Chương 214: Swamp drakes

"You want us to fight those?" asked Chloe incredulously.

"Yes, they would pose a good challenge, but I have the greatest faith in you all, I'm sure everyone would be able to tackle them solo after we fight some together and learn what they are capable of." Chloe turned to me, then to the monstrosities half submerged in the swamp we found ourselves in, then looked back at me again, clearly failing to articulate what she thought about the matter, despite that, it was clear from her expression what she thought about it.

"Chloe, we are the vanguard, you and Tom never came with us in the past as members of the team, and I know this is a first experience of sorts for you, but when we were in the camp back in the forest near the gorg, we opened the path forward, facing the eldirs when we didn't know nearly anything about them except that they were dangerous, this has been our way of doing things and look around you," I motioned for her to observe the others, "Do you see anyone scared here?

We all know the dangers, but we face them anyway, because if we don't do it, we would stay stuck here in this place and we would never reach the beacon." Those weren't the real reasons I was doing this, just the most obvious ones, but I needed her to put her head in the game, if she wanted to walk with us, and be a pivotal member of my Guild, she would have to be strong enough to face the dangers that her position would require.

Because there was no way that someone at the highest levels of my Guild could avoid any danger, if she couldn't face them I would have to find someone who could take her position and demote her to a more administrative role, one that didn't require a great level of power, I didn't want to do it, but I would if she proved not capable enough. She took a steadying breath, then her eyes hardened.

"Ok, ok, let's do this." She took out a new pen from a pocket and held it between three fingers, ready to write her magic.

"Enough dally-dallying, if we want to tackle those monsters," Tom started, "we need to test them first, what do we know about them?" Marcus was the one to answer.

"They are at the threshold of level 100, extremely durable, they are undead, don't feel pain and have long-range magic attacks they shoot from their mouths." That was pretty good information actually, did he tackle some already?

"You managed to fell one by yourself already?" asked Andrea, her question echoing my thoughts. Marcus grunted.

"Only one, by piercing its brain with a spear, the second one took the same strike as if it wasn't even an inconvenience." Well, I had an idea about it, but another mind on the problem wouldn't hurt.

"Quinn, any idea why?" I asked the teen.

"Probably the second one had a core, while the first didn't." The kid was seriously considering the problem, and giving real solutions, it was a good sign, he was starting to act a bit more professionally, at least when danger was real.

"Is there a way to differentiate if one has one and one hasn't?" I asked everyone.

"Actually you should feel a greater density of magical energy concentrating in the spot where the core is located if there is one," said Rhea, "But it's not really something that anyone can do, usually only magical classes with good senses can, and in the case of undead the cores and bodies should be tainted with necrotic energy, so it would feel different than normal." If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"We can just as well hit the brain and if it's not dead hit the core no? Why make it so complicated? There is no need to feel the core with magic, any weak-point targeting skill would just give you the location of it." rebutted Andrea. I could see Rhea getting frustrated at the continuous jabs from the older woman.

"It won't work, a core is not a weak spot in beasts, in elementals and incorporeal beings? Sure, but beast cores are harder than their bodies, if you want to kill them, especially the undead, we should forcefully extract the core, or it won't stop trying to kill us."

"Like the gorg boss?" asked Quinn.

"Yea, like that." she replied.

"What the fuck is a gorg?" muttered Andrea.

"I'm not going to swim in offal again, thank you." Alya looked around, daring anyone to make her repeat history.

"Everyone calm down, after considering the monsters that had been scouted I chose these because they are good at taking blows, they are resistant and unrelenting, something that we would need to match. That said, Tom, I leave the command to you." He stepped forward.

"As Elias said, first we will all attack the monster, together we will learn its strengths and weaknesses, then we will proceed to face it with fewer people until we face each one by ourselves. Now everyone in formation, Quinn, you are responsible for harassing the monster, cut tendons and blind and deafen it if you can, Frederick and Alya will keep it engaged in melee, Marcus and Andrea will be responsible for long-range damage, strike the head first, without hitting us please.

Rhea and Mary, you will be responsible for supporting us along with preparing a ritual as a fallback trap. Chloe and Elias, debuff the monster to make it more susceptible to our attacks."

"What about you?" Frederick asked. The man was usually quiet so it surprised me that he took the initiative.

"I will stay in the back for now, buff all of us and coordinate our attack." he finished. Many eyes turned on me, as if to confirm his words, that was good, Tom was going to be our general and war strategist, but I was the leader.

"You heard the man, assume your positions." Everyone moved accordingly, we talked about formations already on the way here, Frederick and Alya stood at the front, Quinn and Marcus were going to advance first though, while Chloe and Andrea were at the sides, in the middle we had Rhea, Mary and Tom while I stayed in the back to protect our rear and offer support if needed.

I talked with the vanguard and explained that there wouldn't be much of a challenge if I actively participated too much in the fighting, while this wasn't true given my current state I didn't want anyone to know of my real condition, so I lied through my teeth, and was thinking about how to make my turn at tackling the monsters look like easy work.

While Rhea drew her circles and prepared the rituals I steadied my mind, the bracelet wasn't going to let me off the hook, the pain and overall sense of weakness were growing stronger, but I was keeping it together, for now.

"Everything is ready." Rhea announced.

"Good, Quinn, bring one to us then, let's see how we fare against it."

"Roger, general!" The teen mock saluted Tom and disappeared. His abilities were becoming harder and harder to track, if it wasn't for the life force I could detect I wouldn't be able to feel him moving around, magically he was absent, and normal senses were all fooled by some skill he had, I couldn't hear or see him, I didn't know about smell, some beasts might be able to track him but I for sure couldn't with my boring human nose.

A few seconds later a throaty roar shook the air and we saw one of the closest monsters crash onto mostly dry land after bounding out of the swamp. The monsters around looked pretty upset by the commotion and one followed the first drake's example, rushing out in search of the disturbance. Quinn appeared in front of the two and did some rude gesture while clearly saying something to the monsters, then he turned and bolted. He was clearly going much slower than his max speed, but that worked just fine for us.

Tom started shouting orders.

"Andrea, Marcus, try to take one down, focus on the head! Frederick and Alya, prepare for intercepting them." I prepared a series of hexes to cast at the monsters while the two long-range fighters prepared their weapons, Marcus holstered his bone atlatl, while Andrea's bow appeared in her hand with an arrow brightly illuminated at the tip, I could feel all her magic concentrating there. I was really curious about her fighting capabilities, and now finally I could see her in action against a serious foe.

"Quinn, move out of the way!" Tom shouted as he gestured at the teen. As soon as Quinn moved aside he gave the order.

"FIRE!"