"Please... Help us."

  The reunion turns for the worst after the news.

  "Mr. Roland. Tell the adventurers guild and knights. Also bring Misha with you."

  Roland give a slow nod before walking towards Misha who now starts crying after seeing the sunken reaction of her sister.

  "Don't worry. We going to save your dad ok?" Come with me and let tell the knights Misha."

  Roland offers her back to give Misha a ride. She hesistate at first but after realizing that the people around her are serious, she muster courage and clings on Roland's back.

  After watching Roland run. The remaining adventurers are now left with nothing to plan for the sudden turn of events. Mateo walks towards Helyna who still in state in shock. He shake her shoulder to bring her back to her senses.

  "Put yourself together Helyna! We going to help you ok?"

  Helyna snaps back to reality. She slaps herself to both cheeks.

  "S-sorry!"

  "Good. Helyna, Fleur, and Norm. we have no time to plan nor share our knowledge about Dereia. The only options we have is we going to warning you about the dangers on the spot. Is that clear?"

  The three nods seroiusly.

  "Good. Now let's do it!"

  Everyone stand up and walks with mix of determination and worry. Unsure on what the outcome might be.

  ~~~~~~°~~~~~~

  "Fuck."

  "Why?" Fleur asked after hearing Mateo mumble to himself.

  The group is now in the outskirts of the farmland owned by Helyna's family. After seeing the house in the middle. Grand Ecstasy can only give a dissapointed sigh.

  "She have a terrain advantage. We might need to sneak in."

  "We going to use the wheat field as cover?" Claustrine asked Mateo.

  "Yes. But we should be careful not to disturb the crop so much that she might spot something unusual."

  Mateo opens his Bag of Storage and pull a Binoculars. He looks on the house, adjust it a little bit and then look again.

  "Shirna."

  "Yes?"

  "Take this and be the spotter for us. Scream loud if you saw danger."

  "Understood."

  Shirna leaves.

  "Are those tubes telescopes?" Norm asked.

  "Yeah. That's crucial if we don't want suddenly die from her attacks."

  "But... Those look different, and used for two eyes."

  "Lets focus on the mission." Mateo dodging the question which work.

  "Isn't beneficial for us to seperate and sneak on different angles?" Helyna asked.

  "Trust me. That would be dangerous."

  Mateo's seriousness makes Helyna trust his words.

  "No more questions?"

  Everyone nods.

  "Good. Lets go."

  And then the group of adventurers start their mission as they enter the tall wheat fields. They do their best to just sway gently the crops instead of flattening them in order to not make a visible disturbance.

  "You should crouch a little bit Beltrand. You're to tall. Your head might poke out a little bit." Claustrine's suggestion which she whispered.

  Surprisingly, Beltrand just follow her. Perhaps because of the seriousness of the situation that he can't afford to banter with Claustrine.

  "How dangerous Dereia really is to begin with?" Fleur asked.

  "If she spots us. We going to have a hard time getting closer to her within this distance as most of her magic are long ranged." Mateo answers.

  "Isn't long range magic common? What makes her dangerous?"

  "The thing is, she-"

  "RED!!!"

  "!!!"

  "TRINNE!!!"

  Claustrine hastely summons a wall of earth. An audible bang is heared and the group watch the wall got hit by something.

  The whole ordeal only takes 2.5 seconds since Shirna shouts his warning. The group left dazzled as the thing just happened

  "WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED?!" Fleur shouts out of surprise.

  "No time for questions! Just move!"

  The group rushes in but Fleur, Norm and Helyna stops to see the wall Claustrine created.

  To their horror, they see a deep and large crater embedded on it.

  "What the hell are you guys doing?! Let's go!"

  The three catch up with Grand Ecstasy, still confused.

  "RED!!!" Shirna's scream that becomes less audible.

  Claustrine summons another wall and just like earlier, a loud exploding sound rangs out then the wall got hit by another shot.

  "IS THAT HER MAGIC?!" Norm

  "YES!" Mateo shouts.

  "SHE HAVE SOME SORT OF INVISIBLE PROJECTILE MAGIC?! I CAN'T SENSE ANY MANA!"

  "NOR HAVE ANY VISUALS COMING FROM THE HOUSE!" Fleur added on Norm's complaint.

  "THAT'S JUST ONE OF THE PROBLEMS!" Beltrand also joins the shouting.

  The distance between their starting point and the house is between 500 meters. The group manages to reach 300 meters and the fact that that they completely abanddon their sneaky plan earlier in favor of just running it down and relying on Shirna for warning makes the gap closer.

  "MG!" Shirna shouts.

  "EM GEE WHAT NOW?!"

  Remembering what Mateo teached to them, Claustrine erect a wide wall of rock and soil.

  "Everyhide hide behind the wall!"

  The group follow Mateo's command in rush. Fleur, Norm and Helyna are in unease as they just following blindly.

  Just like what Shirna warned them, it started.

  Brrrtttttttttttttttt!!!

  The sound of the mini-gun rotating firing send shivers to everyone, and the fact that the wall Claustrine created is now getting shreded by the the bullets makes the inexperienced Fleur, Norm and Helyna scared.

  "Is this what you have dealt with?!" Fleur asked.

  "Yes! That's why we need to get closer to her so we don't get stranded by receiving her attacks!" Mateo explained.

  The earthen wall is getting destroyed to the point that it shows vulnerability. Claustrine summons another wall in front of the damaged wall.

  "Can we sneak as she fire?!" Helyna asked.

  "Not a good idea!"

  After few more seconds. The barrage stops.

  "Now!"

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  The group rushes again, running as fast as they can to closen the gap.

  20 meters

  BANG!

  50 meters.

  RATATATATATTA!

  100 meters.

  BRRTTTTTT!!!

  With Shirna's advance warnings, everyone manages to defend themselves on everything Dereia throws to them.

  Just 200 meters away on the house, the group suddenly feel strange.

  "Huh?! Why it comes warm all of the sudden?

  Mateo smells something, something burning. And Dereia suddenly stops shooting them. Something is suspicious.

  And realization hits them when the sound of the raging flame is everywhere partnered by the heat that continues to increase.

  The whole wheat field is slowly getting engulfed by fire.

  "But how?! Flamethrower would not usable at this distance!"

  Mateo is in shock as he thinks of possible reason on how Dereia manages to set the tall wheat around them ablaze.

  And then he realized something. He makes a disgusted expression.

  "Incindiary rounds. She uses guns, of course its reasonable she also have access on such bullets!" Mateo screams.

  "I don't really understand but we should leave the fields or we're roast!" Norm screams.

  "Right! Lets run to the East until we reach the road!"

  Thr group run at their best to escape the burning inferno around them until they reach the main path that reach the target home.

  The golden wheat fields are now a sea of raging tall flames that dance menacing with the breeze of the wind. As the sun is dissapearing in the horizon, the scenery lit up in basking orange glow.

  The heat of the surroundings makes everyone sweat profusely. The air thins out slightly but it didn't deter everyone on moving forward.

  Shirna jumps out of the field after, catching up with Mateo. After that, Claustrine summons a wall of earth and rock and she barely even block a bullet shot by Dereia. With just milliseconds, her head is no more.

  "We're in open now. We can't move unless we want our head to get blown into pieces." Claustrine's emphasis on their situation.

  "I know that."

  The gunshots rang again. Dereia trying to chip down their cover with each invisble bullet she throws.

  "Are we stranded? Maybe we can just wait for help?" Norm suggested.

  "No! We need to help my dad!" Helyna's sudden aggressive refusal.

  "Calm down Dereia. Being mad would not make things better."

  Realizing her mistake, Helyna apologize. Fleurd nods in understanding then gently strike Norm to the head whis his knuckle.

  "What is that for?!"

  shhhhhhhh...

  "Because you saying stupid stu-"

  BOOM!!!

  A direct hit from an unknown weaponry destroy the wall created by Dereia, sending debris to everyone behind it.

  The wall absorbs the explosion but still, the group got caught off guard. Their ears ringing and everyone are delirious as the chunk of rock and souls scattered on them.

  "W-w-hat happened?" Helyna asked as she slowly stand up before getting pulled down by Mateo and placing her behind the still standing remains of the wall.

  "Trinne are you alright?!"

  "Y-yeah... Somehow."

  "Damn. I never thought she's also have an RPG on her arsenal. Trinne cast another wall. Everyone hide behind it before she starts firing again."

  Claustrine do what Mateo says and erect another wall. The group hides again as Shirna takes short peek on the house using the binoculars.

  "We're so close!" Norm commented in annoyance.

  "Any plans Mateo?" Beltrand asked as his minor injuries are getting healed by Sophia.

  Mateo is at his limit as he thinks for a solution, until he looks at Claustrine.

  "Trinne. How thick you can make tungsten wall?" Mateo asked. Claustrine caught on his plan.

  "About half a brick if we want to create a wall."

  "Good. Can you also move the wall like how you move the ground?"

  "That might be difficult. Tungsten is a lot heavier that compact soil and rock. I can move a tungsten wall but it would be slow. Unless..."

  Claustrine looks at Norm.

  ~~~~~~°~~~~~~

  Dereia is looking at the scope of the sniper rifle only she can see. Focused on the wall on the road as she wait for any form of movement from her enemies.

  "They must be planning. Well, i'm still on slight advantage."

  Advantage as she can just wait for her arsenals to cooldown. But that's the only silver lining of her situation.

  Dereia understands that it would only take minutes before the forces of Zelestre comes to take her down. And her only way to escape is now blocked by the adventurers as the surroundings are still a burning.

  "Bothersome..."

  Her only options is to held her ground for anything that comes and so far, she yielding good results as Grand Ecstasy and others are getting difficulty for even making a step closer.

  "Uhhmmm?"

  Dereia notices something unusual. The wall looks like slowly moving towards her direction. It stops for a while, moves again, stops and finally...

  The wall slides to the ground faster which make Dereia surprised. She smirks.

  "Hail Mary huh?"

  Dereia shots the wall with her sniper rifle. Chipping the thick soil and rock little by little. Unlike real guns, her weaponry packs more power as all of them are being created by powerful magic owned and improved by Real Dereia's hard work. Power which is now used against her will.

  She knows that they can't replenish the wall while also moving as they would need to stay for a while to recast it. And it might be a thinner wall so they can move it. If she continues to just rain down bullets on the wall, the people behind it would be reached eventually.

  Dereia switch to her assortment of heavy guns and spray bullets to the wall. The earthen wall is now getting damaged even further.

  But the wall manage to close the distance into 100 meters.

  "Not bad. But..."

  Dereia feels her Rocket Launcher now ready to get used again. So she quickly switch to it, aims and...

  Swooooshhh...

  BOOM!

  The Rocket hits the wall creating a huge explosion and smoke. Dereia switch back to her machine gun and sprays bullets again but...

  Clank!

  "Huh?"

  She's hearing unusual metallic sounds coming from the smoke-covered wall as she shoot her guns. To her surprise, the smoke dissipates and it revealed a huge metallic sheet embeded deep inside the earthen wall.

  The wall continues to move and Dereia can only watch. Despite sacrificing some speed with durability, the wall manages to close the gap. Now the distance betweem the house and Mateo's group is now just 50 meters away.

  And then it stops.

  ~~~~~~°~~~~~~

  Few minute earlier.

  "Ohhhh... That metallic wall you created back then." Norm's excitement as she remember the Tungsten walls.

  "Then why you don't just used it earlier instead of us letting ourselves get bombarded by everything?" Beltrand's annoyed response. Claustrine looked at her like she's looking on a garbage.

  "And then what? Exhaust my mana and let us killed? As if you can carry a wall of Tungsten."

  "Fine fine. Chill."

  "But just like you said. We can't carry a thick slab of Tungsten as shield." Mateo asked.

  The others just watching, unusure what to say as they don't know what Tungsten is.

  "That's why I need Norm's help."

  "Me? How?"

  "Norm. Can you do Land magic?" Claustrine asked.

  "Only a little. I dislike dirt so I focused more on Fire and Wind magic."

  "Well you need to ignore that bias of yours if you want us to win. I have a plan."

  Claustrine explains her plan but some are skeptical.

  "You going to be immobile if you cast Tungsten wall." Mateo asked, Claustrine smiles smugly.

  "No. I only lost conciousness that time because I used too much mana by creating extremely large walls out of reflex. But I can control how large or thick the wall so I can still reserve more mana for moving. But I alone is not enough."

  "So that's where I come in?" Norm asked.

  "Yes. Tungsten is quiet heavy so I need your magic to help me push it. You can do it right?"

  Norm shows firm determination. He nods slowly.

  "Good. Now let's start."

  Claustrine advised the others to back off a little bit away on their wall. Then she created a 4 inch thick Tungsten wall behind the earth wall. But she didn't connect the Tungsten to the ground, instead it is supported by a soil and rock as base. Then she summonds another earth wall and slams it on the Tungsten, making a sandwhich which the Tungsten is now become a filling.

  "Norm, can you try moving it?"

  Norm gulped and use his magic to manipulate the soil covered Tungsten.

  "S-So heavy!"

  "Just manipulate the gound, not the metal itself."

  "I-I'm trying!"

  The wall only moves a few inches.

  "Ok stop."

  Norm stops. Claustrine inspect the wall and see no damage.

  "Ok now let's do this together."

  The two mages uses their magic first to sycn themselves. It takes few tries as Norm's mana is less powerful than Claustrine that their magic are unsync and they move the wall erratically.

  But few more tries later. The two are finally in-sync and they move the heavy wall with ease, they're now moving. Despite being slower, they can be sure that all of them are now covered, if the wall works.

  Sophia cast a barrier magic behind the wall. Claustrine raise her eyebrow.

  "Safety measure." Sophia answers happily.

  To their delight. The wall manages to resist everything Dereia thrown at them. All assortments of guns manages to destroys chunks of outer cover but it all change when the Tungsten wall is finally exposed. All of them sigh in relief after they stop hearing the gunshots.

  But that's not a sign that they should be at ease.

  "Shirna. Look at the house."

  "Ok."

  "Shirna carefully sneak his head at the side of the wall while using the binoculars. She only take a peek for few second to prevent her head to being blown into smitheerens.

  "She's still on the window. Watching us."

  "Good. Lets continue and settle things with her." Beltrand's determined words as she cracks her knuckles.

  "The burning inferno around them is no more. The flame traveled so fast in the wheat field that it's just an orange line from a distance. The only light source they have now is the orbs casted by Sophia and the light inside the house.

  50 meters away at the house.

  "Stop!"

  Norm and Claustrine suddenly halts their movements.

  "Claustrine, create a slab of soil."

  Claustrine follows Mateo and disconect a slab of soil from the ground behind them.

  "Beltrand, lets throw them above the wall."

  "Wait... Don't tell me."

  "Yeah. It's better to be safe than dead."

  With their combined effort, Beltrand and Mateo flings the slab of soil above their wall.

  "Everyone brace yourselves!"

  The ground falls for few seconds and then.

  BOOOOM!"

  A loud explosion rings their ears.

  "Tsk! I knew it." Mateo said in disgust.

  "S-so t-that's why you don't want us to rush on o-our own?" Fleur asked as both her and Helyna feel shivers on their spine. Imagining their body if they activated those traps.

  "Yeah."

  "Uhmm... T-thanks. You save us." Helyna's shy gratitude.

  "Save that for later."

  "So what now?" Beltrand ask.

  "Claustrine, do you think you can also plow the ground in the front?" Mateo asked.

  Claustrine shake her head. Mateo understands that she's now on Mana exhaustion.

  "I see. Hmmm..."

  Mateo looked at Sophia who is confused as why Mateo is looking at her. Then he looks at the barrier Sophia created.

  .

  .

  .

  "Move forward!"

  The wall moves again but the difference is Sophia's barrier is now on front, forming a V-shap and embedded a feet deep in the ground.

  Sophia upsettingly pushes her barrier which plow the ground and making way for them as the invisble mines above soil are being pushed aside.

  But Sophia is upset because.

  "I don't want to use my goddess-given barrier in this way ever again!"

  "There's time to be upset Sophia! And this is not one of them!" Beltrand reprimands Sophia.

  The group continues, despite being careful. They still manages to activate few mines.

  40 meters

  30 meters

  20 meters

  10 meters

  And finally, the group finally reach the close proximity of the house. With absolute awareness, they leave the wall and slowly walk towards the door as Beltrand, Helyna, Fleur and Mateo opens their bag of storage and pulls their weapons while Shirna pulls his daggers on his belt.

  The walk the short stairs and...

  CLICK

  A hail of bullets fully tears down the door in just few seconds.

  Fortunately, Beltrand and Sophia reacts quickly. Sophia's barrier manages to absorb most of the bullets before it shatters and Beltrand's shield and Knight's Vow magic blocks the rest.

  "MOOOVEE!!!"

  Wasting no time, the group raided the house as they breach in no time. They expect another surprise attack as they enter but instead, they see Dereia sitting on a chair with her legs crossed. An invisible rifle on her arms as she looked at everyone with slyness.

  "Hey it's you again. And it seems you bring more friends with you now. Looks like you guys are upset on your defeat a week ago." Dereia taunts Grand Ecstasy.

  "But not finishing us and instead running away is more pathetic at best and a huge mistake at worst." Mateo taunts back.

  As the tension rises, Helyna is more busy scouting the inside of the house and in the side, on the table where her family is haplly eating together. She sees it and her world sunks down. Her eyes wells.

  But her grief is instantly replaced by wrath. Her face twisted with anger as she looks at Dereia.

  .

  .

  .

  "Helyna?! NOOOO!"