Chapter 209 – Failed ambush.

“Grhisss…”

A strange sound escaped from a certain creature that was walking on two legs. This being was about the size of a human child with peculiar reddish-brown scaly skin. Its legs were sinewy and digitigrade, the feet were lizard-like with three large claws. Their jaw was similar to a crocodile with two small horns protruding from its head.

This monster also didn’t lack a tail that was helping to balance its two-legged form. It had hands that were missing one digit but were still able to hold weapons. This one, in particular, was holding an old dagger that looked like it was looted from a person belonging to the other more intelligent races.

The monster was not alone, there were many like it slowly sneaking towards their prey. While most of them were of similar size some were much larger with small wings on their backs that didn’t seem like they would be able to support their weight.

All of them were looking at the lights in the distance. A group of humans had appeared close to the forest that these creatures had recently appeared in. It was hard for this large group of monsters to wait for the humans to go through it thus their leader had decided to perform an all-out attack.

In the wise leader’s mind, the people outside the forest would certainly not expect to get attacked before they entered it. They would be ready for a battle at that point which would make things a lot harder for them. Instead, with his brilliant plan, they would catch them off guard while most of them were sleeping and quickly massacre them all.

The monster in question was holding a large halberd in its hand, a weapon that it won from one of the humanoids. Compared to his tribe members it was a notch above the rusted cleavers that could barely produce results in battle. Thus he raised it high into the sky as it was ready to give out a shout that would signal the others to attack.

“G…GAH?”

Before it was able to give out the loud roar of conquest it noticed a flash of light coming from the distance. It appeared from one of the strange wooden contraptions with the wheels on the sides. This thing was really bright as it illuminated the tall grass most of its brethren were hiding in. Before the leader could realize what it was looking at, the damage was done.

While holding the halberd high in the air and while mid shout half of its head exploded from the collision. Before it could process that the magical projectile connected it was already crumbling down to the ground. While drawing its last breath the cries of its tribe members entered its ears as they were being pelted by bolts and arrows.

‘Well, that was easy…’

Keeping to his Runic Mage persona Roland was holding a staff made from aether deepsteel in his hand. At the top, it had a large mana stone that lowered the mana usage even further. What he had performed was a silent version of a spell called spiral mana lance.

After use, the projectile took the form of a drill that continued to spin towards its destinations. The spinning affected its speed and the further it traveled the more damage it would cause. While his aim was not perfect he was able to take out the largest monster from the group of Kobolds.

“Everyone, attack!”

Not soon after he had taken out what looked to be the leader did all the adventurers pop out of their hiding places. Everyone that was able to fire a bow or a crossbow took aim and the projectiles started flying. The small monsters that looked like reddish lizardmen were not ready for this quick retaliation.

Roland wanted to pat himself on the back for sending his golem closer to the forest. Thanks to this he was able to discover a large group of monsters of about fifty gathering there. They waited until two in the morning before slowly inching towards their temporary encampment.

There was a road heading towards the forest area but to the sides, it had meter-long grass everywhere. It was tall enough to hide these small lizard people that were aiming for a sneak attack. Thanks to his mapping feature he was able to alarm everyone to the potential threat.

The lookout didn’t want to trust him at first but after sneaking closer to the forest himself he returned with the news that confirmed his claim. It was easy from that point, they just allowed him to take out the strongest from the group. Thanks to his spider drone he just aimed for the largest red circle on the map.

After he took out the leader the rest panicked, some of them fled towards the forest while the ones that were closer continued with their attack. But they were sloppy, more than half of their numbers were turned into porcupines filled with bolts and arrows. Then the rest started falling to his bunk buddy.

“Die you little shits, because of you I couldn’t get my beauty sleep in!”

Grisalde charged to the forefront with her huge two-handed axe in hand. With one large swing, she was able to instantly take out three of the kobolds. She almost caused their sneak attack to fail when he had to wake her up. Luckily he was quick with his sound-canceling spell that muffled her angry shouts.

‘Damn, this is a one-sided slaughter, do we even need anyone else to help?’

The woman was really going to town with these which made him wonder how he was able to take her out at the inn. The weapon that she was using wasn’t magical in nature but it was made from a sturdy alloy that was even above his aether durasteel. Without examining it from up close he was unsure of the proper blend but it seemed to be a lot heavier and sturdier than most metals.

While he wanted to just sit this one out now, his eyes saw the woman that was shadowing him. Even though the battle was taking place and she was not a combatant her gaze was glued to his back. With her looking at him there was no choice, thus he pointed his staff towards the attackers to perform a small show for the audience.

The other adventurers had managed to splay a large portion of the monster wave coming their way but it was not over yet. Some of the more evolved ones were somewhat resistant to the steel iron arrows that didn’t have much piercing power. Yet they would not have the same resistance when magic was involved.

For killing large numbers of enemies that didn’t have much health he modified one of the most basic spells. This spell he would show off to the person grading his performance so that perhaps he could get a passing grade without much hassle.

With the basic-looking magical staff in hand, he pointed out into the air. The moment he activated the runic structure the entire shaft started exuding blue light. This light in actuality was composed of many compact runes that with his current skills could be condensed to a minuscule size.

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While on the outside people could see a blue glowing orb forming up in the air inside his helmet there were other things happening. His map was now connected to this spell structure. Thanks to this feature he could now add a convenient function to his spells.

There were various spells that could lock on to a monster’s mana fingerprint. Thanks to his magical map he was now able to feed this information directly towards the runic spell structure. Normally the caster would have to do that himself while performing the spell but this runic program he modified could do it for him.

It only took two seconds for the required mana to travel through the runic structures and towards the large mana stone at the top of the staff. When the spell was finished and all of the targets were locked on a large orb of blue light shot up into the sky.

“Hey, what is that guy doing?”

“What’s that? Looks like a small moon?”

Some guards and adventurers that weren’t using their ranged skills stood behind as a reserve to protect the regular caravan passengers. With the fight going their way they didn’t have much to do than to look at their magical companion.

The caster types were still quite rare thus the glowing orb that illuminated the dark night drew in everyone’s gaze. Even some of the monsters looked at the blue light that depicted a perfect circular shape. But the moment this orb reached a certain height some kind of reaction started to take place.

It was as if it was becoming more compact before expanding to a larger more irregular form and exploding. From this explosion, a vast number of beams of light escaped. Firstly they traced a nice arch upwards before increasing their speed and coming down towards the targets on the ground.

Everyone that was using a bow or crossbow stopped for a moment as the wide-area spell started connecting with the surviving monsters. They all shouted in agony as the massive torrent of magical energy rained onto them. The long bolts of energy pierced the monster’s bodies while exploding soon after to add even more damage and devastation.