Chapter 420 - Unfettered Joy
Allegra watched over the battlefield with a pensive frown. Fox aside, she was the only one who had refrained from joining the fray.
There were five herrings in all. Claire was holding off two on her own, while the rest of the party dealt with the remainder. Fortunately, the group they encountered was small; the only school within range of Allegra’s perception had headed off in another direction.
“Are you gonna join them?” asked Sylvia. “It kinda looks like Claire’s not doing so hot, and everyone else is kinda struggling to deal the final blow.”
“I will if it starts looking dangerous,” said Allegra. “Herrings might not be worth much in the way of experience, but they’re hard enough to kill that they make for good sparring partners.”
“Uhmmm… wait so they’re hard to kill and not worth much? Doesn’t that just mean that fighting them is super inefficient?”
“It is.” Allegra put on a troubled smile as a glare was fired in her direction. Even in the midst of almost losing a fight, Claire was hardly about to let the comment go unnoticed. “That’s why I said we should wait.”
“Mnnn… wait, so does that mean that some of the other stuff is supposed to be easier to fight?” asked Sylvia. “I thought that those weird not-fishy fish things were supposed to be the weakest monsters.”
“They are, but that doesn’t mean that hunting them is even remotely efficient,” said Allegra. “Experience is the product of an encounter’s maximum risk and the enemy’s total strength. Better equipment and higher ability scores will certainly reduce the risk and therefore the experience, but other factors, like strategies, tend to leave it untouched. I would’ve expected you to know that, given your level.”
“I only leveled ‘cause I was bored, so I wasn’t really sweating the details.”
“That must have been quite the excruciating boredom…”
“I know, right?”
The rabbit forced a smile, but said nothing more. It almost bothered her to know that the fox was ahead of her in terms of raw numbers. Sure, she had never quite tried to earn her fourth ascension, and her attitude towards violence had sabotaged her growth, but she had lived for over a thousand years in a nation beloved by the goddess of war.
That was not to say that time was a strict determiner. Virillius had gained four ascensions in less than a decade with plenty of downtime between his major battles. He probably could have fit them all in a few weeks had the events occurred back to back. Alas, Virillius was a rare exception whose footsteps were impossible to follow. For everyone else, long periods of reprieve came as a strict necessity; it was important for warriors to hone their techniques and for mages to refine their spells if they wished to emerge victorious against more and more powerful opponents; it was precisely because they took long breaks that they were able to adjust to their raised ability scores and draw out the full extent of their potential.
Allegra continued to ponder similar themes until a splotch of magic caught her attention. Closing her eyes and spreading her mana throughout their surroundings, she found a larger group of herrings inbound. As far as she could tell, it was the exact same group that had run off not too long ago. Their straight-line, offset trajectory made it clear that offense was not their goal. That, and the predator tearing through their ranks.
“We need to retreat!” shouted Allegra. “There’s another two thousand inbound! They’re being chased by a vlasch!”
She began to cast before the words were completed. A pillar of light descended from the sky and swept across the battlefield. The solar ray was white magic, an advanced form like Jules’ red and blue. Embodying the power of the sun, it was life and destruction in one. The allies caught in its wake were immediately restored to perfect condition, while the enemies were charred a deep, sooty black. The monsters were four-times ascended, aspects in all but name. And yet, with a single blow, they were burnt to ash and left to the winds.
Such was the spellwork of Cadria’s Grand Magus—the only pure mage whose battlefield influence was even comparable to that of the reigning god-king’s.
“This way! Hurry!”
Alas, there was no time to marvel. Even without any reading, the threat was plenty clear. Two thousand was simply too ridiculous of a number to fathom when they were struggling with five.
Claire was the only one who didn’t break into a sprint. She took a few moments to gaze into the distance. The incoming swarm was a veritable mess of bodies, both because their large, muscular forms kept them from swimming so closely together, but also because they were being flung through the air and torn apart.
Their murderer was a peculiar creature with fourteen limbs sprouting from a large, shelled body. It ran with an odd gait, leaning first on the four legs it had in front, before springing forward like a grasshopper with the seven it had in the back. The three arms that sprouted from the front of its carapace were responsible for most of the havoc. The lanky claw-like weapons looked like they were made of nothing but skin and bone, but every strike ripped nearly a dozen herrings out of the snow. From there, its head did the rest of the work. It lunged from within a sleeve and snatched the bipedal fish straight out of the air. Though they fought and struggled, the herrings could do nothing to stop themselves from being crushed between the vlasch’s flat, human-like teeth. The incisors were incredibly off putting when paired with its eyeless, reptilian face, a disconnect made even worse by the way that it gnashed its jaws.
It was the type of monster that her senses warned her against. They screamed for her not to fight it, that death only awaited if she were to engage it head-on. And yet, that was precisely why she so desperately hoped to leap straight into the fray, to take the plunge and force herself to grow. But after a moment of hesitation, she spun around and started after the others.
They had covered a surprising amount of distance in the few seconds she left them. Allegra had heavily emphasized the importance of speed and urged all of the slower members to find alternative methods of movement. Jules was the most successful. The bivalve had gone from practically immobile to a veritable rocket by forming a tube of water behind himself and detonating a series of explosions within it. The end result was a burst of acceleration, absurd enough to rank him first among the party’s speedsters. Whether he was entirely in control, however, was a whole other question.
Since Arciel could move through the shadows, and Chloe was effectively a rogue, it was really just the myrian and the elf who were a little slower. Lana activated her time dilation in bursts while Krail pushed himself along with a series of roots. With more practice, both would be able increase their total velocity at least twofold. For the time being, however, they were still a bit on the slower side, and it looked like the vlasch would catch up, so she grabbed them with her vectors and dragged them along.
Following Allegra’s lead, Claire dashed through the trees, weaving to and fro between the branches. They continued until the rabbit raised a hand and brought them to a stop inside of a particularly densely wooded part of the forest.
Closing her eyes and toying with her glasses, the Grand Magus spent a few seconds scanning their surroundings before suddenly spinning around and firing a blast of flame. The massive fireball was just in time to match an attack that came from their southern flank. Colliding with the incoming lightning, it detonated in a massive explosion that nearly knocked the party off its collective feet.
“I knew this was a bad idea.” The rabbit grimaced as she continued to fend off projectiles. None of the spells were aimed right at them, just sprayed in a northerly cone.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I-is something wrong?” asked a very out of breath Chloe.
“Very,” said Allegra. “There’s another vlasch between us and the city.”
“W-why would there be another one!?” asked the maid.
“It’s probably the first one’s mate,” said Allegra. “It isn’t uncommon for them to hunt in pairs, and a large group of herring makes for an easy mark.”
“I believe that the correct course of action in such a predicament would be to venture in the opposite direction?”
“I'm glad at least one of you has done her reading.” Allegra smiled.
Jules clicked his tongue. “Bitch, don't lump us in with Claire or her stupid ass carpet-munching fox. We're not fucking retarded.”
“Hey! That's rude! I have a name, you know,” said Sylvia.
“Oh shut the fuck up,” said the clam. “Your dumb ass didn't even respond to the right goddamn part…”
“Let's save the arguing for later,” said Allegra. “We need to get back on the move. And as much as I'd hate to say it, our best bet is heading north.” She took a moment to take a deep breath. “I'm going to need everyone to stay calm and follow my orders exactly. Alright?” A quick scan of the party confirmed that everyone, even Claire, was willing to cooperate. “Excellent. Now follow me. Stick as close as you can.”
Commanding the trees to part before them, Allegra hopped through the snow with an almost assassin-like speed. Each step carried her a few dozen meters, sometimes more depending on the extent of the incline. The path up was not completely devoid of monsters. A few of them happened to crawl out of the woodwork, but Allegra smited them before they were given the chance to attack. Rays of light, wooden stakes, blades of wind, and arcane blasts. Every monster was obliterated with a single attack.
A faint frown crossed Claire’s lips as she watched the enemies fall. Allegra was the pinnacle of true mages. The caldriess understood that, having opted for a hybrid build, it was only natural for her to fall behind when it came to raw firepower. Still, she couldn’t help but chew on her lips.
She couldn't beat Allegra.
And if she couldn’t beat Allegra, there was no way for her to possibly beat her father.
She needed another ascension, but such an acquisition remained starkly unrealistic no matter how she crunched the numbers; a herring was worth less than a tenth of a level.
The rate of her growth was, frankly, abysmal. Most of the others were over eight hundred, and at the rate that everything was going, it seemed like even Chloe would soon pull ahead.
“We should be far enough now.” Allegra slowed to a stop after about ten minutes of fleeing. Looking back, Claire found that they had gone a little ways up the foot of the closest mountain. At the very least, they were high enough to give her a near aerial view of the city that they had been in just a little earlier that day. And with it, a perfect view of the two vlasches running rampant in the forest below.
“This is supposed to be… glomrst territory?” asked Chloe, as she flipped through her encyclopedia. The glass serpents in question were highlighted as one of the most common lesser predators that lurked the mountain’s steppes.
“It should be,” said Allegra. She closed her eyes and sent another pulse of magic through their surroundings. “It looks like there is a cave a little further up. Let’s head over so we can take a bit of a break while we discuss our options.”
“Uhmmm, are you talking about the cave that looks like it has a bunch of jaws?” asked Sylvia.
“Yes, that would be the one.”
“Wouldn’t we be better, like, you know, if we avoided it?” asked Sylvia. “It’s kinda making me feel suspicious.”
“Normally, yes,” said Allegra. “But Glomrsts are aerial predators, and we’ll be much better off getting them out of our hair.”
“Mmm, if you say so I guess,” said the fox.
It took another few minutes of trekking before the cave came into sight. As Sylvia had mentioned, it wasn’t the most welcoming location. The entrance sported large, rocky spikes on both the top and bottom to form something of a jagged maw.
“I had not considered the possibility that we would immediately be forced into an unfavourable retreat,” said Arciel. Her breath was much heavier than usual, and despite the wintry cold, her brow was covered in sweat.
“That tends to be the norm deeper in the mountains,” said Allegra, “but it is a little unusual for the outskirts to be so active. We should head back as soon as possible.”
“Then let us be off as soon as we have caught our breath,” said Arciel.
“I would love to, but even one vlasch is powerful enough to wipe out the lot of you. We’re probably better off waiting until they leave, after they eat their fill.” Allegra sat down on a frozen rock, pressed her face into her hands, and shook her head back and forth. “I knew this was a bad idea. We should have spent a few months leveling in the surrounding area before we even considered setting foot in the Langgbjerns.”
“I don’t see a problem,” said Claire.
“Claire, I know you’re feeling impatient, but let’s just take a step back and look at this objectively. We’re trapped in the deadliest mountains known to mortalkind. We’re completely cut off from the city. The only way we have to go is north, but we don’t have the supplies for an expedition, and we can’t go hunting without running the risk of attracting a predator. We may as well be sitting ducks.”
Rolling her eyes, the lyrkress ripped open a small hole in the space in front of her and reached through to the makeshift warehouse on the other side. She grabbed the large bags they had packed in advance—they were planning to head out on a longer-term expedition in a few days time, and they already had everything packed—and wrenched them through the portal.
“There. Now we have supplies,” said Claire. “Let’s go. North.”
Allegra stared for a few seconds before creasing her brow and pinching the bridge of her nose. “I am starting to see why you were being so obedient.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Stop fooling around and warp us back to town,” said Allegra. “We need to leave.”
“You can leave, if you want,” said Claire. “I’m heading deeper into the mountains.”
A barrier appeared around the cave before she could so much as rise. “That literally goes against every single reasonable safety measure.”
“Safety measures are for people who take forever to level up.”
Allegra pinched the bridge of her nose. “Claire, please. Be reasonable.”
“I am.”
The rabbit sighed. “I still don’t understand how you wound up so stubborn. Where did I go wrong?”
“Claire’s always just kinda been like this, so I wouldn’t really blame yourself,” said Sylvia. “She’s totally reckless.”
“No I’m not.” The not-at-all reckless lyrkress pinched the fox’s cheeks before walking over to the cave’s entrance and sucking the magic straight out of the shield. “Anyway. Goodbye.”
“Wait for me!” said Sylvia.
“The two of you have to be insane,” said Allegra. “Did you not see those vlasches? They’re far from the toughest creatures you'll find. Most of them sit around level 2500, but they’re still near the bottom of the food chain. The whole point of this exercise, the whole reason we went with a cursory check in the first place, was so you could see how dangerous the Langgbjerns were for yourself.”
“And I did. Now I want to fight them.”
Allegra groaned. “By the gods. Why are you so stubborn?”
“I suspect it is best to allow her to do as she pleases, as she is unlikely to acquiesce,” said Arciel. “With that said, I must make a request before you depart, Claire.”
The lyrkress tilted her head.
“I would like a drink of your blood so that I might refresh the image I have copied.”
“Okay.”
“Wait, if we’re doing that, then I want some too,” said Chloe.
“No.”
“And why not?”
“Ciel has a reason.”
“I have a reason too,” said the maid.
“I highly doubt that.”
After taking a moment to glare at the pervert, Claire sliced open one of her fingers and extended it towards the less indecent vampire. It felt a bit strange to have the liquid sucked from her body, but she bore with the sensation for as long as she needed.
If not her presence, commiting her blood was the least she could do.