The Novel's Draft

Before we could even start our sparring session, the army started moving again.

"Awe man, that’s a shame. You’re lucky that you’ve been saved." Joka threw his head back with a forced laugh.

***

It has been two weeks now since we’ve started our march, and the amount of rations we got to eat has been much more spread out.

At first it was just an hour late, but now we can only eat once but sometimes twice a day.

"Ah what the hell is this slop, this is comparable to dog food!" Vertere grumbled, eating with disdain.

Looking down on my plate of food, it was just a mush of mixed consumables.

At the very least, no one had gotten food poisoning yet.

Grabbing everyone’s plates once they’ve finished eating, I walked up to the servants and gave back the plate.

Bumping into someone, I tilted my head.

Focusing my hazy vision.

"Well, what a coincidence that we’d meet each other again." Said a familiar voice.

Once my vision’s focused, I paled.

"Hero Incus, well... hello there? I’m just here to drop off the utensils." I brushed past her and dropped the plates into a wooden bucket.

When I tried walking back to my spot, Incus grabbed me by the soldier.

"Hold on, where do you think you’re going. I’ve yet to meet someone this interesting as you aside from Steinen—"

"Sorry, my companions are waiting for me. We can catch up once all of this is over and done with." I pushed Incus’ hand off my soldier and ran away.

Phew, that was a close one. I’ve been trying to not meet up with her for as long as I could ever since when she slammed her blade against mine.

Seeing my distress when I arrived back, Alleus held my hand.

"Hey partner, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I just had an encounter with Incus. But don’t worry, nothing happened."

After a few minutes, our march continued.

***

After what seemed to be an eternity, when in truth it was just an hour, the army finally stopped.

"Hm, w-what’s going on Ring?" Acro pinched my shirt and pulled on it.

"I don’t know, but let’s push to the front." I started pushing through the crowd, since we were situated just a few meters away from Incus.

Seeing that Incus flew to the front with her wind hero’s sword.

"Damn it why did you guys stop, hurry up and move your feet! Or have you forgotten the reason why we’ve come here!" Incus growled.

Before we reached the front, placed my finger over my lips, gesturing for everyone to shush.

"What the hell are you damn idiots ogling at—?" Incus’ face scrunched, Dropping down and gently landing.

Suddenly, the sound of multiple thundering of lightning erupted in succession.

Standing closer to Incus, my face grew sweat filled.

"T-There’s no way we can survive this..." Alleus trembled, nearly losing her footing.

"Don’t worry, it will all be fine." I tried comforting Alleus.

Looking at everyone else, they were all trembling with paled faces.

Gritting my teeth, I was about to shout for them to steel their nerves but Incus spoke before I could.

"I need all of the wind mages to march forward, we’ll need them for us to make us descend without getting injured. By the looks of it, the time that we would spend slowly reaching the bottom with magic will take too long. So our only option is jumping and the wind mages will catch our fall." Incus waved her arm, commanding for the servants to bring the mages forward.

With a gulped, I inched further into the front and looked down the cliff.

My legs nearly gave out from the sight.

It was just a sea of demons climbing upwards of what seemed to be a giant structure.

The demons that weren’t climbing, were battling each other. Their roars blended in with the rumbling of the clouds.

Wait, that doesn’t make sense? How could there be a cloud when we’re underground and should have reached the lowest point of the world. So, how is there a cloud here?

Rattling my brain, A headache started to form.

Shaking my head, I decided to not focus on it right now.

A wall of mages then walked to the front, and Incus began explaining the plan to them.

In summary, the mages would jump off first after Incus who would take down the demons that were standing in the way.

Obviously, the mages were hesitant at first but they had all been ordered here to commence in battle.

"Anyhow, is everyone here?" Incus looked around, and several people with an experienced aura appeared, "Good, the generals will jump down with me."

What, these guys are generals? I’ve never seen them before. But I do see two familiar faces, being the generals of the Febritust army.

I’m not sure if commander Cage would be suitable for this mission, he was injured and wasn’t engaged in combat when the arch demoness had attacked.

Out of nowhere, a tall demon peered through the hole that came from the cliff.

The army stomped their foot, but their faces were filled with fear.

Drawing out their weapons, the generals had released a combined force of attack that formed a giant whole through the demon’s face.

The demon then started to fall to the ground.

"Scales, latch the five of us to Incus." The dragon scales then wrapped around us tightly and onto Incus.

With wide strides, Incus jumped off the cliff without warning.

Because I wasn’t prepared, my face met the ground and I was dragged across the dirt.

Spitting out the dirt out of my mouth, a familiar sensation of free fall spread throughout my body.

As I opened my eyes, we were headed straight into the danger zone.

"Everyone pull out your weapons and prepare for combat!" I shouted with urgency, commanding for the dragon scales armor to mask us at the same time.

I don’t know whether the air is poisonous or not, so it’s better to stay safe.

The army generals were also falling next to us, they had their blades drawn.