11 Necromancer x Light-Eater
"... Swor-Art... Dark-Form... Phantom-Swords..."
"...Gargghhh!..."
"That's the last one of Undead humans. Is everyone okay? Kids? Zen? Is anyone hurt?"
"Our group is fine Mr. Nach."
"I and our employers are also fine."
Thanks to Poru-III we were able to avoid getting poisoned by the Nightshade poison.
Since we all have drank the antidote for the Nightshade poison, we were able to come out of Zen-san's Magic-Barrier and continue eliminating the Undead humans. And after fighting for almost 15 minutes, we're able to successfully eliminate all of the Undead humans around us.
"Whew!... That's a close one. Good job noticing the poisons, kid."
"If you want to praise someone then praise Poru-III. He's the one who informed us about the poisons."
"Seriously! How did the Slime do that? It can even tell that there are two kinds of poison spreading in the air."
I'm actually not sure how he did that. Maybe he has a skill that can tell poison or it's just a simple habit he developed because of the foods that I always give to him.
At first, I started by controlling his diet by only giving him poisonous herbs, hoping that he would develop a poison resistance-skill. It's not like he's going to die from eating those, after all, he is still alive up to this day.
Then when I tried to feed him the same Nightshade poison, a Nightshade herb suddenly appeared inside his body. He probably stored that Nightshade herb from the bunch of herbs that I gave to him using his storage-skill.
Since then, I always bring him whenever our group is doing a quest so he can act as our poison detector.
"Your Slime has done well, Ms. Vier. Sorghumgrass is not that poisonous to Humans but much more poisonous to horses. Even if we give them the Nightshade antidote they would still die if they don't receive the Sorghumgrass antidote."
"Thank you, Zen-san. Fufufu... Did you hear that Mr. Nach? At this point, Poru-III becoming an Iron-Rank adventurer is not just a dream anymore."
"Keep Dreaming kid."
After a few minutes, Fred-san, Nymh-san, and the NeoHeroes came back to our group. However, Fred-san is carrying both Mr. Slain and that guy renxa on both of his shoulders, like how someone is carrying a sack of rice on their shoulder.
According to Fred-san, that guy renxa, refused to believe Nymh-san's warning and got poisoned then Mr. Slain got poisoned as well by trying to help his friends and forgetting to drink his antidote.
"Both of them already received the antidote so it's fine but the first one is unconscious and the other one can't move due to exhaustion."
Fred-san carefully put down the unconscious renxa and the exhausted Mr. Slain inside their carriage.
Thankfully, Fred-san is a good person. If he actually did what he said during the briefing that he wouldn't help anyone who won't listen to his instructions, something terrible might have happened to the NeoHeroes.
"I'm sorry for the trouble we caused. Thank you for not abandoning us."
Ms. Karna bows her head in front of Fred-san. I guess even she understands that their misjudgment has put them in a very dangerous situation.
"It's okay, I just hope you will learn something from this. There's not always someone who would help you in this kind of situation so think about what you did wrong and never do it again."
"Come on kid! Fred says you can't move but you can speak, right? Don't fall so low that you'll have others apologize for your own mistakes, especially your friend."
"Ugh... I'm sorry everyone."
That's right Mr. Nach, tell him how lame this Imbecile is. Putting his friend in danger and having the guts to let her apologize for his mistake. I'm finally giving you the title Mr. Burden No.1.
If you want to save and bring back the Idiot, you should have asked Fred-san to help you instead.
And this Idiot, why would you not believe when the leading group tells you that there's poison and asks you to drink the antidote? What a true Idiot. Maybe the Imbecile owned the title Mr. Burden No.1 but I'm giving you a new title, Mr. Burden King!
If the three of you didn't learn anything from this, something much worse will truly happen in the future.
Now that all of us are back into one group, our only problem left is to find where is the Necromancer that was controlling all of those Undead humans.
However, Nymh-san and Zen-san are still unable to detect his presence.
Maybe the Necromancer is out of the range of Nymh-san and Zen-san's detection skill or maybe he's just probably good at hiding. Either way, it's really impressive that he can control a horde of Undead humans while being so far away or while hiding from us.
We waited and stayed vigilant for a few minutes but the Necromancer didn't show up. Well, maybe he got afraid after seeing what we're capable of. Fufufu...
Since our enemy is not coming out, Fred-san decides to make our move.
"We don't know what kind of ambush is waiting ahead for us so it's better to go back to Neem village and wait until sunrise. The road might be uneven because of the Undead humans coming out from the ground but can you deal with that Zen?"
"What kind of question is that Fred? Even if I'm inside the carriage, I can flatten the road with Land-Magic as long as I can see it."
"Just checking, we don't want to turn over like the carriages ahead. Nymh, you can see better at night than most of us. I need you to look ahead in the front so exchange positions with Ms. Karna."
"Okay, Fred."
"Ms. Karna, I promise that I will protect your friends so please help the back carriage in defending our rear."
"I understand Mr. Fred."
We ride our respective carriages but even before Mr. Gregg and Mr. Borris can turn around our carriages, Nymh-san senses someone approaching from behind us.
"Nymh, can you tell me their numbers."
"Just two. A Human and an Undead monster."
That's probably the Necromancer. Maybe he decided to confront us with his most powerful Undead monster so he could stop us from going back to Neem village.
We focus all of Magic-Lanterns on our rear and wait for the Necromancer and his Undead monster to appear.
"They're approaching the end of our lights, you'll see them soon. Be prepared, everyone."
"""Okay!!"""
With Nymh-san's warning, we prepare our weapons and take our stance while waiting for the Necromancer and the Undead monster to appear at the end of our lights, around 50 meters away from us.
When the Undead monster steps into our lights, what we see is a large bat-like monster, around half the size of an adult person with four wings that have a span of 2 meters on each side.
"Huh?.... Damn it! That's a Light-Eater! Everyone turn off your..."
...FLASH...
"Damn it!"
Before Mr. Nach can even finish his warning, the Necromancer behind the Undead monster lighted his Magic-Lantern, extending the Light-Eater's shadow to us at a speed none of us can react to.
"Did all of our lights get taken out?"
"The carriage lights are all gone, Mr. Fred."
It may look like all of the lights coming from our Magic-Lanterns have been eaten, but what the Light-Eater did is directly cover the light source using its Shadow-Curtain skill and Dark-Control skill.
We won't be able to cancel this skill unless we defeat this monster, it runs out of Mana, it goes out of range of the skill, or it decides by itself to cancel the skill.
Each of our groups probably has an extra Magic-Lantern. It's a practice to always have one for all members and an extra for emergencies.
But even if we use them now, the Necromancer and the Undead Light-Eater will just repeat what they did earlier.
With all of our lights gone, we can barely see the silhouette of the enemy. That's quite a big trouble for us but the Necromancer and the Undead Light-Eater are not our only problem.
A few seconds after our lights disappeared, we all heard the sounds of hundreds of monsters from all directions moving towards us.
"Damn it! Where are all of these Undead monsters coming from?"
"They're probably buried in the ground inside the forest and waiting to ambush our group. Zen, can you repair the road in this darkness?"
"That's quite impossible Fred, I can't even tell which parts are uneven from flat. My Mana won't last if I keep leveling the whole road until the Neem village."
With our current situation, it leaves me no choice but to take action. I guess I won't be able to hide my Mana-Tech from the NeoHeroes.
"All you need is just to see the road, right Zen-san?"
"Ms. Vier, you have a light source that can't be taken out by the LightEater?"
"Probably!"
"Then how much light can it provide?"
"A little better to the light of the full Blue-Moon."
"That's more than enough."
After confirming that I had a Mana-Tech that could light our surroundings, Fred-san gave us instructions for our great escape.
"We're pushing ahead to the Campsite. We can't turn back and drag this swarm of Undead monsters to Neem village...
...Remove the tarp covering the carriage. We can't have any blind spots in this situation...
...Nymh, you'll clear our way and deal with all the Undead monsters in front...
...Zen, blast those turnover carriages ahead with your Ground-Magic then focus on leveling the road with your Land-Magic. We're done if our carriages turnover in this situation...
...Nach, take command of the other carriage. Just follow our lead on our side...
...Ms. Karna, Ms. Mifumi, and Ms. Felin deal with the Undead monsters that will come from our sides and rear."
"""Okay!!!"""
"Ms. Vier, we're all ready, so light our way out."
"Okay, Fred-san."
Upon Fred-san instructions, I stand up from my seat and then raise my right hand towards the night sky.
"Release... Sky-Lantern..."
What I release from my Storage-Bracelet that I'm wearing on my right wrist is my Mana-Tech which I call Sky-Lantern. It's a Mana-Tech based on a Relic of the 2nd-World called Flare-Gun.
The mechanism inside and the ammunition is completely different from the original Flare-Gun Relic but how I used it and how it works should be the same.
...BANG!...
...FLASH...
I pulled the trigger and shot its ammunition in the night sky. In a few seconds, I was able to place a small Magic-Lantern above us and illuminate our surroundings.
When my Sky-Lantern lights up our surroundings, we're finally able to see some of the approaching Undead monsters.
We can see a few of them ahead in front of us, there's more behind the Necromancer at our rear, and there's probably more behind the trees from both of our sides inside the forest.
However, we can now see the Necromancer that seems to be pissed. He probably didn't expect that we still have other ways of illuminating our surroundings after using his trick with the Undead Light-Eater.
Fufufu... I guess I won against the Necromancer when it comes to surprises...
"Ms. Vier! Is that a Flare-Gun?"
"Huh?..."
To my surprise, I hurry up and turn around to see whoever made that remark, and what I find is Ms. Karna with a surprised look on her face.
"So you know about these Relic Ms. Karna?"
"Ahh!... No... What I mean is..."
I see. If Ms. Karna knows what a Flare-Gun is, I probably have an idea about this odd feeling that I can sense from them.
There's a possibility that maybe one of them is also a Dream-Holder like me. In rare cases maybe two of them, or in unbelievable cases maybe all of them. However, that's not important now.
"Good job kid. I can't believe you have that kind of Magic-Lantern. Is that one of your original Mana-Tech?"
"The Ammunition is quite expensive, Mr. Nach. So I'm billing everything to you."
"You can't do that, kid. And why only to me? At least bill it to the whole group."
"Fred-san! That Sky-Lantern will only last for two minutes. I only have enough to last for an hour."
"Just keep shooting your Sky-Lantern, Ms. Vier. We'll force our way out of this swarm. Everyone, we're moving"
"Land-Magic... Gravity-Wave..."
"Mr. Greg, Mr. Boris, go!"
""Okay!... Yah!""
"Ground-Magic... Rock-Blast..."
...BAMMM!...
"Nymh, clear those monsters ahead."
"I'm on it."
After Zen-san leveled the road using Gravity-Wave and blasted the turnover carriages using Rock-Blast, our group finally began our great escape.
Nymh-san keeps shooting the Undead monsters ahead using her arrows then Zen-san continues leveling the road together with the Undead monster corpses.
"Those Undead monsters are much rotten compared to the Undead humans earlier. They're not that sturdy so just blast them up with wide-area Magic."
With Mr. Nach's instructions, all of us take our position in defending our sides and rear.
Mifumi-sama takes the left side, Ms. Karna takes the right side, then Felin and I take the rear.
"Ground-Magic... Stone-Bullets..."
"Wind-Magic... Wind-Blade..."
"Take this Undead monster... Ha!"
Mifumi-sama blast those Undead monster using her Stone-Bullets skill, Ms. Karna dices them up using her Wind-Blade skill, and Felin uses her disposable throwing knives to knock down those monsters. I on the other hand...
"Release... Beetle-Rifle..."
...BANG!...
"Ms. Vier! That's a Shot-Gun, right?"
Yep! There's no hiding it. Ms. Karna is surely a Dream-Holder like me.
"First a Flare-Gun and now a Shot-Gun... Are you perhaps..."
"That's not important right now, Ms. Karna."
"Yes, you're right. We can talk after we survive this battle."
"Kid, do you have an extra of that Beetle-Rifle? Would you let me borrow one?"
"Just throw your swords at the Undead monsters, Mr. Nach."
"What kind of idea is that? I won't waste my sword by throwing them to the Undead monsters."
"Then use some offensive-skill!"
"Jeez, I'm reserving my Mana in case we have to fight a strong monster but I have no choice then... Dark-Magic... Dark-Blaster..."
...BOOM!...
"See? I know you can do it if you try, Mr. Nach."
"Kid, stop talking to me like I'm some kind of a rookie adventurer."
