Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

"Someone has managed to interfere with Teer's spell."

Tumko said in a grim voice. He realized that he had made a grave mistake by telling Teer to spy on the targets he had sensed ahead.

"Someone that can trap Teer's consciousness is not anybody we should interact with. Try to wake Teer up and let's get out of here before things escalate to something unfavorable for us."

The one who spoke at this point was a tank named Kavach. He was a tall, dark-skinned man with a well-trimmed beard. He had worn heavy golden armor on him complete with headgear and gauntlets, protecting him from head to toe.

Kavach carried a large shield in his left hand while his right hand was holding a sword. Even while being a tank, the guy practiced sword art. He didn't want to put all his eggs in one basket by pursuing a single mastery.

Kavach was the silent type in Tumko's team. He would rarely speak. So everybody would listen to him whenever he decided to voice his opinions, including the captain.

Tumko knew what to do. He first emptied a vial of potion in Teer's mouth before making him gulp it down. Then he slapped the ranger's pretty face as hard as he could.

"Cough! Cough! Cough!"

Teer woke up with a severe cough right after he was slapped. He spilled the potion he had been forced to consume. It took him a while to stabilize his condition.

"What did you see, Teer? Do we need to run from this place?"

Tumko asked in a serious voice. Teer was sitting on the ground and Tumko was supporting him by holding his shoulders and squatting down beside him. Teer looked at his teammates surrounding him before talking with a part stressed and part baffled expression on his face.

"I… I don't know. That black-dressed, grimoire-looking girl is the most dangerous of them all."

Teer looked at the teammates with a shaken-to-the-core look before speaking up. He told the team about what he had seen using his spell.

"There was this guy who appeared to be engrossed in flirting with the elf girl. Then there's another man who's following closely behind them.

And walking beside the pair is the girl with the grimoire. I'm betting she was the one who trapped my consciousness. I don't know how she could sense me. But she did.

I think she could also hurt my consciousness if she wanted to. But she let me go."

Teer started describing the appearances of the four-personnel team he had just encountered. Tumko's team got a clear picture of all four of them through Teer's vivid descriptions.

"Looks like they are nobody we are aware of. What are their rankings?"

Tumko narrowed his eyes on Teer as he asked. The latter spoke right after.

The guy walking ahead of the team is a D-Rank. I'm not sure what rank the elf girl is in, but I guess that she is either in the late stages of the D-rank or in the early stages of the C-rank.

The other man and the grimoire-using girl are also in the Adept rank. They don't seem to have any other person following them in the shadows. Those four are all the only rankers we would find in this region."

Teer spoke and took a long breath. Tumko pondered for a moment before coming to a decision.

"I don't think we should approach these four people. Their strengths are not that impressive except for the C-Rank elf girl. But we should avoid conflicts when we can."

Tumko spoke in a slow voice from behind his well-detailed mask. He got a nod from almost everybody on the team. They all agreed to Tumko's decision to pull back, all except Bhaa Laah.

"Um… hello! What about avenging Teer? He was just doing his job of checking on something unexpected. That's what is expected from a ranger while we are all in the Badlands.

If their ranger was capable of doing so, they would have done the same as Teer. There was no reason for that girl to mess with him using her weird spells. What if he had received permanent damage to his psyche?

Moreover, Teer did this under the captain's orders. It's the captain's responsibility to ensure his team is safe so that they can follow his orders to a T.

Will you let the matter slide just because there's a C-Rank in their midst? What about all the preparations we have done to clear the dungeon/ surely, we can take care of a single C-Rank if push comes to shove?"

Bhaa Laah spoke with an agitated voice. It was not like she cared so much for Teer. But the journey to get here was boring. And she wanted to spice things up.

There was a warrior-class ranker in Tumko's team as well. He looked to be a man in his late 30s. He had shoulder-length blond hair that cascaded on either side of his square-shaped face. He had a light golden beard and light green eyes.

This warrior-class ranker's name was Tal Waar. He was also wearing sleeveless leather armor to cover his torso. He had shoulder and arm braces. He was wearing pants made of the same beast hide as his sleeveless leather. There was a bear's hide covering his back as well.

Tal Waar would support Tumko's decisions completely. He was also the vice-captain of the team and was a very capable fighter. His warrior class had made him a fearsome man on the battlefield.

He looked at Bhaa Laah with a frown on his face before commenting.

"Bhaa Laah, stop messing things up just because they provide some form of entertainment for you. The captain is right. We should pull back."

Bhaa Laah looked at Tal and stretched her tongue out before coming up with another reason.

"Captain, we are in the forbidden zone of Edinburgh's army. Although we shouldn't be seen here in this region, neither should they.

Plus, we all belong to the army. We can just use our identities to interrogate them. As Teer was saying, that red-eyed girl must have something exceptional in her possession."

Baah Laah saw that the captain had started pondering on her statements. The rest of the team was split. So she decided to use her next argument to finally get them on the same page.

"What if they are all cultists or stray adventurers who found their way inside the subspace and got all the resources we were eyeing for? It'll be a huge joke for us if a group of strangers takes away with them what rightfully belongs to us.

We have all the rights and grounds to intercept these four rascals. Let's see what they got on them."