Chapter 885 885 Precautions
?There appeared to only be one way forward for Wolfe and his companions, and it was through this mimicry of a swamp with its acid water and sludge monsters.
"Can the witches do anything about purifying that? Or is it pure acid and not corrupted water?" Wolfe asked.
Cassie focused and cast a cleansing near them, which made both the ground and the surface of the swamp bubble and hiss.
"It's about three quarters water, diluted acid. Give me some time and I can purify it enough that we can move across relatively safely. But we will have to eliminate those monsters as we go. They can change shape, so they could follow us anywhere." She replied.
"Alright, I will let you three work on the swamp, or you can take turns and the rest of us can take a break." Wolfe agreed.
It was challenging to tell time here, but they hadn't been here for more than a few hours, so it wasn't time to sleep. But they were weary from the spell casting, and they could use some time to recover before they moved on.
"We will switch at the one third mark. That way, all three witches have time to recover before we have to move on." Ella agreed.
Then they slumped on the ground to rest while Cassie started to work, spreading the bubbling purification across the fetid swamp and forcing the green sludge monsters back.
They couldn't take the purified water, its naturally slightly alkaline state was toxic to them, so all they could do was flee.
In this world, they were the equivalent of slimes, mostly harmless and not the sort of creature that would attack anyone willingly. But the group didn't know that, so Cassie was dutifully working to clear a path for them to the other side of the cavern, where they could see an exit.
Molly pointed to the far wall. "You know, we don't need to convert it all, just a wide enough strip that we can cross. What if someone made two barriers to the far side, and then we purified the acid in between them? We could make a safe walkway much faster."
The acid would eat at the barrier, but it wasn't magical, so it wouldn't do huge amounts of damage.
"Let's see what the sludge monsters do when we make the barriers. If they don't react, we will purify our way across. We could try to make an earthen bridge as well, but we would still have to deal with the monsters, which the purified water is keeping away." Ella suggested.
She created two long barriers to keep the purified water inside a contained area, but the moment that she did, the slimes returned to the edges of the barrier, and their corrosive bodies began to eat at it.
Wolfe shook his head. "Well, that's less than optimal. Alright, let's keep on this way, but focus on making a path to the far side. Or do you think that it can be done fast enough to make an island of purified water to walk across the swamp?"
Cassie shook her head. "We would have to contain the water somehow, and we've seen what happens when we erect a barrier. I could try pushing the purified water forward into the acid, though, to try to displace it. Give me a moment."
Making water move was elementary water magic, which Cassie was excellent with, and after a few seconds, the arch of purified water became an egg, and then a tube, still purifying from all sides and forcing the sludge monsters back.
That was allowing the expansion to much more rapidly move toward the other bank, and the other two witches joined, in letting the progress move at more than a walking pace.
"Alright, if you can do that while walking, we can go now. I will use gravity magic so we don't have to get wet, while the purification will keep the monsters away from our path." Wolfe announced when he saw the progress.
They all got back to their feet, and followed Wolfe across the platforms of gravity magic while the sludge monsters stared at them from a distance. Any creature that could poison their lair with such ease was something that they feared, so none of them tried to approach as the group moved past and sent a lightning sprite to scout the tunnel at the end.
The sprite made it fifty metres or so, and then it was suddenly destroyed.
Wolfe turned to the group. "Keep the purified water active around the tunnel, something destroyed the sprite up ahead, and we don't want to fight two battles at once. Let's move forward and see what we're going to find up there."
If it had instantly destroyed the sprite, they probably didn't want to actually meet it, but they had to keep moving if they were ever going to make it to the portal.
The sludge monsters showed no intentions of coming after them as the group moved into the tunnel. They were unwilling to leave their acid pool, and the tunnel was bone dry, not at all pleasant for them.
Wolfe led the way into the next chamber, where the sound of rattling bones and something scratching on stone was making a haunting echo in the small space.
A large bone skull in front of the entrance made them think it might be an abattoir of some sort, a dumping spot for bones of the dead, but the moment they stepped inside, the bones began to move.
Skeletons of inhuman creatures surrounded a massive bone dragon, and Wolfe sighed in relief.
"What are you doing? Undead dragons are extra scary." Molly whispered to him, with her fluffy ears pressed tight to her head.
Cassie patted her head and placed her hands on the shoulders of the young beastkin. "You will see in a second. There is no reason for a Noxus Patriarch to actually fear the undead."
Wolfe smiled down at them, and then channelled mana while he felt the sense of concern coming from the announcers and the host watching them.
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