NOVEL WEB Chapter 201: Brewing Darkness
"Retreat!!" roared a young man at the top of his lungs.
Hao tried his best to give his platoon leader more time to reduce the number of the Fell Beasts.
However, they've reached their absolute limit in acting alone as a platoon.
They had to fall back to the artillery lines stationed in the uplands.
Hal, lost in his trance, didn't hear the call.
He continued casting spells, despite a B-ranked Fell Beast scaling the cliff just a few meters beneath him.
He was lucky that Hao noticed his strange actions, sprinting back to him and pulling him back by his military uniform.
"Boss Hal! What are you doing?! We need to retreat!" reprimanded the bespectacled squadron leader, finally snapping his platoon leader back to reality.
"M-My bad, let's go," Hal responded, still a bit out of it.
Nonetheless, his legs began moving, sprinting back to the artillery lines alongside Hao and kicking up clouds of dust.
Halfway back to the lines, the space beside Hal warped, and all the hairs in his body stood on end.
Danger!
The next moment, a spatial crack opened, and a female Fellkin Warrior with long, straight, thin horns emerged, shooting towards Hal with purple lightning crackling all over her body as though a bullet.
'Damn it!' Hal could dodge.
However, if he did so, then Hao might die, as the short squadron leader was sprinting right beside him.
Who could say for sure that Hao would also be able to evade the attack on time?
But then, just before Hal was about to use [Mana Barrier] and [Reinforced Earthen Wall] simultaneously in an uncertain attempt to defend himself, a wisp of vermilion flame emerged in front of him and expanded into the shape of a human.
The female officer of the Imperial Wizard Army, who had just appeared quite literally out of thin air, exploded in a Flaming Outburst.
But shockingly, her flames only expanded forward.
Hal and Hao, who were behind the officer, were unaffected by the attack, although they certainly felt the heat.
"Thanks!" Hal said somewhat absent-mindedly in gratitude, continuing his sprint back to the artillery lines.
Hao was quite dumbfounded, only beginning to realize that they had almost been assassinated by a Fellkin Warrior.
He would've died for sure had Hal dodged out of the way.
The two youngsters couldn't keep their wits for long, as, in the next instant, the mana in the area rippled violently.
Two squadrons—one from the Imperial Wizard Army with eight members—emerged in their unique ways.
The other group only had five members.
However, the ways they appeared were mostly by the way of thunder, darkness, space, and void elements.
An eight-on-five skirmish between veteran, high-ranking wizards of the Imperial Wizard Army and the Fellkin Assassination Cohort was about to ensue.
Hal felt that he could participate.
However, Zephyron's repeated reminders rang in his head: he could not die.
This made risking his life to help the veteran wizards seem like a dumb move.
Ultimately, despite the knots in his heart, Hal chose to retreat.
His job was to reduce the Fell Beasts' numbers, not fight Fellkin Warriors.
The Chaos Platoon soon made it back to the safety of the fortified artillery lines, and Hal, after a glance at the skirmishing wizards and Fellkin Warriors, ordered his subordinates to take position at the side of the cliff.
It was time to resume their task. This trаnslаtiоn is pоwеrеd by thе rеаdеrs аt М|V|LЕ9МРYR.
While the number of the Fell Beasts marching forth at the valley could be considered limited due to the restriction of the natural geography of the area, they would at least be able to attack safely.
Only when the fortified artillery lines were broken through by the scalers would they have to retreat again.
And so, Hal and his subordinates, after finding decent positions, began raining hell upon the fell creations once more.
The battle raged on…
On the other side of the valley uplands, a huge Fireball descended upon the cornered and desperately advancing horde, lightening the weight in Hal's heart.
The reformed Fire Platoon, like them, had also retreated to the safety of the artillery lines, it seemed.
Hal was simply glad that the midget was alive and kicking, probably cursing her lungs out at the poor beasts as she cast her devastating flames.
**
*
Meanwhile, at the fell camp a distance away, the Fellkin named Khatu crushed the human skull wine cup in his hands, causing the viscous purple brew to fly everywhere, a small volume flowing down the purple skin of his clawed hands.
This specific wine cup was Khatu's favorite, as it was made from the skull of a previous Magna of the human race, rewarded to him by one of the Seres after a job well done.
He now destroyed it in his frustrations at the sight of the two Magna Prospects escaping once more.
It seemed that Zephyron was an infuriatingly good commander, evident in how his desperate attempt at assassinating the two youngsters of the human race was read like an open book.
For a few moments, Khatu gazed coldly in the distance, imagining the moment his wine cup was replaced by Zephyron's skull.
'Fine, I'll give this round to you…' thought the Fellkin Leader. "Yisu."
"Yes, Lord Khatu?"
"The attack is going way too fast, and our beasts' numbers are decreasing faster than we expected. Slow down the assault. We need to ensure that no one would escape."
Otherwise, the Atrox Seres would end him.
He couldn't allow Zephyron, Hal Fennec, and Ennya Kasai even the slightest chance of escaping back to the safety of the Imperium's borders.
That said, Khatu was confident in his plan.
While his life rested on its success, so did his honor and clan name.
The Atrox Seres was cunning but lazy.
The brutish fell lord did not fancy scheming, usually leaving everything to his subordinates.
This was Khatu's chance.
His plan just needed to work, and his name, Khatu Kata, shall resound gloriously in the Fell Continent
'Enjoy your lives for a few more days, humans…soon enough, you shall see that nothing but despair and darkness awaits you in the east…'