Chapter 78: The Perfect Machine

In the middle of a moving caravan, a truck pulled away from the line.

“Your turn. Get out and act fast before you climb back in.” Liam’s order reached Érica and Nicole’s group.

The truck moved to the side, leaving the line of the slow traveling caravan, and when they parked, Érica and Nicole jumped out of their truck.

Another truck carrying a paladin and a priest also parked beside them, getting out with them.

“A group of five lizard species monsters, one Rank B and the others are Rank C,” Érica reported, reading the descriptions on her holographic watch.

Behind them, the trucks continued to pass, but the group moved.

Nicole and the paladin, who was fully equipped in metal armor, led the group.

Érica and the priest also followed the two close combatants.

“Come and get me!” shouted the paladin emanating his battle fervor, which immediately attracted the monsters.

As unintelligent creatures moving to eliminate their foes, a taunt like the paladin was the perfect decoy for oncoming monsters.

“GRahhh!”

The C rank lizards were the size of a large dog and although only the B rank lizard was larger, ‘Chaos’ had not mutated any of them.

“[Ice Spikes]” Érica chanted and with her wand she raised at a great speed a wall of spikes in front of the paladin and Nicole.

Her movement was precise and at the right moment, which made it impossible for the lizards to avoid it, impaling some of them.

The only one that did not receive serious injuries was the B-Rank lizard, who, with its claws, scratched the shield of the paladin who resisted bravely.

Allowing Nicole to punch the lizard’s head, scattering lightning from her fist.

As the paladin moved to finish off the other lizards, Érica, who had already prepared her second spell, cast it.

“Grrh...”

A spear of ice pierced the stomach of the lizard that was paralyzed, and in response, the monster let out a grunt before falling to the ground.

Nicole followed the paladin who had finished two lizards and, while generating platforms in the air to overcome the ice spikes, she plummeted to the back of a lizard that died from the impact.

Then with a half turn she kicked another lizard that was about to attack her and her kick was so well aimed, it sent the creature at the feet of the paladin, who killed it with his sword.

While her kick was accurate, Nicole realized that this style did not suit her.

Unlike Aurora, who could spin all over the place kicking while performing pirouettes, Nicole was someone who fought with her fists.

Though striving to learn another fighting style was always good.

“Let’s head back. The tail end of the caravan is about to pass,” Érica said, and the group quickly returned to their truck.

The priest, who had a soft smile on his face for not being able to have contributed to the battle, used an artifact with the spell ‘cleansing’ on the entire group.

They then entered their trucks as the caravan continued to pass.

“Welcome,” said a young militiaman who was slightly tense.

“We’re done with the enemies. Nothing to worry about,” Nicole commented with a smile as they sat near the back of the truck.

The refugees looked at him gratefully and when the tail end of the caravan arrived where the engineer vehicle that left a space, the two trucks rejoined the caravan.

Their action was quite fast, which made it possible for this tactic to work.

Since the caravan was a long line of trucks with the engineer vehicles in the first and last row, they had a few minutes to finish their work and rejoin the caravan.

Adding that they were traveling slowly because no one had been on the road for quite some time and the engineer’s vehicle had to fix it, it gave them plenty of time to finish their work.

[5:12 p.m.].

Érica checked the time on her holographic watch and sighed.

They had left around one o’clock noon, but there was still about an hour to go before they reached ‘Jinja’.

The good thing was that they would have enough time to lure the horde and prepare for battle, the bad thing was that if the battle ended late, they would have to rest before going to their next destination.

She couldn’t deny that thinking about the details made her a little nervous.

While she hadn’t taken too many missions, Nicole was sure that this mission would mark a defining line in her life.

Traveling through the magical forest eliminating creatures while a sea of green-colored trees covered their surroundings was certainly stressful and scary.

“The next time we stop will be in an hour when we reach ‘Jinja’. We ask you to hold on,” Andrés reported over the communication channel installed in the truck for the refugees to hear.

They had stopped an hour ago for those who wanted to do their business.

Children and the elderly were traveling in the caravan, so they were looking to make the trip not too heavy and stressful for them, even if such concessions would delay their journey.

“They are very considerate,” commented the young militiaman with a warm smile.

The refugees in the truck nodded at that comment.

Erica gave an answering smile.

They couldn’t push the refugees on a full-speed trip when they didn’t need to worry about time, and it was unnecessary.

It was more, doing so would cause more trouble than good.

“Until it’s our next turn, it will be too long,” Nicole said as they closed their eyes to relax.

Those who took the job of eliminating creatures were the first trucks, so once in the last row there was only waiting.

Érica also closed her eyes.

In a few hours, they would have an enormous battle and they had to take advantage of every moment to rest and prepare for combat.

******

Aurora’s gaze trembled as she saw Alice eat some chips while a teenager looked at her seriously.

A normal person would return the stare and surely treat herself to her chips, but Alice was different.

She ignored the presence and watched the outside while continuing to eat in her own world.

The good thing was that this truck contained adults and not children who might pose a problem for her gluttonous and unkind friend.

[6:20 p.m.].

“We’ll make camp now and you can order something to eat until dinner,” said the militiaman, who was present in the truck, and the teenager was embarrassed to hear those words.

Aurora looked at Alice and shook her head, saying nothing.

She knew that for Alice her chips were ‘sacred’, which meant she didn’t treat just anyone and doing so had a special meaning.

Even though she had a space ring that was crammed with bags of chips of all kinds, she was pretty selfish with her food.

“Boss, a group of Lycaons are in the ruins of ‘Jinja’,” Liam suddenly reported.

Aurora used the cameras her holographic watch projected and noticed some lycaons hovering around the ruins of the city where they would set up camp.

The drone projection was quite useful.

“We’ll go ahead with teleportation.” Aurora ordered over the comm channel and immediately used her bracelet to move, reaching the sky above the city.

The ruined cities were usually not covered by trees like all the forest, which was nice, as it allowed a better setting for battle and at the same time made camping easier.

Next to her appeared Alice, Akira, High Priestess Xaali and the adventurer Vazquez.

“Let’s clear the central area for the arrival of the caravan,” Aurora said and swooped down like a meteorite impacting the center of where the magical beasts were gathering, causing a cloud of dust.

“Grrr...” The Lycaons growled wildly dubiously at the sudden enemy.

Aurora didn’t care that the pack of Lycaons made this place their lair, she simply had her fists covered in lightning and attacked the dogs.

She didn’t use too much force, just enough to snap a few necks and break a few bones.

At first the lycaons growled, wanting to face her, but everything changed when Alice’s arms fell down, catching and hitting the lycaons.

Akira, starting to freeze them and Vazquez cutting them, didn’t help the herd, and the leader growled, trying to retreat.

Unfortunately, where they were headed was where High Priestess Xaali moved in and that priestess distorted the space around the Lycaons, generating a disgusting scene of flesh, blood and guts.

“You may come,” Aurora said over the communication system and looking at Vazquez, ordered. “Take charge of the adventurers of setting up camp for tonight. You guys have more experience in this matter. The militiamen will help you.”

Most of the adventurers were highly experienced when it came to surviving in dangerous areas like these.

Setting up camp and deploying security in the right places while maximizing efficiency was easy for them.

“High Priestess Xaali, I will ask you to take charge of clearing the surroundings with your paladins. As for the rest of us, we need to prepare for the arrival of the horde.” Aurora added over the comm system and then headed to the bridge with Alice.

When they arrived at the Victoria Nile river, they came across a stone bridge, connecting both sides of the river.

Although it appeared to be created by humans, to allow connecting both sides, it was not created with technology, but with earth magic.

Pretty basic, sturdy and useful enough to serve its function of connecting both sides.

And more so when one looked at the rushing river, hitting both the bridge and the shore, giving the impression that it could drag even an excellent swimmer.

“Do you think any creature can get across the river?” Aurora asked her friend.

If she were told that she would have to swim across, she would hesitate and think it would be an odyssey.

It was not only the rushing water, but the depth of the river and the force of the water, which seemed to sweep away everything in its path.

The climatic changes caused by the magical energy were undoubtedly too striking and it was normal for this small river to become so agitated.

South of the city in the distance, this river would flow into ‘Lake Victoria’, which could be seen from here.

“Only creatures above B Rank. The waters look too rough for weaker creatures to attempt to pass. Although, those creatures with an affinity to the water attribute or who have amphibious abilities will be able to do so.” Alice commented and eating her chips, she looked at the other side of the bridge.

The other side was the uncovered road and on either side was lined with green trees.

While these trees were not as tall as the trees in the gorilla tribe, they were more lush than they expected, and it was obvious it would complicate the upcoming battle.

“We will have to clear the trees and create a deserted area so that the mages, marksmen and archers can show their skills more effectively.” Alice pointed out in a serious tone.

Aurora also scanned her surroundings.

The branches, leaves and foliage would complicate the shooters and although they could shoot, the effectiveness would decrease for simple attacks and archers or weapons masters would have to use more advanced shooting skills if they wished to hit their target in this place.

“A group to draw them in, an ambush team, and a defensive assault squad.” Aurora muttered, planning in her mind the best way to use each member of the caravan.

In the horde were over a thousand creatures.

It was very likely that an S-Rank would not be found in the group, because that kind of creature, even if it had a lower intelligence, would not be easily intimidated by an SS-Rank magical beast.

This horde was formed as a result of a higher ranked creature pressuring other creatures with its presence alone, which caused it to intimidate the weaker creatures and they fled in the same direction in groups that made them feel safe.

Most of the horde were magical creatures or beasts that were not so intelligent and were guided by their instincts, feeling safety in numbers and thus originating the horde.

“Catching their attention will be the problem. Will we use magical bait?” Alice asked curiously.

Some cities and towns had artifacts that kept away normal magical creatures and beasts without high intelligence.

Likewise, there were artifacts that could attract the attention of those creatures without high intelligence.

It would lead to a more complicated battle in a given area, but if used well, it could become bait to make a perfect trap.

The caravan had a couple of those artifacts in case of need.

“Yes, we need to move fast. The horde will be here in two hours at the most,” Aurora commented as she walked toward the other side of the bridge.

The arms behind Alice’s back turned into black blades as she walked across the bridge.

They could use the engineer vehicles to get them to move the fallen trees, but no one was better at doing the job of cutting than Alice.

“Come on, it’s your turn to work,” Aurora said, tapping her friend’s shoulder and with a smile, declared. “I’m making dinner today.”

Alice’s eyes sparkled with encouragement at the proposal and she stepped forward, using four arms to move while another blade-like arm cut a tree from the base.

She was employing ten arms and while four were used to move, the other six became sharp blades that cut through trees and the branches, leaving only the trunks.

Alice moved with a speed, precision, and efficiency that would amaze any onlooker.

She was the perfect deforestation machine.

For her part Aurora organized preparations for the defense of the horde while seeing to it that no one over exerted themselves, trying to prevent the battle force from dwindling before the horde arrived.

It wasn’t such a tough job, as the engineer vehicles could take care of moving the trees and reducing the task force while also being able to prepare some defenses with earth magic or the psionic artifact.

Looking at the resources that were recorded on her holographic watch, Aurora selected what would be useful to deploy now.

Mines, offensive magical artifacts, spell scrolls and unique items useful in case of emergency.

This wasn’t Aurora’s first job, and it wasn’t her first confrontation against a huge horde, either.

Being prepared for any random situation was a priority when traveling into the magical forest.

This situation was no different.