Chapter 69: Infiltration

Chapter 69: Infiltration

I awoke in the in-between place and shivered. Well, not really shivered – still didn’t have a body in here.

I knew what I was up against, now I just had to surpass it. I would come back to a raging forest fire, run from it, and arrive at the line of soldiers that were prepared to block my path.

I considered trying to go around them, but rejected the idea after a moment’s consideration. I’d seen no end to that blockade the time before, and would only be wasting precious time by taking the detour. There was no reason to believe they’d set it up so that we could just walk around. Why would they? Considering the man-made forest fire and copious amounts of explosives, they were obviously willing to expend massive effort on killing me.

Besides, at least in the area we’d fought before, I had precious information about what was waiting for me. If I went to a different area in an attempt to find a way around them, what if the types of enemies changed, as well? They could be using different weapons, or on a different landscape that I had less information about.

I only had two more tries at this, and I couldn’t waste one on taking a chance that relied on the Demons only setting up the blockade in a random, small section of land for no reason. I had to get as much information about this specific area as I could – that would give me my best chance of winning.

I felt myself beginning to be ejected from the dark space, and hurriedly chose a time to go back to – one hour and thirty minutes ago. Back before we’d even known about the blockade.

And then I was back, fleeing through the forest next to Erani and the Dryad. I shuddered, breathing heavily and glancing around. The exhaustion from our constant running flooded back into me – even if I was just there for a moment, the solace not having a body provided me was well-appreciated when I was this tired. And, of course, coming back after dying was always a bit disorienting, to say the least.

I took a breath, pausing to collect my thoughts and calm my nerves. I knew who we were fighting, and what tricks they could pull. They had the advantage in numbers and firepower, but I had the advantage in information.

...Well, they undoubtedly knew most of what I could do at this point, actually, so it was more like I’d finally evened the playing field in terms of information, and was outmatched in most other ways. But still, I at least had a simple goal to complete. All we had to do was walk forward a couple hundred paces. They had to kill someone who could travel through time.

Erani looked over at me. She’d walked a bit ahead of me, since I’d stopped to try and figure things out.

“What is it?” she asked.

“Time Loop,” I said, feeling a bit bad for alerting her like this, especially after we’d just resolved my poison crisis. “There’s a blockade ahead of us. Demons.”

Her eyes instantly sharpened. “How close?”

“We’ve got about an hour and a half of travel before we get there. So not too near.”

“But we’ll have to get through them? What ended up going wrong?”

I explained what exactly had happened as we continued on.

“Landmines, huh?” Erani sighed once I was done explaining. We’d continued our familiar trek through the forest by now, the Dryad having no idea of what laid ahead of us.

“Yeah. That seemed to be what they’d done. No idea how many there are, but I’m gonna assume it’s a lot.”

“What’s the plan, then?”

I shrugged. “Get past them, I guess.”

She laughed nervously. “Not much of a plan.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure what else we could do. There are too many Demons to beat them all in fair combat, not to mention all the Human soldiers. Even if we don’t count the reinforcements that’ll be coming from the other sections of their encampment once the fighting starts, there are dozens of them in that one area. I literally don’t have the Mana to beat them, and I doubt you do, either. And the Dryad’ll run out of Stamina eventually.”

She pursed her lips, obviously thinking the situation over and trying to figure something out, herself. “And you’re sure the Demons that fought you out there weren't triggering the mines at all? They weren’t just avoiding stepping on them? Because we could try luring them into the field and pushing them onto the explosives to blow them up.”

“I’m pretty sure the things just weren’t activating from them. I didn’t see any of the Infernals looking down as they crossed the minefield, at least. And they didn’t seem incredibly cautious about it. They could’ve been remotely detonated, honestly. Maybe they just had someone activating them manually when we got close to the mines. Could’ve also been those rings I mentioned before – I never figured out exactly what they do.”

“That’d make sense, I guess. Not sure how they’d know when you stepped on one of them, though. The mines were small and hidden in the grass, right? As for the rings, who knows. It could be an exemption Enchantment, or something, but that seems a bit too expensive to pull off, even for them.”

“Yeah, I’m really not sure.”

Erani, upon hearing my call, launched off an Explosive Firebolt, aimed at the landmine. Or, really, it was aimed slightly ahead of the landmine, so it would impact the ground between me and it. Just as I hit the ground, Erani’s Firebolt impacted and blasted the landmine further away from me, straight into the middle of the group of Infernals.

And then, a second had passed, and it exploded.

The detonation shook the ground and blasted back all of the Infernals in the fiery inferno. Five of the six stumbled backward and landed on their butts, and the sixth was launched all the way off its feet, bouncing to the ground a dozen paces away. I’d noticed that Erani’s Firebolt had pushed them away an extra distance in the previous timeline, so logic would dictate these landmines would, as well. Seemed my bet was on point.

In the Infernals’ disorientation, Erani was now free to run ahead, and she dragged the Dryad with her. We’d cleared the path to the main blockade, now, but we hadn’t won – not by a long shot. Not only would we have to fight our way through the line of tents and soldiers, we’d also have to get through the minefield. Sure, the Infernals were dealt with for now, but the rest of the soldiers still very much had their weapons, and moving through the field while dodging the barrages of arrows and other projectiles was more than deadly enough.

Erani arrived and stood next me as I readied myself to charge forward. But just as I did, I heard a noise behind me. Glancing behind myself, I saw as the Dryad jumped up onto one of the Infernals’ backs, and then leapt off, launching herself up and ahead of me and Erani.

And then, I felt a tug on my ankle. I looked down to see that the Dryad’s whip had been wrapped around my foot – and Erani’s, too. The spikes seemed like they’d been retracted into the vine – when the fuck was the Dryad able to do that?

With a sudden yank, she flung her hand forward, pulling the whip – and thus, us – with her. She launched us through the air with the momentum she’d gotten from her leap, as well as a fuckton of manual strength, and I found myself screaming and tumbling through the sky, no idea which way was up. There were apparently a lot more differences between Nymphs and Dryads than I’d originally thought.

But just as I was reflecting on my ignorance, I hit the ground, slamming into the hard dirt and rolling to a stop.

You have been slammed against something. 24 damage.

Your Health is 226.

But I didn’t sit still. The moment I found which way was down, I scrambled to my feet and raised my hand, shooting off Rays of Frost at basically anything nearby that looked capable of movement. We were in the middle of the encampment, soldiers on every side and Infernals bearing down on us. Green tents peppered the surrounding area.

Damage notifications flooded my view as the already-panicked back-liners were hit with Spell after Spell, and eventually my Mana dropped down to 473. Erani stood soon after, and I watched the familiar white lines of Angelic Shield’s protection fade away while she shot off Explosive Firebolts of her own at Humans and Demons alike, prioritizing those that manned the expensive, fragile-looking cannons and ballistas. It seemed like they were Enchanted with some basic protection Spells to keep them from breaking too easily, but that didn’t mean they were indestructible..

The Dryad landed gracefully between us as Erani and I shot off our many Spells at the surrounding soldiers. I appreciated the help getting across the minefield, but I also probably would’ve preferred some forewarning.

Not that she could give us any, though, I sighed to myself.

With the nearby soldiers disoriented or maimed by our attacks and our position in the enemy lines relatively secure, I prepared to take off and flee into the other side of the forest, getting away from the barricade and the fire and finally being home-free. But just as I began to move, I looked down and realized. There were still landmines surrounding us.

Those bastards had filled their own base with explosives!

I glanced around, trying to figure out the best path forward. Soldiers surrounded us, Infernals were getting to their feet, burning rubble from Erani’s Firebolts blocked any straight shots out of the camp, and the rest of the ground was covered in those damned metal plates. How did they even move around in here?

I glanced at the nearby soldiers who were still recovering from our attacks. They all had those rings on their fingers. It had to be that – any remaining doubt about my theory had been washed away, at this point. Those rings, in one way or another, made them exempt to the triggering mechanism of the mines. How else would they have avoided blowing themselves up?

The soldiers had begun to regroup at this point, the Humans taking up their bows and pointing them at us, and the Infernals taking point, approaching us cautiously. There had to be at least fifty enemies, all with their full attention trained on us.

“Did your plan go past the ‘getting into the enemy base’ point, by any chance?” Erani asked.

“No, not really,” I said. “Thought I’d figure it out on the way in. Didn’t think we’d get here so fast.”

“Well your preparation is really showing itself off.”

“Don’t worry,” I took a breath, preparing for a fight. “I’m making another plan as we speak.”

“Ah, another plan. Those have historically worked out so well for us.”

I grinned. “This one will. We’re getting out of here, and that’s a promise.”

Okay, I thought. Let’s do this.