"I told you we shouldn't have come with the others here, we are way too weak!"
"Come on now, we aren't that weak, it's just that we can't use magic! But surely, under Lilia's guidance we'll be able to start using the emerald light-"
"By the gods, you've even started calling him by a nickname! Don't tell me…"
"You have quite some gall, Saul, we both participated, and he's been very kind and patient to us, the least you could do is call him how he asks to be called"
"Now is not the time to be arguing about this- Where are William and Ilona?"
The two brothers peeked out from behind the rock they were hiding behind, the situation had quickly turned chaotic in the steam, beasts with heads that casted light had attacked them, or as the two otherworlders had put it, the creatures had flashlight instead of heads, whatever a flashlight was supposed to be, it sounded like a spell to the two brothers.
Being caught in the white shine they created was a beyond terrible experience, but thankfully, according to William, their light was severely weakened, and furthermore, these creatures were not at all supposed to be moving about in this realm, something was missing for them to strive, so the light was actually far weaker than it was supposed to be, and also, thanks to his affinity with the light element, William had been interfering with them.
So although beyond bizarre, these beings had been too difficult for the group of four to deal with, Ilona alone had split the heads of three before anyone could move, Saul and Zola felt that this girl was a bit scary, but being former residents of Tamaris, they could only respect the one they viewed as the last remaining knight of copper.
She wielded her halberd with surgical precision, and wielded the four basic elements of magic as naturally as she breathed.
William on the other hand, he wasn't quite as skilled with his sword, but made up for it with his rare light affinity, the brothers did not get that the otherworlders wasn't actually moving as quickly as light could, as to them, it was basically the same thing as they could follow neither with their eyes, William just zoomed all over the place and casted spells that blinded the enemies before swiftly killing them in a single, precise strike.
Him and Ilona worked well together, and the dark, light-bearing creatures stood no chance, the troubles had begun when a huge, four-armed elites rushed at them, wielding a massively oversized weapon, so heavy and unwieldy that it required him to hold the handle with all four hands, the first strike was so powerful, that it caused tremor that sent the two brothers flying through the air, and away from their two allies.
They hadn't got hurt in the ordeal, as they knew how to properly land on their feet, but before they could rush back to the otherworlders, a lightbearer got in the way, this one different from rest, as it was humanoid in shape, and about as tall as a regular person too, however, their body was completely pitch black, and their face was translucent, allowing for a white light inside the head to illuminate what stood before them.
Saul and Zola had no idea what this creature was, it seemed of the same kind as those from before, but its humanoid appearance was throwing them off, generally, when a creature was humanoid, it meant that they were probably worse than average.
The monster was wandering around, seemingly looking for something.
The brothers hide behind the rock again as it gazed in their direction, the being's movements were sluggish and awkward, which filled them with confidence for them to take on, Zola prepared his longsword, whilst Saul clutched his shortsword and round shield, waiting for the lightbearer to turn around before sneaking up on it.
When they stepped within range, the dark creature suddenly froze, as though it had noticed something was off, which cause the two brothers to freeze as well, but only for a moment, the instant their target seemed to be meaning to turn around, Zola swiftly brought his blade down, splitting its skull, Saul swinging at the neck instead, resulting in the creature's head falling to the ground in two pieces.
The sound of glass breaking was loud on the first strike, and even louder as the head fell down, the white light fading away as the monster died, dissipating into spirit life.
"This was far easier than expected"
"You can say that again! It was much less tough than the creatures from before! I almost fell over for putting too much strength in my attack"
"Now… Where did we come from again?"
"Over there, obviously…"
"I can't hear them fighting anymore"
"The two of them must have made quick work out of this guy, there were a few more rumbles after we were flung away, and then nothing, so the fight must have been over swiftly"
"What's this?" Saul pointed forward, the two of them stepping up to a large, stone protuberance.
They circled around it for a few moments.
"Looks like a place where they could hide something"
"Isn't it a bit too obvious? Who would hide their super-secret case right under a noticeable landmark?"
"Smart people would, think about it, hiding in plain sight, put what you want to conceal in the least hidden place, so that everyone goes : Oh, no way they would so stupid to put that here! But actually, they are geniuses and fooled everyone" Zola explained, and Saul nodded.
"I am not seeing anything though, it just looks like a normal rock"
"Just destroy it and check what's under"
"That is indeed my name, where have you two been? Some slime creatures crawled out of the big guy after we killed him, took a little while to burn them all"
"I would call them sludges instead of slimes though, those things were nasty" added William.
"We ran into one of those pitch black creatures"
"Is that so? Good job on dealing with it- Now, step back" Ilona channeled mana through her halberd like it was a staff, mixing fire and wind mana together, manifesting the spell at the tip of the weapon, and slinging it right at the stone formation.
The resulting explosion giving everyone present a new haircut.
"Perhaps a bit too strong"
"Are you criticising my explosion spell? That was as weak as it gets"
"Some of the stone turned into magma"
"Nothing… We'll just move further away next time" William gave up.
"That's the right mindset- So is there anything under there?"
Saul and Zola stepped forward first.
"No- Wait, there is steel here"
"It wasn't even scratched by the explosion though"
"Hold on, I'll cast another explosion"
"I am going to cast a barrier then, alright?"
Multiple explosions occurred in the same spot, but nothing seemed capable of damaging the steel, not to mention that the area was regenerating over it.
"Well, at least we found something, where are we exactly? Let's bring everyone over so that we can figure out how to break in" after furiously slinging more and more powerful spells, Ilona calmly remarked whilst William and the brothers were hiding behind a barrier made from light mana a distance away.
Saul and Zola just looked at the otherworlders confused, they could see their mouths moving, but couldn't hear anything.
"Ilona, you deafened them"
"Ah… I'll test out my healing magic on them then-"
"Have they not suffered enough?"
"Come on, I improved since the last time, I won't set them on fire accidentally, I'll use water mana to heal them"
The two otherworlders stared at one another in silence.
"They better not drown"
"Trust me, just a little bit of mana-"