Chapter 320: Teams
There was one more streak of light.
And the Holy Land was not the only country under attack.
The first light streak had sprouted vertically from Theomenia, before going horizontal high in the air.
Now Allen's party saw another similar streak coming out of the light bubble surrounding the floating island, and going further south.
"What should we do?"
Cecile wondered what their next step would be.
It was like the light they saw coming out from the altar was sending something to be gathered in the island floating above the center of the Central Continent.
An easy conclusion was that another country to the south was under attack by Pagan Worshippers.
"We've only seen the island from above, there might be more light streaks we missed. Circle around the island, Merle."
They had only seen the southern edge of the island, so there could be more of them going in other directions.
"Got it."
Merle mobilized Tam-Tam Mode Eagle again, going around to check if there were any other light streaks.
The island was around ten kilometers wide, so the outer circumference was around thirty kilometers.
They made a quick round, and soon were back to the streak going to the south.
"Three? So there are other three countries in that horrible situation?"
Kiel looked disgusted.
They had found three streaks of light in total, going towards the east, west, and south.
The one from Theomenia would have been a fourth one to the north.
(Three more. What should we do? Though we don't even know the actual locations. Is the situation so bad they can't even send distress signals? Or did they get attacked later?)
Only six days had passed since the Holy Land's distress signal had been sent.
The Demon General in Theomenia had been defeated one day ago, and the country had only started recovering today.
The Holy Land had contacted the entire world when they were attacked, so it was hard to think the other three places would ask them for help.
No one would want to ask another country under attack for help, when that country needed that help just as much..
Another possibility was that the cities with the magic equipment necessary to send such a signal had all fallen first, so there was no way to contact others.
Or they could be trying to ask for help, but they were located so far away that the news of their attack had not reached the Holy Land yet.
In the worst case, they had a bad relationship with their neighboring countries, so they did not even consider asking for help.
(Possibilities keep popping up the more I think about it, I should focus on what I can do now.)
Allen reorganized his thoughts and began thinking of the best way to deal with the situation.
The rest of the party began to think of a plan as well, and Allen approached one of the windows in the cockpit.
"Hm? I can't summon it there."
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, you saw that temple in the center of the island, right? I figured the guy that planned this whole thing might be inside there, and maybe everything would be resolved if we took them down."
Wanting to check that, Allen had tried to summon an entity outside the window, inside the bubble of light surrounding the island, but it did not work.
He could not summon anything inside there.
'That's probably some type of barrier then. You can't summon inside of barriers after all.'
Allen could summon anywhere he could see, but not inside the light bubble.
The next best thing was to summon Insect A outside the bubble.
"Bee, destroy this light."
'Chitterchitter'
The Insect A summon flew straight at the light, trying to pierce it with the large stinger growing from its rear.
If that hit a person, they would essentially be impaled.
Bzzt Bzzt
"Woah there, watch out!"
The moment the stinger hit the light bubble, a bright flash was emitted from the tip of the sharp stinger.
The recoil sent Insect A flying back, so Merle had to hastily move Tam-Tam out of the way.
Apparently an Insect A summon was not enough to pierce the light.
The next option was to ask Merle to set her sights on the barrier to attempt blowing it up with the Vulcan Cannon, but the result was the same.
"It really is a barrier then. Hmmm, maybe it's that sort of thing that vanishes after all four light streaks go out?"
Merle had used everything she had to attack it, but no matter how many rounds were spent, they all ricocheted off the barrier.
(At least I guess this means our priorities have been decided.)
"Well, let's try splitting into three groups then."
He sent them flying to the east and west of the Confederation.
"Alright, I'll form the Teams now."
He was still planning many things simultaneously, but he had settled on how to form the three groups so he spoke to the groups.
"Ohh, Teams! We'll work in Teams!"
Allen's friends knew the general idea of a Team, which was different to the Party system where they had to register with the Adventurer's Guild, with Allen as their leader.
There were eight people in their party, but sometimes it was best if not all of them went on a mission, and Teams were what they used for those times.
They had all gotten considerably stronger after their Talent Changes.
Allen was aware of that even more after the fight against Lycaoron.
"Yes, Kurena. I'll announce the three Teams and their leaders now."
Teams were smaller units inside a Party, each with their own Team leader.
Everyone would know the overall plan, but then the smaller groups would act almost independently.
Allen felt like Kiel's suggestion was the best one for this situation.
"Alrighttt!"
"First, I'll go with the east Team. It'll be me, Cecile, and Dogora."
"Ohh, and you'll be the leader I guess?"
"Yes, Cecile. I'll be the leader of our Team."
"The south Team, Kiel, Merus, and Kurena."
"Alright, and who's the Team leader?"
Kurena looked at Allen with eyes telling him she wanted to be the Team leader.
They seemed to be even shinier than before.
"Well, I think Merus will be good."
'I disagree. Wouldn't it be better for a human to take that role?'
Merus was back in the cockpit, after giving up on trying to destroy the barrier of light outside. He refused to be the leader.
"I see, you have a point. It'll be Kiel then."
"Ah, okay then. I did suggest we do this after all."
At the same time, all light vanished from Kurena's eyes.
She looked clearly displeased, but other than Merus, Kiel was the only sensible option.
Allen would need to continue nurturing Kurena so she could mature and one day become a good leader.
"Lastly, for the West, Sophie, Formar, and Merle. The Team leader will be Sophie."
"We'll go west?"
Sophie looked slightly nervous.
"Yes, now listen, Sophie and Kiel."
"Yeah?"
"I'll have Tsubame and Okiyo accompany both of you, so you can always ask for my input if you need it. But in every situation try to make choices by yourselves, that's why you're leaders."
The Bird A summon would help them if they needed to escape, and Wraith A offered communication at distance.
But they were individual teams, so the leaders would need to make most choices.
"I see, I'll keep that in mind."
"Understood."
"Sophie, again, you're going to be in charge, so it's up to you to decide how and where to move out there."
"Yessir."
Sophie's answer sounded more confident this time.
(I think this is good enough. This was all about striking the right balance in the end though.)
Allen and Merus could both summon entities, so it made sense for them to be in separate teams, but that left Sophie's Team needing a bit more power.
Sophie could manifest spirits, so Merle who could control Tam-Tam brought them up to level with the others.
Sophie and Merle were the next most powerful members of the party after Allen and Merus, so it was a perfect match.
After that, it was just a matter of balancing the frontline and rear guard power.
In the end, the lineup looked like this.
East: Allen (Leader), Cecile, Dogora
South: Kiel (Leader), Kurena, Merus
West: Sophie (Leader), Formar, Merle
"Well, it'll be a while before we see each other again. Everyone take care."
"""Yessir!!!"""
And so, Allen's party chose to split into three teams to help the people at the end of the light streaks.