Carol Summers’ maid picked up a small stone from the ground, backed away from where she was and whispered to Carol Summers: “Lucias Vyn and her team are here. They’re on the other side. I also saw a lot of sleeping beasts sleeping in the entire area just outside this exit. ”

“Then lure them away from our position and we prepare for a strike.” Carol Summers nodded and then delivered the report from her maid to the rest of her team using a small message delivering spell: “Everyone stay quiet and wait for a signal.”

Carol Summers’ maid calmed her breaths, then after a short moment of aiming and concentration, the small stone she picked up was tossed in the air, spinning. And as silently as it could possibly be, the stone landed on an empty space between the remote lights and the horde of sleeping beasts, making a small, but still very clear sound. What was more was that the stone delivered a very noticeable shock through the ground - which made it more certain that the sleeping beasts would sense the stone. And at the same moment, Carol Summers cast a obscuring spell at the exit of the tunnel to block off their sound, their shadows and their energy signatures.

The beasts that were closer to the point of impact of the stone were instantly woken up, and their low growls woke up more sleeping beasts. From the looks of their wings, their three eyes of different colors, both Carol Summers, her maid, Soren Lupei and Melkan were able to tell what beasts these were: Nightmare Bat-wolves.

“They look - they look bigger than normal?” Melkan asked.

“Yes indeed. I think it’s probably the environment.” Soren Lupei asked: “Carol, you’re more experienced and knowledgeable in this area than I am - Nightmare Bat-wolves can feed on things corrupted by malice or other forms of negative energy and grow in power or even mutate right? But they cannot feed on pure malice or negative energy. I wonder what sustained them in this wretched place?”

“That’s true. And I don’t have an answer to this question.” Carol Summers shook her head: “My first instinct was the bodies of the Hellingers and their livestocks, but those wouldn’t last this long.”

Just this moment, almost all of the sleeping beasts woke up, and all of them had their eyes fixated on the direction of the stone, just as Carol Summers and her maid intended, they saw the light used by the team of Lucias Vyn and therefore were made aware of their presence.

One Nightmare Bat-wolf of smaller size but darker fur and longer tail howled, and all of the other Nightmare Bat-wolves started enclosing on Lucias Vyn and her team. This gave Carol Summers, Soren Lupei and their team the chance to get out of the tunnel and get into formation on the other side of the underground armory.

Some more Nightmare Bat-wolves let out chilling howls as they lunged at the team of Lucias Vyn, and glows of energy attacks appeared on their heads, their front claws and their tails. Beams of fire, lightning and high energy density light shot from her team and at the Nightmare Bat-wolves, so did many other forms of attacks.

“According to the intelligence, that powerful artifact was stored somewhere beneath the amory, but it was behind a door only those bearing the Hellinger bloodline could access. So we ready our weapons and wait.” Carol Summers while she slowly placed a portable obscuring array on the ground, covering all members of her and Soren Lupei’s team.

The forces of Nightmare Bat-wolves were ferocious and lethal to any, yet the team pulled together and led by Lucias Vyn and another witch with a face mask covering half her face was very well organized and prepared. This team gradually pushed forward in their position one step at a time, laying down and blasting away one Nightmare Bat-wolves after another, and their formation still remained mostly unchanged and their pace unhindered.

“Their target should be that bunker at the center.” Carol Summers’ maid said while holding her swords: “It’s quite clear. That bunker seemed to be mostly intact, I’m worried that if they got in, it would be difficult to drive them out or do anything to them.”

“I was just thinking the same.” Soren Lupei said: “The bat-wolves are a nuisance, but it looks like they can’t do much besides wearing them down a bit; and they won’t be able to do much at all when they get in. And IF they get into it and find it, it’s going to be hard to tell and there won’t be any time for us to step in and stop them from leaving.”

“Fuck.” Carol Summers ticked her tongue and cursed: “Archers and snipers, be ready. Soren, can you handle flanking them? We strike them with the element of surprise and full force, and I’ll handle extracting the information from her. Worst comes to worst, we’d still be rid of one pain in the ass.”

Just when the teams of Carol Summers and Soren Lupei were going into sneak attack formation, another rumble from the clouds occurred in the sky outside of the range of the castle, and out of the thick clouds and energy vortex, a portal with orange and golden edge appeared.