'Shit! What is this?!'
The adventurers couldn't believe the scene in front of them. No, rather, they didn't want to believe it.
But such hopes were quickly dashed into oblivion as a voice called out.
"What in Raikan's name are you doing?! Get in formation NOW!"
The coarse voice of a man threw them out of their reverie as the ferociousness within caused some to trip as they made haste and came together clumsily to maintain a very lousy formation.
The acting captain of the other team berated them while only sparing them a glance, before swinging his great sword to cut down ten snakes at once.
One could easily identify him as a member of Red Wolf by his physique and the marching crest on his red armor.
As he deflected snake bites with his round shield and swung his sword once more, he spoke without looking back…
"Where's Sir Ilyon?!"
One of those who just arrived promptly answered…
"He stayed behind to help the Admiral"
A man among those already fighting spoke with a panicked tone at such news.
"Something happened to the Admiral?!"
The acting captain spoke up before the adventurer could reply with a voice tinged with anger. One could easily guess that the man didn't like being interrupted.
"Pelu, focus on the snakes in front of you"
No sound was then heard from the one named Pelu.
The acting captain kept swinging and bashing as he spoke…
"Answer his question"
The adventurer didn't dare tally, especially after seeing how obedient that Pelu guy was.
"He killed the beast, but he paid a heavy price in doing so. The Admiral lays unconscious at this moment and seemed to be in very bad condition"
"Hmm, what about our vice guild master?"
"Uhhh…" the man could only mutter because he didn't know who was being referred to.
Luckily, someone did.
"Sir Motavu was injured severely when the snake squeezed his body tight. As for how many broken bones he now has, that I do not know"
The acting captain asked nothing more as he muttered under his breath…
"So we have no idea whether those two will be able to join the battle once more, and now, Sir Ilyon is doing who knows what?"
And this meant…
"We're on our own"
No reinforcements might come, and there was no way they could outrun the snakes.
So the only option left…was to fight! To fight and survive.
The captain repeated it in his mind.
'To fight and to survive"
His gaze changed to that of someone who had resigned himself to fate and began culling the snakes with more vigor.
The newly adventurers though, were regretting their actions.
They had hurriedly scurried towards the mage units with expressions of relief, thinking that any place was better than being at the side of the demon called Ilyon, only to find themselves doubting such thoughts when they arrived close to the mages.
*Ssssss*Ssssss*Ssssss*Ssss*Ssss*
Loud and ferocious hisses rang out as they looked at the scene with dread and fear.
Hundreds of snakes were squirming forward fiercely as they all moved in the direction of the mountain.
It was an overwhelming sight.
*Shang*Shua*Shing*
A group of adventurers making up an arrowhead formation stood in their way as they held up shields of all kinds with one hand to block and ward off snake attacks.
Members of both Red Wolf and White Iron were also among them, having forgotten about grudges when faced with an overwhelming enemy.
Motavu and Ilyon were at the forefront killing the snakes while taking the pressure off those behind them before both of them suddenly left to assist Rowan.
Now, it was a scene of horror, with the armor of the defending knights having already been painted with snake blood all over.
The ground the adventurers stood on had been painted red with blood and black with burnt snake corpses caused by the combined fireball spells of the mage units.
The saving grace was that they were mostly small fries, F to D rank beasts. The adventurers were able to dispatch them with a single swing of their sword.
Only, the problem came from elsewhere.
Like ants, what they lacked in power, they made up for in sheer numbers.
But that wasn't very fear inducing compared to the Ilyon they just saw.
No, what made them dread were the snakes. They had gone crazy, literally.
They were attacking without a care for their lives, which was why the group of knights and the mage units hadn't perished under the attack of waves of hundreds of snakes.
The snakes bit anything that could be bitten, from the knights to other snakes and even themselves. And they did so viciously, each strike going for the kill.
The snakes all seemed to have gone berserk, with no apparent reason for why it was so.
After all, no one saw Fredrick drop vials of snake lover potions.
But even then, the potion was only meant to last for two minutes before being rendered useless, and there was no doubt that two minutes - heck, more than five minutes - had passed, so what was going on?
The mana in the atmosphere had increased its duration and effects, but only slightly. The effects should have dissipated by now, dense mana or not.
Fredrick didn't know, but it was an indirect result of his actions!
He could feel the presence of the people in the mountain and those around it, but he couldn't feel the change in the outside atmosphere.
Or rather, he wouldn't be able to because his current location was already so dense with mana that Fredrick could feel his cultivation increase little by little without even actively trying.
How then would he feel the change in a place with far less mana? Especially when he wasn't even trying to pay attention to it.
While he dug out mana stones with utmost efficiency, the power behind his arms was causing vibrations across the mountain.
These vibrations were causing the mana crystals closest to the open parts of the mountain - this is, the place with the least dense mana level - to crack and break slowly.
The cracks were all very tiny and the pieces which broke off were just as big as a pinch of salt, but these broken parts became particles and went along with the wind, only to pass through the place Fredrick dropped the snake potions earlier and mix up with the potion.
The potion was already enough to make them go crazy, so what would happen when the snakes breath in mana particles with snake lover potion in it?
The answer to that was the current situation. They'll go mad.
It was akin to taking cocaine and hemp, using different nostrils at the same time.
The brain activity would shoot off the charts as it overloaded, before the person dropped dead or became mentally impaired, which was another reason why the group of adventurers was still standing.
A lot of snakes would suddenly become limp while in a frenzy and fall to the floor, baffling the adventurers, who thanked their stars for the appearance of a miracle, not knowing that the snake's small brains had fried up after being overloaded.
The newly arrived adventurers had joined the battle at full force as they spread out after determining that staying together as a formation didn't work.
The mages launched their large fireballs towards snakes that had cobbled up together in large numbers, effectively cutting down a large number of snakes and leaving any that survived to the hand of the adventure knights to take care of.
Like so did they fight progress, and while they battled, Fredrick and the boys looted the mountains aggressively.
Cabrera was also…wait, where is Cabrera?
'I can't believe this was here. Even Ezra didn't tell us about it!'
And what was what exactly?
