Chapter 112: Rat-Men Attack and the Plan

Vivian suddenly stepped out from within a tree.

Her pretty face still wore no expression, and her large single-colored eyes, glowing with white light, blinked once in curiosity.

"Outside the forest, enemies, rat-men."

Rod immediately understood her meaning.

It was rat-men, charging at the forest.

But why?

They were a group of fellows carrying rot and plague; a town's pull was far greater than a forest's.

Witch Dimia furrowed her brow slightly, and after downing another bottle of magic potion, her condition improved a bit more.

"I was followed."

Not long ago she had been robbed by the rat-men who attacked the mine, and the frustration she had bottled up along the way finally exploded, prompting her to unleash something big in a fit of rage.

Presumably this band of rat-men held a grudge and had followed her, intending to take revenge.

"Pan Ni should be holding them off — by the way, can't ghouls use 【Message Spell】?"

But even if they could, Rod had no way to reply.

This spell was one-way; if he could share 【Far Voice Chain】 with the dragon-soul girl Naolin, things wouldn't be this troublesome.

After all, even inside Wind-Wall Forest, Rod sometimes still received Naolin's messages, though they came in fragments.

"I'll go deal with them."

Dimia struggled to rise, but her face was still pale, and she needed Sharon to support her even to stand.

"You just stay here. Vivian, take Little Little Bangde and go deal with them."

The tree spirit nodded, used 【Tree-Walker】 to reach a distant tree, and vanished together with the little horse girl.

Lady Kali examined Dimia's condition while saying:

"Be careful — as regulars at spreading plague, some evil plague mages will even deliberately follow the rat-men's trail."

Speaking of which.

Why did the rat-men attack the mine?

Were stones something that paired well with rat-men?

Rod had no real interest in this race.

Like jackal-men, rat-men were simply large rats that walked on two legs, spending most of their time underground.

They used wooden spears and rusted blades; while their combat power wasn't particularly strong, they lived in swarms, and they came naturally endowed with aura-type spiritual arts of plague or rot — the more of them there were, the stronger the effect.

Over five hundred years ago, Faye — a country in the north surrounded on three sides by the sea — had been overrun by a massive swarm of black rats, which even created a 'Plague' domain there, attracting large numbers of plague mages.

Even now, the country of Faye remained the stronghold of plague mages.

"Since the companion fiend of 【Dark Vortex Rift Barrier】 can be a cosmic creature like the Deinognathus, does that mean this ritual is already very close to opening an other-dimensional passage?"

Back to the sand tornado.

Rod posed the question.

"Not necessarily, but it is an indisputable fact that this ritual keeps expanding."

The elf answered.

Her right hand rested on Dimia's forehead, emitting a glow of magical power.

"This is my first time using a spirit-healing spell on a witch; if anything feels off, tell me immediately."

Dimia nodded gratefully.

Rod saw the dog-kin girl Sharon holding her in her arms, with not a trace of displeasure on her face.

Instead she was both anxious and worried, tightly gripping the witch's small hand.

Their relationship was clearly not as bad as it appeared on the surface — perhaps it all stemmed from a misunderstanding.

The sight of beauties snuggling together always lifted the mood, and Rod couldn't help stealing a few more glances.

"Who?!"

Tally suddenly cried out in alarm.

She raised her hand and flung out several shadow spikes.

Bolstered by 【Feather of the Shadow Insect】, her grasp of shadow magic had grown considerably.

After all, succubi shadow magic was originally meant mainly for slipping into victims' homes, or for abducting them.

Rod instinctively reached out with his senses.

He found nothing.

When he turned his head to look, he only then noticed that beside the sand-willow that had triggered 【True Sight】, a tall, thin humanoid figure made of black silk gauze, wearing a hooded cowl, was exposing half its body.

A high-tier concealment spell?!

He saw this black-shadow humanoid flick Tally's shadow spikes aside and retreat backward in panic.

Rod wasn't about to let it have its way — one 【Shadow Step】 high-speed shifted him right in front of it.

He was surrounded by trees, so he didn't use the wider-area 【Giant-Size Slash】.

Intense spiritual light radiated from his golden sword.

【Aetheron Flash】. 【Five Flashes】!

In an instant, five sword-lights converged on a single point!

Before that tall, thin humanoid could react, it was torn to shreds in the blink of an eye.

Yet in the next moment, it coalesced back into shape.

And swiftly dove into the shadow on the ground.

Tally reacted in a flash, let out a sharp cry, and slammed her fist into the ground.

Countless shadow-formed spiritual spikes erupted from the ground, impaling the tall, thin humanoid figure into the air, limbs flailing in panic.

【Shadow Blade Pierces Concealment】activated!

"Nicely done! Tally!"

This let Rod clearly see a thread attached to the opponent's left hand, stretching deep into the Death Desert.

Snikt!

A flash of sword-light, and the thread snapped.

Immediately after, 【Five Flashes】activated!

The opponent was torn apart like silk cloth.

This time, there was no regeneration.

"Shadow Weavers — another type of cosmic creature."

Lady Kali's face darkened. As the most knowledgeable person present, she recognized the creature's origins the moment she laid eyes on it.

She raised her hand and released a sphere of light.

The sphere slowly rose into the air, then scattered a fine shower of pale blue magical powder.

As the powder fell, another Shadow Weaver's form was revealed.

Rod rushed forward and dispatched it the same way, with ease.

The Shadow Weaver's body was torn apart, but the curved blade in its hand did not vanish.

"It's not strong, but its concealment is absurd — I couldn't sense it at all."

He remarked.

"Same here. They're cosmic creatures extremely adept at concealment. My 【Backlight Canopy】won't last long, and it has a full five-hour cooldown."

The elf's meaning was clear: they had no way to guard against them at all times.

Rod looked at the three mages present.

"Tell me, mages — is there any way to deal with this thing quickly?"

Magic must be defeated by magic; every profession has its specialty.

Asking him, a spiritual warrior who barely knew common continental knowledge, to come up with a plan was a bit too much.

Rod casually picked up the Shadow Weaver's curved blade.

Entirely black, densely covered in dark-gold patterns, of an archaic design, forged as one piece from an unknown metal.

"Three days ago I submitted a solution to the higher-ups proposing the use of 【Spatial Imprisonment Curse】— that is, requesting high-tier casters to weave a complex and resilient spatial net to swiftly envelop and seal the spatial rift formed by the 【Dark Vortex Rift Barrier】."

Sharon gave a bitter smile.

"But unfortunately, the higher-ups rejected the proposal on the grounds that the cost was too high."

【Spatial Imprisonment Curse】, huh.

Rod stroked his chin, recalling that he had seen it in the 'Fun Rankings' section of the Snow Hill Evening News.

It ranked seventh on the 'Most Expensive Spells' list — the casting materials required three hundred thousand, or was it five hundred thousand Jin Along.

The Mage Council wasn't running a charity either; they obviously wouldn't spend that much money on an evil ritual in the desert.

(End of chapter)