Try again? - Chapter 49

” Well then, if Hector confirmed it himself, I don’t think that we have any reason to doubt it. ”

Frank took the initiative to speak first. The sad thing was that both of them were wrong. Extremely wrong.

” If that is clear for all of us, let’s see how should we deal with it. Miss Elizabeth, if what I heard is true, Hector invited you to help with the subjugation just recently. Could you tell me how much you know about the plan? ”

” To be honest, not much. Outside of some information about the nest and that we’ll have to deal with one of the entrances, nothing else. ”

” I see. Then, I’ll explain it shortly to you two after which we could proceed with the plan for dealing with our task. ”

” Okay. ”

.

.

.

*sigh*

Another sigh escaped from my mouth as I was looking at the ominous picture in from of me. The nest was carved directly into a hill and had several entrances.

As Frank explained earlier, the plan was to stir them up while several teams would pick them off as soon as they emerged. After some time, the main team lead by Hector would pick an entrance and dive in to personally kill the Queen.

Our job was to kill as many as we could to make it easier for them to dive in. A pretty simple but efficient plan.

Stepping closer to it, we already could hear the buzzing sound that was getting stronger and stronger. We tried to get as close to it as we could but it wouldn’t take much to get spotted.

Looking back, Frank signaled to us to take our positions as we previously discussed.

In the front was him, acting as the main bait and distract their attention from us, followed by Elliott as support.

My job was to stay behind them and shot them down as soon as they emerged from the nest. Fiona was standing next to me to protect me and deal with whatever approached too much.

I made sure to make it clear that her combat power wasn’t that high. It was already bad enough that they misunderstood me but I could deal with it just fine if I were to be protected by the rest. But to aggravate the situation even more than this was just stupid.

Silvia’s role was to shot down the ones that would escape from me and offer support to us all when we need it. Additionally, she had to take the role of support for me. Unless there was a big group, it wasn’t wise to waste my mana on one or two.

I was more than happy about it even though my mana wasn’t the main problem. I had enough of it and unlike the normal way, my method was using even less of it. The real issue was that, unlike my relatively big amount of mana, I had a limited amount of arrows left. I couldn’t waste them for small groups.

Considering that we got close enough and they didn’t notice us yet, I readied my bow for the first shot. There were a lot of them acting as guards at the entrance so it was best to take down as many as I could.

After I took the first arrow and shot it, I quickly take out another one to be sure. I had less than half of the arrows left but the last thing I wanted to happen was to mess up from the start. The morale was important too.

To my relief, the two chunks of flames hit the entrance in succession and engulfed the whole place in flames. A single wasp managed to escape it but was instantly pierced by several of Silvia’s arrows and most likely killed before it even crashed to the ground.

She had an affinity for the wind element which was said to be extremely effective for an archer but now I understood why… The arrow wasn’t just faster but it was like the piercing power was enchanted as well.

I nodded at her and turned my attention back. Frank and Elliott already killed the ones who managed to come closer to us and stepped back to his position. The damage my fire arrows would cause to them wasn’t always the same.

Sometimes, they wouldn’t be completely blinded so we had to take care of the enraged ones who would come to us even on the ground.

We didn’t have to kill all of them, more so the ones who weren’t even capable to fly anymore. The ones who slip from us would be dealt with by the support teams. Additionally, their job was to deal with the wasps who came back to the nest as well. It wouldn’t be funny for us to get attacked from behind.

*boom* *booom*

” Be ready. They’ll surge from inside soon. ” Frank said to us and readied himself for it.

’Thanks, Frank. But with that kind of explosion, it was obvious…’

” Are you ready, Fio? ”

” Mm. I’ll take care of the ones who will come close to us, Lizza just needs to focus on the entrance. ”

It didn’t even take a minute after that explosion and we already could hear how the buzzing sound was intensifying while the enraged wasps started to crawl out of the nest.

” Now. ” Frank said as he readied his shield and sword.

Even though I wasn’t used to taking orders from others, that wasn’t the time to be picky. I quickly took another arrow and shoot it at the entrance engulfing it completely in flames for the second time.

*rumble*  *rumble*

*Bzzzz*

” Good job. Silvia, take care of the ones who could still fly.  ”

It didn’t even take several seconds and enraged and confused wasps started to emerge from the flames. Frank and Elliott already moved to intercept the ones who came in our direction and I shot another arrow to maintain the whole entrance clad in flames.

Apparently, that didn’t stop them to push forward through it. I didn’t know if that was because these wasps were simply stupid or they simply didn’t care since the nest’s safety was as stake but they didn’t hesitate or back down at all.

’Or maybe they were pushed by the ones from the back? That’s a possibility too…’

When I was about to shot another arrow, Silvia moved her head towards us for a moment before to turn back to the front.

” I’m busy here, take care of that one. ”

” Mm. ”

After the short exchange between Silvia and surprisingly, Fiona, the later sprinted at a wasp that wandered around our first line of defense and emerged from the right side.

’Holy crap… I didn’t even see that one. There’s too much noise around.’

Since Fiona was already taking care of it, I focused back on my job and left the rest to her.

Followed by that one even more started to appear as the time passed and the place started to get filled by even more wingless wasps. They were quickly taken care of by Fiona and when she was outnumbered, Silvia would give her a helping hand since they couldn’t afford to distract me from my job.

As such we kept for mostly half an hour and maybe just half of the ammo I started with, but the surging wave seemed to die down in intensity. We had more trouble with the ones who wandered around.

” It looks likes the storm wouldn’t keep much longer but do not let your guard down. We don’t know what might happen. ” Frank reminded us as we shortened the distance between us to take care of the wandering wasp easier.

” Are you alright? You used quite a lot of mana… ”

” Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks, Frank. ” I said and shifted my attention back to the entrance. It was true that they weren’t surging like before but that didn’t mean that they stopped either. There were wasps still appearing from time to time.

” Mm!? ” as I was observing the nest, Silvia came closer to be and put a hand on my shoulder.

I was a little startled by her move and Fiona was glaring at her with a dangerous look the moment she touched me. I just signaled her that all was okay and looked back to Silvia.

” You weren’t supposed to take part in this at all so you probably didn’t bring any elixirs. Take this and rest a little. ” she said and handed me two little bottles with something white-purplish liquid in them.

” Thanks but… ” I tried to say something but she stopped me before I could say anything.

” Unlike my wind arrows, your fire ones probably take quite the toll on you, not to mention that you keep the same intensity for this much… Just take it and rest a little. I’ll take care of the ones who were still there. And for these, we could meet in town after this to give them back to me. ”

” She’s right. Take them. It would be bad if you were to faint because of this after all. ” said Elliott as I was unsure of what to do. I didn’t even know when he stopped being a rude guy but being tired might be part of it as well. I wouldn’t change my attitude towards him so easy.

” Oh… Yeah, I suppose you are right. I’ll take them. Thanks. ”

She nodded to me and patted my shoulder one more time before taking her leave.

Looking at the little bottles in my hand, I was almost sure about their purpose. I had to be an idiot to not figure out at least that much…

’Mana potions. These are real mana potions… Don’t mind the strange color, this is the real deal. ”

I already know about them to some extent. Not about the details or such but I had a general knowledge about them from one of the books.

As you could expect, they weren’t magic potions who could replenish you mana in an instant.

’Well, they are but not in an instant.’

As these were described, the mana elixirs were made from plants with a high concentration of mana in a special way by alchemists. Drinking it, you basically drink a high concentration of mana which your body would assimilate in a period of time.

Of course, these couldn’t be used by anybody. If your natural mana poll was too little it was risky. Your spirit status was a factor too but I was confident that it wasn’t a problem for me. Taken into consideration my race, it was unlikely for me to have such a problem.

’For safety, I will drink just one.’

It wasn’t needed though… I felt like I didn’t even use half of my mana but I couldn’t ignore their request after all.

” Here you go. ” I murmured as I made my mind.

Gulping it down in one go, I jerked at the strange taste. It felt like I drank olive oil. From all the tastes I imagined it to have, that was the last one.

’At least it wasn’t bitter or something.’

” Lizza. ”

” Oh, yeah… What is it? Something happen… Oh… ” my eyes widened at the realization.

” So you noticed too. It seems that we could not rest yet… Can you still go? ” Frank turned his head toward us with a tired expression.

” Yeah, my mana should slowly recover thanks to the elixir. ”

” Good. Tell us if you hit your limit. ”

” Okey. ”

” Elliott. Let’s take our position as well. ”

” Goddamit. This is the knight’s fault. There wouldn’t be that many if we arrived here earlier. ”

” That’s already in the past. Focus there… Let’s go. ”

” Yeah, yeah… ”

It seemed like it wasn’t over yet.

’Maybe this is just a quick wave… or maybe remnants? Let’s hope so.’