"Run faster!" Malia shouted as she heard the Crawlers' roars rapidly approaching.
Apparently not all the monsters had pulled up to Ballabyne.
"Dammit!" Asselin cursed as he massaged the stitch in his side after decapitating a wolf-sized Crawling.
Unlike Malia and Ikaris he was not a super athlete. Zaos clearly had Drow blood in his veins and therefore benefited from the reputed Elven nimbleness. The soldier was also a First Class Body Apprentice Sorcerer about to be promoted and his physical attributes were excellent.
In contrast, Asselin was also a First Class Apprentice Sorcerer, but his specialty was not long distance running. His training was more to make him an assassin or a duelist than a tireless warrior. He had other skills, but they were of no use to him here.
In spite of his whining, he was still able to keep up with them unlike Ellie who could only let Ikaris carry her or she would be caught by the monsters in no time.
"Moooooo!"
The warning bellow made them turn their heads and they saw hundreds of Crawlers charging them on their left flank. At their head, a Glenring was riding another lion-sized Crawling.
"Fuck!"
"Leave it to me." Zaos said as he took the initiative to dash at the enemy.
The group had only known him for a few minutes, but his courage touched them. Ikaris activated his See-through vision and began spamming his Heart-Puncturing Spell at the Crawlers trying to impede the red-haired drow's movement. The monsters started dropping like flies, but his stamina also took a big hit.
Yet, compared to his first attempt, it was almost negligible. With each new spell he cast, his See-through vision and Heart-Puncturing were getting closer to level 2. At that point, it would be a completely different story.
Not to be outdone, Malia slashed the air with her hand, projecting arcs of crimson red light. Blood began to trickle from her nicked hand again and her face became a little paler. Seeing her bloodless face, Asselin pressed his palm against her back and as if by magic she regained her color, the cut on her hand instantly shrinking.
The phenomenon was really strange because Asselin, who seemed to lack stamina, had no trouble healing the young woman's wounds to perfection, even curing her fatigue.
"Moooo..."
The bison mooed his displeasure at not being able to participate, but he couldn't let go of the stretcher Toby lay on again. He almost hoped that the soldier would die soon so that they could get rid of him.
Meanwhile, with the field clear, Zaos slalomed between the Crawlers until he came face to face with his opponent. Like the bison, his muscles swelled and when he pushed on his legs to jump, he crossed twenty meters almost instantly leaving an afterimage behind him.
CLANG!
Miraculously, the Glenring parried in time with his axe, but he was knocked off his mount. Before he could get up, another Blood Swipe from Malia split his brain in two.
Zaos ricocheted against a tree, pushing with his feet, and making the opposite trajectory he thrust his blade deep into the neck of the huge Crawling, piercing the thick plate of cartilage effortlessly.
Ikaris and the others gasped, raising their opinion of the soldier and rejoicing to have him around. However, they had overestimated him.
As he landed, they heard his joints crack and he dropped to one knee to catch his breath before rising with difficulty. It took him a few stumbling steps before he was able to walk normally. When Zaos returned to them, he was sweating profusely.
Ikaris and Ellie had no way of knowing if this kind of backlash after such a move was normal or not, but seeing the lack of reaction from Malia and Asselin they moved on.
"When we get some peace and quiet, I'll have to remediate your ignorance." Magnus' voice rang in his head as he sprinted. "Even with your Appraisal Spell, you need to be able to judge the dangerousness of your friends and foes just from their Sorcerer Rank. Otherwise, you won't even know how you die."
The teen almost stumbled when he heard the Vampire's voice, but nodded subtly after listening to his comment. Not being able to estimate the difference in power and status between an Apprentice, a Sorcerer or a Lord Sorcerer was a serious matter.
In fact, he couldn't even tell if a Lord Sorcerer was a rare occurrence in the Forsaken Lands. The Barren Bush was not a good benchmark. In a prosperous empire like Magnus's, perhaps the ordinary citizens were all full-fledged Sorcerers.
Over the next two hours, the group engaged in a series of skirmishes with packs of Crawlings. Three times a Glenring led the assault and they were not as lucky as the first time.
The first was a Destruction Sorcerer, the first Ikaris had ever encountered. As soon as the creature spotted them, a blinding white lightning bolt shot from its fingertips and struck the bison. The smell of charred steak filled the air and the bovine collapsed to the ground burnt to a crisp.
"Mooo!"
Malia was shocked to discover that the Demonic Beast had dropped the stretcher in time to save them from electrocution. Toby had rolled out of the stretcher but was still alive.
Zaos sprinted at superhuman speed at the Lightning Sorcerer and stabbed him in the heart with his sword before he had time to cast a second spell. Unfortunately, the damage was already done.
The bison who had been tireless up to that point became their biggest liability. In addition to guarding him for several minutes until he regained consciousness, he was no longer able to gallop after he woke up. Thankfully, he could still pick up his side of the stretcher.
"We should abandon him. He's a dead weight and will be our undoing if we stay with him." Zaos said matter-of-factly.
"Fuck you!" Ikaris insulted him dryly. "I trust this buffalo more than I trust humans. We leave no one behind."
"I agree with Ikaris." Malia agreed fiercely. If the bison hadn't dropped the stretcher, she would have shared the same fate.
"I agree too..." Ellie whispered in a small, barely audible voice.
Asselin wanted to say something but in the end he chose to keep his words to himself. Seeing that he had no support, Zaos shrugged but after that he didn't mention it anymore, only running and fighting.
Sooner than they expected, the Alpha Bison regained his strength after Ikaris gave him a Heart Strawberry and they congratulated themselves on saving the creature when he impaled the second Glenring with his horn before it had time to draw its weapon.
When the third Glenring ambushed them, they were only half a kilometer from Hadrakin's wall, but it proved to be the most perilous moment of their lives.
This Glenring was different from the others. He wandered alone, without any escort. No Crawlings, no mount. He wore no armor, just a black robe and a hooded overcoat. The most notable detail was that his clawed feet were hovering a few inches above the ground.
As soon as it saw them, the monster raised its palms towards them. Immediately, the group felt a pull on them, and then they flew straight at the enemy, unable to resist. Malia retaliated with a Blood Swipe, but the arc of blood splashed against an invisible spherical barrier.
" Bloody hell! It's a Psychist Sorcerer!" Asselin screamed in fright.
Immediately afterwards his eyes became blurry and his body became as unresponsive as that of a disjointed puppet.
"Soul Attack!" Malia warned them, her eyes turning orange.
A long white fox tail protruded from beneath her dress and her irises flashed with high frequency as she engaged in a duel of mental illusions with the Glenring.
Ikaris and the other members of the group no longer hung suspended in the air and fell back to the ground, but the Soul Attack gained in momentum instead.
Zaos knew his weaknesses, but even with Asselin and Malia's warning he too fell into the illusion after a split second. The buffalo didn't last much longer and soon only Ikaris and Malia were left to fight.
The most shell-shocked of the group was certainly Ikaris. He had felt a faint pressure against his temple but it was not even comparable to the pressure of his own fingers. He saw himself surrounded by monsters, but the illusion was so fake that he would have needed to be very drunk or on drugs not to know the difference.
Perplexed, but having his head screwed right, the teenager ran up to the Glenring and while the Glenring was standing still, seemingly unable to see him, he shamelessly thrust his sword into his heart. The illusion was immediately broken and the monster stared at him with bloodshot eyes, wide with disbelief.
"What...are...you?" The Psychist Sorcerer questioned with a final death rattle.
"Just a humble Otherworlder." Ikaris snorted as he sent his body waltzing with a kick.
