Chương 214: Still Prowling, Still Seeking

"I think the saying is: 'Third time's the charm', not 'the seventy-eighth time's the charm', but maybe I am just wrong…"

"Listen here, Hortus. You are beginning to annoy me with your constantly pessimistic remarks. Do you have a better idea? Should we just ignore this thing's presence just because it has slipped past us many times in the past?"

"Besides, this is the largest group that has been gathered to hunt it down. It should find it much harder to escape. We'll all be spreading far away from its position, and then close down on it from all sides. Even with its ridiculous ability to feel us coming, it shouldn't be able to get past everyone without getting into a fight… And if it gets into a fight, it should get slowed down, and then–Then! We can fucking catch it and finally send it back to Hell where it belongs!"

"... I think it belongs in the Abyss, actually""Very funny, Yeldt. Have you ever considered giving up on the whole archmage dream and becoming a jester instead?"

"Actually, when I was younger, I used to be part of an amateur jester group""Seriously…?"

"Of course, that's where I met my first girlfriend""Huh…" A group of four adventurers sat around a table in a tavern. Hilene, also known as 'Slayer Blade', was the leader of the bunch, and ever since that one abyssal entity had successfully escaped from her, she had been seeking to catch it again. Alas, the creature had grown more powerful, and especially far more cautious. This thing had been around for a long time now, living through the Nightmare Plague and thriving during it.

The bounty on its head had kept growing to the point that the reward for successfully killing it was absolutely ridiculous at this point. It had developed the bad habit of performing small-scale destruction on things like windmills, trampling crops, and had even acquired the ability to transform abyssal biomass into explosives of sorts, using them to damage the residences of several nobles. This was where the growth of the bounty came from…

A whole bunch of rich folks had been directly inconvenienced by the creature, and they didn't like the fact that it seemed to move in loops to come by and mess with them again after doing it once. They wanted that thing done for good. The person to score the kill and get the riches would be able to retire on the spot… It was without mentioning the one noble who added that the killer could marry his eldest daughter.

For obvious reasons, this motivated quite a lot of people to seek the creature as if it were their very nemesis. Regardless, there was also the side that the Abyssal was simply too dangerous to be left alive. All adventurers, mercenaries, or the like with the ability to take it down were aware that slaying the entity was the responsible thing to do. If it were allowed to get too strong, it would become everyone's problem.

Especially if it ended up acquiring the ability to spread abyssal corruption, which was Hilene's main worry. She, Hortus, Yeldt, and Gontra had been going back and forth between jobs and trying to pin down the prowling monstrosity ever since that first loss they had endured due to allowing themselves to be distracted. Gontra sighed, and with her trollish vocalisations, it sounded like a deep growl.

"Hilene is right, this operation is much better put together than anything else before it, and everyone participating is of a good strength level. Any group that happens to be in the path of the Abyssal should at least be able to keep it occupied long enough for everyone else to converge on its location" The archer leaned back in his chair.

"I am not saying that the plan is bad or anything… It's just that… Well… How long has it been since someone actually got a good look at this thing? We have no clue how strong it has become! For all we know, it will just go right through the group in its way without even slowing down! Aren't we supposed to have contacts with seers or whatever to take a look at such things normally?"

The mage picked up his cup–Only filled with apple juice despite the smell of alcohol that seemed to have seeped into the entirety of the tavern.

"We indeed used to know a lot of those back in our dungeoneering days. You forget that the profession has somewhat fallen out of favour since the last known dungeons were completely sacked. Their cores or masters were taken care of, leaving only empty shells… Also, we are dealing with an Abyssal. It isn't a good idea to try to look into such a being. It could easily lead to corruption" Hortus rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Right. I forgot about that… Man, I miss going into dungeons""Do you? You always fell for the mimics and nearly got chomped in half more times than I can count""Come on, Hilene! Those mimics were advanced ones!" Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You could literally see and hear them breathing. They were terrible mimics" Hortus was laughed at for several minutes as his experiences with mimics were all brought up one by one, each more ridiculous than the last, to the point that it seemed more likely that he had been doing it on purpose. There was simply no way for a sentient human being to actually fall for the same trap so many times. Even an old dog would have learned this new trick…

The time for the operation soon arrived, and it actually brought the group back to the beginning–The entity had decided to wander into Louwoods after terrorising a farmland by converting the animals into corrupted versions of themselves. Some people were suspicious since the creature had left an oddly obvious trail, but that was just because they weren't too familiar with the monster.

There were several other trails that it had left, but with time, those hunting it down had learned how to recognise the red herrings from the real deal. Nonetheless, there was something unsettling about meeting it again inside this particular forest. In a way, the failure of Hilene and her group was what had sparked the creature to become so incredibly cautious beyond belief. If not for them, catching and killing it would have been far simpler, but the thing was a quick learner.

All of the people participating met together before spreading out to surround the forest, and the line-up was indeed reassuring. Not only were the truly powerful adventurers of Rootriska all present, but so were mercenaries and independent elites from surrounding countries as well. Human, demon, and beastfolk were joining hands to crush a spawn of The Abyss… There were a few monsterfolks present.

It was a good thing, as powerful as Hilene and her bunch was, it was better to be aided by the best of the best in monster extermination. She didn't care if she didn't even see a fraction of the bounty. She wanted this thing gone before it could become an even bigger problem than it already was.

"Say… Do you think it has returned here before? Its choice of path is completely certain, but it has been moving in a bit of a circle around Louwoods, hasn't it?" Yeldt had pulled out a map upon which he had marked out the known movements the creature had made in the past. It wasn't hard to imagine that the Abyssal might have made a sort of nest for itself, but while it might have been seemingly circling this place, there wasn't any proof that it had been moving into Louwoods.

"What about that other monster that lives here? Last time, we were interrupted because of it, weren't we?" Gontra spoke up while inspecting her shield. It was so well-polished that she could see herself in it.

"According to everything we could gather, it is no longer present. We shouldn't have to worry about being interrupted–But be vigilant nonetheless, we don't want a repeat of last time" One of the biggest issues with the entity was that it had learned to evade the detection method created by Leton Nebulo, the contraption that had allowed Hilene to track it down in the past, no longer worked, and the genius inventor was busy grappling with ways to combat other things at the moment.

Regardless, the great mass of slayers moved in to ensnare the creature, moving a giant net with their very bodies as they slowly closed down onto the center of Louwoods. The first group to stumble upon something of interest was a mercenary team led by a man with a thick moustache, wielding an impressively heavy-looking warhammer. The group of rugged veterans found a large opening into the ground, a sort of cavern open to the air. The leader scratched his moustache, resting his heavy hammer upon his shoulder.

"I have a good feeling that our prey is down there. Get ready to activate the signal. We're heading to the bottom" Without asking questions, the other mercenaries listened to him, and they all descended to the bottom of the open cave and discovered another opening leading deeper down. Without having to say a thing, one of the two mages in the rather big group manifested a bright sphere of basic mana, illuminating the way forward.

The mercenaries found their way quite easily, as there was only a single path to tread. They soon found themselves inside a carved chamber, the place clearly used to be more grandly decorated, but the place had been trashed, and some of the rocks seemed to have been melted. More importantly, though… Although they were unaware of it themselves, in the spot where the statue of a serpentine idol once stood, there was now a bizarre shrine of some kind, but it had nothing to do with the being once revered in this place.

Rather than a snake-like abomination, it was a mesh of various materials in the form of what appeared to be some kind of giant corvid. The ribcage of the shrine was open, revealing a pulsating mass of abyssal matter imitating the beating of a heart.

"Crap, this abomination has been doing some work here–Let's burn this shit down""I would prefer if you didn't do that" The mercenaries all reacted quickly, spinning around and moving away from the voice, only to see that one of their healers was hanging limply in the grasp of the creature. Used to seeing their own dying, they weren't panicked, but the leader narrowed his gaze at the Abyssal… It didn't look or sound like what he had been told about.

The creature was supposed to be a mesh of thin, rope-like structures, supposedly resembling a True Void Being rather than the typical Abyssal, and also, it was supposed to sound way more masculine than it did. Right now, its voice was clearly feminine, and its form also was more humanoid and in line with an Abyssal.

"Are you the right one, or did we get the wrong target?" The creature tilted her head to the side. Her body was humanoid, but lacking details. She was just a dark-bluish mass of solid abyssal matter with random holes going all the way through, including in the head area. Weirdly enough, though. She was lacking in corruptive goop flowing from all over her, and in general, her form wasn't all that corrupted compared to the typical member of her kind.

"Don't worry. You have the right person. I just decided to more closely embrace my abyssal origins instead of imitating someone else" She raised her right hand, and her fingers morphed into claws longer than she was tall–Which was menacing as she stood at three meters in height.

"Set off that damned signal already, and prepare to fight for your life!" The mercenary leader shouted, using a spell on his voice to empower his fellows. The hunt was on–All that was left was to determine which side was prey.