Chapter 316: Brewing danger
The moment Nero attacked, the tempo of the fight changed. A few dogs were killed outright, with almost a dozen of them severely wounded. The dogs yelled and tried to retreat in fear, which distracted even the dogs attacking Vanessa, Bael and the rest.
On the battlefield, the slightest distraction was akin to death, and not a single Kolari was a fool enough to let go of such an opportunity. Even Noman, the weakest in the group, took advantage of the situation and launched a few attacks.
The fight up until then had lasted a few minutes, but the moment Nero counter attacked, the battle neared its end.
The leader of the pack, the largest dog, actually remained entirely unharmed since it wasn’t specifically targeted. With more than half its pack wounded or dead, the leader actually turned tail and tried to escape, thus committing the second greatest sin on a battlefield.
Showing an enemy its back was akin to death itself. Nero did not hesitate to use Snowflake, launching a flaming, frozen blade and cutting one of its wings off, causing it to plummet.
The other dogs, too, tried to escape, only to be cut down one by one, right up until the group eventually killed the leader as well.
For a few moments after the dogs died, the seven soldiers retained the ferocious gleam in their eyes. Yet with no enemies to target, they slowly lost the vigor they had been displaying, and returned to their former selves.
"Status report!" Nero exclaimed as he saw them return to their former selves. "Has anyone suffered any injuries or run low on aether?"
He had to be meticulous, for he did not know if the seven of them would even respond to being injured, or show it. Perhaps they would continue to endure it silently, unbothered if no one asked.
"No injuries to report," said Lina, after which the others reported their situations one by one. Lina was the one girl of the seven soldiers who had made the most prominent impact on Nero, for she was the one who had responded to him when he met them first, and she was the one who pleaded with him to let her fight.
Of the seven, Nero suspected that she had the greatest chance of overcoming her condition. More importantly, during their last fight, Nero had felt her use her ability, and it had made an impression on him he could not overlook. If he didn’t know any better... he would think that she was using cursed energy instead of aether.
But that was impossible. It was not that there were no curse users out there - there definitely were. It was that the army would never allow their existence, let alone allow one to join the army.
Nero turned to the other four and saw that they, too, were fine. Well, relatively fine. Bael, due to his strong recovery abilities, had taken responsibility for protecting Noman, which is why he was slightly injured. In comparison, Vanessa, who they all were originally supposed to protect, was entirely unhurt and gave off an aura of a powerful assassin.
She held two daggers in her hand, one long and one short, both covered in the blood of the dogs that had attacked.
"From here on out, we are about to enter a region with very high cursed energy. As discussed, I will venture in alone and search for the target while you all defend outside. If I’m unable to find it, we’ll move on. If I do locate it, I’ll bring you all in. Before that, we’ll take a moment to recover."
None had any objections, and the group moved to distance themselves from the dog corpses before taking a rest. While they moved to their new location, Dave couldn’t help but stare at the seven soldiers again and again, though he could not be blamed. Their performance was actually much better than anyone had expected.
Once they found a safe location the group rested for a short while, even though it did not appear like they needed the rest, before continuing the journey.
When they arrived at the region with extremely high cursed energy, they found a vibrant forest, covered in an endless number of vines radiating a strong cursed energy. This place seemed even more dangerous than the sugarcane field, and even Nero felt extremely wary stepping in.
"Defensive formations. Stay here and protect yourselves until I come back. However, if I do not come back within two hours, you are to follow Bael’s command and retreat back to the tavern," Nero instructed the group, ensuring that they remained vigilant while he was gone.
As if waking from a slumber, the seven soldiers got into position once more, ready to defend against any adversary.
"Do you remember the signs to look for?" Vanessa asked, stepping forward as Nero looked at the forest. "If the pond is here, there will be signs in the vicinity, but not the kind you’d expect. You have to keep an eye on the rocks, for the water from the pond will transform the nearby rocks."
Nero nodded and listened closely as Vanessa reminded him what to look for.
Behind them, Dave took the opportunity while the two weren’t looking and activated one of his Eldrim cards.
Although he had hidden the card inside his protective suit so that no one would see him use it, he was incredibly wary of Nero. Even the seven retards became dangerous when Nero was leading them, and he didn’t dare to take any risks.
The card activated silently, and no one seemed to notice anything amiss. It was as if nothing had changed, but in truth, Dave had already begun his plan. The gas masks they wore suddenly lost their ability to filter out poisonous gases - all except his and Vanessa’s mask.
But disabling the masks was just the first step of his plan. He expected that all of them had cards that could be used as remedies if they detected that they had been poisoned.
He had to prevent them from realising the masks had stopped working, and continue to weaken the group. Dave’s eyes flashed, but decided to bide his time. He could not afford to risk making a mistake.
Once his conversation with Vanessa was over, Nero covered his body in frosty blue flames and entered the forest, quickly vanishing from sight.
Vanessa silently returned to the group, standing inconspicuously in the shadow of a tree, easily overlooked. In fact, Vanessa had used a little of her ability to make their team easy to overlook. Unfortunately, it was not so easy to make others hide in the shadow alongside her, or they would have been even safer.
Yet either her ability was more effective than she thought, or their luck was much better than today as they suffered no attacks. Just before an hour was over, Nero returned, his condition just as he had gone in.
"Although I discovered some potentially valuable herbs there, our target was not there. We’re moving on," he said, studying the group. "Stand down and report your status."
One by one, everyone reported their status. Besides some fatigue from continuously being on guard for an hour, they were all fine.
Since there was no issue, the group continued on to their next target. This time, their luck took a turn, and they encountered numerous obstacles. By the time they reached their next destination, it was already nearing 11 am.
The group was exhausted, and Noman had suffered a small injury which had caused a tear in his protective suit. It had since been repaired as best as they could given the conditions.
Ironically, it was Lina and the six others who were in the best condition. Having strictly followed Nero’s orders, they neither overexerted themselves, nor did they take any unnecessary risks, entirely avoiding any injuries. Since they worked together perfectly, far better than they would normally, they weren’t even as exhausted as the others.
Nero stood above the opening in the hill side, and looked into the hole with an ominous expression. Their next target was inside this cave network which gave off aetheric as well as cursed energy signatures.
Through a number of tests that had been conducted by other teams previously, it had been determined that the cave network was quite extensive. It was also exceedingly dangerous, not just because of curses, but the number of strong beasts in there.
Even ignoring those two, exploring caves was extremely dangerous. In the mandatory survival classes Nero had taken during his schooling, he had learned how caves often contained poisonous or flammable gases, were prone to cave ins and sinkholes, and often had their own unique ecosystems, presenting them with a number of unknowns.
"Let’s all rest a while before I go in," said Nero, unwilling to take any unnecessary risks. No one had any complaints - especially since Nero himself would be enduring the greatest danger of them all.
After a short twenty minute break to recover physically and aetherically, Nero ordered the seven soldiers to get into defensive formation before venturing into the hole in the ground. Dave’s gaze was fixed on Nero as he left, and a soft smile finally appeared on his face once he was finally out of sight.
Quietly, he opened his card case and pulled out another card.