abcnovels
Book 2: 321
Book 2: 321
Book 2: Chapter 321
Hoffman, who was walking carefully, stopped moving. Without a word, he lifted his hand above his shoulder.
It was a signal to stop.
“…”
Lukas and Yuriah obediently followed his instructions.
Gurgle…
Rattle…
Howl…
A sound similar to an animal howling rippled through the air, accompanied by the obvious sounds of undead moving.
These sounds were only made by low ranking undead who hadn’t gained sentience. And it was made by a group of undead that were shambling through the dark forest.
In other words, it was already too late for them to use this path.
“Shit. How many times has it been already?”
Hoffman grumbled under his breath and Yuriah poked him in the back with her staff. Obviously, she was telling him to shut up.
“…can’t we just pierce through?”
“That’s a stupid idea.”
Yuriah immediately rejected the suggestion. Of course, Hoffman didn’t actually mean it. No matter how hot headed he was, or how much he hated being placed in such situations, he would never recommend that they forcibly break through.
That wasn’t being hot headed, it was stupidity.
The Amalgam Forest had completely become the land of the undead.
The trees and grass, which once boasted healthy colours, disappeared. In their place were rotted grey trees and withered grass. It was only a matter of time before the ground itself began to decay as well.
This was because of the death energy being emitted by the undead.
‘The fact that the forest has been polluted to such an extent means that the number of undead is beyond imagination.’
Undead were particularly responsive to sound.
It wasn’t impossible for them to defeat the horde of undead that were moving around in front of them. In fact, it wouldn’t even be that difficult. But destroying all of them wouldn’t solve the problem. Instead, the commotion it caused would only attract the attention of all the other undead in the area.
If they were surrounded, it would be impossible for them to escape.
Unlike before, they weren’t in a situation where they had the river at their backs. They had already entered deep into the forest.
‘…but where did such a large horde of undead come from?’
It wasn’t just the corpses of the beings in the forest that had been reanimated.
Hoffman couldn’t say that he knew every monster that inhabited the Amalgam Forest, but he was at least certain that there were no Wyverns or Ogres living here.
In addition, they had even seen a few high ranking undead like Dullahans, Death Knights, and Liches.
‘They couldn’t have openly sent such a large army of undead into this forest.’
This was already on the scale of a military mobilisation.
Regardless of whether it was the Circle, the Anti Circle Alliance, or some other organisation all together, there was no way that they wouldn’t notice such a large movement.
In other words, someone had summoned these undead into this forest.
And that ‘someone’ was probably the ‘threat’ that Snow had encountered, and the main culprit behind all of these events.
Little by little, anxiety began to blossom in his heart. Of course, Snow wasn’t so weak as to need the worry of someone like Hoffman.
In all honesty, he didn’t think Snow would lose even if she were to face one of the Dragons or Demigods who had become extinct. (TL: If only he knew)
‘So please, don’t go crazy. Heart.’
As he begged his racing heart, Hoffman turned and began heading in a different direction.
Naturally, he was intending to find a different path. Lukas and Yuriah quietly followed suit. For a cripple, Lukas was doing a good job of keeping up with them.
They wandered through the forest at a slow pace without an exact destination in mind. They didn’t know where Eric and the rest had gone so they could only carefully explore deeper while keeping an eye out for any traces.
Surprisingly, they were able to achieve results much faster than expected.
“…I can hardly sense the presence of any undead here.”
Hoffman muttered as he straightened up. Crack, with a soft sound, his spine readjusted itself and his stiff expression became a bit more relaxed.
Lukas looked around for a while before pointing to the shadow of a tree.
“Over there.”
“Huh? Is there something there?”
“Look for yourself.”
Hoffman squinted to get a better view before unknowingly flinching slightly.
It was the ‘corpses’ of an undead. Or, to be precise, it was what was left of them.
There were shattered bone fragments as well as torn bits of flesh and internal organs scattered all over the place.
Someone had dealt with a group of undead in this place.
“I’ll go check it out. You guys keep watch.”
After they nodded, Hoffman leaped towards the corpses.
“…I’ll start from here.”
As Hoffman began working, Lukas and Yuriah, who were a short distance away, carefully observed their surroundings.
But after a while, Yuriah’s eyes drifted to look at Lukas’ face instead. She was naturally recalling the situation at the river.
…The undead had almost surrounded Hoffman.
And it was the White Hail that Yuriah had cast that wiped out the entire group in an instant.
But the spell contained power that she could never have imagined.
It was strange.
Even though she’d clearly been awake, whenever she recalled that scene, it felt like it had all been a dream.
It was a spell that she had cast personally.
As a Wizard who specialised in water and ice magic, she fully understood the power, range, and duration of the 5-star spell White Hail.
But the spell that had manifested far surpassed her expectations in every way.
‘I’ll help you with the calculations.’
That’s what Lukas had said, but even now, she wasn’t entirely sure what that meant.
It wasn’t rare for multiple Wizards to work together to perform a spell, but in order to do so, there were several demanding criteria that had to first be met.
For one, the magic circles usually had to be drawn in advance.
It also depended on how much the participating Wizards understood each other.
But Lukas didn’t meet any of the required criteria.
Nevertheless, in terms of efficiency, that spell was greater than any collaborative spell she had witnessed before.
‘…with this man’s help, the power of my spell was increased by several times.’
How was such a thing possible?
Yuriah had deep knowledge about magicology, but even she was not confident enough to explain that phenomenon.
Nevertheless, she was certain of one thing.
An unknown power from the sword Lukas wielded intertwined with her spell just before it was fully cast.
‘…it’s an ability any Wizard would long for.’
It still made her feel uncomfortable.
He’d used some kind of unknown power to enhance her spell, and as a result, they were able to overcome a crisis, but she couldn’t stop the strange feeling of anxiety that developed in her chest.
Perhaps it was because Yuriah was a Wizard who disliked encountering things that she couldn’t understand or explain.
“It was Lady Snow.”
At that moment, Hoffman’s voice awoke her from her thoughts.
“These traces were left by Lady Snow.”
When she looked at him, she found that he was unable to hide his excitement.
“Did she pass through here?”
“Right. I can’t tell when exactly the traces were left, but it’s certain that she passed through this place.”
Undead were corpses that had been brought back to life.
Therefore, it was hard to determine how much time had passed since they were returned to death, especially since their flesh and bones had been scattered all over.
Nevertheless, the fact that they found traces of Snow relieved them to an extent.
Crunch-
Suddenly, they felt a presence in the nearby grass.
Lukas and Yuriah, who were keeping watch, and Hoffman, who was examining the bodies, immediately raised their guard.
No, it would be more precise to say they got ready to run away.
But after a while, a familiar face appeared from the grass.
“Eric…! You son of a bitch, you’re alive.”
Eric, who appeared in front of them, smiled faintly.