The 2 Swordsman, 1 Unarmed lady wearing a ranger attire starts to anticipate with their form forming an attack posture.
"They're going to at-"
CLANG!
Mateo, Helyna instinctively block the sudden dash and strike of the two infected swordsman while Beltrand block the pounce of the unarmed with his shield.
"Shit!" Beltrand blurted, staring on the infected pushing his shield.
Mateo and Helyna parried the swordsmans away who proceeds to unleash wild overpowering slashes towards the two, the sound of clashing steel echoes as the skilled combatants exchanges strikes.
Until a wind vortex and rain of fireball starts to surge towards the group which blocked by a earth wall casted by Claustrine, the barrage of fireballs meanwhile is intercepted by Sophia's barrier.
"Leave the melees to us. Sophia, Trinne take care of the mages!" Mateo's orders as he still parrying the infected swordsman's assault.
"Ok!" -Sophia.
The two then passed to the melee combatants and target the infected mages behind. Mateo and Helyna are still stalled by the swordsmans' strenght and skill expression. The two ensures that the swordsmans would bot change aggro to Sophia and Claustrine passing them.
"They're quiet skilled for being infected! What's happening!" Helyna's complain as she block a heavy downward slash. Then send the swordsman away.
"I don't know. This should be not the case but it feels like the virus really using their host's potential pass their limits." Mateo's opinion as he parried the relentless assault of his opponent.
Beltrand meanwhile continues to deflect the unarmed's rampant attempts of biting him. His shield is proven to be a great deterrant and protection as he manages to just bash the unarmed with ease.
But the enemy, an infected female is showing great tenacity and agility as it just continues to attack Beltrand with no rest nor hint of fatigue. Until...
"Oh come on!"
Beltrand watch the infected grab his shield. He instantly shake it to fling out the enemy but it just maintains her tight grip while also slowling creeping closer to Beltrand's arm.
Beltrand swings his sword in attempt to cut the unarmed clinging on his shield but to her suprise, she manages to catch the blade with her teeth. With his arsenal in deadlock, Beltrand is displeased.
"Really?!"
Beltrand have no choice but to abanndon his sword and shield by letting go of the grasp on his sword and removing it's arm strap before backing away, leaving his weapons on her arms which the infected throws away with disregard before focusing again on Beltrand.
"Oh why not use them?!" Beltrand's question.
Then he noticed the attire of his opponent which remind him if Shirna.
"I see. You're an archer."
Beltrand spits out of annoyance. Then he stares on the infected while adjusting his armguard.
"You're starting to become annoying miss." Beltrand's comment.
Claustrine and Sophia meanwhile continues to move forward while blocking the long range magic attacks of the infected mages.
The wind mage inleashes a barrage of wind cutters which blocked by Claustrine's earth wall.
The fire mage points his staff to the mage and cleric. Sensing the attack, Sophia casts a barrier and barely even managed to block a widespread flame blast attack released on the tip of the fire mage's staff. The inferno continues to burn the surrounding which intensifies as the time goes by.
"Ughh! We going to get cooked here!" Sophia speak as she starts to sweat due to heat.
"Just block Sophia. It's going to end soon."
Claustrine feels turbulance on their side and she instinctly created an earth wall to block few strat wind cutters who cross the wave of flame.
The flame field lasted for 20 seconds which where the two stand to their guard blockin both the fire and wind until it abruptly stops.
"Huh?" Sophia is confused.
Then her question is answered when she saw the fire mage's status. His body is grotesquely damage with huge scar and intense blood loss. One of his arms is like burst open with an explosion and the fire mage is really looking like a damaged mess with his staff broken and clothing burned.
"He already casting barrage of powerful fire spells earlier. That's really destroying his body on that degree huh?" Sophia sadly says.
"His body finally reached its fatal limit. There's no recovering on that." Claustrine's comment, the side of her eyes staring to the wind mage observing them from a distance.
The fire mage tries to move and make a step but he's just fall down and land flat and face down to the ground. Finally reaching death.
"I-I'm sorry. We should ended it sooner." Sophia apologizes.
The two then focus their attention on the wind mage who is now casting wind cutters again. The two blocks his attacks with ease.
"We can just block its blind attacks and wait for him to die on Mana Overuse." Claustrine's suggestion.
"No Claustrine. We should end his suffering as soon as posible." Sophia disagrees on her friend's plan. Claustrine sighs.
"I guess that's also an option. Well then, let's go."
The two moves forward while easily blocking the wind cutters of the infected mage.
"Ok this distance should be enough. Sophia cover me."
"Yes!"
Claustrine moves on offensive and starts to create flame orbs which she throws to the wind mage. The wind mage countered by casting a powerful wind wall, shredding the fiery attack into pieces.
Claustrine makes a follow up attack by sending icycles in extreme speed. She noticed that the infected wind mage starts boosting the strenght of his windwall using mana and thus making it capable of blocking destroying the heavy ice she thrown to him.
The wind mage then cancels the wind wall after seeing that his enemies don't make any offensives attacks and then he throws a barrage of wind cutters. All blocked by Sophia's barrier.
"For an infected, it surely have great survival instintcs." Claustrine's comment.
"The fact that it can still use magic despite it's decrepyt state. It makes no sense. Seeing how that disease work on a closer look, those poor mages should never have the focus to even cast a single spell let alone a barrage of it." Sophia's disbelief as she continues to block the wind cutters.
"Mateo says that it's like a parasite that spreads inside the infected's brain. It seems what we fighting also have mind of its own. More likely using the knowledge and strenght of the host it posesseses." Claustrine hypothesizes.
The wind mage unleashes a wild tornado which Claustrine breaks by casting a torrent of wind of her won, cancelling each other. Only for the tornados to get cutted into and shredded after recieving a torrent of sharp wind cutters.
The wind cutters is blocked again by Sophia's barrier. A small time frame is then used by Claustrine to throw huge 3 fire orbs of her own to the infected adventurer.
The fireball flies in great speed on a straight line but it's already expected by the the wind mage who quickly casted a wind wall to snuff the orbs of flame. The fire ball shatters in impact, their light weight form easily destroyed by the strong torrent of the wind wall.
Only for rods of pure tungsten to reveal themselves and penetrates the wind wall with ease.
Stab... Stab! STAB!
The first tungsten rod hits the infected mage to its right shoulder, instantly dismembering his arm holding his staff. The next one decapitates his left leg and the last rod plants itself on the Mage's heart.
"Perhaps you didn't expected those metal rods. Because from your point-of-view, what you see are just simple fire orbs. That's why you casted a weaker wind wall."
The infected wind mage staggers as it struggles to maintain standing up with only a single leg and terrible body balance. Until he fall face down and thus ending his life with a thud.
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"Rest easy. We also gonna save your party members."
The two gives few seconds of silent glance to their dead opponents, Sophia praying for the souls of the adventurers and wishing them a peaceful departure.
Then they turn and face their remaining teammates still fighting the melee adventurers who clearly showcasing unnatural skills and power.
Beltrand is trying to push away the unarmed adventurer who attempting to take a bite on any parts of his body. Beltrand grabbing both of her arms while ensuring that her n
Mouth would not get any near to his face nor body.
"Why you're so strong?!" Beltrand's disbelief.
The adventurer just growl on Beltrand's question as her hands tries to reach anything. Beltrand had enough and makes a skillfull maneuver that throws the adventurer away. But the unarmed adventurer manages to grab Beltrand's left armguard before she got even sent flying to distance. She grab dear in Beltrand's metal armguad.
And bite at it. Beltrand watch as his armguard gets dented and not wanting a teeth to dig deeper, Beltrand unleash all of his strenght into his fist and punch the adventurer's face attached to his arm, sending it away. Beltrand checks his armguard and give a sigh of relief after learning the the unarmed's teeth didn't managed to penetrate his ron armor.
Beltrand removes the bitten armguard and face the unarmed adventurer who bounce back and leap towards him with tremendous speed. Only for Beltrand to send the adventurer again away with a powerfull roundhouse kick to the side.
Yet the unarmed infected is relentless on her attacks at despite being sent away repatedly, it always coming back and charging again towards Beltrand who decided to remain in defensive.
For every attempts of the unarmed, Beltrand deflects it then followed up by a skillfull counter attack which would always send the opponent several meters away. Every Beltrand's strike are combination of different fighting techniques he learned from his studies.
The infected leaps from a distance in an attempt to bite only to recieve a heavy taekwando roundhouse kick to the side and get sent away.
The infected attempted to grab Beltrand yet she get thrown away with a Judo toss. Sending her flying in the air.
The infected in a desperate attempt to inflict any semblance of damage continues to rush. But Beltrand have enough and after avoiding her hands and mouth, Beltrand grab her and harshly pin the unarmed to the ground, holding the back of her head while his body is weighted on her back preventing the infected adventurer for standing up.
The unarmed adventurer growl as she tried to squirm her way out of Beltrand but his grasp is proven a lot stronger as her attempts went futile.
"S-stop moving!"
As the two fights on the ground. Beltrand sees boots walking towards their location and when he looked up, he sees Claustrine.
"Clauastrine. Do something, I can't hold her forever."
Clauastrine give a slight. nod. She casted a spell and above Beltrand and Unarmed appears 5 solid spikes of tungsten.
"O-oy wait!" Beltrand starts to panic as he see the rods starts to fall down.
Beltrand leaps away, the unarmed tries to stand up as quick as she can but the rods prevented her attempt which stabbed her body and pinning her like a plank with a nail. The unarmed squirms for a moment before Beltrand end her suffering by picking his sword, returning to the unarmed who still growling and cutting her neck clean with a it.
The two gives a short respectful stare tot the dead adventurer before Beltrand gives a disatisfied and annoyed stare at Claustrine.
"Are you trying to kill me?"
"Oh calm down. It s not like you can't dodge that."
"Fine. Where's Sophia?"
"She's currently helping the others."
In the distant is Helyna and Mateo crossing blades with the two infected swordsman while Sophia is inside her barrier spell, around her are few totems she planted to boost her friends.
"Grrrr! I can't find an opportunity to strike!" Helyna's annoyed words as she defeflected a sword stab of the infected.
With her focus on enemy's blade she didn't even noticed the sneaky bite the infected swordsman tries to make the moment the two reach a close distance.
Yet the infected swordsman leaps away and from his former spot, bunch of earth spikes emerged from the ground to Helyna's surprise.
"Claustrine?" Helyna's confused look.
"He almost bitten you Helyna. I need to interfere."
"Thanks!"
"Do you need more help there Helyna?! Beltrand's question.
"I-I think I'm fine!"
"If you say so! How about you Mateo?!"
Mateo is focused parrying strikes with the older infected swordsman. After deflectecing his heavy sword swings, Mateo proceeds to sneak a stab to the adventurer's torso and plant the tip of his blade.
"Oww... To shallow Mateo!" Beltrand's commentery.
Suddenly, the infected swordsman starts to spin wildly, his sword flung away and almost hit Beltrand's head who remained frozen with fear knowing that his head almost become a pin cushion.
With his stance broken, the infected swordsman falls to the ground with no weapons and recovering from bewilderment and confusion. He regains his gaze on Mateo but before he even attack, Mateo ended his life by cutting his head clean.
"I'm done here." Mateo's report as he wipe his sword clean.
As Mateo finished his fight, Helyna is also closing on ending her side of the battle after successfully baiting the infected she's fighting on the opening she purposely gives.
After giving a wide sweep, his abdomen is open for an attack which the infected clearly monopolize and attempted to bite. But before even his teeth reach Helyna's flesh, Helyna's flexible body reacts fast to send a follow up kick on the infected's sides. Sending the infected adventurer rolling towards the observers which Beltrand and Claustrine.
With closer targets. The adventurer shifts his attention to Beltrand who already prepared and beheaded him silently. His head rolls to the ground with no fanfare.
"Oy Helyna be mindful of your surroundings."
"Sorry Beltrand, my bad."
.
.
Grand Ecstasy regroups and observes the outcomes of the skirmish. Dead adventurers scattered everywhere and and the amount of monsters running them down decreaseses with only few skunks trying their to no avail. It gives the group ample time of recollection and contemplatation as they review the situation again.
"How we should report this to the guild?" Claustrine's queastion.
Mateo meanwhile visits the corpses of the adventurers and collect their tags. He gives a pained expression looking on the names of the infortunate adventurers caught on the event that they zero hindsight at.
Trishtan (30), Swordsman.
Manos (33), Swordsman.
Lili (23), Archer.
Zehyna (18), Mage.
Yerk (21), Mage.
"All of them are skilled gold adventurer. It's tragic that they meet their end in such way." Mateo's contemplation.
Mateo stand up and put the tags inside her BoS as he compose himself back.
"We going to tell everything that happened and going to happen here. Once the elves take control of the situation, we can go report the situation to the guild via a messenger falcon." Mateo's plan.
"It seems we still need to stay here a little longer then." Beltrand sigh.
"Beltrand, help me piling the adventurers."
"Okay."
After grouping the remains with reverance, Mateo asked Claustrine to burn the bodies which she did with no complaint. Grand Ecstasy watch as the flame turns the victims into ash. Sophia is praying solemnly while the rest stares with silence for a while until there's nothing left.
"Let's go back inside the dome." Mateo's order.
.
.
.
The beastfolk surrounds the opening Claustrine created with her magic. They are pointing their spears and the Beastfolk's expression shows warriness. In the group, Karka shows himself to face Grand Ecstasy once again.
"Youor not bitten aren't you?"
"We're safe Karka. Not a singe drop of saliva reach us." Mateo's reassurance.
After more focused observation, Karka nod and commands his troop o lower their weapons.
"I'em glad you're all safe and sound Grand Ecstasy."
"Thanks for worrying for us. How about Natsu- I mean the Priestess?"
"Shei's inside the temple alongside Ismorela consoling the peopoe. Thei amount of monsters is reduced to a manageable amount so we asked the Priestess to have some rest." Karka's stern answer.
Mateo nods slowly and then him alongside his friends starts to move inside the temple. Karka walks beside Mateo.
"Let's use to opportunity to rest as much as we can manage." Mateo's suggestion.
"Ief that's the case. Pleaise join us on a meal. Ie know we can't provide a superb service as you can see but we gonna do out best." Karka smile faintly.
"Well then, we're on you care." Mateo smiles back.
~~~~~~°~~~~~~
Everyone have a allocated lunch of spare meat, vegetables and other food that they manage to scavage in the town. Grand Ecstasy and the leaders of Beastfolks have a seperate dining area far from the rest but their food is just the same as the others - A bowl of simple soup.
"How much food we have in stock Ismorela?" Natsuki's question.
"Wei really have no problem about the food as we managed to stocked up a lot befor this disaster happened. Buit the problem is we need to constantly leave the dome to get it insise the storage rooms and the houses outside." Ismorela's sad answer.
"Juist leave the gathering on us." Karka's reassurance.
"That's good to hear at all. But besides waiting for a news from Shirna, what's really our plan here while we wait Mateo?" Natsuko's serious question.
"As I said. We going to wait for the elves. Their support is crucial for the transfer of your village to a new place."
"Waeit... We need to leave this place?"
Mateo gives a sad nod to Ismorela.
"This place and the nearby forest is now a hotspot for rabies. Your town is going to be on constant dangers of being infected if your people remains here."
"But this forest is a huge place. We can just transfer elsewhere far from here and rebuild our town." Natsuko's questioning.
"Because I'm scared of how much this disease spread here Savagery Forest. What if there's multiple hot spots? Or the entire forest is infected?" Mateo's reasoning
"I see... Buit how the elves would be crucial on this?" Karka's question.
"If possible. I want your new home to be close to the elves' reach as possible. With their capabilities, they can be a huge help once another outbreak happens."
The beastfolk went silent on Mateo's proposal for a while before Natsuko speaks.
"Mateo. Us Beastfolk and Elves have a neutrality with each other but I'm not sure if the elves would help a minor tribe like us." Natsuko's comments.
"Is your tribe the only Beastfolk in the forest?" Claustrine's question.
"Yeash. All the beastfolks besides us leave the forest and goes far North." Ismorela's answer.
"The wild hunts..." Sophia winced.
"You're all brave for staying here for that long." Beltrand's compliment.
"Beicause our Priestess and the Forest Guardian protected us from the humans hunting our kind." Ismorela's proud answer.
"Forest Guardian?" Mateo raise his eye brow.
"Iet's the protector of our tribe for a long time. A very benevolent being that guards our village from threats."
Mateo looks on Natsuko, looking for any info.
"Yes Mateo. We worship the forest guardian for a very long time now and I act as some sort of mediator between them and the Guardian." Natsuko's answer.
"Can you ask the guardian for help?" Mateo's question.
"I wish that's easy but It's been a while since the last time we seen himm" Natsuko's sad answer.
"I see. I guess that's not an option." Mateo close his eyes.
"But still, I wish the Forest Guardian also help us on our predicament." Helyna's hopeful thinking.
"Back to my point. We need the permission of the elves of rebuilding your tribe near their area of influence and as we defend ourselves here before the elves arrives. I hope nothing bad would happen."
"How we gonna convince the elves?" Natsuko is still unsure.
"We gonna help you." Mateo's short reassurance.
"Youi humans gonna talk with the elves and act as mediator? Do you guys forgotten that they distrust the humans for a long time just like us? Just leiave the talk to us as you humans night sour the talks." Karka is not convinced.
"Still. We willing to give any help we can provide." Mateo reaffirms their stance.
.
.
.
Night time finally comes and everyone recovers their strenght with a deep slumber, except Natsuko who's sitting at top of the red torIi gate, staring at the dark wilderness with eeriness as her nine tails sways gently alongside the wind.
Despite the darkness, Natsuko can still hear the faint sounds of the animals fighting inside the Savagery Forest. Battling both the infection and the infected as the rampage continues.m to spread.
Natsuko is filled with sadness and longing as she remembers someone dear to her.
"I really wish you can help me right now Mr. Buchan."
Natsuko gives a deep sigh.
"Mr. Buchan?"
"Eek!"
Natsuko is surprised after hearing a male voice behind him. When she looks back, she got greeted by Mateo standing on the temple's toof and just give a casual wave of hand to her.
"Yo."
"What are you doing here and why you're still awake?" Natsuko's curious question.
"Can't sleep. Anyway, who is Mr. Buchan Natsuko?"
Hearing Mateo's question. Natsuko gives a warm smile.
"It's a long story, you might get sleepy."
"I'm going to get drowsy while also hearing an interesting story? Sounds a good deal to me." Mateo gives a sly smile making Natsuko chuckle.
"Very well then. Come here and listen all you want until you fall asleep."