Kamir, Dagur and the Lord ranked skelefiends were about halfway to the main exit’s battlefield, when Kamir got the order from Karmandi to make his move, they were flying at high altitude as to not be detected since they were acting as reinforces.𝚘𝐕𝒍xt.𝗇𝓔t
Dagur suddenly had a bad premotion so he activated his innate defensive spell acid shield just in time, but was still hit by a high-pressure water stream coming from Kamir’s snout, it was the best spell Karmandi’s race had for long range offensive, Tidal Vortex.
Why did he use that you might ask, the answer is simple, the attack was supposed to put as much distance as possible between Kamir and Dagur, and it worked like a charm, the water stream sent Dagur flying about five kilometers and then smacked him against the ground.
The Lord ranks that were flying thanks to Dagur found themselves in free fall immediately, and while they weren’t going to die the still had no way to maneuver midair, so they could only resentfully glare at Kamir as they fell.
But that wasn’t all, Kamir immobilized the fifty Lord ranks that were being transported by him with water chains, and he devoured a couple that were trying to break free before he turned around and immediately fled from the scene but in direction to the main exit, soon disappearing from the sight of the Skelefiends who were boiling due to anger at this point.
“Fucking magic beast, I will peel you alive!!!”, Dagur suddenly came out from the ground, once he helped his subordinates safely land he asked where did Kamir went, and they pointed at the main exit.
“You return to Vice-general Uly’s side, I will go after that traitor, if he reached there before me, then he would have a free pass to ambush general Tiberius!”, shouted Dagur as he became a green flash that shot itself towards the direction where the main exit was.
Due to the isolation magic array, using any form of communication was incredibly hard, that black plate he had could only be used once every 12 hours, and so the last information Tiberius had was that the magic beasts were their allies, giving Kamir a chance to stir up chaos if he arrived before.
‘Fuck, maybe that fucker was one of the subordinates of the other general mentioned by Ulkrear, it was a snake and I totally forgot about it!’, screamed Dagur in his heart as he accelerated even more.
He wasn’t worried about Uly being with the other Arch ranked magic beast, because the centipede’s affinity is poison and as Skelefiends they had high resistance towards it, even wounded he shouldn’t have trouble fighting against it, he was half-way to the main exit anyway and his main priority was to free his Lady.
Kamir who was already about fifty kilometers ahead from Dagur, had a positively surprised expression on his face.
‘Gabriel is incredible, general I’m ready to leave’, that was he message he sent back to Karmandi as he ascended into the sky at a high speed forcing the Lord ranks Skelefiends to faint due to the sudden change in the pressure.
…
Almost at the same time Daimon and the others appeared about one kilometer away from the alternative exit behind a large rock formation that perfectly covered them, and that wasn’t all, the walls of the rock had a few dark green crystals incrusted into them.
It was Sea Devil ore, of course it wasn’t naturally formed on any outside rock, but something Daimon put into this rock formation to cover their presence.
‘I still can’t believe you can touch that horrible thing… even our Empress treats those things as the plague, Kamir says he is done his part too’, said Karmandi directly to Daimon.
Daimon nodded and with a snap of his fingers, a mark on the ground a few meters away from them exploded.
‘Switch’, with a single thought Daimon’s stamina reduced another 10% and then the large body of Kamir appeared out of thin air, there were also 6 Lord ranks being suppressed by his water chains.
Kamir gave Daimon a reverence gaze, as he offered three of the Lord ranks as “tribute”, to Daimon, the other three were given to Karmandi.
The snake general chuckled as he said what was in Kamir’s head to Daimon.
‘He says that he wants you to accept this sign of respect from him, the others were devoured but he will give Neal their magic cores because he apparently got something good from the Skelefiend who you trapped into that black small castle’.
Daimon nodded, more sources of information would not be a problem, and speaking of that, he snapped his fingers and the two three still frozen pirates that he met just when he was arriving at this underwater space appeared next to him.
“W-What now, just let us die in peace”, complained one of the two subordinates, while their supervisor calmly evaluated their surroundings until he saw Daimon and the group that has formed, which included some really strong looking magic beasts.
“So, you indeed had a hidden card… you can’t be possibly one of those spoiled nobles, to be able to promise my brother a pardon from the queen, and also be allied with magic beasts, who are you?”, mumbled Travis.
Daimon shook his head in response.
“Not the time to talk, get into the cage, we’ll be making our exit”.
Travis who was the only one of the three that could move by himself nodded and entered the cage along with the male nobles who gave him resented gazes, but they have noticed the silver haired youth being the one in charge here, not to mention the princesses, even that dangerous looking magic beast had paid attention to his words, so they remained silent.
“Put these guys into the other cage, Kamir if you don’t mind give these girls a ride”, said Daimon.
Karmandi threw the Lord ranked Skelefiends into the cage and compressed it so it was closed once again, while Kamir offered the former prisoner female nobles to ride on his back.
Needless to say, but they were a bit afraid of the Arch ranked snake, so they turned to see Mellie and Daphne for advice.
Mellie inwardly pouted as she stole a gaze at Daimon, who left her the task of convincing these still shocked girls to thrust a fierce looking magic beast like Karmir, Karmandi could talk so it was easier to accept as he had unlocked his wisdom, but Kamir was more on the wilder side.
“Don’t look at us like that, the pressure of the water in the tunnel is horrible, without the protection of someone strong you’ll end up being dragged away, Senior Kamir is a water affinity middle stage peak lever Mortal magic beast, more than enough to protect you, also he has proven to be thrust worthy”.
“Mellie is right, don’t be picky you all… besides I bet you won’t like the other option”, added Jasmine referring to Neal, the centipede was way grumpier and fierce-looking than Kamir after all.
“Ahem, thanks for the advice young miss, come on get up, we are almost out!”, shouted the girls from the Bamboo Forest sect as well as the girls that supported Daphne.
Speaking about that, the oldest looking girl from the Bamboo Forest sect, couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the sight of Jasmine still holding onto Daimon’s shoulder, but she also noticed that Adam was nowhere to be found.
And she was able to notice her childhood friend seemed different than before, she looked a bit more mature but happier, unlike before where she couldn’t stand seeing how she was led by Adam.
‘I guess we have a lot to talk… granny Aurora is going to be really pissed’, she thought as she got up Kamir’s back too.
“Let’s go”, said Daimon as he jumped on top of Karmandi’s back, making the snake general sigh.
‘Not even my Empress uses me so casually as a mean of transportation you know?’, he said with a defeated voice, making inwardly Daimon laugh.
‘We are going to be risking our lives together, what does a few rides amount for allies’.
Karmandi knew it was futile to discuss, besides as strange as it sounded he didn’t feel uncomfortable working with Daimon, maybe because despite his human appearance the feeling he gave off was closer to that of a magic beast that has taken human form, or maybe because he has developed some respect for him during this whole situation.
The girls all hoped on board and sat next to Daimon, then Karmandi grabbed the cages with his tail and they flew towards the alternative entrance where the surviving Skelefiends were without noticing surrounded by Neal and the rest of the Karmandi’s army.
The centipede got the order from Karmandi and without any warning, he whipped his long body against the ground making it shatter below him.
“Aghhhh, what the hell is this!”, the Skelefiend army was taken by surprise and they fell on a deep hole which was created by Neal previously, the before they could react the whole army started launching long range attacks at them.
Lightning, ice spears, rocks, water blades, and a lot of other attacks rained down upon the trapped Skelefiends, making them scream, they were outnumbered in a 4:1 proportion so they couldn’t even retaliate and were soon drown in spells.
“What the hell are you doing!”, Uly who just got out of his daze shouted at Neal, when he suddenly had a bad premonition as a wild supposition flashed in his mind.
Wasn’t it a bit too convenient that the magic beasts were practically unscathed in the previous battle with that monstrous guy, he thought… and what if he were to be somehow in cahoots with the magic beasts all this time to set them up.
Unfortunately for Uly his theory was then confirmed when a strong pressure forced him on his knees, as Karmandi and Kamir arrived to the entrance of the alternative exit along with that same guy that caused such heavy casualties before.
“Hi again vice-general, I’m in a hurry so let’s drop formalities, is there anything in special I need to know about this alternative exit?”.
Uly’s face twisted as he heard the indifferent voice of the human who at this point, he realized, played them all along, but then he vomited blood due to the pressure of the magic beast in which he was riding.
“Answer the question, sack of bones”, ordered Karmandi.
“H-Half Stellar, you are that snake which Ulkrear mentioned!”, shouted Uly in disbelief, a Half Stellar rank was giving a merman a ride, despite how much they hated each other.
‘What in the name of Snakele is happening in this planet!’, screamed Uly in his heart, still he had no choice but to say something unless he wanted to be crushed to death.
“There is nothing, no one knows of this exit besides us and it leads to a lot of places in what you call Wild Tide Reef!”.
Karmandi looked at Daimon and saw him nodding, he could tell the Skelefiend wasn’t lying.
“That wasn’t that hard was it, you’ll come with us since we apparently will need a guide, don’t try anything funny and you as well as “she” will live”, said Daimon as he moved the little black castle in which Shirel was still being kept, though the castle was still trembling from time to time, it has become less frequent, with a good reason, not to mention Shirel had suppressed her powers to the Arch rank, that was Rita’s definitive ability, after using it she had to sleep for a whole day in Daimon’s shadow to recover, in her words at least.
Uly noticed all his subordinates were dead at this point, and the fact that Kamir returned with a Half Stellar rank and was perfectly fine made him believe Dagur got done in, his obligation is to keep Shirel alive at all cost since he is from her lineage too, so he had only choice now… obey.
“Fine, I’ll guide you out”, he said, it was as if he had aged a few hundreds of years, he a vice-general was utterly defeated, if only he knew Daimon even played with the generals which were Half Stellar ranks, he would probably vomit blood and die.
With Karmandi setting a literal water bomb around Uly’s neck, they all jumped into the cave, which was then collapsed by Karmandi and Neal, not without Daimon leaving a little present for when the others realize they had fled.
Soon guided by Uly they reached a large open space underground, there was a natural deep pool which had a strong current ongoing, at the bottom there was a clear tunnel that led to another place.
“Here we are, let me say this beforehand, there might be some magic beasts trapped in the current so I’m not responsible if those weaklings die”, said Uly referring to Karmandi’s subordinates as well as Daimon and the girls.
“I would like to see which magic beast below the Stellar rank dares to block this old snake’s path”, said Karmandi, water is his element, he was born in it, raised in it and is determined to die in it.
Still, he turned to see Daimon to ask for confirmation, because in authority he is at the same level as him in the alliance, so he couldn’t just decide by himself.
‘Let’s leave this place, the real thing is about to start… I don’t believe for a second, they did all this without taking into account the Trident Marshal and Jasmine’s grandmother, don’t forget to do the call as soon as we are out, and also help me with what I asked’, said Daimon directly to Karmandi.
Daimon then turned to see the girls that changed their previous positions to now be holding onto him.
You know there is no need for that anymore right, we’ll be leaving through a water tunnel?”, asked Daimon.
Aisha and the Risha sisters simply giggled in response, as they tightened their grip on Daimon’s arms.
“We are tired, can’t you be a gentleman for once”, playfully said Leslie with a genuinely tired expression.
Aisha just stuck her tongue at her son and directly laid down using Daimon’s leg as her pillow.
“Yeah, using thunder storm for such a long time made my body feel a bit numb, so I’ll be taking a little nap here~”.
Yvonne and Liliana didn’t say anything but their eyes perfectly expressed that they weren’t going to let go no matter what.
Mellie simply shrugged before saying.
“It’s for safety, what will you tell my sister if I were to be dragged by a random water current being so close to leave safe and sound… we still have to win the three-art tournament, don’t we?”.
Daphne only looked at Daimon and then gave Chris a gaze, which she somehow was able to translate to words.
“The first princess says that she still feels weak due to the backlash of her innate ability and she invites you to pay her a visit to the Duchess territory at a tea party, as a way repay you”.
Daimon chuckled, as he gave Karmandi the greenlight.
The snake general eyes glowed as he nodded, he then threw Uly into the water before he, Kamir, Neal and the rest of the army followed.