Descending Into A Novel

Chapter 138:Mission Jungler (3)

"This is good. Mark this location, we’ll start a fire here."

Pulling out his sword, Zachary slashed a cross into the trunk of the tree. Only for his sword to uselessly clang against the thick trunk which was bigger then him.

"What the?"

Flabbergasted, he swung his sword with more force. Even putting his mana into it, only for it to uselessly clang again. Leaving only a small mark on the tree.

"If they were normal trees. We would have cleared out the entire Evergloom Jungle in a day. "

Refusing to give up, Zachary was about to try and hit the tree again before Raymond stopped him.

Using his finger, he traced a small circle on the tree. Once it was completed, a small glowing circle of mana stuck itself onto the tree like paint.

"Will it remain there though?"

The small mark he had left on the tree was already beginning to heal. While Raymond’s circle was also slowly starting to dissipate around the edges.

"It’ll remain there for another few hours at least."

Raymond let out a yawn, already feeling bored.

Rudeus, who was leading the way for them abruptly paused. Turning back to them withh a grin on his face.

"Monsters approaching us now. Like I said, I won’t be helping any of you guys at all."

Raymond was pretty sure the clattering noise from all the weapons he carried was what attracted the monsters in the first place. With his loud it was, every bird in a radius had probably flown away already.

But he didn’t complain, he was there to protect them from the bigger threats in the first place. Not to protect them from everything.

Each of them drew their weapons, trekking through a jungle and holding them at the same time was kind of difficult.

As they each prepared, struggling to see further then several meters with all the foliage in the way. The sounds of the jungle abruptly paused for a few seconds, replaced instead by the sound of thundering charges.

The trees shook, leaves falling down to the ground and even the occasional branch.

It should have been impossible for something to charge in a jungle. It required a completely open and flat space after all, trying to maneuver through a jungle while running in a mostly straight line was practically impossible.

So Raymond recognized the monsters that were heading their way immediately, and he wasn’t the only one.

"Phase Boars!"

Right as Zachary yelled, several tusks could be seen seemingly appearing from the trees. Followed up by an entire sounder of boars, their bodies phasing through anything in their way as they charged towards them.

With the dried blood on their tusks, they seemed pretty successful as well.

Raymond immediately aimed his staff, casting any walls were useless since they could just phase through. But they had a crucial weakness.

Their phasing was a very instinctual thing. Like how humans could mentally know to calculate the trajectory of something thrown. Phase Boars instinctually used their phasing ability to phase through any object in their way.

If they fully activated their phase ability, they would immediately fall through the ground and suffocate. They also couldn’t breathe or do much else while phased. So they ran by keeping their feet unphased and only occasionally doing so when there was a need to.

While these monsters could control their phasing. They also had to be very careful with it lest they end up dooming themselves.

With their targets in sight, they naturally stopped their phasing. There was little to no obstacles in the way now that couldn’t be dodged by just curving to the side a little.

Which was why, Raymond chose to create an invisible barrier in front of all of them. If they didn’t see any obstacles in their way, They wouldn’t activate their phasing ability.

Ellen as well notched an arrow on her Kairos Bow. Drawing the bowstring back, she held that position.

Waiting, her eyes glimmered her body completely still as her mana flooded her bow and arrow.

As the one leading the charge crashed into the invisible barrier, Ellen immediately let loose her arrow. Leaving behind a dark golden streak in the air as it pierced the boar in the eye and through the skull.

Flying through the first boar, it reached another one behind it. Piercing its skull as well for a brief moment before it abruptly passed through the boar entirely.

"Tch."

This was the main problem with fighting phase boars. Unless they were temporarily stunned like the first one she had just killed. They would just phase through most attacks. Despite only being monsters at the E-rank like them, they were easily one of the most annoying to deal with. Their innate power was simply too useful.

Some of the boars immediately realized there was an invisible wall in the way, phasing through that one as well.

Raymond canceled the invisible barrier he had set up, before casting the same spell again. Closer to them this time.

Firing off another arrow, Ellen immediately thinned the sounder by another one.

Repeating this four more times. Ellen managed to kil a total of seven out of the twenty eight. Scoring a double once, and making it so the rest of them didn’t have to deal with as many.

Once the boars did get too close, the rest of them immediately took action. Serving to act as a wall to protect Raymond and Ellen.

They were a but tricky to deal with, so each of them had to come up with their own unique methods to deal with it.

Noelle fired off a cone of starlight, leaving one injured on the feet where it wasn’t phased and letting it be finished off by Ellen or Raymond as she swiveled around to help someone else.

Seeing Noelle’s success with hers, the rest adopted a similar strategy. Use some sort of AOE attack that could fully cover the entire body. Since chances were, at least some part of the boar would be unphased.

Rudeus rubbed his chin. Not at the several different blasts but at the strange gut feeling he was getting.

’They’re dealing with them perfectly fine. But what is this feeling I keep getting?’

Rudeus was an individual who had been active in the second Human-Demon war. While most might have dismissed their gut feelings, high ranking individuals like him always trusted their hunches. It had saved them more times then not. It was practically an innate power they had developed themselves.

He quietly drew one out of a dozen weapons on his back, a short sword only the length of his forearm. As well as a metal gauntlet appearing on his other hand.

His mana quietly surged through his body, entering his fighting mode. His Art that made him famous as the Weapons-Meister activating.

He didn’t feel fear, he was one of the strongest members in the Floriza Family and one of the strongest humans in the world—when not including the SS-ranks.

Besides, he had promised Lucy’s father he would protect her. So how could he possibly back down against a promise he made with an individual like that?

His own pride and honour wouldn’t let him back down, he had to protect these stars long enough to let their light shine onto humanity.

In the group, Audrina quietly threw out several daggers. Jumping out of the shadows and striking a boar from the rear.

Her daggers, imbued with only trace amounts of demonic energy. A tactic she was forced to use in order to help hide her demonic energy suddenly shook. An extremely faint tremble that was barely noticeable if not for her extreme senses.

She recognized what happened immediately, the small amounts of demonic energy she wielded clashing with more demonic energy that wasn’t under her control.

It seemed like the demonic energy was only there for controlling the boars. With how little there was, the boars still remained at their regular strength. But their emotions were likely going out of control, leading them to attack the group in the first place.

Since monsters that weren’t intelligent tended to have weaker minds, even a little bit of demonic energy was enough to make them go berserk.

’...more demons.’

It seemed there was more demons involved in this mission as well.

But how could she best reveal this to the others without revealing suspicious?

Melting back into the shadows, Audrina quietly pondered on this. Thinking of a plan, she threw out a dagger and immobilized another one through hitting its male weakness.

Only for a golden arrow to swiftly pierce the skull of the one she just immobilized, making her plan of using Thomas to reveal it disappear quick.

The number of boars was rapidly decreasing. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to tell them about it. With how little there was, it was extremely difficult to spot. Dissipating away extremely quickly once killed.

Since Thomas was merely defending rather then trying to kill any, his holy energy had yet to encounter it.

She leapt out of the shadows once again, stabbing another boar in the male weakness which just so happened to be near Thomas.

Kicking it towards him slightly, she looked at him.

"Here. For you."

Seeing the collapsed boar on the ground. Her eyes glowing slightly as she stared at him—leaking some of her immense killing intent. Paired with her expressionless face. Thomas simply just stared back at her.

"..?"

Audrina tilted her head, unsure of why he wasn’t immediately killing it.

She was sure that human males loved to kill things in order to look like strong attractive mate for other human females. Especially for an attractive mate like her. Back in the academy, she had seen the exact situation occurring several times over in order to try and impress her after all.

Seeing her continue to stand there, he asked. "You want me to kill it?"

She nodded.

"I see."

Holding his sword high, he brought it down. Ending the poor boar’s suffering.

But not before noticing the same issue as well.

His eyes widened, recognizing the demonic energy that was enhancing these monsters.

"It seems there’s going to be a big problem."

She nodded again.