“W-wow!”
“Why are there so many?”
The adventurers were awestruck at the scale of Siasha’s magic.
“What powerful magic!”
Norton widened his eyes at the magic’s density and force.
Although Siasha’s spells were simple stone spears and rock bullets, their speed and quality were on another level.
A regular mage would run out of mana in about five seconds if they tried to exert this much force without stopping. Siasha wasn’t using magic items enchanted with crystals as an external fuel source either. Everything she was casting came from her own mana source. Yet, she showed no signs of ceasing.
Norton felt a chill run down his back.
Her spells didn’t account for the trees blocking their line of fire. The stone spears felled them along with the blade bees as they sped off into the distance.
Norton could only hope that no one would get hit by one of the stray spells.
“Why were they the only ones who got chased?”
“Who knows? Good for us, though. We can look for more survivors while they’re acting as a distraction.”
Noticing that the blade bees weren’t following them, the rest of the rescue team quickly returned to formation. Another Sibasikul member took over command and mobilized the scouts, focusing on speed.
His behavior was oddly calm, as if his clan master wasn’t being chased by killer bees.
“Are you sure about this? Your leader’s in a rough spot…”
“People might misunderstand if you put it that way. Look, our leader’s not someone who’ll get killed by a bunch of bees. He can protect himself, if nothing else. It’s too late for us to go look for him anyway.”
The Sibasikul representative scanned his surroundings as he answered the confused adventurer. “We all have a job to do. If he dies…well, I guess I’ll be clan master then.” He smirked playfully before returning to the task at hand.
Of course they were worried, but they also believed in Norton. Trust wasn’t something gained just by wanting it, but something that was slowly built over time. One should trust their comrades and play their role.
Inspired by the work ethic shown by the elite adventurers, the others returned to their own tasks with renewed vigor.
Meanwhile, Zig and the others had run a great distance from where they started. Returning to their original position would prove difficult.
Their escape would continue for some time. Although the size of the swarm had been greatly reduced by Siasha’s attack, their numbers were still absurdly high.
Siasha started using spears and walls to pierce and crush the bees, but she eventually switched to only using one spell. Spears were ineffective against the flying blade bees and timing the walls to crush them was difficult since they could easily go around them.
Siasha’s magic was strong enough, and the bees were so frail that she didn’t need to do anything complicated.
However, she wasn’t having an easy time either.
I-it’s hard to breathe!
Even if she was only using one spell, she couldn’t afford to stop casting it, and being carried by Zig meant that she was in a less-than-ideal position for breathing.
Since she was being carried like a bag of rice, Zig’s shoulder was pushing into her stomach. Running through the forest meant she was also experiencing turbulence. Breathing wasn’t the easiest thing to do at the moment.
Blade bees fell out of the air as the hail of spells rained at them.
Siasha had a lot of mana left in the tank but couldn’t breathe. And now an adventurer was having trouble.
“Huff, huff… Cough!”
The adventurer’s companions took too long to notice what was happening, since they were occupied with the danger behind them. The female mage had reached the limit of her endurance, and her legs could no longer be fueled by willpower. Her face was turning blue from lack of oxygen. Her ragged breathing, uncoordinated legs, and plain bad luck caused her toe to catch on a bump in the ground.
“Huh?!”
Time slowed down as she watched the ground rise to meet her face. Her comrades finally noticed what had happened, but it was too late to do anything.
She wanted to scream, but the best she could manage was a dry croak. Having lost control of her body, she could no longer right herself.
I guess… This is it.
The fear of death gave way to the sweet surrender from suffering. As her vision went dark, she could almost see the reaper’s hands coming for her neck. The reaper’s hands came closer until…
“Hang in there, Money!”
A powerful hand grabbed her collar and picked her up.
“Meep!”
The reaper—or rather, the miser—used his arm as a fulcrum and spun. Her stomach crashed into his right shoulder, the sound escaping her lips very much like a frog that was being stepped on.
Zig picked the woman up and was now carrying her on his right shoulder.
He stomped with his right foot to fix his tilted posture, pushing into the ground. He steadied the weight on his right shoulder while using Siasha’s weight on his left to right himself.
“Zig, are you okay?!”
“I can take another person!” Zig said to Norton, focusing his energy on his legs. “I’ll figure it out!”
“Don’t overdo it!”
He was slowing down due to carrying two people on his shoulders. Zig managed it with his physical prowess and core strength, but the situation was bad.
Siasha had stopped her spell casting due to the turbulence Zig was producing, but the blade bees were closing in. Norton looked like he could still run, but the other two adventurers were audibly winded.
Having caught her breath, Siasha resumed firing her spells, but the endless swarm of blade bees kept up the chase.
Earth magic was powerful, but it had its limits due to its lack of coverage. Although it was effective against humans due to its power to frighten them after seeing their allies die, it was of little use against insect monstrosities unafraid of death.
They had to push back against the relentless swarm somehow. Wind or water or even fire would be ideal against them.
Hang on.
Zig remembered his other passenger.
“Hey! You can still use magic, can’t you? Help us out!”
“Huff, huff… Nora, are you okay?!”
The swordsman checked in on his companion even as he was huffing and puffing from exertion.
The woman called Nora raised her pale face and looked suspiciously at Zig.
“I’m alive?”
“We might die if you don’t do something.”
“Koff, hurk… I don’t see the…enemyyyy?!”
Nora had been facing the other way and didn’t know of the swarm chasing them. However, her soft whispers turned into a scream when Zig tossed her into the air to spin her around. She could no longer hold back her nausea following the second impact.
“Don’t just throw up on me,” Zig complained.
Nora groaned resentfully as an acidic smell wafted through the air, followed by the sound of a wet splat.
“I’ll…I’ll get you for this…”
“If you have time to complain, you have time to do something about this situation,” Zig said.
Nora painfully began her incantation. A ball of fire launched itself toward the head of the blade bee swarm, incinerating it with a loud noise.
They were in luck—Nora was a flame mage.
The explosion slowed the blade bees down, allowing Siasha to take them out with her stone spear. Earth and flame—the two elements together kept the blade bees away while reducing their numbers.
They kept running and fighting back for some time. Explosions and rock bullets whittled the swarm down.
Monstrosities that lived in the forest would usually approach if they made this sort of noise, but the blade bees’ bloodlust kept them at bay. In the event any of them decided to try their luck, Norton would cut them down or they would be swallowed by the swarm.