Chapter 21: Nymphs

Erin arrived in front of Albert in a raging wave of what could only be described as a tsunami. The three Basilisks surrounding him were blown away by the storm, tearing them apart. She looked angry and tears could be seen in her eyes, she had picked up speed halfway through her journey here, when she felt her connection with Albert getting weaker.

She glared at Albert and he was stumped, his skin had returned to it’s previous colour and there were no horns on his head, he slowly got up from the rubble and dusted himself off, he walked over to Erin and looked at her, “Sor…” before he was halfway through his words she had given him a resounding slap across the face, if this was a lesser man the slap might’ve taken his head off.

She raised her hands to wipe her eyes as she muttered to herself, “You idiot, you promised, why would you want to kill yourself” her sweet voice was shaky and she was almost at the verge of crying, Albert wanted to console her, even though he was the one on the verge of dying a few moments ago.

Roar!!!

A loud commotion was heard at the gate, when Erin had arrived the wave that escorted her had thrown the battlefield upside-down. The barely stable formation of the guards and hunters was destroyed, the only good new was that Azar was sent flying knocking him unconscious and saving his life, in the end he didn’t get the glorious end he had wanted.

Although Albert was fully healed, his stamina hadn’t recovered at all and he still wouldn’t be able to do damage to the monsters without a skill or a technique, he griped his sword tightly and said. “We have to protect the them” Erin raised her head and nodded, now wasn’t the time for a lengthy discussion.

Before Albert could take a step forward though, she stopped him. “You wait here, I’ll support the others.” Albert looked like he wanted to say something but the look on her face shut him up, he stood his ground as she walked in front of him, she closed her eyes and an aqua blue aura slowly surrounded her, it wrapped itself around Albert’s sword and all the melee fighters in the town.

Seeing this all the fighters at the gate and in the town had renewed spirit, they all knew what this was and only one person in the entire settlement could do it.

••••••

At this point Callie, Kela and the others had finally arrived at the gate, they could see the messy battlefield, the flaming buildings in the town meant the monsters had broken in, they saw their fallen comrades scattered all over the battlefield, some were burnt to the bone, others were ripped apart, the smell of death hovered above the battlefield, they had even spotted some friends that were barely recognisable, their blood boiling in rage.

Talen and Hart as usual, charged into the battle, there was still more than a hundred monsters in the front gate alone, not to talk about the ones inside the settlement, they use their usual formation and attack the monsters closest to them. Although lesser Basilisks were way stronger than the twin tailed warthogs they just faced, they didn’t have the troublesome skill that nullified physical attacks, as long as they used a skill they would be able to damage them.

Hart and Talen drew the attention of one monster and the rest went to work, Callie fired one magic arrow after another and Kela and Jarret used their attack skills, although they were damaging the monster, the beast was just too strong and they could not get a good enough strike in to kill it, it swung it’s claws at Hart with great force, reacting quickly he raised his shield to block the attack.

Boom!

Like and explosion the attack sent him flying a few meters away, he hadn’t expected the difference in strength from the warthog, seeing this Talen immediately activated his defensive skill. “Aura of Impunity” an orange aura wrapped around his body and his Shield glowed bright. Jarret dashed forward timing his attack for when the monster would attack Talen.

Boom!

Another resounding boom echoed in their ears but unlike Hart, Talen had only taken a few steps back. “What power” Talen was shocked by the raw strength of the beast, he had faced a Tier 5 monster before, but the lesser Basilisks was on a whole ‘nother level.

“Horizontal slash!” Jarret yelled as an orange horizontal aura sent the lesser Basilisk tumbling down. “Now!” he shouted and the other began their bombardment on the creature. “Arrow Rain”

“Fire smash”

“Twin light sword” the attacks came in hot and by the time Hart was able to get back up the monster was dead. They all looked at the battlefield and saw over a hundred more of these monsters, their anger seemed to have disappeared as they now understood why the town was in such a mess.

If only one of these monsters could push them this far then, there was no hope in winning, their only option now was to escape, but now that they were already here, turning their backs on a monster of this level was the same as committing suicide.

Just then however, aqua blue aura enveloped their weapons and a tranquil feeling had calmed their chaotic thoughts, they all knew what this was and who it belonged to, looking ahead they saw the same thing happen to everyone on the battlefield and felt a sliver of hope, even though Erin wasn’t a mage and didn’t have many offensive spells she was still the most powerful person in the Red ogre settlement.

••••••

Albert watched as Erin left his view, even with her spell AquaLight he knew he was still a little too exhausted to fight by her side, without stamina there wasn’t much he could do, not to mention secret technique, he wouldn’t even be able to launch an ordinary attack with enough strength, at least now he would be able to manage against any stray Basilisks that wondered here.

He tightened the grip on his blade, his fingers digging into his skin. He knew he wasn’t the strongest demon lord in the continent, in fact he was ranked last and was no longer even considered a demon lord, but he couldn’t believe there would be a day when he would feel this week.

After failing to protect his home, he had thought he was unfit to be a Lord and had taken a back seat to Azar, settling for being just the captain of the guards but now, what good was he? in the end he was also a shitty captain.

Looking around he could see the fire was spreading, he needed to do something to prevent it from reaching the chief’s Mansion, he went towards the building and got the guards they had left behind to retrieve all the Tier 1 water strolls they stored in the armory under the chiefs mansion. He would try his best to save the town, and if all hope were lost he needed to be ready to help the kids, elderly and pregnant women in the mansion escape, he knew Erin would be able to give them a chance.

“Huh… where’s Kelvin?”

“He’s dead sir.”

“….Dead?”

••••••

Erin walked towards the town’s gate, she wore a gorgeous silver bracelet on her left wrist and couldn’t help playing with it, it had three blue gems embedded in it and looked like they had water inside of them. She stood a few meters from the gate and saw the brutal scene in front of her.

Even Though they were faring better than they did before, being able to damage the beasts without the use of a skill, the difference in strength was still obvious. The lesser Basilisks had scales a thousand times harder than steel, they were still only able to make small scratches and didn’t even slow the monsters down, there were piles of dead bodies on the ground and even some of the fighters still standing were badly injured, some were poisoned by the dark green flames and some were crippled.

She was unable to use the same spell she used on Albert because even for her using it in such a scale would render her unconscious especially after using AquaLight earlier. She let go of the bracelet and one of the gems on it shattered. Water continuously shot out of it like a tidal wave, she open her mouth and an enchanting voice echoed across the battlefield,

“Water Serpents”

The entire battlefield was silent almost like time had stopped, the only sounds that could be heard were from the water gushing out of her bracelet and the flames burning the housing behind. Every one had paused for a moment even the Monsters, almost as if they were enchanted by the outer worldly voice they had just heard.

The water that left her bracelet surrounded her like she was standing in the middle of a lake, her figure glowed like the sea and her hair was as transparent as a lake, she looked like the goddess of the sea descended down and was now walking on land (well, on water right now), this was not actually wrong though.

The entire battlefield had turned to stare, it took a while for the monsters to get their senses back, Basilisks were also serpentine creatures so it was understandable why they were so easily influence by her. Callie, Jarret and the others couldn’t help but awe at the sight, they had heard rumors and knew Erin wasn’t a demon, but they had no idea she had divine blood in her.

Erin opened her eyes and the water around her rose, it morphed into 7 giant serpents made of water, the moment these serpent appeared the lesser Basilisks went berserk, it was obvious they had sensed danger, they knew when they were outclassed, without their berserk skills death would be imminent.

They had sensed something, a more dangerous creature that posses a certain degree of control over their race, lesser Basilisks were Tier 5 monsters, and even though they weren’t magic beast, the higher a monsters Tier was the more intelligence they possessed. Looking at the creature surrounded by what felt like Tier 6 serpents they knew they weren’t a match.

Erin could sense the anxiety in the monsters, being a water nymph she had certain links to water creature and although the lesser Basilisks weren’t completely water creatures, she could still feel it. She had a certain amount of influence over them, with the aura of the Seven Tier 6 water serpent she hoped she could suppress the monsters enough to order them to retreat.

Failure, the monsters were scared no doubt, even with a berserk skill monsters couldn’t completely resist the influence of a higher Tier monster, the difference between each tier was massive, and the more you went up the more the difference grew. ‘Something or someone is interfering.’ With the easy way out now out of the question, she now had to just face the problem head on.

ROARRR!!!!!

The unison cry of a hundred lesser Basilisks echoed through out the town, everyone on the battlefield heard the deafening roar and felt nauseous. “What is this?”

“what are they doing?” the fighters complained at the sound of their eardrums banging, Talen looked at the scene confused. “Are they scared, shouldn’t they just try to run or are they just preparing to die?”

Erin was a little confused when she heard the scream, just then a thought flashed passed her mind, she frowned her beautiful face distorted a bit, she immediately yelled. “Everyone attack, we need to finish this as fast as possible so we can get out of here before they come!” The others were a little confused, but being warriors they didn’t hesitate to act, this was the first time they had seen that expression on Erin and they immediately feared for the worst, they launched their attacks with more vigor and determination than before.

Erin was no exception, she sent all seven water serpent to attack, normally she would leave at least one or two behind to protect herself, but this was no time to worry about trivia matters like that.