Orian and his Group trailed futher back while the two Djinn walked up ahead.
"What can you tell us about the Djinni?" Whispered Orian.
"Not much I'm afraid! My people deal with them all the time but they're a highly secretive culture. If they decide to share information, you can be sure they're holding even more information to themselves. " Stated Eternus.
"So we can't trust them?" Asked Chrome.
"I never said that... they are most likely telling us the truth, but they're not telling us everything that's going on though. "
" You didn't seem suprised when Akechi told you the dwarves are involved?" Stated Chrome.
"That's because I'm not... relations between us fell apart about a year ago after the new council took power.
We're not technically enemies, but things have been 'tense' for a while now. If what the Djinni said is true though, I'm pretty sure that will change very rapidly. " stated Eternus.
They suddenly fell silent as Emiir raised a hand to stop them.
They carefully stepped closer to the 2 Djinni until they saw the side of a small mountain.
A large entrance in front of them led deeper into the mountain. Several dwarves were walking around the entrance.
"The Phoenixes are being held inside. As well as several other creatures. " stated the Djinn.
"For what purpose? What is this place anyway?" Asked Chrome.
"A harvesting camp.. where they gather magical reagents for their inventions from a wide variety of captive magical creatures.
Dragon scales, Griffin feathers, Manticore Barbs, Phoenix Ash. The list goes on..." stated Akechi.
"Then let's shut it down..." stated Eternus.
"Not so fast... if they have prisoners, then they may execute them if we launch a frontal assault..." stated Orian.
"What should we do then? Asked Eternus.
"My brother and I will sneak in and free the prisoners. Once they're safe, we take down the guards." Explained Chrome.
"All right!! We'll stay out here and wait for your signal! As soon as the alarm is raised however, we'll launch an assault on the entrance! Try to draw some attention away from you!" Stated Eternus.
The Phoenixes settled down to wait while Orian and Chrome used the surrounding foliage to creep closer to the entrance.
They watched the numerous Dwarven guards wandering around the entrance.
"How fast can you pick out and hit targets with your scales?" Whispered Orian.
"Not fast enough I'm afraid! I assume you'll encounter the same problem with your lightspeed attack?" Replied Chrome.
Orian nodded his head.
"What if we combine our efforts?! You hit one group while I target another? " Asked Chrome.
"Still won't work! They're too scattered! At least one of them will be able to raise the alarm!" Stated Orian.
An idea suddenly occurred to him. These dwarves were basically like human poachers. This made them predictable.
Tapping into his light magic, he created a mirage copy of himself far in the distance. Then he waited for the dwarves to notice.
They quickly notified each other before rushing off to try and catch it.
"Nice trick!! But since when have you know shadow magic!?" Asked Chrome.
"It's not shadow magic! It's a mirage! It can't move and once they get closer, they'll realize it's not real! But for now it will do it's part! We'd better hurry though!" Explained Orian.
They dashed the distance seperating them from the entrance and quickly ducked inside before anyone could notice.
They found themselves in a low, narrow tunnel network. A line of rail tracks led deeper into the mountain .
"What do you think this place was used for before?" Asked Chrome.
"Most likely an old depleted mine." Replied Orian.
Following the tracks, they eventually came across a large central chamber that at one point housed the main veins of whatever resource the mine used to extract.
It had long since been depleted, in it's place was several large cages that contained a wide verity of magical monsters.
Griffins, Manticore, Phoenixes and even a few dragons were all locked up in the cages.
Based on the conditions of their bodies, they had not been treated well.
Several dwarves were in the room, carefully packing the magical reagents they had gathered into crates ready to be shipped out.
"Something tells me you won't be able to use the same trick again?" Stated Chrome.
"You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?" Asked Orian.
"Let's split up and released aa many prisoners as we can before we're discovered. " Suggested Chrome
The two brothers seperated and quietly made their way down to the cages. As Orian stood in front of the cage, a phoenix chick roughtly the size of a eagle with purple feathers stepped deeper into the cage in fear.
He placed a finger on his lips in a shushing gesture as he used his light magic to cut the lock.
"I'm here to help you! Just stay quiet for now!" Whispered Orian.
It nodded it's head and rushed to hide near the entrance to the room while Orian made his way to the next cage.
He managed to release several creatures before the thing he had been dreading happened.
"You!! Stop right there!!" Called one of the dwarves.
Orian froze with his hand on a lock.
"Turn around slowly!!" Ordered the Dwarf.
Orian did as instructed and saw 3 dwarves standing behind him.
All three of them had crossbows loaded and aimed at his heart.
Several more dwarves came closer as they heard the commotion. All with crossbows loaded.
A single dwarf with considerably better gear stepped forward and carefully examined Orian.
"What the hell are you?! You don't look like any dragon I had ever seen?!" Stated the dwarf.
Orian suspected that he was most likely the overseer of this particular group of dwarves.
"..."
"Don't feel like talking ehh?! That's all right!! We have ways of losening tongues, don't we boys?!" Stated the overseer.
The other dwarves chuckled menacingly.
Out of the corner of his eye, Orian saw Chrome creeping closer to him.
"Search him!!" Ordered the Overseer.
Orian grinned as two dwarves came closer.