33 Risen#re

<[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>

<[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>

The words began to play on a loop, and Lirian assumed that there were at least 100 casualties, already, 'What the hell is going on in Tobias's group?' he wondered when his watch rung again.

<Discovered third-grade Mammoth>

'Seems that they messed around with something to big,' he thought and began to consider his options.

Tobias's group wasn't very far off, they were already marching back, and it would only be a few hours before they returned, at least that was until they got attack by the mystic beast.

Lirian figured that he could gather up the students and run forward to help the first exploration group, by going in prepared for a battle they would be effective in taking of the pressure, but it would only do just that, relieve the pressure.

Lirian wasn't confident in being able to take down a third grade creature, even with his newly fate forged katana, it couldn't make up for the difference in power, at best he could beat down a second grade beast with his current strength.

The other option was to prepare a trap and kite the creature into it but that would have one major problem and that was communication, he needed to get into contact with Tobias, and because of this expedition's rules communication was restricted over the watch's.

That left him with only one option and that was to send messages with runner's, the same way they had been keeping in contact this entire time, it worked for reports but he had to pray for a miracle for it to work effectively in a battle, where their knowledge of the terrain was subpar at best.

Lirian ran back to camp, seeing his haste, many of the student started to notice him and looked at him curiously.

"Listen up!" Lirian shouted when he knew he got the attention of most of the students and stood in front of his red commanders' tent.

"I want all of you to start packing up the camp," he said making all of them look at him with surprise.

"You will carry only our essentials that are required to return to the main base, leave anything weighing you down behind, and keep your weapons close and ready," he stopped saying any more and went back into the tent, not giving them anymore details.

The students were confused, and a little disgruntled, after all they had just discovered the caves and not all of them had gotten a chance to explore them yet, but they wisely held their tongues and voiced no complaint.

After seeing Lirian's ability, they were even more respectful of him, but most of all they had all come to understand that everything Lirian did was done with a reason, that they would become aware of if it was necessary.

Lirian told them to keep their weapons close so it seemed that there might be a bit trouble with one of the other groups and they may have to fight pretty soon.

"Also someone find Edith and tell her to come to my tent?" he added after taking a few steps into the tent.

As the students got busy Lirian was busy trying to figure out the best spot to lay an ambush, unfortunately he couldn't do it anywhere close to the camp, the entire area was unstable after the rock drake fell and caused that massive land slide.

Fighting in this area was like fighting in enemy territory where the very earth would be against both sides, while it might help against a heavy creature, there was no way to be certain that the ground wouldn't cave in under their feet.

This also helped him come up with his decision to retreat, while he had methods to survive and escape, he didn't want to use them unless absolutely necessary, as those methods could help him even in the immortal realm and against lesser gods.

As Lirian considered the plan, Edith quickly entered his tent, she had heard about Lirians orders and wanted to know why there was such a sudden change.

"Are Tobias and Wentian still alive?" she asked once Lirian finished explaining the situation to her, she was astounded by the number of students that had already died.

Until this point everything had been going so well, that it seemed almost perfect, but with this entire incident it ruined the entire expedition, all their hard work was for naught, which left her disheartened.

"They're fine, or at least not dead, the watch only tells me if they die, and so far I haven't heard anything about one of my generals dying," Lirian said, from the change in her breathing he could tell that she was disappointed by the sudden change, but his words also gave her a bit of relief.

Afterall she had known Tobias for almost half her life, and she had worked hard to tie the candidates into a tight circle, losing anyone of them would be a hard blow to her.

Edith washed her face of her worry and took a look at the map on the table, she knew that this was the main reason Lirian called her back, he needed her to read the map and find the best spots for an ambush.

"Are we going to go forward and ambush the beast or are we going to fall back for the ambush, if we go forward, we'll have the high ground, but if we fall back there are two good spots, that will be obstructive to any large creature attacking us?" she said very quickly.

She wanted to do a little bit of flirting but held herself back, she knew that now wasn't the time, every second was important and could affect the lives and deaths of their friends.

"If we go forward I don't know if we'll have enough time to prepare a good ambush, and I don't want to take any chances," Lirian said declaring the direction that they would be taking to deal with the threat.

At the moment Edith suddenly frowned, because Lirian's watch rung again, and another two names were quickly read aloud.

"I don't get it why are there no people dying at all then suddenly a few deaths occur all at once?" she muttered aloud.

"Tobias is probably trying to use small groups to lure its attention, and draw it away from the main group, and once the beast realises what they are doing it just flattens them," Lirian said thoughtfully.

"Edith I need you to send out two runners!" said Lirian.

"Send one to Media's group to inform them of the situation and tell them to pack up and return to the base so that they can come up from behind the beast, I doubt that they will catch up to us in time to deal with the mammoth, but knowing that there will be back up on its way will ease the students minds when facing that thing."

"As for the second runner have them get to Tobias, tell Tobias to stop trying to divert the creature, if it hasn't changed its direction by now, it's goal must be to kill the group, instead have him kite the beast towards our ambush, and just do what he can to slow it down, there should be less deaths that way, and if we are lucky the creature might even get annoyed and stop chasing after the group."

When Lirian finished speaking his watch beeped again with a different message.

<Only 300 people remain in exploration group 1>

Both he and Edith frowned slightly shocked from the contents of that message and waited for the deaths to flood the watch, but after a few second of waiting no such thing happened.

"Ah, they must have chosen to give up the expedition," Edith realized breathing a sigh of relief.

But Lirian only frowned, "It doesn't matter though, the danger is hot on their tails, even if they give up now, it will be at several hours before any vehicles can reach them to perform an extraction, by that point we should be intercepting the mammoth."

Edith quickly left and sent the messages Lirian asked her to send, and then she saw Lirian coming back out of the tent, and giving the student a full rundown of the situation.

As she glanced around she could see that the students had been very quick in their task, almost half the tents were already taken down in the short amount of time that they spent getting the plan together.

As she watched the students listening she could see their fear, how could not they not be afraid knowing that they were about to face a third grade mystic beast.

But soon Lirian pulled out his sparking silver katana, and as they recalled the devastation he wrought with that blade they seemed to calm down a little, and determined looks filled their faces.

On the edge of the crowd Hinata breathed out a nervous breath, 'Will this be my opportunity?' she wondered nervously, with eyes fixed on that blade, she knew that she was just a mage, mages don't use weapons, but that weapon seemed to call to her.