Chapter 1001: Interception
Kanter only told everyone that Dura was drawing the demon to their base. But he didn’t mention Dura’s extremely wicked look, or how she was cursing loudly that she would use the base as cannon fodder so she could escape.
“These gutless apprentices should feel proud that they at least have some use, helping a mighty wizard like me live!”
It was clear that Dura intentionally headed to the Overwatch Base with the demon in pursuit. Though she had no idea about the deadly curse on her. As long as the curse was not removed, the demon would keep chasing her till the last second. How many unfortunate people she dragged with her to death didn’t matter.
“Whatever she’s planning, we must stop her!” Sennefer clenched her teeth in rage.
Kanter shook his head. “But we can’t deny her from the base either. On the outside, we’re a team. More importantly, we can’t tell her about the curse. Knowing her character, she will try to stick with us and ruin everyone’s life.”
“For now, we have to keep her away no matter what. You all with me?”
Sunders and Kanter nodded. They couldn’t defeat the demon, but they knew how to run away.
Samantha looked aside. “How, though? Suppose we somehow get the demon away from her, her misfortune won’t end like that.”
Today, people had not figured out how to effectively banish the curse inflicted by a Pilgrim of Misfortune without the help of an expert only exclusive in the Western Continent. They might wait for the curse to go away eventually, on condition that the victim could live that long.
Nevertheless, their first job was to prevent Dura from reaching the base.
“Sweet talks, lies, use anything you can think of!” Sennefer looked at the source of the disaster, where the sound of more explosions was coming nearer.
The wizards all flew away, with Sennefer taking the lead, leaving Angor behind.
Angor looked at the glowing red sky in the distance and moaned.
He had not spent much time in the Abyss yet, and he already encountered life-threatening incidents more than once. A single demon could burn the entire Overwatch Base to the ground. Now he wondered what would happen if too many Grand Demons made their way to the wizarding world.
...
Dura scowled in frustration after she just wasted another important tool to get away from Manjimania’s explosion attack.
As soon as she saw the demon gathering energy for a big attack, she took out her “Doll of Substitution” to instantly teleport away. The item successfully got her out of the explosion, but only to send her into another deadly trap—the Bomb Woods.
Her destination was called the Bomb Woods because it only had one type of particular bomb tree growing, which would blow up on itself the moment it sensed energy sources nearby.
Wizards could pass through these woods just fine as long as they stayed careful not to make any sudden moves. But if something went wrong and set up a chain explosion, they would at least earn some nasty bruises.
These bomb trees couldn’t hurt a level-2 truth-finder like Dura. But there was another problem, that the explosions were enough to attract Manjimania to her.
The energy of her doll easily detonated the trees upon her arrival. Before Dura could do anything, her position was lit up.
Manjimania, who just lost its target, immediately looked Dura’s way.
“Fuc*k it. Why here of all places?!” Dura screamed.
With no other choices, she quickly bolted away toward the direction of the Overwatch Base. She planned to let everyone in the base face the demon so that she did not have to confront it alone. As for what would become of the apprentices and the important structure, that was the least of her concerns.
Thanks to the Doll of Substitution, she gained a considerable distance from Manjimania, so she had time to escape. Even so, the demon was slowly but surely catching up, no matter how fast she moved.
“How the fu*k did something so large move like that?? And why does it hate me so much??”
When Manjimania was close enough, the demon raised a giant fist covered in flames and punched at Dura’s back. At the same time, a barrage of fire arrows appeared from its cape and aimed at all of Dura’s possible escape routes.
“CURSE YOU!!!”
Dura tried her best to dodge the fist and move her vital points out of the arrows’ way.
She was ready to leave some punctures on her legs and arms. But in the last second before the arrows reached her, a belt made out of gravity power pulled her away.
Dura recovered from her shock and saw four people floating around her.
She expected to see Samantha, Sunders, and Kanter coming to her “rescue”. But she didn’t think she would see Sennefer too, who just used that gravity spell.
As she wondered what took Sennefer to the Overwatch Base, she felt a Spirit Bond reaching into her mind. She heard Sennefer asking in a hurried voice, “Where did that thing come from? It’s almost as strong as a demon lord. We can’t let it take any step ahead!”
“Finding trouble you can’t solve and bringing it to everyone? Humph,” Samantha scoffed. “I never expected anything better from you, Dura.”
Dura retorted, “What will you hypocrite do if you’re in my shoes, huh?!”
“I’m not stupid enough to let that monster see me!”
Sennefer stopped their argument. “Enough! Whatever did you do, Dura, and what is it?!”
“I don’t f*cking know! I came back from level 4, then this guy’s waiting to kill me. The inter-level tunnel kinda gave me a good beating back there but that can’t be the reason, eh?!”
People knew what went wrong with Dura’s journey, but they couldn’t tell her yet.
“It can’t possibly go after you without a reason,” said Samantha. “Let me guess. You stole something from it?”
“No! I just—”
Dura closed her mouth. She couldn’t tell people that it was because her loud scream woke up the demon from sleep and angered it badly.
She changed the subject. “I might know what it is. It’s Manjimania, a former demon lord. But it was kicked off from its dominance.”
A demon lord no longer being a lord meant it had its strength degraded by at least a full level. And if a common demon lord lost a level, it would be similar to a powerful level-2 truth-finder, which meant Sunders’ level.
However, a demon and a wizard of the same level weren’t necessarily equal in strength. Sunders could not cause that large-scale explosion without extra help. It was plain to see that the demon in front of them was still at its top condition, meaning, it could unleash that kind of attack many more times.
To make everything worse, being a former demon lord meant Manjimania could be a cunning strategist, not a random brute. Average tactics would not work.
Not to mention that the demon could find an unlimited source of energy in the Abyss...
Combining these, their most obvious choice was to evade Manjimania. They could NOT fight it.
“We have what it takes to stall.” Sunders’ calm voice appeared in the Spirit Bond. “Shall we?”
Sennefer grimaced. “As I said, do whatever we can to keep it from reaching the base.”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “Heh. While I don’t want to clean up Dura’s mess, this is no longer her own problem. Let’s do our best. The best outcome, Manjimania feels threatened by our joint effort and retreats. But if it insists on killing us, we’ll lure it away from the base.
“We keep this up and drain its strength for as much as we can. Once we’re far enough, we’ll turn tail and make a run for it.”