Chapter 498 498 Cursed Beasts
Chapter 498 498 Cursed Beasts
498 498 Cursed Beasts
The cargo transfer was quick and efficient, with a whole line of workers passing the crates down toward the entrance of the village where they were storing all of their gear.
“Do you want me to put a barrier up to protect the entrance? It might be found by their magic detectors at the surface, though, assuming they come close enough.” Wolfe offered.
“No, I think we’re good. It’s better to hide. Though, if you wanted to put one about a kilometre that way, it would give us a mighty fine line of fire when they stopped to inspect it.” The group leader suggested with a wink.
“Consider it done. It doesn’t have to be a strong barrier to just attract attention. There isn’t anything there, is there?” Wolfe asked.
“Nope, it is a burial dump for the null stone ammunition we confiscated. We didn’t have the magic to burn it.”
“That would really get their attention. Do you mind if I light it up instead? That would definitely get their attention, and all you would have to do is force them to foreign forces if they do show up early.”
Wolfe had no trouble finding the deposit of Null Stone now that he was looking for it. The disturbance of the Mana flow in the area was too obvious. There was a lot of it as well, so the result would be a massive vortex that the Grand Dutchies would notice from many miles away.
“Alright, I will hit it on our way out. Be prepared when it lights up because the army will likely come running to see what happened.” Wolfe warned them as the transfer of goods finished.
“We’ve already sent runners to warn everyone else. It’s not safe to use the radio here with so many of them about. Good luck, and we hope to see you again soon.”
The container doors were latched shut, and the pilot started to spin up the rotors even as Wolfe was jogging back to the aircraft.
The moment he was inside, it was up and away, and Wolfe could see why. There was an army patrol headed this way, and they had detected the helicopter.
The locals were sprinting underground, getting out of sight long before the army units could locate them, but Wolfe had one more task to perform.
He cast a [Fireball] out of the helicopter into a forward scout vehicle that just so happened to be passing over the munitions dump in pursuit of the rogue helicopter.
The bike went up in flames, and the buried null stone ignited, creating a massive swirling firestorm that was pulling everything nearby into its radius. The locals were up and firing as soon as the vehicles skidded to a stop, trying not to get pulled into the vortex themselves, and the magical munitions fired by the local scouts were destroying vehicles with every impact.
“Well, it looks like the trap worked. They’ve taken one patrol unit down already, and now they just need to make it appear that the witches did it and wait until someone comes looking for them. Have there been any signals from home?” Wolfe asked.
“Nothing yet. At least nothing that made it this far. There are reports from the villages along the coast close to here that they got an airplane delivery of a large case of ammunition from us, though.
The girls put the Forest Grove name on the box so that everyone would know where it came from.” The pilot explained.
The flight back was well over their usual cruising speed as the pilot pushed the machine to get some distance from any possible pursuers. The planes of the Mundane Army were much faster than this cargo beast was, and she didn’t want to get caught out in the open, even if she had Wolfe here to help defend her.
“Hey, were there this many Rank Three and Four monsters in the prairies before? I don’t recall there being more than one or two in the entire Monster Tide last winter.” Priya noted.
She hadn’t travelled the Frozen Wastes as much as Wolfe had, being busy with the training at the village, but she had seen at least six of them so far, which seemed like a lot to be in the range of her magical senses, even with the expanded range at Rank Three.
“No, there usually aren’t any at all. Rank Two, sure, but Three is rare, and I’ve only seen one Rank Four monster wandering around this summer.” Wolfe replied as he also started to pay attention to the monsters underneath them.
There was definitely something going on down there, but he couldn’t tell what yet. There was a sneaking suspicion that the United World Military had something to do with this, but he hadn’t sensed anything amiss until Priya noticed the strength of the monsters.
As they were coming into the mountains, they found the first signs of what might have happened. There was a monster evolving from Rank Two to Rank Three, and Priya spotted the effect right away.
“That is the curse of [Beast Form]. Someone is cursing the monsters to strengthen them. Give me a second, and I will see if I can break it.”
Priya began to cast a spell, then pulled additional Mana from Wolfe before smiling in success as the monster’s strength began to drop back down to Rank One.
“That’s the trick. Once they’ve advanced, the curse fades, but they keep the power. You have to catch them right away to make it work. But I didn’t sense anyone in the area.” Priya explained.
“I am going to go down and take a look. You all continue on to the airbase and warn the others that they might be facing stronger monsters due to the curse.” Wolfe explained, then slid open the door and stepped out of the moving helicopter.