*POV-Theresa*
“Theresa, stop here, we have someone coming here.” Liliana told me to stop.
“What?” I stopped a bit startled by her sudden reaction.
“We have someone big coming here! Run back and tell Rotsgard to get ready for battle!” She told me what to do.
“O-Okay.” And I ran off into the distance.
After running back to the clan, I immediately found my father talking to our most knowledgeable mage, most likely for her majesty’s training.
“Father!” I tried to get his attention.
“What? Where is Liliana?” He asked me.
“Battle… we need to get ready… we need to get ready for battle…” I tried talking, only to realize that I was too tired after running all the way here.
“What battle? And where is Liliana?” He asked again.
After resting for a couple minutes, I resumed.
“While we were walking towards the North-Eastern Lake her majesty suddenly felt something and told me to get you to get ready for battle.” I told him everything.
He smirked.
“So, she finally decided to do something.”
“Who decided what?” I just asked confused.
“The overlord finally decided to attack us. Lately we were getting lots of signals from our spies in the kingdom, she most probably attacked her majesty to get the mark of power.” He explained.
“Wow, first time I see you making such a smart move father.” I spoke amazed at how he pulled of such a move.
“Hey! Even I can do smart moves, not you!” He shot back a bit embarrassed because his daughter was laughing at him.
“War chief! We saw some suspicious movement in the forest, what shall we do?” One of the scouts reported.
“Relay this to others as well, we are getting ready for battle!” Father immediately issued an order.
“Yes!” He replied and went to relay the order to others.
“You have to go and hide somewhere, because this battle will most likely be hard and bloody, if we will be fighting her elite squad, those guys are skilled.” Father told me to hide.
“Okay.” I just decided to listen to him this time.
“Enemy is here!” I heard someone shout.
“You should go. Now!” He rushed me.
“Please be safe.” I wished him.
“No worries, I will.” He reassured me.
*POV-MC*
‘Wait, Rotsgard and the others!’ I realized.
After realizing that, the rest of the traps went off, I had to take some evasive maneuvers. Whilst evading those branches I tripped over some rope and fell onto the ground, and then a big tree branch was falling down, it was positioned so it would fall straight on my face, I rolled to the right and barely evaded that.
After that trap mayhem ended, I went straight towards the clan, little did I know, that she also had traps that couldn’t be seen with my mana eyes, to be precise I did know that but forgot about it.
So with that in mind I was running back and almost fell into a hole in the ground that was covered with sticks and leaves.
‘Be careful Lily! She probably has more traps like this near the village also.’
‘I know! I just forgot!’ I replied back.
‘How the fuck do you forget something so crucial that could kill you!?’ Nox almost popped from anger.
‘Simply, like this.’ I told her.
‘Seriously, this girl.’ She mumbled.
After running for a while, I finally reached the place that you could call a battlefield if you saw it. Why you ask? Most likely because of the fifty or so demon bodies piled up in one pile.
“What the hell happened here?” I asked Rotsgard after I found him.
“As you can probably see here, we were attacked by these guys. More importantly I have to ask you, where have you been?” He asked me.
“I had my things to take care of also, so what happened here really?”
“After Theresa warned me of the upcoming battle, we evacuated everyone as fast as we could and gathered everyone who could fight and then fought against these bastards.”
“What are your loses?” I asked him.
His face turned sour the moment I mentioned that.
“Oh, sorry, forget I mentioned that.” I corrected myself.
“No, everything is good with that. It’s that, out of forty of us, we lost three in the battle and I lost a finger myself for being clumsy, I literally tripped over some grass when fighting and my broadsword chopped off my left pinkie.” He told me the losses and then showed his left hand covered in bandages, most likely the work of Theresa.
“So, what are you planning to do now?” I asked him.
“I don’t actually know. We are still debating whether we should retaliate or evacuate to another place and stay unseen for another year or two, there is still no decision.” He explained the situation.
I stood and thought for a couple of minutes, after thinking for some time I got an idea.
“Can you bring me to the most skilled mage? If you can do that, then I will be able to come up with a plan of retaliation.” I told him, whilst I only had a vague idea on how to lure out the fox.
“Hmm, if you could wait two days when everyone will get back here then I could. She gives lessons to those of us who have mana, she herself is a fire mage, but she knows a lot about other types also, especially in null mana as she said.” He told me that I will have to wait.
Just as I heard null mana I immediately perked up.
“Null mana you say?” I asked him for confirmation.
“Yes, she prides herself being the only one in the clan being able to use null mana to her advantage.”
“Then I will wait for her arrival.” I told him.
‘Finally, someone who knows about null mana, that will definitely help me get stronger.’ I thought.
Takes sleep out of my schedule.
Yeet~