TEOCH 27

“Rohan, Rohan! Damn it, are they really down there? I can’t see a thing!”

“My detection magic says they’re definitely below! We just haven’t found them yet!”

“So they’re in there somewhere, right? Damn it, how are we supposed to find them with all these wasps?! How did they even end up in a place like this?!”

High above at the edge of the massive hole, the two were bickering loudly. Their voices carried all the way down to us, but it sounded more like a light squabble than a serious argument.

I was stunned. How did these people, who couldn’t survive outside the safe zone for more than twenty minutes without me, make it all the way here? After a moment of bewilderment, I grimaced. The answer was painfully obvious.

‘How many parasites did those guys waste to get suffocation-prevention gear?!’

The thought of the low odds of obtaining a suffocation-prevention parasite made my head spin. The idea that all the parasites we’d painstakingly collected might have been ruined in an instant made my stomach churn. I couldn’t even guess how many parasites they’d synthesized to get two of those rare ones.

I just hoped they’d had some luck. With a long sigh, I thought to myself that if they’d failed the synthesis and turned all our parasites into useless mush, I’d have no hesitation in wringing their necks—and my own right after.

But then.

“There, there they are! It’s Rohan!”

“Where, where?! Oh, it’s true! Rohan! Are you okay?! Are His Majesty and the Captain safe?”

I muttered under my breath that I couldn’t believe I was still alive. The voices of the two, overjoyed at spotting me, were as excited as children’s. I glanced at Tristan and Rikiel to check their expressions. They, too, looked brightened by this unexpected stroke of luck.

‘Well, it’s probably a good thing. Surviving is the most important part…!’

If we survived, we could always gather more parasites. Pushing aside concerns about the parasites’ survival, I focused on figuring out how to escape this place. I took a deep breath and shouted as loudly as I could to make sure they heard me.

“Rehas! Damian! Perfect timing! Help us out!”

“Help you? How?!”

“Distract the wasps so they can’t attack us! We’ll fly up during the opening!”

“Wait, you’re doing what? Fly? How?!”

“Do we have time to explain that now?! Damn it, I’ll explain later, just do what I say!”

Yelling until my throat felt like it would tear, I quickly started devising an escape strategy in my head. If we used the confusion magic Damian had embedded in his staff, we could incapacitate the wasps around us. But that magic wasn’t perfect. While confusion magic had a wide range and strong effect, its duration was frustratingly short.

I calculated the timing of Damian’s available spells. ‘Confusion II’ lasted about five seconds at best, with a twenty-second cooldown before it could be used again. During that cooldown, magic was unusable, so to scatter the wasps effectively, Damian would need to alternate between ‘Confusion’ and ‘Fire.’

First, use ‘Confusion’ to disable the wasps, then cast ‘Fire’ during the cooldown. While these spells, lacking purification properties, couldn’t kill the wasps, they could at least draw their attention briefly, giving us a chance to escape.

‘But that’s not a perfect plan either. It solves the cooldown issue, but there’s the problem of attack priority…!’

If Damian kept casting large-scale magic like that, the wasps would undoubtedly prioritize him as their target. No matter how powerful his magic was, he’d be overwhelmed if hundreds of wasps swarmed him at once.

We’d need to divert their attention just before they overwhelmed Damian. To do that, someone would have to provoke the wasps…

“Damian! Alternate between ‘Confusion’ and ‘Fire’ to draw the creatures’ attention! Use ‘Confusion’ whenever you can, but only cast ‘Fire’ when I signal you! Only when you see a white light burst!”

“Understood!”

“And Rehas, block the wasps heading for Damian! A few warning shots when they get close will be enough!”

“Got it! I don’t know what you’re planning, but be careful!”

After relaying the strategy to the two above, I turned to Rikiel and Tristan. They nodded heavily, ready for action. As Rikiel prepared to fly, holding us both, I steadied my hoarse voice and spoke to him.

“Sir Rikiel, I’ll give you a separate signal. Provoke the wasps each time I do.”

“…Provoke them? You mean draw their attention?”

“Yes. You need to provoke them exactly when I signal. Insect-type demon beasts are generally not very smart, so with the right strategy, we can reach the hole without getting attacked.”

“Got it. I trust you.”

“Then let’s begin. Damian! Cast ‘Confusion’ the moment I signal!”

I gathered purification energy to create a small orb of light and sent it floating into the air. The first signal. As Damian swung his staff, chanting a spell, the wasps in the air began moving erratically, and I immediately signaled Rikiel to take off.

With a thunderous roar from Rikiel’s wings, our bodies shot upward toward the sky. The escape plan had begun.

The wasps, momentarily disoriented and circling in the air, regained their senses as the five-second duration of the spell ended. The ones around us noticed the sudden intruders and began charging ferociously. I immediately burst the light. The signal for ‘Fire.’

“Watch out for the flames!”

With Damian’s shout, the area was engulfed in scorching heat. The intense heat, far surpassing his usual warming spells, caused the hornets and ground wasps around us to scream in pain as they burned.

We seized the moment to soar upward. But we weren’t moving too quickly. To avoid the surrounding threats, careful flying was necessary.

“Sir Rikiel, stick to the wall! One wrong move, and we’ll fall!”

The wasps with burned wings fell to the ground in droves, and we flew cautiously to avoid accidentally brushing against their stingers. We stuck to the wall opposite where Damian and Rehas were. It might seem logical to fly toward them, but that wasn’t an option. The battle wasn’t over yet.

The wasps on the ground rapidly regenerated their wounds, their wings restoring to their original form in moments. Furious, they began searching for the insolent creature that had burned them and soon spotted Damian.

The enraged wasps swarmed toward him. With the ‘Confusion’ spell still on cooldown, Damian had no way to defend himself, and Rehas couldn’t handle so many wasps with just a few arrows. Observing their movements closely, I shouted to Rikiel the moment I judged the timing right.

“Now! Provoke them!”

Rikiel, who had been anxiously watching Damian, used his provocation skill as if he’d been waiting for the cue. The wasps heading for Damian hesitated in midair before changing direction. Rikiel’s ‘Provocation’ skill was more effective at drawing the attention of demon beasts than any other, so even after Damian’s ‘Fire’ spell, the wasps prioritized attacking Rikiel.

‘Please, please, let the timing be right…!’

I counted the seconds in my head, keeping an eye on Damian. Thanks to Rikiel’s provocation, Damian was relatively safe, but now all the wasps’ attacks were directed at Rikiel.

Fortunately, Damian didn’t falter. As soon as the cooldown ended, he swung his staff, and as a purple aura enveloped it, the wasps’ movements grew unstable again. Another ‘Confusion’ spell.

‘Yes!’

I cheered internally. Their timing was spot-on. When I burst the light to signal, Damian cast ‘Fire’ again, and the wasps, just freed from the confusion spell, were engulfed in flames once more.

When the wasps, regenerated from the flames, charged at Damian, Rikiel immediately used ‘Provocation.’ While Rikiel bought time, Damian retreated to gain distance, casting ‘Confusion’ again once the cooldown was up to disrupt the wasps.

The wasps, unable to land a proper attack, flitted back and forth between Damian and Rikiel. Though some ignored Rikiel’s provocation and charged straight at Damian, they fell writhing in pain after being hit by Rehas’s arrows.

‘It feels like Rehas’s arrows are infused with parasites…’

Otherwise, the wasps wouldn’t drop so easily. I tried to ignore the ominous feeling, though I made a mental note to check our parasite stock later.

‘Still, it’s working. If we can keep luring the wasps and escape…!’

But our strategy was like walking a tightrope, fraught with danger. Casting large-scale spells in rapid succession was draining Damian’s mana too quickly, and he occasionally lost focus, casting spells at the wrong time.

There was another problem. The higher we climbed, the closer we got to Damian, narrowing the distance between us. My strategy relied on making the wasps waste time flying back and forth, but the shorter the distance, the less time they’d waste, increasing the pressure. This could get dangerous.

Then, it happened. While casting ‘Confusion,’ Damian reached his physical limit. Losing focus, he dropped his staff and collapsed. The spell was interrupted, and the purple aura around his staff vanished instantly.

“Damian! Are you okay?!”

I shouted through gritted teeth, but we didn’t have time to worry about him. Rikiel had just used ‘Provocation,’ so most of the wasps were now swarming us. Rikiel frantically flew to escape their encirclement, but their numbers made it difficult.

Rehas quickly supported Damian, who began chanting again, but the gap in the ‘Confusion’ spell left us vulnerable. We stared in terror at a hornet charging with its stinger. One hit, and we’d crash!

I tried to ward off the wasps with purification energy, but there were too many. Finally, a hornet lunged at Rikiel with ferocious intent. His face paled, and I watched helplessly, but…

“Argh!”

Thanks to Tristan thrusting out his arm, the hornet’s stinger tore into his arm instead of Rikiel’s body. As the paralyzing venom turned his skin blue, my blood ran cold. Rikiel’s face hardened in panic, but Tristan gritted his teeth, stifling his groans of pain.

“Your Majesty!”

“It’s fine! Don’t worry…!”

Tristan gasped in pain mid-sentence. I knew the paralyzing venom only restricted movement temporarily and wasn’t life-threatening, but it felt like my breath was caught in my throat.

Blood gushed from Tristan’s torn wound. Fine? This is not fine at all! I wanted to scream, but before I could, the surrounding wasps began to falter. Damian had successfully cast his spell.

Rikiel, with no time to check on Tristan, flew upward. I managed to regain my composure.

“Just hold on, hyung! A little longer, and we’ll escape!”

“Let’s get back and treat that wound. It’s okay, the venom will wear off soon. A bit of holy water, and the pain will ease!”

I desperately reassured Tristan—and myself—but his face remained pale and grim. Thankfully, the end was near.

Taking advantage of Damian’s ‘Confusion’ spell, we finally escaped the hole. The blinding sun of the demon realm greeted us. We had escaped the ground wasp nest.

But it wasn’t over. The hornets and ground wasps, furious at the interruption, were chasing us. We had to get back to the safe zone with an exhausted Damian and an injured Tristan. And that wasn’t the only problem.

“My mana… I don’t have enough mana! With this, I can’t create flames strong enough to burn them all!”

Damian shouted in a hoarse voice, and we paled. No matter how fast we ran, we couldn’t outrun the wasps. Rikiel’s flight could outpace them, but even his stamina couldn’t handle carrying four people at once. And with Damian’s group on the opposite side of the hole, reaching them immediately wasn’t an option…

We were overwhelmed with despair as we watched the wasps pour out of the hole. But then, Tristan, sweating and panting in pain, spoke with effort.

“It doesn’t… have to be a strong flame…!”

“Your Majesty? What do you mean…?”

“You don’t need a high-temperature flame, Damian! Those creatures have already been burned by your fire multiple times. Just the sight of flames will keep them at bay! Use as much fire as your mana allows!”

I quickly realized Tristan’s idea had merit. Damian’s face lit up as well.

Of course, if reckless wasps charged in like moths to a flame, this makeshift strategy would fall apart, but we were desperate enough to try anything.

Damian immediately swung his staff, creating a massive flame. In scale, it rivaled any fire he’d conjured before, but its temperature was barely warmer than the surroundings. Given that higher temperatures consumed more mana, this fire wouldn’t drain him too much.

“It’s working!”

The wasps, charging toward us, hesitated at the curtain of flames blocking the nest’s entrance. While they held back, we needed to gain as much distance as possible.

Rehas hoisted Damian onto his back, and Rikiel, folding his wings, carried Tristan. A grotesque sound of twisting bones came from Rikiel’s back, but he rose without hesitation. Meanwhile, I tore my sleeve to make a makeshift bandage and wrapped it around Tristan’s arm for first aid.

We ran desperately toward the safe zone.

We were utterly sick of wasps.