Chapter 53

After reading Valletta's letter, Zald grinned and left for the central part of Orario. He had decided to put an end to things.

Making his way to central Orario, Zald noticed that there was barley any resistance, it was if he was being guided to a specific location but it was still meaningless to someone as strong as him, so he went along with it, while feeling a bit excited at the thought of a great feast prepared for him.

Arriving at the giant ice wall, he easily destroyed a portion of it with a swing of his sword. Making his way through the opening to face his opponent's on the other side. However to his surprise there was only one person there. It was none other than Ottar.

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I am Ottar, current captain of the Freya familia. I was granted the task of defeating a person that I once looked up to, during the time that I was once weak.

I had lost to him despite putting my best effort during our first encounter but I cannot afford to lose now. My goddess will be watching my battle and this will be a great adventure for me to achieve greater heights and redeem myself the humiliation I was given.

*Thump, Thump*

I waited in anticipation of his arrival. My heart beating not in fear but excitement, because I was being watched by my goddess, the source of strength. I soon heard the sound of ice breaking knowing that my opponent had arrived.

He glanced at me with a predatory gaze, making shivers run down my spine. His presence felt like a beast that would devour me whole. I hardened my resolve because, I could not fail here. There was much to lose should I fall.

"I will not let you proceed further and no one would interrupt our battle. Fight me Zald" I yelled with resolve.

Soon a signal was fired to erect a magic barrier sealing I and Zald. Finally, it was just the two of us and I could fight without any distractions and prove Freya sama was right.

...….

Meanwhile the other adventurers that were hiding around the area started attacking the evilus members from behind.

The evilus had gathered outside the 5 main location, which was used as bait for the adventurers to ambush them from behind and the ones that were in the locations switched from defending to attacking in a pincer attack.

Valletta was shocked at this maneuver but calmed down soon, believing that Zald would take care of Ottar soon.

She immediately noticed that something wasn't right, because she couldn't find the location of most of the first class adventurers. She quickly asked some evilus members to report any information they have.

"Valletta sama, Allen of the Freya familia is protecting one of the five locations" one evilus member said.

"The rest of the Freya familia is fighting both the Apate and Alecto familia" another replied. The Apate and Alecto familias are one of the strongest evilus familia. They have several combat oriented level five adventurers.

"The Astraea familia is missing along with Riveria and Gareth" another said.

Piecing the various reports from her evilus minions, she decided to use drastic measures to counter by using Knossos, a man made dungeon path, to quickly catch up to the adventurers that went to the dungeon to kill the nightmare.

She concluded that Riveria and Gareth along with the Astraea familia and some adventurers were sent to kill the nightmare.

"Isn't there too much power being deployed to slay the nightmare??" One evilus asked.

"No, Finn most likely figured our plan there" Valletta replied.

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Meanwhile in the dungeon our group had finally arrived in the 18th floor but it looked nothing like it was supposed to.

The trees were burning and the beautiful crystals that once graced the ceiling were all destroyed.

There were many monster on the floor but we easily dealt with it. We were preparing to fight the nightmare when suddenly a figure appeared, it was Alfia.

"Oh, we meet again. I will save you all the trouble of fighting and let you all live if the nightmare is allowed to destroy babel. A fair deal I would say" Alfia suddenly said. I wasn't going to fight her myself and leave the job to the first class adventurers.

I planned to take care of the small fries, watch out for ambushes and support from the distance. I needed to return alive to my familia after all.

"We refuse" Riveria replied before everyone took on combat stances. Well I was just chilling in the back, out of Alfia's view. I wasn't really hiding, just wanted to provide ranged support and elemental buffs.

Using magic to make buffs especially with runes is something that was extremely hard to make. It was constantly draining to mind along with the rune upkeep cost and spells. I hadn't really been using it except the earth buff that increases toughness.

I hadn't named all the spells yet but now was the time to use the other elemental buffs. The buff spells with runes also worked differently, it didn't have a duration and continued working by constantly draining mind.

Looks broken right? But it's was the constant drain that made it extremely taxing and dangerous because one slip up in control and boom I go, that's why I mostly stuck to one element.

Looking at Gareth from the distance, I saw that he was going to make the first move. Quickly drawing an earth rune after summoning my grimoire.

I cast enduring rock, a name that I gave the increased toughness spell. While also drawing a wind rune and casting impetuous winds on Ryuu and Ais. It was risky but something that only I could do.

They were a bit shocked at the sudden buff but went along with it since it didn't cause any harm.

'I should have told them that, I could cast buffs' I thought while watching how their attack would play out.

*Haaaaaaaah*

Gareth made the first move to attack Alfia from the front while Ryuu and Ais made a pincer move to flank her but Alfia quickly used her magic on Gareth and knocked him back. Gareth was a bit surprised that he took much less damage that's expected.

He had been hit by Alfia before so it was easy to tell that whatever spell that was cast on him before Alfia's attack was helping a lot. Well that along with the magic tool that was made by the effort of Asfi, Lyra and several other mages. I also assisted in the making of the magic tool.

Ryuu and Ais that were flanking Alfia also failed in their attack but the magic tool negated most of the damage to them. This greatly surprised Alfia that they are mostly unscathed.

"Are you perhaps using some magic tool to deal with my magic??" Alfia suddenly asked.

"Yes, it was made by Asfi" Gareth said confirming her suspicion.

"All of us have one too" Ryuu added.

Listening to the conversation made me wonder if coming here was a mistake. I mean how stupid do you have to be to help your enemy know your trump card and even tell her the maker. Assuming she killed us all here or escaped then Asfi would be in danger because of sheer stupidity.

"It would be a miracle now if we win this" I muttered in resignation that only plot amour would save me from this ordeal because my allies weren't as bright as I thought.