Chương 99: Clean Up Duty

As Damion looked off the wall around Saung he saw the automated farms were almost entirely destroyed. The lush open fields around the city had been burned and frozen and were pockmarked with craters from magical explosions. Damion had never seen a warzone before, but he supposed this was what most looked like. Destruction as far as the eye could see and everywhere people just trying to survive. The call to move off the wall and attack the remnants of the beast wave should be coming at any moment.

Not long after that the Magic System's timer would reach zero and unlock. This would grant Damion his long desired magic affinity and let him use magic like the mage he was. Far in the distance flashes of light could be seen. Explosions of magic. Damion could not tell what was happening, but he knew it was the fight between the S Rank mages and the final S Rank Arcdotus that had attacked Saung with the beast wave.

After several more minutes the flashes of magic ceased and there was a rumbling felt through the ground and Saung's wall. Damion guessed this meant the S Rank Arcdotus had fallen. Damion had already received his orders. He was to proceed with the four other people on top of the east gate with him to hunt down any Demonic Beast or Ferocious Beast between Saung and the Benault Forest. Everyone C Rank and below had been put into groups like this.

B Rank individuals would be roaming freely, to help out any group that ran into something too strong for them. Since this was just a forced grouping, neither Damion nor the other people in his group had bothered to learn each other's names. There were two people Damion paid attention to, their healer and a brown-haired C Rank knight. The other two knights were only E Rank and Damion suspected they were assigned to his group so they would have something to do.

The A Rank and S Rank mages were left out of Damion's orders. He guessed they would be handling Demonic Beasts inside the Benault Forest and searching for Breaches. If the Breaches were Unstable Breaches, then they had probably already collapsed on their own. But Semi-Stable Breaches would need to be cleared a few times before they would close. Damion wondered if he would get to go into any of those Breaches, but with the level of Demonic Beasts in this beast wave he guessed the answer would be no.

"All parties, head out to clear the area," Justiciar Mathis called out. The defenders let out a cheer and many of them started jumping off the wall to the ground. While a few went down from the wall normally and headed out the city gate, Damion guessed those were the lower Rank knights and mages, not entirely sure of their power. Damion joined his party on the road after jumping from the top of the gate himself.

With their entire group ready, they all took off at a run heading away from the city in search of Demonic Beasts. To Damion it seemed like they were just jogging along, but to a normal person watching on they would appear to be moving quite quickly. Despite how quickly they were moving, they were still not as fast as ground cars, and they would have to rest quite soon if they continued at the pace they were moving.

Luckily, the person Justiciar Mathis had designated the leader, the C Rank Light mage, was the first out of breath and called for a stop. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Damion had wondered why Justiciar Mathis had placed this person in charge of the group and now Damion felt like he knew, so they would not get left behind.

"Sorry, I don't run a lot," the healer huffed.

"Anyone see anything?"

"There is a group of Wind Wolves over that way," a brown-haired knight said pointing with one hand while holding a tablet in the other. The tablet was connected to the Adventurer Association's tracking grid. After the S Rank Demonic Beasts were taken down, the Adventurer Association launched magic drones into the air to scout and detect Demonic Beasts. The drones had enough magic to fly for about three hours, which meant they would stay out for two and then start automatically heading back to the Association.

This gave all the teams a window to easily find groups of Demonic Beasts. Once the magic drones returned to the Adventurer Association for recharging all the teams would be left with the last bit of data transmitted, which might help, but if the Demonic Beasts had moved on or been taken out by another team then they would have just wasted their time.

"Alright, let's go," the healer said. Damion's group headed over and quickly made short work of the Wind Wolves. All of these Demonic Beasts were only E and F Rank. Against a party with a D Rank and a C Rank knight, these Demonic Beasts were powerless. Once the Wind Wolves were dealt with the party moved on to another group of Demonic Beasts. The carcasses of the Wind Wolves were left were they fell, just like the carcasses of all the Demonic Beasts in the beast wave.

It was more important to secure the Green Zone than it was to make money. The Adventurer Association would be sending out collectors, normal people paid to harvest Demonic Beasts and Ferocious Beast bodies, once the 'all clear' was sounded and people were allowed to leave the shelters. The majority of the funds would be used to repair damaged property while the rest was to be split up amongst the defenders based on their Rank and contribution.

After an hour had passed since Damion's team was sent out in the field and they had already taken out a dozen small groups of Demonic Beasts. Damion had to force himself not to check the timer on the Magic System. He knew it was almost time, but he did not want to look and be tormented by the seconds counting down. As Damion was wrestling with himself mentally, the brown-haired knight announced their next target.

"There is a solo beast about a kilometer north of here. Doesn't look like any other teams are anywhere close to it. Once we take it out, there doesn't appear to be anything within 5 kilometers of us."

"Let's get to it then," the healer said as he took off towards the north. The rest of the party followed after and within a couple of minutes they had closed in on the Demonic Beast. Damion did not recognize the type of Demonic Beast, but it looked like a giant crocodile. It was roughly ten meters long and had a thick dark red hide with defensive scales and spikes on its back. The Demonic Beast was completely ignoring them and was just walking along the open field.

"It's a Deinosuchus," one of the E Rank knights said.

"How strong is it?" the healer asked.

"How should I know?" the E Rank shot back.

"The drone has identified it as a C Rank Demonic Beast," the brown-haired knight said.

"C Rank, then we should be able to take it," the healer said looking back and forth from Damion to the brown-haired knight for confirmation.

"My sword is only a D Rank artifact," Damion told them.

"I'll have trouble cutting through that thing's hide."

"I might be able to pierce it's hide, but even if it is a C Rank Beast, it can really hurt us if we are caught off guard. And I don't like the fact that it is ignoring us," the brown-haired knight said.

"One of you act as a distraction, the other go for the vulnerable points. The rest of us will hang back and support," the healer threw out a plan that Damion could not disagree with.

"I'll be the distraction," Damion said as he drew his sword and rushed forward alongside the Deinosuchus, aiming to get ahead of it. To distract it, he needed for the Demonic Beast to know he was here.