'I would love to stay and watch them fight. We could learn a lot from the Hordes, but I almost died by fighting a much weaker Puppeteer. That thing must be an Eldritch and there's no telling how powerful it is.' Lith said via the mind link.
'That's not just any Eldritch. He is Vareen the Plaguespreader!' Horror filled Aalejah's mind as she recognized their enemy. 'We need to get out of here fast!'
'If this is a test, where the fuck is the Council?' Athung asked.
"What the fuck is happening in Urgamakka and why did we lose the cameras?" Raagu said while calling Inxialot's Council amulet.
"Not now, old hag. This data is much better than that compiled by making the Hordes fight those greenhorns." An unknown voice replied before hanging up the call.
"Who was that?" Lotho called Inxialot as well, but the contact rune had suddenly become unavailable, a clear sign that the amulet had been stored inside a dimensional amulet.
"I won't stand for this bullshit!" Feela stood up, reading the Warping array that the Council had set up in the case the Lich pulled one of his shenanigans. "I told you it was a bad idea entrusting our kids to a madman."
"Then why didn't you volunteer to take his place?" Raagu said with a sneer.
"And waste days playing babysitter and rewarding that asshole for dumping his Council duties on us? No way!" Feela replied with a rage that turned into fear when the Warping Array failed to activate.
"Oh, shit. I'm afraid we have to call the Guardians."
"And tell them what? That we are unable to clean our own asses?" Raagu cursed non-stop at Inxialot's offline communication rune for a few seconds before giving up on the idea of getting back in touch with Urgamakka.
"How long would it take us to get there?" She asked.
"The city is located in the middle of nowhere so even if we combine our resources, it would take us a few minutes." Lotho said.
"Please, whatever attacked our students needed seconds to cut us off. Even if we get there in two minutes, it would be too late. I say we swallow our pride and ask for help. Guardians are still a part of the Council." Feela said.
"Is there nothing you can tell us from your link with the elf?" Raagu asked the World Tree.
"I'm sorry, but when the Hordes attacked, she lost consciousness and let go of the staff so- Call the fucking Guardians!" The Yggdrasill said.
Thousands of miles away from the Council, Aalejah had picked her staff up, allowing the representatives of the four races to discover that fear could even twist the bark of the First Awakened.
While Vareen managed to single-handedly take care of the nine Hordes that comprised the entirety of the Awakened fungal race on Mogar, his minions were tearing down the city as if it was made of paper-mache instead of stone and magic.
The Chaos they were imbued with allowed the Abomination hybrids to destroy any obstacle between them and their target while the defense mechanisms they met would just become fuel for their black cores.
"Help kids?" Ratpack pointed at a group of Chaos-infected creatures that were closing in to the apprentices.
"Right when things are getting interesting? Are you insane?" Inxialot asked as one of the Horde was hit by a Chaos spell that left no spore left, reducing them to eight. "Or not. Maybe they left some spare parts somewhere. They can still regen-"
A pack of corrupted animals took down another cloud of Awakened spores, reducing the number of Hordes to seven. Their destruction happened exactly as Lith's Death Vision had predicted back at the start of the test.
Anything and anyone caught by the Chaos just turned into cinders, leaving no trace of their bodies or even equipment.
"Okay, fine! Zolgrish, you go buy me some time while I collect the data and call for help." Inxialot said.
"Me? But I-" A snap of the Lich King's fingers put an end to the conversation and Warped his alleged friend and disciple in the line of fire.
Meanwhile, Lith and the others were flying at breakneck speed toward the exit.
'One of those non-Awakened mushroom things almost killed us all in Kulah. How can nine bright violet-cored Awakened be incapable of even slowing that thing down?' Phloria asked via the mind link.
'The "mushroom things" are called Hordes while "that thing" is an apex predator among the Eldritch Abominations.' Aalejah replied. 'Abominations are the bane of all living things and Eldritchs are the pinnacle of their species.
'It takes the Council's elite to stop even a single one of them and much more to kill them. Aside from white cored Awakened and Guardians, no one ever went toe to toe alone against an Eldritch and lived to tell the tale. Even the World Tree is afraid of them.'
'Why is he called Plaguespreader?' Athung asked, just to watch the answer block their path.
A flock of infected vultures had flown so fast that they had managed to intercept the fugitives. Their feathers had been devoured by the Chaos and replaced by a black light that not only supported their flight, but also increased their speed.
The vultures' bodies had grown ten times in size to accommodate the energy that they absorbed while consuming Urgamakka's arrays. That together with the black veins bulging out of their bodies gave them a monstrous look.
'Never mind!' Athung cursed her own big mouth and unleashed a tier five spell, Black Storm, that filled the air with a mix of darkness and air magic.
Darkness was supposed to be the bane of Abominations, yet despite the abundant mana she had poured in her spell, it lasted just a split-second. The vultures were now bigger and there was no sign of damage on their bodies.
'I was about to say that any attack on the corrupted parts of their bodies is pointless.' Aalejah said with a scoff. 'They feed on anything but Chaos, which means that all elements and weapons are but a snack to them.
'They absorbed the air element and used it to counter the darkness. Use only darkness-based spells and aim them at the healthy parts-'
'On it!' Phloria replied while activating Full Guard.
It gave her perfect awareness of her surroundings and when the first vulture attacked her in a feeding frenzy, she had no trouble countering it. Her estoc, Reaver, stabbed one of the eyes of the creature and released one of the spells she had imbued it with.
The head of the vulture disappeared in a burst of darkness, only to be regenerated in a burst of Chaos.
'I just made it stronger!' Phloria cursed at the elf while Life Vision showed her that the black core of the creature had become bigger by absorbing the life force released by the wound.
'What do you guys have against me finishing a sentence?' Aalejah cursed back. 'I was about to warn you about that. The healthy parts limit the strength of the hybrids because they are also their energy reserve.
'The more we destroy what's left of their bodies, the stronger the hybrids will become. Yet it will also speed up the corruption process and the moment the Chaos absorbs the last bit of their life force, they'll die.'
'What?' Lith couldn't help but draw a parallel between those hybrids and his lesser Abomination form, wondering if the same might happen to him.
