25. The mage’s spell

The movements of the guards were hindered by their wounds caused by Rosev.

Zain took this chance and advanced straight into the guards, knocking them further away. This sight made the chief furious.

'You dare come into our village and belittle us?'

Screamed the chief as his body radiated a vibrant dark blue aura. The chief raised his hands up and started chanting intensely.

Water seemed to condense in a large sphere above his palms. As it reached that huge capacity, the mage lowered his arms to his shoulder level and shot the huge water body straight at Zain.

'Rosev, take cover behind me!' screamed Zain as he readied himself to defend.

He began concentrating his magic power. The ground below him started to wiggle and a wall made of mud began to emerge out of it. The wall rose to a height of 2 meters, covering him and Rosev.

Rosev backed him up with his magic so that they could fortify the defense together.

The water body flew straight at them. The momentum of the collision was much larger than Zain anticipated. His wall began to deteriorate from the corrosive water. After the threshold force was exceeded, the wall shattered, knocking Zain and Rosev to a distance.

The attack hit them hard and they took a few seconds to get back up with injuries.

'Feeling alright?' Rose asked.

'I've been better' answered Zain.

Zain and Rosev checked each other's state and picked themselves up. They sustained noticeable injuries. As they got up struggling, they saw the mage breathing heavily as he just cast this huge spell.

'Zain! I think this is our chance to close in. He's exhausted and we have to take advantage of it.' Pointed Rosev at the mage.

Zain looked at the situation and thought Rosev was right. He dusted himself off and sprinted directly into the vanguard of the mage's defense. He cleared the path for Rosev by knocking the two guards taking defense.

Rosev already had his arrow locked in. As soon as the defence was cleared, rosev let go of his arrow aiming them directly at the mages's weak points. He took out a hard blunt Arrow head which he had previously prepared for special circumstances as this. He loaded the arrow and used his high-tier wind-attributed spell, Storm Lance. The arrows flew at astonishing speed carrying great force. It hit the mage directly at the temple of his head. As the arrowhead was blunt and not sharp. It knocked the mage out instantly making his unconscious body fall behind his previous stance.

The entire battlefield came to a halt as the banging of the chief's body hit everyone's ears loudly. The kroken monsters dropped their weapons as they saw their only hope for a win fall.

Zain sat down immediately as the exhaustion he accumulated throughout the battle got the better of him. Everyone halted their hostile standing and immediately loosened their stance.

It was a thoroughly exhausting battle for both sides.

'Zain, you really made it sound too easy.'

Luro let out a tiring thought.

'Seems like I've underestimated my village and the chief'

said Zain as laid down.

'Fortunately, we've accomplished our task by not losing the major members of the village. I hope Viru Sama has such luck too.'

Said Pyra as she looked around to assess the situation.

After moments of resting, they took the unconscious body of the village chief into the main hut. The mage took an hour to regain his consciousness. He lay there with several injuries that weren't life-threatening.

He woke up and saw Zain's face nearby accompanied by the rest of the party.

'You've won fair and square. I shall see to it that the village obeys your master. He shall be our master too from now.'

Said the village chief.

'Straight to the point huh? I like it.'

Rosev expressed his content.

'You and your village will be moved entirely into Viru Sama's dungeon. The village will get a proper place to settle inside the dungeon and will carry on the task of preventing intruders from invading the dungeon. Further details about the roles and duties will be explained by our master. We need to capture some basic unevolved kroken monsters to be spread out and also be placed near the settlement of your village in the dungeon. It would prove to be a valuable defense as it did here today.'

Summarised Luro about the plans and propositions.

He ordered everyone to make the preparations to move as it was going to be on foot.

He looked around the small village, the small huts were built using clay and stones. The chief seemed to be the most intelligent monster in the village. The probability of someone being born in a village like this was good. If the village had been bigger, there would be more creatures like him. The reason for the low population could be due to the dangers of this forest. One had to deploy their soldiers constantly to check for monsters and prevent them from invading the village. The reproductive ability of such capable monsters wasn't often. But the less evolved monsters seemed to have a higher reproduction rate. This is due to the rarity of the species. A common basic species like a rat would give birth to thousands but a well evolved kroken monster took weeks to produce a child. And the probability of the monster being born of higher intelligence was also low. Accounting for all these facts, someone like Zain or the village chief were pretty rare monsters. Zain evolved further due to Viru's dungeon influence. While the chief had it all natural.

As the preparations were complete, the village began to move towards the dungeon, guided by the party.

The party members were very proud of the task that they accomplished. This was going to be a huge addition to their developing dungeon.

'So who's going to be the head of this village after they settle down inside the dungeon? Is it going to be you Zain?'

Asked Pyra as the thought crossed her mind.

'Viru sama did mention that he'd place me in charge, but I have no interest in being the leader and settling down there. I want to be of help to Viru sama and strengthen myself through battles.'

Answered Zain to Pyra.