overcame every obstacle in their way—the random patches of wetness on the tunnel floor, the rough and uneven ground, stones of varying sizes in haphazard positions, and worst of all, the stalagmites hanging from the ceiling.
These pointy rock formations that extended so low even someone of average height would have to duck to avoid getting a faceful were so numerous and bunched up that to the fleeing duo, they were popping in and out of their vision.
Of course, this view was mostly Mary's.
For Greem whose large stature made it damn near impossible for him to fit through the tiny gaps in some of the formations, he simply bulldozed his way through them, his speed not hampered in the slightest.
A normal person would be hard pressed to walk in this tunnel much less run, but the duo traversed it with no problem, dancing on the treacherous terrain until they arrived near the tunnel's end.
Upon arrival however, they both ground to a halt, sending a bunch of dirt and rocks flying. There was a sharp decrease in the tunnel's circumference, the last ten meter stretch shrunk down to only allow one person passage at a time.
As though it had sensed their presence, the tunnel lit up with several arcs of blue electricity, the lines crisscrossing to form a web that transformed the short, ten meter stretch into a death zone.
Popping and cracking sounds filled the background as Greem and Mary shared a look. "We are going through. We have no choice. How many blood crystals do you have?"
"Why?"
"Put as many as you can in your mouth. When you sense your blood energy running low, use them."
Mary did as she was told and ended up with puffed cheeks, her expression and Greem's nothing but serious.
"Remember, the person who set this up is on the other side. We'll attack him right after we cross—"
A short distance away from them, a cloud of dust suffused with dense elementium and Spirit rose from the ground.
Knowing what this meant, Greem picked Mary up and pressed her smaller form into himself, the latter throwing her arms around his neck and legs around his waist as he dove into the trap.
Bright lights and eardrum popping noise immediately flooded the senses of the duo, multiple sparks and streams of high intensity electricity hitting them from all directions.
Greem's defensive force field had been restored to its full Pseudo Adept capacity, vastly reducing the amount of lightning and heat that surged into his body.
The recent upgrade to his defenses further reduced this damage, turning what would have reduced his flesh to coke and ash, into a mild, body-wide electric shock—with the heat of a particularly hot day slapped on top.
On Mary's end, she'd been paralyzed by the electricity that managed to slip through her blood shield, her muscles locked up and unresponsive. Her blood energy dwindled and refilled repeatedly, the riotous lighting eating away at her shield as fast she could replenish it.
She focused all the energy from the digested crystals on this, ignoring the burns she'd accrued and her abnormally elevated body temperature. Healing herself now would only be a waste of energy.
It took more than a few seconds, but Greem pushed through the electric shock messing up his bodily control and finally reached the end of the trap, throwing himself out of it onto the ground on the other side.
He and Mary slammed down and remained unmoving, steam rising from their huddled forms.
The one responsible for their current state watched all this unfold with a bewildered expression, the midget unable to believe what just happened.
Not one, but two people had had the courage to step into his lightning death trap. Whether he chose to believe it or not, the result lay a few feet away.
"You guys are pretty tough. But this is good. Langdon will owe me two huge favors for bringing you in alive…hehehehe…"
Striding towards the downed prey, the midget raised his hand and pulled in the surrounding lightning elementium, covering his hand in a bright blue glove of the tamed particles.
With Greem's size and Mary laying on top of him, the short Pseudo Adept didn't need to bend down to apply the Paralyzing Lightning spell. He just had to stretch his hand forward and he'd incapacitate them for 15 further minutes.
Before he could do that though, he heard a "clink" as a fist sized elementium core fell and rolled on the ground. His hand paused midair as he processed the sight for a brief moment, deciding to pick it up in the end.
The abundant earth elementium in the surroundings beat him to it and surged, rising from the ground and concealing the core with waves of itself.
As this happened, the midget disappeared from his position with a flash of lightning, a rapier sheathed in a blood red glow slicing through where he just stood.
He reappeared 20 meters away, a frown on his face as he looked down at his chest at the thin, horizontal cut on his robe. Another bolt of lightning flashed and he disappeared, an arrow detonating in the place he just vacated.
Again at a safer location, he fired a bolt of electricity and destroyed another explosive arrow midair, his expression a mix of shock and playfulness.
"You two… are full of surprises. First you brave my death trap and survive somehow, then you attack me when I'm not looking. Mere Advanced apprentices… you guys are really brave."
He ended his sentence and pointed his palm in their direction, shooting a thick beam of bright blue lightning. Of course, Greem being the only one on his side capable of perceiving the midget's actions, grabbed Mary and juked to the side.
This proved to be unnecessary.
Right as the midget attacked, the ground between him and the duo rumbled and split open, a giant rock monster squeezing itself out and tanking the attack with its large and sturdy body.
Greem's new golem, the Rock Snake, had finished assembling. It consisted entirely of rock; its head, fangs and even flicking tongue, all of it chunks of hard rock held together with the glue that was earth elementium.
As soon as the lightning attack hit it, the golem turned in the midget's direction, its ghostly yellow eyes settling on the apprentice before it dived and hit… nothing, its head smashing into the empty spot on the ground and sending rocks flying.
Like he'd done two times before, the lightning midget relocated to a safer place to get a lay of the land.
Unlike before however, immediately he became corporeal at the "safe" location, a gauntleted fist appeared in front of him with a strong gust of wind.
He stared helplessly as it crashed into and caved in his tiny chest, his small form launched backward as darkness embraced him.
Already in position to catch the no longer slippery enemy, Mary stabbed her blades forward and caught the body with them, skewering the dead apprentice on it.
She lowered him afterwards, confirmed he had no life signs, and began to weave hand signs to extract his blood, licking her lips as she imagined the feast she'd have when they returned to the surface.
Her daydream and spellcasting was interrupted by a loud and arrogant voice yelling from the opposite end of the still active lighting trap.
"Hegel! What are you doing? Deactivate the trap so we can come through."
In a manner she didn't even notice nor question anymore, Mary's gaze flitted to her boyfriend and he met her inquiry instantly, his next words calming her down and further strengthening her faith in him.
"Don't worry about the blood. We'll take the body with us. Let's go."
Beckoning to her, Greem threw down the alligator golem core and commanded the Rock Snake to squeeze itself into the lightning tunnel.
When he and Mary climbed on the golem and sunk into it, the rock snake constricted itself and completed Greem's order, blocking the passageway with a portion of its massive body, a section of itself hanging outside.
In moments, the copious amount of electricity and heat in the tunnel turned the portion of the snake within a molten red, right after which parts of it began to sag, the development adding a new level of danger to the already lethal tunnel.
Of course, this also destroyed the core, but that was also Greem's intent. There was no way he was going to let an enemy get a hold of and study his work.
Well out of the earth elementium restriction effect's range, the alligator golem regained its freedom of movement and sank into the broken earth, carrying its masters to safety and leaving behind roars of rage and unwillingness.