There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 454 - 447. Taste of Darkness

"You’re so silly," Gus sighed as he watched Zhan put the motorcycle inside a storage ring.

"Shut up! There might be a place where I can ride this inside," the spearman spat after stubbornly putting his sweet ride inside. "Isn’t there a city ruin or something?" freewёbnoνel.com

"Don’t cry to me if your bike got damaged later," the swordsman scoffed. "There’s no repair garage here, just so you know."

Zhan belatedly blinked and turned toward Han Shin. "I didn’t take mechanical course," the healer shrugged.

"Tsk."

Ron laughed inwardly as he watched these high-rank espers bickering before at the edge of the jungle. It was an unthinkable thing to do for him and the other Unit personnel, even if Ron himself was an A-class esper. Even during the excursion last year, they weren’t this relaxed. But then again, there were only Bassena and that markswoman as proper damage dealers.

This time, it was a proper attack squad, and each of them was a veteran fighter--not only in dungeons, but people who used to do a lot of dangerous missions. And Ron could tell at a glance, that most of them were just like Agni Khan--battle frenzy bunch.

Well...perhaps that was why he was also at ease this time.

"You’re recording?" Bassena asked Kei, who gave her an OK sign. He clapped his hands then, to garner everyone’s attention. "Alright, we’re going inside the jungle now, so go into formation."

As if the bickering before was a lie, the squad immediately moved into position. Two defenders positioned themselves at the front and the back of the formation, and the guides huddled together with the healer and supports. The attackers strategically positioned themselves based on their range, and Ron shuffled to the front, since he would be the one to lead the path this time. Kei, meanwhile, would take the role of surveyor for the time being--supporting them with data and recording the whole thing.

"Goggles and mask?" Zein checked the guides. "Shield?"

"All ready, Captain!" Dheera and Leehan answered by activating their Shield and shutting it down again.

Zein looked forward and nodded at Bassena, who was standing at the front as usual, despite being a long-range dealer. The Saint class looked at his commlink and announced for the recording.

"June twenty-third, 576 NA, zero-nine-fifty-five; entering the Deathzone."

Dheera gulped and curled her fists as the Commander gave a signal to move. She looked at her Captain for a second, and the serene blue eyes she could slightly see behind the goggles calmed her down somewhat. She nodded to herself and started to walk forward.

In front of her, there was a ’gate’ made of two huge black trees like a pair of pillars, and between them was a gaping darkness that seemed to be ready to swallow her whole. As she looked up to see the entirety of the jungle and the dark cloud above, the Deathzone felt like one big monster, and she was about to step into its maw, straight to its belly.

Not exactly a nice picture, and she started to repeat the Deathzone manual Zein made for them again and again in her mind. The kinds of creatures she might encounter, and what to do in their presence. She recalled what Zein told her to feel calm; touching her weapon.

As she did that, the beast’s maw was already in front of her, and she took her first step into the darkness.

It had been three months since she started the simulation in tears. For those three months, she had steeled herself, determined to not be a burden and a disappointment to her Captain. She had become the one who survived the longest inside the simulation, even when the miasmic beast started to be added.

Still...

Her Captain was right--the simulation was inadequate. The pressure of the miasma she felt immediately once she entered the jungle was no joke. The darkness was something inherent that suffused with dread, and even though she could somewhat see with the help of the dark-vision goggles, it did not alleviate the eerie feelings. Just like in the simulations, the tall trees seemed to be scarier than the total darkness.

Breathe--she told herself. Breathe...

And she did, but she felt like she wasn’t. The air came to her lungs, filtered, and yet it still felt heavy. Dheera was sure that without this mask, she would feel like drowning the moment she inhaled the miasma-riddled air.

The squad was walking without a single word, and it made all the sounds seem so loud in her ear. She could even hear the sound of her heavy breathing and the pounding of her heart.

This situation persisted for a while as they traversed through a path that the Borderland Unit had cleared before, until the Commanders stopped their advance and told them to wait. "We will widen the path Hagalaz," Bassena said. "Carra, give Gus and Zhan a buff. The others stay here for now."

"Yessir."

Carra pointed her staff toward the two warriors, who glowed for a few seconds. Gus and Zhan stepped forward then, away from the group, without any tanker. Bassena glanced at the back and warned the other. "Prepare for the possibility of an ambush."

Dheera flinched and once again, told herself to breathe. Nothing happened yet, but she put one of her hands on her weapon, while raising her other arm in front of her chest. Zein glanced at her, and then at Leehan, who did the same on his other side.

Good. They learned well. It was good enough that they did not panic, but they also readied themselves for any situation like Zein had taught them. Indeed--there was a reason why these two became Zein’s best pupils. Good. He was satisfied so far.

Meanwhile, at the front, Gus bent his knees and made a stance; gripping his sword’s scabbard and hilt, connecting his mana to the blade. Inside the scabbard, rune letters started to shine along the sharp blade, and at the peak of their brightness, the swordsman drew his sword.

In the first slash; three rows of black trees were sliced close to their roots. In the second slash; all the sliced trunks were shattered into dust. Right after, behind the swordsman, Zhan stabbed the end of his halberd into the ground, and the leftover stumps were uprooted as if being pushed from below, rolling out between the trees flanking the new roads.

"We don’t need to smooth it out, right?" the spearman tilted his head.

"Nah--let the team after this do it," Bassena said, before giving his warning right after. "Flying enemies on the flanks."

"You know, Commander; it kind of defeats the purpose of a scout if you’re the one doing the surveilling," Kei commented while giving Naoya another shared vision.

"I’m just patrolling," Bassena shrugged and waved his hands, controlling the fleeting darkness he had been controlling from the start.

But even Bassena couldn’t prevent a swarm of flying miasmic bugs from getting past his patrolling darkness. They could hear the buzzing sounds that reminded Han Shin of the flying termites in that red gate.

"Please not something that looks like worms with wings, please not something that looks like worms with wings..."

Dheera blinked at the healer, who was praying with clasped hands. She couldn’t help but bite her lips to stifle a laugh, and despite still vigilantly raising her arms to protect herself, she felt kind of...lighter.

It was Han Shin’s lucky day, because the creatures looked like locusts. But it also means there were lots of them, just like regular locusts in the safer zone. Only, this one brought something more sinister.

"Poison right off the bat?" Kei raised her brow. At her words, Carra and Hari, the squad support-type espers, cast an anti-poison buff for everyone. It could only hold for five minutes, but that should be enough for the damage dealers to deal with the swarms.

"Julian," Naoya gave the rearguard defender a signal, and the man roused his mana.

"At your mark."

Naoya raised his bow to the dark canopy of the jungle and let out a single arrow as usual. Right after, Julian put a transparent barrier above the stationary squad members--the scouts, the supports, and the guides--as the arrow struck something invisible; a magic circle.

"Expand," Naoya muttered, and the magic circle multiplied itself, spreading across the dark canopy above them. The swarm of grotesque locusts was momentarily attracted to the lights of the magic circles, hovering beneath them. "Rainfall."

The magic circles glowed brightly, and threw up tiny arrows, so think like droplets of water, right into the swarm of locusts. Before the miasmic beasts could react, they were pierced by the sharp rain to the ground and their death. The ones falling above the squads were bouncing off Julian’s transparent barrier.

Forget five minutes--it happened in five seconds.

"If they carry poison, they are usually weak," Kei said for the recording, pointing the camera on her retina to the ground, which had become a bed of dead locusts.

"Ugh--still disgusting," Han Shin shuddered. Dheera agreed; thousands of dead bugs on the ground weren’t a pleasant sight.

"Can already hear the Hagalaz kids groaning for the cleanup," Hari chuckled.

After making sure that all the bugs were dead and no one got poisoned, Bassena told them to continue through the path that the warriors had opened.

"There’s an open field up ahead before we enter the jungle again that leads to the river," Ron told them as they walked through the newly opened path while giving markers on the side.

It was a slightly different route than what they took last year. At that time, they avoided any open space to minimize combat because they aimed for efficiency. But now, they came here to clean up the Deathzone anyway, so there was no point in avoiding battle.

"Alright," Bassena nodded and glanced at the itching warriors. "Prepare for an open field combat."

"Now, we’re talking!"