Chapter 43
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“I see. Thank you.”
“Now, answering your question. I am not too clear about it since it was Lord Edelweiss that got the summons to be here. But usually, we stayed here from a week to a month.” Joseph answered.
“It is the first time I have been here! I am quite excited!” Rhander shouted. Apparently, since he was a new graduate several years ago and a promising mage, he has never been called outside Regoia.
“Is there any way we could decrease the corruption in that wasteland?” Lily ask.
“Hey! Lily! You got summoned again!” Jona knocked on our door. As Lhorne welcomed her, She waved a letter to us. Joseph read the letter to us.
“Another scouting?” He frowned.
“Guess the command was impressed that you guys managed to get out from that undeath zone unharmed.”
“We were almost dead there!” Lhorne shouted.
“Didn’t look like that to me. You guys only brought one lightly wounded there.” Jona shrugged his shoulder.
“Any wound in that zone was lethal. Rick was almost dead from blood lost there, just from a single arrow! Moreover, the curse will debilitate you!” Joseph shouted.
“Anyway, I am only here to bring you the letter. By the way, I am joining too!” Jona said.
We then came to the command and found over thirty people there. Lily was assigned to be the leader of three squads led by decarions. When I told Lhorne how these decarions were working below their paycheck, Lhorne dismissed that this mission was essential and thus needed more experienced people.
“Your Work was commendable, and the intel you brought us was vital to the survival of our country. And thus, we regrettably had to pick you again for the scouting mission, lord Lily.”
“Yes! Sir!” Lily nodded.
“We are apprehensive about the black arrow that wounded one of your scouting party. This fort has never been attacked by a ranged weapon during undeath attacks. All strategy needs to be improvised shall the enemy employed such accurate archers en masse.”
Lily tilted her head but held her mouth against asking more questions. What were they looking for exactly?
“I hope all of you have good luck!” The commander then gave his closing speech, and we were sent out.
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“They sent out more than half of their horses….” I muttered.
As Lily wondered at our departure, Lhorne chimed in.
“This must signify that they are truly worried about the enemy,” Lhorne replied.
“By the way, Lhorne, You read the directive about our mission, right?” Joseph asked.
“Of course!”
“We must figure out how many enemies are in the wasteland. If we could kill the Curse Seed, we could probably liberate that zone.” Joseph smiled
“Are you guys nuts?” Jona can’t help but curse at Joseph. He looked at her while frowning but nevertheless replied.
“I am merely speaking positively. It doesn’t mean we have to do it.” Joseph retorted.
“If we do meet with curse seed, we should run! There is no way we could win against it! My grandfather died fighting it twenty years ago!” Jona shouted.
“Ah, I read about that as well. But I read that we won. Shouldn’t you be proud?” Lhorne interjected. While Lily was interested in their discussion, I looked at the darkened sky. We have arrived.
“Listen, okay, I am not an elf that value honor above all like you. I value my family’s teaching. And my parent’s stories about this undead are really frightening! And what we got even after killing the curse seed? Another one popped up just a year after!”
“Okay, Shut up, gentlemen. Serious time now!” Joseph closed the conversation as our convoy separated into three different groups and went in their own direction.
“Are we okay separating like this?” Lily asked.
“As long as it is no more than a kilometer, They will be fine even if they got ambushed.”
“Hoist the flag. Remember that Lord Lily is the place of rendezvous!” Joseph shouted.
“This should be fine. Should we remain on standby here?” Lhorne asked.
“Yes. Here they come. Support that group, Lhorne!” Joseph said as he pointed toward the squad that was running for their life, chased by several undeath knights.
“Arrows!” Lhorne shouted as a black arrow flew in our direction. She blocked it quickly with her sword. But Lhorne and Jona were not as proficient with swords as us. They grabbed their leather buckler and shielded themselves from occasional arrows. Lily used several fireballs, and Lhorne fired arrows at it. The undeath knights were repelled.
“There are wounded people here. Let’s run!” Lily screamed as the squad returned back to us.
“Not yet. We can still keep going, lord lily!” The squad leader pulled the black arrow brashly and poured a clear liquid from a vial. The liquid evaporated at once as it touched the wound, dispersing the miasma from the black arrow that lingered.
“We shall go deeper,” Joseph said. This mission is getting reckless and reckless. What is the missive that these squads receive?
“Joseph, may I know what our mission is?” Lily asked.
“Yes. We shall venture into the wasteland and, if possible, take a look at the curse seed. That is our mission.” Joseph said while frowning.
“Didn’t Jona say it was perilous?” Lily replied.
“Perhaps the command felt confident with your strength and thus gave you this impossible task?” Lhorne sighed.
“Let us retreat. The sun is setting. We will scout the other site tomorrow!” Joseph shouted as he flipped the flag. The other squad immediately returned while bringing several trains of zombies with them.
“They aren’t asking for help, unlike earlier.”
“We can handle undeath knights just fine. It is that mysterious archer that is the problem.” Joseph said as we ran back toward the fort. I cast several fireballs as a distraction, and we rode back to the base, but a lot of undeath surrounded us in no time.
“Damn it! This is why the scouting mission here is perilous!” Jona shouted, “What are we going to do now?”
Zombies and skeletons crawled out from the ground everywhere the eyes could see. Some undeath knights spawn sparsely on the wasteland, while vargmuth spawned more sporadically than the knights. The situation screamed despair as we were quickly surrounded.
“Charge! Don’t stop. Anyone lagging will be left behind!” Joseph shouted as he raced his horse.