Chapter 108: Tactical Defusing (1/2)

More and more black ash formed around her as she started punching the beast's head, focusing on its eyes and beak first to further disorient it. The cries still came out even though most of its throat had been cut through and Ilea heard any nearby harpy cry out in turn to create a deafening concert of voices. She turned down her hearing before she would get hurt and simply continued her attacks, more and more mana flowing into the beast and destroying it from the inside.

It would only be a matter of time before the beast fell. Combined with the black veins coming from Eve's dagger Ilea estimated it to be a rather quick thing too, still she summoned her elven armor in case of resistance. The queen's cries slowly softened, its head a swollen mess of blood and broken bone as Ilea's fists continued to rain into the beast. The first harpies started to arrive then and clawed at her veil of ash but the Azarinth hunter had formed a thick mist of ash around her, making it hard for the birds to find her.

In their haste to help their queen they even managed to injure her further with their sharp talons. Ilea just clung to the monster's chest and continued her relentless assault while ignoring the damage she herself sustained. Some claws from the now numerous harpies around her managed to get through the veil but none had actually drawn blood so far, unable to breach the elven armor.

Some damage was of course still being done but Ilea's healing skill was easily countering that and with her newfound strength it was quite simple for her to hang onto her target while delivering more and more blows. A sickening crunch resounded through the whole cave when Ilea managed to break the queen's beak, finally killing her.

Silence swept through the cave and Ilea saw all the harpies around her slow down and look around confused. 'They must have lost their frenzy with the queen's death...' Ilea thought and dodged a clawed foot going for her back. Sneaking back, she stored both the dead queen and Eve's dagger in her necklace and made her way towards the exit. Eve should've been long gone to avoid entering a skirmish like the one Ilea had just been a part of.

With her full speed and blink's capability, Ilea ran out of the cave. Dozens of bewildered harpies were strewn around the tunnels, trying to find the intruders. To Ilea's surprise some of the harpies even started attacking each other, apparently lost without their deceased leader. As Ilea got further out, the harpies seemed to follow the same goal as they simply ran or flew next to her, croaking loudly into her ears.

The run continued as Ilea sometimes dodged one or the other attack coming her way with a blink or quick movement, most of them didn't seem to be intentional and simply a circumstance of the small space they had found themselves in. With a burst of speed and three quick successive blinks, Ilea appeared outside of the cliff side and around thirty meters above the beach they had started on. Her wings spread as she twirled and dived downwards, avoiding any escaping harpy on the way until she landed with a thump on the sand, digging deep into the ground before another blink brought her behind some nearby rocks to hide from the swarm above.

The croaking was all that filled her ears by now as she danced across the rocky landscape. Luckily the beasts were too occupied with each other to notice Ilea or perhaps they simply felt her strength and avoided her thus. The reason didn't quite matter to the woman who was still moving through the rocks until she saw the rest of her team, standing under a nearly white shield, conjured by Claire while curse runes were placed in circles a couple meters away from the shield. Trian was standing inside as well, the air around him crackling with red lightning. There were dozens of dead harpies spread around them but with the queen's death it seemed that the rest now completely avoided the trio, and with that a sure way to die.

Ilea walked closer until she felt the curse take effect on her, quite a bit weaker than when she had set food into one of Kyrian's runes before. Not as weak as she expected either, must've come with his class upgrade as well. She didn't want to know the effects without any resistance to the magic. The dome of light came down as the curse' effect weakened and then vanished, marking the end of the mage's runes.

Ilea figuratively knocked on the dissolving dome of light as she checked through the messages that started appearing in her mind midway through her walk on the beach. Truly a vacation in a foreign land.

'ding' 'Your group has defeated [Queen Harpy – lvl 205]'

'ding' 'Ash Creation reaches 2nd lvl 5'

'It's gonna be less and less if I don't go and attack masses of higher leveled beasts alone isn't it?' she thought as Claire greeted her. Eve wasn't yet outside it seemed or she chose to stay hidden for some reason. 'Maybe masses of higher leveled beasts with this group?' she mused the thought when a couple dozen meters away Eve slowly came into view. Ilea summoned the woman's dagger and threw it towards her, the piece of metal easily being caught.

“So you did it? Is that why they're so bloody disoriented?” Trian asked as he looked at the two women.

“Yea, have the body stored away. You wanna go back to the city?” Ilea asked.

“It's barely been two hours... did you find the location of the harpy?” the guard captain asked, a grizzly old man. A ranger at level 130 as Ilea identified. Claire motioned outside where they had left the carcass and the man was quickly cursing with delight as he exited his office.

“You damn motherfuckers. Great job, you cost a damn lot but it's damn worth it.” he went and touched the body with glee in his eyes. “Damn monster that one. Over two hundred?” Claire nodded to his question as he let go of the corpse.

“Well come then, we'll pay you and you can be on your way. Of course if you want to stay in the city? I'm sure a lot of adventurers would gladly thank you for the service.” he grinned at that but no reaction could be gleamed from the shadow squad, stoic as their reputation. Under the facemasks and helmets the reactions were rather different of course but the man likely didn't know that.

“Two done, one to go. And we're still on the same day.” Kyrian said as the group waited for Claire again. This time it didn't take quite as long, likely because no execution of a blood magic cult had taken place in this mission. Hopefully this would stay the same for the last one.

'Should've taken those water fighting lessons...' Ilea thought a little worried as the group flew over open water near the coastline, Eve and Claire holding on to Ilea. 'I wonder if Aki is bored...' she thought as Eve started humming and then singing a song. Ilea didn't know it but it had a bit of a happier tone to it than her usual musical additions, maybe she was excited at the prospect of exploring a newly discovered ruin or perhaps it was because the group might be able to join the tournament if they performed well on some missions before the two weeks were over.

Nonetheless it was nice to have something else than the waves in her ears, a constant reminder of the unending depths below, just waiting to swallow her. She gulped and concentrated on the song.

“I think that's it. See those formations over there... they fit the description.” Claire said as the group was hovering over the hundreds of rocks creeping out of the water a couple hundred meters away from the shoreline. No city or village was anywhere near close by.

“You mean those gray rocky ones?” Ilea asked excitedly. Claire nodded slightly, the sarcasm shooting right over her head. “Claire I have no idea where, please just guide me...” Ilea said and started flying, following the hand gestures of her team mate holding on to her left arm.

“I can see movement...” Eve said as they got closer to rocks that looked quite the same as everything else Ilea had in her vision. Soon enough she saw it too, a bunch of people moving about a platform of rock, supplies and tents all around them. There was neither a fire nor any boats which made the place a little harder to find. The group landed a couple dozen meters away and made their way towards the adventurer camp.

It seemed in good shape and at least some of the people there had noticed the approaching group, shouting to get the attention of the rest. A quick line was formed as buffs came to life.

“They know who we are don't they?” Kyrian asked towards Claire who was walking closer while the rest of the team stayed back. It was the general approach they had settled on, the rest of the team too socially inept to make first contact with a giddy group of dangerous warriors.