Noble District warehouse, underground cave.
"Rats!"
Green light shone from these rats eyes, looking at the four of them from all direction. None of the rats moves or attack them. They're only squeaking around without moving from their position, observing Specters movement with their green eyes.
The rats that surround them are grade-B monster Nesterbits rats. It's a rat species that can easily climb, stick on the wall and swim on the water, making them one of the hated monsters meet on the wild. Although their strength alone is only comparable to grade-D monster, their strength in groups makes them enter the list of grade-B monster.
While they're warily looking at the rats, the voice of a man can be heard coming from all direction in the midst of the group of squeaking rats. Mavieli teammate readied themselves for a battle and waited for Mavieli order, while Mavieli closes her eyes and focusing on where the Plague God Followers is.
[Death…!]
The moment the followers said that words, rats start to pour at them like there's no end. It is also at that time Mavieli opened her eyes and ordered.
"Lucre Lightning Resistant, Jelli 「Electric Waves」, Nina protect them."
"Yes…"
The brown haired girl — Lucre splashes a flask of yellow liquid to the four of them and starts to chant a spell, while Jelli who stand beside her also chanted a spell. Nine who stands behind them protect the rear not letting those rats interrupt their chant while Mavieli protect them from the fronts.
「Coating.」
It didn't take long for Lucre spell to finish. The yellow liquid that's about to splash the four of them starts to move and coat their body with it. Electricity starts to appear all over their body, but none of that electricity will harm them, as its only job is to protect them. Lucre didn't stop after that as she took out a light blue liquid and performed the similar action as before for which all of them are coated with the light blue liquid.
While Lucre and Jelli focus on supporting them, Mavieli and Nina keep fend off the attack from the rats. Even so, rats aren't their only enemies. The followers are still hidden somewhere, as to where, Mavieli has already found out his location, but this is not the right time to act yet.
The followers didn't know that Mavieli has discovered his position and Mavieli certainly wouldn't give him the hint that she has noticed. Although there's a chance for her to attack him, she can't take those chances now! They didn't have time anymore, one failed chance and poof, they're doomed. If there's time, she might choose to take chances, but there are no more times.
The four of them are poisoned the moment they entered this cave. The moment they stepped on the water, is also the moment they're poisoned. Even she wouldn't realize the poison if she didn't feel any movement from Sister Villia smog, it is also the main reason that she act quick and rush ahead.
The option to retreat is certainly available, but their mission included protecting the children. The followers wouldn't immediately explode them, but there's no telling what they will do when their comrades got killed. That's why there's no retreat and only advances! She and her teammate are Supervisor Flor loyal servants, even if the result is their death, they won't regret it even one bit!
There are about 2 minutes left before the smog Sister Villia cast lost its effect. 2 minutes is all the time they have, no, they might not even have 2 minutes left as the effect time is differed by how dangerous the poison is.
Finishing this quick and precisely is the only way to go!
*Bzzt!* *Bzzt!*
Electricity starts to appear from Jelli short staff and Jelli who have finished that jump out of the water. It's not just Jelli who jump, even Mavieli, Nina, and Lucre start to jump out of the water. After doing that motion, Jelli finally waves her short staff to the water and shout out.
「Electric Waves!」
Electricity attack the water under them, striking the unawares rats and shock the rats who have entered the water with electricity. While they're jumping, Lucre took another blue flask and poured it on the water.
The moment the liquid inside the flask meets the water, the water starts to freeze up at high speed, turning the water into ice in an instant. Freezing the all the rats nearby to it. The ice spread at a high-speed freezing the helpless and paralyzed rats that stay under the water. The temperature also down in an instant causing the rats that are sticking on the ceiling fall to the floor because of frostbite.
The moment the rats fall is also the moment Mavieli waited for! Without saying much, a dagger has been thrown out from her hands into a particular direction and stab through one of the rat stomachs.
[How!?]
The confused voice of a man can be heard when the dagger stabs into the rats body. He didn't understand…no…he can't understand at all. His camouflage should have been perfect, he's not showing any sign that he's a human, then how!?
Although he wants to keep pondering about what give him away, he can't stay in this form any longer, or he might really die now. After he thought of that, the body of the stabbed rats underwent a transformation and turned into a black-clothed man.
'It's useless to think about it now…although executing our mission 10 years earlier is not a good choice, but since our operation somehow got leaked to the Adventurer Guilds, executing our operation is often better than not executing it at all.'
The black-clothed man soon chants out some unknown words. His face soon becomes twisted as he imagines the expression of those adventurers when they saw many people dying because of his early fireworks!
While he's chanting, five crossbows bolts pierced through his brain, throat, heart, and both of his hands. Even so, the man keeps laughing as killing him wouldn't stop this spell from activating! The moment he muttered the first syllables is also the moment that fireworks will explode! No amount of damage can kill him while he chants this spell! Even if he has died in the middle of chanting, the protection of their Gods will let them continue until the very end of the spell!
The man look at them with a sneer, even if he has to die, he will bring back some with him to die together! He looks like a victor while facing death, sneering at the loser who didn't know what will happen later on! He would need a little bit more time for the spell to complete, even so, the flow of magic unknowingly got disrupted by something before it finished and his soul soon disappears from this world without knowing what's happening.
"This powder is truly incredible…" Lucre muttered as she looks at the purple powder that's located on her hands, look at the corpse of the Plague God followers, and look at the surroundings that are devoid of rats.
"Is it that good?" Nina asks while retrieving her crossbow bolts.
"Yes…I want to research it immediately…" Lucre nod at Nina, then look hopefully at Mavieli.
"That powder…can it cut the connection between someone and their beast?"
"Um…it should be able to disrupt the beast and make it wild."
"Then…"
Mavieli starts to contact someone through telepathy after she muttered that words.
***
Meanwhile, in Baron Turvenias mansion.
'Why has this happened…?'
"All of you run! I'll buy you some time! RUN! It's useless for us to be here! Our attack can't go through!"
'Lena…what're you saying? We can't abandon you aren't we…?'
"Lily! Retreat…we need to retreat now or Fil will…Fil will…"
'Fil…no…she wouldn't die…she mustn't die…no…no…no!'
"Lily! Snap out of it!"
*Gasp*
Lily get back to her sense after hearing her words. Not long after their fight with Baron Turvenias, and Fil has got drilled by the black mass of insects while Leona got a few holes inside her bodies. No matter what they use, none of their attacks can hit him. Magic, melee, ranged…all of it got blocked by those insects while Baron Turvenias calmly drink his tea and look at them playfully.
Fil, the sorcerer, is targeted first because magic works the best on him and is now lying on the ground, passing out because losing too many blood while insects can be seen drilling out of her bodies from time to time.
Lena, the gladiator, has lost a lot of blood while defending them from the insects. Her willpower is stronger than Fil, but Lily knows that she can't last for much longer. She's only barely standing there, protecting the three of them while taking all the brunt of damages.
Gina the assassin may not get attacked yet, but her stamina is close to zero. No matter what kind of stealth she put on, those insects will always found her location and attack her. Her nimbleness has helped her to dodge them for a while now, but she wouldn't do much longer soon enough.
As for Lily, she didn't get attacked yet, but her mind has got attacked by the enemies. She has tried all sorts of way, all kinds of tactics, all kinds of skills, and the enemies even let her do as her please, yet none of the attacks goes through. None of them can pierce through the defense made by the insects! The enemies insects didn't even turn to attack her!
Despair struck her, but while she's despairing, she didn't forget to ask for reinforcement. Their only hope for survival now is reinforcement. That's also why they need to last for a longer time until reinforcement arrived! They can't run away yet, because running away now can only mean…
…Death.
[Supervisor! We can't hold on anymore! Please reinforcement! Anyone will do! Please! None of us can penetrate these insects defense or fully protect ourselves from its attacks.]
[Lily… do you still have the disruption powder with you?]
[Mavieli…? I still have it…but why?]
[Throw that powder to him...and run.]
Lily didn't know why, but since it's Mavieli words, she decides to believe in it and rush to the front line.
"Little girl…didn't I say that it's useless?"
Baron Turvenias smirk at her and focus on attacking her comrades. In truth, he can finish them sooner than this, but torture is needed for those who disrupted his teatime! He wouldn't kill them even if they beg him to kill them!
Even so, unlike before, Lily didn't attack and only throw a purple powder on top of him and his insects. Baron Turvenias didn't know what that powder is, even so, he didn't let his guard down as he decides to defend himself from it with the insects.
But…something unexpected happened as soon as the powder hit the insects…
The moment the powder gets inside the insects, the once easily controllable insects become hard to control, and then it turns into wild and flies frenzily like a rampaging beast!
Baron Turvenias who use the insects as his shield is in the close approximate with the insects, get pierced by the rampaging insects which cause almost 1000 holes to open up all over his body in few seconds after the insects go rampage.
"Run!"
Lily shouts as hard as she can when she saw what the situation has developed to. She carries Lena on her back, while Gina carries Fil on her arms and run away from the mansion as soon as they can, escaping from the groups of rampaging insects. While they're running, Lily and Gina didn't forget to kill the insects that have remained inside Lena and Fil body before they run to the adventurer guild at a fast speed, leaving a trail of blood behind them.