Vash and Hera were on the elevator, waiting for it to arrive on the bottom floor. The entire elevator only had 15 people, and it did not continue with them. Mostly harpies who felt like they could help defend the Forge Lord. After a quick chat, Hera understood why this was the case. There were many more Children of the Sky in the Core Spire, but Vazor didn't want to break apart too many teams. After all, worst case scenario the rampage could still last for days. Hera and Vash were an exception. The dwarf had understood that without the Ophidianite, her team wouldn't be able to protect their station. Their levels were a bit lower than the average of the teams, and according to some reports he got, the only reason they were able to hold on without any casualties was because they were splitting the workload between the team and Hera's legacy.
If that wasn't the case, he would likely have to send another team to help them since day 2. That was also the reason why he asked Hera to help. Having to reserve one of the 50 sets of gear and getting the equivalent of 5 people to fight in exchange was better than most of the other options he had available.
Hera was looking at everyone inside the elevator. They all seemed a bit worried, which was understandable, of course, but there was also a fire in their eyes. The confirmation that this was the last part of the rampage fueling their drive to fight. Vash, on the other hand, didn't seem to have the same dedication. The harpy was glancing from side to side, trying to see the glimpses of the outside world they could occasionally see in the elevator.
"Are you ok?" Hera asked.
"Y-yeah. I'm great," Vash replied but only got a raised eyebrow in response. That makes him break, "OK. I'm not fine. This is scary. I mean, when we are fighting together, I know you have my back, but it's going to be just us two out there. What if something goes wrong? From what I understand, we are fighting a full aerial army. And in an open space. It will be very different from what we have been doing so far. And I'm not exactly good at fighting."
Before the Empress could reply, she heard Someone whispering, 'Bet you 5 she makes him cry,' her fame of being rude seemed to be spreading to more than just not liking dumb questions. Maybe people truly believed she was mean.
Holding herself back so she would not roll her eyes, Hera said, "You were doing great back there. Yes, you were more focused on scouting, but that doesn't mean that it won't be helpful even in an open area. Besides, nothing changed. I'm still there, and I got your back, just like you got mine. Also, two of us?" the Empress snapped her finger, calling out her entire court. The titled blades were still in their weapon forms since it would be too crowded for them here, "We are all here. Honestly, the rest of the team is who should be worried about their numbers."
Vash looked up and chuckled, "Yeah. Can they fly, too?"
"With the exception of Nimbus, only when they are . They can't keep up with the Sentinel's top speed, but to fight, they are more than able to do whatever they need."
"Yeah… Yeah! You're right. We are still together. Everything will be fine," Vash nodded with a smile. The talk seemed to have cheered him up a bit, even if there was still some fear in his eyes.
Knowing that pressing on the matter right now would only make things worse, Hera smiled and looked forward. She waited a few moments before speaking loudly, "Someone lost a bet. You better pay up,"
A harpy and a dwarf tried to hide in the corner and stopped talking while the elevator continued its trip. Almost one hour later, they arrived at the ground floor. Or at least, what they considered the ground floor. It was still almost 300 meters up from the city, but it was the last part of the spire where people had built an outpost. Anything below this and the fumes became a problem. They still were a problem here, but they had set up an air purifying system that took some of that smoke and extracted the good parts of it before sending it back inside the area. Doing so closer to the actual magma would become too costly.
As Hera stepped out of the elevator, she saw a notification about the quest.
You have left the Core Spire region during the rampage quest. Said quest will no longer be available for you.
Rampage Quest - Region - Hearthome
Lonely Lord of the Caldera
The Forge Lord, who lives inside the caldera at the bottom of the spire, is threatened by a new Forge Lord who wishes to take its place. If the new lord succeeds, it will cause an eruption in order to erase everything marked by the hands of the previous lord.
Protect the current Forge Lord from the aerial assault and defeat the new lord in order to complete the quest. When all regions complete their quests, the rampage will end.
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The group didn't have to go to the city. Instead, they had brought the gear here and one person to explain how this all worked. The Forge Lord was considered a natural force of the room, a creature that couldn't be defeated by a single person or party. In modern terms, it would be called a raid boss. The type of monster that required several teams working together to kill it. Usually, this would require fifty people on the front lines, flying and using the gear to protect them, while another hundred or so would be on the mouth of the caldera. Surrounded by barriers to ward off the toxic gas and using long-range attacks to help with the damage. Unfortunately, this time, they wouldn't be able to have the secondary team. Especially since the idea wasn't to kill the Forge Lord but to protect it. Going for indiscriminate damage wasn't the way to go. And trying to hit the flying army wasn't the best idea. For one, it would be very hard to hit them from a long distance. And two, any spells or arrows that flew off and hit the ground could attract the ground army towards their position. If that were to happen, the defenses of the Hearthome would have to shift, and that transition might expose them too much. That was even the best-case scenario. In the worst case, the ground army just decides to swarm the people at the mouth of the caldera, locking them between the magma and the unstoppable swarm of monsters.
The idea was just to protect the Forge Lord until the new one appeared. Then, they could redirect some of their forces to kill it. Getting people to go after it right away wasn't the plan simply because they didn't know how long it would take for the new Forge Lord to appear.
Hera and Vash walked to the side, where a group of people were helping the new arrivals to get their gear and explaining how to set it up properly. A large triton with tattoos all over his arms approached them, "Hey. Can you tell me your names?" he paused when seeing the Ophidianite for a moment but quickly returned to what he was doing, "Just to confirm you are the people we called here."
"Sure, Hera Quetzaveth and Vash Skychild," the Empress replied.
"Ok, got it. Come here, Zach, short for Zachary, will set you up. I'm Carlos, by the way, but we don't have time for a better introduction."
"No worries," Hera just nodded and walked towards the beastmen who were passing along the gear. It was a half mask that only covered the lower half of one's face and part of the neck, and a red vest with an orange belt. Zach was showing how to wear the mask and how to activate the heat protection. On a closer inspection, the Empress realized that the masks also had a visor that would form a seal around her eyes while keeping her ears exposed.
"Are you two clerks?" Vash asked the pair who was helping them.
"Clerks?" Carlos tilted his head.
"Yeah, clerks. People who just do this kind of thing instead of fighting. I don't mean anything bad by it. It's just that you look like you were supposed to be fighting," the harpy explained.
"He ain't wrong," Zach replied, "We were fighting, but we had a few members of our team injured when the monsters broke the outer wall. Our mage took the worst of it. We were able to defend some places for a few days, but eventually, our healer said we didn't have a choice but to stop. Charon was in bad shape and needed time to heal."
"We are also off duty right now. So we can be here to help in case a monster tries to show up here. Things became much easier after that Styx thing," Carlos turned back to Hera and Vash, "By the way, do you know what that was? I asked around, but no one knows for sure. Aside from it being something that started in the Core Spire."
"Oh, that's a spell I made," Hera replied absentmindedly.
"You made that?" Zach and Carlos gasped at the same time.
"Yeah. I would love to say it's not as complicated as it sounds, but it really is. Not to mention stretching it to cover the entire spire, the city was a mess. Keeping that shit up is also not easy, and I'm probably the only one who can do it for such a long time," Hera continued speaking as she put on the best. It didn't look great, but she could already feel a bit more comfortable. This was a minor effect of the cloth used to make those pieces of equipment.
"Wow… that is amazing. Before you go, can I just say one thing?" Carlos asked.
Hera let out a long sigh, "No, I'm not teaching you how to do it. If we weren't at war, maybe, maybe I would have a different answer. But right now, The spell doesn't have any protection against people copying or hijacking it. Unless I can be sure that the humans won't end up trying to use this against us, I won't be sharing this with anyone."
"Ok… that has nothing to do with what I wanted to say," Carlos frowned.
"Oh? My bad. What was it then?"
"Thank you. You saved our lives. The moment that spells hit, a Soot Golem was about to attack us, and I don't know if we would've been able to escape with our lives. Not all of us."
Hera gave a half nod, "No worries. This is what the spell was supposed to do."
"Do you think I could buy you a drink when this is all over? As a thank you," Carlos asked.
The Empress let out a sigh, "Look, I don't even know if I'm going to have a day to rest after this is over. So n-" Before she could finish the answer, Vash poked her with his wing. The harpy tilted his head towards Carlos and then raised his eyebrows. After rolling her eyes, Hera continued, "Sure. If I'm free when this is over, you can bring me a drink as a thanks. But for that to happen, we have to actually end this rampage. So we should be going."
Without waiting for a reply, Hera and Vash walked out with their gear. Once they were close to the doors leading outside and far enough from earshot, the harpy finally spoke, "Just because we are in the middle of a war, you don't have to ignore a guy who is hitting on you."
Hera scoffed, "He wasn't hitting on me. He just wanted to say thanks."
"Girl, I saw the way he looked at you. He wasn't offering just a thanks."
"Either way, it's not like I'm interested. If you liked him, feel free to shoot your shot," Hera summoned Nimbus on his griffon form and climbed up his back.
"We don't know if he likes men, much less if he likes harpies. And don't you think you should look into dating again? I mean, you haven't been with anyone since Silah. Right?"
"Can we not talk about my love life, or lack of it, just before we are about to fight an army of flying creatures?"
"Can we talk about it later, then?" Vash smiled.
"As long as that shuts you up now, sure," Hera sighed as the two took flight. There was already a large amount of monsters flying around and fighting with the people who would defend the Forge Lord. Hera took a deep breath and flew off with Nimbus, ready to fight the flock.