บท 279: The Chase III
Snow's sword blocked the vicious kick with her sword. Her hand went numb, but that didn't stop her. She plunged forward just as fluidly as the demon appeared and swung to the left. The demon dodge, Snow detached, reached over, grabbing his shoulder.
Her fingers slipped, completely missing.
The demon wrapped his tail around her wrist, yanking her down. The back and forth fight between the two was quick and fast.
Snow went off-balance, her body quickly adjusted. She stumbled.
Suddenly, a roundhouse kick came flying and landed squarely on her chest.
Her breath escaped out of her lungs, leaving her momentarily paralyzed.
"Typical human." The demon said with disdain. "Weak. I thought I would have a better challenge."
Snow was leaning over, her chest throbbing hard.
"Why would the king want someone like you?" The demon said with disdain, shaking his head.
"I would have hoped for something better. Is this all you can do?"
Snow slowly got back up, picking up her sword. She wasn't going to let this demon get to her.
"Well, no matter." The demon shrugged, stepping forward. "Let's get this done with, so we can destroy the human city."
Snow threw the dirt that she had gotten off the ground, spraying it in the demon's face. Then, temporarily blinding him, she swung. With the right momentum, she was able to put on a bit more of her weight. A beautiful cut through the chest followed by another that took off his head.
Silence descended upon the monsters, looking at their fallen leader in disbelief.
Snow breathed heavily.
"Yes, I'm a typical human." Snow spat out blood onto the dead demon's body. "And you talk too much."
One of their strongest was dead.
The monster hoard scattered back.
Snow stood standing, her sword in the ground, propping herself up from falling.
Eventually, she was left alone. Her ragged breathing was rough. The kick on her chest felt like it left an ugly bruise that made breathing a lot more complicated than before.
The undead tiger sensed her stutter. It bounded down below, weaving through the dead bodies and coming up from behind. It stood in place, allowing her weight to drop onto its own.
"Thanks." Snow replied. Her body felt heavy.
Black Widow disappeared from her hand, going back into her storage.
Snow reached, grabbing a tuft of the tiger's skin. She pulled herself up, but faltered.
It took a brief moment for her to get her bearings correct before sitting at least a bit more comfortably. Her eyes became droopy as she held on.
The tiger bounded forward back into the forest, disappearing into the night.
*****
(Mike's Perspective)
The battle clashed with vigor between the demons and the humans.
Cries of death, agony and angry growls from monsters and demons alike could be heard roaring through the field. A heavy smell of gunpowder as cannons blasted through the sky and into the very walls of bodies of monsters that kept swarming to the wall. Hot oil was pushed with metal tongs as it hissed, pouring down.
The unlucky monsters were burned alive. Their feet and hands, burnt and warped, falling on top of their own brethren. They tumbled and snapped at each other's faults, stampeding on top of them and killing them as they disappeared under their feet. None cared if their wounded allies were dead, as their only goal was to crawl up the side of the wall and get into the city.
Flashes of magic and thousands of arrows flew through the sky like needles.
The swarms of monsters were endless, filling up the very base of the walls.
Mike gazed out in the crowd with a bow in his hand. He wasn't as great of a shooter as Dairen nor attempted to try to become one. Even still, any unlucky monsters that got too close, he would fire an arrow with his rough hands could.
The white halo of one of the ten sacred trees was glowing with a soft hum of power. Not even a single monster could get too close without burning up in flashes of white light, but even still, it wasn't enough to keep the monsters at bay, especially the demons.
Even if the monsters created a ring around the sacred trees, they would stop at a certain point to not get burnt alive and push through the cracks that they have found. But, surprisingly, there were areas that the monsters could pass through without them getting burnt, which was a problem in itself.
They focused more heavily around such areas, picking off the monsters. Still, the endless swarm of monsters was as far as the eye could see.
"Mike!" Rodney yelled, waving his hand. He had one of the letters from Dairen's birds that he was communicating with the past days.
Rodney handed him the letter as the bird that was on Rodney's shoulder disappeared into the shadows.
"Thanks," Mike replied, quickly taking the message from Rodney's hand. Then, he promptly tore the message apart as a voice of Dairen was heard.
"Need help. Party chat is not working. We found the Demon camp. Get everyone ready."
"How soon and where?" Mike asked. He, too, noticed that the party chat that they usually used was not working at all. In this particular dungeon, all forms of everyday communications were cut off and had to go with a more primitive method, which he didn't like.
"Northeast from your position. Hidden away…" the voice trailed off and disappeared.
"Northeast? No, the better question is how are we going to get through all these monsters to get to them?" Rodney sighed, "It's going to take a whole day or two to clear them away."
Mike agreed; getting through was not easy. Especially since the increase of monsters that were swarming around the city.
"We should still get the others."
"I'll call upon the other guild master. We will meet back here in one hour." Rodney replied.
"I'll go get the Hunter associations as well. We will need their help as well."
Both of them broke apart, scouting out the area as they looked for the guild masters. Words spread quickly that Rodney and Mike were looking for them as they came together on the wall, looking down on the battlefield.
Even Mr. Rogers, Falcon, and Mr. Jay were the first to arrive, waiting for them.
Mike was glad that the others quickly arrived. He scanned around, and his gaze momentarily rested on Mr. Rogers. He had always found Mr. Rogers uneasy, the red eyes that kept watch upon him with silence. Of course, there were times when they met eyes and a gentlemanly smile with a nod, but there was an odd sense of danger that he always felt around him.
Not only that, Mr. Jay had a completely different aura around him than Mr. Rogers. A powerful but peaceful aura hummed, making anyone who stood near him drawn to him without much thought. However, Mike couldn't help but notice the similarities that SnowSnow had with Mr. Jay. Her armor had the same features of a dragon, making him wonder if her armor had come from the same source of being.
Falcon, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of the two. The short, stocky dwarf had a presence of his own. Everyone in the Player community knew who he was and how valuable the weapons that he created were. So far, they have barely found anyone who could go on par with his weapon creations. Finding Dwarves willing to make them any weapons wasn't easy as they tended to stick with themselves. Even then, there were only a very few master smiths that could possibly even create legendary rank weapons. Everything that Falcon made was Epics or legendary items.
Mike was glad for these three to help in this dungeon raid, especially since it wasn't an easy fight to come. The ongoing slugfest of monsters raiding every day was tiring enough.
"Well, now that everyone is here." Mike's voice rang out in the crowd of the power players and hunters alike. "I got the news that Snow and Dairen had found the Demon Army's main camp."
"Where?" One of the guild leaders spoke out.
"Northeast from our position from here," Mike replied.
"That area has always been heavily congested with monsters; how are we supposed to break through and help her?"
Mike didn't really have an answer either. If they could sweep up the monsters now and rush in to help, they would, but the city soldiers and their own guildmates were preoccupied with stopping the monsters from overflowing into the city.
"We're going to have to leave the city soldiers to deal with these weaker mobs while we clean up the stronger ones. This way, we can quickly sweep up the monsters and see our count size to go assist."
"That is no different from what we have been doing until now."
"True," Mike grinned, "But I have a few major scrolls that we could use to speed up this process."
There was a hint of a twinkle in Mike's eyes that told him that whatever he had planned brought a bit of curiosity.
"What would that be?"
"You would know when you see the sign," Mike replied.
But just when they were about to break apart, another one of Dairen's birds flew down from the sky. This time, the message sizzled and fizzed in front of Mike as Dairen's voice shouted in a rush.
"The main demon army is coming!"
The message disappeared, leaving the group in silence.
Mike furrowed, realizing that everything was now thrown out the window. What made Snow and Dairen attack so quickly? Why?
Mike started to yell with commands. They were short on time. He couldn't use his old plan anymore.
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