Chapter 81: Murchison Falls National Park

Tuesday 21 [8:48 a.m.].

Nicole dodged the venom spit of a ‘Giant Chelonia’, a butterfly the size of an average adult with the ability to spit venom.

As a Rank B fighter, Nicole lacked the capabilities to perform ranged attacks, as her fists could not yet deliver explosive blows.

However, her gloves that were enchanted with lightning magic could create an effect similar to a lightning attack to cover her long-distance weakness.

And Nicole made use of such an ability, throwing a punch that released a lightning bolt that struck the butterfly.

“Watch out!” Érica warned, and sent two ice spears at the butterfly.

Despite its size, the butterfly was quite agile, dodging one of them while the other hit its wings.

“It’s retreating!” Nicole warned, throwing another lightning punch which the butterfly dodged.

“No, it’s not retreating. It’s about to launch its toxic cloud,” Érica replied as she activated her barriers from her battle suit.

Nicole immediately retreated as she saw the purple cloud extending towards her.

However, before it could spread too far, a psionic wave appeared all around, forcing the butterfly to be immobile as the toxic cloud was kept locked in a psionic barrier.

*BANG*

Before the butterfly could break the psionic barrier, a shot went through the chest, creating a deep wound.

Then the surrounding barrier pressed it as if it wanted to crush it with its own body, causing the wound to worsen and slowly die.

“Thank you. I am a terrible opponent for that type of enemy.” Nicole sighed at Clémentine and Leslie, who supported her.

It was one thing to take on a boar that could hit directly and another to take on this creature that could not only fly but also release poison.

And even worse the ‘Giant Chelonia’ had a low defense, but its poison was quite dangerous even for a fighter who reinforced her body with magical energy or maintained barriers, so no matter when she wanted to create platforms to hit it was too dangerous.

This Giant Chelonia was only a B-Rank, but it was still a great opponent for Nicole and as for Érica...

“I wasn’t much help either. I lack studying area control spells.” Érica muttered, shaking her head in disappointment.

A mage had to learn, study and practice the different spells slowly.

Although she was talented, Érica focused on offensive spells like her ‘Ice Spear’ and had learned faster casting spells like ‘Ice Arrows’, still, against this flying enemy she lacked a control and support spell.

If she had learned ‘Winter Area’, which allowed freezing a small area to slow down enemies and was useful for freezing the air, reducing the danger of poison attacks by that means, then the battle might have a different outcome.

Unfortunately, as a mage until she reached Rank S, in which she could manipulate the ice element at will, she had to study and learn different spells.

“The deeper we go into the magical forest, the more strange magical creatures and beasts come out. I think they will show us our shortcomings.” Clémentine commented, letting two beetles be seen on her back.

Specifically ‘Gladiator Beetles’ was a kind of creature without high intelligence slightly aggressive.

Unlike the magical beast ‘Goliathus’ which were beetles with high intelligence and could be considered as a kind of high intelligence magical beast-like ‘Thundering Gorillas’, Gladiator Beetles were only aggressive magical creatures.

While its defense was not as high as the ‘Goliathus’, Clémentine had difficulty defeating it, as its shell well protected it.

If it wasn’t for her doing her best to turn it over and allowing Leslie to shoot in the stomach, it might have taken longer to finish the battle.

“There are no more enemies in our area. It’s best to head back,” Leslie said after checking her scanner, observing her surroundings.

They were in Kampala, former capital of Uganda, or at least the ruins that were left of that place.

Some buildings were still in the vicinity, but most were already covered by nature or half destroyed.

“I hope I don’t find creatures hiding in the ruins again,” Leslie muttered as her small drones returned to her back after scanning their surroundings.

The butterfly and beetle suddenly appeared from the ruins, and they were creatures that escaped the horde by hiding.

When they returned to the rendezvous point, they noticed that the trucks were arriving as the captains gathered to where they were approaching.

“We’ll make a fifteen-minute stop and then leave. In a few hours we’ll flesh out for lunch, but I’d like to get to the ancient city Gulu north of here before nightfall.” Aurora said in a serious tone.

“Do you want to avoid ‘Murchison Falls National Park’ as much as possible?” Akira, who was present, asked.

“Yes, the road is borderline and even though we drive by it, attacks from wild creatures in that area are frequent. That place is the perfect habitat for all kinds of creatures. Especially crocodiles and lizards, which are too aggressive.” Aurora replied and as she watched those people who needed to relieve themselves go downstairs, she looked at the quartet of students and commented. “Andrés will take the day guard shift to let Liam stay at night. You guys select how you will split your guard duty at night.”

Liam would stand guard not only as the one in charge of guarding the area but also as the S-Rank who had the duty of protecting the caravan during the night.

Although the militiamen also stood guard, it was important that a group from the major force be present to take care of attacks from stronger creatures.

Splitting the guard would also make it so that in the daytime, they would not do as much work, allowing them to save energy for the night.

******

Tuesday 21 [01:48 p.m.].

Andrés brought a small bowl with a rice, vegetables, and meat for Liam, who was checking on the drones they were recharging.

“Here you go. We leave in fifteen minutes.” Andrés reported passing the small bowl of rice.

Liam received it and, as he ate, he unfolded the panel to check the integrity of the drones as he received the analysis from his AI.

“Mmm. Some scout drones are damaged, but not enough to be unusable. Better to replace them.” Liam muttered as he stowed his drones in his space ring.

Andrés knew that this space ring was not a common one for sale, but a military ring specialized by mechanics for storing drones.

This type of ring was not created by a magical enchantment but was built through a technological procedure of space extension, which allowed to store a considerable amount of drones.

The biggest difference was that these military rings did not have a preservation effect like space rings that could store different hot meals and would always stay that way.

The benefit of this military ring was that in the inner space, it contained a small drone repair and maintenance network.

How was this possible?

Andrés had no answer, but since it was a ring produced by the Cosmos Company whose technological development was far superior to other companies and countries, it was quite normal to come across these objects.

“Do you like it? Maybe next time I’ll introduce you to some Cosmos Company contacts so you can get one of these,” Liam commented and smiling, added. “You’ll probably have some chores to do. Nothing excessive, though.”

Andrés shook his head calmly.

He didn’t know what kind of work Liam had done to receive a specially designed military ring with advanced technology that wasn’t for sale, but what he was sure of was...

“If I took any mission, they give me, it’s possible I might fail miserably,” Andrés replied with brief hesitation.

Andrés was sure that whatever assignment they gave him at Cosmos Enterprise, it wasn’t something someone of his rank could take so easily.

“It’s an excellent decision,” Liam commented with an amused laugh and, after eating, he asked. “Have you performed maintenance on your drones? You may stay in the command center, but you’ll probably be using the drones you’ve arranged around.”

Like Liam, Andrés had left some attack and support drones in some trucks, allowing him to deploy it from the command center to support whoever needed it.

So he nodded comfortably.

“The ‘Murchison Falls National Park’, that’s a pretty special area. I will already send a document on that out for your review.” Liam commented with a small smile that made it clear they would be surprised.

******

The “Murchison Falls National Park” had kept its name since the magical forest covered all of Uganda, but that was all it kept.

On the right side of a dirt road were the lush trees of the outer magic forest and to the left was the ‘Murchison Falls National Park’, which was covered with huge tall canopy trees.

The trees were spaced apart but were extremely tall and thick, with a canopy full of lush leaves that hid most of the sunlight.

On the ground it was free and level allowing to observe from afar all the creatures that moved around that area, being like the site where the ‘Thundering Gorillas’ were located.

However, there were literally tremendous differences.

“GRAAAAAA!”

A formidable group of three giant crocodiles approached the caravan, being observed by everyone at a glance.

Those giant crocodiles were ten meters long and their height hovered around two meters.

Their legs were fat and their bodies were large, their gigantic mouths being a ferocious weapon that seemed capable of swallowing a child cleanly.

Despite their size, they were only B ranks except for some Ranks A, that was because their exaggerated increase in size was caused by a magical plant found in the ‘Murchison Falls National Park’ that made them mutate by changing its size at the cost of its future development.

Still, the ‘Crocodylus niloticus’, also known colloquially as ‘Giant Crocodiles’, were pesky enemies that had high numbers.

“Again.” Murmured Akira, who appeared in front of them wearing the teleportation bracelet.

Without hesitation, she waved her hand and condensed ice around the creatures, slowing their speed and freezing their legs until, because of their weight, they broke.

These ‘Giant Crocodiles’ had only decent physical endurance.

They were not resistant to sudden temperature changes and for someone like Akira, who could immediately freeze her surroundings, these crocodiles were minor annoyances in her way.

Akira quickly finished off the crocodile and then turned around to look at the caravan that was still moving.

Up ahead were Clementine and Leslie, stationed with a group of paladins taking care of a crocodile and deeper in the forest was High Priestess Xaali slaying a group of crocodiles with her spatial slashes.

Akira, instead of using her bracelet to move through the caravan, began flying through the trees looking to encounter any giant crocodiles that wished to attack the caravan line.

It was easy for her or any mage to match the speed of the caravan by either levitating with her own abilities or using some artifact.

That was why she had no trouble flying and overtaking the speed of the caravan to see if anyone needed help in the front area.

The caravan was not moving fast, as in this area the road was in bad shape and the engineer vehicle was tidying up the potholes and fixing the road while moving some dead creatures out of the way.

When she reached the front row, she found Vazquez flying with a group of wizards taking care of the crocodiles that wanted to get close.

As the trucks were many and made a sonorous noise, the crocodiles that were aggressive approached the caravan.

As she was in charge of defense in the daytime and could rest at night, Akira did not mind checking the areas of her own free will.

The road bordering the ‘Murchison Falls National Park’ was about a hundred kilometers, which wasn’t much for an S-rank like her and more so when she flew using external artifacts.

Although the creatures in this area were aggressive, they were not that dangerous or complicated to eliminate, Akira was willing to take it upon herself to protect the caravan by flying.

She was not the only one who had that idea, as both Vazquez who flew with some mages and High Priestess Xaali who could teleport were thinking the same thing.

They just had to get those giant crocodiles away from the caravan.

Releasing the psionic energy of an S-Rank that served as pressure to drive the wild creatures away, Akira continued her journey as a professional escort through the large trees as she flew.