Chương 230: Slash Rats Part 1

As Damion peered over the crest of the hill, he spotted what could only be described as a horde of Slash Rats. The hill he was on ran down into a small basin that had steep walls rising in all the other directions. If the Slash Rats were attacked in the basin the only place they had to flee was right to where Damion was. Looking at his team that was still at the foot of the hill, about 15 meters away, he sighed.

If he was with a team he trusted, Damion would have no issues with leading a group against these Demonic Beasts. True Sight told him most were only E Rank, easy enough to overcome with a group like he was in. As long as they could work together. Unfortunately, half of his team had issues with him. He would not say they were openly hostile anymore, but in a life-or-death situation, he knew none of those three would risk their necks for him.

And the other half, well Inara seemed to be fairly competent, but Ronald left much to be desired in a teammate. With the number of Slash Rats in the area on the other side of the hill, no matter how good their opening series of attacks were, they were going to be at risk of being overrun. They had a good variety for their team, Ice, Fire, Wind, Water, Dark and Wood affinities, but Damion was not sure what spells they had that could be useful. They needed long range attacks that could affect a large area.

The further away they engaged the Slash Rats, the more they could kill before being overrun. The next logical step would be to make it so the Slash Rats could not overrun them. Damion could use Ice Wall, though if he did he risked exposing that he knew the spell. No one had questioned the spell he used to create his ice ball with Mage Blythe in the labyrinth, but he thought it was unlikely he would get that lucky twice.

Ronald might be able to use Nurture Growth to create something that would slow the Demonic Beasts down but slowing them down was not stopping them. Sliding down the hill, Damion walked over to the rest of his team to give them the lay of the land and come up with a plan.

"So, how many are there?" Thomas asked before Damion could speak.

"Lots. They are bunched together in fairly large groupings. If we can hit them with strong attacks from range, we can take out a large portion of them. The problem is going to be stopping them from overrunning us."

"You mean we won't be able to finish them off before they overwhelm us and start eating us while we are still alive," Geoffrey said, causing Ronald to let out a frightened squeak.

"We might be able to hold them off. Geoffrey do you know Firewall?"

"I do."

"Can you make one large enough to contain the horde when it starts towards us?"

"There is no way I can contain all of them. But no creature likes to run through fire…"

"Unless it has a Fire affinity," Yuri snickered.

"Hush. Creatures instinctively avoid fire whenever they can. If I layout a series of Fire Walls, I can probably slow them down, but you and Yuri will have to make sure not to put my fires out." You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

"I think we can manage that," Damion said while looking at Yuri who just nodded.

"I can take out a lot from range and I'll send my Ice Clone into the middle of them, that should buy us some time."

"Yeah, I'm sure the Slash Rats will love eating ice," Yuri laughed.

"They'll attack anything in their midst, especially something that is attacking them. The Slash Rats are mostly E Ranks. My Ice Clone should be able to last quite a while against them, we just need to make the best use of its distraction," Damion told them before turning to their Wind mage.

"Thomas, do you know any large area of effect spells?"

"Most of my spells are single target, but Twister will throw anything that gets caught up in its vortex."

"Just what we need, Slash Rats tossed in all directions," Inara said dryly. Her comment elicited a few snickers from Yuri and Geoffrey, but left Ronald looking even more terrified than he already did.

"Ronald," Damion calling his name snapped him out of his imagined world where he was being eaten by flying Slash Rats.

"I want you to make a thorny bramble barrier. Thick enough that it will slow any Slash Rats charging at us down long enough for us to pick them off one at a time."

"There is nothing growing here. The trees here are dead. I don't have anything I can use Nurture Growth on."

"What about the leaves you brought with you? They should still have enough life left. Stick a dozen of them in the ground, and cast your spell, grow them into a thicket." Ronald nodded and began pulling leaves from his pockets and planting them in the ground to start growing their defenses.

"What about me?" Inara asked.

"Unless you have an area of effect spell, stay with Ronald. Use your Dark Blade to kill anything that makes it through the thicket."

"I'll target Twister on other side of the thicket," Thomas said.

"It may toss the Slash Rats in unexpected directions, but creatures of their size will be thrown a long way and probably won't survive the impact."

"I have Driving Rain," Yuri said.

"It's a tier 2 spell that can flood an area if kept up long enough."

"Geoffrey, do you know Fire Storm?" Damion asked the Fire mage before assigning Yuri a task.

"Yes, but I can probably only cast it twice before I'm low on mana, and it takes me a while to channel the spell. It is tier 3 you know."

"I am aware," Damion told him.

"The three of us will go to the crest of the hill. Geoffrey, you will cast Fire Storm and then fall back, laying out Fire Walls to slow any Slash Rats down that come over the hill.

"Yuri, once I send my Ice Clone in, you will cast Driving Rain to put out any remaining fires and then use Water Blast to knock any Slash Rats that come our way back into the kill zone."

"What will you be doing?" Thomas asked.

"I'll be raining down ice on the whole area down there. Once it starts looking like the Slash Rats will charge us, Yuri, I want you to cast another Driving Rain on me and then retreat with the others behind the bramble line." Phil let out a chirp after Damion finished giving everyone their tasks.

"You can fight however you like," Damion told the Snow Hawk.

"But stick around the edges, at least until the Fire Storm and my Ice attacks are done." The Ferocious Beast let out a joyful chirp and took off into the air. Ronald was well on his way to forming the bramble line. Each leaf he planted in the ground quickly became a thornbush under his spell's effect. The magic enhanced plants were thicker and more robust with large sharp thorns that could easily bite into the flesh of the Slash Rats.

As Ronald finished his creation he collapsed on the ground, having used the majority of his mana.

"Can I borrow a mana potion?" Inara tossed Ronald a mana potion as she looked at his handiwork. When Damion first suggested the idea, she thought he was kidding himself. There would be no way Ronald would be able to create a barrier that could keep the Slash Rats out, but seeing what the Wood mage had done, changed her mind and prompted her to give him a mana potion to recover from the effort.

"Alright, Yuri, Geoffrey, let's go."