Chapter 214: Ratman Ambush

Delaford had barely finished speaking when an attacker dropped from the cave ceiling with a fierce gust of wind. If Silvia hadn't conjured a swirling darkness with her Walking Stick to throw the assailant off course, he would have been praying for Victoria's Resurrection Magic to bring him back in time.

Within this variation of Dark Magic, everyone but Silvia was rendered completely blind. The pitch-black darkness, so deep they couldn't see their own hands, stopped the attacker from either pressing its assault or escaping. It also prevented Ron and the others from mounting an effective counterattack. Under these circumstances, the only one they could rely on was Silvia.

Fortunately, the Vampire Mage would not disappoint them.

"Wither!" A heart-stopping pulse of Magic flared and vanished in an instant. The darkness around Ron receded like the tide. When he looked toward Silvia, he saw the end of her Walking Stick plunged into the attacker's heart like the tip of a sword. But the corpse's condition made it clear that this physical wound was not the true cause of death.

The attacker had a lean body and sparse hair. Its half-man, half-rat appearance made it difficult to discern its gender, to say nothing of the fact that Silvia's Withering Magic had already drained all the moisture from its body. In just over ten seconds, it had gone from a vibrant, ferocious assassin to a shriveled, desiccated corpse.

Two gleaming daggers lay scattered by the Ratman's hand. The faint Spiritual Light glinting on them made Ron's heart pound. They were a pair of Magic Weapons. 'If I'd actually been stabbed with something like that...'

"So it is a Ratman," Delaford said, baring his teeth as he snatched up the two daggers and tucked them into his belt. "Unbelievable. Even I haven't gotten my hands on weapons this good, and it had two of them!"

Although the Goblin Hunter possessed a Strong Acid Gemstone, making his weapon count as a Magic Weapon, there was still a distinct difference between it and a true Magic Weapon.

"Normal weapons can barely do any real damage to them. Magic Weapons like these must be a necessity." Silvia planted a foot on the Ratman's desiccated corpse and wrenched her Walking Stick free.

The moisture-drained husk had trapped her Walking Stick. Luckily, it was the only Ratman nearby, or she would have been temporarily out of commission.

"Hey, Delaford, how about sparing one of those daggers for me? I don't recall you being comfortable with two."

In response to Silvia's outstretched hand, Delaford shook his head so hard it rattled. "No way! You're a Caster, what do you need a dagger for? I might not be used to dual-wielding, but I can still use them!"

"Tsk. Cheapskate," Silvia said with a pout. "If we run into any more Ratmen, you won't be getting a share of the loot!"

"You two seem pretty relaxed." Ron rubbed the back of his neck, which still felt cold from the near miss. He took a pinch of talcum powder and a small amount of silver powder from his pack. As he chanted, a world normally impossible to observe slowly unfolded before him.

Reveal Invisibility. For the next hour, he would be able to see all invisible creatures and objects as if they were perfectly normal. He could also perceive the Astral Plane, where everything appeared in his vision as ghostly, translucent forms.

That included the dozens of Night Howling Hounds Silvia had "adopted."

"The cave just got a lot more crowded," Ron muttered, grinning. He instinctively tried to dodge a hound that ran past him, but it passed right through his body. It wasn't actually in this cave, after all.

"Do you need me and Silvia to do the same?" Victoria asked. "I can cast Reveal Invisibility, too. It's always good to have more eyes."

"We don't have that large a supply of materials," Ron said, rummaging through his pack. "The Magic lasts for a full hour, but we have no idea how big this cave is. It's better to keep something in reserve."

"Not that large a supply of materials" was a rather polite way of putting it. In fact, they had only brought two portions of the materials for Reveal Invisibility, just in case. While the silver powder could be repurposed from the Casting Materials for other Magic, there was no easy way to replenish the talcum powder.

"Let's advance more slowly. That should reduce the chance of being ambushed," Aive suggested. "Delaford, stop shrinking to the back. Get up front and scout the path!"

"Ugh, Ratmen." The Goblin Hunter pouted and shuffled forward reluctantly. 'Ratmen love ambushes, which means this path is sure to be littered with traps. I've got my work cut out for me.'

After walking for a while, Sera watched the goblin at the front of the group, his face practically scraping the ground, and a question suddenly popped into her head. "Delaford, don't you have your little friends? Why not have them scout the path?"

"We're up against Ratmen," Delaford said casually as he took out a newly acquired dagger to carefully disable the mechanism on a trap in front of him. "They may not be Transformed Creatures, but as Beastmen, they can switch back and forth between humanoid, rat, and giant rat forms. Plus, they're naturally friendly with other rats."

"They'd likely detect my swarm of rats, then either turn them against us or just blend in. We can't risk that."

"As for Big White, he stands out too much. The rats here are all common gray ones; he'd be exposed instantly."

Big White poked his small head out from Delaford's clothes, twitching his whiskers and letting out a "SQUEAK SQUEAK" of agreement.

"Alright, there shouldn't be any more traps for a bit," Delaford said, standing up and stretching. The lower half of a corpse was hanging from this particular trap, which had forced him to expend more Energy than usual to prevent it from re-triggering. "I'm dead tired. Hurry up and come over. It looks like a cliff up ahead. I can't even see a rope. No idea how those Ratmen get across."

The Goblin Hunter was right. When Ron and the others caught up, they saw that some unknown force had severed the path ahead. There were no signs of ropes or a bridge on either side of the cliff, but the muddy soil on the far side clearly held the footprints of Ratmen. The path to their nest definitely stretched on deeper.

"Can they jump really well?" Aive asked, sizing up the gap. "If I took off my armor and shield, I think I could jump across."

"Just because you can, doesn't mean the rest of us can," Silvia said with a glance at her. She then snatched Delaford by the back of his collar. The Goblin Hunter had been recklessly leaning out over the cliff's edge. "Are you nuts? With those short legs of yours? It'd be a miracle if you made that jump!"

"You always have to try," the Goblin Hunter squirmed in the Vampire Descendant's grip. He suddenly remembered something. "Oh, right, Ron! Don't you have some kind of Magic that improves jumping ability? I remember you used it to dodge that Scorpion-tailed Lion's attack."

"Jumping Technique," Ron said, Delaford's words jogging his memory. "It can triple my jumping ability for a short time. Getting across here will be no problem at all!"