Chapter 445 (1/2)

The monster in front of her was a bear, of all things. Before even Chrysanthemum could roar a challenge, Thea leaped forward, raising her hammer. It was easier now, falling into the melodic dance of violence. It came almost naturally to her. Although it had taken almost three weeks of intensive fighting, she felt that her Skill was finally her own.

It was almost anticlimactic when Thea moved so quickly that her hammer caved in the head of the monster in front of her, ending the brief farce of a battle. Chrysanthemum snorted, expressing her pleasure, and meandered over to rip away the choice pieces of meat from the body.

Thea grimaced; apparently, cannibalism wasn’t a thing for bears.

Looking around, it was clear that everyone else was similarly bored by these opponents. Say what you will about the Death Cultists, they were a real challenge, especially in numbers. These monsters, on the other hand…

And these weren’t even the previous, high Leveled monster horde, although these were relatively high Level. They were a monster horde of a much lower quality, that emerged recently, in the last week. They were numerous, sure, but when they were only at this level of strength, it was hard to imagine any serious fighter falling to them.

Thea corrected herself to any serious fighter in their current group. Because she supposed that being here for the three weeks had completely warped her ability to understand strength. Compared to how she was back in Star Crossing, the current Thea…

She stopped herself before she could follow that thought process very far.

Plus, the monsters were moving in a direction away from the Raid Party group, which was a welcome change of pace. It was slightly like a vacation, to not be at the center of the monster assault.

Glancing behind her, Thea shivered when she saw the strange apparatus the Ghosthound was riding. Apparently, something of great importance had happened in his Soul Skill last night, and the Ghosthound was currently rushing to deal with it. To that end, so he wouldn’t be distracted, he had created a strange, spider-like creature of roots that he was sitting cross-legged on top of. The creature had no real consciousness or senses, but it would follow Rose, who volunteered to stay in relatively safe places so the Ghosthound’s body wouldn’t be in danger of being attacked.

Of course, he didn’t completely shut the world out, but he simply put a shade up, dampening the noise from it. Thea wondered what the problem was, and why solving it was taking so long. They had already traveled South for around 10 hours, moving as fast as they dared. But there were no ambushes, just the weak flank of the monster horde. And their huge group cut into it like a hot knife through butter.

Thea gulped as she looked behind the Ghosthound. Their group was huge because… almost five thousand Death Cultists had turned up when they sent the call out, 300 Red Death Cultists that were a match for the weaker members of their party, and around a dozen Grey Death Cultists, the strange casters that only the Ghosthound had fought.

It certainly was a strange feeling, riding at the front of a host of monsters, the sound of their claws and growls echoing around you until there was just a constant rumble. Thea herself believed that, combined with Chrysanthemum, they could handily defeat 3 or 4 Red Death Cultists. But all of these at once… even with the support of the group…

And those Grey Death Cultists, with their rheumy eyes and their broken fanged smiles, those were opponents that only the Ghosthound could handle. It even seemed that he respected them because when they had all arrived, he had broken out of his trance and spoke briefly to them, before they headed down, a veritable host.

More than external threats, Thea would have worried about betrayal from the Death Cultists, for all that they had provided the Death Key they needed to escape. But it seemed that the Ghostound was determined to retrieve the Regalia from this place before they left. Better to do it now, than leave it to the lookie-loos who would come next.

Plus… nobody said anything explicitly, but it was clear from the tightness around the Ghosthound’s eyes that whatever was occurring within him was tied into the strange happenings of this Raid Dungeon.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Ptolemy said, walking to stand beside Thea, looking back at the Death Cultists.

“...of all the people who would say that, you would have been the last person I would have suspected,” Thea blurted out, ignoring his question and responding from her gut. The fact that he was trying to strike up a conversation in such an Ace like way… Thea had seen them chatting a lot, but to think it rubbed off to this degree.

Ptolemy had the wherewithal to blush. “Yes, well. I just… you seem to get almost… taut to the point of breaking during a fight. Like a guitar string. So I just thought… I don’t know.”

After scratching his head, Ptolemy said, “Of all of the Ghosthound’s strong points… his dedication to a task at the expense of his mental health isn’t one of them. Just be careful, yea? Never forget that all it takes is one critical error for it all to come crashing down.”