Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

In the end, the fight ended without any casualties. Despite the lack of heavily wounded mercenaries and heroes, everyone was exhausted. Although Emily didn't have to go that far since she could use a nearly unlimited number of potions, she began to sleep as soon as she returned.

"To control the summoned monsters, she used Telepathy while she also was summoning more of them," Ian explained. "So, I guess it is only natural that she would be mentally exhausted."

"I didn't know that Telepathy could work on them when they can't use our language," Ethan frowned.

"According to her, she used mental images to pass the commands," Ian added. "It seems that is a good way to overcome the language barrier."

Regardless, Emily certainly was the MVP of the day. Still, surprisingly enough, some asshole didn't appear to complain about why a foreigner was taking the spotlight. That was good, and it meant that no one in the area was stupid enough to care about such things.

"I am really bored here, Hannah," Ethan said. "Can't we just assume the identities of some locals here and try to help more actively?"

"That won't work, people will recognize your appearances, and many will approach. That kind of disguise is bound to fail. Besides, you can't copy with perfection the fighting style of others. So, it will only look suspicious."

"Well, next time, remember that I complained a lot about this," Ethan shrugged. "From now on, I will only participate in missions like that if I have the opportunity to run wild as much as possible."

"So, you are planning to do that again? While that seems like a good idea, we can't overdo it. I am constantly giving updates about you to mom and dad, but they are still somewhat worried. Besides, don't forget that you are helping others quite a bit already."

"I know… it is just that this lack of progress is annoying," Ethan sighed.

"I totally agree… Anyway, we are starting to receive more intel about the dungeons that appeared in the other countries, probably because of something unexpected that happened in those places. So, don't let your guard down since the same thing could happen where you are."

"Do you have any confirmed information?" Ethan asked.

"Not yet."

In the end, Ethan and Hannah's predictions weren't off the mark. Around midnight, when the heroes and mercenaries were all resting, and only the military was fighting the ghost armors, the entire area began to tremble… an earthquake. Ethan got up and used Mana Tracking and then confirmed his fears. That wasn't an earthquake. Something beneath them was making the entire area tremble.

Emily was exhausted, but she still woke up since she also felt those presences underground. Strangely enough, the presences were quite similar to the ghost armor. However, that doesn't make any sense since even though they were ghost-type monsters, they couldn't move underneath the ground thanks to their armor.

Ethan, Emily, and Ian waited for an attack that never came. However, tents began to collapse, and they also heard screams in the distance. The number of gunshots increased thanks exponentially to it.

"They are targeting the mercenaries," Emily said. "Shit… I hate monsters that hid underground."

"What are we going to do?" Ian asked.

"Damage control, keep an eye on me, and I will try to prevent casualties," Emily declared.

Suddenly, a block of the earth beneath Carter began to levitate, and it followed Emily when she left the tent. At the same time, she used the same technique to protect the mercenaries around that were getting attacked and prevent them from being attacked.

"Earth Manipulation, huh. That is cool, but does she plan to make everyone levitate using that? We have more than five hundred mercenaries here."

Although she had a magic item with who knows how many potions inside of it that could automatically recover her mana, Ethan was absolutely sure that Emily wouldn't pull that off. It doesn't matter how much of a good mage you are. In the end, Emily was a single human. A human that has the powers of a hero, but a human nonetheless.

To make matters worse, Ethan couldn't do much while the enemies were hiding underground. The bastards didn't even show up and even were avoiding those that had a decent amount of mana.

Emily was trying to work fast, but even so, many mercenaries were getting pulled inside the ground. Ethan finally saw the moment one of those things did that, and he saw a hand covered by stones pulling a middle-aged man from the support team. It was really a ghost-type monster, but Ethan couldn't understand why the monster's hand was covered with stones… Regardless, Ethan fired several Ice Arrows and froze the ground around the man. When that happened, the beast stopped pulling him down.

"I see," Ian said. "They can't touch us, so they cover their body in the earth to obtain a physical form… I am not a good match-up against this type of foe, and I will need the magical machine gun."

"Just freeze the ground when they show up," Ethan said. "Let's buy some time until we can recover from the surprise."

In the distance, Ethan saw Isaac also firing his ice arrows on the ground. Although he was fast and many were imitating him, Ethan could see and feel many people getting sucked to underground and dying right there.

"Sorry, Hannah," Ethan said and then summoned his sword. "I won't be able to sleep at night if I let those monsters do what they want just to avoid some problems."

"Calm down, I got this," Hannah suddenly appeared and spoke.

Weirdly enough, Hannah was wearing a weird piece of clothing to hide her face. Apparently, she didn't have any other magic item that could make people change their appearances. Regardless, she made the people that Emily was protecting disappear in the blink of an eye. Ethan had no idea where to she teleported them, but he was one hundred percent sure they were safe now.

"Focus on bringing back those who are underground," Hannah said. "I will teleport them to the capital. You two, go help the front line. The formation is useless when the monsters can move underground that easily. Don't hold back. We can worry about the small details later."

"Ok," Emily nodded.

"That is what I wanted to hear," Ethan said.

"A fight in the middle of the night?" Ian smirked. "I couldn't have asked for more."