Samantha’s suggestion sounded too simple to be reliable, but people still listened to her since Manjimania was almost upon them.
Dura felt something was off about the plan. In her view, the demon would eventually target the strongest wizard in the group, which was definitely not her, so accepting the strategy should be fine.
Seeing Dura indecisive, Samantha yelled at her, “What’s your problem?? We’re going to draw it away from our base AND help you get rid of it. Or do you actually want to see the base destroyed, huh?!”
“Fine. We each try our best to weaken it. Whoever becomes its last target should be the guy who’ll take it farther.” Dura glanced at everyone with a hostile look. “By ‘our best’, I expect you all to use everything you have. Don’t hide your sh*ts back...”
By this, she wanted one of the others to draw Manjimania’s enmity so that she could escape.
Samantha spat, “You don’t have to worry about that. Unlike a certain, selfish bastard, we want to keep the base safe. Alright, let’s move. Keep it busy. Kill it if anyone sees a chance!”
Samantha’s body melted away as many shiny mirrors suddenly appeared around the group, causing the scenery to grow chaos as they bent and warped light.
“Mirror Labyrinth” was Samantha’s original spell that she invented when she became a truth-finder. The omen she caused turned the entire sky above Moonfrost Union to a giant mirror that lasted three days and nights.
Seeing Samantha using her biggest move at the beginning, Dura sighed in relief.
After several of its attacks were reflected back its way, Manjimania howled in fury and set its attention on Samantha, who just materialized outside the mirror formation.
Kanter closed his eyes as he activated his Bloodline power. His body turned into an ethereal shadow, which lunged at the demon to fight it up close.
Several of their powerful attacks connected with the demon’s body, causing it to shriek in pain.
Sunders didn’t stay idle in the meantime. After unleashing several phantoms to join Kanter, he summoned a herd of horned Nightmares to charge at the demon from different directions.
Dura almost felt bad when she saw everyone trying their best to fight their enemy. But then she realized it was not the case. At least Sennefer wasn’t wholeheartedly contributing even though her spells looked rather colorful.
Dura spoke in their Spirit Bond, “Ha. The famous ‘Witch of Wasteland’ stays behind while Mister Kanter wrestles with the demon upfront. Fame does not reflect one’s true character, I must say.”
Sennefer didn’t speak. It was Samantha who countered Dura by saying, “If we are to find a coward among our rank, we will be talking about you, Dura. Just look at what you’re doing!”
Dura threw a rather powerful energy beam at Manjimania while glancing at Sennefer using a mocking look.
Kanter explained, “To protect the escort team, Sennefer accidentally acquired the curse in the Everlasting Glacier.”
He meant to let Dura know that Sennefer wasn’t holding back to be selfish. Sennefer was another powerful truth-finder like Sunders, but the curse had lowered her level.
Dura looked away.
Their teamwork successfully kept Manjimania under pressure for a while. When the land about a hundred kilometers in width became a sea of bright lava, the demon finally slowed down. But its attacks remained as deadly as before, if not stronger.
The range of the battlefield was approaching the Overwatch Base at an alarming rate. Right now, several wizards from the base already appeared at the edge of the scene, observing.
“We can’t keep up like this!” Samantha panted. “The base is just in reach. My mana is half spent!”
“Same here,” said Kanter, after healing a giant bleeding wound on his shoulder. “My Eventide Bloodline is almost exhausted. We’re not strong enough to kill a former demon lord.”
“Time to change our tactic.” Sennefer moved away from the battle to catch some breaths.
“I crippled a wing and a leg, so it can’t move as fast as before,” said Sunders. “Since we can’t kill it, we’ll get it away from the base.”
“Right.” Samantha nodded. “When we see the next chance, we’ll all teleport away and see which one of us gets selected as the main target. That person will be the bait. No objections, right?”
Samantha said those words while looking at Dura.
Dura sneered. She already made up her mind to follow the plan through. As Sunders said, the demon couldn’t catch up with her full speed at this rate. Besides, she believed that she was safe now. The others clearly inflicted more damage to the demon.
She then glanced at Sunders. After knowing that Sunders lived up to his name as one of the strongest wizards in the southern wizarding region, she couldn’t help but feel her mind bloating with jealousy.
“Agreed!” Dura nodded. Ha! Being too good will only drag you down now, my friend.
“Wait for it...”
Samantha saw Manjimania entering cooldown after the previous attack.
“Now! We can’t maintain the Spirit Bond while scattered apart. Good luck!”
At the same time, each one of them used their teleportation tricks to get away.
Dura chose to go for the southeast. She looked back and saw everyone leaving the battlefield as fast as they could so that Manjimania wouldn’t pick the closest victim.
Copying their moves, Dura concealed her aura and dashed away.
...
“A*SHOLE! WHY ME?!” Ten minutes later, Dura desperately swore at the top of her lungs. “Did they cheat?? But they can’t possibly reach an agreement and tell the demon to come at me so conveniently!”
She could no longer send the demon to the Overwatch Base because turning back would only allow her to be caught. Besides, she agreed to the plan herself. If she went back on her words and ruined the base, Sennefer would send the entire Moonfrost Union upon her.
Her only choice was to keep running. Thankfully, the demon did look a bit spent right now.
...
The others had reunited at the Overwatch Base. They were all looking at Dura’s direction, wondering how long she could last.
“She chose to go in the same way as the Pilgrim of Misfortune. How... unfortunate for her.” Kanter tried to sound sympathetic, but he failed to hide the hint of mockery in his voice.
“She’s going to the Shrieking Expanse, eh?” Samantha snickered. “Let’s take a bet. She’ll then go to the Veiled Coast, and maybe dive straight into the Veiled Sea, head-first.”
They all agreed that, if Dura kept getting tainted by the curse in this way, she was certain to die sooner or later. Being a level-2 truth-finder wouldn’t help her at all.
“Whatever. The Overwatch Base is safe. That’s what matters.” Sennefer sighed.
“Excuse me, but I really need some meditation done.” Samantha walked away. “That fight drained me out.”
“Yeah... I need to tend to my wounds as well.”
They did use their best attacks against Manjimania just now, with the hope of dealing the killing blow, which would be for the best. Sacrificing Dura was only the second option.
Lucky for them, Dura fell for it. And thanks to their full effort, Dura did not know this was all planned.