Chapter 558: Ambushed (1/2)
It was well into the later stages of the day. The sun has already passed the peak of its arc and has long since begun its slow but steady descent, reaching somewhere around the third quarter of its journey.
The sounds of a heated, but at the same time, fortunately, one-sided battle filled the vast boring emptiness of the golden desert.
An army of giant, mutant abominable insectoids swarmed around a small group of fighters forming a circle around the obstinately refusing prey for the last couple hours.
Around them, a growing pile of mutilated carcasses dripped in their own, viscous, dark, and oily blood formed a rampart around the mix of adventurers and mercenaries.
Suddenly an arrow materialized out of thin air, piercing one of the black, miniature bead-like eyes of a giant dark brown forest bug with remarkable precision. A fountain of its disgusting juices gushed out from the fatal wound, causing the beast to shiver and cry out in pain for one last time, before joining the growing pile of corpses.
”Nice shot Lilly!” Aina remarked, slashing her short sword at another of the same species.
”Yeah, incredible aim girl!” Her twin sister fighting a similar opponent next to her, Eina joined in. ”Let me copy that!” She exclaimed, thrusting her sword forward in the next instant, plunging it deep in one of the little dark beads as well.
Instantly, the innards of the giant insectoid gushed out from the gaping wound, burying the girl in a thick layer of goo in almost no time. Even her sister standing just a few steps beside her got some of the juices on her.
”Efort in an instant. Like a first-aid bandage but made of intangible golden luminescence, the energy quickly covered up the damage, and began to swiftly heal and regenerate the damage whilst it slowly, gradually dissipated away.
”Thanks, girl!” Even without turning away from the frontline and looking at the source of the magic, it was obvious who was the one that attended to yet another of her wounds. Galina's constant, relentless heals made sure that none of the warriors and even the dogs, that protected the frontlines had to suffer any lasting injuries and only had to somehow deal with their waning, staggering stamina only.
Time passed, as the team continued their battle endlessly…
As they reached closer and closer to the northern edges of the forest and would step through into the sparse vegetation that gradually began to replace its hot golden sands, they suddenly walked into what could only be described as an ambush, a deliberately set trap.
These monsters, or to be more precise these insectoid beasts were much more organized than what should be normally possible. They fought together, in a large group, working for the same goal in mind. Their joint assault was quite a shock to the team at the start, not to mention the seemingly endless sea they suddenly found themselves in.
Still, despite them slowly grinding away the enemies fight after fight, they too were suffering. Though they were kept in prime condition by the expert support of Lily and Galina, the seemingly endless numbers, the arduously drawn-out battle did begin to wear them down.
Their powers began to diminish, their strikes, their swings were slowly losing their edge. What was an effortless, fatal swing an hour ago, now only made a gushing, deep wound on the opponent, if it managed to connect at all.