[Cyclone: There is an X here! We are about to reach the treasure!]
[Fortune: Nice! So where do we need to go?]
[Balm: We're not sure yet. There is a bone here.]
[Silver Blade: Bone…]
[Watchful Eye: Could it be that one?]
[Cyclone: Which one?]
[Watchful Eye: Wait.]
Watchful Eye had been trying to keep up with Silver Blade. Now he turned around, and the five-coloured light sped towards Cyclone and Balm. As he rose higher the effect of [Dive] quickly diminished. But even with the normal travelling speed of flying mounts he reached the two girls in an instant. He brought his gorgeous Dragon Carp next to them, turned towards a certain direction and pointed with his finger into the distance.
"Don't you see that giant skeleton over there?"
Cyclone and Balm narrowed their eyes and leaned forward on top of their mounts. They were barely able to make out a tall shadow at the edge of their vision.
"I'm not sure what I'm seeing, but let's trust Watchful Eye's eyesight."
"Yeah. Even if it's wrong, we won't waste much time now that we have our flying mounts!"
"Right!"
The two girls had their eyes light up. Inwardly they almost hoped that Watchful Eye was wrong so they could fly around more. However, as the party raced in the direction pointed out by Watchful Eye, they soon had to accept that he was right.
In the distance there was a massive skeleton which was barely recognizable as it was covered in ice and snow. The friends couldn't even tell which species it belonged to. From afar it was only a spectacular sight but as they swiftly got closer, they were amazed by how tall this skeleton actually was. It overshadowed its surroundings like a small mountain. When the creature was still alive it might have rivalled Zelgor the Titan.
The friends hovered in front of the skeleton, observing it in awe, while waiting for Radiant Shield to catch up.
After a while they landed on the ground. There were a few enormous caves which had been formed as the skeleton held back snow and ice.
"So, what now? The treasure should be in one of the caves, right? How do we know in which one?", asked Balm thoughtfully. Cyclone was already giddy, saying:
"Just let me choose one at random. We are so close to the treasure. My luck won't let me down!"
The friends looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders.
"Well, I don't think we have a better method."
As Silver Blade said this, Cyclone showed a bright grin. She flew left and right in front the skeleton, listening to her intuition. Suddenly her eyes focused on one of the caves.
"I choose you!"
Cyclone returned to the ground and approached the cave. The others followed swiftly. Yet they noticed that Cyclone didn't enter the cave and instead stood in front of it with a distressed expression.
"Cyclone? Everything alright?"
"Alright? Nothing is alright! We can't use our flying mounts in the caves!"
The others rolled their eyes or stared at Cyclone in annoyance. The mage soon grumbled to herself as she jumped from her hawk's back and reluctantly sent her away. She entered the cave, swiftly followed by the others.
It was an amazing sight. A gigantic cave illuminated by an icy azure light, inhabited by some white, worm-like monsters.
However, on first look there was no sight of any treasure or a place where a key could be used. The party swiftly sent Bloody Edge to scout. He sneaked through the cave but couldn't detect anything amiss.
"Well, for now let's assume this isn't the cave."
Liam and his friends went back out and looked towards Cyclone. The latter was somewhat embarrassed. She had just boasted about her luck, it couldn't be that it now let her down, right? Fortunately, her friends only teased her for a second before encouraging her to try again. It wasn't as if they had any more promising options.
Cyclone fell silent and carefully listened to her heart. Suddenly her eyes shot wide open, and she point at a cave all the way to the left.
"This one!"
No one questioned her choice. Cyclone still took the lead, hurrying over, inwardly praying that she was right this time. When the party entered the cave there was a short tunnel leading downwards. They walked about halfway when Silent Acacia suddenly froze, letting out a low shout:
"Wait!"
"Acacia? What is it?"
"Someone has been here before. Not long ago!"
Everyone followed Silent Acacia's eyes and noticed the footsteps on the ground.
"Nice spot! Good job!", praised Laim generously. He was quite pleased with Silent Acacia. Not only did he spot the footsteps, he also considered that player footsteps would disappear after a few minutes. Whether he got this information online or through observing their own path through the snow, it was praiseworthy.
[Balm: What should we do now?]
[Silver Blade: We have to take a look anyways. What if this is the correct cave?]
[Cyclone: But they might try to steal our treasure…]
[Silent Acacia: Should we hide outside?]
[Quickstep: We can try the other caves first.]
[Bloody Edge: It might be too late…]
As the friends were talking, Bloody Edge suddenly spotted a moving shadow at the lower end of the tunnel.
[Bleary Mirage: We've been detected! Let's go!]
Liam didn't hesitate. If the others were friends, nothing would happen. But if they were enemies, Liam didn't want to give them any time to prepare. He rushed along the tunnel, followed by his friends. A few seconds later they barged into an enormous cave. It was similar to the other one. Dead monsters were lying on the ground, even including one that looked like a boss.
Not far from the boss were a few players surrounding a mound of snow at the centre of the cave. A circular gate was inlaid in one side of the mound. It was unadorned except for a conspicuous keyhole.
[Cyclone: That must be it!]
[Quickstep: Who are those people? Do they also have a key?]
[Silent Acacia: Doesn't look like it.]
At this moment the players around the gate slowly turned towards the cave entrance. Everyone's eyes narrowed as they stared in familiar faces.
"It's you guys!"
Cyclone exclaimed loudly as her eyes lit up. She recalled the situation a while ago. During the event when her group explored the void, they were handed a big loss. And the opponent was Graveyard of Heroes. The players standing across from Liam and his friends were among the group at that time.
On the other side the ten members of Graveyard of Heroes wore solemn expressions. They came here for a quest to kill Frost Giant Worms. The death of their kin would enrage the other monsters, prompting them to go on a chaotic rampage. Everything had been going fine, and they even discovered a secret gate here. But they never expected to run across Hotpot at the last minute. If they hadn't been curious to study the gate, they might have already left a while ago and everything would have been perfect.
[Kaleido: Damn, it's Hotpot!]
[Jenkins: We can see that, idiot!]
[Kaleido: What should we do? Can we run?]
[Norostra: Coward! Why do you want to give up without a fight? We are not necessarily weaker than them.]
[Kaleido: Being blindly overconfident isn't any better. The boss, Maimed, and the others aren't around. And even if they were, we just went through a boss fight. Most of our ultimates are on cooldown. We are simply not in the condition to fight.]
[BBBunny: Kaleido has a point.]
[BloodGlaive: So what do we do?]
[Jenkins: Follow me…]
At the same time the mood among Liam and his friends was excited. Cyclone was clamouring for revenge. Quickstep and Silent Acacia were eager to clash with the top players of the chaos faction, and the others were similarly interested in a fight.
"Haha, what a surprise! The famous Hotpot! Ohh, did you come here for that boss? Did we snatch it away from you? What a pity. Seems like you were too slow!"
At this moment a demonic warrior among Graveyard of Heroes, whose armour covered little of his leathery, red skin, took a step forward and spoke in a haughty tone.
Silver Blade looked at him strangely:
"Are you trying to provoke us, Jenkins?"
Jenkins froze, not knowing what to say. This was not the reaction expected. Hotpot should show at least some anger, right? At least Cyclone or Balm. Unfortunately, Jenkins couldn't know that Hotpot weren't here for the boss. A change of strategies was necessary.
"Haha, of course not. We don't need such lame tactics to deal with you. After all, I always thought your fame as the number one team is empty. Or you wouldn't have lost to us during the event."
"Hey! We only lost because we targeted those crystals. Don't be too full of yourselves!"
"Cyclone…"
Fortune rolled her eyes as Cyclone actually became agitated despite knowing Jenkins was trying to provoke her. However, Cyclone didn't mind. She felt like even if it was deliberate, Jenkins was trampling on their dignity by exaggerating things like this.