276 First fight I
Nero surveyed his surroundings with Keen insight active, but he wasn't the only one. Clarissa stepped right beside him and began to carefully inspect the land, and so did the rest of the team, using their own means.
Their immediate surroundings seemed safe enough - not just from curses but from other creatures as well. It was as if nothing harmful was willing to get close to the tavern. Yet just a short distance from them, Nero saw a family of rodents run through the grass.
Whether they had strong aetheric abilities or they were cursed he could not tell at all.
"Target spotted," Clarissa suddenly said, attracting everyone's attention. She was pointing towards one of the ancient trees, its trunk 3 metres (9.8 feet) across and nearly 25 metres (82 feet) tall.
It was of a species Nero was unfamiliar with, as its body stood up straight like that of a pine tree, but its branches spread far and wide, even going as low as almost touching the ground. It was on one of these low hanging branches that Clarissa was pointing towards.
An ugly, black mass hung onto the branch, causing it to dip even lower due to the weight. The branch itself was already dead, as could be seen from the fact that not a single leaf grew on it, but that did not mean that the branch was empty. Far from it.
In place of leaves, decayed carcasses, the hides of various beasts, and strips of rotting meat hung from the end of the branch. Even from a distance, hundreds of hornets could be seen feasting on the hanging flesh, while every so often, a swarm of even more hornets would arrive from the distance carrying small corpses.
To call the sight horrifying was an understatement, and left the group in a state of bewilderment. Curses normally care only for aether, and Nero at least had never heard of them harvesting and feasting on meat like this. Then again, he had never seen an entire hive of cursed insects work together with a singular purpose.
No wait... he had! He was reminded of the berserkers and dark berserkers. Not only did they eat their prey, they were also intelligent in their own way, and all worked under the command of the tentacle monster as far as he could tell. Did that mean these hornets were also working underneath them?
"What's the plan?" Nero asked after a few moments of silence. "Shall we attack them directly? We have enough time to spare if you want to deploy some kind of tactic. I can tell you this much - swords and spears aren't going to be useful against hornets so we'll have to rely on our abilities." n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"I think, as researchers, it's best if we leave all combat related decisions to you," Vanessa said, glancing at the other researchers to see if they had any objections. "At the same time, we can treat this as your first trial. Even if you all may have discussed strategies together, implementing it is far from as simple as having a discussion. Considering the relatively low-risk nature of fighting close to the cabin, this is the best time to work out any kinks in your teamwork."
The only thing written in his file that wasn't something completely positive, or an overwhelming review of his ability, was a small comment stating that he had a weird personality. Considering that his personality never actually became an issue in completing missions or obeying orders, it did not matter much.
Including Nero, that made up six of their teammates, leaving only two girls and two boys behind, all of whom had auxiliary or defensive abilities.
One of the guys could straight up conjure barriers made up of pure aether that could block both physical, aetheric or cursed attacks! It was extremely impressive, with only real drawback being how aether intensive it was to use.
Another of the guys was extremely useful, if only to himself. It was a passive danger sense. As long as anything was about to harm him, he would sense it, regardless of the nature of the danger itself. Considering the many unusual threats they would face in Perilith, his contribution would be massive.
Then there was a girl who could create green aetheric tokens which could be eaten, and would supplement everyone's aether regeneration. She was like a walking aether bank or battery.
The last girl had an incredible ability as well, though the details weren't provided. Basically, it helped her move short distances really fast. Despite being seemingly limited in application, Nero could see how invaluable it would be in a fight, so he didn't underestimate it at all.
Keeping in mind the abilities and specialisations of all the members in his team, Nero came up with the perfect plan of attack.
"What's your plan?" Noman asked, clearly extremely interested in what Nero had to say. Despite his emotions written clearly on his face, he restrained himself and first asked for the details of Nero's plan.
"It's quite simple," Nero said, looking towards the hive, his grip on his spear tightening. "I go in alone and destroy the hive, and you guys can support me from the back if you want."
Okay so, it was not exactly the tactically best plan, but strategically, it was a great plan because it helped Nero fulfil many of his goals.
The fact that he was still just pumped up from watching the amazing fight on the way here, and from the incredible war song, had absolutely no influence on his decision.
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