POV Vesuvius:
The dragon flew across the sky, leaving behind a thick trail of smoke, the tall black tower before him was quickly getting closer. He braced with his wings, and in one quick swoop, his body landed on the tower's roof, the whole tower shaking under him.
His body suddenly froze as he inhaled a whiff of air. It was a very weak and faint odour, but it couldn't escape the dragon's keen senses.
He immediately narrowed his eyes, scanning his surroundings, 'Something is in the air... Someone was here. Someone that I don't know. It is so weak that they likely tried to erase their smell. Yet it still feels fresh.'
Both of his hearts immediately flared in quiet but intense anger as he knew the only type of beings that were stupid enough to sneak into a dragon nest.
'A thief, someone wanted to rob me.'
Vesuvius breathed out in relief, knowing he had just dodged a bullet by taking all his precious gold with him. Shudders passed down his scales, just thinking about returning home and finding that all of his gold was gone.
He looked around, trying to spot any possible intruder. However, he didn't spot anyone.
In an instant, the dragon opened his mouth, shouting in a cold voice that was so loud that it resounded through the whole surroundings, shaking with the tall white peaks and sending vibrations through the ash-filled wastelands, "Catch that thief that stepped into my tower!"
At that exact moment, he quickly threw a mission to all of his minions.
Ding!
// New faction mission:
Objective: Catch the thief
Reward:
A finder: 5000XP; 100 gold coins; 1000 faction points
Other participants: 1000XP; 15 gold coins; 100 faction points
//
In a single instance, all of the monsters running around the tower turned their glowing red and golden eyes towards the tower and rushed in its direction. Clouds of ash and dust rose on the burned plains as everyone moved towards the tower at full speed.
'A hunt has started...'
POV Thief:
The figure in the grey froze, all of his excitement and adrenaline instantly evaporating from his body under the effects of the terrifying voice.
He stood like petrified in the middle of a dark, black corridor. Loud growls and howls were blaring through the dark corridors, all of the monsters going berserk.
Finally, he realised his huge mistake, 'What was I thinking?! There is no way I could trick this beast's senses.'
He was trapped. He saw no hope. The moment that he would leave out of the tower, there would be no hiding from the eyes of the wyrm. But staying inside was also a death sentence, with all the monsters and cultists searching around.
Voices came from a dark corridor.
"Quickly! This might be our last opportunity to gain more points before an update!"
'That's it, exactly what I needed.' the thief grinned as he found a solution. He nimbly jumped up, using his muscular legs and arms to cling to the ceiling. He stilled his breath, patiently waiting.
A flickering light of a torch soon illuminated the dark corridor that he was hiding in, with a bunch of steps quickly closing towards his location.
"Hey, Bobo, can you imagine what kind of an idiot would try to rob a wyrm in a tower with nothing around? Even if they managed to sneak in, there is no way that they could get away."
Thief ground his teeth, but somehow he felt like the cultists were right, 'Yes, I am an idiot.'
"Yes, Baba, I can imagine that only an ogre or a goblin would be stupid enough to do something like that."
He could no longer hold back as he jumped down from the ceiling, his two daggers glittering in the light of the torches.
Before his two victims could even react, the two shiny metal objects pierced straight through their hearts, both of them falling to the ground with two red puddles quickly growing under them.
'They should be immortals, so I should have at least half an hour before they resurrect with all of their equipment returning to their possession.'
The thief quickly undressed a black mantle from one of the bodies and grabbed a stone mask from his face, putting both of them on.
Finally, he grabbed a small vial from his pocket, spilling its content over the two bodies. In instant bright flames flashed, turning both of the bodies into ash.
'Haha, who is an idiot now... well, likely still me.' the truthful words of the two cultists were still stinging like a bee in his mouth.
POV Vesuvius:
The dragon impatiently sat on top of the tower, his neck leaning over the edge, watching for any movement. Suddenly he realised Something, his eyes looking straight towards the black ravine leading into his secret underground complex.
'It should be alright. The dracodactyl and the kobold should be around to protect her.'
Still, he had a bad feeling, fearing that someone might have attacked his best minion.
Humans often considered minions to be the equivalent of slaves, working for their cruel masters without any rewards while being constantly abused. They thought that all of the minions were just expandable rags and that their masters had no qualms about them dying.
However that couldn't be further from the truth, dragons and other draconic races always considered their minions worthy of such a prestigious rank.
'It is an honour to serve dragons.'
They never considered them to be expandable except for their lowest ranks, as dragons were greedy, making them consider all of their minions to be their assets, which gave them their protection.
No dragon would just watch their minions getting beaten up. That was like watching their own property being vandalised!
And as for the reward? Their reward was the honour of serving their masters with an occasional boon of obtaining immortality.
The dragon jumped from the towers, turning into a black arrow that instantly swished through the air towards the hole in the ground.
His eyes were still shining with anger.
The moment that he reached the hole, his rage erupted even more when he caught a whiff of more unknown odours, 'More thieves! They are like roaches. If there is one in the open, there is even more of them hiding.'
POV Kidnapees:
No one knew what was going on. Everyone was still shaking after the terrifying voice that passed through the layers of stone as nothing.
"Damn thieves! They tried really tried to rob our master." their former elven colleague that went insane was angrily walking around the room, stomping around with surprising anger.
Each of them shuddered at it, thinking about all the horrors she had to get through for her to go insane.
Suddenly the whole cave shook with the temperature of the air quickly rising. Loud ground shaking steps came from the long black corridor, with faint blue light glowing in the distance.
Even though they couldn't see what it was, they all could feel that some invisible aura flooded the tunnel, submerging their bodies.
They all felt like they were facing a terrifying and deadly predator, with every cell in their bodies screaming at them about an incoming danger, yet they couldn't move.
"Ohhh, our master has arrived!" Alesia stopped stomping around the chamber, and instead, she turned towards the dark tunnel, her eyes brightly shining with a happy smile plastered on her face.
"Alesia, what the hell is this 'master'?!" the dwarf looked at her in horror while the arcanists hid behind the corner, quietly sobbing with her whole body trembling.
Soon two brightly glowing eyes flared up in the darkness. Their distinct look immediately made everyone realise what her master was.
Suddenly the alchemist, who until now remained quiet, turned excited even with the terrifying presence close to them, "That means that the blood you have shown us must be real! My dream of being beautiful forever is in the reach of my hand!"
The dwarf wanted to smack her and shut her up, feeling that her word would cause lots of trouble for them, "Shut up. You whore, now is not a time for this!"
A cold and loud voice passed through them, causing their hair and clothes to flail in the wind, "Quiet down, all of you!". Everyone immediately froze, their bodies instinctively listening to the order. Even the sobbing arcanist turned quiet, holding her hand over her mouth.
They couldn't see anything except for the thick black smoke filling the tunnel, the pair of golden eyes and the weird pulsing blue glow.
"My minion, do you know these mortals or..." the voice suddenly changed, becoming even more terrifying "...are they intruders?"
The last word caused their minds to go blank. No one could stop the terror from flooding their minds. They wanted to scream and beg for mercy, but they couldn't. Their mouths were still firmly locked under the commands of the monster before them.