章節 22: The Grand Wizard and The Mermaid
"You have five seconds to explain." Ellamir's tone was icy cold, glaring at the mermaid in Antani's arms. What irked Ellamir even more is that the Mermaid looked like she was in high heavens.
Antani judged the truth might not fly so well with Ellamir. In fact, it's not going to fly at all. "She…uh…She was trapped! Yeah, that's it, I'm only helping her out!" It was Antani's wild guess, why else would the Mermaid cry for Antani to take her?
Meanwhile, Stefano watched from the sidelines as the two bickered. Their guess is that the gaudy gate in front of them should have the legendary artifact, now they just need to wait for Yulia to arrive. He doesn't know how long until Yulia would, good thing there is entertainment in front of him.
"She's looking trapped alright, trapped in your arms!"
Antani didn't want to argue in this place, for all they know their battles aren't over yet. "Ellamir, don't start, please. I couldn't just abandon her, she was crying, she looked like she really wanted to leave this dungeon."
Ellamir didn't want to argue either, but if it was up to her Antani should've just left the mermaid to rot in this dungeon. She could cry her a river for all she cares. Still, she understands that kindness is one of Antani's defining features. Ellamir crossed her arms as she laid her back on the cave wall.
"Where's Yulia?" Antani asked.
"Don't know." Ellamir's reply was brief, almost spiting, indicating that she's still pissed at the mermaid situation.
"Eh, she's going to be fine, she's strong as hell. Let's just wait." Antani said as she effortlessly carried the mermaid. She couldn't feel the mermaid's full weight because she's using mana to augment her arm strength.
Antani sensed that Ellamir was too out of it to converse, the mermaid couldn't understand her, so she turned to Stefano across from her.
(How are you still alive?) Is what Antani wanted to ask, but that would be too unsubtle. She doesn't want to belittle him but he's the one who told them that he had zero combat experience."Did you encounter any danger where you got teleported?"
"Yes, I never thought I'd say this but I would've died if it wasn't for Ellamir."
"Really now? I thought I remembered a certain someone saying they're not going to help you." Antani grinned.
"Hmph." Ellamir should've been roused by Stefano's disbelief, but her focus lay elsewhere.
Even for a moment, Ellamir's eyes didn't leave the mermaid, (How dare you! I'm the only one who's supposed to get wrapped in those arms!)
What pushed Ellamir to her limit was the next part, it was when the swooning mermaid tried to caress Antani with her webbed hands, surprising even the amazon.
"Alright, that's it. I've had enough of you, you overgrown fish!" Ellamir charged at the mermaid, scooping her up from Antani's arms. The look of heartbreak was apparent on the mermaid's face as she was torn apart from Antani. She even tried to reach out her arms like she did last time.
"Hey, what are you doing!?" Antani was caught off guard, surely Ellamir wasn't planning on doing something sinister to the mermaid?
Stefano raised his brow. The drama in front of him was getting spicy! Wait, why was Ellamir walking towards him?
"Consider this as payment for saving you earlier." Ellamir dumped the mermaid in Stefano's arms.
Stefano lurched from the mermaid's weight, "Ooof!" He grimaced as he was supposed to be an audience, not included in the couple's theatrics. "S-she's a bit heavy. Antani, can you please take her back?"
Ellamir gave Stefano a death glare, "No, she will not."
"I totally agree with you, she will not. In fact, this mermaid isn't that heavy at all."
Ellamir proceeded to stand right next to Antani. She didn't know what the mermaid's deal was, but she wasn't going to tolerate her getting touchy with her woman. Ellamir went and held Antani's hand. Only Ellamir has the right to get touchy with her.
For the coup de grâce, Ellamir kissed the back of Antani's hand with a villainous glint in her eye, knowing that the mermaid was watching.
The mermaid's expression was that of someone whose heart had been broken into a million pieces. The waterworks started as shedove and cried into Stefano's shoulder.
If she truly wanted, Antani could rip her hand from Ellamir's. The mermaid was nothing more than a stranger, and the extent of her kindness would be to help her escape the dungeon.
Antani sighed, "You're a wicked woman, you know that right?"
"Indeed I am."
Minutes later they could hear armored footsteps approaching.
It was Yulia.
Covered from head to toe in blue blood.
"The fuck happened to you?" Ellamir was truly curious as to what the tiefling had been through.
Yulia's helmet unfolded itself to become parts of her armor once again. Revealing an enervated tiefling underneath. "Scorpions, a whole lot of them." Her gaze shifted to Stefano and the mermaid crying her heart out. "What's the deal with the mermaid?"
"I found her, she tried to…I mean, she begged for me to help her escape." Antani answered Yulia.
"And why is she crying?"
"I didn't know what her deal was but she acted all cozy with Antani, I had to show her the hard way that Antani's taken." Ellamir was remorseless. She could've done things with more tact but the way the mermaid eyed Antani really ticked her off.
"Did anyone even try to ask what her deal was?" Yulia inched closer to the mermaid so she could take a look at her face.
Antani answered that the mermaid only spoke in Mer.
Upon seeing the Mermaid's gorgeous looks, Yulia immediately scooped her up from Stefano, much to his delight.
"Don't cry now, tears don't suit a beautiful maiden like you." Yulia tried to comfort the mermaid, it sounded like she was borderline flirting.
The mermaid looked apprehensively at Yulia before she peeked at the couple, prompting her to sob even harder.
Ellamir sneered, "Way to go, your cheesy line made her cry even more."
"It's the thought that counts. And my lines are smooth!"
Antani let go of Ellamir's hand so she could open the gate before them, "You know what, let's just get this job over with."
The creaking sound that giant door made ignited their curiosity as to what they would find on the other side.
+++
What they found on the other side was disappointment.
The room was tiled and its walls were cement filled with snake motifs.
There's a pedestal in the center containing the miniature statue of an Old man. His hair white with age along with his long beard. What set him apart from other Olden wizened generic wizards was his expensive looking snake skin robe along with his slit eyes.
The group huddled around the statue with utter confusion. Ellamir was the first to break the confused silence.
"What the fuck is this shit!? I can't feel an ounce of magic power from this piece of garbage!"
Antani tried turning the statue to see if it was some kind of mechanism, triggering a secret passage where the real legendary artifact could be located. Nothing.
"Try breaking it, maybe the real artifact is inside!" Stefano suggested.
"Don't break it, you buffoons!" An old and raspy voice echoed all around.
A flash of light similar to what transported the group into the dungeon appeared in front of them.
The old man that came from the light was similar in appearance to the statue.
"Hello, Guild master, Caduceus. You promised us a legendary artifact, where is it?" Yulia grilled the Grand wizard. Just because he's the guild master it doesn't give him the right to offer fluke rewards.
But what if he truly believes that it wasn't a fluke? That his prowess was so mighty one could consider it legendary - nay, even beyond!
"I got your legendary artifact right there." The grand wizard pointed towards the statue.
"I am legendary, therefore that statue which can be considered an artifact is also legendary. Yahahaha!"
"This cuckoo is our guild master?" Ellamir was incredulous, the old man seems to be the same breed as her mother albeit a benign version.
"I am a snake, not a cuckoo!" Suddenly, the grand wizard began strangely looking at Ellamir, as if he was scanning her for any abnormalities. "I sense the magic of druids upon you, but you don't seem to have any visible part of you altered. Could it be that you have a…"
With a blink of an eye, Ellamir was clad in her shadow armor, exuding murderous intent. "You're dead if you finish that sentence."
Antani didn't stop Ellamir. Sometimes, you have to learn your lessons the hard way.
A childish grin came forth from the Grand wizard's face. "...Pecker?"
"Aaaaah, you shitty wizard!" Ellamir planned to dash forth, planning to tear the wizard to shreds for exposing her secret.
Before she could make the dash, the guild master was already one step ahead. With a flick of his wrist, the guild master was able to form a circle underneath Ellamir. The dark elf was swallowed by the ground.
Ordinary quagmire spells are made of mud and would restrain the target up to their ankle, the highest would be up to their thigh. But the Guild master's was on a different league, it was quick sand, with surgical precision he managed to bury only Ellamir into the ground with only her neck sticking out.
"Antani, help!" Ellamir quickly turned to the Amazon.
Seeing that Ellamir wasn't in danger and was only restrained, Antani ignored her plea. "No, you stay in there until you have calmed down."
"Release me, you shitty wizard!" Ellamir struggled with all her might followed by a defeated scream. Her success of moving out of the special quicksand by force is similar to her being able to push a mountain.
"Yahahaha!" The Grand wizard released a hearty chuckle, obviously enjoying Ellarmir's torment.
Meanwhile, Yulia, still carrying the Mermaid, whispered something in Antani's ear in order for Ellamir not to notice. "Is she big?"
Antani's cheeks flushed crimson, the secret is out now. Yulia was a bit intrigued and Stefano didn't care at all. If they are taking the revelation with stride, why shouldn't she?
Antani answered with a coquettish smile, "She is hung."
The tiefling gasped, "Oh, you sly Amazon!"
With Ellamir hanging her shame in defeat, quiet was finally regained in the vicinity.
"Are you going to tell us what your whole deal with this dungeon is?" Yulia asked their Guild master.
"There was no Deal, really. I just wanted to craft a dungeon because I was bored!"
"You almost got me killed because you were bored!? You're not eccentric, you're downright crazy!" Stefano was angered that he got chased by the skeleton crew to death just because the crazy wizard wanted to dick around.
"Me, crazy!? Quite likely. Yahahaha!"
Even Antani was peeved, "Kidnapping an innocent mermaid is no laughing matter!"
"What kidnapping, I paid for her to be her and stall the intruders!"
To their surprise, the mermaid started speaking Mer, conversing with the Grand wizard.
"Uh huh, I see. Yes." After bobbing his head in agreement, the wizard then began speaking in Mer as well. Stroking his beard, he relayed to everyone what the mermaid had said. "She said Antani here looked like her deceased lover. Just when she thought she had moved on from her memory, you appeared. Thinking that her lover came back for her as a human. But now she is painfully aware that you are not her because her lover would never hold hands with another woman."
"A mermaid that looks like me, how!? Unless…"
Before Antani could try to ruminate on the answer, the guild master had a follow up statement.
"Also, she apologizes that she tried to kiss you."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I'm going fillet that fucking fish!" The dormant ellamir roared followed by struggling like her dear life depended on it, radiating unmeasurable amounts of livid energy.
The amazon face palmed, asking the guild master, "She has no way of escaping in there, right?"
"Not in this lifetime."
"Good, let's just…keep her there for now."
With the legendary artifact being a sham, they found solace in the fact that the 500 gold reward was real and they are momentarily filthy rich.
Since the dungeon was no more, the responsibility for the mermaid was solely dumped on stefano. It was something that Yulia would have eagerly jumped to had it not been for myrene.
It was the next day, Antani invited Ellamir to shop in the market but she was still ticked off about the whole mermaid/quicksand ordeal, and decided to remain in their room.
At the market she ran into Yulia and the two decided to hang out for a bit.
"Where's Ellamir?" Yulia asked the Amazon who was perusing for an item.
"At home, still mad about what happened yesterday.I mean, she had it coming. She lashed out towards the Guild master and she was an ass towards Gloria."
Yulia snickered, Antani was on point. "That is true, speaking of Gloria, did you check up on her before leaving?"
"Yeah, Stefano launched a barrage of complaints at me about how he can't use his own bathroom because a mermaid is in there splashing in the tub with glee. They're both doing great." Antani said as she moved on to the next stall.
"It's good that she's already calmed down. You really think her lover used to look like you?"
"I only have one sister and she may be half-human but she wasn't half-fish. My guess is that it's my father, he's a sailor." Antani didn't need to explain further, Yulia could piece the answer by herself.
The amazon's eyes widened in delight, looking like she found just what she was looking for in the stall in front of her.
It's been about an hour since they started shopping and Yulia was suddenly filled with the urge to go visit Myrene, before she left she asked the amazon "Moon world tomorrow night?"
"Yeah, we'll be there."
"All right, see you soon." Right as she was about to part with antani, she noticed that she was carrying a lot of ropes. Out of curiosity she asked, "What are you doing with all that rope?"
"I…Uh…I needed to repair…repair something in the apartment. Yeah, that's it!"
The tiefling gave Antani a skeptical look before they went their separate ways.
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