Frost burst through the flames. Her wear, despite looking flammable, was quite resistant. She barely accumulated a single stack of Burn, and due to her immense MAG DEF stat, Furio’s flames could only do the bare minimum damage to her.

She made it to their ranks, appearing past the veil of flames to their surprise. All it took was a single cleave of her hand to obliterate these oversized meatballs. In fact, just charging into them was enough to kill them, never mind taking a good bite out of them.

The soundless woes these creatures made was hardly recognizable, but she felt like a hundred voices were sewn into one. No abilities were gained from these creatures, and the stats were minimal at best. They were weak creatures to begin with anyway.

The flames concealed her feast. In merely seconds she had slain more than a dozen, for her movements were like a blur to them all. Her speed managed to even snuff out the flames. But that did not matter. These things only needed a single hit to be killed.

They did not even possess a mouth to fight. They quite literally relied on squishing their prey to death, at least she believed so.

Frost found herself disgusted after various chomps. The giant eyes stimulated her gag reflex and caused her to nearly vomit on an instinctual level. The fluids, the rubbery texture – it was an entirely different level of disgust from eating a… person.

Not that she could do anything about it. Additionally, this was where she found the first use case of her newest profession; Counter Offensive. Solemn Counter was an Active Skill that easily allowed her to counter oncoming attacks.

 

< DEFFENSIVE PROFFESSION: Counter Offensive >

< The greatest defense is a triumphant offence >

 

< ACTIVE SKILL: Solemn Counter >

< Counter an opposing attack. Your AGI determines the window of opportunity. Multiply ATT by 2x during a successful counter >

 

The window of opportunity was a sensation. With her foresight, she was able to double down on this and find the exact moment when a window of opportunity opened. A Flesh Clot pounced on her at full speed, aiming to collide with her head. Given her immense AGI; the window of opportunity was quite extensive to say the least and lasted all the way until it made contact with her.

She willingly took damage. Not that it was anything substantial. It felt like time went slightly slower during these moments. What aided in this skill was her Defensive Passive Ability, Fine Line.

 

< PASSIVE SKILL: Fine Line >

< The window of opportunity for skills in the Counter Offensive Profession increase proportionally to AGI. Opponent AGI negatively affects the window of opportunity the higher it is compared to yours. If your AGI is lower, the damage you receive is multiplied by 2x during the window of opportunity >

 

It could be summarized as: if you’re too slow to react to the window of opportunity, then you get punished for it. This was made worse if the opponent’s AGI was higher. The only reason this did not occur with the Listening Bird was because it had no meaningful way of retaliating to abuse this against her.

Either way, it did not matter. In these 30 seconds Frost had annihilated a good 40 of these things, leaving only 20 which managed to slip by. By now the strings were raised taught, enough to at least cause some serious injury to them.

Also…

“MANA SUCCESSFULLY LOADED! FIRE BULLETS PRIMED! TAKE THIS FOR THE THIRD TIIIIIIME!” The bunny-eared girl yelled and at once – the rectangular firearm began to spit flaming stakes from its sunken barrel.

They did not fire very quickly. It was more like a methodical blast. A painfully loud blast that caused Frost to wince. A bullet was fired every 3 seconds.

But these hit hard and penetrated straight through the bodies of these Flesh Clots, claiming multiple in a single hit. These bullets were fast. Incredibly fast. To the point where Frost was forced to tank one of these bullets.

They did 500 MAG damage each, and instantly placed up to 30 stacks of Burn onto the Flesh Clots, killing them shortly after, hence why they killed them in a single hit.

For Frost? Not so much.

The bullet hit straight into her abdomen.

“S-Shit! That… kills… Agh! What’s wrong with her aim!?”

As much as it hurt, it did the bare minimum damage to her. Her MAG DEF in total, including her Coat of Prejudice, was over 700. Not many could say they’re able to shrug off literal bullets, never mind magical, flaming ones.

But she’d be lying if she said that it didn’t hurt. A lot.

It was another source of inspiration for them. The Scarlet Logic Collectors prepared to fight the remaining 10 of these things up close as the bunny-eared girl hopped away with the weapon with Furio, both having their mana completely drained by now.

The creatures burst through the steel wire, with many receiving deep gashes before the strands broke off. They were hardly tied down, but they served their purpose and completely stopped their built momentum in place.

“HIT THE EYES! DO NOT LET THEM ROLL OVER YOU!” The manager warned as they engaged in close combat.

Their movements were tactical. Precise, and each swing and breath they took was with defined purpose. It would not surprise her if the sweat that dripped from their foreheads was also precisely calculated.

“TWO HERE! REQUESTING BACKUP!”

“ONWARDS! I’LL KEEP THIS ONE, GO FINISH THOSE ONES OFF FIRST!”

“STAB STAB STAB!”

“SLASH! SMASH! THIS IS FOR KILLING ME EARLIER!”

Scarlet Logic were the official military forces of the Nexus for a reason. And despite being among the weakest as Frost gathered from their levels; they fought with a skill much higher than even hers.

It was mesmerizing.

But they were rather… unhinged? Frost didn’t know how to describe it, but they did not seem afraid. Of anything. At all. The Cognition Suppressors wouldn’t have suppressed the sensation of pain according to Nav. Though neither did she suspect that had one in the first place considering they still referred to these things ‘meatballs’.

Also, when one of their members was unfortunately pulverized and dragged into the mass of the Flesh Clot – the others did not seem phased at all by the loss of a comrade. Their screams of agony as their bones were compressed and drawn into the ball of flesh did nothing to them.

Instead, they were killed off before they could suffer further. They only fought on immediately afterwards like it was the only thing they were capable of.

Scrutiny unfortunately did not activate until the very end. Their RESIST stat was too high for the short amount of time they fought.

Only 1 of the dozen were killed. They were not even given a sendoff or even a speck of their thought. She knew death was all to common in the Scarlet Logic, but was it to the point where it was as normal to die as breathing?

She returned to them, passing by the flickering flames that lingered on the corpses of these Flesh Clots. The manager promptly stood before her with both hands hooked behind her back, and her chest puffed out in utmost respect.

“Cara, Manager of the Dawn Collection Team! We thank you for stepping down to help with the passage of these collected slaves!”

She thanks me for the slaves, but not their lives…?

They were disciplined. Highly disciplined. The others did not miss a single beat and lined behind her. It was only the bunny-eared Captain who seemed completely out of place as she struggled to tow the weapon behind her.

Now that Frost had a closer look at her, she was limping. She suspected her leg was broken after she fell from the caravan earlier.

Yet she walked on like it didn’t matter the slightest. The Captain eventually stood side by side with the manager and recited something as Furio went to rest by a log.

“Usa! Demi-human! Third cycle! But I feel like the fourth one’s coming –!”

“DESIGNATIONS!” The manager reminded, tugging onto those long, pink ears which matched her hair. She almost uprooted them like they were flowers.

“Nnngh! Usa! Captain of the Dawn Collection Team! Almost the lowest of the low in Scarlet Logic!”

“Then, Captain of the Dawn Collection Team, can you fill me in with what’s happening in Divas Pass?” Frost had to take this into her own hands since their designations didn’t really make sense to her.

Asking now would shatter the illusion of superiority.

She needed to gather information from them before this happened. From her wear to her knowledge of their team, to her strength even – the Captain obediently handed over the information, with the complete approval of her manager, believing her to be an Apostle of the Justica Arms.

“Over 21,380 deaths in Divas Pass! Exactly 1,930 belonged to Scarlet Logic fodder before the Dragon Protocol was raised. Midnight Dragon Team attempted interception with the Apostle of Justica Arms 12^th Branch but failed. Grandis restrictions prevented our Blood Moons from giving chase. Hungry infestations began exactly 24 hours after the usage of Infusion S…. and…”

Now there was some semblance of sadness in her eyes as she prepared herself to speak again.

“500 recovered slaves in total have been lost in the last 300 hours in this same region. Every single one of them have been devoured by the Hungry. This is our last collection before complete abandonment of Grandis. Seeing you here only solidifies this…”

“At least these ones will see the light of Brandar.” Cara, the manager, said. She wanted to sigh. Frost could tell, but she held too much respect for Frost to do that in front of her face.

They’re disciplined alright. Nav. Do you have any idea what the hell they meant? Dragon Protocol? Cycles? Midnight…? And then there’s the Apostle of Justica Arms. That’s Iscario, isn’t it? He was an Apostle of Beholder Galia this whole time?

“The betrayal must have the entire Atelier under the scrutiny of all. The same with Inflow Direct. I had no knowledge of Iscario’s matter. I only know as much as you.

As for your questions; this is all unknown to me. But I do understand that the Dragon Protocol is the highest response level in Scarlet Logic. The Midnight Dragon Team is their strongest unit, likely made up of Blood Moons and Red Giants. They are all Dragonkin if the name is anything to go by.”

And these are the lowest… but they mentioned fodder. They must be even lower than these ones. Nearly 2,000 of them died, huh… and another 19,000 in Divas Pass. Nav…

I have a terrible feeling about this.

“Indeed you should. An infestation is the second stage of a Dungeon’s appearance. I can already sense your anger. ‘why hasn’t anyone done anything?’. This is Grandis. Divas Pass, however close it is to Brandar, is still in Grandis.”

She was about a hair’s away from entering the First State when Nav mentioned this. The concept of this was beyond agonizing. Divas Pass was essentially on the border and yet it saw little to no help at all.

These Collectors were left to the whims of these creatures, as if they were expected to die along with the slaves. Then for what reason were the slaves saved if they were just going to die in the end!?

The manager sensed her rage and somehow managed to straighten herself further. The Demi-humans instinctively sensed this, and their ears drooped in terror like they were just inches away from the all-consuming maw of a monster.

“Do you two wish to eliminate the infestation? Or do you wish to merely save the slaves?” Frost calmly asked.

“… you’re kidding? We can’t do one without the other. Wait – you’re going to do it!? I mean, by all means do it! But, hey… one betrayal is already enough –!”

“Shut up. Just shut up. This is a Justica Arms Apostle… not some Wayfarer strapped to a Wandering Healer. They… don’t give a single fuck so long as they do what’s right. So shut up and let her be. I promise you we’ll die for good if you don’t keep your mouth shut!” The manager made clear that she deeply understood who Frost presented herself as.

She had a choice here. To heal the woman and the others of their injuries, or to play along and gather as much information as possible. At least until they neared Divas Pass to fight this infestation.

Frost made the most obvious choice and spoke with a voice telling of her overwhelming power.

“I’d like it if you didn’t keep your mouth shut and spoke. The news has been moving slowly since the Relay Sites were destroyed. Between you and I, I also wish for these slaves to reach the Nex Megalopolis. Therefore, it is in our best intentions to help each other out.

So. Mind explaining in detail what happened in the last 13 days?”