Chapter 443: Team Up

The fifteen maidens froze instantly, their bodies locked rigid in mid-stride.

No matter how violently they strained, their muscles refused to budge an inch against the suffocating power of Tasmin’s shadow mana.

"W-What is this?!" the fake Sarah screamed, her voice cracking. "Let us go! We’re your comrades!"

Tasmin rested her forearms lazily against the saddle pommel, looking down at the frozen group with cold mocking disdain.

"You parasites are truly amateurish," Tasmin drawled, her voice cutting through the silent clearing. "When that first beast tried to ambush me in the ravine, it made two fatal mistakes. First, it tilted the golden sword insignia on its forged breastplate but second... and far more importantly... you lack the fundamental understanding of shadows."

Tasmin pointed her slender dagger toward the feet of the frozen maidens.

"Look beneath your boots," Tasmin commanded coldly. "The fifteen girls on the right are casting distinct dark shadows against the morning moss but you fifteen? You don’t cast a single sliver of a shadow... Your bodies are hollow constructs of condensed biological slime and illusion mana. You cannot mimic what you do not truly possess."

The faces of the fifteen frozen maidens instantly lost all human warmth.

Their eyes turned pure milky white, their jaws unhinging with sickening snaps as they let out synchronized ear-splitting shrieks of pure rage.

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-CHAAAAAA!"

Their flesh began to boil, dark gray slime bubbling through the seams of their forged armor as their spines buckled outward, trying desperately to break free from the shadow binds.

"Die in silence." Tasmin whispered.

She raised her right hand, curling her slender fingers into a tight crushing fist.

SNAP! KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!

The shadow tendrils violently imploded inward.

Fourteen of the fifteen frozen monstrosities detonated simultaneously under the catastrophic gravitational pressure.

A colossal wet explosion of dark slime, shattered bone fragments, and black ichor sprayed across the clearing, the sheer kinetic shockwave evaporating their fake armor into dust.

Tasmin left exactly one alive.

In the blink of an eye... faster than the recruits could even perceive, Tasmin vanished from the saddle of her mount.

SHING!

She materialized instantly behind the sole surviving shapeshifter, her right arm wrapping tightly around its throat while the cold edge of her dagger pressed deep into the jugular of its bubbling, half-transformed neck.

"Talk," Tasmin whispered into its ear, her raspy voice vibrating with merciless intent. "Who sent your brood into this sector of the basin? Where is your queen nesting? Speak in human tongue, or I will peel your nervous system out through your ribs one millimeter at a time."

The shapeshifter thrashed wildly against her grip.

Its human jaw dissolved completely, replaced by a grotesque dripping wolf snout that snapped its yellow fangs in frantic defiance.

"Grol’kash... vur... kraaa! Zulgath... mor... SKREEE!" the beast gurgled, spraying foul acidic bile from its throat as it hissed in its native guttural dialect.

Tasmin’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

SCHLICK!

With a single, effortless flick of her wrist, Tasmin drew the dagger horizontally across the monster’s throat, cleanly severing its windpipe, arteries, and spinal cord in one fluid stroke.

THUD!

The decapitated monstrosity collapsed to the dirt, dissolving into a puddle of inert smoking gray ooze.

Tasmin wiped the black blood from her blade against the side of her leather trousers, sliding the weapon back into its sheath with a crisp clack.

She turned slowly on her heel, looking back toward Brida with a dry unimpressed smirk.

"What?" Tasmin shrugged, her raspy drawl echoing over the silent clearing. "Do I look like a translator who speaks fluent swamp-parasite?"

She drew a clean rag from her pouch, wiping her hands as she looked down at the puddle of dissolving slime.

’These creatures are definitely an invasive anomaly,’ Tasmin analyzed internally, her sharp mind piecing together the threat. ’Standard beasts rely on raw brute force, but these things use psychological infiltration, vocal mimicry, and coordinated decoys and more importantly... I certainly don’t feel like explaining to Kaelia why we’re hauling back meat that can transform into the Lord’s face... These things are strictly vermin to be eradicated.’

She looked up at the thirty recruit maidens... fifteen from Squad Two and fifteen from Squad Three who were all staring at her with wide reverent eyes.

"We need to distribute this intel across all sectors immediately," Tasmin announced, stepping back toward her Blessed Wolf. "Fortunately, our Lord ensured we weren’t operating like blind barbarians."

Tasmin reached into her tactical belt, turning toward one of her senior scouts. "Hand me the communication crystal."

"Here, Commander!" the scout maiden responded instantly, unhooking a glowing multifaceted azure crystal from her chest harness and handing it over.

Tasmin accepted the crystal, turning back toward Brida, who was currently standing in front of her genuine Squad Two recruits, rubbing the back of her neck with an awkward sheepish grin.

"Look, girls... I apologize for running off," Brida muttered, coughing into her gauntlet as the real Sarah and the other recruits looked up at her with crossed arms and pouts. "I got a little carried away smashing fake Captains. Next time, I promise I won’t leave you unattended..."

"You owe us double roasted pork rations tonight, Commander Brida!" Sarah declared boldly with her hands on her hips.

"Deal! Double rations for everyone!" Brida laughed heartily, visibly relieved.

Tasmin rolled her eyes at the display, shaking her head.

"Brida, quit bribing your squad with food. Given the nature of these shapeshifters, splitting into isolated fifteen-maiden squads is an unnecessary operational risk for the recruits. Our squads are combining formations right now to sweep the eastern crags together. Understood?"

Brida vaulted onto the back of her own Blessed Wolf, strapping her tower shield tightly to her forearm with a fierce, eager nod.

"Understood, scout master! Let’s hunt as a thirty-maiden phalanx!"

Tasmin raised the azure communication crystal to her lips.

She channeled a steady pulse of mana into the core, causing the facets to flash with bright blue light.

CHIME!

A crisp magical connection established across the planar frequency.

From the other side of the crystal, the ethereal and perfectly cheerful voice of Eluned resonated through the air.

"Squad Four Leader Eluned here! Hubby isn’t on this frequency, is he? If he is, I love you, Hubby!"

Tasmin sighed softly with a small smirk touching her lips. "Lady Eluned... this is Tasmin. We have an operational situation."

...

"Got it. Thanks for the heads-up, Tasmin!"

CLICK!

The azure glow of the communication crystal faded into dormant translucence as Eluned lowered her slender hand, tossing the small relic into the velvet pouch at her waist with a bright humming tune.

The Goddess walked with light, bouncy steps along the sunlit path, her living wooden armor humming with vibrant emerald life-mana.

She tilted her head, tapping her chin with a slender manicured finger as she pondered the report.

’Monsters that can shapeshift into anyone?’ Eluned thought, a bright and completely unfazed smile curving her delicate lips. ’Isn’t that totally fine? A monster is just fertilizer with extra steps... No matter what face it wears, it all turns into nutritious compost for my greenhouse crops anyway!’

Trailing five paces behind her, the fifteen recruit maidens of Squad Four were marching in a tight nervous formation.

Seeing their divine commander casually pocket the communication crystal after receiving an urgent report, the lead scout... a petite dark-haired maiden named Catelyn stepped forward, her voice trembling slightly.

"L-Lady Eluned..." Catelyn asked hesitantly, clutching her ash-wood spear. "Was that an emergency transmission from Commander Tasmin? Is the situation dire?"

Eluned paused, spinning around on the balls of her armored boots with a radiant sunny smile that practically lit up the dark woods.

"Oh, not at all, little fledglings!" Eluned chirped happily, waving her hand through the air as if brushing away a stray fly. "Tasmin merely informed me that there are naughty little shapeshifting parasites crawling through the basin, mimicking our sisters’ faces to eat our flesh! But you don’t need to worry your pretty little heads about that. As long as you are with me, your big sister Eluned will ensure not a single hair on your heads is harmed!"

The fifteen maidens exchanged wide-eyed nervous glances.

’She said that with such a bright smile...’ Catelyn thought with a bead of cold sweat running down her cheek. ’Why does she sound more terrifying than the monsters?!’

"Now then! Look forward, girls!" Eluned announced, clapping her wooden-armored hands together with a crisp clap. "We have arrived at our designated training sector!"

The fifteen recruits turned their eyes forward, and several of them let out audible synchronized gasps of pure, breathless wonder.

They had stepped out of the gloomy, obsidian-barked deadwood and entered a breathtaking vibrant clearing that looked entirely out of place within the rugged barren expanse of the Umbral Basin.

The clearing was carpeted in lush vibrant emerald moss, surrounded by blooming fragrant black bushes that were heavy with clusters of plump succulent purple berries that shimmered like polished amethyst under the pale morning light.

The sweet intoxicating aroma of ripe mountain fruit and fresh spring honey hung thick in the air, making the recruits’ mouths instantly water after hours of grueling marching.

The maidens stood in disciplined ranks, their eyes wide and hungry, but they remained rigid at attention, waiting for their commander’s orders.

"Look at those bushes, Commander..." a recruit whispered in awe, pointing a spear tip toward the shimmering fruit. "The berries are completely ripe! Could this be a natural spirit-orchard hidden within the basin?"

Eluned looked at the maiden, tilting her head with a look of pitying amusement.

"You poor little things..." Eluned sighed, shaking her head with a gentle, mocking tut-tut. "You really will be tricked by anything with a pretty face and a sweet smell, won’t you?"

Eluned raised her right hand, casually extending her index finger into the open air.

TAP!

She tapped the empty atmosphere as if striking a glass pane.

KRRRR-SHATTER!

A brilliant emerald shockwave rippled outward from her fingertip.

In less than a second, the vibrant green clearing, the fragrant air, and the succulent purple fruits violently fractured like brittle porcelain, shattering into thousands of dissolving translucent shards of illusion mana.

The horrifying grotesque reality of the clearing was laid bare.

The lush green moss vanished, revealing a barren corpse-strewn wasteland of dried mud, cracked shale, and rotting vegetation.

The blooming berry bushes were revealed to be tangled, barbed briars dripping with black caustic venom, covered in hundreds of bloated, pulsating black maggot-worms that writhed through rotting, putrid fruit carcasses.

Piled high against the jagged rocks were dozens of sun-bleached skulls, shattered ribcages, and the picked-clean skeletons of territorial beasts, creating a horrific charnel-ground amphitheater that reeked of stagnant decay.

The recruit maidens recoiled in gagging horror, clutching their throats as the sweet honey scent was violently replaced by the suffocating stench of rotting entrails.

"A-A graveyard...!" Catelyn choked, her face turning pale as she raised her buckler.

And sitting fifty feet ahead, perched high upon the gnarled, dead boughs of an ancient weeping willow tree in the center of the charnel pit, was the master of the illusion.

CREEEAK!

The branches groaned as the creature slowly shifted its massive terrifying weight.

It was a nightmare.

The beast stood over twelve feet tall, possessing the gaunt elongated chitin-plated torso of a predatory praying mantis, fused seamlessly with the savage, horned head of a giant demonic ape.

Its four massive, scythe-like forearms were forged from jagged, serrated bone that gleamed with dripping corrosive purple neurotoxin.

Hanging from its bloated, insectoid abdomen was a vibrating translucent organ that actively pulsed with residual illusion mana... the biological projector that had cast the false paradise.

Its four glowing crimson eyes locked onto the fifteen women below, its ape-like maw parting to reveal rows of needle-thin rotating fangs that clicked together with a horrifying metallic sound.

CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!

Elu was not sure of the name but she did know it was Tier 3.

A wave of suffocating pressure washed over the clearing, freezing the recruit maidens in their tracks.

Their knees trembled, their breath caught in their throats, and several girls instinctively took a half-step backward, their survival instincts screaming at them to run.

"Stay your ground, fledglings!" Eluned’s voice rang out, no longer playful, but resonating with the authority of a deity.

THUD!

Eluned stepped forward, planting her wooden-armored boot firmly onto the dead earth.

VUUUUUUUUUUUM!

An overwhelming ocean of emerald Life-Mana erupted from Eluned’s frame, spreading outward across the entire clearing in a blinding, radiant shockwave.

The moment the divine green light washed over the fifteen women, an extraordinary transformation took place.

The cold, paralyzing terror gripping their hearts evaporated instantly, replaced by a roaring boundless torrent of pure vitality that surged through their spiritual meridians.

Their fatigue vanished, their heart rates stabilized, and their muscles brimmed with an almost intoxicating sensation of limitless physical stamina.

"Listen well, recruits of Blessed Land!" Eluned commanded, her emerald eyes blazing with sacred power. "While my beloved Hubby is busy managing ledgers and hunting with the others, the true training of our territory begins here! You will not grow into invincible warriors by cowering behind shields! You will forge your spirits in the fires of life-and-death combat!"

She pointed her slender wooden-clad finger straight at the twelve-foot apex mantis.

"RUSH IT! TEAR IT APART! PROVE TO YOUR LORD THAT YOU ARE WORTHY OF HIS SANCTUM!"

The fifteen maidens felt the roaring divine energy burning within their chests.

The fear was gone, replaced by a wild battle-hungry fury that set their blood ablaze.

"CHARGE! FOR THE LORD! FOR BLESSED LAND!" Catelyn roared, raising her spear.

"KILL IT!" the fourteen maidens screamed in blood-curdling defiance, breaking into a full-speed reckless charge straight toward the weeping willow tree.

Seeing the recruits surge forward, Eluned casually walked over to a clean obsidian boulder near the tree line.