Emery watched as a school of Graboids emerged from the ground and began their assault. The horde of creatures that unexpectedly bursted from the earth were way bigger than the one Emery and Annara fought before, but the fate that awaited them in the face of this group of magus was complete annihilation. They were only able to last a few mere seconds.
However, it was evident those few seconds were all the wolves needed to gain them some distance from the other party, who were now hell-bent on chasing them.
As the wolves split into two groups at lightning speed and fled into the dense forest, Magus Leon quickly shouted in concern they might be able to escape if they didn't take action soon.
"Are we chasing them?!"
The half-blood Magus Nimeria was the one responded to his somewhat idiotic and rhetoric question. "Of course, you moron!"
Even though his shout was rebuked harshly by Magus Nimeria, Magus Leon didn't act out. Instead, he calmly turned towards his superior Magister Kadek, his gaze telling the latter he was waiting for her instruction.
"I need that parchment, so I will take it myself in order to be sure. You go and try to help the girl, Leon, while I chase after Beowulf."
Hearing that, Magus Leon quickly nodded his head. He turned to the side and was about to ask the half-blood to come with him, when he realized both of them had already taken action, sprinting in the direction of the group who brought the snake girl away.
With the enthusiastic approval of the half-blood group in taking the initiative, Magus Leon in the end decided to just take Garnet with him. The muscular magus with many scars visible all over his body nodded readily, while the rest of the group helped Grand Magus Kadek apprehend Chief Beowulf.
Thanks to this arrangement, the group was successfully split in two with about the same strength.
The two half-blood magus were as strong as Magus Leon, who was a Full-Moon magus, while even though the other group consisted of less powerful magus they had Magister Kadek, who was a Grand Magus. All in all, this was an excellent and balanced grouping.
As for Emery, he naturally chose to follow Magus Leon's group, as the main reason he was still around was because he was worried about Silva.
With this matter out of the way, the chase began swiftly.
The White Fang wolves, despite being mostly saint level warriors, led by Beatrice, who was the only rank 5 Wolf with Half-Moon magus cultivation, managed to run at such a great speed through the dense forest, giving the group of chasers led by Magus Leon quite a difficult time in track and chase them.
The revelation honestly surprised Emery, until he recalled how Beatrice was the pack leader of the wind wolves, who excelled in speed. This, added a dense forest into the equation, allowed the pack she led to run faster than their usual performance.
The homeground advantage the other party had and the fact the terrain in the dense forest was quite challenging to conquer made the supposedly faster group of magus unable to chase after the wolves.
Luckily, Emery had his [Spatial Gate], which allowed him to keep his eyes on them. Even though that was the case, he knew he shouldn't take it easy, because the group of magus went ahead and moved at twice their initial speed as they gave chase. If he didn't pay enough attention to them, he would definitely be left in the dust without him noticing.
Emery, however, did not move immediately, when the group moved as expected. In order to stay on the safe side, he decided to wait until they were at the edge of the radius that spirit reading could perceive. When they did, he quietly cast a [Spatial Gate] and opened it 30 miles from his current location. This would ensure that Emery would not lose track of them, while also minimizing the chances of him being discovered by the other party.
He decided to adopt a reactive approach. As long as the two sides didn't fight, Emery was sure Silva would overall still be safe under the White Fang care. At the moment, he just needed to follow them and then meet the wolves alone after they managed to escape. This was his new plan.
This time, the group ran at a speed that could cover 30 miles in less than 3 minutes, leaving Emery less time to cast [Spatial Gate] in between. Just after he cast the first spell, however, Emery's ears immediately perked up, as they could faintly hear the sound of commotion in the opposite distance – a battle seemed to have begun on that side.
After contemplating it for a while, Emery thought this development was to be expected. After all, that other side who had a Grand Magus leading the chase. Naturally, they wouldn't have much luck escaping.
Emery quickly woke up from his reverie, as he needed to focus on what was happening on his side. It took a lot of concentration on his part to pay attention to the rapidly moving targets as far as 50 miles from him, while still maintaining his cloaking. He couldn't afford to split his focus at this juncture.
One jump,
Two jump,
Half a dozen jumps through [Spatial Gates] later, Emery became more and more surprised. Magus Leon and the others were, unexpectedly, still unable to catch up to Beatrice. Or rather, it would be a miracle if they could, with the number of obstacles that continually rose during the pursuit.
Along the way, he witnessed firsthand the various kinds of traps and stumbling blocks the wolves had prepared that involved the natural surroundings and even wild creatures like Graboids. He couldn't help but think that escape was their plan all along, seeing how numerous and extensive traps Magus Leon and the others had to eat in order to catch up to them.
However, slowly but surely, he was able to tell Magus Leon's group would catch up to Beatrice's group.
The chase went on and Emery continued to jump from location to location using his [Spatial Gate] spell, giving his best to follow them. Finally, after another 10 jumps, his spirit reading sensed the two sides had met and a battle broke out between them.
Knowing there was no time to hesitate, Emery cast another [Spatial Gate] and teleported 50 miles forward, arriving just a few miles away from them before he started to dash through the terrain.
There, through the dense grove of trees, he saw with his own eyes, Magus Nimeria was fighting Beatrice. The battle was nothing less than fierce.
Unexpectedly, Magus Leon and the others were just watching on the side. The same could be said for Beatrice's subordinates, as Brutus and the four others stood and guarded their captive.
Clank!
The full moon magus Nimeria managed to overpower the wind wolf Beatrice, who was thrown back and threw out blood after a few clashes.
Now the group has managed to reach and stop them, Magus Leon told the tiger bloodline magus to stop attacking.
"You can no longer escape! Release the girl. There's no need for anyone to get hurt," said Leon in a calm voice to Beatrice.
Much to Emery's surprise, Beatrice quickly agreed with the suggestion.
"Alright."
Beatrice was in her complete wolf transformation, as she looked at Magus Leon and said, "Magus Leon, please heed my words. We, the White Fang, now know for sure that neither the Magus Alliance nor Headmaster Delbrand have betrayed us."
The words coming out from Beatrice sounded totally like people who said silly excuses to create an opening to escape, but contrary to the expectation, she continued with a serious expression on her face.
"Beware of the people next to you, enforcer. I am telling you, the golden parchment we showed earlier was a fake and only the real traitor knows about this fact. So only they would chase after the girl instead of the parchment."
Beatrice's words sent a wave of shock through everyone.. Magus Leon subconsciously turned his head to the two bloodline magus standing next to him.