Pest Extermination
"But why!? Isn't this the perfect levelling opportunity!" Ric shouted as he caught up with the duo.
Ric was forced to stop by an outrageous blast of a mixture of burning Vitality and freezing Wisdom that felt heavier than anything he had ever carried. He was momentarily stunned before overriding the blast by shielding himself with his own mana with a smile that slowly widened. Stepping closer to the duo who no longer walked further.
'This guy's not your average Master archer.' Ebony thought. They have met many level 270s Masters since those were the parties that filled the dungeons they entered recently. Not just anyone could withstand Ning Xin's overflowing essence without any impediment. While he was still restraining his mana, it was still surprising to see Ric completely unaffected other than the initial surprise.
Ning Xin also thought the same thing.
"Why not?" Ric repeated himself.
The duo looked at each other before facing him.
""Because insects are creepy."" It was something both of them agreed with.
She didn't like insects even though they were considered ingredients. She tried not to discriminate the ingredients but after a single day of insect meals with Ebony, they never tried them again. They weren't exactly disgusting but looked unappetising however she tried to prepare them and she couldn't help but be extremely uncomfortable when she thought back to the numerous spiders she had consumed.
"..." Ric had no words for a moment. "That's exactly why we have to remove them. Think about it, there are already more than a hundred thousand large ones as a bonafide small monster horde, and a conservative estimate of 3 million creepy, tiny bugs that are going to move out of Vermin Paradise sooner or later. They are weak for creatures of the same level but propagate extremely quickly. We could have an entire continent full of insects in weeks! Most importantly, insect-type monsters are generally weak to both fire and ice!"
Ric's wit was at play.
"A real monster horde, the Imperial army should be acting wouldn't they?"
"Of course, our small town has few soldiers and we are far away from other cities. The surrounding nobles already sent part of their army but the closest and fastest contingent of 2000 men would still take two weeks to get here. Freelancers rarely want to risk their lives for such a high-risk quest unless guaranteed some sort of safety, they would rather safely explore and exploit dungeons."
Ric added that other towns and cities had to conserve their own army to protect themselves as well and weren't really willing to risk their soldiers dying. Only sending a token sum of soldiers since the higher nobles are aware of the situation and ordered them to reinforce their small town.
Although Crest town had the confidence that they wouldn't fall or collapse, they were at the forefront of stopping any monster horde from Vermin Paradise and the nobles understood how an insect monster outbreak would get worse with time if not completely suppressed. The royal army was on the move but they were too damn far away and would likely not make it in time from the situation that was getting more urgent by the hour.
"What do you want us to do about that?" Ebony didn't think the two of them could wipe out a population of insects that were not actively hunting them down.
"What do we get out of this?" Ning Xin was more practical.
"Ha! Don't try to trick me, you can both wipe off your excitement before trying to trick me. I can see both of your smiles." Ric said while pointing at Ebony's deadpan expression and Ning Xin's white mask that covered her face.
It was more and more common for them to look into each other's eyes and understand what they were thinking. They broke eye contact and looked at Ric at the same time.
"You got us. Let's go." He said.
"Wait wait wait, we have to talk about the plan."
"Plan?" They cocked their heads in unison.
"Monster infestation." Ning Xin pointed to where Vermin Paradise was. "Exterminate."
"Isn't that the plan?" Ebony questioned.
"...Come on. You're not joking?" Ric's mouth was wide open, letting remnant alcohol escape.
He quickly stepped in front of them to physically stop them as they really started walking towards Vermin Paradise.
"Relax, I'll go through it quickly. There are about a dozen grandmasters already staying in town, we were about to act but I decided to wait here a couple more days when I found out you two weren't far. 2 parties and a couple of solo freelancers together with a couple dozen level 300 Master parties." Ric fumbled for his waterskin by his chair and chugged before continuing.
"The plan was to move in and take down as many species' leader-looking ones as possible and try to dissuade them from coming to this direction while also cutting down the population of the weaker and more numerous insects. Buying time for the reinforcements to arrive. Our scouts are keeping an eye on some targets."
"What's the difference between that and what we said?"
"Urgh, can't you just wait a day for me to get the others for a coordinated and comprehensive strike so that we have the situation under control."
"We can wait a day." Ning Xin said.
She wanted to rest a little from the constant killing, they were slowly increasing their stats to get used to it and had quite a number of unallocated stat points. Unlike the general populace, their pace of levelling was out of the ordinary and they had an extremely short time to get used to their increasingly stronger body and mind. It was dangerous and they might get hasty with stat placement so they were being very careful.
"Oh and no forest fires. We wouldn't be able to stop a huge fire, Vermin Paradise is expansive and the vegetation is dense. You would probably burn down our town with smoke or the heat would kill my citizens in time." Ric made calls on his myriad bracelet as they were left to their own devices.
"And?" Ning Xin could sense he wasn't telling them everything.
"...I founded this town. Ever heard of hata? The drink. Yeah, Hata trees are only found here." Ric held a monopoly over the production and sale of hata, which was the closest thing to coffee on Elcra. She was more of a hata drinker than a tea drinker, hata was naturally sweeter than coffee.
That didn't mean she couldn't use fire magic, just in a relatively controlled manner.
They didn't plan to go up the mountain or enter the town of Crest since Ric was calling the freelancers down instead.
The sun fell.
Ric yelled orders to the guards of the dungeon, the guards abandoned their post and entered the dungeon.
Ebony and Ning Xin came over from their resting spot on a dry log where they were maintaining their equipment.
"We'll be going with your plan! My scouts out there and from Crest just informed me the entire Vermin Paradise are on the move in 'coordinated panic' or so they say! The freelancers will join directly from Crest." Ric touched his armour pieces into place even though they were on properly.
The guards who went into the dungeon exited, "Baron! We have informed everyone inside to either stay inside or come out to help as you ordered." Ric apparently gave an urgent warning and Quest. Rewards were promised for those that wanted to back Crest up.
Monsters could enter dungeons too so if the monster infestation were to reach the dungeon portal and enter, those people inside would be caught off guard. Ric knew the people inside would rush out unless they didn't get the news as they were not in the outpost directly past the portal.
He was right as people were pouring out and rushing up the mountain to get behind proper walls.
Ebony and Ning Xin were already gone from their spot.
❅❅❅
Ric barked orders, there wasn't much to say but to make sure his soldiers could make it back to Crest and form up well. He rushed back to Crest ahead of them to get his small defensive force in order and was glad to see the hired hands were all equipped and ready to rumble. He quickly left a short report to all his employees at the Quest Hall, a loud resounding alarm to wake the entire town up and a prepared speech to motivate his citizens that it wasn't the first infestation outbreak they overcame and it wouldn't be the last before he went to back the duo and the elite team of freelancers that eagerly left on a charge for the sweet sweet experience. For the level 300 Masters', even sweeter Natural Potential.
He ran with a little mana enhancement to his legs and more to his eyes. Once he reached the forest, he was in home ground despite the loss of height advantage. Propelling from tree to tree.
The majority of the horde was more than a week deep into Vermin Paradise on a level 180 Runner's feet that ran for 14 hours a day. If the elites he hired were rushing, they shouldn't take more than a day or two before they saw the bulk of the horde. At least, that was if the horde wasn't rushing towards Hata town.
He managed to catch up to the larger parties of Masters while the Grandmasters weren't in sight.
"Don't get too excited and die alright? Good luck! I'll be going ahead!" Ric hollered to them as fellow Masters pushing their skill levels and building up power and Natural Potential.
"Watch yourself!" He got some cheers from them. All of them faced the same issue but he was clearly the youngest of the lot and didn't have the same urgency or rush as the others in terms of fearing not being able to advance to the ranks of a Grandmaster.
Ric looked forward as his hand which held a bow was lifted to the right before he put his hands back down to rest.
4 giant mantises a dozen gors to his right fell with a single hole in their head after they continued their run for a few minutes.
He broke off a few twigs and branches as he ran and continued shooting them into the distance without looking. He conserved his mana as best as he could but he needed to reinforce the twigs and branches or they would disintegrate after they were fired by his bow or get sliced in two and burned up by friction without getting fired.
He saw the sky in the distance shadowing the moonlight and cursed, some flying insects were already all the way over here!
Fortunately, it didn't take long before the night sky was illuminated by heat and flames.
"Great. Must be the Grand Fire Mage," Ric saw shadows dropping down like the flies they were.
His Ocular Farsight finally caught traces of the Grandmasters after chasing them for almost 3 hours. He only just started to wonder why he didn't pass by Rimestone and the Xeng called Scarlet but he wasn't in the position to think about that right now.
He put in a little more effort and mana into his body enhancement to join up with the Grandmasters who wanted some breath of fresh air out from dungeons and wanted this lump of experience known as high-level insects that were still weak and relatively easy to kill if they weren't out of the ordinary.
"Hey there little Baron! You caught up, not bad!" The massive warrior running in thick metal armour covering his entire body was still jogging faster than the group of Masters that were left behind.
The lady Grand Fire Mage was sitting on her staff and propelled by flames in the air while the others were running and some were even jogging.
"Hey. Was Vermin Paradise mana density supposed to be this high? Especially fire mana density." The Grand Fire Mage flying softly said. All of them could hear her despite the sharp winds they were tearing through with their speed.
Ric jumped up along with a rogue or two, they glided as if something slowed their descent by the pull of gravity.
"No, not even close. Not even the recent rise in mana density should warrant this."
"The real question is, were there fire elemental insects among the new species that showed up?" The Grandmaster Rogue was standing on the Grand Fire Mage's staff without permission and she tried to shake him off to no avail.
Ric had to land, "Not that I'm aware of."
"The REAL! Question is! Why is it cold around here if the fire mana density is high like you said!?" The heavily armoured warrior shouted awkwardly to the flying fire mage.
She frowned, having not noticed the temperature as she was flying against cold winds.
"Something's weird." The rogue standing behind her commented as if none of them knew.
They kept going at their current pace since they needed to conserve stamina for the real fight.
About 3 hours later, Ric and the two in the sky finally saw traces of battle.
They were frowning hard.
"Ice?" The fire mage reported to the people below but was really questioning why there was ice. And it wasn't just 'traces', most of the forest directly ahead of them was frozen through. Not a single leaf was left without being frozen both above and under while the trees and ground didn't have any unfrozen parts either.
Ric was glad it was just a thin coating of ice and the trees were mostly unharmed. Then again, he didn't have anyone coming so deep to harvest hata fruits.
They quickly got close enough to see numerous frozen corpses left in whatever was freezing the insects in their wake. The Grandmasters running on the ground crushed the frozen grass under their feet. Some of them inspected the corpses with a glancing eye.
The rogue that was too lazy to run and was hitching a ride on the fire mage's staff stepped off and disappeared into the distance as a dark flash.
Ric started to get an inkling, although he can already guess who or what passed by he couldn't help but get doubtful. Then again, the numerous lot of giant mantises and flying beetles were only level 240.
'Only 240.' He already somewhat understood that Scarlet and Ebony were not bound by the generic level differences but haven't they left minutes before they did?
All Ric and the grandmasters run past and through for the next hour were frozen corpses that were split apart or broken into pieces and a completely frozen forest.
Ric finally caught sight of the ongoing fight.
"HEY! How could you start without us!" The warrior screamed at the rogue that joined the flashing figures.
The reason they were stopped or slowed down here was that they finally reached the bulk of the horde that was spreading sideways and flooding the frozen area without being completely frozen through.
No, the long red haired one was squatting down near an unfrozen tree while the greatsword-wielding one was fighting the mantises off. He was holding his ground well as their fellow Grandmaster was taking the horde down with his sharp dagger. The one with the bright red hair was…picking mushrooms growing on the trees.
They started spreading out as thousands of beetles and mantises rushed past them. The Grandmasters already Identified the low level Master swordsman and woman but didn't think much of it. They already heard from the young Baron about the extras.
"Having trouble?" Ric laughed when he saw Ebony get rammed into a tree by a giant beetle with its U-shaped horns.
The Beetle's horn broke by the time he finished his question. 'Crumbled' was more accurate.
"Damn! They're spreading out too much. Let's take down the leaders first!" Ric received word from his scouts further ahead.
There were too many insects just flying and running past the dozen of them even though every one of them were taking down dozens with a single attack.
"We're just gonna let these pests go?" One of the Grandmasters wielding a weird curved blade asked. He threw out his blade that sliced a couple of insect bodies before the blade returned to his hands.
"...The town can handle them, we need you to get rid of the stronger ones at the very least." Ric weighed the pros and cons in his mind.
"I'm done picking the mushrooms." Scarlet spoke as if she wasn't amidst a bloody, corpse-filled battlefield.
"Go ahead Ric. If it's just these, nothing shall pass." Ebony, who he hadn't seen swinging the large sword said as he continued to take the attacks of the mantises and beetles while they got injured instead.
"Those are some big words! I like it!" The fully plated warrior slapped the mantis that was trying to bite his head off.
"...I'll be back after I lead them to the insect queens and alphas." The Grandmasters trudged down the path that their fire mage opened.
Ric looked back to see Scarlet's hair burn up while Ebony ignited into blue flames.
'So their extermination hasn't started?'
He kept a single eye back to see the blue and red light split up, they doubled back to chase those that ran past them before a red flash cut through the forest. The earth was gouged out in a straight line. Cleaved.
Ric took arms and charged his bow and arrow with mana and took as many strays as he could to reduce the pressure on them. The Grandmasters did the same but they didn't slow their pace down.
"Brace!" Someone shouted.
Ric was probably not the last to notice the presence of Flood Totas, a type of ape-like beetle that should have been staying underground throughout their lives in huge hives. They were the biggest groups that his scouts have found building hives above ground recently. These beetles could use water magic a little but they were called Flood Tota because they stacked up on each other and crushed everything in their path as a wave of flesh bodies.
The crashing wave of flesh bodies with flexible scales that layered like serpents covered the sky with hundreds of thousands or more of them gripping onto each other and 'swimming' towards them. The Grandmasters dished out their fastest spells and skills before the only earth mage present swallowed all of them up in a dome.
The Grand Fire Mage clearly tore the biggest hole in their numbers but more Totas just took over the opened hole or used the remnant corpses that weren't burned to ashes as a placeholder.
The Totas may only average around 220 but even they wouldn't survive a Flood this big without support.
'Crap! We're too far and I didn't get their contact.' Ric cursed, he couldn't even inform Ebony and Scarlet of the incoming wave since they were too far.
"Not yet?" The massive warrior didn't like being stuffed in a tight dome of earth.
The Grand Earth Mage struggled with his eyes closed, "Shut up! They're elling heavy!" He single-handedly held up the mass of the Flood Totas that were trampling over his earth dome.
No one disturbed him any further since their lives were in his hands. The close combatants weren't as worried but the mages and ranged fighters would have a tough time if they were washed over by the Flood Totas even with the many levels and an evolution they had over the weird serpent-humanoid-ish beetles. There were just too many of them and they were a small group.
The seconds ticked slowly.
They burst out after 3 minutes or so.
The hot-blooded warrior laughed heartily when he saw the real occupants of Vermin Paradise not far ahead. Those that rivalled or even surpassed their own levels.
"Now's no longer the time to conserve energy!"
"Baron, lead the way!"
"Are your scouts even alive in there?"
Ric had tried to connect to his scouts.
It connected.
"Follow me!" Ric burst forward knowing the freelancers could keep up.
❅❅❅
"Xin," Ebony called through his myriad bracelet.
"I know, I can see that huge shadow." Her voice reached his ears. She could talk a little even with her enhancements now.
"Let's give it a good blast, there's no one in the surroundings."
"Mmm." She replied.
They joined up before the earth-shaking flood came.
A few of his Glacial Models scattered into Imperishable Frost Scales and formed an orb over 30 metres in diameter with a hole open that could be covered by a single scale.
Ning Xin's white mask took on an orange glow as it spat out fire into the orb at immense speeds and heat.
Two remaining Glacial Models protected them in the meantime.
It took an entire minute before he closed up the orb, a very long minute.
Ning Xin started running back towards the town. Ebony flew up with the ice mana in his robe as fast as he could. The orb floating above him collapsed inward together with all the gravity mana he could pull away from the surroundings and into the orb. He propelled towards the shadow that he still had to look up to see the top with all his magical prowess and didn't hesitate to turn around and create as much distance as he could.
Every step of his was supported by a foothold of ice so that he could activate Treading Stride. He couldn't run on air and the boost from his movement skill was crucial so footholds were necessary.
They didn't do anything fancy like mixing his freezing flames inside since they haven't found a way to balance the two flames perfectly.
The tidal wave of flesh and scaly bodies swallowed up the explosion, protecting the forest below.
"Come into my domain if things get dangerous."
Ebony still didn't have enough mana to keep a large domain up for an extended period of time, but he could maintain a really small one that was 1 to 2 metres in radius.
They have managed to do something the Grandmasters didn't and that was to piss the Flood Totas enough that they wanted revenge. All the creatures in Vermin Paradise appeared to be escaping from something so they ignored the minuscule casualties so far but the two of them had taken almost half of them down.
The Flood Totas reformed and coordinated a water spell, ignoring the 'bug' that dived into them and was burning, slicing and cooking part of their colony. They aimed at the one who killed so many of them.
'I can't reflect that.' Ebony naturally reflects or returns physical shock with mana vibrations through physical contact. The ranged spell would safely hit him.
The two of his Glacial Models stood in front of him and stretched out their arms and sword that reformed into a shield that looked no different from his past Layered Ice Carapace. Their legs were stabbed into the ground like utility poles. The concentrated beam of water was repelled to the sides, tearing the trees and earth apart. The film of repulsion on his congregation of Imperishable Ice Scales didn't fully stop the water from coming into contact with his shields but the attack was stopped and his Glacial Models didn't budge a step back.
His body and his Models copied Ning Xin and they propelled into the wave. Uncountable little grubbers tried to grab onto him only to have their short three-fingered hands freeze off by touching his Frostblaze Augmentation. Those that managed to touch him with mana-protected hands were repelled, chopped off or shattered a moment later.
He didn't use his domain since his natural reflection of physical force with mana vibrations ate up his mana. There wasn't a need either since the Flood Totas were considerably weak individually. He burst out the ice mana in his robes as mist but it was quickly vapourised as Ning Xin did something similar.
Their heads had been ringing with notifications but it could be silence so they were not really disrupted.
What next was not all that different from chopping vegetables as the Flood Totas were not willing to separate from each other, their attempts to tear him away were utterly futile since they couldn't touch him, just his Chaotic Repulsive Membrane. The Giant mantises could at least whack through the membrane, letting them taste the Sonic Intrusion into their claws.
Most of the Flood Totas were 40 to 50 levels above them, allowing them to gain massive amounts of experience.
Ning Xin didn't use fire elemental enhancement to prevent herself from burning too much of the forest but she wasn't any slower than him in terms of extermination. Nothing could stop her path of carnage. A single beat of her heart and she flashed through the wave multiple times, back and forth.
She didn't use her body to ram them into pulp but elegantly dissected them in the fraction of the second that she came into contact with them.
After the Flood Tota's numbers fell drastically from both of their efforts, she stood still and repeatedly pierced the air.
Ebony could hear her arms snap like a shotgun but her pierces were tearing through space and perforating one or more heads every time she performed her machine gun-like thrusts.
He continued his dance along with his Models. The rhythmic flow of Icicle's path was being guided and drawn to his targets by a link of gravity mana that was steadily strengthening.
The remaining 'flood' formed a large fist and punched at him from above with water protecting them and preventing them from freezing instantly. The influx of their mana constantly thawed the amount that froze.
Ebony was smashed into the ground while their 'fist' had a hole of dead bodies. He climbed out of the ground and didn't even need to dust himself off as he came out clean. The attack didn't appear to do anything but push him into the floor like nailing a wooden board.
The 'battlefield' that Ning Xin would've called a chopping board had floating red bubbles everywhere.
He wasn't sure how long they took but they took a break as he waited for all the expanding red bubbles to fly towards her, the massive stream of blood flowed into her mask.
He could see the red feather darkening, pulsing even as if it was gulping down blood. A steady stream flowed from under her mask to her mouth, purified of its remaining essence. There was so much that she let Scorching Gleam have their fill too. She couldn't compress mana as impressively as he could and more so for blood mana. Once she had her fill, she took a glass bottle and uncorked it.
The sea of blood was sucked into the bottle without limit.
"We have strays to catch up to," Ebony said, deeper into Vermin Paradise was a cacophony of screeches and a few roars but quite a few insects passed them while they dealt with the Flood Totas.
"Can't let them think it's so easy to bypass us." Ning Xin licked her bloody lips under her mask as she was completely re-energised. Her bloody clothes were also drained of its blood, an advantage of not using too much fire magic was that there was more blood left over.