Chapter 310 Chapter 310 Deep Into
Moreover, the diversity among the traps was too high for them to remember all the signs or look out for all of them at the same time.
There were ambushes by automated drones from the sky as soon as someone tried to invade past the programmed range; minefields just under the surface of the ground that sometimes even the sensory mages were too late in finding and reporting but the worst of them all were the proximity mines that exploded in succession without giving them any warning or reaction time.
Since the forces were spread out due to their huge number, the warnings usually came a hair's breadth too late even if the sensory mages managed to recognize the telltale signs very early on.
As a result, the inevitability of losses became an unfortunate reality, a bitter pill to swallow despite the meticulous planning and precautions.
Hogan's urgency left no room for hesitation. Time was a fleeting commodity, and he had to assert his control before any inkling of the unfolding situation reached Zach's ears. As such, he considered these losses as necessary sacrifices to secure the future of his family and its members. Failure was already not an option since it would mean Zach's retaliation and his vengeance wasn't something that the Hunter family could bear all on their own.
Unexpectedly, the losses didn't affect his soldiers much. The heightened spirit of his followers helped keep up morale despite the losing numbers. Turns out that venturing into the fortress of a renowned dark mage and the benefits it offered was quite a big boon that these people seemed willing to risk their life for.
A sequence of unfortunate events unfolded as a result of several mines being triggered, a consequence of the carefree attitude exhibited by certain mages who failed to acknowledge the lurking danger.
These mages, lost in their own thoughts, neglected to give due consideration to the potential threat posed by the unseen traps. Their lack of caution was met with swift and merciless retribution, as the proximity mines activated and the explosive force they carried reduced the heedless mages to mere charred fragments of their previous selves.
The merciless detonations left the unfortunate souls with no time to muster the protective spells that could have potentially saved them.
Hogan witnessed everything with a stoic face as if he didn't give the slightest shit about any of them losing their lives in the venture. It was as if the gravity of their demise barely registered on his countenance.
A significant portion of those falling were bound by their allegiance to him, while the remainder had willingly embraced the venture for the rewards that he had promised them in return for taking the risk. In light of that agreement, their fate, no matter how grim or bloody, held no sway over his emotions. He couldn't care less about those people as long as they fulfilled the agreement. He cared even less about his own people and could sacrifice them to the last person as long as it could ensure the position of his family in the future.
His entire focus was on the goal instead which could make his dream of taking the Hunter family to new heights possible.
The absence of the people on the island kept on bugging him. He needed to take control of those people to deactivate the traps, but he could not seem to find their hideout no matter how hard he looked for them.
As such, he ignored the losses and kept leading the troops further towards the heart of the island. Since the remnants of the Smith family were still hiding in the shadows and were unwilling to reveal themselves despite the fact that Hogan was almost upon them with his army in tow, there was only a single possibility left.
It was that the Smith family's situation was dire, with Zach and the majority of their forces absent to protect them. Since engaging in a direct confrontation would only worsen their predicament, they had no choice but to use the hands-off approach, conducting warfare away from Hogan and his troops.
This bolstered Hogan's confidence further and excited him for the future that awaited him after he took over Greenland.
While Hogan was sure of the presence of the Smith family on the island, the sensory mage couldn't find the grounds to establish a reason for that. No matter how much he expanded his sensory field, he was unable to find any signs of living beings around him.
This was the strangest battle he had ever been a part of. There were no living things around him and yet the forces he was allied with were suffering losses one after the other. There were constant ambushes, destructive surprise attacks and deadly traps all over the island but no signs of intelligent life forms human or otherwise.
And yet, the leader of the crusade seemed to be sure of human presence. While logic dictated that the line of thought had to be accurate, the sensory mage believed in his senses even more. There was no way that he was unable to sense so many people who seemed to be hiding in plain sight. The reason was that eluding his senses was even impossible for mages of S rank because all of his magic spells were oriented around his sensory magic. He was a specialist who disregarded all other forms of magic to concentrate on improving a very specific skillset. It was no easy feat eluding his senses. Therefore, he was slightly doubtful of Hogan's conjecture that Smith family forces were hiding on the island.
Believing in his own senses, the sensory mage reduced his speed and began to lag behind and acted as if he was severely weakened due to over exertion.
"What happened? Can't you try and keep up?" rumbled Hogan as he noticed the pathetic state of the sensory mage who had been acting as his right hand and saving him from the possible traps. Being the leader of the raid, his safety had been paramount, and the sensory mage had ensured that Hogan avoided all the traps in his path.
"It's nothing, I have just overused my mana while detecting the traps and ambushes in our path. Don't worry about me, I just need to rest for a bit and will be good to go again in no time."
The sensory mage knew that Hogan would never allow him to rest because he was pressed for time. Thanks to the time constraint binding Hogan, the sensory mage could see a way out for himself.
"I can't wait for you to recover. Fall back to the group bringing the rear and join us when you are good to go again. The longer you take, the more it will affect the rewards we discussed before." Hogan was extremely disgruntled by this show of weakness by the sensory mage, but he couldn't exactly force the mage to follow through until the end. Unlike the other mages, this one didn't belong to the Hunter family and wasn't bound to follow his will.
The sensory mage almost jumped in joy at having escaped immediate danger to his life. His senses were never wrong and therefore he believed that Hogan was venturing straight into the open mouth of an invisible but deadly demon.
He nodded lethargically and stopped to rest until he could join the group that was leisurely bringing up the rear of the army Hogan had brought. The force consisted of medics, the battered and wounded, and some reserve forces that could protect the rear of the force in case of a surprise attack.
Hogan had been relying on the skills of the sensory mage all this while, but the mage wasn't a must-have for the successful execution of the raid Hogan had planned. The mage had already done his job by leading them most of the way with minimal losses.
The responsibility for detecting traps for the rest of the way could be taken over by other mages with weaker but still somewhat useful sensory skills or abilities.
Moreover, after having scoured most of the island, Hogan had already somewhat extrapolated the location of the Smith family remnants.? Based on the process of elimination, Hogan had come to believe that the Smith family couldn't be hiding in any other place but the mansion where the dark mage resided.
While Hogan gave his permission to the sensory mage, the same could not be said for the people following after him like he was their redemption and only choice of a leader moving forward.
Bound by a collective mindset, these individuals found unity in their shared mockery and evident scorn directed at the sensory mage. His display of vulnerability during a pivotal juncture of their campaign had not gone unnoticed, and it served as the catalyst for their open disdain.
Within the framework of their group mentality, the sensory mage became a stark embodiment of timidity, a representation of precisely what they deemed incompatible with their ranks.
To them, his actions spoke of cowardice, a trait that clashed vehemently with their ideals. In their alliance, the sensory mage became a symbol of discord, an anomaly they were determined to distance themselves from, their collective conviction shaping their perception and guiding their response.
Therefore, they laughed at him and mocked him for being unable to hold on because most of them believed that the battle was coming to an end as they were about to reach the center where the remaining forces of the Smith family were hidden.
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