Chapter 157 (12/9): Reinforcements and Deterioration

The plan was going quite well, all things considered.

After her first instant kill, the moles became a lot more cautious of Camilla. Two of them went for her while the other two went to hold down Lucienne

She never got the chance to kill in a single stab again. The moles were surprisingly hardy and must be worn down bit by bit.

Fortunately, the moles weren’t very strong. While sturdy and physically powerful, they were slow in both body and mind, and they were very predictable in their movements.

It wasn’t hard for Camilla to figure out what they were going to do and come up with countermeasures. And since their minds were so slow, the moles did a horrible job of predicting Camilla’s movements. The spikes they conjured always appeared right beneath her and a small step in any direction was enough to avoid them.

Although her sword was less effective against these moles compared to when she fought undead, it was still a large weapon that was both sharp and heavy. Even unreinforced with enchantments, it cleaved through the rocks that the moles covered themselves in without much trouble.

Each sundering blow left bloody wounds behind, further weakening the mana beasts she fought. Given time, they’ll simply bleed out, if she didn’t dispatch them first.

Lucienne was doing quite well for herself as well. While she lacked the powerful offense that allowed Camilla to crack through the moles’ stone armor with impunity, she was still more than fast enough to easily avoid the moles’ slow attacks and find weak points in the mole’s armor, accurately targeting them with her sword. Inexperienced as she may be, she was still a full templar.

“I should really put more trust in her,” Camilla said to herself. “Those twins are quite skilled too.”

Whenever a mole tried to attack Lucienne, they’d distract it with flashes of light into its eyes. Rays of holy light constantly burned their faces, leaving them open to attack. But even if they tried to get at the twins, Lucienne stood in their path.

After parrying a desperate claw swipe from a mole that was riddled with wounds, Camilla sent it stumbling back with a kick. In the same movement, she pushed off it’s face and jumped out of the way of a stone spear that shot out of the ground.

Hmm? Was it just her or was that spear a bit faster than normal? The spear looked darker, harder than before as well.

Details in battle rarely slipped her attention and the abnormality in that stone spear caught her a bit off guard.

Suddenly, Kagriss’s warning call came from the sky. From her vantage point, she had a greater grasp of the situation.

“Camilla, they’re here!”

“Got it. Elyss, can you take care of them?”

Elyss didn’t reply but instead charged toward the trio of incoming moles that had been burrowing toward them this whole time. With her own earth magic, she began to obstruct the moles’ progress by hardening the earth. At the same time, she softened the earth above them, trying to force them to surface.

With the enemy reinforcements stalled, Camilla resumed focusing on the two moles in front of her. Their movements have already turned sluggish and everything they did was a step slower than before.

Against these solid opponents that didn’t pose a threat but were tough nuts to crack, Camilla found that her sword was a bit too unwieldy and she began wishing that she had a mace instead. Even a tough stiletto might be more useful.

She jumped back, taking some distance so she had room to gather momentum for her devastating, sundering blows. However, every time she stopped, the spikes came from below, striking up at ever greater frequencies.

“What the hell?”

Avoiding the moles’ attacks and magic as best as she could, Camilla split some of her attention to study the stone spears, breaking off the tip of one of them for a closer look. She frowned at the result.

There was no doubt that the magic that the moles used improved. When she squeezed the tip, instead of breaking apart and crumbling like packed earth, the stone spears misshaped as if it was metal. But when she pressed the tips too far, it crumbled like before.

The spikes were appearing much faster as well. She could no longer wait until the last moment to dodge.

“Are they growing stronger? But they’re already half dead,” she muttered, swinging her sword. “What’s going on?”

Clank! Her sword bounced off the claws of the mole she struck at. Her eyes widened, staring in disbelief. Why were these beasts that she was effortlessly crushing before rebounding? They hadn’t been fast enough to intercept her strikes when they were healthy, so there was no reason that they could do it when they’re exhausted and bleeding out.

And then there was that sound of metal when her sword met their claws…

Camilla took a quick glance at Lucienne and found her in much the same situation. The moles were actually putting up a good fight now. They moved faster and their armor had grown harder. Together, the two moles forced Lucienne on the defensive. While Lucienne wasn’t fighting at her best, it was still impressive.

For some reason, the moles had grown stronger in the middle of their fight, not just individually, but across the entire group. It wasn’t an isolated evolution.

What had changed?

A loud growl caught her attention and Camilla found that Elyss had one mole pinned beneath her massive paw and another one in her mouth. Elyss shook her head vigorously, growling all the while.

…If her memory served her, then the moles had grown stronger when they got reinforcements. But that was just a theory. Camilla continued to watch Elyss’s battle as she idly danced around the moles trying to rip her apart.

When the last of the trio of moles ran at Elyss, she tossed the one in her mouth toward it, knocking both of them over. Thanks to her own command over the earth around her and her advantage in size, she was having a much easier time. She didn’t have to deal with spikes.

As the two moles stumbled over each other trying to get back on their feet, Elyss turned her amber eyes toward the mole pinned beneath her paw, baring her teeth. All around her, the earth trembled. Little bumps appeared, only to be pressed flat again as Elyss stopped the earth spikes from forming in the first place.

Elyss’s eyes narrowed, her gaze intensifying as she stared at the beast she had pinned beneath her. The mole froze. It quickly recovered from its fear, but by then it was too late. A stone spear tore out of the ground, piercing through the neck of the mole underneath Elyss’s paws. Thorns and branches began to grow, tearing through the mole’s flesh.

When it stopped, blood dripped down the crimson tree.

Camilla looked over at her own opponents, watching for any changes. Sure enough, the moles that she had been fighting began to slow down. At first the effect wasn’t noticeable unless she was specifically looking for it, but over the span of a few seconds, the moles had slowed down enough that she regained the upper hand. Her theory was as good as proven.

If that was all the tricks that these moles had, then scouting was done.

“Elyss, Lucienne. Let’s get it over with! Playtime’s over.”

Camilla placed her hand on her sword, casting a quick enchantment that sharpened the edge of her blade and empowered the deathly effects that the sword was imbued with.

Her sword right now could cut clean through the bones of a jack-class skeleton knight. Naturally, the shoddy armor of rock that protected the body of these moles stood no chance.

She stepped forward, her body leading a massive overhead slash. As a spike of earth rose from the ground toward her, she simply stomped the tip flat and crumpled the base back into the ground. Her sword traced a misty, black arc and buried itself in the ground, having cleaved straight through the skull of one of the moles.

The remaining mole met her eyes and shook, backing away slowly. It turned and ran, but before it could get far, Camilla separated its head from the rest of its body.

A minute later, a total of eight bodies had stained the wasteland ground red with blood. Kagriss descended from the sky and rejoined Camilla. They retreated and gathered a short distance away for a quick meeting. For some reason, after they killed all eight moles, the nest didn’t send more. However, none of them let down their guard. Ariel and Sariel stayed on Elyss’s back, away from the ground just in case the moles had a way to stay undetected and launched a surprise attack.

With a clap of her hands, Camilla began the meeting and went over her findings first. “So these moles are strange in that the more of them there are, the stronger they get. When they are near each other, there is a network of power that connects them, empowering all of them. However, the effect is an on or off thing without anything in between. Yes, Lucienne?”

Lucienne looked like she wanted to say something, having her hand raised slightly. “I thought the same thing,” she said. “I suspect this has something to do with this king that they have. If I remember correctly, their king is what they have in common, right? It should be safe to assume that at the center of the nest where the king is, the effect is at its strongest.”

“Ah, that’s right. Thank you, Lucienne.” Camilla nodded toward her, grateful for Lucienne’s input, but the latter remained expressionless.

Kagriss tapped her bottom lip thoughtfully. It seemed that Lucienne was still resentful. How petty.

But putting aside Lucienne’s personal problems, Kagriss didn’t think that she was wrong about the moles. If the king did empower its subjects, then it also explained why the commission had a difficulty of C-rank.

“No wonder those elves can’t displace this nest,” Kagriss said. “If what you say is true, then they probably don’t even know that these beasts can be weakened if you separate them. They probably attacked the nest directly.”

“Well, they are just farmers after all,” Camilla said, shrugging. “You can’t expect them to know what to do against an unknown enemy.”

Kagriss had to hide a smile as peeked at Lucienne for her reaction. Sure enough, Lucienne’s mouth was set in a hard line and she looked down on the floor. Such an innocent, off handed comment. However, quite coincidentally, Lucienne was also one of those who did not “know what to do against an unknown enemy,” having suggested attempting to assassinate the mole king.

In the end, Lucienne was just as clueless as a mere farmer… was probably what Lucienne thought Camilla was saying. Even if not, then it was at least in the back of her mind.

It was interesting to see how bit by bit, the bridge between Camilla and Lucienne collapsed through neither one’s fault. Perhaps once Lucienne stopped seeing Camilla as the untouchable commander situated high above, she lost the respect that she once had for Camilla and realized that Camilla was fallible and imperfect as well.

It was Kagriss’s first time seeing the slow death of a once cordial relationship happen live before her own eyes. Naturally, she did nothing to interrupt.

In a way, something like this was a valuable experience that she could learn from. For example, to not read too much into Camilla’s words, and to speak her mind.

Lucienne said nothing, stewing in her slowly growing resentment while Camilla continued on unawares. “The beasts don’t get that much stronger even under the effects of empowerment. If we don’t hold back, they shouldn’t be too much of a problem to kill. But for now, let’s assume that at full strength, these moles become twice as strong. Elyss, how many are there? Did you see?”

“There’s about twenty soldiers left in the nest. A few more were about to come, but after they started dying, they retreated. There are also a few more…different signatures and the biggest one. The queens and the king.”

“Twenty, huh? I think we can do it if we don’t get surrounded. So here’s how this works…”

Camilla quickly outlined her plan before asking for any questions and suggestions. None came. Once again, the spotlight was on Elyss since her earth magic was invaluable when dealing with these earth silencers. Her powerful magic was unparalleled as long as the mole king does not personally join the battle.

As the greatest user of death magic present, Kagriss naturally got a big role too. Her black mist was proven to be effective as a deterrent against the moles. It was her job to direct the battle from the sky and to use her magic to prevent the others from being flanked and surrounded.

Naturally, the safety of the twins fell to her as well.

Once everyone became familiar with their roles, they put the plan in action.

“Since fighting in the tunnels is basically delivering ourselves to the enemy, we have to drag them out into the open.” As Kagriss rose up into the sky, she repeated Camilla’s reasoning. And the way she was going to accomplish that was with her black mist.

Not yet, but soon.

The first to make a move was Elyss. Stalking toward the main entrance of the nest, she began to work her magic. Within a hundred meters of her, the effect fading with distance, raw mana began to spiral toward Elyss.

Kagriss felt her skin prickle as she remembered the last time this happened. Faced with that lightning stag, she almost got Camilla killed thanks to her weakness.

The feeling this time was the exact same, only on a greater scale.

It wasn’t only raw mana that Elyss drew toward herself but also mana of other affinities. The black mist still lingering on the ground from Kagriss’s previous display of force began to fade as Elyss stripped the mana of their affinities, turning them back into raw mana.

And that raw mana entered her body, slowly becoming the earth mana. The process was slow but it brought with it the feeling of a coming disaster.

It felt unstoppable, and Kagriss couldn’t help but shiver.

The ground softened as Elyss directed the flow of mana into a massive spell channeled through her paws. The versatility of the spell structures in her paws was scary. It could alter the hardness of the earth in a huge range as well as modify the shape. In response to the spell, the ground began to ripple like a shaken basin of water and the earth looked almost liquid.

“Hahahaha! If you don’t want that to be your tomb, better come out!” Elyss roared in her mind.

In response, the huge mana signature deep underground flared up. The sinking of the ground above the nest slowed, but the nest continued to collapse at a visible rate. Even the mole king was powerless to stop Elyss’s magic.

Angered, the huge mana signature and several others around it began to move up toward the surface. The mole king had left its throne, accompanied by its troops.

While Elyss had been gathering mana, Kagriss took some of the ambient undead mana flowing by for herself. Now, she prepared her own spell for a welcoming that was fit for a king.