All four knew they weren't in the best position should they be attacked, so they kept their guard up. The howling wind was making conversation difficult anyway. They focused on the holes and openings in the walls on either side of the canyon. If beasts were targeting them, those holes would be a perfect spot to ready an ambush.
The group walked while carefully surveying their surroundings. Their caution slowed their walking speed, and it took longer than expected to reach the middle of the canyon.
The sense of ill intent had covered the group ever since they entered the ravine, but as they reached the halfway point, it increased exponentially. It could no longer be chalked up as an active imagination boosted by the creepy howling wind. The gazes of the beasts targeting Toz and his cats were nearly tangible.
Toz knew they were in trouble, but that was all he knew. He didn't know what kind of enemy they were up against, their number, or their strength. Although the only living beings they had seen so far in the wasteland were the rats, they didn't seem to have the required patience or wits to organize an ambush.
But the rats were obviously a grander threat than previously assumed as waves of them came pouring out of both cliffs after the group passed the middle.
With the size of the canyon, the rats wouldn't cover the group instantly, but if the rats continued pouring out of the walls, it would almost be enough to flood the canyon, not to mention drown the group.
If they didn't do something and quickly at that, it would be the end of the road for them. Thankfully they had worked on their cooperation in the time since Mindle joined them. Although being swarmed by rats wasn't within their consideration, they took action without interfering with each other and instead supported each other, especially Toz and Mindle.
Toz and Mindle had the most effective tool in dealing with large numbers of weak enemies. Fire.
Although there wasn't a lot of ambient fire mana, they used that and their own to gather large amounts of flames. The flames covered the skies before raining down on the rats, unleashing a furious hell of screams.
Unlike the rats Lucy had caught, the ones caught in the rain of fire were being cooked alive by the heat.
But the number of rats was too great, and the flames only covered the surface, sending down heat only a few meters of the dozens of meters tall tsunami of rats.
The light of the fire shone down from above, filling the ground and the rats with shadows of their compatriots. Lucy took advantage of the gorge itself being deep in the ground, limiting the amount of sunlight entering. The naturally dark ambiance further strengthened his magic as he used the shadows of the rat tsunami against itself. He stretched the shadows to cover and hold the rats down. Although the rats were already in a frenzy, Lucy disrupted their senses as much as possible.
In the chaos of screaming, burning rats, and wildly moving shadows, the group of humans had disappeared, and the rats had lost their target. Lucy had taken advantage of the enemy focusing on his shadows to cover himself and the others in a veil of darkness. While hiding their presence, they moved along the gorge to escape the floundering mass of rats.
Having lost their target, or maybe the one commanding had stopped, the rats were only left with base instinct and didn't know what to do with their burning bodies and screaming relatives. It resulted in massive chaos, and there didn't seem to be any attempts at finding their target again.
But the amount of rats was still too much, so Toz and the others moved a safe distance away, still covered in darkness. Their situation didn't look too bright.
It would take a lot of mana to reach one of the walls without being discovered. And even if they reach the wall, they need to climb it too.
With the way the rats had flowed out of the holes in the wall, there would, without a doubt, be many more hiding in there. If they are discovered, they won't have the same leeway in counterattacking before making a run for it. They would be drowned instantly.
As of now, their greatest hope might be scaring the rats away long enough for them to climb up the wall after reaching it.
While it would take a lot of mana to keep themselves hidden when covering the distance to the wall, with Toz and Lucy working together, they could make it.
After a few hours of walking, they arrived at the wall, slightly further up the canyon than the place they had descended and on the opposite side.
Toz and Lucy were tired from having had to constantly use mana for several hours, and they decided to rest before proceeding with the plan. While keeping themselves hidden with magic had been strenuous, it was because they were moving about and out in the open. Sitting still right next to the wall wouldn't take nearly as much effort.
The group, mainly Toz and Lucy, rested long enough for the sun to have finished setting. With the darkness of night aiding them, it was time to show those rats who's boss.
Lucy kept the group hidden while Toz and Nil began making tiny metal threads, and Mindle started slowly gathering the mana in the air and her body in front of her as she faced the walls.
While Mindle did her best to keep the heat from escaping, she was still too inexperienced to completely control the amount of mana she had gathered, and the group had to start setting up for their plan.
Lucy had conserved enough mana for what he was about to do, but after that, he would have to retire to the familiar space or risk putting himself and the others in danger. Some of his mana had gone to cover the group and their activities, but most of what he had used had been when he investigated the tunnel system in the wall where they were.
Now he was going to cast a layer of darkness over the metal threads piled high on the ground between Toz and Nil. It was mostly insurance to make sure they aren't spotted in the moonlight, especially when covered in glistening blood.
After he was done, he entered the familiar space, wishing the others luck before immediately falling asleep.
Without Lucy's cover, Toz and Nil had to move fast as they spread the threads over the wall. Weaving a net that covered as many holes as possible. The thread was thin enough that the pile that was only a meter high covered a large part of the wall. They made sure the holes in the net were denser where there were holes in the wall and sparser where there weren't to use the thread as efficiently as possible.
They didn't have the range to reach the top of the wall, so they curved the upwards part of the net to catch any rats that fell from above.
Toz and Nil had just gotten the net in place when they heard rustling stones and chittering of rats getting closer.
With the cue from Toz, Mindle, who was already struggling to contain the mana she had gathered, let it loose.
She hadn't only gathered the mana, but she had also prepared it for what she was going to do with it. Mindle had condensed and directed the eventual explosion to enter one of the holes in the wall in front of her.
The condensed fire magic looked like a laser beam as it pierced right into the mountain through the hole, leaving a blast of air in its wake.
Unlike Toz, Nil, and Mindle, who didn't feel any of the heat from the laser beam, the cliff was in bad shape. The area around the entrance had begun melting, and blasts of air began leaving the nearby holes.
Following the hot air was only one thing. Pandemonium.