An hour later, all the members of the Valor strike team—amounting to around 40 individuals—formed a block formation in front of the fog.
It was becoming darker by the minute; soon, the fog would stretch out and consume around 10 kilometers of land from where they stood. However, by then, they would have already been in the middle of the battle, fighting off harrowing fog monsters.
"Ready!!" Logan’s voice resounded from the front, two claymores in his hands. "Forward!!" He shouted, and all of a sudden, the block formation moved steadily into the fog.
As they did so, the Aaron family’s approximately 75 Rangers followed closely behind, their bows notched and aimed at the shadows in the fog as they proceeded in formation.
A few seconds later, the first flash of light appeared as a blade cut through the fog, decapitating a grand fog beast. The fog beasts were extremely hard to kill, as the fog notoriously healed them at every opportunity, so the best way to kill one was to decapitate it or cause enough damage to its head so that it could no longer be controlled by the fog.
• woosh
• boom
• woosh
• boom
Soon, the frequency at which fog monsters jumped out of nowhere increased. But thankfully, with the Rangers behind them, the death toll among the fog creatures quickly mounted. At the same time, their use of explosive arrowheads was drawing a lot of attention—which was not a problem, as it seemed they actually wanted the beasts to notice them.
• shing
• shing
• shing
With each decapitated head, the beasts congregated more and more, forming a cluster of crazed monsters, each struggling to kill the Valor troops. Some stragglers even caught a whiff of the Rangers from behind and attacked them. Thankfully, the two were dispatched quite easily—all thanks to Robin, Mason, and Victoria. Guilliman and the rest also played their part, of course.
But at this time, things hadn’t yet reached their peak. After all, it wasn’t night yet. When the moon finally came out, it would be a different story.
"Jemie, check your six!!" Guilliman barked from atop Ghost as he slashed at a wyrm-like monster, cutting through its throat and causing it to bleed out, while Ghost snapped its neck with his maw. Just as Guilliman’s voice echoed, Jemie flashed into the air, slashed down, and took the head off the beast that was about to sneak attack them.
"You guys can help us out, you know? If they break through our defense, it’ll be your head on a stick," Jemie cursed at Mason and the other Rangers, a look of vexation on his face. It was as if these guys had completely lost all sense of self-awareness, allowing beasts to appear from nowhere and attack them—and that placed a lot more pressure on the team.
"Let them be, Jemie; shooting from this distance requires a lot of focus," Hamdel’s voice resounded as he appeared from within the fog, his countenance bloodied. Many had falsely assumed that Hamdel was solely a healer, but they were wrong—he was a healer and much more. His powers were as versatile, if not more so, than even Guilliman’s. Plus, the old man was the second person to reach level 8 in their cohort, with Victoria being the first.
"Hey, shorty, you guys should brace yourselves. The moon is already overhead," came the voice of Robin, the leader of the Aaron family, just as Jemie and Hamdel were nearly getting into an argument—causing them to look up. Yes, the moon was up, and it was a full moon. They knew it granted the fog supernatural strength and that the monsters within would become even more powerful, so they didn’t need a reminder. But something told him that wasn’t the sole reason for the warning.
All of a sudden, several shadowy figures appeared out of nowhere, coming from the left of the Valors’ block formation in front. They were shrouded in darkness, their every footstep as silent as if they had never been there. They moved like ghosts.
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"The Nu," Guilliman muttered. He was beginning to wonder what had happened to that bunch of bastards. Even though he didn’t like them, the thought of one third of the fighting force leaving was too hard to bear. Thankfully, they were now here.
• shing
• shing
• shing
Like a sharp blade, they inserted themselves into the already formed crowd of fog beasts, quickly assassinating several before pulling out.
"Prepare a volley!!" Robin Aaron commanded, and all the Rangers at the back notched their arrows together before releasing an explosive volley into the sky.
• boom
• boom
• boom
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• boom
Just outside the fog, the remaining slayers could be seen, mouths agape, as they watched the scene of explosive light flashing from deep within the fog. The fight had already started, and its intensity was climbing.
"I don’t think they’ll even need us. Destroying the fog only requires the Valors," one of the many slayers said, a look of coyness on his face. He really didn’t want to go in there and face fog beasts—these were creatures they had been dodging ever since they entered the forest. Now they had to face them? What kind of logic was that? If they believed they could kill fog creatures, they would have been doing so a long time ago.
"Sigh, there’s nothing we can do but wait…" he sighed, seeing that no one even took his statements seriously. Defecting could get them killed—or worse, exiled in this harrowing forest. At that time, they would sooner become food than be executed; at least the latter would provide a befitting death.
"Hm?" As he contemplated how disastrous his situation was, the sound of explosions in front suddenly seemed drowned out by something extremely similar yet different.
"Stumping?" Several of the slayers turned back at the same time to see a figure rushing towards them.
"It’s time to move forward!!" The voice was filled with authority and power; however, it wasn’t what spurred them—it was the myriad eyes glowing in the dark behind the man that shook them into running.