Supreme Magus - Chapter 78

Chapter 78






After the end of their shift, Vastor and Thorman went back to their quarters . Vastor waited until they were alone, before expressing his hilarity .

"Thorman, old friend, I would have never imagined you had it in you . Helping your student like that . Technically, that's against the rules . " Vastor tone of fake indignation wouldn't have fooled a deaf man .

"I did no such a thing . I just used the spells that I considered best for the situation at hand . If she ended up copying me, how is that my fault? Are you going to report me?" It was a rhetoric question, Thorman already knew the answer .

"Are you kidding me? Your student ended up saving mine . The least I could do is gifting you that bottle of 50 years aged Blue Flame you keep eyeing every time you enter into my office . I'm glad you loosened the stick up your a*s . "

*****

In an underground maze, several kilometres away from the castle, another kind of conversation was taking place . After slaughtering its way through the nest, Scarlett was facing the Brood Mother .

It was the creature responsible for the abnormal spawn rate of the Clackers . Every single one of them was one of her children . Its abdomen was that of a giant spider, with eight long longs, but in the place of the head there was a human-like figure .

It was like someone had attached a human, starting from the thighs, to the spider body . But it was a human with no distinctive features, its chitinous skin was grey, the hands had unnaturally long fingers ending in razor-sharp claws .

The head had eight eyes, and a long slit were the mouth was supposed to be, allowing it to speak .

["Look, I'm tired of playing hide and seek . I only came here because I know you are smart enough to understand me, and because I hate senseless destruction . "] Scarlett was quite angry from the repeated assaults it had suffered along the way .

They had no effect except wasting Scarlett's time .

["What do you want, oh mighty ruler?"] The Mother's voice was low and hoarse, every word sounded more coughed rather than spoken . Yet it managed to laugh, sneering at the Scorpicore claimed title .

["Stop laying so many eggs . Your children are a plague for the forest, you have already invaded other's territories . I won't repeat myself a second time . "]

The Brood Mother chuckled again .





["It's that so? Then I challenge you, oh ruler . The forest needs a new guiding hand…"]

Scarlett scoffed, it had heard that speech countless times, either from humans or magical beasts .

["Fine . Challenge accepted . "] The conversation was cut short, much to Mother's annoyance .

Violating all the rules of the challenge, the Brood Mother attacked without notice, making the fully developed Clackers that guarded the throne room, each the size of a bull, coordinate with its attack .

The Scorpicore's roar struck in two waves . The first was a cold one, turning the whole underground nest in a frozen wasteland . The second was an ultrasonic one, that turned the newly formed ice sculptures in countless shattered pieces .


["Oh! I won . Big surprise! Long live to me . "] Sad for having no witness of its crushing victory, Scarlett called Linjos .

"The Clackers' issue is solved . With the Brood Mother dead, the survivors will go into hiding until another comes up . Let's hope the next one will have more brains than brawns . "

"Thanks for solving the matter so quickly . " Linjos replied .

"What do you want in return?"

- "I like this human . " Scarlett thought . "Always saying please and thank you, instead of treating me like a tool, like his predecessors did . I'll make sure he keeps his position . " -

"Let's just say you owe me one . What's the survival rate of your cubs?"

"Better than the previous years, around 50% of the groups made it through the first day . It's time to kick things up a notch . "

***





Back in the cave, Lith's group was finishing breakfast and planning the rest of the day . Everyone had much appreciated Visen creating a side-cave bathroom .

Despite everything was supposed to be a team effort, not all of them could be executed properly in front of others .

With so many mouths to feed, Lith's stash wouldn't last more than three more days .

Using magic burned a lot of calories, it exhausted both the body and the mind .

"Thank the gods you ended up in my group . " Belia said gnawing away the last shred of meat from the bones . "After fasting for a whole day, I would have either surrendered or eaten Visen . "

Everyone at the table laughed, but Lith .

"Why so glum, mate? And seriously, why do you keep so much food on yourself?" Visen asked . "Not that I'm complaining!"

Lith glared for a long moment, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath .

- "We are not 'mates', lucky b*stard . " –

"In order, not glum, envious . Because clearly none of you has ever starved . And the second answer is linked to the first . When you suffer from hunger as long as I did, you do not feel safe unless you have some food with you at all times . "

Visen realized his blunder and tried to apologize, but Lith dismissed everything as an accident, proceeding to explain what they could expect from magical beasts . After he gave them all the key points from his experience, there were still a few things left to say .

"Never underestimate a magical beast . They may be stuck with just two elements, but they can use them in ways we can only imagine . Their casting time is incredibly fast, and to make things worse, our physical prowess is nothing compared to them .

They need just one hit to incapacitate us, or worse . My advice is to always keep your distance, and never play the game like they expect us to . "

"Doesn't that mean that we are already screwed? We have already lost our biggest hitter . " Visen wasn't much of an optimist about the situation, and neither was Belia .





"We have lost only one member . Our aim is to survive, not to beat them all into submission . " After the previous day, Phloria had shed away most of her insecurities, becoming more decisive .

"The main problem is, that after pondering a lot about it, I came to the conclusion that splitting up was a mistake . This is a group exercise, staying in a cave isn't getting us anywhere . You two could have helped us a lot yesterday .

Not only Mirna could have been saved, but you would have gained battle experience . After fighting the Clackers, I feel I have grown a lot as a Mage Knight . None of us will truly understand his own abilities without putting them to the test . "

"Agreed . " Lith chimed in . "That's the reason why I taught you about how to use first magic in the wilderness and about magical beasts . "

- "That, and because otherwise you would fall without teaching me nothing . Mage Knight's spells are something I have to replicate ASAP . I can't wait to see what those two are capable of .

Plus, I discovered a huge hole in my toolkit . I have to devise something against a swarm of small enemies . "

"And what about a swarm of big enemies?" Solus asked .

"In that case, my only option is to run away . " –

"Also, I would like to propose Phloria as team leader . For an unexperienced unit like ours, defence is more important than offence . Her skillset provides us the best options to stall and regroup . Not to mention yesterday she proved herself . "

"It's an odd way to say: 'thank you for saving my a*s' . " She replied .

"If we are keeping a score, I saved yours twice . First from the Cingy, then from the Ry . You are still an a*s short from getting the right to brag . " He rebutted with one of his very few charming smiles .

The forced cohabitation, coupled with facing so many dangers together, had helped the group to develop camaraderie .

Despite all the hardships, Phloria was starting to enjoy their situation .

It was the first time since coming to the academy, that she was being looked up for her skill, not her noble title . Her teammates didn't hope for her to fail to feel better about themselves, they were counting on her .

Lith, instead, wasn't touched at all . For him it was just a temporary setback, something he had to cope with, exploiting that time to regain his people skills . He knew that over time, his edgelord demeanour would do him more harm than good .

The world was big and unknown, he needed to play by the rules of society and avoid useless conflicts . In the grand scheme of his plans, one week was barely a rehearsal .

No one objected to Lith proposal, he had already gained their respect . After seeing Phloria carrying him barely conscious, and listening to their story, Visen and Belia needed no more proof of her valour .

"Before setting out of here, here's my orders . Visen, you'll pair up with Lith, is better to keep attack and defence of each unit balanced . I'll take care of Belia . Second, switch whatever you have in your magic storing rings with your best last resort spells .

So far, nothing else worked, and things go downhill pretty fast . "

Having learned from his past mistakes, Lith had already prepared, so he used that time to pass something from his pocket dimension to Phloria's, leaving her dazed .

"There something definitely wrong with your head . " She said looking at his cold smile, while he was explaining his idea .

"But that's so wrong to be good . "

The morning hunt did go much better than the previous day . By going the opposite direction of the Clackers' nest, they found much more wildlife . Lith managed to disguise multiple times spirit magic with air magic, claiming quite a catch .

Phloria helped too, while Belia and Visen focused on finding edible plants and fruits, their hunting skills were zero, and the others couldn't waste the precious light time teaching them .

Moving around for so long in the forest, it took Sentar only a few hours to find them and report their position .

["Do I have to announce myself and act alone like an idiot, again?"]

Making mistakes on purpose didn't upset the Cron, unless they ended up losing .

["No . New day, new rules . Only one of you has to be spotted, the others can lay low and coordinate their attacks with you . "] Scarlett replied .

["One glove is off, let's get round two started!"]

Note : Please download the sponsor's game to support us!