Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 256: Traps and Golems

Seeing the storm dissipating, the Ice Elves faltered, the formation breaking as the adventurers pressed their advantage. They also seemed significantly weaker than before, and this time, the adventurers were able to kill off all of them.

"The storm, it was boosting their power."

Wanette voiced the observation everyone had begun to piece together as they regrouped to handle the wounded and the adventurers nodded in agreement, murmuring among themselves about how the elves’ strength had noticeably waned as the weather had cleared.

Jamie, who had been quietly observing until now, finally walked over to the group. He placed his hands on the twins’ shoulders and looked at Wanette before scoring them.

"Not bad. Six out of ten."

David frowned, glancing at him skeptically.

"That sounds... kind of bad."

"Actually, that’s just average."

Davina interjected, tilting her head and their little interaction drew stares from the adventurers. Standing out even more was Jamie who hadn’t lifted a finger throughout the entire battle—something they all noticed.

One of the adventurers finally couldn’t hold back anymore and asked with a frown.

"Why aren’t you fighting? You don’t seem injured, and we could’ve used the help."

The response he received, was a typical Jamie-like response.

"If I ’actively participate,’ it wouldn’t be any fun."

The adventurers stared at him, dumbfounded. To think he could have the nerve to talk about ’fun’ in their current circumstances.

"This is a life-and-death situation!"

One of them exclaimed, frustration seeping into their voice, but Jamie only shrugged in response.

"For you, yes. For me? Not so much."

The ambiguous remark left the adventurers even more baffled.

Leaving aside how Jamie was on the level where he could delete this entire snowy world with a single strike, the man was an Immortal. ’Life-and-death’ situations didn’t exist in his book.

Of course, the adventurers had no idea about this, but the three vampires who did know stepped in before the conversation could spiral further.

"We should focus on finding somewhere to rest."

Davina spoke in a tone that left no room for argument and the adventurers begrudgingly agreed, the group setting off to locate shelter.

Like usual, Jamie trailed behind with one hand in his pocket and the other now playing Surfing Subways on his phone.

To an outside observer, he might have seemed like a tourist rather than someone venturing through a dangerous terrain.

◇　◇　◇ 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The party trudged forward through the snow. Though the storm was subdued, the cold weather was far from gone.

As they moved, David lamented not getting any useful information after searching the corpses of the elves they had defeated.

Nothing like a map or any item that could give them an idea of their location relative to civilization or shelters.

"The way I see it, this is only the beginning. I understand they’re Ice Elves, but they’d need buildings and the like to live in.

If this forest is where they live, then I’m guessing we’re on the outskirts of their territory and the ones we’ve encountered so far were scouts on patrol or something."

David gave his observation and Davina nodded in affirmation as she adjusted her grip on her sword.

"They were organized, as well. That wasn’t just some random ambush."

Just before Wanette could mention how even scouts needed somewhere to regroup, Eryan spoke up, scoffing at Davina’s statement.

"Organized? You’re giving them too much credit. They fell apart as soon as we hit them hard enough."

"Because their goal wasn’t to win."

David countered before Davina could snap, internally impressed at how Eryan had managed to piss off his sister numerous times in the past hour.

’She’s usually the calmer one of us two.’

Shaking his head to rid himself of the thoughts, he glanced around to see if there were any elves still watching them from afar and spoke.

"They were probably testing out power. To see how strong we were."

"And now they know."

Jamie added, raising his head to look at the injured ones in the group, all of which were the adventurers Eryan was supposed to be leading.

He sighed and shook his head, and upon seeing this, Eryan’s expression twisted.

"You’ve got something to say?"

Jamie tilted his head in apparent confusion, looking around like he didn’t know Eryan was talking to him before speaking.

"Oh, you mean me? Nah. Just pointing out the obvious. If they were testing us, it means they’re planning something bigger. But hey, keep charging in like a hero. It’s working great so far."

Again, Davina barely stifled her laughter. Her twin brother didn’t bother holding his back and Wanette just smiled wryly.

Eryan’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. Correction, he couldn’t say anything, especially to David and Davina who had been carrying the group in all the battles so far.

Suddenly, Wanette’s grimoire flashed and her eyes narrowed.

"Stop!"

Hearing her, the adventurers stopped instinctively. Wanette’s Rune magic had already shown its use and versatility in supporting and healing them, and some of the adventurers didn’t miss her grimoire’s page flashing with light.

"...what is it?"

Eryan asked with a frown, but Wanette didn’t answer him. She simply picked a stone and tossed it in front of the group.

Just when everyone was wondering why she did that, the stone touched the ground and a sharp snap echoed as hidden spikes shot up from the ground.

"?!"

"Clever bastards."

David muttered as he saw the spikes. If not for the trap detection spell Wanette had kept on continuous cast, they would have walked straight into that one.

Now armed with the knowledge that their path was laden with traps, the ground began moving more cautiously, but the traps only became more frequent.

Pitfalls, hidden ice spikes, and trap magic circles designed to freeze or slow their movement.

Wanette’s grimoire was flashing nearly every minute.

"Damn it. How many of these things are there?"

Eryan growled as he narrowly avoided triggering another trap, but no one responded to him.

His brow furrowed and he tried to speak once more, only for Jamie who was focused on his phone to speak up without raising his gaze.

"Don’t forget. These traps were set by people."

Jamie’s words simply reminded them of the obvious and it earned confused gazes from the others. David and Davina were also confused, but they stopped to ponder why Jamie would suddenly say that.

The answer to their internal query came less than ten seconds later.

Just as the group burst out from the sea of trees and into a wide, open expanse, they came face to face with a group of ice elves at the far end of the clearing.

The elves had their weapons drawn and their eyes fixed on the intruders, with stances that showed they were clearly awaiting them.

"Looks like they brought more friends this time."

Jamie spoke after a quick glance at them, and Wanette instantly understood why he spoke the moment she set her eyes on the crystal shards in the hands of some of the elves.

"Disruption!"

She acted immediately, sending pages of her grimoire with runes on them flying towards the elves.

Her actions alarmed the elven mages and they shouted in their language to the ones holding the crystals, telling them to throw the crystals down fast.

Though surprised, the ice elves obeyed and threw the crystals down, however, some weren’t fast enough and Wanette’s flying grimoire pages reached them and caused the crystals to explode in their hands.

As for the ones who threw their crystals down, her grimoire pages couldn’t do anything as it was too late.

The crystals exploded with blue light and from the light emerged towering ice golems, glowing with the same blue energy as the crystals.

"Well, that’s new."

Davina muttered as she drew her sword and seeing the golems, Eryan’s eyes gleamed.

"They’re big and slow. I’ve got this."

"No."

David summoned his spear and held it to block Eryan from moving forward.

"These things would be coordinated along with the elves, don’t just charge in blindly."

Before Eryan could argue, the golems began their assault, lumbering forward while the Ice Elves hung back, firing a volley of arrows to keep the group pinned.

Just as the adventurers braced for the golems to engage them directly, the massive constructs suddenly leapt into the air with surprising speed and dexterity, their massive forms casting long shadows as they soared.

"They’re—what?!"

[IMPORTANT AUTHOR NOTE]