SSS Frost Sovereign: Rewinding The Apocalypse!-Chapter 72: Seeking an entry

The competitive tension continued to thicken, tightening like a drawn bowstring, even as the spawns refused to grant them a moment’s reprieve.

The forest floor was a chaotic swirl of shifting bark and lunging predators.

"As much as this would be a good warm-up, we shouldn’t let them exhaust themselves here," Albert said in a low voice to Gremit, his eyes constantly analyzing the shifting frontline.

"We need to station enough people to anchor the spawns while we forge ahead."

He looked back toward the labyrinth they had just traversed.

Not everyone had arrived; the treacherous terrain of the Root Zone had significantly slowed the column.

Many incarnations had been caught by the hidden Venom Spitters, their numbers thinning far more than Albert had anticipated.

Albert held the data sheets close to his face, scanning the remaining strength of the expedition.

"The Root Zone has decreased our numbers greatly. This is definitely not as easy as I thought," he muttered to no one in particular.

"How many raid parties remain?"

"About twenty raid groups are left now, sir," one of his men reported.

Gremit analyzed the situation rapidly.

Although, those caught in it didn’t die, however, no one knew the long-term effects of the venom on those who had been caught by it, nor could they tell how many were truly out of the fight.

If they were to preserve the elites’ strength for the Chieftain, the path forward was clear.

"We should split up from here then, Albert," the porcupine Erwald suggested.

Katar’s ears twitched at the suggestion.

"Good idea! We should have done that from the start!" he yelled.

"Shut up, Katar!" Gremit snapped back.

Just then, a Thorn Knight breached their inner perimeter.

The incarnations at the edge of the converged group were forced into action.

A flurry of elemental energies and physical abilities erupted; blasts of light, shockwaves of force, and shimmering blade-strikes slammed into the knight, driving it back into the foliage.

The area was becoming increasingly noisy and crowded; they couldn’t afford to remain stationary.

And after a short moment of contemplating, Albert reached a decision.

He decided to split the force into five groups of four raid parties each.

"I, Ormond, Screla, and Estin will stay back!" Albert bellowed over the din.

"The rest of you, divide yourselves into four raid parties per group and scatter widely! We must confuse the spawns and thin their defensive perimeter to let us advance!"

The plan was a calculated move.

While the spawns had shown a sudden, collective objective in guarding the entrance, they were still driven by instinct.

If the humans scattered, the blockade would be forced to disperse and thin out to give chase.

This would allow the various groups to penetrate the dense forest without being crushed by a single, concentrated horde.

"Get into it as deep as possible! But if you meet the Chieftain, do not engage! Avoid it and wait until we reconverge!"

As he spoke, the groups were already in motion, scaling the massive roots once more.

Icard and his party moved with their assigned group.

Looking ahead, he saw other raid parties choosing different points of entry, planning to team up once they reached the inner cluster.

They climbed up and down the twisting bark, moving farther away from the initial bottleneck.

However, they were not moving through a vacuum.

As they cleared the crest of a massive root and leaped down, a hidden Venom Spitter perceived the vibration of their movement.

It recoiled immediately and launched its toxin at the hostile presences above.

There, an incarnation was hit mid-air.

Her body went instantly limp, and she tumbled to the ground with a sickening thud.

"Anna!" someone screamed.

The incarnation closest to the source of the attack didn’t hesitate.

He unleashed a concentrated wave of kinetic force that shattered the Venom Spitter into a pulp of organic matter.

Anna’s raid party members rushed to her side.

She was already convulsing, the emerald veins pulsing as the venom seeped into her system.

"Anna!" her raid party leader yelled, his voice cracking with a distraught, desperate edge that suggested she was someone very dear to him.

He landed close to her and pulled her upright, but her head lolled back.

The surrounding raid parties, including Icard’s, halted at the sudden outcry.

Six members of the victim’s party stood over her, their progress completely halted.

"Damn it!" the leader cried out. And before they or his Erwald could say a thing, he looked up at the other groups with pained eyes.

"You guys should go on ahead. My party can’t leave her here!"

"Ken" the yellow furred Erwald muttered, sensing his pain clearly.

She had gone limp, just like Hudson had earlier.

Icard knew that if they stayed, they would be vulnerable if a D-grade appeared, yet he found his mental fortitude shaking as he watched the scene.

Suddenly, a panel flashed before his eyes.

[Awwwn. Quite The Lovebirds, But Very Much Useless. You Should Just Kill Them, Icard. Not To Leave Their Essence To Spawns -Giggles-]

The cold text of Alyxara’s message snapped Icard back to reality.

Even as he shut her out, her giggling whispers seemed to linger in the back of his mind.

"What are you idiots waiting for?! Forge ahead immediately and leave them behind!" Katar’s voice barked, cutting through the emotional tension.

Icard gritted his teeth. "We can do without them. Let’s..."

But before he could finish, an explosion of splinters and wood erupted from a root directly above them.

A Thorn Knight was blasted through the air, its body already lifeless as it fell away over and from the group.

Icard looked up at the source of the commotion.

A figure staggered into view atop the root, breathing heavily and looking battered from a fierce struggle.

Icard squinted, and instant recognition caused his eyes to widen.

’This guy! Uhh... what was his name?!’

He racked his brain. He knew this guy from his past life.

He thought harder and then, it hit him.

’Damon!’

Damon was a young, cool-headed leader of an unaffiliated group of incarnations.

Because they lacked an Erwald, they moved as an independent unit, unable to keep pace with Albert’s main force.

His teammates appeared behind him, looking equally exhausted; it was clear they had just survived their encounter with the D-grade.

Damon looked down at the raid groups below.

"Aren’t you guys with the Union or something? Did you break off?" he asked, his voice strained.

"Damon, come on, let’s go!" one of his teammates urged, pulling him along.

"Aren’t you guys going inside?" Damon called out, gesturing toward the dense cluster of trees they were all aiming for, before he rejoined his group to disappear back into the heights of the roots.