Chapter 32 - Breaking Out of the Basement!
With our plans decided we all got into position and once the chimeras came into range both sides leapt into action. Starting with our side, Vanessa took the lead with a quick shield bash in order to get the foe off balance. Right afterwards the chimera was subjected to both a strong downward slash from Luke as well as a magic combo attack from me and Wendy.
It was my Void Hands charging forward while Wendy shot out small shark like bullets. Attacking from all directions at once we were quickly able to damage all over the chimera's body and even hamper the guy's ability to move.
Using this, Luke quickly maneuvered around and evaded direct conflict while Vanessa pushed it around with her shield and the chimera ultimately fell unable to even touch any one of us.
On the other side of the equation it was not as one sided as our match. Although the beast folk Lion at the head was indeed on par with us, his partners were not nearly as effective.
On top of all of that, the party make up on his side was overwhelmingly on the physical melee side so it was rather crowded and ultimately resulted in some injuries that Mellie had to get involved with and heal off.
"Thank you for your help."
"No problem. Without your injuries I would normally rarely get the opportunity to make a move like this."
The lion man showed a wry smile at the off handed and perhaps somewhat rude comment. While I was confused, I noticed that everyone treated it as normal. So I quietly whispered and asked Wendy about the situation.
"Didn't you know? The Beast Folk were once big enemies of humanity. Especially before when the Hero and Demon King had not risen for generations that the demons secluded themselves so Humanity's biggest opponents were actually the Beastmen. At that time both sides used rather... unethical methods. Don't tell Mellie that I mentioned that."
With that comment I had a rough idea on how the relationship between the two races was. It made sense given the church's long history to have remembered and recall such grudges but why do the beastmen not mind?
That was a question for another time so we all proceeded outwards as the explosions near the front of the basement started getting bigger. Once we reached the room adjacent to where we last saw the fight, we noticed that the sounds of fighting were now gone.
"Careful everyone, they may have decided a winner! If that happens then we would have to face the direct focus of one of the sides." Luke said in warning although it seemed that the lion was already aware and ready to deal with this scenario.
It was then that I quickly casted a Void Hand to the side and smashed a hidden chameleon like chimera flat on the wall. The others had not noticed it and it reached an uncomfortable distance to me so I cleanly killed it there.
"Aww, that was one of my favorites. You will have to make it worth my while to finish you personally to make up for it okay?"
From the hallway a familiar voice could be heard be heard as the doctor slowly came into view. With blood covering the bottom and sleeves of his lab coat and a large crow like chimera on his shoulder, he slowly walked over with his hands leaned down on his sides.
Both the Lion and Luke were very wary at this moment because if this guy won that confrontation then it means that this foe would be able to take advantage off a home field advantage alongside the chimeras already closing in on us.
"I never would have expected for a little rat to sneak into my lab with me this time. It is my bad for not checking while heading down here. Have you seen my prized collections? That lion was a rather pricy investment and once I finish with it it would most certainly be one of my best works!"
"I am not your merchandise!"
With a loud shout, the lion man flourished his sword and moved into a position where he could quickly dash over to behead the doctor with a single strike. With a click of his tongue, the doctor lifted his hands up in a leisurely manner.
"How could you not be? I purchased you from that network of traffickers and I have methods to keep you captive and locked here with me so how could I not own you?"
Speaking in that infuriating tone, the thread of reason on the lion man's face snapped as he rushed head first at the foe ahead of him.
"Hey! Felicia!"
"Got it!"
After he commanded I immediately casted a Void Hand and moved it over to help block the surprise blow that a quick chimera had tried to sneak on the lion. Before he could react, Luke came to the other side of his body to block another sneak attack.
" You... Thank you. I will remember this favor!"
"Rather than fighting head first without a plan, listen to my instructions and let us all do this together!"
"Understood. I will trust in your judgement!"
Now that he was convinced, we started by shifting our positions to better suit combat in this style of location. All around us were the various beast folk to guard the main healers of the team. Vanessa and the Golden Lion took the lead along with me to use my perception to guide the way forward.
Wendy and Luke both were situated in the back along with several of the melee beast folk in order to prevent any sneak attacks from harming the front liners. Finally there was Mellie and a few assortment of fighters to guard her in the middle as her role as team healer is critical in emergency situations.
Thus we followed this new formation as I and the Lion both helped to lead the troops. Of course, before our advance we had discussed the situation and I made a rough map of the whole basement so our route itself was already planned out by Luke. It is just that the Lion and I were there in case there were variables in the plan that would make our previous chosen route perilous.
With how varied the lab here is, it was actually quite smooth sailing most of the way through. Besides some excursions where the Lion and I quickly took down any straggling chimeras, with my guidance we could always avoid groups in order to quickly deal with foes before they could sound an alarm.
That was until we reached near the entrance when I stopped the team there.
"What happened?" The Lion man asked.
"Ahead there is an ambush." I stated in response.
My answer cooled down the mood and what was worse was that this was the only direction to exit the base. With spatial perception I had already found that out the hard way.
I knew that they would likely know that as well and hide here to wait for us, but I was hoping for the one in a million chance that they would leave for an unknown reason.
Ugh, guess we go to beat them head on. There are also guys behind that are closing in so it would be better to tighten our formation.
Right on cue we received a message from the back of that situation and we all crowd into a tight circle in preparation for this match.
Thankfully there are three entrances into the room that they are awaiting us so we don't have to stupidly crowd into a single entry way to face them. I noticed that there were some traps at the door so after informing the others they made sure to keep it in mind.
Now the main question was how we were going to split our teams to efficiently sort into the room for this final match of the lab exploration.
"Our team can take the main entrance and your two teams can split up to take down the side entrances. Have the tackiest member open the door and quickly step back to evade any prepared traps at the door before other melee fighter head in just in case these guys set two layers of traps." Luke commanded.
Then the Lion man split the two teams with each one headed by stouter fighter wielding a rather high quality shield scavenged from the various rooms found in our adventure.
With all of our sides ready we coordinated our response and finally all opened the doors and stepped back to trigger the traps in advance.
*Boom*
A loud explosion and a cloud of black smoke came from the doorway and boy were we glad that we had the foresight to not take a direct hit from those.
The shield bearers in the front including Vanessa all were pushed back and supported by the other members in the back. It was then an ingratiating voice sounded from within the doorway before the smoke cleared.
"Hmm. It looks like my little present seems to have hot had the oomph that I expected of it. Oh well, welcome uninvited guests and valued test subjects, I am here to invite all of you to our grand feast!"
When the smoke cleared, we saw that the explosives were not actually meant to take out some of us. After all such a thing would go against keeping more test subjects after all.
What it truly was for was to take down the walls opening up the area to a large size. Now it looked like the shape of the room was a large mushroom but that did not matter at this point.
On the thinner 'stem' of the room was the doctor standing triumphantly with a group of cannons aimed straight at us. Seeing it, alarm bells started to ring as I quickly prepared to defend and warn the others.
"Careful! Thy have explosive projectiles!"
"Oh? It looks like one of your group has a better than average brain. Pity that this blow may result in the early downfall of such a smart child. Oh well, it is not like I need a brain like that in particular. FIRE!"
With that shout, the cannons roared as we all took to cover and defending ourselves. That moment when the cannons blared I could not help but freeze up which the others saw.
"Felicia!"
Before I could react, I felt that a hand grabbed my hand and quickly pulled me back and pushed me behind them as another figure ran up to block the blow ahead of us. In that instant, I felt like time had slowed down.
The explosions inched closer as I saw Vanessa who had run to the front valiantly hold her shield up to block the blow as Luke also turned to help Vanessa block that blow.
In that instance, I felt that I could understand a bit about why Luke was so revered as a hero. In that moment it seemed that his body shined with a light that it never had before. It was also surprising to me that Vanessa would also step up to protect me.
But I did not have that much time to reminisce as the explosions were still coming. While I was frozen, Mellie was finally able to catch up and casted a spell to help everyone block those explosions.
"Holy Barrier!"
While a lot of smoke came in which choked me a little, I noticed that I did not feel much of the explosion as the barrier simply shook a lot in response to the attack.
It was then that Wendy finally dragged me back to the back of the room and asked if I was alright.
At that time my racing heart and mind had finally calmed down for a moment so I responded that I was fine and asked if the others would be okay,
"Don't worry about them, they have been caught in worse situations before. Believe in them that they can bring us out of this situation safely."
As she said that, she also started to cast spells upwards at an arc to attack the place where the cannons were situated before. Because of their size, the likelihood that they can be moved in a short time is minimal so if she can disable them now while they are not firing then it would be much safer in the long run.
The smoke cleared as loud clashes resounded over where the others were and I watched as the fights over there began to intensify with a lot on my mind.
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