Ataraxia Abyss
Chapter 17: The forest attack

Regal and Anne were naked in a river, they both cleaned themselves with clear flowing river water.

"Geez, I feel like I'm coming back to life..." Anne leaned against the riverbank, while Regal quickly cleared herself.

"Regal, why did you become a Mercenary?" Anne asked Regal. "Of course for the money and make a name. You alone?"

Anne smiled as she looked at the stars in the sky.

"We followed in the footsteps of our father, I and Finnley were the fifth heirs after our father died. Not wanting this group to disintegrate, we proceeded with it in hopes of making the Red Viper even more famous."

Regal then asked while pointing at Anne's hair. "Does your family have red hair too?"

Anne then held onto her long red hair. "Well, our ancestor Trefor had hair like this, then passed down from generation to generation..."

Regal finally knew where the hair came from and their name was. Then suddenly from behind her Anne hugged Regal with both her hands in a circle.

Regal could feel Anne's naked body sticking to him. "Hey... Why are you so attractive?" Anne asked Regal with her hands decreasing.

"That's the curse I have..." And that night, Regal and Anne had a lot more fun in the moonlight.

———

In the morning Regal walked next to Anne and Finnley.

"How does it feel?" Regal who heard Finnley ask immediately replied. "Whispering..." For some reason, Regal did not feel the hostility of Finnley, even though he had taken his brother for the first time but he was not angry, he was not angry,either because of the charismatic nature of Incubus to make men and women like him or there are other causes.

"Hmm. 100 meters from here." Hearing that Finnley immediately smiled and shouted. "The monster!" From in front of them, there appeared a lot of monsters that were shaped like apes but with an average body of 2 meters.

The Red Vipers return to fight, although many of them are injured but the Red Viper continues to fight without help from the Black Cliff. Unlike Regal, he was currently observing the situation first.

The longer they fought the more injured and the more exhausted the Red Viper was. "Damn, I'm out of arrows..." Anne who had run out of arrows went to pick them up in their horse carriage.

But as Anne tries to retrieve the arrow in the Red Viper train, Anne sees the apes jumping from the trees to ambush Anne. Sure enough Regal's estimation, they're after archers and also their food cargo.

"Fucking monkey..." Anne tried to draw her sword and fight back, but suddenly she saw everything around her turning gray.

Many bright blue lines appeared on each fighting ape as well as the ape that jumped from the top of the tree. The slash distorted space and time like the apes were cut off together with this dimension. In an instant the distortion returned to normal, but the slash cut through all the apes that were there.

Anne who was confused as to what happened finally saw Regal, everyone saw him. The figure of the teenager with black-silver armor and silver-bladed sword stood among the fallen corpses.

When everyone thought it was all over, the monkeys appeared again from before them, this time 15 apes came. And the 3 of them actually gave off an extremely powerful aura.

"I'll take care of it from here." Regal swung his sword and walked to the front row. When the apes entered the distance, Regal began to swing his sword, with a very powerful sword technique, the boy advanced alone and slashed at everything in front of him.

The apes behind it began to cast magic while watching their friends being crushed, as Regal got closer he could feel the danger.

Regal retreated backwards and saw many spears made of magic emerge from underground. The spear continued to appear every time he stepped on foot, until Regal finally performed the Abyss Step technique which allowed him to briefly increase his speed and make him appear behind the witches.

His sword was clad in a bright blue flame that lit up, in just one slash, the Regal could split the three witches very easily. Everyone couldn't believe what they saw. Regal then retracts Gram and Adamas, making himself return to his original form.

Finnley and Anne then approached him. "Regal! What the fuck?!" "Are you hurt?!" They were both worried and confused as to what had just happened.

Regal finally answered. "I'll tell you on the street." And with that Regal has a lot to tell along the way.

———

Regal is treated improperly, but he gets training when he runs away from home by a passing traveler. Well that's what everyone believes...

"But that sword technique, my goodness, you just envy all the swordsmen here..." Finnley's complaint was correct, be it in terms of Aura or technique, Regal was really superior to the others.

Everyone still did not know what kind of Aura Regal was wearing, but they knew it was a secret technique,it could even break through the defenses of the magicians which was not something that could be done with a single slash.

For 4 days they continued walking, their caravan kept safe as a result of protection from Regal and the Red Viper. But for the 5 days they walked, the Red Viper was completely exhausted from their fight and injuries.

They could not get Black Cliff to join the fight because they would definitely reason that it was the Red Viper's duty, otherwise they would start babbling until the Red Viper was upset.

And right now all the members of the Red Viper were really seriously injured with many members losing blood. Regal also can not do anything, he was only one person, he was in charge of advancing at the front but the apes like to attack from the side.

"If this keeps on we'll die before tomorrow."

"You're right, my mana is almost done..." While Regal hears Red Viper's complaint, he can see Hayes talking again with Kaiman. Regal was obviously worried and had to know what their plans were.

But at the moment he still does not know what his plan is...

———

After replenishing the soul energy with Anne, Regal finally returned to its original state. But there was a very sudden notice.

"Because the Red Viper is seriously injured, we'll replace it by keeping it in front." Kaiman said with that smiling face.

The Red Viper members were obviously happy that they were finally able to rest, but there were 3 people who realized something was wrong, Regal, Finnley, and Anne.

"You think it's a trap?" Anne asked Finnley. "Trap or not I think we'll die if we stay ahead."

Regal also thought so, but he had to prepare for the worst possible. They all finally continued their journey.

On the way Regal continues to observe, whether there are monsters or their suspicious movements. Until he finally felt something.

"The monster! This time their boss showed up!"

Regal and the others began to be on alert. But Kaiman's horse-drawn carriage suddenly began to speed faster, as well as the Black Cliff group. What Regal was thinking was right, but this was still better than the bandits working with the ambushing Black Cliff.

If the estimation of the bandits is correct then the Red Viper will not survive, but if only abandoned they can survive.

"Oi rascal what are you doing?!" Finnley shouted at them but Black Cliff did not respond and continued to drive. Everyone started shouting at them but Regal held them all back.

"Let them! The leader of these apes is after them, so this time we just have to survive these apes!" It was fortunate that Regal stopped them, because otherwise they would have faced a greater disaster.

But now he is also not sure if the Red Viper can survive. The one who came was no longer an ape...

The closer the monsters got they could all feel the earthquake. When the monsters appeared themselves, Regal could see it.

"Ogres!" The 220 cm tall creature emerged from behind the trees with a large body covered by thick, hard skin. Just by looking at the eyes of the Regal already knew that they were starving...

...***...