Diorno looked down at the mound with an untouched gaze. He didn't think much of the traps of the moles, after all, he was a general-level expert. What could these tiny things do to him and his sturdy body?
Diorno knew that such beings could only rely on outside help to do battle as they were untalented.
Their actual strength was very low. So as long as he got through these traps, the moles would be an easy target to capture or annihilate.
But Felix still reminded him about the dangers of the moles he knew best how he was taken advantage of by that serum and knocked out.
It seemed that the mound trap didn't do much besides releasing some spikes that Diorno crushed with his pecks.
They were also poisoned, but Diorno's body was so strong that he was immune to the level of poison they attached to the spikes.
Landers didn't say anything as Diorno took the spikes face-front. It was better to not antagonize him, even though he didn't look angry.
Diorno continued to walk forward while the others followed him from behind, using him as a meatshield.
Since he was so strong, even if they triggered a trap, he would be able to take it all with no damage!
But things weren't as they looked on the surface. As the only one who was triggering traps was Diorno.
His body was too big, and his dexterity took a hit in the close space of the underground cave. So it couldn't be helped.
Fortunately, even though he triggered quite a lot of traps, none of them did any damage to him.
Felix started to smell his surroundings, when he was taken out of the cave he was in his half-unconscious state, so he could still vaguely remember where they were and where they had to go.
Felix gave some instructions to Diorno who was bumbling in the dark:
"Take a left to that stalagmite, then go down, I have the feeling that we are closing into the moles' village."
Felix's senses told him that they were very close to the mole's village. His sense of smell was the one that triggered the most during this journey as he remembered all of the smells of the cave.
Diorno did as Felix instructed as he took a left then started to dig, finally creating a hole big enough for every one of them to go down through.
They made their way through the hole as they stealthily approached the small houses in the dark, they finally had reached the moles' village!
Felix was ready to go onto them and attack as he was still quite angry for what they had done to him.
But Landers put his hand forward, indicating for him to not rush ahead.
"We need a plan to take care of all of the moles in one fell swoop, from what can I sense the village isn't abandoned, but it also seems that they have been expecting us, so the moment we take even one step into the village we can expect to be bombarded by some ingenious traps."
"So what do you propose?"
Diorno said while keeping his arms crossed one over the other, if it was after him he would have already rushed inside and destroyed everything, the moles' village had no strategic value besides being easy to defend and hard to attack stronghold, there were also no resources to speak off around, but that could also mean that they were either stockpiled somewhere by the moles or that they didn't dig deep enough.
Diorno knew that the Sparron continent was extremely rich in resources. Compared to the other continents, so the underground must be rather rich as well.
Landers started to rub his chin for a few seconds before saying:
"Diorno you go ahead and attract all of the pressure upon yourself. We will come from behind and flank them."
"Simple and straightforward as I like it!"
Diorno cracked his knuckles as he entered the small village and growled. His voice traveled through the whole village, igniting the atmosphere as if it was gunpowder.
Suddenly arbalests appeared at the top of the small houses shooting dense arrays of arrows towards Diorno, ready to transform him into a porcupine.
But the attacks didn't land on him at all as his growl transformed into a shockwave which deflected or redirected all of the arrows towards where they came from.
A shout could be heard coming from amongst the small houses, but there were no silhouettes of mole-people visible:
"They had sent a general to our village, SHIT!!"
Countless more contraptions appeared, such as poisonous spikes, arbalests, fire attacks, and finally the moles themselves appeared.
They charged Diorno with their small bodies attacking him from all sides as hundreds of thousands of them filled the whole village, they were like a small sea of dwarfs.
But no matter what means they employed or the attacks they used Diorno would parry, redirect, or even simply nullify whatever they sent at him he was like the perfect martial arts master which had no weakness.
His aura appeared to be a rather pale purple as it appeared and weakened the moles with its pressure.
After a short while, the moles were perfectly focused on Diorno, and it was time for Felix and the others to flank them!
Landers appeared from behind as Felix, Lindo, and Manitola jumped on the ceiling and dropped amongst the moles creating an earthquake that made all of them drop to the ground due to the lack of balance.
That's when things started to complicate, the moment they all appeared was also the moment the buff one-eye mole appeared as well, the same one that stung Felix with the serum.
Felix recognized him as he growled and decided to attack him directly only for his body to slowly sway to the side as he felt weakness gripping his body, dense vapors of white steam started to surround all of them, including the moles, but while Felix's team was losing strength and swaying on their feet the moles weren't affected at all!
The one-eyed mole smiled at Felix and the others:
"What do you think about the new product just sent by the humans? Do you think they were doing business only with you when they gave you the elevator?"
Felix found his surroundings spinning around him, and he could see from the corner of his eye that Manitola was also affected, which was strange considering this thing was supposed to only affect felines.
Manitola was a fox and a canine, so it shouldn't work on her...
The one-eyed mole took a few steps through the sea of moles as he arrived in front of Manitola and shook his head:
"Your majesty. Your mother the princess had been very worried about you, but what have you done while she was worried about you? You have helped the enemies infiltrate our continent without any scruples. You are a traitor through and through and not worthy of the royal blood!"
Manitola couldn't say anything as the steam was inhibiting her ability to stay conscious, she could barely stay on her legs as she leaned on Lindo who was almost falling as well...
Diorno's eyes were wide open as veins popped up around his forehead. His anger was visible as his red eyes almost spew flames.
Landers tried to break the weakness from his body but the steam was too thick and he couldn't cut through it and escape.
Only Felix somewhat felt better, and as time passed, he realized that the effect of the steam was slowly minimizing on his body until it became inexistent!
He knew that this was the best occasion to create a surprise attack so he faked his struggling, making it look like it wouldn't take much time before he succumbed to the power of the steam, and only after a short while passed, he fell to the ground with a twitching body.
The others were still struggling, and they only felt worse as they saw Felix falling first. Diorno even snorted as he saw Felix fall to the ground as he thought he would last longer.
Lindo was the second to fall along with Manitola leaving only Landers and Diorno holding on, the mole troops didn't approach them as they stood around 5 meters away from them so their attacks wouldn't be able to reach them.
They knew that when backed into a corner, the resisting duo would unleash an impressive ultimate attack that would erase the majority of mole-people.
They also knew that they wanted to capture them alive due to their specialness as informants, so they betted that as long as they didn't antagonize them too much, they wouldn't use attacks that would end up with both of the sides getting heavily hurt.
Diorno was ready to unleash hell on earth as he felt his body growing heavier and his eyelids slowly going down, he stole a small glance at Landers and saw how he still endured with the best of his ability which gave him a burst of energy, if Landers who was weaker than him could endure so could he, and he could even fight back!
The moles glanced at the downed people and were ready to take them away and tie them properly so when they woke up they wouldn't be able to escape. They wouldn't make the same mistake as the foxes.
But when they tried to pick Felix's body up they realized something was strange as Felix's paws moved slowly then decapitating the two moles dozen of moles that tried to pick him up.
His fur started to stand on end as his eyes turned a deep emerald color while Willy who had been silent up till now, helped him gather energy to unleash his lightning armor, increasing the speed of his armors deployment compared to when he activated it alone.