//////// < WARNING > ////////

 

< TRICKLE >

< THE ARBITER’S TRUMPET BEACONS >

 

Flesh Clot.

Impuritas, meaning ‘impurity’ from what Frost understood. An impurity and the concept of the Corrupted were one in the same in her mind, but Nav quickly apprehended this train of thought as she threw herself from the caravan roof.

“Do not mistake that for the Corrupted! That is one of the Dungeon monsters known as the Hungry!”

What the fuck is a Hungry!? It only says Crimson Hunger! Frost mentally sneered as she shouted for the others to wake up:

“GET UP! THERE’S SOMETHING COMING STRAIGHT FOR US! GET UUUUUUUUUUUP!” Frost went around slamming a hand against the half-walls, shaking every caravan as she watched the chase unfold before her.

They were around a couple hundred meters away. She could see one of riders atop those giant wolves thrash a hand around, begging them to move as they screamed out at the top of their lungs:

“RUUUUUN! MEATBALLS! MEATBAAAAAAALS ARE HERE! THE HUNGRY HAVE INFESTED DIVAS PAAAAAAS!” A woman wailed.

“Hungry are a quasi-sapient race found only in Dungeons, but they are known to be active during the night, as are the other Dungeon monsters. Your prompt has revealed that they are in fact named the Crimson Hunger! A Flesh Clot is one its most common creatures. Bottom of the food chain, some may say –”

“If you have the time to make jokes, then you also have time to EXPLAIN if there’s anything I should be wary of!” Frost yelled as Adventurers stumbled out one by one, almost spilling onto one another as she pointed on ahead into the valley. “Abilities, weaknesses, anything!?”

“Fire is potent. These creatures are capable of accumulating flesh and compiling it into their mass to recover HP. Be wary of the Bleeding status. Injuries from the Crimson Hunger tend to be harder to heal.”

This should be right up Furio’s alley then!

Confusion instantly sprung about them as they tried to make sense of her words. Frost only shouted this aloud to get them on their feet.

“What do you see!? I don’t see anything at all!” Jaris exclaimed, tapping onto the shoulder of another adventurer.

“Nothing! It’s too dark! W-what are we up against!?” Anna exclaimed, fully trusting in Frost’s words as did many, wielding their armaments close.

“The Crimson Hunger! Flesh Clots!” Frost exclaimed, but this only further confused them as she looked to Furio. “Light the valley up with fire magic! Aim for the skies!” She ordered the man.

“One step ahead of you! [Flare]!” Furio used a specialized magic for the job as a giant ball of flames spat from the palm of his hand. It felt overhead with a wonderful arc, drooling sparks as it tumbled into the air before exploding high above with the light of the sun.

A red light instantly coated the valley for only a split second. But in that time, they were made aware of what came rolling towards them.

“MEATBALLS!?”

“Hungry!? HERE!? In GRANDIS!? W-w-wait. FUCK! What do we do? What do we do!?”

“Oi, e-everyone – w-we should run!”

Panic instantly ensued. Though these creatures were weak, it was their sheer numbers that frightened them. Furio was about the only one who simply stood there, his gaze condescending to these weaklings surrounding him.

Indeed. There were potentially a hundred tumbling towards them. The three caravans ahead were significantly faster, but they seemed to carry non-combatants aboard. In fact, through the half-walls she could see the animal-like ears of people.

Judging from the coloration of their caravans, and the strangely red uniform those people wore – Frost had reason to believe they were the Scarlet Logic Collectors D-13 spoke of. Looking at their levels, they hovered around the same as the Adventures save for the three that rode atop the giant wolves.

One was a Tamer, a Captain, and a Manager, which were level 35, 40 and 50 respectively.

Fighting those things while trying to simultaneously protect so many people was frankly impossible, even for Frost. Her abilities could not cover a wide range. Furio had the best chance of annihilating them, but not when everyone was within close proximity.

Therefore, Frost made a prompt decision.

“Quickly! Get back into the caravans! Go! Leave us! Furio stay here and put that magic to good use! Hellen, girls – look after Jury for me! We’ll end this quick!”

“Leave it to the strong.” Furio was proud to have his strength acknowledged.

No one doubted they could do it. If there was anyone who could, it would be them after witnessing strength against the Listening Bird. Furthermore, it was widely known that the ‘Hungry’ were weak to fire. Having Furio present instilled much hope.

“W-We’ll leave it you! Go get them!” Via exclaimed

“Luck isn’t needed for people like them. We’re counting on you! Move!” Jaris stated, nodding to them as he herded them back into the caravans.

A level 75 should make quick work of them. 600 HP only. Furio will hit a maximum of 210 damage with their MAG DEF stat. How do weaknesses factor in damage? Frost mentally asked as she waved for them to leave.

“It truly depends. Elemental weaknesses exist and so do physical ones. You may have not noticed it because your body is not exactly normal, but slashes to unarmored enemies are considered highly effective… so long as they’re made from soft flesh. 1.5x multiplication. But I am not so sure about those ones.”

A giant clump of flesh… let’s see what works out for us.

Frost painfully stared down the countless eyes of the approaching masses of flesh, weaving metal strings between her fingers. She wanted to create a defensive line, at least to break their momentum.

The wheels spun as the hooves stomped, and before long, the caravans left only her and Furio behind. 300 meters remained until the upcoming caravans passed. Until then, they had minutes to prepare their plan of attack, much to the dismay of the woman who would not stop screaming for them to leave.

That was until one voice seemed to recognize Frost’s wear.

“Isn’t that –! Justica Arms! They’re likely to lend us a hand!” A man riding one of the three wolves pointed out.

“How can we tell they’re here to help!?” The screaming woman exclaimed worriedly.

“Stopping these damned meatballs would be very telling, captain!” Another woman, whose voice easily ripped through the air, scolded.

“I’m sorry for being useless, manageeeeeer!”

[Scrutiny]. She used Scrutiny on these things.

However, the rolling masses did not instantly cease their movement. Their ridiculously high RESIST stat instead caused them to take stacks of Darkness. They clumsily clumped together as a result, smashing blindly before they figured out the direction of their prey.

Furio and the Scarlet Logic Collectors were left dazed when they heard the momentary, fleshy crash. Those people instantly acknowledged Frost’s power, and the warnings from the woman ceased entirely…

Instead –

“SAVE US! Don’t let us repeat another replication cycleeeee! I’m tired of being brought back because of these things!”

“SHUT THE FUCK UP CAPTAIN!” The woman screamed.

“Think of the children! We don’t want to lose another collection to these thiiiiings! Manager! Get them off of our tails!”

Another?

The three caravans came hurdling by like a speeding train, carrying around a total of 30 people. It was a mixture of other similarly red-clothed people and slaves. The wolves were huge. Probably as large as a horse! But their stats, funnily enough, left much to be desired.

 

 

Frost was stronger than the One Thousand Eyed Bird. Therefore, it was only a matter of time before they’d be inflicted with Scrutiny. Nav was tasked to count the number of minutes that passed every time they received a stack.

Judging by their speed and distance, Frost estimated they’d make contact in the next 5 minutes.

“Furio! I want you to start burning everything you see! Don’t worry about injuring me!” She ordered before handing Furio the ends of her steel string. “Hold onto these! I’ll be back!”

The man did not need to ask. He only did as he was told, more than happy that he was being relied on. Frost moved towards one of the felled forests at a brisk pace. It was bizarre to see a human move faster than these giant wolves; as she could tell by the voices of those Scarlet Logic people.

She was almost twice their speed. With her free hand, she painfully created enough slack on her strings to keep up with her movements as her blood and flesh boiled at her fingertips. At the same time, and to Frost’s surprise, a dozen people instantly leapt from the speeding caravans and rushed to Furio’s side, carrying mostly bladed weaponry.

 

Dawn Collection Personnel No. X (X)

< Dawn Team Collector >

 

Their origins were a mix of humans, Demi-humans and Insectids, all with levels in the 30s. What dawn meant was unknown, but it must have been a low-ranking designation given their levels.

“Oh what the hell!? Manageeer!? You’re not going to fight, are you!?”

“FOLLOW ME AND DON’T SAY ANOTHER WORD!” The other woman yelled, carrying a pair of swords. “Justica Arms and this Adventurer have come to help! We can press on with this advantage! We cannot afford to lose any more lives to these things!”

The woman reluctantly obeyed and jumped from the wolf, tumbling over like a clumsy kid. She most definitely broke something with that fall.

That being said, Frost quickly approached a felled log and quickly began to punch out the bedrock, allowing her to slide these logs into a locked position. From there, she created an excessive amount of slack on her string and began tying them over the logs before she returned.

“1 minute! A stack increases with each minute! 3 minutes till battle!”

That’s more than enough time!

She assessed the situation. Furio laid down fire onto the oncoming creatures, wiping a hefty number of them out. The deceased balls of flesh charred and screamed soundlessly. Around 20 were already felled in these 2 minutes.

Frost, moments before returning, quickly checked the status on these two.

 

 

This one was a bunny-eared Demi-human, wearing bulky red-armor and a short, red mantle. Carried over her shoulder was huge, bulky object which she was barely able to hold out in front of her with both hands.

 

 

The other was a human woman with red and black, short-cut hair. She wore identical set of armor to the Captain, save that her weapons were a pair of blades.

They all looked to Frost, instantly revering in her presence. They obviously mistook her for someone else. But that thankfully worked in her favor because she essentially had authority over them.

“While he keeps burning them, I want one of you to take these strings and secure them to the stump across! Stay behind the wires! They’ll act as your barrier!” Frost ordered, her air of authority instantly causing the nearest personnel to snatch it from Furio and begin sprinting as fast as they could.

Afterwards, Frost stood before the Captain and the Manager.

“Dawn team Capatain. Manager. We’ll talk after this ordeal.” By simply stating ‘dawn team’ the two instantly realized that this person was echelons higher than them. “Until then, I’ll thin them out as much as I can! You just focus on finishing the rest!”

“I hear you! But FUCK! Grandis is truly fucked if an Apostle is fleeing! We’ve gone through 5 Rep. cycles just from here alone!” The manager roared. “Alright – Captain! Get the firearm primed!”

Firearm? Wait what –?

“PRIMIMG! FIRE BULLETS LOADED! STAAAAAND CLEEEEEEAAAAR!” The bunny-eared Captain hopped in place, bobbing the weapon up and down as a red light began to shimmer at its… barrel. “30 seconds! I’m loading my mana now!” Her tone suddenly shifted as she knocked on the side of her head, almost playfully.

This is a fantasy world, right? They have guns here!? Wait, they don’t seem to be afraid at all of those… abominations.

“Possible use of Cognition Suppressors. The [CENSORED] bars I spoke of. What she is using is Atelier magic. Perhaps an Atelier Skill. This weapon is only usable by the Captains and certain individuals within Scarlet Logic.”

She firmly nodded to the two before heading straight into the fray. Unfortunately, her emotions were not heightened enough to active the First State.

But was not like this was the first time she had dealt with countless enemies. The only ones in danger were the others. So far, 4 minutes in total had passed and around 60 of these things remained.

It was time to eat.