A dead-end alley

Golem Lord Agamand was one of the most renowned technicians among the Dark Iron Dwarves. Only twenty-five years had passed between his first encounter with a Stone Golem and his making one himself-a remarkably short span for the long-lived dwarves. That was why people called him the "Golem Lord." To this day, no one knew exactly how Agamand powered those cumbersome masses of stone.

Compared with other dwarf warriors, however, Agamand's own fighting ability was unremarkable. More often than not, he relied on his golems to solve his problems.

"We'll follow the wall on the left. Try not to get spotted," Diago said with forced casualness, not wanting the Night Elf to get too nervous. In truth, being discovered would be a disaster. The Dark Iron Dwarves packed into this place could overwhelm them in the blink of an eye.

Fortunately, all sorts of materials and golem components lay in disorganized heaps everywhere, providing plenty of hiding places.

The two-no, counting Khanifa, three-uninvited guests slowly crept forward, moving far more slowly than they had expected. There were simply too many Dark Iron Dwarf craftsmen and mages in the hall. Every few seconds, one or more would pass their hiding place. It took them a long time to reach the small room where Agamand was working.

Looking through the doorway, they saw a room in complete disarray. Blueprints and parchment scrolls lay scattered all over the floor, and the stone tablet they needed had been carelessly tossed into a corner. Agamand seemed far less careful than Angerforge. In fact, this was a common failing among technical obsessives: to them, everything else put together mattered far less than their research.

"Let me go!" the Night Elf volunteered in a whisper. It was actually the best choice-of the three people, or cats, he was the one best suited to this sort of sneaking and stealing.

"Be careful," Diago agreed. He shifted farther into the darkness and watched the Druid panther creep into the small room. Yet for some reason, Diago kept feeling uneasy, as though he had forgotten something very important.

The Druid's infiltration went smoothly. Agamand appeared not to notice a thing, remaining bent over his workbench, tinkering with something. When the Night Elf got the tablet, he even gave a few smug wiggles to express his excitement, much to Diago's annoyance. Although Diago could not see Masley, the joker's shadow gave him a rough idea of what he was doing.

Things always went wrong when least expected. Just as Masley took the tablet and prepared to return, the Golem Lord suddenly rose from his chair at the workbench. The adventurers' hearts leaped into their throats.

The Druid panther curled himself into the shadows behind a large wooden crate as tightly as he could, making his shadow look like part of the crate's.

Agamand did nothing in particular. He was heading toward the shelves on the other side of the room, where there was a component he needed. But as he passed the panther, he stopped. In fact, although he had noticed nothing, Agamand felt an almost instinctive suspicion toward that patch of shadow. He looked up at the torch on the wall, then back at the shadow. Yet whichever angle he looked from, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it.

Diago watched him mutter a few puzzled words, then pick up a component from the shelf and turn toward the workbench at the side of the room.

Diago let out a long breath. That was close! he thought.

Yet in the very next instant, Agamand did something that terrified Diago. He dropped the component in his hand, drew a short wooden rod from his belt, and drove it hard toward the ground.

Diago finally remembered what he had forgotten-this dwarf was a Shaman! Although that class was extraordinarily rare among dwarves, rarer even than pandas, he really was one, genuine through and through.

As the dwarf chanted, the totem activated. A fist-sized ball of lava appeared at the top of the wooden rod, constantly churning, its light brightening and dimming as though it were breathing.

A few seconds later, the ball of lava abruptly exploded.

The shock wave spread outward like ripples on water, but as it passed Agamand, the scorching lava flowed around him as though it had a mind of its own. That was the will of the elements. They never harmed the intelligent beings they had chosen and accepted.

The panther leaped out of the shadows with a scream and fled toward Diago. His whole body was on fire, flecks of lava clung to his fur, and the stench of scorched fur filled the air.

"Roll! Masley, roll!" Diago reminded him over and over. He raised his gun and fired at Agamand.

An orange muzzle flash bloomed, but the shot was not particularly loud. On the way to Blackrock Depths, Diago had made a crude improvised suppressor out of an iron pipe and Runecloth and fitted it to the front of the barrel. This was not just to keep the gunfire from attracting more enemies. More importantly, firing inside tunnels and caves produced such tremendous echoes that even he could not stand them, let alone the enemy.

The dwarf Shaman had clearly planned ahead, however. At the same moment he cast out the Magma Totem, he had already snatched his shield from the table-a thick iron plate that looked like a piece of dark iron casing stripped from a combat golem.

The bullet struck the iron shell in a spray of sparks, but did not leave so much as a pale mark.

"Catch them!" Agamand roared furiously. But rather than advance, he took several steps back and activated his Lightning Shield. A layer of crackling electrical energy appeared before him, constantly swirling and coiling. Even from a distance, Diago could feel his hair standing on end.

Behind him, two enormous Dark Iron Colossi strode toward the adventurers with earth-shaking footsteps.

Just then, Masley finally put out the flames on his body. His scorched fur looked rather patchy, but at least he had suffered no serious injuries.

"Leave that dwarf to me!" he shouted through gritted teeth as he charged over. But Diago knocked some sense into him with a slap.

"Like hell! Run, buddy!" Diago slung his rifle behind his back and sprinted toward another exit from the workshop hall. At the same time, the Spirit of the Cheetah released its energy at his request, making him run even faster.

"What?" Masley cried incredulously. But once he took in the situation around them, he shot away too, sprinting even faster than Diago.

By now, almost all the Dark Iron Dwarves had turned their attention to the two outsiders-and, of course, the fierce-looking Yellow Leopard.

The Dark Iron Dwarves throughout the workshop came out in force, including the dwarf technicians. Though they might not be particularly capable fighters, they were strong enough, and their numerical advantage gave them plenty of confidence.

In truth, however, the Dark Iron Dwarves' short little legs were ill-suited to running. By the time they began their pursuit, the outsiders had already crossed the bridge over the river of lava and begun playing hide-and-seek with them in the city streets. Since the arena was open today, after the revelry in the first half of the night, the city's residents were now either at the arena or fast asleep at home, so they encountered no unexpected trouble on the roads.

"This way. That road leads to the lecture hall and the throne room. It's a dead end," Diago said, grabbing Masley at a bend in a main road. Killing the general, looting the vault, and rescuing Windsor were no great matters to the Dark Iron Dwarves. But offending or even injuring the Dark Iron king, Dagran Thaurissan-though Diago seriously doubted whether they could manage that-would be another matter entirely. The Dark Iron Dwarves would hunt them to the death. Diago would wager that even if they fled to Booty Bay, the pirate city at the southernmost tip of the continent, these Dark Iron Dwarves would pursue them without hesitation.

Not only that, the dwarves would even put up every gold coin they had as a bounty on their heads. Then, vast as the world was, there truly would be nowhere for them to stand.

A dozen or so minutes later, the Dark Iron Dwarves finally realized something was wrong and changed tactics. Instead of simply following in pursuit, they spread out in all directions to encircle and intercept them. As a result, although the adventurers ran faster, they found themselves in danger several times within just a few minutes. Had they not been alert enough, they would have run straight into the dwarves blocking their way.

Though they had escaped each scare unscathed, their room to maneuver was almost gone.

At last, after entering a narrow alley, they heard a clamor of voices coming from both ends.

Both their expressions finally changed. They could practically see the panic and despair on each other's faces.

"All right, it's time. Let's fight for it, brother!" Masley said with a resolute expression. He did not want to be taken prisoner again.

"Let's give them hell!" Diago agreed. Fuck, so I really wasn't the lead in a transmigration story. I'm already about to die a second time. He mocked himself inwardly with some resignation. He patted the Night Elf's shoulder, suddenly feeling that with someone beside him, death was not quite so hard to accept. "Brother, dying alongside you is something I could brag about for the rest of my life!"

"Same here," Masley said rather sadly. To be honest, there really was no one in Darnassus he got along with this well. There was no denying that he was an oddball among Night Elves.

"I hope it won't be too horrible a death." He grinned and chuckled. "I'll tell you a secret, Diago. I'm actually really afraid of pain."

"Don't worry. When the time comes, I'll make it quick for you," Diago replied nonchalantly. Yet for some reason, amid this nonsense, his panicked heart gradually began to settle.

"Come on, you sons of bitches!" he cursed viciously, then took out a fully loaded clip and pressed it into the magazine. It would look so damn cool if I had a long, thick cigar hanging from the corner of my mouth right now, he suddenly thought, his mind wandering as he chambered a round.

"Hey, you two! Now's not the time to show off your bromance. Get over here!" Just then, an inconspicuous little door opened in a corner beside the street. A Dark Iron Dwarf shouted to them.

"Do you know him?" Masley asked, staring at the hunter incredulously. Although he had grown used to his teammate's remarkable resourcefulness, he still found it hard to accept that he even had acquaintances here. After all, in this underground city, who would risk their life to save an outsider unless they were very close?

"Not as of now!" Diago answered ambiguously. Though he had some suspicions about the dwarf's identity, he could not be certain yet.

Whatever the case, the two men, given a way out of certain death, hurried nimbly toward the little door. When there was a way to live, no one would foolishly throw their life away.