799 Chapter 799- Ghouls
"Just leave it to me, I'll take care of them as soon as they land"
Saying so, Annette left the tent. On the break of the dawn the next day, the group set forth marching through the forest.
The journey although exciting was a less thrilling one. With the threat of the bandits gone, the adventurers only had to take care of the monster that attacked them and avoid their territories.
The sentries looked out for dangers while teams of adventurers cleared the path. They would timely switch their places to relieve their exhaustion and the other teams would take their place.
And just like this, the group made their way through the forest. Two days passed by amidst the never changing journey. On this day, a change that nobody expected, occurred.
It happened so fast that nobody even had time to question why it happened or what caused it. Cynthia and her group who were making their way forward as usual, were suddenly informed of the impending danger.
A large monster horde was swarming towards this way, ploughing through the land and trees as they did. The forest that had been silent all this time, suddenly came alive.
"Everyone get into formation. I want all capable hands on the ground. Warriors maintain the frontline, Assassins scatter, mages go in the backlines, protect her highness and the noncombatants"
Blake hurriedly gave out orders as he rushed out to the front. At his shout, the entire group hurriedly got into the formation and awaited the horde of monsters.
After a short while, the earth started trembling and the constant thudding noises of something hitting the ground repeatedly came along with it. And then the next second, when all nerves were stretched taut, the monster horde arrived.
Direwolves, Warring Mandirlls, Battle Bears, all sorts of monsters that one would usually encounter on the upper floors of the dungeon, could be seen in the mob.
These monsters although would give a level 200 adventurers a hard time, for elities adventurers like them who were all above level 400, they were no match at all. That said, in that number even if a monster was individually weak, they still possessed a significant threat.
"Warriors, maintain the formation, do not let the monster break past. Mages prepare your spells" Blake hurriedly barked out orders as the first line of monsters crashed into the front line.
The warriors used their shields and swords to cull down the monsters and stop their advance. Assassins danced around the battlefield, appearing and disappearing using their stealth skill and ambushing the monsters to reduce the strain on the frontliners.
Mana in the surroundings coalesced as spells from the mages took shape. A rain of magic came bombarding the monsters reducing their numbers. The adventurers kept on at it, maintaining their guard and not allowing any casualties to appear.
However, that said the numbers of the monsters was too ridiculous. No matter how many they defeated, more and more would surge out from the backlines, replacing the ones on the front.
Blake and the others grit their teeth and hanged on, just when it seemed like this would be a long gruelling battle, the monster horde suddenly split and changed direction. They completely avoided the group of adventurers and kept on moving forward.
"Huff… huff… what is going on? Why did the monsters suddenly start ignoring us?"
Wyot appeared out of his stealth and asked. Even a veteran adventurer like him who had faced many powerful monsters, was out of breath facing those numbers. From this one could imagine how stupendously large the horde was. Fortunately for them, they didn't have to fight the horde anymore.
"I have no idea; however, it doesn't seem like they were after us from the start. The way they were moving it seemed like they were in a hurry for something; no almost scared. As if they were getting away from something and didn't want to get caught in the midst of it" Blake assessed looking at the monsters who were frantically focused on running away.
"Are you saying that they were running from something? What could cause these monsters to run away?"…
"I don't know; however, whatever it is, it must have scared these monsters and forced them to flee from their territory. Let's proceed with caution. Even if Northern Outlaw Forest does not pose any threat to us, it is always better to be extra careful"
It seemed like he was speaking with experience rather than just being overly paranoid. The adventurers nodded and proceeded with caution.
On their way forward, they felt multiple energy signatures coming off from the distance. These energy signatures were extremely strong so much so that the shockwaves of their clash could be felt even from such a far distance.
This made it certain that something was going on inside the forest. The group continued to march albeit with a slight tension in the air. The powerful energy waves that continued to come from the distance, scared a good number of monsters away from their territory, because of which the group had to fight on more occasions which caused their speed to come to a crawl.
Thankfully, it lasted for an hour or two before it became completely silent once again. The forest too returned to its usual atmosphere.
At the same moment, inside Cynthia's coach in the backlines, a graceful woman wearing a pair of glasses that gave her a cold intellectual aura and accentuated her beauty, silently entered and sat down beside the princess.
"Have you taken care of it already?"
Cynthia asked in surprise. How long had it been that she was gone? It wouldn't even be more than two hours, yet in that time frame, she left the place to carry out her task and returned back swiftly without making anyone realise that she was gone.
That's right, Annette had gone off on her own, and nobody in the group had the slightest idea. She who always stood close to the princess as if to guard her, left her post to Emma and disappeared for a couple of hours.
She returned so swiftly and without any scratch on her body or breaking a sweat that it made one wonder if completing the task was even a challenge for her. That being said, Cynthia knew that the task shouldn't have been easy after all, the task required dealing with Benny Beckerman, Lucas and a couple of other powerful people.
As if to tell her that she was worrying for nothing, Annette stated "Your Highness the task has been completed".
.
.
A few hours ago, deep inside the Northern Outlaw Forest, an air engine landed on a small mountaintop. As the entrance of the cockpit opened, Lucas, Benny along with seven other people walked out.
The seven people were each wearing a garb that was not any less impressive than Lucas's own. Although not [S] rank, the armours and weapons of these weapons were made of Mythril at the very least indicating that these people weren't your average Joe.
In fact, these people were some of the finest warriors of the kingdom.
"Are you sure the information is correct?" Lucas turned towards one of the people who looked like an Assassin and asked.
"Don't worry, I have known that person for a long time, he can be trusted. Since it's him who told me about it, it must be true" The latter replied.
The informer the assassin was talking about, was a resident of the Black Town. Someone who lived in the black town, was either an outlaw or a criminal. Naturally, Lucas would doubt the authenticity of their words.
Trusting the Assassin, Lucas and the others, waited for the informant to arrive at their location to get a more in depth information. Soon, the informant arrived at the scene.
As one would expect, the guy had the appearance of an average hoodlum, a lowlife who was used to doing all the rough and dirty.
"See, he arrived. I told you, I have been doing business with him for a long time, he can be trusted"
The informant named Jarr did not say anything, his white face that was paler than even snow and bloodshot eyes continued to simply stare at the assassin and the others.
20:07
The assassin argued. He walked up to the person to welcome him when…
"Wait, something doesn't look right" Benny cautioned. However, ignoring his warnings, the assassin approached the informant and hooked his arms around the latter's shoulder.
"What's wrong Benny, don't tell me you haven't dealt with the people of the black town before. Na, Jarr tell him something?".
The informant named Jarr did not say anything, his white face that was paler than even snow and bloodshot eyes continued to simply stare at the assassin and the others.
"You look weird, did something happen?"
Just as the assassin tilted his head at the puzzling behaviour of his friend, Jarr opened his mouth. Sharp fangs appeared and flashed in front of his eyes before the assassin was bit.
Grrrr… growling, the informant placed his fangs right at the assassin's neck.
"kugh!! You… get away from me"
BAM… the latter being much powerful than Jarr, pushed him far away.
"Are you alright?" His team caught up with him at this moment and backed him up.
"Tch" the assassin touched the area of his neck where a piece of his flesh was gnawed on and couldn't help but click his tongue.
"What the hell is wrong with this motherfucker? Suddenly he starts biting at people, has he gone insane?".
"See I told you? It happened because you didn't listen to me"
Benny sneered. His mocking eyes became serious when he turned towards the informant who was making some silly growling sounds.
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