Chapter 648 - Yet another test (Patreon)

Hera kept following Reynara with Adriel by her side. Her court was all kitted with the magnets to allow them to make a wide perimeter around them. Nimbus and Lurize, on the other hand, were close to the Empress, just in case the huntress decided to do something against them.

Reynara was aware of the court but was currently focused on tracking the monsters. There was a particular elusive swarm of Cherry Mantises that had been annoying her to no end. The creatures were not doing anything to harm the village, but they followed the hunting parties to eat the scrap they had left behind. By itself, that wouldn't be a problem, but since they were noisy, Reynara ended up having to chase a few of her marks much farther than she was supposed to.

They walked for about one hour. Getting considerably far away from the village until, finally, Reynara gestured for them to come closer but to stay quiet. Moving slowly, Adriel approached while looking for the monsters. Hera already knew where the swarm was, thanks to Edge scouting the area in front of Reynara. Because of that, the Empress moved closer to stopping at a large tree in Reynara's line of sight. Hera set herself up for a pincer maneuver. The huntress nodded and whispered something, but her voice was too small for anyone to listen. Even Adriel, who was right behind her, couldn't tell what she was saying.

Hera considered sending Nimbus to her side so they could communicate, but that would go against her plan of letting her blades work as bugs around the place. The Empress tried making some gestures with her hands, but that also didn't work. In the end, Hera turned to the other side and whispered softly, "Sammy, can you help me?"

Hearing his voice, the turtle appeared in front of Hera in a poof of technicolored smoke, "You called?"

"Yeah. Reynara is trying to talk to me. Can you tell me what she is saying?"

"I can try. But I need to have someone close by so I can hear what they're saying," Sammy explained.

Hera tried telling Reynara to say it again, but the huntress was no longer speaking, only gesturing. Frustrated, she decided to do something different, "Sammy. Tell Adriel I'm going in. Ask him to follow my lead. I'll make sure my court gets their attention. He only has to focus on killing the ones trying to run. I wouldn't mind getting a few buffs either."

"Got it, be careful," Sammy replied. Hera saw the small turtle appear close to Adriel, and after a few moments, both of them turned back to her and nodded, only for Sammy to disappear again.

Hera looked around and asked Edge to tell her everything about this area. The Cherry Mantises had created a nest between two very large hedges covered in thorns. And while this provided very good cover against any monsters, It also meant that there were only two paths leading in and out of the nest. One that Hera, Adriel, and Reynara were currently hiding in, and another on the other side.

'Nimbus, Lurize, Frost, Core, take the rear. Avoid using any fire spells. If the hedges end up burning, it might create an opening for the mantises to run. Fly above the tree line and let me know when you are in position,' Hera told her court, and the four immediately started to move. Raynara noticed a few weapons flying up and tried to tell her to stop but to no avail. The Empress was already focusing on the monsters ahead. According to Edge, the creatures didn't notice them approaching. They were all moving around as if nothing was happening. After about 30 seconds, the blades she sent arrived at their destination, with Nimbus and Lurize going back to their bipedal forms. Hera turned to Adriel and just pointed at the monsters before stepping out with her court and covering the backside of this area in an Elemental Poison Storm. She made sure not to let the rain fall too close to her location so that Adriel and Reynara wouldn't be affected by her spell. As soon as the rain started, the Cherry Mantises noticed something was wrong, but they couldn't realize the biggest threat before Hera started the attack.

She dashed forward, with Fang and Claw in her hand, decapitating the pair of mantises farthest away from the group while, at the same time, the rest of her court started to clean up any stragglers that were too far from the main force. However, as soon as the bugs noticed the danger, they all returned to the nest, hoping to be protected from any more attacks. That was both a good and a bad thing. The good part was that all the monsters were now stuck in one place. It was a large ring made of something that looked a lot like wood, but also it didn't, that was surrounding one of the trees, almost like some avant-garde building created by someone who specializes in conceptual structures. And that was also the bad part. She had no idea how strong that structure was or if there were any dangers or Possible traps in that place. Not that she believed the monsters were smart enough to make proper traps, but even in the animal kingdom, some species would create ambushes and other types of defenses that could very well be considered traps.

"Adriel, do you have anything that can help here? I'm worried about using fire," Hera said without looking away.

"Maybe we can drown them? I have a pretty decent waterfall spell," Adriel suggested.

"Reynara, would that work? Are they capable of living underwater?" Hera asked.

"Maybe. Maybe not. That's not up to me to tell you. You have to figure it out on your own," the leader of the hunters said with an annoyed tone.

"What's with these people trying to make us prove ourselves? It's just nonsense if you ask me," Hera huffed and turned to Adriel, "Your call, water or fire?"

"Let's go with fire. I think it's easier to deal with if things go wrong," Adriel said and threw a couple of fireballs that exploded on the sides of the nest and made it catch on fire.

"I was going to ask if you are sure, but well… ok then," Hera sighed and got ready to face the mantises.

However, what happened next was very different from what she expected. Instead of the monsters running away and trying to flee the flames, the creatures were still inside the nest, and the sounds of their wings became louder.

"That plan would have worked out perfectly if it wasn't for the fact that this particular swarm is resistant to fire," Reynara said. She spoke out loud, clearly showing her location, but she was far enough away not to be an immediate threat to the monsters.

"What? Are they not the same as the other ones we fought?" Hera asked.

"No. And maybe if you had tried to observe for a moment, you would have noticed some differences. But you chose to ignore me and attack, so deal with it," Reynara added while picking her nails.

"I couldn't hear you! We're in the middle of the Jungle, and we are far away from each other. How was I possibly supposed to know what you were talking about!" Hera snarled. This place, or more to the point, the people of this place, were really getting on her nerves.

"Hera!" Adriel and Armory gasped at the same time when a group of the mantises inside the flaming nest jumped out and rushed towards her.

The Empress spun around, already wielding Fang and Claw, and blocked the Mantis that was about to strike her. The creature still had the pink color of the cherry blossom trees from where its name came from, but now it was also completely engulfed in pink flames. Not wanting to know what those Flames could do, Hera quickly decapitated the first monster. Another one came closer and was blocked by Ooze and Dao, who made quick work of the creatures. However, there was a lot still incoming. A group flew from the nest and came in as if they were mortars. The one spearheading the formation was leaving a trail of fire behind it. The mantises that were following the flames started to grow, and their arm blades became even brighter with the intense heat. Before reaching Hera, ten monsters attacked the air creating fire blades out of their arms and sending those attacks flying toward the Empress. To make matters worse, the attack wasn't simply a version of Alex's wind blade but with a fire element. Instead, the fire ignited the air around it, causing a chain reaction that covered the entire area above Hera in flames.

"Shit!" Hera gasped and activated her fire elemental armor before jumping toward the burning sky. She would probably be injured, but the flames in her spell might be strong enough to push back the flames created by the bug's attack.

'HERA!' Nimbus gasped and activated his Frozen Ash aura around the Empress. At the same time, he covered her with a layer of Mana Shield and triggered the Share the Pain skill so that the damage would go mostly to him.

With all that stacked on top of each other, the Empress barely felt any pain while going through the fire. However, the same couldn't be said for Adriel. He tried to hide behind the tree, but the flames were much stronger than anyone was expecting. A wave of fire covered the ground, spilling out like water, burning most of the vegetation and anything in the area. Including the elf. He yelled, getting severely burned by the attack. When Hera looked back, she could only see his arm already covered in third-degree burns peeking from the tree.

"Nimbus!" Hera yelled, and the Sentinel rushed to her side as the Empress dashed to Adriel, only to be stopped by Reynara.

"What do you think you're doing? The monsters are that way," the fox beastwoman pointed to the monsters coming from the nest, which were currently still being attacked by Hera's court.

"Then go kill them. He is more important than this bullshit," Hera snarled, but as she tried to step forward, Reynara grabbed her arm.

"You are not done here."

'Daskka, Lurize, pin her down,' Hera told them mentally while staring this woman down.

Daskka quickly changed to her giant snake form and wrapped it around the huntress's legs. Reynara was caught off guard by that move and jumped back, avoiding the attempt to grapple, but the snake didn't let up. She tried attacking a couple of times, biting or using her tail as a whip, but not to actually kill Reynara. She knew that doing that would cause a lot of problems. They weren't here to kill anyone willy-nilly, only the curse. However, the snake forced the beastwoman with black eyes to reach a specific position. Reynara tried fighting back, using her claws to strike, and even attempted to use some sort of illusion spell to split up into several versions and move away. Still, Daskka, being a creature made out of mana, could tell which one of them was the real one without much trouble. The herald continued attacking, making Reynara even more frustrated. She had never faced a snake before and didn't know what to expect. When the huntress stepped back and had a tree to her right, a massive humanoid golden beetle appeared out of nowhere and slammed her against the trunk. Lurize shoved his arms inside the wood, making a near-perfect trap that stopped Reynara's movement completely.

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" the chief hunter snarled, spit flying out of her mouth.

"Saving my friend, now shut up," Hera walked over to Adriel and saw that he was in really bad shape but still breathing. Some of the minor healing spells he knew were already active, holding back the damage, "Nimbus, take him to Kadhan. Take Edge with you and keep the Elemental Strength spell active at all times. I'll follow as soon as I can. Take frost too, just to hold him while you run," she put out her hand for the Sentinel to receive some mana and made Adriel grab the small skinning knife that could help people heal their wounds, "You'll be ok. I promise," Hera whispered in his ear before picking him up and placing the man on top of Nimbus, who was already in his griffon form.

As she saw Nimbus running towards the city, she turned around and glanced at Reynara, who was still trying to get off of her makeshift restrain, "Let me go, you bitch, or I'll make sure you suffer before I kill you."

"Shut the fuck up. If you keep that shit up, I'll just leave you here to be burned by those things," Hera scoffed and turned back to the monsters; there were still a lot of them, and she would have to clear them out before heading back to the city.