Winter exerted herself as she spread her influence throughout the tunnels. She could feel the countless minds of the Stalkers within as she fought for control of their perception. ‘There’s something else in there fighting against me.’ Sweat dripped down her forehead as the tunnel rumbled.
‘Clay’s sealing off more passages.’ It was difficult for her to concentrate with the earth trembling from Caly and Mikari’s actions. The latter was still engaged with the Stalkers outside. There were far too many of them, in Winter’s opinion.
‘This is going to be hard. I’ll have to focus on smaller groups at a time.’ She urged her spell to target the closer tunnels as the toll on her mind lessened. Soon, numerous screeches filled the air as a tide of Stalkers rushed toward her.
Winter calmed her mind as she focused on making them believe she wasn’t there. Her body tensed up as their retched smell invaded her nostrils as they rushed past her. She struggled to keep her breathing steady with so many of those foul creatures surrounding her.
‘Don’t slip up now.’ Winter told herself as the sound of battle intensified. ‘Mikari can handle it. If he can’t, I should be able to cover Clay and I.’ Her hands trembled as she sent her spell further out in search of new prey.
Meanwhile, in a gigantic cavern below the base of the mountain, Nar’Kozz peered into the darkness. Thousands of Stalkers still remained as the ancient creature sensed what was going on above it.
Nar’Kozz chittered as it considered the energy in the air. ‘These gods don’t have the power to stop me.’ The ancient beast thought. It had remained in hiding as it had been concerned a more powerful god would appear. However, that hadn’t happened. Not even when it invaded Valheim.
‘The Old Gods are dead or gone. There’s nothing for me to worry about.’ The giant Stalker licked its lips at the thought of the feast awaiting it. ‘It’s time to end this!’ Nar’Kozz opened its jaws wide and released a horrifying roar. The surrounding Stalkers took up their leader’s war cry, joining it with their screeches. The commands Nar’Kozz’s roar held were simple. Surface, Kill, and Return with Divine Orbs!
At the same time, at the peak of the mountain, Exile sensed the shift in the atmosphere. ‘Nar’Kozz is coming!’ He scanned the battlefields for any sign of where the beast would surface from. However, the players were still engaged with the Stalkers flooding out of the pits. The mountain trembled beneath his feet, and he knew the moment had come! Noslin’s ice fort shattered as a huge chunk of the mountain exploded. Exile’s expression turned ugly as he thought about the players who would have been caught in it. ‘Noslin better have survived!’ Exile gritted his teeth as a tremendous screech filled the air. Nar’Kozz’s giant frame clawed its way out of the mountain despite the spells targeting it. Exile couldn’t explain it, but Nar’Kozz felt more dangerous and looked bigger than before.
A deep frown appeared on Exile’s face as his wings exploded from his back. For a brief moment, Nar’Kozz met his gaze, and the world seemed to stand still. ‘If we fail here, every Skardian player is finished!’ Of course, there was a good chance that more than just Skardia would fall to this beast before it was killed. Exile powerfully flapped his wings as he took off. ‘It’s my job to delay it until we can its entire brood.’ It was a long shot, and Exile knew that.
It was unfortunate that Nar’Kozz had created so many Stalkers. During his talks with Mikari and the other leaders, nobody had predicted the enemy force to be quite so large. Exile roared his challenge at Nar’Kozz as he sped toward the lumbering giant. Divine runes carved themselves into the air around him as Exile tossed handfuls of runestones at his hated enemy.
Explosions of fire burst all over that side of the mountain as Exile’s runestones released their magic. He quickly flapped his wings to bring himself to a stop just outside of the flames Nar’Kozz had disappeared into. As he studied the raging inferno, a prickling sensation appeared at the back of his mind. ‘Shit!’ Exile cursed as he quickly flew backwards. At that same moment, long claws raked the air where Exile had been a moment ago. Nar’Kozz’s giant maw burst from the fire to snap at Exile as the latter took evasive manoeuvres. Exile’s eyes narrowed as he punished the creature by firing several fireflies into the slits that were Nar’Kozz’s nostrils. Nar’Kozz screeched in annoyance as it tore at the air where Exile was, coming close to severing him half several times. Exile grunted as he moved at high speed in ways he was still unused to. The close calls came from his lack of practice at making sharp turns mid-air. ‘I should create more distance and use my range to my advantage.’ As Exile started to put his plan into action, hundreds of flying Stalkers swarmed out of the hole Nar’Kozz had made. Exile clicked his tongue as these fresh troops charged to intercept him. ‘Damn! Why couldn’t it be that easy?’ His hands swept through the air as he activated several rune spells at once. The first shrouded his body with fiery armour. The second created sparks that danced on top of them. The others created a healing effect and bolstered his defences with more fireflies. At that moment, hundreds of players looked to the sky only to see a living sun battling it out with hundreds of the winged Stalkers.
They watched on as charred bodies rained down from the sky as Nar’Kozz roared in fury. These players couldn’t help but feel as though they were completely insignificant compared to these two forces. Of course, they would be wrong.
Although Exile was powerful, he was not invincible. This was a fight he would not be able to win if he were alone. As proven by the need to gather every player in Skardia to combat this threat. However, these players were too caught up in the display of power to really think straight.
Exile snarled as he created a rune barrier shield to intercept attacks from his blindspots as he threw more runestones. ‘They’re weak. It’s only their numbers I need to watch out for.’ Exile squinted at a group of Stalkers preparing to charge at him.
Unfortunately for them, Exile’s speed was on another level now with the enchantments on his equipment. Before they could react, Exile had already left a blazing trail behind as he flew over them and tore their wings from their backs!
As the creatures fell to their deaths, he incinerated the wings with a burst of fire from his fist. His gaze swept over the battle until he caught Nar’Kozz’s gaze. The titanic Stalker snarled back at him from its position on the mountain, causing Exile to chuckle at its helplessness. ‘That’s right, you watch from there as your subordinates are torn apart with no way for you to help them!’ Exile laughed maniacally as he continued to suppress the Stalkers coming after him. ‘No, you don’t!’
Exile cursed as he fired a rune spell toward a group of players. The barrier spell popped into existence just in time to stop Nar’Kozz’s fist from crushing the poor players. The barrier trembled non-stop from the powerful blow as two of the players within fainted. Nar’Kozz roared furiously toward Exile, who returned a mischievous grin. ‘You think I’ll let you change your target to my people? Yeah, that’s not going to happen!’ Exile chuckled as he unleashed a wave of fire in all directions to roast a few dozen more Stalkers. ‘I’m nearly done with these flies.’ Exile sighed as he continued to run interference on Nar’Kozz while taking care of the enemy air support. ‘Once these guys fall, I can bombard the big lug.’ Although many battlefields on the mountain were falling under Stalker control, Exile felt elated. ‘We can win this!’ However, Exile’s joy was short-lived. Nar’Kozz’s fury had reached breaking point as the creature bounded up the mountain before throwing itself through the air toward Exile!
‘What the hell is it up to? I just need to fly out of its range!’ Exile scowled as he urged his wings to carry him to safety, and not a moment too soon. Exile cursed as Nar’Kozz managed to scratch at his leg before plummeting toward the ground.
Exile snorted the beast’s stupidity. ‘That was stupid!’ However, as he turned his attention back to the winged ones, an extremely loud buzzing sound filled the air. Exile’s eyes went wide as he looked in the direction of the sound. ‘Oh, come on!’ Exile roared furiously in his mind.
There, in the air below him, Nar’Kozz was rising rapidly toward him. Six wings buzzed behind its back where its skin had split to reveal them. Exile’s expression darkened as he studied Nar’Kozz’s true form. He instinctively knew he wouldn’t be able to buy as much time as he originally thought he could.
‘Mikari, whatever you’re doing you had better hurry up!’ Exile cursed as he took off at high speed, swiftly followed by the horrendous giant. ‘I need to think of a way to slow it down! We need more time. If I have to retreat, Nar’Kozz will rip the army apart!’
Exile swallowed a lump of saliva as he struggled to come up with a solution. At that moment, things went from bad to worse. Thousands of winged Stalkers rushed out of the pits!