bookbashuk Chapter 168 Nameless Creature
Chapter 168 Nameless Creature
Chapter 168 Nameless Creature
"Smaug, take us down here immediately!"
Duy and Gandalf quickly jumped onto Smaug's back.
Smaug carried the two people on his back and began to freefall into the abyss.
The abyss beneath the Bridge of Dulin was not carved out by the dwarves, but rather a natural fissure formed within the mountain.
The abyss is bottomless; even the dwarves who once lived here did not know how deep it was, and no one ever measured it.
Duy and Gandalf followed the dragon Smaug as they plummeted down into the abyss, the cold wind howling around them, stinging their faces.
They didn't know how long they had been falling—was it a dozen minutes? An hour? Or a day?
The abyss was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
Fortunately, Duy and Gandalf were clinging to the back of the dragon, Smaug, which blocked most of the wind force, allowing them to open their eyes and observe their surroundings.
Just when Dui began to wonder if he had reached the depths of the Earth's core.
Smaug quickly spread his wings, drastically reducing his descent speed. He warned, "Master, the Balrog is down below, and it's climbing up!"
Duy and Gandalf peered down into the dark abyss and saw a small light flickering below, growing larger and larger.
In the pitch-black environment, the firelight always stands out so clearly.
Soon, they saw the Balrog wielding a fire whip, moving rapidly upwards along the stone wall of the abyss.
The originally cold air around us became scorching hot.
The Flame Demon below also noticed the presence of Dui and the others above. Immediately, it felt an intense hatred upon seeing its enemy. It let out a deafening roar and charged towards them as if walking on flat ground along the steep, smooth stone wall.
Dui took out the last three bottles of fire retardant, one for himself and one for Gandalf, and then fed one to Smaug.
After drinking the fire-retardant potion, Smaug felt a chill run through his body, and the fire in his stomach was instantly extinguished, preventing him from even spitting out a single dragon flame.
"Master?" Smaug asked, puzzled.
"Don't let the Balrog escape! Hold on to it tightly! Once it falls into the water at the bottom of the abyss, its power will be greatly reduced, and it will no longer pose a threat to us!" Dui said.
The next moment, the fire demon's flaming whip arrived first.
The whip wrapped directly around Smaug's foot.
Smaug was pleasantly surprised to find that the Balrog's flames no longer posed a threat to him. He immediately bit the fire whip and pulled the fire whip, along with the Balrog below, up with it.
Then he grabbed the Flame Demon tightly and fell down with it again.
The Balrog struggled incessantly, unleashing terrifying demonic flames that engulfed the dragon Smaug, along with Duy and Gandalf on his back.
Thanks to the fire-retardant, neither Dui nor Gandalf suffered burns, but they knew the effects wouldn't last long.
If they still can't defeat the Flame Demon before then, they will all be severely burned by the flames, or even burned to death.
As the dragon Smaug and the Balrog fought relentlessly, Duy and Gandalf also fell into the air.
Gandalf's staff was nowhere to be found. Holding the flaming sword and the strife sword in his hands, he leaped off Smaug and onto the Balrog's back, plunging the flaming sword deep into the Balrog's back. As he fell, he fought the Balrog with the other strife sword.
Dui could only hear the rapid, ear-piercing wind around him, his eyes almost unable to open, but seeing Smaug and Gandalf fighting the Balrog, he gritted his teeth, gripped his staff, and unleashed a spell with all his might.
"The golden bell falls to the ground!"
As the spell was cast, everyone who was already falling rapidly suddenly felt as if they were being weighed down by a thousand pounds, causing them to fall even faster.
The rapid fall caused the flames on the Balrog's body to turn into a long, fiery tail.
The intense feeling of weightlessness caused Dui to float, and he could only cling tightly to Smaug's dragon tail to avoid being thrown off.
Soon, a wave of cold, watery steam rushed towards me.
"Master, we're almost at the bottom of the abyss!" Smaug's voice reached Dui's ears amidst the rushing wind.
Perhaps sensing the deep water below, the Balrog struggled frantically, instantly unleashing terrifyingly hot flames that engulfed Duy, Gandalf, and Smaug in a sea of fire.
Even with the protection of fire retardant, Dui still felt a burning sensation.
He was surrounded by fire, and even his breath was filled with flames. His clothes and spatial bag were burned by the flames, and with crackling sounds, everything in the spatial bag spewed out and flew in all directions.
But Dui couldn't care less about that now. He swiftly grabbed the spear Eglos and leaped toward the Balrog, forcefully plunging it into one of the Balrog's eyes and unleashing destructive power.
The divine spear unleashed a burst of power, blasting off half of the fire demon's head.
But the Balrog's body is made of fire, so as long as the fire doesn't go out, it won't die.
The half of the fire demon's head that had been blown off grew back quickly as the flames replenished it.
However, Dui showed a relieved expression.
Because during the time it took for half of the Balrog's head to be blown off, although the Balrog did not die, it briefly fell into a state of mental stagnation.
As a result, they have reached the bottom of the abyss.
"Stop the speed by reducing shock!" came Dui's voice.
Dui, Gandalf, and Smaug all hovered a few dozen centimeters above the water's surface, avoiding being smashed to pieces.
The Balrog, on the other hand, plunged straight into the deep water without slowing down, creating a huge splash.
At the same time, there was a hissing sound when water and fire met.
After hovering for about a second, Dui, Gandalf, and Smaug crashed heavily into the water.
Dui instantly felt as if he had entered an ice cave, the surrounding water was incredibly cold, and his blood vessels and heart felt as if they were about to freeze.
It was pitch black all around, and there wasn't a single ray of light in sight.
Dui released a beam of light that illuminated the surface of the deep water.
Then we saw Smaug, Gandalf, and Balrog!
Dui quickly climbed onto Smaug's back, thus avoiding the possibility of freezing to death while still submerged in water.
Meanwhile, Gandalf was still fighting the Balrog.
"Evil spirit, this is Ulmo's domain, you have no power here!" Gandalf's voice, like thunder, echoed throughout the depths of the abyss, his sword gleaming.
As if to confirm Gandalf's words, the Balrog who fell into the water had all his flames extinguished.
It became extremely weak and transformed into a viscous, dark form.
Although still powerful, it has been weakened by more than one level compared to before.
His strength is roughly the same as Gandalf's.
"Master, you're down too!" A hissing voice suddenly sounded from the side.
Then the serpent monster Herpo emerged from the water, closed its eyes, and asked Dui a question with a smile.
"Helpo!" Dui was stunned for a moment, then burst into surprise.
When Helbo and the Underwater Watcher were thrown into the abyss by the Balrog, he was a little worried about Helbo's safety, but he didn't expect that he would be alright.
He immediately commanded the basilisk, "Helper, go and help Gandalf! Use your eyes and fangs to deal with that Balrog!"
Upon hearing Dui's command, the basilisk Herpo swiftly swam toward the fire demon.
Helbo is a very vengeful serpent monster, and naturally he remembers the grudge of the Flame Demon throwing him down, so now he is determined to beat the Flame Demon who fell into the water.
It burrowed into the deep water, swam swiftly beneath the Balrog fighting Gandalf, and then bit down directly on the Balrog's leg, injecting its deadly venom.
The Balrog was in pain. Although the basilisk's venom could not kill it, it could still make it weaker.
Dui wasn't idle either; it quickly used a summoning spell to bring back everything that had fallen from the burned space bag.
"Gandalf, catch your staff!" Duy shouted to Gandalf and threw the staff to him.
Gandalf was overjoyed to see his lost staff.
When facing the powerful enemy, the Balrog, a sword is not as useful as a staff.
He caught the staff smoothly and instantly released a powerful spell, sending the fire demon flying.
"Avada Kedavra!" Dui's death curse followed closely, instantly striking the viscous fire demon.
The Balrog let out a painful roar and instantly became even weaker.
Faced with the encirclement of Gandalf, Duy, Smaug, and the Basilisk, the Balrog ceased his resistance and fled into a dark tunnel.
"Quickly, chase after it! We can't give it time to recover!"
Gandalf was the first to give chase.
Dui saw that the tunnel was too narrow for Smaug's size to pass through, so he had to send Smaug back the way he came with the petrified underwater Watcher.
He then rode on Helpo's back, caught up with Gandalf, and made him ride on as well.
Halbo has a keen sense of smell and can follow the Balrog's scent on its own without the guidance of Dui and Gandalf.
The dark tunnels at the bottom of the abyss were dug by some unknown force, and they were interconnected and densely packed, as if they had dug through the entire underground.
Duy noticed that Gandalf looked at the dark tunnels with an unprecedented level of tension.
"Gandalf, what's wrong? Is something wrong with these tunnels?"
Gandalf's voice was weak, as if he were afraid of disturbing something in the darkness.
"May Vera protect us! We won't encounter any creatures living here! Otherwise, we'll face beings far more dangerous and terrifying than the Balrog!"
Upon hearing Gandalf's words, Duy's heart tightened.
"What kind of creature is that? What makes you so nervous?"
Gandalf shook his head: "I don't know what they are either. I only know that they are very mysterious, ancient, and nameless creatures. Even Sauron didn't know what they were!"
"However, I don't think we'll encounter them. The Balrog seems to know this place inside and out. If it wasn't out of its mind, it wouldn't have gone to confront the nameless creatures underground."
But it's hard to say whether Gandalf is a jinx or has a talent for prophecy.
Just as they caught up with the Balrog, it seemed to have encountered something that terrified it.
From its inhuman, sulfurous throat, a sound emanated for the first time—not an angry roar, not a painful wail, but… a short, sharp hiss, almost a sob, filled with primal terror.
The Balrog had no time to attack them, nor did it even glance at them. Its movements were hurried and terrified as it ran desperately toward the tunnel leading to the surface.
Gandalf seemed to sense something as well, and his expression immediately turned tense. "Quick! Run after the Balrog, don't look back!"
The basilisk Herpo seemed to sense something as well, and with all its might, it carried Dui and Gandalf and swam frantically in the direction the Balrog had fled, as if there were some terrifying monster behind them.
Dui nearly fell off the basilisk, but he quickly grabbed the red feather on its head to avoid being thrown off.
At the same time, the ground trembled as if an earthquake had occurred, and countless pieces of lime fell from the top of the tunnel.
An unusual "silence" suddenly descended—not silence, but all sounds, including the sounds of rapid movement and breathing, seemed to be absorbed and swallowed up by a thick, invisible curtain.
Immediately afterwards, an even deeper darkness spread out from the very depths of the tunnel.
It wasn't a lack of light, but rather a sense of "nothingness" brought about by something inherent in existence itself—a pure darkness capable of annihilating all color and form.
An indescribable, ancient whisper resonated not through the eardrums, but directly into Dui's soul.
It was chaotic, filled with incomprehensible malice and a pure, cold hunger.
An indescribable fear, stemming from a life-or-death instinct, gripped Dui tightly, like a cold snake coiling around his heart.
(End of this chapter)