Among the rubble making up what remained of the once rural area there was not a single human yet to be seen, what greeted the scouting team was instead a few red eyes gazing at the surroundings with a sense of vigilance

"How can they already be here?"

"Perhaps the worst has come and the settlement was destroyed already?"

"How so with the colony still two hours away"

"There could be another one int the opposite side, we don't have scouts beyond the city edges so how could we know"

Everyone discussed but none of them were the slightest bit optimistic about the fate pertaining this settlement

"Shhh, you will attract their gaze"

Dag suddenly hushed them, when they turned to check they noticed that one of the bats was flying inside the area while the others looked at them warily

"How could they spot us?! Even if we talked we are a bit too far for them to notice, not to mention we are all in stealth"

Now that they were exposed there was no need to keep their voice down

"Not everyone"

Dag remarked, nodding at the leaders who specialize in fighting rather than hiding, now sheepishly hanging their head thinking it was their fault, all this made Dag feel a little guilty since he was the one who exposed their location on purpose knowing these bats were the scouts from their group

"Should we make a run for it now?"

"No, there is something strange about these bats, I don't believe they belong to a new colony, I want to wait and see what's really going on here"

Though reluctant everyone chose to remain silent, it wouldn't hurt to stay a little longer….hopefully it wouldn't

Their wait was stressful but not long, it wasn't even a minute before the bat came with humans in tow, flying closer to them and making rounds above their location

"We know you are there, show yourselves"

Dag didn't waste any time in stepping forward from the shadows

"Greetings my comrade, we are messengers from the Roaming Eyes here to deliver the info"

"We?"

One of the two asked only to see many figures appearing behind him, some looking a bit too intimidating for scouts

"Do not move, we will ask the leader to let one of you in"

"Make haste, disaster is coming"

Their faces turned grim upon hearing this and they wasted no time in asking for passage

Not even a minute later some men clad in make-do armor came to escort him while the others kept watch over his comrades, after all it was hard to trust someone coming with such a tough looking group saying they were here just to deliver a message

Not taking it to heart, or rather finding it a normal thing, Dag made haste with the warrior into the heart of the rural area, meeting many humans along the way, some cruise, some happy to see a new face, and some worried that he might be carrying bad news

Soon he passed all the wondering eyes and reached a still standing house, there he met the well renowned marksman of this land

"Your dressed the part, not what I can say about your small group outside however"

Sofia's doubtful words demanded an explanation the second he entered, not even giving him a second to admire her big bosomed beauty

"They aren't part of my team"

He quickly replied at the mention of the heavily armed people

"They are the leaders of the camps we saved by warning on our way here, you might even recognize a few of them, like the gloomy looking Berry Bones and the scary tall Titan Feller"

"....I thought their description seemed a little too familiar"

This did not make things any less worrying, for if what she gleaned from his words was true then…

"Miss Sofia, your settlement is about to be raided by a huge colony of bats like never seen before, thousands of them will be flying over this place in less than two hours, I implore you to evacuate at once"

Alas, it was indeed a disaster coming

Still, she wasn't freaked out, instead she was calm about it, especially since her best friend had already given notice of the approaching disaster

"I understand"

"Then I will find the best escape-" "But we aren't leaving" "-Huh?"

Confused by her words he stared at the cold face for further explanation

"I thought it over and decided not to evacuate, we have fought tooth and nail for this place, making it our home after too long of endless roaming, if we leave now we might find it hard to occupy it once more with how active the beasts are in taking territories around here"

"But a huge disaster is approaching!"

"Then we hide"

"You think hiding is going to save you?"

To that she smirked cunningly

"What do you think the sewers are for then?"

It took a moment to register but Dag stare wide eyes upon realizing what she meant

"The sewers!? Are you out of your mind! That place is infested with crazed beasts who would do whatever it takes to keep their territories, if it was that simple all of us would have lived in them"

"Easy there, your concerns are known to me, these sewers however are cut off from the rest, they have already been cleared of most beasts, it shouldn't be too dangerous"

"..."

Dag opened his mouth to retort but found nothing to nitpick, if the area was really cleared and there was no danger of others invading with it being cut off then it really made sense to hide there and wait the disaster out

'But, things aren't going according to plan!'

He was more panicked now than anyone, if they really hid then the Lord may take extreme measures to force them out and into that place they cleared, the damned area cost them a strong member's life and that white skinned thrall's hand, there was no way the Lord would let the sacrifice go to waste

Squee Squee squee!..Thud..

Suddenly a bat's hurried screaming came out of nowhere before a moment of silence followed by a small object falling to the ground, the noise quickly garnered everyone's worry as they walked out, only to see a dead bat being sucked dry by a few others of its kind

"What's going on"

"Miss Sofia! We aren't sure, all we saw was this small bat flying out of your house's chimney before the other big ones attacked it"

"I also saw it calling for other bats but they flew away"

"Yah, it was weird"

A crowded quickly formed around them seeing one of the small creatures who protected their settlement suddenly mauled by its friends causing sympathy to form within

"It's okay now, all of you disperse"

Called out one of the guards seeing the big crowd gathering around the scene

Meanwhile, Sofia had a grim expression on her face before quickly going back into the house, motioning the others to follow suit

Once everyone was out of the crowd's sight she gave Dag a heavy look

"That was your fault"

"What? What are you talking about? I don't even know how these bats are here to begin with!"

Thinking that he was exposed Dag quickly tried to defend himself in panic, though that might have made him seem more guilty if he was certainly being doubted

"These bats belong to… a beast tamer of our settlement, that bat that died however wasn't part of the ones we tamed, I can tell because I never saw a red bat, all of ours have blue and black fur"

That small detail did not escape the amazing marksman's eyes when everyone else was more concerned with what the small bat deserved to be killed like that by its comrades

"It also came out the chimney from here, and the crowd said that other bats flew off at its alarmed voice, in other words we could say that it was warning its group to escape since it was found, or…"

"Conveying the message in its last breaths…"

Sofia nodded, indeed such a fine scout, he quickly reached the same conclusion as her

'That's so...made up…'

Dag meanwhile was doubting the woman's intelligence, didn't her analysis mean the bat needed to understand human language? That was too far-fetched…

'Then again what's far-fetched in this world anymore? Look at me, I'm a thrall for god's sake'

Shaking the debatable thoughts out of his head he focused on the more important points

'This must be the Lord's doing, if anyone is as manipulative as this it must be him, which means..'

Everything was going according to plan! This time he was the happy one while the rest wore grim expressions that matched their anxiety

"The plan has been compromised and the enemy seems to be smarter than we thought, in fact the bat was probably tailing you, which is why I blamed you for this, this only shows how intelligent the leader is, not killing the mice that seek a trail of food"

If there was anything that improved after the human races near annihilation then it was the average intelligence for everyone needed a good head to survive, though it seems now that it was backfiring