Chapter 101: Hunt Festival [3]

Group 3 set out as early as we could and continued with the monster extermination event. The morning sun rays trickled through the gaps of the canopies standing over us, and the forest was once more filled with electric wildlife compared to the dark gloom of the night.

It was also brimming with savage monsters.

Lots, and lots of them also .

"Uwa~ that's the third den we've exterminated just this mornig. Who knew there were so many of them this close to the village, just thinking of what could happen is...scary~" I pulled out my sword from the corpse of a monster while listening to Skylar complain about our most recent contacts with groups and packs of monsters within shorter intervals.

My eyes casually strayed and fell against two unassuming members of our group.

Borris and Bowen were separately dismembering the corpses and retrieving their fragments. I made sure not to stare too long to avoid them perceiving my gaze.

It didn't seem they were aware I followed them and eavesdropped on their conversation the previous night.

Making sure my expression never betrayed my thoughts, I caught a glance at a carefree Skylar who amiably approached Bowen with light strides and a silly smile.

"Hey, uhm, thanks for keeping watch for me while I passed out last night, dude. It was carelessness on my part," Skylar said, apologetically and appreciated Bowen for his efforts.

Skylar an Bowen were out on last gaurd duty, and Skylar was the one who ended falling asleep, leaving Bowen to pull the weight for the two.

...at least that was what we all thought on paper.

Under the covers of night, Borris and Bowen snuck out separately to have a secret meet up with a third party. It was another new recruit and a team member of Don's group.

I had only managed to notice their suspicious movements thanks to my Mental waves deployed for midnight training, and from the context of their discussions, it was painfully clear and obvious the two held ill intentions, and were only masking themselves as new recruits.

"No, it was no problem. It's fine." Bowen spared only a glance at Skylar before continuing on with what he was doing. Seemingly satisfied, Skylar nodded before working away.

At the same moment, I drew my gaze towards Mr. Roan who was a bit further away from main group. He currently held up what resembled an amulet with a carved glowing rune of light and was speaking into it.

The amulet was a communication equipment used by the guards. This way during the event, they could keep tabs with each other against any unforseen incidents, and also contact the village despite being this far away.

It was only until recently that I discovered the existence of this implement, and I wasn't exactly clear on how it functioned.

In any case, until a short while ago, Mr. Roan suddenly pulled out the amulet and took some distance and has been there since.

I hadn't told or informed him about the Borris and Bowen yet, and as for what I intended to do with that information myself, I hadn't made up my mind.

It was going to sound strange, but in the meantime, I was just going to wait and see.

From what I understood from the conversation, there was going to be a raid on the village using a Stampede. A stampede were a rampaging large group of incensed monsters, and, as for how they were going to manage to pull this off, i wasn't sure about it either.

As far as I knew, A Stampede could be considered a natural occurrence, like a small scale disaster. Monsters were vicious mindless creatures, whose only incentives were to wreak havoc and consume. In other words, it was particularly hard to tame and keep under control these creatures.

Hence the reason why the village guards carry out these periodic raids and events of exterminating all monsters within the proximity of the village before they grew to large and became a massive threat.

Borris and Bowen weren't the only ones in on this; from what I judged over what I heard, there was a much bigger force at play. These guys were confident in their plan, almost as if they had certified back ups and reinforcement.

In other words, there were more of them, and the ones I've currently exposed are part of those who managed to sneak into the village guards ranks to hack at them and lower their man power for the execution of the main plan.

Chances are the other recruits were all Intruders.

As of this moment, their numbers remain unknown. Their purpose remain uncertain, and their goal remain unclear.

There was just too many factors to take into consideration that we were currently oblivious of to take action. Hence why I hadn't resulted to telling Mr. Roan or any others yet.

I've been hoping to ascertain their goal and the true reasons for them to attack the village. If I've determined this, it would be substantially more easier to deal with the issue accordingly.

I've already deeply considered just getting rid of them, but that had too many flaws and empty holes, one of them mostly being their numbers were unclear.

As I've pondered before, there are most likely more of them within our ranks, and even more outside.

I've paid close attention to the two ever since the previous night. I've studied their actions, overhead their conversations and observed their interactions at all possible seconds. My sensory skills were greatly maximized as a result of the effects of my brainwaves and this allowed me to keep constant tabs on the two without actually even having to focus or lay my eyes on them.

I could closely study their actions while asleep, and they would never perceive my scattered brainwaves.

'X'xebecc's rune is scary...' once again, I was forced to acknowledge immense capabilities of the Mental Sphere spell, and this was only some of the abilities i had currently discovered or were capable of executing with my current Mental capacity and Mana.

In any case...

I drew my gaze back over the two for a quick second, and spotted Borris and Bowen exchange an almost imperceptible meaningful glance.

'... it's almost time, '

At the very same moment, an explosion resounded in the distance.

-BOOM

The ground underneath our feet trembled slightly and the birds if the forest cried in a furry of caws.

"Wh-what was that?" Skylar who had fallen against his backside from the sudden sound looked up. In the forest sky above, towards a direction not to far away, a thick trail of black smoke climbed the heavens like an ominous tower.

'That was quick, ' I couldn't help but acknowledge. I knew they would begin their assault by morning, but wasn't expecting it to be this immediate. I was hoping to discover their intentions before that, but I was naive.

"That's northwest — the direction of Group 1!" Mr. Roan quickly rushed back to us, apprehensive as he stared at the smoke cloud climbing the sky.

'Don...' I felt my mind grow cold and drew a sharp gaze towards the intruders amongst our midst.

'These bastards...' however before i could finish the trail of thought, my mental sense picked up something, and multiple surrounding presence.

There was a spike of Mana in the air, and a ball of massive flames erupted from the forest woods right at us.

-BOOM!

The attack was sudden, the massive ball of fire detonated and a consuming explosion ensued around us.

Gritting my teeth, I stood my ground against the shockwaves and scattering heat of the explosion. The moment my mental waves detectd a fluctuation in the Mana, my instincts quickly took over - I channelled my Mana, conjuring an area of wind to suppress and contain a small part of the explosion, hence reducing the damage we sustained.

The explosion ensued, leaving in its wake a thick cloud of black smoke swallowing up all our sides. Constantly channeling Mana into my Mental Core from earlier, I kept a tight read on my surroundings, needless of the smokescreen.

"Cough...cough. Wh-what was that?" Skylar had faced the brunt of the shockwaves and was pushed to the floor, but was relatively okay, as uninjured. A few meters away Mr. Roan was already wielding his sword and preparing for an ambush, he said;

"Enemy attack."

I quickly perceived the swiftly moving figures of multiple presence converging around us, and my eyes sharpened.

The lustrous sharp silver blade of a short sword tore apart the veil of smoke and drew a sharp arc for my back. I perceive the attack before it began and remained unresponsive till the last second when the long blade of Mr. Roan's bastard sword deflected the blow at me from nowhere.

The sharp high pitched sword of steel against steel pierced the air, and with another wide swing of his blade, Roan's sword dispersed all of the heavy smoke surrounding us in a single second.

-VWOOSH!

The wind howled from the swing, and all of the somke cloud retreated exposing the number of our attackers and their positions all around us.

"We're surrounded!" But of course I already long knew this, I had to play along and feign my apprehension.

"Hehehe..." Our attackers were masked, shady and fully armed. Expressing their determination through vile cackling amongst each other, their numbers charged at us as soon as their cover was blown.

I raised my sword, observing the flow of battle with my senses.

Skylar and Mr. Roan quickly engaged the enemy, while Borris and Bowen seemed to have sustained damage from the first attack.

The first attack...

Something was wrong.

'The attack from earlier was a Spell...'

Pivoting on my left heel and evading the blade of a sword, I turned towards the direction of Roan and Skylar.

"They have a Mage!" The moment my words could fully registered, a different cold voice resounded like a chime.

"[INFERNO]"

A swirling ball of searing heat ensued as the Mana in the atmosphere drastically swole and expanded, wips of flames converged into swelling white-hot ball of fire that cast an ominous shadow against us, like a looming sun.

And like a falling star...it descended.