Death... and me

As the day passed, the bandits guarding the main fort began to feel confused. Several Stage One demon beasts appeared now and then, just to be killed by the fort's formation. This region has a minimal number of demon beasts since it is inside the human territory. Still, they had seen more demon beasts than they would for several months.

Of course, no one was really worried about it. After all, even Peak Stage Two Demon Beasts would be powerless inside their formation. If anything, they felt annoyed that they had to clean up the beasts' corpses. After one entire day, almost a hundred Stage One demon beasts died for the formation.

But then, it stopped. During the next day, not a single demon beast charged into their formation anymore. As weird as the event looked, the bandits keeping guard of the fort soon forgot about it.

Somewhere close to the fort, Rean and Roan looked at the fort from a distance without doing anything. Luina, Oritis, and Rolim were obviously confused by that, though.

"Is that all? Won't you need more demon beasts?"

Roan shook his head.

"There is no need for more. This was more than enough already."

Luina looked at the fort's direction and saw how the corpses had already been cleaned. She thought that perhaps Roan poisoned the demon beasts, and the bandits inside the fort would die to it. However, such a thing would probably kill any hostages inside as well.

Still, the guards around the fort didn't seem concerned. That could only mean that nothing happened to the bandits inside the fort at all. Also, the corpses had been disposed of somewhere else. Not a single one was brought inside. Simply put, even after all their work, nothing changed at all.

"Then what do you plan to do? Lovak's bandit group should arrive in at most a few hours. Perhaps they sped up and will appear at any moment too. So far, we didn't do anything at all."

It was then that she thought about a possibility.

"Could it be that you were trying to spend the entire protection formation's energy?"

Roan's mouth twitched after hearing that.

"Are you dumb? With the number of Spirit Stones these bandits accumulated during these last years, do you really think we could make them run out of it? Ha! What a joke! We can spend an entire year sending demon beasts against it, and I still doubt we would be able to achieve it."

"Also, let's suppose that we could really make the formation run out of energy, what difference would it make? Lovak's group is still whole, and we wouldn't be able to attack them regardless. In fact, we would only make them even warier. Think a little before opening your mouth, will you?"

Luina's really felt like giving this guy a kick.

"Isn't there a better way to say those things? Why must you try to buy a fight every single time?"

Roan didn't care, though.

"Hmph!"

Rean, on the other hand, just sighed as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Ignore the ice block. That's just how Roan is. Still, he was right about his points. You should think a little more about the situation before offering your opinions. Those were quite easy to guess points."

Rean then patted her shoulder before continuing.

"Don't worry. We already have a plan, and it is working perfectly. You will see when the time comes."

Luina then took a deep breath and nodded.

Rean smiled and then went back to the others to continue waiting.

Around four hours and a half later, Lovak's group finally appeared. As they approached the fort, the bandits inside opened the gate and came out to greet him. Lovak nodded, satisfied.

'It seems like the fort wasn't attacked until now.'

He then took a plate from his bosom, which had a hexagonal format. After pouring Spiritual Energy inside, the plate shined, and a passage was opened in the formation. Another bandit inside who had the same kind of plate then came out.

"Boss, how come you came back so earlier? We were expecting you a few days later. Also, why are there so few people in the group? Where is the other half?"

Lovak shook his head and used a Spiritual Sense message to tell everything at once. The guy, obviously, was taken aback by what he heard.

Lovak ignored his expression and asked something else.

"How was it? Where you attacked in the past few days?"

The guy pondered a bit, and they explained.

"I can't say that we didn't get attacked. However, but it was quite weird."

He then explained how a day ago, many Stage One demon beasts charged at the fort, just to get killed by the formation. However, they didn't cause any damage whatsoever.

"Did you check the formation?"

The guy nodded.

"I thought it was weird, so I gave a quick check. The protection formation is fine and working 100%."

Lovak narrowed his eyes.

'Could it be that the enemy sent those demon beasts to test the prowess of the formation? Since he stopped sending those demon beasts, most likely, he finished his probing. In the end, did he give up?'

Lovak then looked at his subordinates and ordered.

"Let's go inside. Reabar, Laxin, take Kalan and go check the formation one more time. This time, do a proper check to guarantee that there is nothing wrong. Also, lock all the women in prison, no one is to leave or use them without second order. Lastly, check the entire fort to see if anyone sneaked inside."

Kalan was the name of the bandit who also had the Formation Plate.

"Yes, Boss!"

As Reabar and Laxin left, the rest of the group entered the fort with Lovak. Around two hours later, Reabar, Kalan, and Laxin returned to Lovak's side.

"Boss, we checked the entire formation. It is working perfectly fine."

Lovak narrowed his eyes. His group didn't get attacked on their way here. However, someone tried to test the defenses of his fort while at it. Still, no damage was found. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but feel that he was missing something vital.

"Did you check the entire fort? Was there really no one hiding or anything out of place?"

The other subordinates around Lovak all shook their heads.

"We did, Boss. There was really no one hidden anywhere."

"What about the women we captured, was there anything between them?"

"No, Boss. We locked all of them, as you instructed. Unless they are gods, they won't be able to leave."

Lovak's guts kept telling him that something was wrong. It was just a feeling, but he couldn't where the problem was. Still, he was already back into his fort, and he even retrieved all the formations' plates, so only he could control it now. If anything, this was the safest place he could be at the moment.

Time passed, and the night time arrived. Because of Lovak's orders, the fort had several guards standing by in several places. It was evident that he was concerned that they might get attacked at any moment. However, the next day arrived, and nothing happened at all. Then came the second, third, fourth...

A week later, the guards around the fortress began to disappear. Their alertness dropped, and even Lovak began to relax.

One day, Roan looked at the sky and then the fort before showing a faint smile during the night time.

"It's time."