Chương 290: Crimson Waste Part 3

The eight Balaurs were taken down quite easily by the two A Rank mages of the group, leaving the rest of Damion's party little to do but watch for the ambush Mage Phinn had predicted. Just as Damion thought the danger had passed, the ground beneath them started splitting open. Damion used Blink to move away, casting the spell several times in a row to move out of the range of whatever was digging upwards toward them.

Mage Young, however, seemed thrilled the fight had come to him and slammed the points of his kite shields into the ground. As the healer drove his shields into the ground Damion could have sworn he heard a distinct wet crunch. A moment later, Mage Young pulled his shields up and the ends were covered in some creature's blood.

"Great, now we have to dig whatever that was out so James can store it," Mage Phinn said, sounding annoyed their healer had killed whatever it was.

"Not yet, there are more," Mage Young announced as the ground began shaking once again.

"Then get out of the way and let us fight them properly," Simon Beck complained. Mage Young jumped to the side and made it halfway to where Damion had blinked himself. A few seconds after the healer cleared the area, the broken ground erupted and several Balaurs spewed out of the ground.

"These things can dig?" Peter Beck questioned as he swung his sword at one of them, leaving a large gash on the Demonic Beast's side.

"Not normally," Mage Phinn answered.

"There must have been a tunnel or a burrow made by something else, and they used it for their ambush."

"Exactly how intelligent are these things?" Peter Beck asked.

"Is this really the time?" Damion asked as he blinked away from a Balaur that lunged at him. He could have killed the Demonic Beast, however, since he was pretending to be a Spatial mage, he focused on evasion. This also gave him the chance to work on increasing the mastery of his Spatial spells, which meant more credits. Simon Beck responded to Damion's evasion by jumping across the battlefield and slamming his body into the side of the Balaur as it chased after Damion.

The Demonic Beast was knocked onto its side and slid across the ground before Simon lunged at it again, this time running his sword through its chest.

"Sorry about that," Simon said with a quick salute to Damion before returning to the fray. Damion watched as Simon and Peter fought the Balaurs that were still crawling out of the underground burrow. Mage Phinn or Mage Abney likely could have killed them easily, either with Chain Lightning or with Driving Rain to drown them. However, if they did that it would be more difficult to collect the carcasses. Each of the Balaurs were a C Rank Demonic Beast and was worth quite a bit.

If the carcasses were buried or washed deep into the burrow, it would be no different than flushing money down the toilet. With that approach in mind, the group was letting the Balaurs climb out of the burrow and then they were killing them off. This allowed Damion to collect the carcasses right away, keeping the battlefield as clear as possible to not impede the two knights' or the healer's movements.

With the two knights engaging most of the Demonic Beasts, Mage Phinn and Mage Abney were in the wings, taking down any of the Balaurs that got past the knights and the group was making quick work of them. When the last of the Balaurs emerged from the burrow, the knights moved aside, and Mage Phinn announced it was Mage Young's turn. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Alright, Rodney, this one is all yours, but don't expect any of us to heal you if you get hurt."

"As if these things could hurt me," Mage Young boasted. The healer charged in, holding his shields out in front of him to block any attacks the Balaur might make. Damion thought the brawling healer would take a more defensive approach to the fight, but instead the brawny man slammed his shields into the Demonic Beast. The blow caused the Demonic Beast to stagger a bit but ultimately it did not get knocked over.

Mage Young then swung his left arm and battered the Balaur's snout with one shield, while he raised his right arm a bit before slamming the tip of his kite shield into the Balaur's side, eliciting a cry of pain from the Demonic Beast. The Balaur whipped its long tail around and Mage Young was forced to knock the tail aside with one shield, while fending off the Demonic Beast's mouth full of teeth and razor-sharp talons with his other.

"I love a good fight," Mage Young cried out as he slammed the top of his shield up into the lower jaw of the Balaur in a sort of uppercut.

"Is he always like this?" Damion asked Mage Phinn.

"Rodney's alright, he has A Rank magic talent and an A Rank Light affinity, but he's always loved fighting. If it wasn't for his family forcing him to pursue his magic, he would likely dedicate his full time to being a knight."

"Well, at least he can heal himself whenever he gets hurt," Damion commented as the Balaur landed a slash on Mage Young's thigh that was healed almost instantly.

"Yes. If he put in a little more effort to his magic training and reached B Rank, he would be a true terror in any battle."

"Why doesn't he use a weapon? Why the two shields?"

"It started out because his family would not buy him a weapon to train with. So, he started fighting with two shields and it sort of became his trademark. With what he makes on his runs with us, Rodney could easily buy a sword, or mace, or any other weapon or attack artifact, but he likes his shields."

"Well, he is certainly good with them," Damion said as the healer toppled the Demonic Beast and slammed his shields down into its neck with a sickening crunch. When the fight was over Damion heard a familiar chime in his head, letting him know the Magic System had new notifications for him.

Ding [Spell Blink mastery increased to E Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] Ding [Spell Spatial Storage mastery increased to B Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] Ding [Spell Instant Channeling mastery increased to D Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] Ding [Spell No Resistance mastery increased to D Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit] Sadly, one of the notifications was not that he had finished a stage of his C Rank kill quest.

In all, the group had killed 23 Balaurs, which only brought his current stage of the quest to 27/35. Still, he had hopes that he would be able to get a stage or two of his quest done.

"Good work on evading, James," Mage Phinn told Damion.

"But don't you have an attack artifact?"

"I do, but the Balaurs were only C Rank, I didn't want to risk damaging their bodies too much. Not sure which parts of them are the most the valuable."

"Don't worry about it. If a few are more damaged than others it won't make much of a difference to how much we leave this run with, not when you are able to bring back the whole thing for processing."

"I'll keep that in mind when we run into the next batch," Damion said.

"That's the spirit," said Mage Phinn as he slapped Damion on the back. Ding [Spell Silver Tongue mastery increased to E Rank] Ding {Quest Completed} [Quest: Increase a Magic Spell in Rank – Status: Complete – Reward: 100 Experience, 500 Store Credit]