There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 455 - 448. Invisible Waves

"Small creatures that go on swarm like miasmic bugs are usually used as spies," Kei said while they went through the newly opened path. She spoke for the recording, but Dheera and Leehan also perked their ears to listen. "They should have come due to us opening the path with such a flashy move."

Zein chuckled. He had no idea if this scout was doing a narrative or dissing her squad mates. Perhaps both. And the ones doing that flashy move were snorting at the front at her commentary.

"But, Ma’am, wouldn’t that move also attract other beasts around here, not just the spies?" Dheera, the ever-curious girl, asked.

"That’s essentially the plan," Kei replied with a smile. "Better baiting them out now than spending the rest of the journey feeling tense waiting for ambushes."

"Ooh..." Dheera nodded repeatedly.

"And that means you’ll have to work hard," Zein patted her head.

"Oh..."

Zein chuckled and snapped his fingers in front of the two guides. "Tell me again who you’re in charge of?"

Dheera and Leehan straightened their back and answered instantly. "The supports," Dheera said. "The tankers," Leehan added.

Zein nodded. The damage dealers, who would use the most skills and corroded quicker than anyone, would be managed by Zein.

"Sixteen groups, fifty-four adult hounds," Ron climbed up from Bassena’s shadow, reporting even as his body reformed into a human again. "Nine on the field, three on the left hill, and four at the back leading to the river. A three-horned is leading the whole pack."

"Just three-horned? So it’s not yet turned into Cerberus?"

"It might eat its kins and change in the middle of the battle if it felt threatened," Ron swept his messed hair from shifting into shadow.

"Eat its kins?" Leehan shuddered.

"The creatures in the Deathzone are more savage than those in the normal dungeons," Zein explained.

"Maybe they get cranky from living in this kind of place for too long, eh?" Zhan chuckled. "Well, no matter. It’s just the outskirt anyway."

Bassena shook his head and let out a sigh. It was nice having enthusiastic people on the team, but this was also why the Spearman had a crap skill management.

"I’m going to use the long-distance guiding later," Zein warned them before they reached the end of the path. "Just be ready."

"Roger that."

"Just go for the three-horned right away. I’ll take care of the others," Bassena said. "The ones on the hills are yours, Naoya."

"Copy that."

Dheera perked as something suddenly occurred to her. But before she could ask Zein about it, they arrived at the end of the path, and the sound of countless snarls and growls welcomed them. Immediately, she put on a defensive stance again. Her eyes, as Zein had taught her, were on the supporting magicians and the scouts.

While Carra cast a movement and attack buff on the damage dealers, Hari mouthed an incantation that prompted the vines around the jungles to surge forth and bound the hounds on the field. Without waiting for the binding to work, Gus and Zhan had already rushed to the field--not because they were reckless, but because they knew by the time they were there, those hounds would already be unable to move. The warriors’ eyes were immediately on the biggest creature there; the snarling hound with glowing white eyes and three horns at its head.

Brandishing their weapons, the two warriors jumped over the heads of the bound hounds, using them as stepping stones toward the growling three-horned. But not all of the hounds were successfully bound; those quick-witted avoided the chasing vines and rushed toward Gus and Zhan.

They made no effort to slow down, however, or spared those hounds any glance. Before anything could reach them, stakes of darkness had already pierced through the incoming hounds.

"Foothold please," Naoya said while jumping to a tree. He winced at the disgusted tar coating the bark and immediately jumped out again, to a black platform already formed in the air.

Several platforms formed in the air, spreading all over the field’s airspace. The archer freely jumped from platform to platform while knocking arrows upon arrows toward the hill on their left side, piercing the hounds running down the hills through their red eyes.

The field, which was filled with snarling and growling sounds just a minute ago, was now full of pained howling. Either sound, however, was something new for the two guides. Their simulation training mostly consisted of them getting used to the dark and oppressive environment. Only within the last month did they start battling a miasmic beast. Naturally, one beast wouldn’t be able to produce such sounds they heard right now.

Dheera gritted her teeth and curled her fist in front of her chest. The sight of several hounds rushing toward them almost made her falter. But she repeated what Zein had always told them; trust the defender, trust the attacker, and trust her training. There were three layers of protection around her, and only by trusting them could everything work.

And true to her trust, the hounds got severed by an invisible force before they could even reach Julian’s deployed magic shield.

No--it wasn’t invisible. The force was just made of darkness and so blended perfectly with the surroundings. She looked at the trusty tower standing still at the edge of the field, sweeping the hounds without even moving. She didn’t see it, but she knew there was another magic shield deployed behind her.

Yes, it was fine. If she followed her Captain’s training, everything would be fine.

"Ah...these hounds bring back my worst memory..." Zein suddenly muttered with a coldness that made Dheera and Leehan flinch.

"Oh? What happened?" Ron asked.

"Hmm? Ah, they’re the ones who destroyed my house," Zein replied, recalling the red eyes he saw when he tried to rescue his brothers back then.

Dheera flinched and turned to look at Zein. "Ca...Captain..."

"Focus," Zein said calmly; the coldness had already vanished from his tone. Ah, well...he has already pummelled that hound to its death anyway.

"Y-yes!"

"Get back!"

Again, Dheera flinched as a shout came from the front, and saw the two warriors, who had been attacking the three-horned, suddenly jumped back. The beast in front of them, dripping in black blood, snarled and growled, letting out a sharp pressure of miasma.

"What? It’s evolving?" Ron blinked. "I didn’t see it eat the other hounds, though?"

"Not hounds," Bassena said. "It ate something else, although I can’t see what is it."

"Are...are we going to let it evolve?" Leehan asked quietly; curious, but scared his question would annoy the others.

"An evolving miasmic beast will let out a fume of harmful miasma to protect the process," Zein explained. "It could be poison, thorns, flames--anything. It’s more disadvantageous to keep attacking, and it’s also a good time for the team to either flee or heal."

"Hoo..." Leehan and Dheera nodded and committed the new information to memory.

"Besides," Zein pointed to the warriors. "They look more excited than before."

Indeed, Zhan and Gus were grinning. They stood behind Banner, who protected them from the belting wind of miasma as the head of the beast was squirming and deforming. The three horns cracked and swirled, sinking into the bubbling black flesh, before sprouting into three heads.

The process almost made the two guides hurl, but thankfully, the sharp belting wind censored some of it for them.

"See? He always jinxes things," Kei sighed at the laughing spearman at the front.

"Oh well--that’s the only one left, so just let him have some fun," Bassena shrugged.

Right then, the belting wind ceased and the two warriors wasted no time rushing toward the three-headed hound that had grown to the size of a van. Once again, their body glowed from Carra’s buff, and the vines previously binding the small hounds now rushing toward the Cerberus.

Of course, the evolved beast wouldn’t get bound so easily like the others. It burned the vines before they could get closer, and despite its bigger physique, it moved even faster. Gus and Zhan, however, moved as fast and nimble as the beast, attacking the three-headed hound that had just become a bigger target all over the field--all over the dead hounds. And every time the beast tried to go to the hill or the river, a flurry of arrows would block its movement and bring it back to the field.

The beast and the espers moved so fast that Dheera and Leehan couldn’t follow it with their eyes, only the flurry of lights coming from the clash of powers. Zein could, however, thanks to his trained heightened sense. His eyes followed Gus, Zhan, and Naoya; and he let out a wave of guiding mana.

Zein blinked slowly as he stood there, in the middle of darkness, and his mind went back to the dark sea he watched with Bassena. Instead of using his hand and shooting a string of mana toward the espers, he let it come out as a wave, just like the ocean and the beach. The wave swept over the three espers caught in his eyes, and they took a deep breath as an invisible soothing blanket draped over their body.

It was different, they thought. It didn’t prick them like before. It was comfortable and gentle. A wave upon wave of guiding that swept away the corrosion inside their system.

"Hah!" Zhan exclaimed and laughed as his body became lighter. "Gus!"

The swordsman stopped in his tracks and jumped, not toward the beast, but to the halberd that Zhan had pulled back. The moment his toes landed on the hilt of the halberd, the spearman snarled and swung the halberd, sending Gus into the air. A black platform had waited for him there, and as he stepped into it, a rain of arrows came down to strike the area around the three-headed hound--none even grazed the swordsman.

Howling at the makeshift cage that was letting out a crackling sound of thunder, it was distracted enough to not realize the shining blade above it coming down to cleave all three heads simultaneously.

The headless hound slammed to the side before the sliced head could even howl. In this darkness, its death was silent.