A Stretch of River

The day started early. The adventurers were wrapped in muted expectation. After a quick breakfast, the adventurers were gathered in their designated positions. A rumbling could be heard almost an hour before the stampede arrived at the gorge. Once it was filled with beasts, Wentlas uses a Light blast ten times its normal size to wipe out a good chunk of the oncoming beasts. But they are quickly filled with even more beasts. He does another blast and continues to do so for 30 minutes. After that, the Fire master, Plasma Break takes over and uses a series of fire blasts for another 30 minutes. A city Elder replaces her and uses an area of effect attack Lightning field. It lasts for about 5 minutes and he recasts it again. Every 30 minutes a new person takes the position to allow the others to rest and recover. After four hours, a significant number of beasts have been obliterated.

The beast stampede is completely underway. Forlorn's Hope along with some of the new grants and more seasoned adventurers were posted by the river. Its location is strategic because the water was deep and wide making crossing impossible for large groups of beasts. Kauven's water master Gil Pelagos was the commander of the river unit. Because of how long the river stretches, sub-commanders were stationed at certain intervals. Tasha was relieved to see that the man in charge of their area was Koi Tubbs, the quirky adventurer who accompanied her safely to Kauven.

The place they were assigned to protect is further down the river. Therefore, it was a region that wasn't expecting a lot of action and a reasonable place to situate fairly novice adventurers. However, the beasts have started running amok from all the bottlenecking. Some were trying to back up and avoid the unending assault of powerful attacks. On the ledge of the gorge were long range specialists who attack the beasts that were trying to enter the forest or climb up the ravine. This backed up the mouth of the gorge and diverted some of the beasts towards the rocky and muddy areas that lead to the river. In no time, beasts were trying to cross the river. The sounds of a fierce battle can be heard coming from where Gil and the most powerful water adventurers were located.

Suddenly, a mob of beasts break through the canopy of trees and runs towards the river. The moment the first beast reaches the other side of the bank, Koi with Ellie's help immediately freezes a stretch of the river into Ice impaler. Twenty-six beasts die immediately. This stops the beasts in their tracks. Terrick spams those that were stuck but still alive with Fire ball. Tasha jumps high and cuts up the remaining beasts in the bank with Wind slice.

Althea runs into a mob of beasts on the other side of the river. Conjuring Fire tornado alongside Wind ripper while blinding them with Light Bomb. The Light shines so bright that the only thing the others see is the ripped-up bodies of the dead beasts. Bryce runs even further into the oncoming mob that he completely disappears from view. Using Dark flicker, he stabs two giant monsters and flickers to kill another just a foot away. Dark flicker allows him to efficiently get close to the beasts and move to a safe distance quickly. Using his sword skills, he can slice two to three beasts in one go.

While Koi was busy impaling the main mob of beasts, Ellie runs towards a group of goblins trying to sneak across. She showers them with Ice fall. 30 Ice daggers form in midair and pierce the beasts nearby. At one point she finds herself surrounded, she casts Water disk which creates a spinning disk of paper-thin water around her. It cuts through the monsters that get too close. Tasha and Terrick combine their attack with Wind speed buffing the Fire meteor increasing both speed and heat before they burn five midsized craters demolishing the beasts that stood in front of them just seconds ago. Althea uses her Light daggers to attack the stragglers trying to escape. But in no time, even more beasts fill the spaces that they had just cleared.

Half an hour later, Tasha has received a handful of wounds. Her agility is high but this is at the cost of having lower endurance. Terrick is also near mana depletion so he has been casting less and less Fire balls. Bryce has backed up and stayed closer to the group to allow those who are catching their breath a time to recover. Jeruelle has not stopped spamming the beasts with spells. Although she seems to have focused on staying this side of the bank and waiting for the beast to try and cross. Once the beasts are on the river, she would freeze it effectively drowning them. This strategy allows her to rest in between spell casts. Althea casts AOE Light dome. This heals wounds, and recovers mana and health. The downside is that Healing uses a lot of mana and even at the mana level that Althea was in, healing multiple people multiple times is a huge power drain. The good news is that she has received two level up notifications and has now reached B rank.