My Servant System

Chapter 1239: Chapter 1238: Caught In A Storm (1)



The winds only got harsher as we tried to hunker down, each wave of broken down quartz slamming against the rock walls that Anput and Lilith erected, before they had to add a roof after everything began to spill over the walls and crash down against us.

There was little we could do against the elements themselves as the quartz desert reared its dangerous head suddenly, and being stuck in the middle of this seemingly endless biome only meant that there was no possible way to leave it and go someplace else.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

We were here to stay, and at first it felt like it might only be a few minutes much like the previous waves of random weather we had faced, but as time ticked by we noticed that there was no letting up in sight, and it was only getting worse if anything.

The quartz outside were creaking beneath the gale while the ground we stood on trembled occasionally, informing us of whenever those pillars of beautiful milky white rock had actually been torn off of their bases and slammed against the ground.

There was nothing we could do besides fortify ourselves inside of this earthen bunker, but as soon as the roof removed the sight of the sky above I realized something that made me pale a little, the blood leaving my face as I stared down at the incense urn in my hands.

"There is no way to diffuse the scent now..."

I left it at that, not wanting to voice anything else to the others lest we speak it into existence, and even Lilith paused as she stared at the urn in my hands, the smoke that spilled out of its various openings not doing anything to protect us now.

"Save the herb for later; we're going to need it. We're in a desert right now that's rampant with Earth Mana, which is being berated by it's opposite, Wind Mana. So... more than likely there are monsters prowling about hunting one another."

"Are you saying that we're in the middle of a turf war of some kind? That there are monsters siding with the earth while monsters siding with the air are coming down to prey on them? Is that what's happening right now?"

The older Demoness just nodded at Lady Fenyras, who began to curse as she prowled around the edge of our shelter, drumming her fingers on the hilt of her blades and venting some of her frustrations now before what felt like an inevitable fight.

Mom just crossed her eyes and looked at Lilith, her less dazzling but still vibrant rubies meeting her great whatever grandmother's as she waited for her to continue, noticing instantly that - while quiet - Lilith wasn't too worried about our situation.

Panicking wouldn't do us any good, obviously, but having that steady rock was important in this very unfamiliar, very dangerous territory that we knew little about; I was usually made to be that one, but here, in the middle of nowhere surrounded by who knows what...

I didn't know how to become that rock, the difference between this and the deadly dark forest that I had once braved on my own becoming clearer than crystal now that I was here.

No amount of preparation could prepare us for this, but having Lilith here helped a whole lot, so we looked towards her and sought out that ever present smile to calm us down as we waited for her to say something, to give us anything to grasp onto.

But she remained quiet the entire time, looking at us expectantly and in a way that we were all familiar with; she was testing us here too, in the middle of a situation that none of us wanted to be in, and this was likely the first of many tests that she was willing to take advantage of for whatever it was that she had brought us here for.

So I took a deep breath and decided that I would draw from the confidence that Lord Belian pushed upon me back when he had taken us all under his wing for that short amount of time, using the brain that was usually so hidden beneath various lusts as I tried to think of a way out of this situation, or at least of a way to survive it.

"We... If it's a turf war between two separate sects of monsters, two tribes or whatever, then maybe we won't even be the main focus? The hope would be to be avoided, but even if we weren't we could attempt to redirect their attention back onto one another and deal with whatever stragglers remain behind."

"The problem is the wind though, Kat. How can we move the carriage in all of this? If it was just whatever we were carrying we could outrun whatever monsters were targeting us, but the carriage slows us down way too much!"

Draka was the one to voice the obvious, and I nodded in response as I stared at the carriage itself, going over the various ways we could transport it with us; again, it held various supplies that would make everything so much easier for staying here longer, but how much of it was necessary..?

Could we part ways with some of it, lightening the load even just a little to shave off multiple minutes of dangerous traveling and to preserve our strength, or were we just going to have to push through it all without any kind of solution..?

"What if... Jahi and Mom pulled the carriage together and focused on just that, while Draka and I maintained a clear barrier of ice that blocked the wind and quartz sand that is blowing directly at us? That leaves the others to deal with any monsters that get close, and if they are truly as 'simple' as monsters should be, couldn't bursts of Earth and Wind Mana confuse them?"

I looked towards Lilith at that, and she just gave me that same smile as before as she waited for the question to be refined and directed at her, something that was grating about her as I asked it again, but the answer and knowledge she had more than made up for her eccentricities.

"You want to simulate a battle between those monsters by using my mana alongside the Jackalkin's? Are you sure they wouldn't be drawn to the promise of battle against one another, only to find us instead?"

That gave me a moment of pause, the initial draft of an idea I had - one that could work if everything went the way I thought it would - instantly getting challenged by the easiest flaw it had; assuming that I could predict and accurately understand what these monsters were capable of.