Chapter 113. You Have Statues, I Have an Erumpent
Duncan held up the sculpture and moved cautiously through the hatching pool of the spider nest, stopping where the sculpture's light shone the brightest.
The light released by the sculpture was already brighter than the Wand-Lighting Charm, illuminating the parts of Duncan's body that were exposed.
"Is it here?
But I don't see anything..." Pro peered doubtfully in the direction Duncan was facing.
"Clear these webs away and then look again."
Duncan swung his wand, a gale swept through, and the cobwebs on the wall were blown away.
Duncan pressed close to the uneven wall and examined it carefully, holding the sculpture and moving it slowly along the surface.
He stopped only when he reached a sunken hole, where the glow from the sculpture was even brighter than before.
Duncan raised his hand and tapped lightly, and at once came a dull thudding sound.
It seemed hollow behind the wall.
He thought for a moment, took a step back, raised his wand, spoke an incantation, and the wall in front was blasted apart by a beam of light.
"Cough, cough..."
Duncan coughed twice, waved away the dust billowing before him, and stepped into the newly revealed tunnel.
The scene changed at once.
The ground was paved with neatly cut flagstones, stretching into the pitch-black depths.
The side walls had likewise been smoothed to perfection, and at intervals there were sconces that lit up one after another with Duncan's footsteps.
"Man-made?"
Duncan cast a treasure-finding charm and looked ahead.
But it was all pitch-black to the eye, without a single gleaming orb, and the few points of light were all back in the cave behind him.
"There really isn't anything..."
Pro was disappointed, sprawling on Duncan's palm and refusing to budge, his face full of dejection.
"Wait!"
Duncan cocked his ear.
From the other end of the passage came a clacking sound, as though something were moving.
"You get in my pocket first."
Duncan settled Pro, fixed his gaze forward, gripped his wand tight, and prepared for a fight.
After a brief wait, nothing appeared ahead.
Duncan thought it over for a moment, then edged forward along the side of the passage with caution.
After he had walked several dozen metres, the ground suddenly began to tremble.
Duncan steadied himself and saw the side wall slowly rise, revealing a pitch-black passage wide enough for two people to walk abreast, and at the same time the clacking sound he had heard before sharpened abruptly.
A bad feeling rose in Duncan's heart.
He decisively stepped back two paces, away from the new passage.
It proved the wisest choice.
He had barely moved away when a massive iron axe, gleaming with cold light, swept out of the darkness and slammed into the floor.
Bang!
The flagstones cracked under the tremendous force, and the flying chips of stone struck Duncan in the face.
"What on earth?"
Duncan cried in alarm and flicked his wand rapidly, sending dazzling bolts of light into the pitch-black passage.
He now saw clearly the thing that had swung the axe.
It was an enormous stone statue, its gem-set eyes fixed intently on him.
The armour on the statue's body was not merely similar to the sculpture he had picked up in the Black Lake.
It was exactly the same.
Perhaps his method of entry had been too rough and had triggered the defensive mechanisms within the passage?
"Looks like I'll have to force my way through?"
A thought flashed through Duncan's mind, and he prepared to smash the statue at the side and push through.
But then he heard another rumbling of footsteps in the distance, echoing along the corridor, and the floor shook with them.
Several stone statues wielding iron axes came marching in a line from afar, the gemstones in their eyes glowing green and locked on Duncan, and as Duncan moved they stiffly swivelled their stone heads.
"Duncan, c-can you beat them?"
Pro poked his head out, stared nervously ahead, and stammered.
Duncan flicked his wand and fired a spell, which unerringly struck the tall stone statue striding straight toward him.
But it was as if some special magic had been laid upon the statue's body.
The spell rebounded off it and shot into the ceiling, blasting open a gaping hole.
The damage Duncan's magic did was not even as good as the debris falling from above.
When those fragments struck the statue's head, at least it paused for a moment.
"Hiss, they play this rough," Duncan said, shocked.
If spells were useless against these statues, did that mean he would have to fight through with his bare fists?
He looked at his pale, tender knuckles, then at the iron axes in the statues' hands, and promptly abandoned the idea.
Or should he blast the ceiling down and bury them all?
But if he really did that, Duncan felt he might die even faster than the statues.
"Duncan, why don't we go?
We've had a look anyway, and there's nothing good in there..."
Pro spoke in fright, urging him to leave at once.
"Don't panic.
Good thing I brought the suitcase today, or we really might have come away empty-handed."
Duncan motioned Pro to be quiet.
With a flick of one hand, he opened the suitcase neatly, stuck his head in, and shouted, "Ari, get out here, quick—I need your help!"
Then he angled the lip of the case toward where the statues were and backed away step by step, widening the distance between himself and them.
But as he retreated, the statues suddenly quickened their pace, as if they would not rest until they had chopped him to death.
They were drawing nearer by the second, and the leader had already lifted its iron axe with unhurried menace.
"Ari, what are you dawdling for?
If you don't get out here, your snacks for a week are cancelled!"
Duncan shouted.
"Don't, don't, I'm already here!"
A huge head with a sharp horn squeezed out of the suitcase.
Ari looked at Duncan and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
Duncan let out a breath and pointed at the statues ahead.
"Smash them all for me!"
"You're sure?"
Excitement flashed in Ari's eyes.
For an Erumpent, putting its head down and ramming things out of the way was a delight.
Cooped up in the suitcase, it did not dare cut loose at will, and it had been pent up for a long time.
Beneath the sharp horn on its head, a great store of scalding liquid needed release!
"I'm sure, I'm sure—get going.
That axe is about to come down on my neck."
Duncan said hastily.
"Right then, give me a moment!"
Ari snorted a blast of searing heat from its nostrils, twisted its bulk free of the suitcase, and, with four thick legs pounding the ground, launched into a ferocious charge.
Duncan was not idle either.
He quickly cast spells to slow the downward swing of the iron axe, letting Ari crash into the statue a heartbeat earlier.
The statue was knocked flat by the Erumpent's astonishing strength.
It struggled to rise, but the point where Ari had struck began to seep scalding magma, swelling into a bulging, red-glowing blister that then exploded with a bang.
"Beautifully done, Ari!"
Seeing Ari dispatch a statue with ease, Duncan threw up a cheer.
Just then, another Erumpent had pushed half its body out of the suitcase.
Watching Ari cutting a swathe through the enemy, it said anxiously, "Ari, leave two for me—let me have two shots as well!"
"No need, Charlie.
You just have a good rest.
I can take them all by myself!"
Ari trotted forward in high spirits, charging even faster, afraid Charlie would climb out and compete with it for the fun.
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