Jack was disappointed. The whole tactic was only about laying down life wards and an elemental barrier to kill bacteria. They could only wait for elementals to die, or give up. Jack suspected there were better spells, capable of slaying the elementals in one go, but his new team didn’t know them.

The team reached the next barracks. The place was fortified from all sides. An earthen wall erected by a mage blocked access from the interior side. They had to hike it, and they could only do so, because soldiers above confirmed they weren’t infected and didn’t attack them.

A middle aged woman greeted them.

“I’m lieutenant Sidra Craft, in charge of this place. You are?” She asked.

“We are team tasked with investigating this frontier section. Our colonel lost contact with your headquarters a few days ago.” Alistair explained.

He woman grimaced. “It’s the same for us. Two days ago we have erected the additional walls, since elementals came from the headquarters’ direction.” She said.

“I suppose we already know the reason for the loss of contact.” Andy said with a sigh.

“We still have to go there.” Alistair rebuked.

“Do you have any more information?” The Lieutenant asked. Jack could tell she was anxious. He understood. She probably didn’t know what to do, or rather, every action seemed bad. She could only plan with the meager information she had. There was a high chance an undiscovered variable would ruin any plan.

“No.” Alistair said. She nodded solemnly. “We will visit on our way back.”

The team left the barracks, and walked ahead, keeping close distance to the bony walls of the frontier.

“Maybe we should travel through the exterior?” Opal suggested.

“No.” Alistair refused. “Monsters can also be possessed. The exterior could be…” Alistair didn’t manage to finish, as a person rushed at the group from the bony wall.

Jack wanted to attack, but he quickly understood that it was infected. He shouldn’t kill it! The life elemental directed the human’s body at undecided Jack, felling him to the ground. The infected scratched with his fingernails, but Jack’s furry armor was too sturdy. The infected tried to bite Jack, the two wrestled with each other.

Now, Jack thought about kinetic spells, but he quickly dismissed the idea, as couldn’t use life spell on the infected. That would be courting death. ‘Fuck. Even though they aren’t that strong overall…’

Somebody kicked the infected away. “Are you alright?” Alistair asked, but he simultaneously stepped back from Jack.

“I think so.” Jack replied.

Andy shot the legs of the possessed person, but the projectiles didn’t blow them apart. Mangled knees healed in a manner of seconds. Andy repeated his attack, this time separating calves from the rest of the body.

“Is Jack alright? Was he infected?” Opal asked fearfully.

Jack panicked. ‘I didn’t hold my breath!’ “Shit! What now?” He asked.

The team looked at each other. “I suppose we wait a bit.” Alistair said. “This is my fault. I subconsciously thought it should be safe around the barracks.”

Jack felt something inside him, though it could be the power of his imagination, he wasn’t sure. He used life detection on himself, filling every part of his body with life mana. If a life elemental was inside of him, it was already too late.

“My life mana has spread to all my body parts without a problem. I can’t find anything unusual.” Jack said with a bit tense voice.

“I should be alright.” Alistair said, but everyone still looked at Jack, like he was going to change in the next second.

Andy sighed. “I think he should lose control by now, if he had been infected.”

The group sighed in relief. “Let’s go.” Alistair commanded.

The group walked slowly, trying to avoid infected, and crippling the ones they didn’t manage to avoid.

“I hate it.” Adina said. The team looked at her, expecting her to finish. “If a life elemental attack us, we will be screwed. I mean, a real life elemental, not a one in a body.”

“They all are real.” Andy said.

“You know what I mean.” She replied. Nobody said anything more. Jack paid more attention to crippling infected people, making sure to not kill them.

They reached the next barracks after a dozen of minutes. The headquarters were next. They could already observe their target, but barracks were first on their list.

“There are a lot of people there, but…” Adina shook her head.

“All of them?” Alistair asked.

“I can’t be sure, but judging by their behavior… “ They all grimaced.

“Does that mean all soldiers here have been wiped out?” Opal asked.

“Some might have escaped to the interior, or they could have hidden in the bunker underground.” Alistair said.

“I can’t check the bunker.” Adina said. It was normal, bunkers were protected by wards.

“Let’s take a look around the town. Maybe there are survivors.” Alistair decided.

The team walked through the streets of town’s outskirts. Buildings were abandoned, some of them damaged by fighting. Corpses lay on the ground, most of them dried up. There were marks of blood. Infected walked around, but Adina kept them at bay with her water magic.

“Should we be wary of them?” Jack asked, pointing with his head at corpses.

“Don’t worry. I can distinguish between corpses and living beings.” Adina reassured him. “I have detected dozens of infected underground, close to the bunker’s entrance.” Adina added.

“They must have remembered that humans entered the bunker. That’s a good news.” Alistair said.

“Actually, there are also big groups elsewhere. It could a coincidence.” Adina added.

Andy frowned. “It’s impossible to help them anyway. They had a 4th tier lieutenant. It’s better to leave it to our colonel.”

“Then why are we even here?” Opal asked. “It’s creepy here. I want to leave as soon as possible.”

Jack looked around. Corpses. A town without people, only nearly immortal monsters. Adina kept four of them at bay right now. They were only a dozen of steps from the team. Jack shivered.

“Do you think it will be better there?” Alistair asked, pointing the headquarters in the distance with his finger.

“We need to find the lieutenant’s office. There is a high chance we will learn something from there.” Alistair continued.

“Frankly, we already know why communication stopped.” Opal protested.

“You are right, but let’s check the office. It’s better to make sure.” Alistair insisted. Jack agreed. He didn’t like the danger, but his family lived close. In the end, this was the reason he had become a hunter.

“Guys… I think there are more infected now.” Jack said. A dozen more people walked from the front.

“Now that you said it…” Adina said. “They are coming to us.”

“How many?” Alistair reacted immediately.

“Every single one in a radius of around one hundred meters.” Adina reported.

“Shit. How about the ones who can’t spot us?”

“The same, however walls block them. It seems they are too stupid to take a different way.” Adina reported.

Alistair opened a door of a nearby house and walked inside, leading everyone. The smell of rotting flesh flowed out of the house. Two corpses lay there. Alistair closed the door. Infected were hitting walls from the outside, unable to reach the team.

“Jack. Make a hole in the wall. We will move through the buildings.” Alistair commanded.

The group demolished walls one by one, moving fairly fast. One house was damaged, and two infected were inside, but Jack just mended the wall behind him after leaving the room.

“It seems they have an ability to detect us, but only up to one hundred meters. We lost the ones farther away.” Adina informed.

The team reached the end of the street, forcing them to leave the row of houses.

“Around twenty of them on the other side.” Adina informed.

“Jack, blow up the wall. Try to also push away infected with debris. We are going to the building next street. Immediately repair the broken wall as soon as we are inside.” Alistair commanded. “Adina, push away the rest.”

Jack used the earth kinetic spell, and broke the wall, throwing projectiles at the infected. Adina did her part, and a clear passage opened for the team. They ran to the next building, and Jack mended the wall.

“It’s easier than I thought.” Opal said.

“Well… we still have a long way to go. Let’s recover a bit.” Alistair said.

Jack was heavily breathing. The run tired him a bit. He looked at his bars.

Vitality

1326/1332

Stamina

1126/1670

Clarity

1756/2130

He still had a lot of resources, but it wasn’t bad to recover a bit.

“Guys. One of the infected stopped moving.” Adina anxiously said.

The team was startled. Jack looked at the wall, which he had mended. A white mist slowly formed close to the wall. “Elemental!” Jack shouted.

“Run!” Alistair shouted and ran to the door, trying to leave the room. The elemental flew to possess them. The door was too small, they could only leave one by one. Alistair and Andy already left the building.

‘I won’t make it!’ Jack blasted the wall to the next room. He was afraid of destroying the wall the door was in, as the debris would fall on his teammates.

He ran to the next room, Adina quickly calculated the situation in her mind and followed him. The elemental went after Jack, which mended back broken wall. “Do you think it’s going after us?” Adina asked. Life mana could travel through walls freely, but the physical part of the elemental could not.

Jack thought about their speed thought the buildings. Elemental had to produce its bacteria each time it crossed a physical barrier. Could they escape while staying inside? The mist appeared again. Jack quickly calculated. “We won’t make it. We have to go outside.” Jack tried to blast a wall, but Adina grabbed his shoulder and stopped him. “No! There are thirty infected in that direction. This way!” She pointed the opposite wall.

‘We will separate with the rest…’ Jack though, but he wasn’t going to risk wrestling with thirty infected. He blasted the wall and ran away with Adina, which kept away two random infected on this side. The elemental flew after them, but its speed was slower than their running speed.

“Good. We should be able to escape. Where is Alistair and the rest?” Jack asked.

“They hid in a house 300 meters in that direction.” She pointed in the direction elemental was coming from. “We have a problem, though.” She said while gritting her teeth. “There is a large number of infected ahead of us.”

Jack grimaced. “We just need to shake of the elemental and rejoin with the team.”

“How do you want to do so? All those infected are coming in our direction.” She half-shouted.

“How many?”

She took a second to estimate and replied. “Around eight hundred.”

Jack felt the true pressure of the situation right now. “Let’s use the roofs.” He used the earth kinetic spell to lift up a fragment of the ground beneath him, lifting himself and Adina as well. They landed on a roof. Obviously, roofs were connected in the same manner as building, but Jack had to use magic to travel between rows of houses.

Jack catapulted them with earth magic, and they jumped from the debris to cross the remaining distance.

There was a problem, though. Rows of houses were placed parallel to each other. Jack used an easy path to retreat. Jack and Adina had to jump every hundred meters, but to change the direction they were moving, they had to jump orthogonally to the lines of houses.

‘It may be easier to just fly,’ Jack thought. It was possible, but his earth flight was very tiring, and not very fast. The elemental still pursued them. Jack changed their moving direction, slowing himself down in the process and allowing elemental to close the distance.

“Can we use life magic to fly?” Jack knew his new team was more experienced and had more magic spells at their disposal.

“Not unless you want to break your bones.”

“Water magic?” Jack asked hopefully.

“Are you stupid?” They jumped to the next row, and ran to the next edge. Jack already prepared the spell.

“Where would you attach the spell? Blood? Internal organs? It’s just a suicide! Use life magic if you have to! There is a bit of water in bones, but life magic would be better anyway!” In the end, the problem was about precision. Jack would have to lift at least a dozen of bones. He would have to control the spell precisely. An error with the coordination or a placement of the spell could mean tearing his internal organs apart.

They jumped another row. Jack wished he had a fire wand to slow down elemental with fireballs, but there weren’t many materials able to withstand fire mana.

“No flying then. What can we do? Hey! Aren’t you the more experienced person here? Why are YOU just following ME?” Jack asked.

“Well… Your ideas seemed fine. I would have overruled you otherwise.” Adina replied a bit ashamed. The elemental was coming closer.

They ran to the next edge of the roof. Jack fell. ‘Shit.’ The roof broke under him.

“Got you!” Adina caught him and lifted back.

“Thanks.” Jack looked at the elemental. ‘We won’t be able to escape back to the team. Not with the current terrain, angles and distances. We can only go forward. Unless…’

“I have an idea, but it is a bit risky.”

“I don’t have any. Let’s go with yours.”

Jack grabbed her hand and jumped down to a street. “Keep infected busy.” She nodded and threw back three infected present. Jack grabbed her waist and hugged her close to his body. They both had fairly thick armor, so it wasn’t erotic by any means.

Jack cast the earth kinetic spell and dug. The soil beneath his feet parted and flew to the sides. Jack and Adina slowly sunk down. Their heads were under the ground level after four seconds. Jack had now the Spell Slinging skill as a class skill, so digging like that wasn’t hard. He intuitively knew how to maneuver spell vectors.

Jack sealed the hole above them, and only moved soil from below up, maintaining a small underground chamber.

“We are too slow. The elemental should be already above. ” Adina said anxiously.

“Don’t worry.” Jack said calmly. He knew what he was doing. Jack dug for a half a minute and took a break to create a life ward in the soil above them.

“This should slow it down.“ The elemental had to move slowly in soil as bacteria couldn’t move in it. The elemental had to slowly produce bacteria on its way.

Jack continued to dig down. “Turn north.” Adina said.

“Why?”

“There is an underground river directly below. With my water affinity I can breathe underwater to some extent, but you can’t.” Adina advised.

“Right.” Jack followed the advice and turned. ‘Good thing there was no river under my fortress.’ He stopped after around five minutes.

“We should be around hundred meter down.” Jack said.

“What now?” Adina said skeptically. “It will catch us sooner or later.”

“Right. I haven’t told you that yet. The concentration of essence is lower here.” Jack said calmly.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I found out when I dug out my burrow in my fortress. I thought I could dig as deep as I like, but it’s not the case. Anyway, I doubt an elemental can even survive for long here in the first place. It’s impossible for it to get here through the soil.”

“I see.” Adina seemed a bit relieved. “So, how do we get out? What about air? Won’t we suffocate?” Adina asked.

“Don’t worry.” Jack sat with his knees near his chin due to the lack of space. Adina mimicked him and sat near him. Jack wasn’t that close to a woman after Lillie. He didn’t perceive Adina as a love interest, though. She was ten years older. Jack just treated her as a friend. He wasn’t that close with his new team either, but his escape together with Adina make them closer to each other.

“I will inscribe an air transmuting spell.”

“Isn’t that spell essence hungry?”

“It is, normally. Well, humans don’t need air to live, just oxygen. We are breathing out carbon dioxide, so I just have to transmute it back into a simpler form.”

Adina frowned. “Are you a scholar?”

“I wish to.” Jack sighed. “Frankly, I have no idea what these names mean. I just learnt a simple theory in the library, along with the spell.” Jack said helplessly.

“Really? You have learned a spell you could never use in your life?”

“I have learned all spells available. I want to be an arch mage in the future. I believe being able to modify spells on the spot is a key to success. I want to learn better magic theories.” Jack heated up speaking about his favorite subject.

“I see. Opal, Andy and Alistair know some spells unavailable in our library. You can ask them later to teach you.” Adina advised.

“How about you?” Jack asked, and a bit bitter smile appeared on her face.

“I’m more about close combat. I never paid much attention to the magic. Actually, Alistair’s situation is similar, though he has his family’s magic.”

“I see.”

“So, what now?” She asked curiously.

“We will dig horizontally until we are out of the barrack’s area, and then to the surface.”

“The elemental can wait for us there. It’s only one hundred meters. I bet it can detect us with its magic. No idea how it can use life magic like that.”

“We can dig down more, but our speed will decline even further. I could also create life wards. Actually, what do you think about the Alistair’s and the rest’s situation?” Jack didn’t care much about them, though he cared a little. Also, it would be easier to escape together.

“No idea. I lost them some time ago.”

“What’s your range?”

“Four hundred meters, but I normally don’t exceed three hundred.” The range of detection relied primarily on the amount of used mana. The theoretical limit due to the average speed and lifespan of mana was around five hundred meters.

“It seems their limit is really no more than hundred meters. They didn’t gather above us.”

“Our real problem is the loose elemental.” Jack sighed. “I suppose we don’t have much choice.”

Jack stood up and drilled. Jack hardened soil in which he inscribed the transmuting spell and took it with him. When he thought it was enough, he dug to the surface. Jack dug for hours, the night had fallen already. There was no life elemental nearby, though infected walked here and there.

Jack and Adina were in the exterior, between barracks. They decided to return to the still inhabited barracks. They climbed up the frontier.

Soldiers let them in. Alistair and the rest of the group were already inside. Opal hugged Adina fiercely.

“Damn! We thought you may be dead!” Opal cried from happiness. Alistair and Andy also hugged Adina, though they were more restrained. Jack felt out of the place. He didn’t expect them to hug him, he was an outsider, after all…

Opal hugged him. “Good to see you too!” Jack felt warm inside, even though he felt it was unnecessary. Alistair and Andy patted his shoulders.

“We are spending the night here. Tomorrow, we are going back to our headquarters. We know enough, and there’s no reason to die trying to learn more. It’s a mission for someone better.” Alistair decided.