Dead:Lost - Chapter 12 Before The Red Dawn

“…”

Hmm, a “silent agreement” as I expected. We have encountered various type of demons before and we had many unpleasant experiences when we met them for the first time. We have met high-ranked Demons on dungeons and caves back then when we traveled in small party or in big party. We need to fight them with all our might. Otherwise, they will keep regenerating or escape.

The sky gets darker and darker, until the moon completely covered by the black clouds followed by heavy rain and thunderstorm.

“Well, bad weather means bad luck.” said Arnold.

“Do not say scary thing Arnold-san.” said Yuna. I looked Arnold’s face that full of anxiety. Then a huge shadow appears from the clouds.

“You must be joking…” said Jack.

“What?” then Robert looked the sky and surprised as well. A huge figure with demon horns, wings and tail is floating above of us. It smirked, then from it’s hands it summoned five Demonic Dragons in instant. The Demon, which is Great Demon, launched a thunder strike around us. Well, shit.

“WE WILL ARRIVE AT OUR DESTINATION NOT LONG AFTER THIS. HEAR ME, PARTY LEADERS! SCATTER AND GO TO YOUR DESIGNATED BASE OF OPERATION! UNDER FIVE SECKINA, YOU MUST ESCAPE! 5, 4,…” said Guild Master.

“EVERYONE HEAR ME! READY THE FORMATION, SPELLS AND SPEED BOOST. WE WILL ALSO REACH OUR DESTINATION AND WE ARE ORDERED TO GO TO OUR BASE ON THERE.”

“YES SIR!”

“3,..2,..1…GO!”

We are turning right away from the grassland. I have marked a good and safe position to east of the valley. We only need to escape out of their sight.

“SHIT! That Demon is still using AoE Attack with high-ranked Magic! Moreover, that Dragon is still chasing us!”

“Mages and Priests, slow them down with your spells!” I commanded the mages.

“Waaahh!” the girls on sixth and seventh carriage are screaming after a huge fireball landed near them.

“Oh SHIT! That Demon is activating [Signal Jamming] and that Dragon launched a fireball to Mages’ wages!” said Jack.

“(Activating Sound) [Divine Voice]. It’s me [White Falcon] Party’s Leader. I used [Light] Attribute Spell to communicate. Everyone, start the operation and spell. Priests, activate [Divine Conceal] right after you have done with basic spell.”

“Yes, Leader!” said Zikiya.

“All of you use strategy and ranged attacks that you used when we battled against that Dragon before. Do it before the Priests and Mages finished their chants!”

“Affirmative.” said The Magic Archers.

We kept going along the windy road while avoiding [Anti-Army] AoE Magic and Dragon’s Rapid Ranged Attacks [RRA] that launch [Dragon Breath] and [Fireball] with ridiculous amount of power to our direction. Sometimes, the Dragon launched [Thunderstrike] Spell and [Wind Slash] to us.

“[Art of Archery: Arrows of Judgement]”

“[Art of Archery: Hail of The Death Arrows]”

“Activating [Light Elemental Magic Rank EX: Sun Missiles]”

*BOOM!* The Magic Archers, Arcane Archers and few Priests are attacking the Dragon together.

“Aniki! That Dragon’s HP has gone down a lot!”

“Leader! This is Miriam from Magic Archer Squad, shall we finish off this Dragon or should we change target?!”

“Can you keep up the barrage?!”

“We can! Thanks to mana potions that Erick created.”

“Alright, finish it off. Change your attack patterns!” Then Miriam closed the call. We kept firing until that Dragon is defeated and fell near us. After we stored it, I command the Priests to activate [Divine Conceal].

“Thiereti Evredius…” (How Clever) said the Demon to himself as he witnessed the fall of his Demonic Dragon.

We managed to escape from the Demon’s sight and we kept riding to the east. Then when we left the grassland area, we turned to left and riding to the north. We reached a savanna with a small lake on it.

*Brush* (sound of something emerged from the ground) “AN EARTHWORM?!” said Jack.

“MOREOVER IT IS DEMONIC AND GIGANTIC!” said Luna.

One of the worst enemies for riders is Earthworm. Normally, you need to fight it on foot, not on the horse. Earthworm is always burrowing below its target, making it hard to be detected and killed. They have strong and hard skin, sharp senses but they have bad eyesight even though they have many eyes around their mouth. They are sensitive to light and sound but bad with smell sense.

“All of you who have any kind of [See Through] and [Prediction] Skill or Spell, please activate it. One of you needs to prepare a huge fireball spell and launch it when the worm opened its mouth. Few of you, lure it by making a loud sound around of us!”

“I’ll handle the fireball Kaichou!” said Tim.

“You are good to go! But wait for further command.”

“Yay!” It seems Tim is overjoyed.

“On 10 o’clock, the worm will appear Kaichou!” said Jack.

“First to Fourth Carriage goes ahead! Fifth to the last, turn left and regroup NOW!” As Jack predicted, the worm emerges after the fourth carriage and luckily, the fifth carriage has turned left before the worm emerges from the ground.

“Regroup! Regroup quickly!” I said.

The fifth carriage and the others turned right and followed the fourth carriage again.

“NEXT IT WILL APPEAR IN FRONT OF US!” said Jack.

“SCATTER! TIM AND THE REST OF WARLOCKS ON SEVENTH CARRIAGE, NOW IS YOUR CHANCE, MIURA-SAN PLEASE HELP TIM!”

“IT ALMOST HERE!” said Jack.

“SCATTER!” I said.

The carriages scattered into different location. I saw Robert and Arnold were slowing down their horses to guard the seventh carriage while Jack is commanding the scattered carriages. I turned my horse back to where the worm appeared.

“[Light Elemental Magic Rank A-: Divine Chain of The Forgotten]” I chanted a bind type magic. Miura-san also followed my lead by releasing [Light Elemental Magic Rank B: Endless Light Sanctuary] now the worm is frozen on the place. Tim launched his fireball, followed by other Warlocks who launched [Wind] and [Fire] Elemental Spells. Miura finished the chain attacks by launching [Light Elemental Magic Rank A: Rays of Destruction] to the worm. The worm’s head exploded from inside but…

“IT’S STILL MOVING AND REGENERATING?!”

“[ORIGINAL SKILL: MYTHELLIUS DEU DRIDER LISTHER!]” (Time Clash: Endless Reversal Cut)

I used one of my original skills to eliminate the worm’s regeneration ability and successfully killed it.

“Itetetetete….my back hurts…”

“My Lord, are you okay?!” Julio came to me. He is holding Nida’s rein.

“Heeeh…so, Leader steals the spotlight again? How cunning.” said Arnold and shortly after that Robert came.

“Let’s regroup after I stored this.”

I stored the worm inside storage and grabbed Nida’s rein. I also commanded my party to regroup in order and we continued our journey again. We arrived at the camp place that I have chosen, a cave surrounded by tall trees, canyons and there are two ponds and two hot springs inside the caves.

“It’s already late night, everyone please prepare necessaries spells, countermeasures and check the caves again.”

“Scouts will recon the outside area for temporary map, make alarm devices, put simple traps and go patrol.” Jack called his team and leaves the cave.

“Rogues, let’s explore the cave and do same like the Scouts.” Then Robert and his team are going inside the cave.

“Priests, let’s prepare Anti-Demon Barriers.” Zikiya leaves the cave with her team.

“Druids, let’s check the nature.” Yavia is following Zikiya to outside.

“Haru-chan, I’ll be outside ok?”

“Alright Rania-san, but do not wander too far.” Rania is leaving her minions to explore the cave and she is going out to west.

“Mages prepare defense mechanisms, spells and design the cave as living place. Warlocks, Knights, Warriors and Paladins please assist the Mages.”

“Necromancers, you are allowed to fortify the cave, please prepare Undead Beasts to scout.”

“As you wish, Your Highness.” said Delrieth, the Necromancer Squad’s Leader.

It took four heverra to finish the simple traps and intermediate preparations, exploring, setting up traps and barriers. After that, I called them back to cave.

“Any report?”

“No, except you are correct to choose this place. This place is secluded perfectly, hard to reach and well-protected by the nature itself.” said Jack.

“The caves are connected to big river on north. I’ve created simple bridge mechanism. Luckily, there’s no single Goblin or Gremlin’s nest here. So, the ladies would safe.” said Robert.

“Alright, all of you may rest. Meeting Dismissed.”

“Haah, we have prepared almost everything but we are still sleeping on ground and carriage.” said Robert.

“Yes, thanks to the enchantments that we had put on our body. Our fatigues have greatly reduced and we didn’t feel anything at all, except maybe we will feel “something is missing” from us.” Explain Robert flatly.

“Hey wait…” Arnold is rubbing his crotch.

“OH SHIT MY D**K!!!!!!! I CAN’T FEEL IT!” Toval is screaming in agony.

Yep, on that night, the boys who chose to horse riding for a week felt they weren’t a “man” for an entire night. I chose to sleep soundly rather than hearing Toval’s panic voice for entire night.

All of us can sleep peacefully thanks to barriers and alarm devices that Mages and Archers had created last night.

On another place, a demon is communicating with someone from faraway place…

“Wahederia vel Itperatora me Zijhe?” (How is your progress Zijhe?)

“Refathiries al del oretiria Milerdia elizar ivar skatteresd.” (It went smoothly My Lord, now all of them scattered)

“Getd, nost whirl del elvatirth bays?” (Good, now where is the boy?)

“Dehim hadh gunt goh triferistia, el Ae—” (I saw he has fled into the deeper part of forest. I will—)

“FOOLISH! AE THERIAN MOU YTHERIUM ELPASKEL DARTEL IUVUSTEROS!” (YOU FOOL! I HAVE ORDERED YOU TO BRING HIM BACK HERE ALIVE!)

“Ahdeil Milerdia, aes—” (But, but Milord, I—)

“WHEST DAR AEMIY IOVDERIUM ELSARIASH SKATTERES TRIAGREP ELRI…?!” (WHAT DO YOU MEAN, “SCATTER” BEFORE? THEIR GROUP OR…?)

“Uh…Urdeliosvel eltriagrepur mastriators…” (Uh…the other parties around him…)

“THEE FOOLISH MAKZERIMAAARRR!!! NOST ESPASKEL DEHIM LA DEHER YTHERIUM DARTEL!” (YOU STUPID BASTARD!!! NOW BRING BACK HIM AND HER HERE ALIVE!)

The [Call] closed by an angry voice from “something” far away. After hearing that, the Demon is more confused and panicked. He is afraid if he couldn’t fulfill his duty his Master will punish him with something worse than death. Then, the Demon disappears from the sky. Most likely, it begins to search “the targets” his Master has ordered him to find.