Chapter 180 - 174. Lock and Load
The air almost vibrated with the buzzing sound of flapping wings.
Zein couldn’t bring himself to count how many, because they were plenty enough to cover the light coming off the ceiling. With the way they came out of nowhere, undetected even by Bassena and Kei, they were either teleporting here after discovering the squad’s presence, or equipped with a very superior stealth skill.
"Flying termites," Zein muttered, observing the swarms from Bassena’s shoulder. There were dozens of those insects, each as big as a child, flying toward them with red eyes. Alone, the winged creature wasn’t such a problem, even two-stars esper could easily deal with it. But in swarms, they were categorized as high-level hazards.
Strangely enough, Zein didn’t feel anxious.
Even while they were seemingly screwed, jumping to a dark canyon while avoiding the beasts, the squad members didn’t look fazed at all. Except for Kei, who apparently hated flying insects as much as Han Shin hated worms. But it was more of a disgust than fear, so she was fiercely shooting at them instead of shrieking and running away.
Well, even if the swarms were high-level hazards, these people had been used to things that were much more dangerous, so they just calmly proceeded with Bassena’s orders. The espers in charge of guarding grabbed the one they were responsible for and jumped off the pathway, leaving the attack to Kei and Abe, and of course, Bassena. A flurry of mana bullets, fire arrows, and fleeting darkness stabbed the advancing termites.
With Zein on his shoulder and Han Shin dangling on his side, Bassena jumped from the narrow path to the jagged cliff below. Rather than plunging straight, they utilized the jutted boulders on the side of the cliff to descend into the canyon safely.
"Argh--can you stop carrying me like a sack of potato?!" Han Shin hissed, positively convinced his waist was already bruised at this point. And he was dizzy, dangling on Bassena’s side like this while the esper jumped from cliff to cliff.
"Beggars can’t be choosers," Bassena answered simply with a smirk.
"This is discrimination!" the healer yelled between Bassena’s laughter.
Meanwhile, Zein who was perching relaxedly on Bassena’s shoulder observed the swarm, which seemed to be endless, despite the attack from Bassena’s darkness and Abe’s fire arrows. While probing with his magic strands, Zein found several winged termites that were smaller in size, but fiercer in miasma level and protected by armor-like carapaces.