<~> Chapter 289I touched Mimi disguised as the choker around my neck. Rather than be carried in her human form on one of my mounts, she opted to maintain the wind currents from around my neck like a piece of enchanted jewelry. Mimi would be able to hold her focus the best this way without slowing us down or forcing us to protect her while she was vulnerable.

  Our group was rge for an adventuring party, but considering what we were doing, that made sense. Silva and Kal'daeryn would be in the lead while Sibyl watched our backs. Morrigan, Bel, Raya, Nelly, and I would all be in the center of our group while Torien and Lori scouted up ahead, using their stealth to guide us away from patrolling demons. Normally, I would prefer to be in the front or the back, but I need to stay near the middle so Mimi can properly protect us from the smoke. All of us were tense as we were leaving through the gates during a brief gap in the waves of demons that crashed against the city walls during the day.

  There was still smoke and fire in the woods that we were walking through, but Mimi kept all of it at bay. We needed to be careful because the wind magic she learned would make us conspicuous to nearby demons if they came in contact with the loose bubble of magic she created. Torien and Lori's guidance would be crucial to avoid any wasted effort fighting or running from demons as we passed by.

  "What are we looking for anyway?" Raya whispered as we crept along.

  I walked a little closer to her. "Bel, the twins, and I all have the [First Explorer] titles. It supposedly allows us to sense the presence of dungeons, but it's never triggered for me before, so I don't know what it feels like."

  "So we're going to wander around in this demon-infested forest until one of you starts tingling?" Raya asked with amusement.

  "Raya, please focus," Sibyl interjected. "This is probably the most danger you've been in since you started practicing magic. You need to stay alert right now."

  Raya's ears flicked backward and she wilted a bit, but she nodded. "Okay. Sorry."

  All of us felt a nudge from Torien to slip into the bushes and away from the trail we had been following. After a few minutes, a group of demons passed by. There were a dozen of them, a mixed group of shadow horrors and long-legged imitators, those things that were chasing us into the city. If we got in a fight now, we probably wouldn't be able to kill all of them before they alerted more.

  As they passed us by, I thought about how helpful the bond was for silently communicating with our scouts. I was learning that the bond worked a bit like a rey. Once one of our scouts was close enough to our frontline to connect to the bond, all of us could communicate through it, even though Torien and Sibyl would be a little out of the typical range. It also let one of the two scouts explore a bit farther ahead without ever losing connection to the bond. If used properly, we could potentially connect an entire city to one rge bond with enough people. More than any other ability, the bond was slowly showing itself to be the most powerful ability we succubi have.

  The disgusting looking demons passed us, and we made our way back to the trail to continue onward. The demons weren't very intelligent, so even though we left obvious tracks in pces, as long as they didn't see us directly or touch Mimi's magic, they didn't seem to be able to spot us. The unfortunate part was that we didn't really know where we were going either. I tried to navigate using the ndmarks on the map I had copied down, but our path was a bit meandering as we walked the natural trails and avoided the demon patrols.

  -- "I'm surprised how effective we've been at avoiding being spotted so far, but we still haven't found anything. Any clues to the dungeon through your title?" -- Silva asked me through the bond.

  -- "I haven't felt anything from it yet." --

  I opened the description.

  [First Explorer - Rare Title]The bearer of this title was the first ever to enter a dungeon. Be it a young dungeon or a grand byrinth sprawling across the world, the bearer of this title will be always be able to feel the presence of a nearby dungeon. The world's magic now imbues the bearer of this title with a magical sense for nearby dungeons.

  I shook my head. -- "The title says I should be able to sense any dungeons nearby, and I don't feel anything yet." --

  Silva grimly nodded. -- "I suppose we'll keep looking." --

  We spent the entire day searching through the brush while avoiding the patrolling demons. Several parts of the forest were cut off from us by the fires, but our [Succubus Constitution] made most of the heat from the fires negligible since [Infernal Heat Resistance] had been rolled into that skill when everything merged. Since [Succubus Constitution] was a core succubus skill, all of us had access to it, which allowed us to get much closer to some of the fires than most of us could otherwise. We weren't actually fireproof though, so we still had to be careful not to get trapped and surrounded by the bze.

  I was starting to resign myself to the idea that we would have to go back to the city empty-handed when Lorienne finally discovered something. -- "Everyone! I see signs of people out here. I think I found the trail the cultists were using!" --

  It was good news that motivated all of us again. We had finally found a direction to search. We continued after Lori as she tracked the signs of the cultists, both subtle and obvious. Unfortunately, as we drew closer to them, the number of demon patrols increased, and eventually, it became difficult to move forward at all. We had to completely abandon any trails and wade our way through the grass and bushes without making too much noise, but we still managed it despite our rge group. These particur demons didn't seem that perceptive, but it was a bigger risk near the cultists. Eventually, all of us who had the title started to feel the dungeon nearby and its general heading. It was a vague sense, but it felt distinct from any of my other senses. It was hard to describe. We now knew we were on the right track though, but we still had to carefully make our way forward to avoid the demons.

  Lori waved me over to look over a cliff she brought us to. "Lilith, look."

  We found it. There was the unmistakable stone archway of a dungeon with stairs that led down into the earth. It was surrounded by an odd-looking camp with a few rge walls erected around it like a fort that separated them from the dungeon entrance. Like a funnel, they had raised the walls so that anything coming through would be led into the forest instead of interacting with anyone inside their camp behind it. A rge sphere of wind magic kept the smoke at bay for them while they were doing things behind the walls, just as we were doing.

  Torien crept up next to me. "Like we thought, they seem to be triggering repeated dungeon breaks to spit waves of demons out into the forest. Wait! Look there!"

  A beastkin came running out of the dungeon before slipping through a gap in the wall that was quickly filled behind him. Like a flood, a rush of demons came out of the entrance and had lost him. Rather than just spread out into the forest though, the oversized crowd ran up to a demon that had been waiting there. They didn't fight as I had almost expected. Instead, the demons followed after the lone demon and acted as if they had completely forgotten the quarry they were chasing.

  Morrigan pointed out one of the people in the camp working on something on an altar. "That mage looks like he's using summoning magic. They're summoning demons and using them to direct the demons they pull out of the dungeon."

  "They're triggering dungeon breaks like you thought?" I asked Lori.

  Lori shook her head. "No, at least they aren't right now. The groups would be even rger. This looks like they're pulling out trains of monsters rather than triggering a full dungeon break. You pull fewer monsters this way, but it upsets the dungeon less. That might be why they're only sending out the rger waves at night. They don't want to trigger full-on dungeon breaks too often and get overwhelmed themselves. It's smart."

  "It also means this is meticulously pnned out," Silva added. "This isn't just random mayhem they're causing, they're doing this for a reason. This seems to confirm Traehall is their target, not just a consequence of something else they're doing."

  "If we want to disrupt their pns, we need to do it between waves. Look, someone else is going back in already," Sibyl said, pointing at the entrance.

  Lori nodded. "The question is whether we want to go now or wait and get a better idea of how long between they're pulling trains."

  "When should we use the fre?" Bel asked as she gingerly held up the scroll.

  I frowned. "Traehall has been holding out for a while now. They still have time. We should be careful and get a sense of all of the enemy's locations before we rush in."

  "I agree," Lori said. "We can use that time to map out their patrols and locations before we use the fre and attack. We can wait for maybe two waves to get our timing down before heading in. Assuming they don't trigger a full dungeon break while we're waiting."

  "What happens if they do?" I asked.

  Lori gnced at me for a second before shrugging. "If they do, it might be better for us to wait for them to pass. With Raksha'va rested, they'll probably be able to st another night, but the eleven of us won't be able to fight an entire dungeon break on our own if we get caught. Not for this level of demons anyway."

  "The rge waves usually come te in the night, so I don't think they'll trigger one soon. We should attack after they pull the train into the forest but before they send someone down to pull up another. Otherwise, we might get pincered between the groups when they come back up," Torien said.

  "When exactly do you think we should use the fre? Right as we're attacking, or after?" I asked.

  Silva hummed as she looked over the camp. "After, probably. I don't think we're close enough to use it as a distraction. We should probably use it after we have engaged them already so we can maintain the element of surprise."

  I looked over at Nelly, who had been listening silently until now. "Nelly, can you activate scrolls?"

  The cowkin nodded. "I can. I trained with it and got lots of practice in the temple."

  "Do you feel confident in doing it during a battle?" I asked.

  Nelly nodded seriously. "I can handle it."

  I nodded back. "Good. Use the fre scroll once we're fighting. That will allow Bel to use her nature magic to disable people at the start of the fight."

  Bel handed Nelly the scroll, who opened it slightly to gnce at it before wrapping it back up and nodding. "I can activate this. I just need time to focus."

  Kal'daeryn grinned. "I will keep you safe, Nelly. I swear it."

  Confident in our roles, all of us turned and watched the camp, trying to see if we could find anything else to our advantage. We watched two complete cycles of them pulling out trains and swapping people out to do both the running and the summoning. We counted out about twenty of them from the ones we could see, but nearly all of them looked to be mages outside of the ones pulling out the trains.

  I couldn't hesitate when fighting them this time. These people were trying to choke Traehall to death and were working with demons. Actual demons. I would need to kill some of them. We were outnumbered. I couldn't allow myself to become emotional about it this time. I have killed before, people who may have deserved it less than these people. I need to keep my nerve this time.

  Silva sat next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. Her touch felt reassuring and helped me take a breath and release some of my anxiety. "You will do fine, Lilith. We're outnumbered, but I believe in this group."

  "What if I hesitate again?" I asked quietly.

  "Then I'll protect you like I did the st time. But I don't think you will. I can feel your resolve through the bond. Have more confidence in yourself."

  "...Thanks, Silva." I took a deep breath and looked down over the camp again. The battle would start soon.

  Saine

  Hello! I hope this little plot thread of Lilith struggling every time she has to fight people isn't getting old, but it kind of shows how much of an impact it's kinda been every time for her. After rereading this I kinda feel like it's gone on a little long, so I think this will be the st time it shows up in this form. Lilith's not suddenly going to turn sadistic, but ruminating on it every time feels like a little much by this point. Hopefully that didn't detract from the chapter too much for all of you. Most of this chapter was setup for the next few, but I have some really fun chapters coming up. I hope you enjoyed this one, thanks for reading!

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