Chapter 215: They Don't Come in Peace

With the help of Magic, a chasm at the very edge of an ordinary person's physical limits was no longer an obstacle. Even the heavily armored Aive could leap across after handing her tower shield to Sera. Ron and Silvia brought up the rear. The Jumping Technique required physical contact to take effect, so they couldn't jump across beforehand.

"That's strange," Delaford muttered, walking at the head of the party. "We should be getting closer to their nest, but there are actually fewer traps."

"And even the few we've found, the quality is… Hang on, I'll disarm this trap."

Delaford leaned against a wall and carefully dismantled the trigger, then pulled out a sharpened piece of stone from within. "Interesting. This looks like it was set up on the fly. They've already discovered us, and they want to ambush us with this kind of shoddy trap? That's just pathetic!"

The Goblin Hunter smirked disdainfully. He even dared to peer into the now-disarmed opening. "Look at this. The hole goes straight through to a room!"

"Silvia, can't you turn into a gaseous form? Why not try squeezing through this hole? You should be able to— What's this?"

Ron had no way of knowing what Delaford saw. He only heard a rolling sound. Then, with his characteristic agility, the goblin suddenly leaped backward. A moment later, a spherical glass bottle fell out of the opening.

The moment it hit the ground, the mysterious bottle exploded. Shards of glass flew everywhere as a scorching wave of crimson smoke engulfed them all!

In the sudden chaos, all anyone could hear was Ron's desperate shout: "Hold your breath! Watch the ceiling for enemies!"

The explosion of the Alchemy Potion seemed to be the horn that signaled the attack. Countless Ratmen poured out from the depths of the cave under the cover of smoke. Fighting alongside them were several huge, waist-high rats.

"We've really stirred up a rat's nest!" Sera cursed, coughing. The crimson smoke from the exploding Alchemy Potion wasn't actually lethal, but its irritating odor would make a creature with a keen sense of smell lose its ability to fight as its eyes and nose streamed uncontrollably.

However, for Sera, who was accustomed to surviving in harsh environments, the effect was negligible. The moment Ron shouted his warning, her Grip of the Vast Wave sprang into action. Two blossoms of blood instantly erupted across its wide attack arc. Two Ratmen using Stealth were heavily wounded before they could even attack, and they fled screaming into the depths of the cave.

Victoria and Silvia were the next to recover. The Vampire Descendant conjured a powerful gust of wind, blowing the smoke back in the opposite direction.

"You're a lifesaver!" Delaford said, wiping tears and snot from his face. A moment ago, he'd thought he was a goner!

Aive sent a Ratman flying with a shield bash. She flexed her arm; in that brief exchange, a Ratman's dagger had found a gap in her armor. Against such highly agile enemies, the joints of her heavy plate became her critical weakness.

"They came prepared," Silvia said, frowning at the Ratmen and giant rats with their mouths and noses wrapped in scraps of leather and cloth. "They mean business."

Victoria nudged her with an elbow. "You've got it backward. We're the ones who've come."

The Ratmen let out a series of rat-like squeals. Ron recalled that this species could speak the Common Language, but it was obvious they had no intention of communicating. A few Ratmen with better equipment than their kin quickly turned invisible, while the others charged forward again, screeching. At the same time, the sound of another glass bottle rolling came from the opening in the wall.

"Are they serious?! Don't tell me there's an Alchemist in there!" Silvia immediately summoned several Night Howling Hounds. "Go! Take out whoever's inside!"

Night Howling Hounds couldn't pass through the tiny opening on the Material Plane, but that didn't mean they were blocked on the Astral Plane. Before the smoke had even fully cleared on Ron's side of the wall, a desperate roar echoed from the opening.

Meanwhile, the Ratmens' rear ranks fell into chaos. Led by the largest of the Night Howling Hounds, the less-elite Ratmen were thrown into disarray. The hounds tossed their lean bodies into the air, tearing and rending them apart. Even the elite Ratmen were affected by the disruption. One Ratman assassin stumbled and fell right in front of Ron's party when a giant rat behind it was sent flying by a hound, exposing its neck to Sera's blade.

"We're no ordinary team of Adventurers!" Sera let out a booming laugh as she sliced the gift-wrapped Ratman in two with a single stroke. "Silvia, these big dogs of yours are way more useful than the ones we raise in my tribe!"

"They are Magic Creatures, after all," Silvia said, licking her lips. The scent of blood filling the narrow space was making her restless. "Everyone, back off! Ron, let's just use Fireball Magic to blast a path open!"

While Night Howling Hounds were immune to non-magical and non-silver attacks, the Ratmen "just so happened" to have Magic Weapons, which meant the hounds were taking damage. If the fight dragged on, it was hard to say which side would break first.

Individually, a Night Howling Hound was stronger than a Ratman, but they were ultimately beasts—and wild ones at that. They were more prone to fear than the well-trained Ratmen when a battle turned against them. In just a few moments, several Night Howling Hounds had already withdrawn from the "hunt," even though they were only lightly injured.

Wiping out these Ratmen with a large-scale Magic spell seemed to be the only logical solution.

"Are you sure you want to cast Fireball Magic here?" A Lightning Bolt erupted from Ron's hand, but the Ratmen easily dodged it. The cave passages were a winding maze with uneven walls, allowing the Ratmen to easily evade the straight-shot Lightning Bolt.

The explosion from Fireball Magic could certainly get around corners and fill every crevice, but as the "most useful" of Magic, its blast radius was no joke. Six meters. If he and Silvia both cast it inside this cave, none of them—including the casters—would escape.

"Never mind," Ron said after a moment's hesitation, forcing back an invisible Ratman assassin with a pair of Scorching Beams. "Everyone, step back. This is a good opportunity to run a test."

"A test for what?" Aive asked, stepping back uneasily to Ron's side. But Ron gestured for her to move further back, simultaneously casting both Mirror Image Magic and Foggy Magic to prevent the Ratmen from launching a surprise attack.

"Remember that Magic model from the Elf Mage's basement?" Ron asked, taking out a Weak Healing Potion. He sidestepped slightly as a Ratman assassin's dagger whistled past his shoulder. "With Mazarino's help, I've had an idea."