Chapter 566

Chapter 566: Lord of the Elements

"Death? Death on your big stone butt!"

Greed shouted and suddenly turned around to throw his warhammer at the Mountain Giant’s arm blocking the cave entrance. A burst of white light flashed, stunning the Mountain Giant for a moment, followed by an explosion that shattered the huge rock!

"Let’s go!"

Greed yelled and raised the stone axe in his hand, jumping up fiercely to swing it towards the main body of the Mountain Giant, creating a crack on its chest.

The Mountain Giant took two steps back as if about to fall backward. Seizing this opportunity, everyone climbed over the collapsed rocks and hurried into the cave, while the Mountain Giants at the higher ground had not reacted yet.

Theradras’s deep voice echoed behind them. Jesse didn’t understand what she was saying, but it seemed like the whole world was responding to her call.

The sounds of insects, the low growls of Diemetradons, the chaotic rolling of huge rocks, the roaring of Wavethrashers, all sorts of noises reverberated from the deep cave, assaulting their eardrums.

"Run, run, run…"

Greed muttered to himself as he ran forward. Even though the cave was so dark that they could hardly see anything, everyone knew that stopping meant certain death!

Rockworms kept emerging from cracks nearby, along with the strange man-eating flowers that sometimes screamed. The dwarf swung his axe left and right, cutting them into pieces without hesitation, clearing the way at all costs.

Jesse glanced back and saw a group of shadow runners rushing towards him. He ran while loudly chanting the spell "Shadow Bolt", gathering a ball of screaming black power on his magic wand and throwing it behind him. The Shadow Bolt unleashed a wave of shadow thunder in the narrow cave, corrupting and twisting all life energy around.

The passing runners turned into black rubble and fell down, quickly losing pace with the few people ahead.

But Jesse knew that the shadow power wouldn’t last long. Theradras’s life force would soon consume and purify everything again. There was no room for any relaxation now.

Before long, they heard the noise of a waterfall again. Jesse shouted, "There’s water ahead, follow me!"

"I was thinking the same!" Greed yelled as he ran faster, with Vereesa explaining to Mosa who nodded in agreement.

The group dashed out of the cave, finding themselves in an open space like they had jumped into the sky.

However, no one had the mood to admire the scenery in the distance. They reached a cliff, and the waterfall cascaded down beside them. Jesse could even feel the cool mist of the water splashing on his face.

As Greed was about to jump off the cliff, he suddenly shouted and stopped.

Jesse lunged behind him, almost pushing him off, but stopped and sat down on the ground. Vereesa and Mosa came over and peeked down.

This place is even higher than the waterfall we saw earlier, probably much higher. If we jump from here directly into the water, we might lose our lives instantly.

In the game, as long as there is water below, you won’t get hurt no matter how high you jump. But how is that possible here?

At that moment, Jesse finally had time to raise his head and look into the distance. Through the mist, he saw a spectacular stone bridge extending from the side, leading to a wide platform at the end of his sight.

The high platform was filled with beautiful colorful flowers, like a perfect garden.

Clean water flowing down the surrounding stone walls nourished the plants on the platform. In the center, a raised garden was shrouded in golden sunlight from above, giving off an incredibly sacred and solemn vibe.

That was Zaetar’s tomb, something Princess Theradras wanted to guard forever. He was her lover and also the father of all the Centaurs in Kalimdor.

Jesse lowered his head and suddenly remembered that there should be another cliff edge between here and the water surface.

He tried to look down, then ran to the bridge and glanced towards the direction of the cliff here, finally spotting the lower cliff and stone bridge below.

Jumping directly to the platform from here would probably result in a fatal fall, but the plants growing on the nearby cliff would easily allow them to climb to their destination.

"We need to climb down from the cliff," Jesse pointed to the rocky cliff, then moved his finger to the ledge below and said, "Go there, and then see if there’s a way to jump."

The group quickly agreed, after all, there was no other way to go except to climb down, they couldn’t run into Zaetar’s tomb, right?

Vereesa immediately jumped out and grabbed a tree root on the rocky cliff. She was light and agile, handling this situation was a piece of cake for her.

Mosa also easily leaped out and grabbed the rocky cliff with her sharp claws. Jesse felt she didn’t need to grab onto those plants at all, using the skills of a big cat to quickly and safely reach the bottom on the uneven surface.

Seeing the two women go down, Greed wiped his hands and jumped straight out. He grabbed several branches on the way down, breaking them with his weight, slipping and stumbling four or five meters before finally grabbing a sturdy branch, cursing loudly in Dwarven language.

Jesse also jumped out and grabbed a sturdy branch. Although he wasn’t as agile as Vereesa, he wasn’t as heavy, so it was definitely easier.

At this time, the plants on the rock wall were growing more and more vigorously, what this meant, it goes without saying that everyone knew.

Vereesa had climbed down quite a distance and soon jumped onto the ledge below, with Mosa closely following her.

Jesse and Greed then successively leaped onto the ledge. Looking down, there were not many plants left near the water’s edge to climb on. The rock wall itself was quite smooth, with a lot of moss-like things on it, the only option now was to jump.

Greed looked down and then over at Jesse, who said nothing.

The height shouldn’t be fatal if they fell, but avoiding injuries was uncertain. Despite this, they had to bravely jump.

Jesse recited Unending Breath to their companions one by one, then said, "I’m not sure how long it will last. Everyone, if you start having trouble breathing, look at me pointing to my nose. I will try to recast the spell for you."

The group nodded and tightened their luggage and weapons. Vereesa explained Jesse’s warning to Mosa. Jesse drank a bottle of Mana Potion and got ready.

At that moment, under the bright sunlight from above, a giant figure on the wide bridge leading to the platform was staring their way. Theradras had caught up.

The other Mountain Giants were watching from different places but not making any move.

Suddenly, the plants at their feet grew wildly. A thorny vine emerged out of nowhere, tightly entangling the dwarf’s boots. They had to yank hard to free their legs.

"Forget her, let’s jump," Jesse said.

Vereesa nodded and leaped first. Jesse followed closely. Greed went straight down on his butt into the water. Mosa climbed down the bridge’s rocks and then jumped into the water. They all drifted towards a distant dark abyss following the water flow, likely the final passage out of Maraudon.

Just when Jesse thought he had finally escaped, a sudden wind started blowing around them.

At first, it was just a light breeze, but in the blink of an eye, the air current turned into a fierce storm. Jesse watched as rocks from the walls around the underground lake were lifted into the air by the wind, even the water splashes were sucked upwards.

The plants on the cave walls were uprooted, and the whole wall echoed with the buzzing sound of the escalating sandstorm.

High above, Theradras, her eyes glowing with life force like a lighthouse, was visible amidst the flying sand, rocks, and water mist. At that moment, the ancient monster had its dark gaping mouth open, devouring everything pulled towards it.

Jesse felt his body being lifted up slightly.

He was actually being pulled away from the water by this terrifying force!

"Hold on tight, Jesse!"

Suddenly, Vereesa next to him was swept up with her belongings into the air. Jesse felt a buzz in his head as he tried to leap out of the water with all his might but missed grabbing her outstretched hand.

The grip of death?

The deadly grip itself can tear apart any body part it touches, but there was no time left for thinking!

Just as he was about to unleash the power of darkness, suddenly a dark figure appeared out of nowhere in midair, Molofeel grabbed Vereesa’s leg and plummeted a long distance downwards!

Jesse had no time to think about how the succubus managed to pounce, but the succubus still wasn’t heavy enough to fall into the water!

As the wild wind sucked up by Theradras grew stronger, Jesse couldn’t even think about grabbing the succubus, he was already out of the water, luckily Mosa had transformed back into a Tauren and reached out her arm to grab Jesse’s cloak and pull him back into the water.

Greed shouted at the succubus high above, "Catch this, demon."

He threw the war hammer, Molofeel used his long tail to catch the hammer in midair, Greed directly summoned the hammer, and in the air, the hammer shimmered with lightning, grabbing both Vereesa and Molofeel, it flew back towards the water surface against the rising water sprays…

However, just as the war hammer was about to fly back to Greed’s hand, its speed slowed down, Greed tried to grab it but he was also pulled out of the water!

After the dwarf left the water surface, he held onto the war hammer in midair, turning into a statue in a burst of lightning, finally sinking heavily back into the water, dragging the succubus and the elf down as well.

But the storm did not weaken, instead, it became more ferocious.

The whole cave was covered in splashing water, broken rocks, swirling dust, and shattered plants, Mosa held on tightly behind, Jesse felt like he was about to be torn apart by the air currents.

"Oh no, oh no…" Tauren reminded in a common language, "Watch out, Jesse!"

Mosa was also struggling to hold on, Tauren was heavy, but still not as heavy as the dwarf who descended from the gods! At this point, half of Tauren’s body had already left the water surface, not looking like he was floating in the water at all!

"Grab onto me, Jesse!" Greed also noticed the situation here, he shouted with a thunderous voice, "Stop hesitating, quickly grab onto me! Do you think you can hurt me?"

Jesse immediately understood what he meant.

He decisively activated the shadow power inside him, releasing Gorefiend’s Grasp, the blood claws that were released accurately wrapped around Greed’s arm along a distant bloodline.

Greed shouted and pulled hard, both sides were being pulled towards the middle, finally crashing into each other in a rolling wave.

Mosa held onto Greed tightly, his broad arms tied everyone in the middle, inside Greed tightly held onto Molofeel and Jesse’s arms, Vereesa hugged Jesse’s neck tightly, the demon wrapped its tail tightly around Jesse’s thigh, several people and the demon clasped onto their companions and refused to let go, Theradras’ wild storm that she sucked out could no longer shake them.

"We’re going to be squeezed to death… we’re going to die…"

Imp mumbled weakly in the middle, his voice coming out from the Warlock Pack getting weaker.

The rushing water pushed the huddled group into the completely submerged water cave. Even when swept into deep water, they refused to let go. Besides the gurgling sound of bubbles in their ears, all they could hear was the furious roar of the princess of stones on the water surface.

Jesse didn’t know how long he had been submerged in the water with the current. He always felt like his Unending Breath spell was about to fail. After all, in this chaotic situation, it was almost impossible for him to chant spells and make gestures. If it really failed, he didn’t know what to do.

However, before they truly felt suffocated, several people finally emerged from the water’s surface. Now, there was a wide dissolved cave. Other than the muffled rumblings and the intense collision sounds as the water splashed forward, they couldn’t hear anything else.

"You are really heartless, Jesse Seso."

Greed spat out water and said, Jesse noticed that there were cracks on his stone-made arm.

If he had grabbed Vereesa just now, he might have torn off her arm or leg on the spot…

After transforming, Greed could only withstand such an attack.

"Next time, even if I get eaten by this monster, I won’t let you use this darn magic on me. I really mean it," the dwarf complained, gasping for breath.

"Who wants to use this magic to bother you when they have nothing else to do," Jesse whispered.

Vereesa smiled and said, "Thank you, Greed."

"What do you have to thank me for, Elven Wisp?" Greed said, as the lightning in his eyes started to weaken. He seemed to have no strength left to maintain this powerful form, shrinking in size and losing the stony color of his skin.

Vereesa hesitated, glanced at Molofeel beside her, and finally said, "Thank you for your master’s command, demon."

The small-sized Molofeel raised his head to avoid the water reaching his lips, and in a strange tone, he said, "I am willing to serve you, Miss Windrunner."

The ranger coughed unnaturally, as if choked by water, or completely speechless.

Although it seemed they had escaped danger, Jesse had a feeling that there was something beneath the underground lake under Zaetar’s tomb.

He looked back in the direction where the others had been washed away, but he saw nothing.

Could he be mistaken?

He pulled his arms out from between everyone’s chests and backs, and now it was time to take a deep breath. He didn’t know how long they would drift for or if they would encounter completely submerged caves again.