BXBX NOVEL Chapter 56: Ambush.
"I mean, I kind of believe it though," Eris admitted. "I don't know why, but I can't find the conviction within myself to believe that woman was lying, but it also contradicts everything else that we know... about Sol and about our own world."
"Ah, they're at it again," Ikaris snuggled comfortably against Sol's chest gaining him the jealousy of everyone who had the displeasure of witnessing them up close.
He didn't respond, he simply kept his gaze ahead and smiled.
"Master?"
"Hm?"
"What do you suppose we should name our children?" She asked, and Sol felt butterflies across the bottom of his stomach explode like fireworks.
[The goddess of love is estatic at this revelation]
[The goddess of war stares conflicted]
[The goddess of chaos is flustered at this revelation]
[The god of stories is listening attentively for an answer]
"Ikaris, please don't ambush me like that," Sol lowered his gaze and focused on her neck with a blush, staring down her cleavage at her light armour. "You'll make me lose control–Ikaris!" Sol blushed even more fusiously when she started breathing heavily and pushing herself against him.
"Yes, master?" Ikaris leaned forward, raised her ass, and pulled her hair to the front revealing the pulsating sigil on her neck and another resembling small wings just below it.
"Ahem, lady Ikaris," Arla called to her sheepishly. "You are making the soldiers uncomfortable..." Arla warned her, but felt her lungs contract and squeeze when Sol's attention was directed toward those same soldiers that were now paying attention to her.
"M-master Vestic?" Arla waved her hands at him urgently, and at her becon Sol released his magic causing the area to become breathable again.
"Honestly, I'm too possessive of you, you know that, I can't stand it when you are stared at by other men like this, it drives me crazy." Sol ignored Arla and pushed the back of Ikaris's head after he realised what he was about to do. "Don't tease me like that around others, you're making their lives harder."
"I have no idea what you mean though~" Ikaris laughed and righted herself again.
"Behave yourself." Sol ordered her, and Ikaris immediately relaxed and slumped against him once more, falling quickly into comfort.
"As you wish, Master."
"Ugh," Dina sighed, resting her cheek on her fist as she stared through the window at them with evident jealousy.
"Are you okay?" Bruce asked from the opposite side, he hadn't seen nor had he felt anything because of his lack of sensitivity for mana and his general oafish mentality, it had passed right under his nose.
"I'm recovering my mana, leave me be." Dina responded with a other sigh.
[Mana: 73/82k]
"Why don't you just use the mana potions?" Eris opened her coat, revealing a pocket of strapped-down vials, but Dina shook her head in refusal.
"Arla said that constant consumption of mana potions dampens my sensitivity to the mana around me, I think it's like the difference between natural and processed foods, the processed foods might fill and keep you alive, but the natural foods have more diverse and healthier effects, so I'm constantly trying to sense and refine the mana in my surroundings, and especially out here where there are more magical beings and fauna, there's an abundance of mana for me to absorb." She explained, and Eris lowered her hands with a complex expression.
"You can recover your mana outside of the natural passive recovery? Can you teach me?" She asked, and Dina looked at her with a raised brow both from amusement and the sense of seniority that she first had when arriving.
"Sure, whenever we set up camp again we can practice together."
"You make it sound like yoga," Han scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Even if he was a complete piece of shit, Kane taught me a better way of utilizing mana; instead of always needing to absorb it, why not just will it to do your bidding?" He asked, and Bruce nodded to this more crude method.
"There won't always be a steady source of mana, what if you end up in a situation where there's no mana around you to absorb?" Eris asked but he and Bruce shrugged her question off.
"Master has taught me a multitude of different ways to manipulate mana both internally and externally," Usami thought to herself.
"But I doubt telling them would change anything, after all it is supposed to be a secret between just us, and if I want to keep cultivating with him I have to keep it a secret." She smiled as she watched everyone else get into a debate about which way of mana manipulation and absorbtiom was the most effective and beneficial.
"What about you?" Dina looked across at Usami who was in her own little world. "What's your take on this?"
"Sorry, no comment." She chuckled.
"We are about to reach our destination, if all goes well we probably won't be back in Argom city for another three or so months, if it is not smooth, we will have to wait for reinforcements this time instead of retreating, and the entire journey might take an excess of six to seven months considering the size of the reinforcement camps." Idria knocked on the side of the carriage delivering an update.
"The mission hm," Han relaxed from the argument and raised his hand to the roof of the carriage, pulling a small lever that caused the roof to fly open and tuck into the sides like a convertible as he stood along with the other heroes.
"It is a crude barrier to begin with, it can only hold demons of a hundred levels and below, if anything stronger comes along then it will break again." Ikaris shrugged.
"Something did break it though and not just one area either, that's the whole reason everyone was deployed, even though the heroes were still in training." Sol answered her comment with his own input.
"I suppose."
"Crude?" Arla frowned with herself. "Those are ancient barrier techniques that take decades to learn properly, how can she call them crude after seeing the formula only once?" She asked herself, but then remembered who she was referring to and sighed with a hopeless smile.
"I don't think it will be a problem, and there are three other sites that we need to visit before we even have a grasp of what's happening," Sol commented again. "Either way, it should be no problem for you or the others to handle-"
Just at the entrance to a forest that laid beyond their first of three objectives he was interrupted by a symphony of horns, and watched as the entire advance army perked up, along with Ikaris starting to pay attention.
"The scouts are sending signals." Arla stood from her horse and slowly floated with a simple chant.
In the distant, more horns sounded, and the soldiers' passive awareness turned to high alert as the ground started shaking beneath them.
"The forest has already been choked with demonkin, and-" Arla raised her staff and shot a blue mana bolt into the air that went high and then exploded into a red flare that slowly descended.
"It might drag on till nightfall this time," Sol looked at Ikaris who summoned a physical sword this time along with proper armour and a half helmet that protected her mouth and nose like a mask. "This time, it'll be a challenge for our heroes."
"All hands at the ready!" Arla started summoning a barrier, but was dragged out of the air by Ikaris who leaped up to her causing a projectile she had not sensed to zoom by, crashing and exploding into the army behind them and killing several soldiers right off the bat in a plume of violet fire.
"Eris!" Idria called immediately, and she sprung into action immediately bursting into a full sprint toward the explosion with Garam right behind her.
"They were waiting for us!?" Arla stood properly after Ikaris released her.
[Activating clairvoyance]
Ikaris's eyes shone and she stared through the crowds into the treeline and beyond.
"You should order an immediate retreat," She instructed Arla, who stared back at her shocked.
"A retreat-"
"Yes, right now, if you don't want your men to be wiped out order them to retreat!" Ikaris grabbed her by her collar and shook her without breaking eye-contact with the creature which was staring back at her.
"I can't just..." Arla's eyes slowly widened when she felt the General's mana signature suddenly disappear, and in a sick ironic twist, his arm fell right at their feet; torn off and slightly charred from the lingering purple flames.
"Ah... Aah~" The half-elf shook and her lips trembled at the sight... "Grim?" She seemed to break character regaining herself only after the light from Ikaris's wings shook her back to reality. "Wait, dont-" she tried stopping her, but Ikaris was gone in a flash, and right behind her were the other heroes.
"Order the retreat, before it's too late." Sol calmly spoke, while panic started arising in the crowds around them, he stood next to her with a passive stare in the direction of the forest.
"Do it now."