Abyssal Awakening

Once the clean up operation was done, Olivr regrouped everyone and did a head count.

Furrowing his brows, veins bulged on his neck as 3 Warriors had deserted during the time it took for them to salvage all the supplies they could still use.

With only 53 Warriors left and only 7 captains, they had to siege and take over a city with just 60 people.

Instructing a captain to track down the traitors and deal with them, Olivr began to adjust the groups with the information given to him by Bo.

18 were pulled to form a stalling group with Egil as the centre and the key to stalling the beast if it was ever to appear.

5 were pulled to form a stealth group with the seven captains leaving only 30 warriors to act as the vanguard.

And as expected, Alice was dragged into the vanguard group since with her current body, she was of no help to either side.

Even though Selen wanted to protest, she knew it was futile and doing so would just cause an unnecessary scene. Hell it might even give the opposite effect and thrust Alice into more danger.

With the groups now sorted, they began their march towards the port as many of the carriages were destroyed in the ambush.

Naturally, there were still a few that could be repaired and used but they were used for transporting the supplies rather than humans.

"Want me to carry you?" Selen offered Alice as she was worried about whether or not Alice could survive the entire journey.

"Oh hell no!" Alice rejected it without an ounce of hesitation. If she was to allow Selen to carry her, knowing how she carries people like a sack of potatoes, Alice would die of embarrassment before she even arrived at the port!

Shrugging her shoulders, Selen left the offer open if Alice ever wanted to take her up on it.

'Seems like I'll be able to let loose a little when we arrive at the port.' Alyss crossed her legs.

With the vanguard only being 30 Warriors and the Captains going to fight the Grandmaster, it meant that no one spared the time to look at Alyss.

If she was to switch out, she'll be able to fight to her hearts content. Of course, there were still limitations to what she could do but it's been too long since she last stretched her body properly.

Doing training and coming out to eat skewers were fine but Alyss felt like she was about to die of boredom.

'Sure. I'll find a corner where you can rampage without anyone watching.' Alice nodded with a smile as she too knew that Alyss had been suffering in silence.

She wasn't able to bring her out as much as she wanted but now that they're going to the port, this was a perfect chance.

Continuing on their journey, they were going to take an extra day since their pace had slowed down with the lack of carriages.

More rests needed to be taken and supplies were dwindling.

There were occasional ambushes on the road but the main beast wasn't in sight. These ambushes served to keep tensions high while giving the group minimal rest.

Even for Alice who wasn't doing much during these fights and only using her crossbow, she was getting exhausted both physically and mentally.

Once they set up camp, people began to pass out immediately from the exhaustion while captains took the initiative to take watch order.

Most of the Warriors didn't have the senses needed to prevent an ambush like last time so it was up to the captains to keep them safe.

Deciding to sleep in the camp this time rather than a random tree branch, Alice closed her eyes.

"AMBUSH!!!"

Jolting up from having slept only a few hours at best, Alice felt groggy as she rushed out from the tent and saw a crack in the sky with several cracks surrounding the camp.

Everyone became alert as they grabbed their weapons and prepared to fight.

However, time passed and the cracks faded away.

Seeing this, Alice's smile twitched furiously as this was a bait all along. There was no ambush merely signs of one to force people awake.

'These motherf*ckers are not letting us sleep.' Alice thought in annoyance.

If they ignored the initial call, there was a chance that it was a real ambush and many of them would lose their lives again. But if they listened to the call, they'd lose precious sleep.

With this being a false alarm, everyone went back to their tents.

Once again, Alice closed her eyes.

"AMBUSH!!!"

Hearing the shout, veins bulged on Alice's forehead as she dashed out of the tent and so did everyone else.

Once again, the cracks in the sky faded away as Alice felt like throwing a table into the Void.

'You motherf*ckers! If you want to fight just fight! Why the hell are you wasting energy opening cracks but not going through them!? "^%&^"!%*&^"*^£$' She shouted in her mind as an impressive string her curses were said.

Even Alyss had to clap her hands in admiration as she didn't know Alice was able to connect such a long line of swears.

Unable to take it anymore, Olivr decided on a new night watch rotation instead.

A third of the Warriors will be on guard. Not to keep an eye out for ambushes but rather to listen to commands. If the Ambush was real, they'll wake the others while stalling for a bit of time.

If the ambush was fake, the others still get their sleep.

They'll keep switching with this rotation until everyone's gotten a decent amount of sleep.

Going back to her tent feeling annoyed as f*ck, Alice closed her eyes hoping that there were no more false alarms like this. If it continued, she might as well not sleep for the entire night.

Thankfully, that wasn't the case this time. Alice's group was part of the last watch and the other two had no incidents.

Stretching her body, Alice let out a tired yawn while rubbing her eyes.

It was still a few hours till daylight and this was going to be the first time Alice got to watch the sunrise. Ever since coming to the surface, she had been enjoying the sunlight that was absent in the Abyss.

In the Abyss, it was perpetual night. The only source of light were strange crystals, beasts, abilities and the moonlight.

But the light produced couldn't be compared to the warmth generated by the sun.

Thinking about this, a smile crept onto Alice's face as she looked forward to the sunrise.

Looking for a good spot to sit down, Alice kicked her legs back and forth while counting the stars in the sky.

Both Selen and Egil had already done their shifts earlier while Alyss was also sleeping. She had no one to talk to during this shift.

Taking out some fruit, Alice enjoyed it in silence.

After the first hour passed, cracks began to form in the sky as she narrowed her eyes.

She could sense strands of energy coiling around the entrance, threatening to tear it apart but didn't go further.

'Seems like it's just another bait.' Alice thought to herself.

They were using enough power so that the realm threatened to burst but not enough to actually burst it apart.

Not only that, but Alice couldn't sense the presence of beasts behind the fake portals. Even if they were to burst open, there was a chance that there was nothing at all.

However, the portals were lingering longer than what Alice had expected. The captains weren't giving their commands so Alice didn't say anything and continued to count the stars.

Another hour passed but nothing happened.

Only the sound of wind could be heard and nothing else. The night was still dark and it didn't seem like the sun rise was happening any time soon.

Furrowing her brows, Alice immediately sat up as she narrowed her eyes at the fractures in space.

Just like before, strands of energy coiled around the entrance but it wasn't enough to tear it open.

Looking around her, Warriors were talking to one another, some were doing patrols while the captains kept an eye out on everything that was happening.

Logically, it should be fine but the feeling ate away at Alice's mind.

Glancing up at the sky, suspicion filled her mind as she raised her crossbow and fired a single shot.

*Ding…

Widening her eyes, she realised the energy from earlier wasn't trying to tear open a portal at all. Instead, it was a node for a barrier!

She had been looking at it the wrong way since the beginning. If she had considered other possibilities, it wouldn't have taken this long to notice.

Jumping down from the platform, she ran to the captains.

"There's a barrier in place!" Alice called out, causing the two captains to glance towards her in confusion.

"What do you mean?" The captain holding a shield asked as Alice didn't waste any time explaining and loaded another shot into her crossbow.

Raising it up, she fired and like earlier, the arrow bounced off.

Seeing this the captains widened their eyes as the shield captain took a deep breath.

"AMBUSH!!!" He roared, Sigils flaring across his body.

Slamming his shield into the ground, a pulse of energy exploded out and formed a three layer defensive barrier around the camp.

The other captain that was on watch slammed her palms together as a earthen spears shot up from the ground.

A spiral of energy rushed behind it as the spears pierced into the barrier.

*SHATTER!!!

Breaking the barrier in one go, they widened their eyes in shock.

The thick malevolent energy of the beasts poured into the camp as chills went down their spine.

The number of beasts were inferior to the first ambush but they could tell there were two more beasts on the level of the strange draconic beast that took out almost half their Warriors.