276 First fight I
Nero surveyed his surroundings with Keen insight active, but he wasn't the only one. Clarissa stepped right beside him and began to carefully inspect the land, and so did the rest of the team, using their own means.
Their immediate surroundings seemed safe enough - not just from curses but from other creatures as well. It was as if nothing harmful was willing to get close to the tavern. Yet just a short distance from them, Nero saw a family of rodents run through the grass.
Whether they had strong aetheric abilities or they were cursed he could not tell at all.
"Target spotted," Clarissa suddenly said, attracting everyone's attention. She was pointing towards one of the ancient trees, its trunk 3 metres (9.8 feet) across and nearly 25 metres (82 feet) tall.
It was of a species Nero was unfamiliar with, as its body stood up straight like that of a pine tree, but its branches spread far and wide, even going as low as almost touching the ground. It was on one of these low hanging branches that Clarissa was pointing towards.
An ugly, black mass hung onto the branch, causing it to dip even lower due to the weight. The branch itself was already dead, as could be seen from the fact that not a single leaf grew on it, but that did not mean that the branch was empty. Far from it.
In place of leaves, decayed carcasses, the hides of various beasts, and strips of rotting meat hung from the end of the branch. Even from a distance, hundreds of hornets could be seen feasting on the hanging flesh, while every so often, a swarm of even more hornets would arrive from the distance carrying small corpses.
To call the sight horrifying was an understatement, and left the group in a state of bewilderment. Curses normally care only for aether, and Nero at least had never heard of them harvesting and feasting on meat like this. Then again, he had never seen an entire hive of cursed insects work together with a singular purpose.
No wait… he had! He was reminded of the berserkers and dark berserkers. Not only did they eat their prey, they were also intelligent in their own way, and all worked under the command of the tentacle monster as far as he could tell. Did that mean these hornets were also working underneath them?
"What's the plan?" Nero asked after a few moments of silence. "Shall we attack them directly? We have enough time to spare if you want to deploy some kind of tactic. I can tell you this much - swords and spears aren't going to be useful against hornets so we'll have to rely on our abilities."
"I think, as researchers, it's best if we leave all combat related decisions to you," Vanessa said, glancing at the other researchers to see if they had any objections. "At the same time, we can treat this as your first trial. Even if you all may have discussed strategies together, implementing it is far from as simple as having a discussion. Considering the relatively low-risk nature of fighting close to the cabin, this is the best time to work out any kinks in your teamwork."
Nero nodded, and quickly thought of a couple of things. Among the combat team, although he had formally introduced himself and spent a little time with them, the rest had formed their own tacit understanding.
Despite being older than him, most of them were more than willing to accept Noman as their nominal leader owing to his prodigy status. The status was not applied without merit. Fully aware that as a thirteen year old, he was not exactly in the best position to fight, he had been focusing on commanding and leading.
Much like Neor himself, he was a highly focused and ambitious young man. More importantly, he had the support of his father who was a Lieutenant, and did not have to suffer the stigma of fratricide like Nero did. Even though he was proven innocent, he could sense the group's hesitation towards him despite their attempts to be reticent.
As such, instead of convincing everyone, Nero directly looked towards Noman.
"Based on the personal skills, abilities and preferences of our team, I have an idea for the best formation to face a hornet hive such as this. If everyone agrees, we can try it out, and take it from there."
Nero was not lying. Other than everyones self introductions, he had also read up on each and everyone of his teammates in the little time he had. Getting his hand on their files was not tough at all. He just asked Vanessa, and she gave them to him. It was not even a clandestine thing, and was done openly and aboveboard, as there was nothing really wrong with it.
Bael, according to Nero's analysis, was best against one strong foe, or against a team of weak foes. His ability to dish out strong physical attacks, while tanking enemy attacks and healing rapidly made him ideal for such a role. Moreover, there was a note written on his file stating that an analysis of his fights had revealed that he only minimally relied on Eldrim cards, mimicking his father's combat style from the many cartoons about him.
In essence, he was good for physical attacks but did not use cards unless necessary. Nero wasn't going to comment on his flaws, just take note of how he could best be used.
Then came Clarissa. She was an expert in combat, and like Bael did not use cards often. When she did use cards, she favoured offensive cards. The exact nature of her innate ability was not revealed, but it was written that she was very good at spotting and taking advantage of any enemies weaknesses, whether they be human, beast or curse.
She could best be used as an assassin or as a striking expert. Still, she was best at striking singular targets rather than a hive of smaller targets.
Then there was Noman. Combat was not his forte, not because he was weak, but because he was young and kept away from such situations. His young age meant his bones were weak and he lacked sufficient physical strength. He was very quick, however, had excellent decision making and analysis skills, and his innate ability was incredibly useful against equal or weaker targets. Unfortunately, to seal anyone or anything, he would need to be close to them which reduced his effectiveness considering he was kept away from a fight. On the bright side, he had fit his ability into his fighting style very well, and many looked forward to his performance in the future.
Daisy was a healer. Despite sufficient combat skill, she was not good at self healing like Bael. Her valuable ability meant she was destined to stay away from fighting as much as possible anyway.
Gideon was actually considered an extremely formidable combatant, with high lethality in both close and long range combat. Once again, the exact nature of his ability was not written, but he could basically control 12 small blades he kept on his person at all times. They were strong, and could attain immense penetrative force with very little distance required as a build up. The blades could only go up to a certain distance from him, but that did mean he was weak by any standards. Against a hornet hive, he would actually be highly effective.
The only thing written in his file that wasn't something completely positive, or an overwhelming review of his ability, was a small comment stating that he had a weird personality. Considering that his personality never actually became an issue in completing missions or obeying orders, it did not matter much.
Including Nero, that made up six of their teammates, leaving only two girls and two boys behind, all of whom had auxiliary or defensive abilities.
One of the guys could straight up conjure barriers made up of pure aether that could block both physical, aetheric or cursed attacks! It was extremely impressive, with only real drawback being how aether intensive it was to use.
Another of the guys was extremely useful, if only to himself. It was a passive danger sense. As long as anything was about to harm him, he would sense it, regardless of the nature of the danger itself. Considering the many unusual threats they would face in Perilith, his contribution would be massive.
Then there was a girl who could create green aetheric tokens which could be eaten, and would supplement everyone's aether regeneration. She was like a walking aether bank or battery.
The last girl had an incredible ability as well, though the details weren't provided. Basically, it helped her move short distances really fast. Despite being seemingly limited in application, Nero could see how invaluable it would be in a fight, so he didn't underestimate it at all.
Keeping in mind the abilities and specialisations of all the members in his team, Nero came up with the perfect plan of attack.
"What's your plan?" Noman asked, clearly extremely interested in what Nero had to say. Despite his emotions written clearly on his face, he restrained himself and first asked for the details of Nero's plan.
"It's quite simple," Nero said, looking towards the hive, his grip on his spear tightening. "I go in alone and destroy the hive, and you guys can support me from the back if you want."
Okay so, it was not exactly the tactically best plan, but strategically, it was a great plan because it helped Nero fulfil many of his goals.
The fact that he was still just pumped up from watching the amazing fight on the way here, and from the incredible war song, had absolutely no influence on his decision.
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