Aeon eyed the colorful flower in front of him. His face was scrunched up as he rubbed his chin. "You think we could sell this pretty flower?"
"Be careful not to touch it, that's poisonous," Levi said as he passed by.
"Eeeeeeek!" Aeon screeched as he backed up and continued walking, "why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Most of the plants here are. They evolved to avoid getting eaten," Levi said.
"Wonderful."
As the group went deeper into the forest, the trees around the area became taller. They also started seeing gigantic birds, increasing the danger for them. The smallest one they saw could easily carry two people.
Seeing an average sized magical beast getting carried away by a bird became so common that none of them even blink from seeing it anymore. Several birds also tried attacking their group but all of them either ended up being chopped into pieces by Levi's wind blades, pierced by Korona's ice shards, or burnt into a crisp by Selena's fireballs. They were never in danger, but they were greatly slowed down. From time to time, they also needed to rest.
Night came before they could even reach the swamp, but they could not set up camp. For sure, there were also nocturnal birds that would prey on them during the night, and gigantic magical beasts that could easily squish them, so the group was forced to go south and settle on a cave. Levi cooked while the others spoke and laughed around their bonfire.
Surprisingly, the night passed by peacefully.
….
The group woke up in the morning one by one.
Korona marveled at the beauty of the forest. The breeze was very cool and fresh. She stretched as she said, "It's so peaceful here. If there weren't any magical beasts here, this place would be paradise."
"You know, I haven't seen any beasts since I woke up," Suri said as he walked over.
"Me neither," Aeon said as he tidied his fanny pack.
It was truly too peaceful as if they weren't in the forest anymore.
They were able to quickly get to the swamp safely, but there was something in their minds that screamed 'unusual.'
First, there were fewer beasts along the way, completely unlike yesterday.
Second, there was no blood on the path. Blood was common in the forest because it was a beast-eat-beast place, so seeing less of it actually became weird.
Third, there were no monsters in the swamp.
The group decided to search fast in order to take advantage of the peace, but they all know that they just wanted to get out of the place ASAP.
Aeon, in particular, was bothered. He was very sensitive to danger, but he just couldn't feel any. He could not even feel any jitters from beasts who were preying on them. To him, they were basically safe, but he did not dare underestimate the forest.
After Aeon and Suri went around the entire area and found nothing, it was Korona's turn to shine. She cast a spell and wrapped them inside a bubble. With that, the group was able to search underwater as well.
The process took quite a long time, though the swamp wasn't too big because they had to refill the bubble with oxygen. In the end, they still found nothing. The group felt down but they were not discouraged. They could search in a different place anyway.
Suddenly…
"Yo guys, do you hear that?" Aeon asked out loud.
"Hear wha—"
"Shhh. Listen..."
…
"Is that a..."
Rumble! Rumble!
"A stampede?!"
The ground continuously quaked, and by the second, the intensity increased.
"Calm down," Aeon said as he kept on listening, "it's not heading towards us."
Suddenly, Aeon ran away from the swamp without any notice, shocking the others. Without any choice, they also followed. Although they were making quite a dangerous move, they were also interested.
Aeon stopped and crouched behind a large tree. The beasts had yet to arrive, but the sounds of their footsteps were already thunderous. Even without seeing the beasts who were part of the stampede, Aeon could already picture their gigantic sizes. The earth continuously shook.
Rumble! Rumble!
The group finally caught up with Aeon and also crouched behind him. From a distance, they could already see the shadow of the huge beasts. The trees in front of the raging beasts fell down one by one. Thankfully, Aeon was right and the beasts were not heading towards them.
RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
The quaking of the ground reached its peak, akin to that of a great earthquake. The group gaped at the gigantic creatures that ran together, despite not belonging to the same family. Instead of fighting amongst each other, they moved side by side. After a few moments, they realized why they did this.
The beasts were grouping up for a particular reason.
But it was not a good one.
A man covered entirely in dried blood was running at the forefront of the stampede. As if this wasn't enough to surprise them, their brain processed one more thing.
They knew the person…
It was their Assistant Supervisor, Dan.
…
The group was stupefied. Why was Dan there? And why was he being chased by a bunch of magical beasts?
"Spells!" Aeon yelled. Now that Dan was a lot closer to them, he was clearly able to make out his figure. His arms were severely wounded, and one of his legs had a deep wound. It was already surprising that he was able to match the beasts' pace despite being wounded.
Korona and Selena woke up from their trance and started casting their spells. Unsurprisingly, Levi was already halfway through his. After a few moments, he launched his D-ranked spell, Tempest, towards the beasts.
Swoosh!
Tempest was a large AoE[1] attack. Although it did not cause a lot of damage, it was enough to slow the beasts down a bit and alert Dan that they were over there.
Shwaaaa!
The Tempest landed, startling both the beasts and Dan. The beasts at the front stumbled from the spell and fell back a few steps, however, it wasn't enough to stop the stampede. The group saw as Dan swerved towards his left, where they were. He found where the caster of the spell was.
At the moment, Aeon and Suri were useless. They can't charge over at the beasts as they could not match their momentum. They could only wait until the Remorans whittled down their numbers, or stop the stampede for a short period of time.
Due to Levi's quick thinking, the stampede slightly changed direction. Because of that, Korona and Selena did not worry about their attacks not landing on the head of the stampede anymore. At that point, even if they closed their eyes, they would still hit the monsters at the front due to their large sizes. They only needed to think about Dan's safety.
Selena finished her spell before Korona did. It was also a D-ranked spell, Falling Star. A large blazing ball of fire shot towards the sky, but after a few moments, it arced downward towards the stampede. Several beasts caught the sight of it and stopped from their tracks, but a lot more were too late to react.
BOOOM!
The spell landed just behind the head of the stampede. It was a nice, strategic attack. It didn't endanger Dan but still hindered those at the front, chasing him closely.
Korona finished her casting too but she did not release the magic yet. She was charging it. It was a relatively high-level spell. The temperature around the group started to drop.
Suri thought that the spell felt quite familiar. His eyes opened wide with realization and yelled, "Levi, follow up!"
C-ranked Magic.
"ICE GATE!"
A thick, thorny gate made of ice formed on the ground just behind Dan. It had several spikes on its surface, impaling several average-sized beasts, immediately killing those who were too late to stop themselves from colliding with the gate. The large beasts who weren't able to stop themselves also collided with the gate, making a muffled thud. Unfortunately, they were not killed, only wounded.
With this, they were able to ensure Dan's safety. Aeon, Suri, and Korona thought that the scene was quite familiar. The three of them smiled at each other.
Aeon rushed towards Dan.
Zing! Zing! Zing!
Levi threw several wind blades at the beasts who were already circling around the gate. The gate, after all, wasn't very wide. Its main purpose was only to stop the stampede and buy enough time for Aeon to rescue Dan. The Ice Gate shattered shortly after it was errected.
Several beasts fell from Levi's swift wind blades. A Wind Blade was a supposed to be a simple E-ranked spell, but he gave it more magic power, akin to charging it, so they displayed extraordinary power. However, Levi did not have an unlimited source of magic. He started sweating as he kept up the fast pace. Korona was still resting from her previous spell while Selena was still casting one. It was up to him to cover Aeon.
Thankfully, Aeon was very fast.
Just when Levi was about to hit his limit, Aeon reached Dan and carried him on his shoulders. Aeon bolted as he signaled the group to run off as well.
Selena thew one more spell at the beasts behind Aeon and the group scrambled to run away. They did not plan on fighting the beasts head on. From their series of attacks, they were only able to take out a fifth of the stampede's original size. Also, Aeon and Suri were virtually useless against that kind of force, so running was their only option.
Aeon looked at Dan and was about to ask him something, but the man was already unconscious.
Aeon's eyebrows furrowed.
Things were very messed up.
….