Since the pirates regrouped, the bodyguards did the same, the man called Ricardo took advantage of this little break to bandage his wound.
“Thanks for having my back, old man… once we get out of this place let me invite you a drink”, the other middle stage peak Mortal bodyguard had a troubled expression.
He was the youngest out of all the bodyguards, and got too confident in how they were holding back the leading pirate, the attack that the old Ricardo blocked using his arm, would have cut his neck, so if it wasn’t for that, he would have been dead right now.
“You better open an account kid”, the old Ricardo chuckled, and the tense atmosphere lessened, they weren’t sure to make it out of this alive, so a bit humor didn’t hurt.
At the other side of the battlefield, the pirates tried to help their leader get up just to be pushed away by him.
“Get off me you bastards, I’m not weak enough to be whining just because of a severed arm!”.
The other pirates had hard to read expressions but they did obey their leader.
‘Humph, don’t believe I don’t know what you are thinking, you all are just looking for a chance to steal my position’, thought the leading pirate.
In the Stingray Devil pirates strength was the golden rule, for one to get a higher position, one must kill the one who hold it before, so of course this pirate who once killed the captain of his subdivision, to get this position didn’t have doubt that his subordinates will strike him down if he shows weakness.
The leading pirate then looked at the east and west areas of the forest, from where constant waves of mana kept spawning from time to time, meaning the two bodyguards that left the battlefield were trying to break through the isolation array that covered the forest.
The leading pirate then grinned, with bloodshot eyes, before his subordinates could react, he grabbed one by its neck and then ripped its throat with a single bite.
The other subordinates simply got away without trying to help their comrade who was desperately fighting back, and they surrounded their leader, blocking the bodyguards, the screams of the pirate only stopped when the leader completely torn his flesh apart with his mouth.
Gulping sounds combined with the crunch of bones being crushed from time to time, echoed through the area, making the nobles and even some of the bodyguards to feel sick.
“What the hell is he doing”, seeing the leading pirate eating the throat of his subordinate, made Aida’s stomach revolt, she covered her mouth trying to not puke.
The other nobles weren’t any better, but they managed to show it less than Aida, the Risha sisters just had disgust written all over their faces, and lastly Aisha who was indifferent to the scene.
As a vampire she has seen some of the cruellest undead eating their prey alive, or the demons sacrificing others, and although she despised them, she didn’t care about it as long as it didn’t affect her friends and more importantly, her family.
‘Wait sacrifice…’, a realization hit Aisha like a truck.
“Why the hell aren’t you attacking him!”, the bodyguards who were using the time to catch up their breath, heard Aisha yelling at them from within the barrier and they immediately tried to break the blockade of the other pirates.
Unfortunately, the other pirates right now had no care for their lives, and just focused on not letting them pass, probably because they knew that if they failed their task, the next ones to die will be them instead of the enemies.
Suddenly an eerie sensation filled the whole area, before a huge pressure made both the bodyguards and the other pirates fell on their knees.𝒪𝐕𝗅xt.𝓒𝓞𝔪
“Blegh!”, both the bodyguards and the pirates vomited blood due to the sudden change in the atmosphere.
“HAHAHA, so this is what having a foot in the Stellar rank feels like, it’s an amazing power!”.
The leading pirate focused his attention on his severed arm, and then with his shoulder as the base a new limb grew there, but instead of a human arm it was tentacle with a spear-like end similar to the ones of the Mist Horrors.
“B-Boss, your pressure is affecting us too…”, one of the pirates couldn’t resist the pressure anymore, but before he could finish his sentence, the spear like tentacle of the leader pierced his neck and then the thing changed to become a spiked tooth mouth, similar to some of the skelefiends Daimon and the others fought back at the first level of the magic ruin.
“Fosch!”, other pirate saw his friend being turned into minced meat, while the arm devoured him and he yelled with an outraged boss.
“Oswald, what the hell are you doing, we are on the same fucking team”, the other pirates also complained by the actions of their leader, one sacrifice should have been enough, after that, he could just consume the bodyguards, that was the risk they accepted, but the leader wasn’t following the agreement.
“Shut up, I know you were looking for a chance to cut my throat, so now all of you will become nutrients so that this senior can reach the Half Stellar realm, then I will become the captain kekeke”.
The leader pirate Oswald had an intoxicated expression as his arm devoured his subordinate, the other pirates felt despair, while he hasn’t reached the Half Stellar rank, he went from someone who recently reached the late stage of the peak Mortal realm, to someone about to take the next step.
“Run!”.
The situation changed so fast the bodyguards couldn’t react on time, but the pirates did, so they flew in all the directions trying to get away from their former leader who now wanted to consume them.
Oswald saw them running and he licked his lips, showing that his tongue had become larger just like the one of the skelefiends, but at the same time different.
“Wait here like good boys, I will go take a little entry”, Oswald became a flash of black smoke that followed the pirates, leaving the bodyguards in shock behind.
…
After a moment of silence, the oldest bodyguard besides Spencer who looked younger due to his high realm, in other words the old Ricardo, was the first one to react.
“Young master, this old man has served your father in secret for a couple of hundreds of years… please forgive me for I think this time I won’t be able to complete the mission”.
With a solemn expression Ricardo turned to see the other bodyguards before saying.
“I don’t know what did that guy do, but I do know this, we are no longer in a position to hold him back, and if this continues, we’ll only be consumed by him… so I guess I don’t need to tell you what to do right?”.
The other bodyguards looked at their respective young masters and then bowed towards them.
“It’s been an honor”, they all shouted.
“Booom!”.
Almost at the same time, a figure fell from the sky not too far from the bodyguards, who immediately prepared to detonate themselves, but the one who emerged from the crater wasn’t Oswald, but Spencer.
For a split of a second the nobles had a faint trace of hope, but their expressions chaged as the saw Spencer’s current state.
“Cough… damn it, those fucking monsters refuse to die”, Spencer coughed blood, he looked at his own body and sighed, there were scratches all over his arms, some kind of chemical burns on his right shoulder and left leg, and a hole in his lower abdomen.
“What happened here, where are the pirates?”, he had t put all his attention on the Mist Horrors, so he couldn’t even spare a second to see what the situation was like at the other battlefield.
Ricardo proceeded to explain everything to Spencer, and his reaction was worth seeing.
“What!”.
“He grew a limb similar to the one of a Mist Horror, god damn crazy bastard, he lost himself in a power he doesn’t control… only fire can weaken Mist Horrors and mine isn’t strong enough to suppress those middle stage peak Mortal Horrors, and that guy is a late stage”.
“Hahaha, that’s right resign to your destiny and become a part of my power!”, Oswald returned just in time to hear Spencer, his body was covered in blood from head to toe, and he was munching the arm of one of the pirates.
Although the bodyguards knew they were no match for Oswald they immediately surrounded Spencer.
“Senior, drink whatever potions you have, recover as much as you can, we’ll get you at least a few seconds, if we feel we are dying we’ll self-detonate, at the very least we’ll take that monster down with us, please make that Blackfin bastard suffer in our stead”.
The air suddenly trembled forcing all the bodyguards with Spencer’s exception, down to the ground.
“What a shame, the current you is too tired to pose a threat, and the others are trash, just quietly become my food kekeke”, as Oswald spoke, more limbs similar to the ones of the Mist Horrors appeared on his shoulders and knees and all of them advanced at an insane speed towards the bodyguards.
Spencer’s face paled but he managed to squeeze one last spell.
“Meteor Rain!”, huge fireballs fell from the sky exploding the tentacles away, and sending Oswald flying backwards a couple of kilometers while he screamed due to being covered in flames.
But in exchange Spencer was left with practically zero mana and his body collapsed on the ground.
“That was all I had left, run try to break the barrier, only one of you needs to make it, once the queen feels the princess’s location, she’ll be her in a split of a second, hurry up…”.
“THAT HURT YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!”, Oswald returned earlier than what Spencer expected, he had patches of burned skin all over his body, but they soon changed into limbs similar to the ones of a Mist Horror, unfortunately Spencer spell only had about half of his maximum strength due to the lack of mana.
“Every one of you go to heel!”, Oswald’s limbs advanced towards all the bodyguards who couldn’t move, due to the pressure, they unfortunately weren’t even able to detonate themselves, some of the limbs actually changed direction towards the barrier, and were able to open a crack on it.
Mellie approached Aisha and the girls and spoke with her soft voice.
“You are neo nobles right, I know you hate the old nobles and the founding families as a whole, I get that… but uncle Spencer never accepted a noble title, he used to be a soldier from the army just like you, please help him!”.
“Princess, you…”, the other nobles saw Mellie bowing towards the ice dome, which up to this point they didn’t know who was contained inside, and they were in awe.
But this wasn’t the moment for that, the male nobles quickly stood in front of the girls.
‘We might not be able to stop them, but as men it would be a disgrace to die after women’, they thought.
“Crack!”, but then as if the world slowed down, everyone’s attention was drawn at a loud cracking noise, Oswald included.
Not because he wanted to, but because the limbs that were attacking the ones inside the barrier, suddenly dried up and became dust.
Then, all the remaining mist surrounding the camp was blown away, as a pillar of white flames raised from the ground, clashing against the isolation formation one kilometer above them.
“Scghrrrrr!”, the Mist Horrors that were coming to help Oswald, suddenly screeched and then retreated… not they ran way as if their lives depended on it.
The nobles, including the princess focused in the pillar of white flames, from within a figure became slowly visible.
It was a silver haired youth wearing a mask that covered his eyes, and black clothes.
“Sorry for the wait”.