The Runic Alchemist

Chapter 217: Retaliation

Once again, their small team was ready to head inside the dungeon. They were halfway there when a loud boom echoed through the mountain range, and the ground beneath them shook as if an earthquake was approaching. After a few tense seconds, the rumbling ceased.

"What the hell was that?" Jorven asked, scanning the surroundings.

"Enemy attack?" Einar suggested, his hand already on his sword hilt.

"No, it's too far and too big for that," Yovan replied, shaking his head.

"Return to camp and ready the soldiers. I'll go check it out," Damian said, sprinting toward the area where the sound had come from, his sharp hearing guiding him.

After only a few seconds, Damian noticed Sam running alongside him. "What are you doing here?" Damian asked, casting him a sideways glance.

"Checking out the source of the problem," Sam answered with a grin, a faint blue glow of lightning flickering beneath his clothes, barely visible as he matched Damian's speed. "Man, you're so damn fast."

"It's coming from the other side of the mountain," Damian said. "I'll climb it again. You go back and inform Kazak and Royce. Stay with them. If you see a giant pillar of fire in the sky, prepare to fight with every last soldier and evacuate the civilians. Also, tell Royce to send scouts to check if the valley entrance is still clear of enemies."

"Got it. But don't go fighting alone. Come back, and we'll deal with it together," Sam called as he veered off, heading toward the river where the other captains had set up camp.

Damian nodded slightly as he pushed himself to the limit, using the vine spells to climb at five times the speed he'd managed last time. He leaped from ledge to ledge with strength far beyond what a first-ranker should have, using his hands and his sword to pull himself up. He hadn't climbed even a third of the way when an overwhelming, nauseating sensation washed over him.

The mana he sensed wasn't evil, exactly, but there was far too much of it. He could sense it clearly, even through the mountain.

'What the hell is that thing?' Damian thought, his brow furrowing as he climbed faster.

The further he ascended, the more intense the feeling grew. When he finally reached the top and began descending the other side, the ground continued to shake at regular intervals, before he was even halfway down, Damian spotted something in the moonlight—a massive, elephant-like creature towering over the landscape.

Glowing lines of bright purple-pink energy crisscrossed its enormous body, illuminating the area around it. Its belly glowed intensely, as if filled to the brim with the very energy coursing through its veins.

Damian stared at the creature in disbelief. After a few minutes, its entire body began to glow with radiant energy. The glow traveled from its belly, through the lines on its body, and into its trunk that looked like it was made of some kind of gleaming metal.

Then, with a thunderous roar, the creature unleashed the energy in a concentrated beam that obliterated over fifty meters of solid stone and dirt from the mountain cave where the river flowed.

"Goddammit! They're digging a tunnel," Damian muttered under his breath.

But how? How were they controlling such a colossal creature? No second-rank Esper, no matter how powerful, could control beasts or monsters beyond King rank. That kind of ability was far too broken.

Damian had read extensively about the system of magic and abilities and how everyone judged it to be fair and equal, while occasionally a powerful Esper would be born, there were always limits—physical limits, mana limits. Their bodies simply couldn't handle more than the average mage could muster in terms of destruction. But this... this Esper if there was any shattered all those limits.

As if things couldn't get worse, Damian realized that he couldn't sense 80% of Ashenvale's soldiers in the area. They had already marched out to attack, leaving the camp. And strangest of all, there wasn't a single mage present with enough mana to qualify as a second ranker among the remaining ones.

'What in the world is going on? Could these monsters be the result of another twisted war tool they've developed?'

There was little Damian could do but watch as the massive creature fired beam after beam, widening the tunnel it was creating. He tried to think of a solution—some way to figure out how they were controlling the beast or some way he could disrupt the thing—but after an hour of observation, he still had no answers. The creature was undoubtedly above King rank.

Its mana was practically infinite, making Damian feel as though he was drowning in the presence of its overwhelming power. It took an immense amount of focus just to sense the other mana signatures around it.

Damian cast a glance at the few hundred soldiers and the five second-rankers standing near the river. None of them were casting spells or using any tools that could control the monster. They were simply standing there, waiting as the creature blasted away at the mountain. The elephant, for its part, was submerged in the river up to its knees.

Would attacking the soldiers make a difference? Damian pondered. He could kill them, but not easily. Over 200 soldiers, plus five second-rankers—facing them alone would be reckless. If something magical was happening with one of them then maybe, but without any target it just wasn't worth the risk. As it stood, charging in would be suicide.

Damian turned and began climbing back over the mountain, his mind racing. At the rate the creature was digging, they had at least 17 to 20 hours before it broke through—if it kept going non-stop. From what Damian had seen, energy wasn't the problem. This wasn't a spell or something artificial. The beams of energy coming from the creature seemed entirely natural, as if they were part of its biology.

Reaching the valley side again, Damian slowed his pace. He headed toward the captains' camp, where he found Royce, Kazak, and the other captains, along with the second-ranker beastmen warriors. They had already evacuated half of the village that was near the mountain and were waiting for Damian's signal to evacuate the rest. Seeing him approach, the tension in their faces eased by a fraction.

"Where the hell were you?" Royce barked, glaring at Sam, who was standing nearby, whistling innocently as if he had no idea what was going on.

"Other side of the mountain," Damian said, knowing there was no point in hiding the truth. They wouldn't believe him if he told them he sensed a monster above King rank being controlled and was heading their way. There was no time for secrecy now. They had to find a way or leave.