“Will we be strong enough to tackle a Tier-3 Adventurer if we join our forces?” Michael asked the group of people surrounding him.
He had never fought a Tier-3 Adventurer, but he couldn’t tell for sure if they were stronger than Lincoln Piedra and Zeke Lavita.
Michael did not have even a rough idea about their strength and how many weapons or soldiers would it take to overwhelm the attackers.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King, Tiara, Michael, and the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team should be strong enough to deal with powerful opponents if they worked together. But was it enough to fight a Tier-3 Adventurer?
He was not confident about that, and both Lilica and Tiara shook their heads simultaneously to reaffirm his premonition.
“It won’t be enough. Advancing to the 3rd Tier meant that they were either very talented or that they spent years and a great deal of effort to reach this far. Their experiences and battle strategies allow them to exhibit tremendous power. Don’t ever underestimate that!” Lilica warned.
Michael took her advice to heart.
With the incoming danger approaching them rapidly, and new allies – several hundred Blood Oath Demon Monkeys — joining their ranks, Michael and the others spend the next 20 hours coming up with various plans to deal with the Jungle Expedition.
They took turns catching up on some sleep and rest to regain their stamina and replenish their used-up energy while always ensuring that someone was on guard to warn everyone if something unexpected was to happen.
Unfortunately, not even a full day after Michael tamed Sun Demos, the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King, bad news reached them.
The scouts of the Jungle Expedition had slowly begun gathering near the outskirts of the Untamed Jungle.
Icarus, who was hovering above the jungle, noticed their advance almost immediately.
The Greater Eagle had been circling in the air all around Xiltra and the plains to watch the movements of their opponents. To Michael’s misfortune, Icarus returned earlier than they’d hoped.
The Jungle Expedition was about to start.
One day was not enough to finish everything Michael had planned. He came up with many strategies to stall his opponents and decimate their numbers, but they required time – a luxury they didn’t have right now.
He had to make some quick adjustments to his plans.
Michael looked over to Tiara, Blaire, and a few others. He tilted his head for a while and nodded subconsciously once he came to a conclusion.
“Can you do it without me and the others?” He asked.
Tiara’s eyes widened.
“You don’t want me to join the battle, master?” She asked, clearly displeased.
However, Michael just smiled.
“I trust you.”
Three words was all it took to shut Tiara’s mouth. She didn’t even dare to retort to Michael after hearing those seemingly simple words.
Tiara nodded grimly and issued a silent sigh. Her head flicked to the side where Blaire and the others were standing, awaiting further instructions. A single gesture toward them was enough to make them move. They disappeared and returned to the territory first.
“We should give it a try,” Michael mumbled to himself. He then started telepathic communication with Sun Demos.
Sun Demos and his underlings had left their habitat more than half a day ago. They initiated one of the more important steps of the multi-layered plan they’d come up with.
Sun Demos was somewhere within a radius of 10 kilometers from him. That was the current limit of telepathic communication between a Master and his tamed monster. However, there was more to the 5-Star Taming Soultrait. It wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
Taming allowed him to communicate through their minds over a long-range, tap into the power of his tamed monster, and order around Sun Demos’ kind. The period was extremely short, but Michael could use a tiny portion of the Blood Oath Demon Monkey King’s power.
[Tell your underlings to locate the scouts. If they’re exposed, they can attack. Other than that, stay back and keep me updated about the position of the scouts. We will hunt them down first.] Michael ordered Sun Demos.
[Guckuck?]
[Continue with the initial plan, yes. But don’t overdo it. The main force of the Jungle Expedition won’t enter the Untamed Jungle before noon, given how slow they travel.]
Michael came up with rather simple battle strategies because they didn’t have time to enact special tactics that required exceptional teamwork between the Demon Monkeys and Michael’s army.
They would hunt down the scouts before they could return to report. The goal was to keep the Jungle Expedition team in the dark about the Untamed Jungle’s detailed topography, monster habitats and other important details.
Michael wanted to use the environment as their ultimate advantage and hide the fact that the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys were practically part of his army.
Next, the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team split up into five groups. They created five hunting units using the Forest Walkers, a bunch of Archers, and a few more units that could fight melee and long-range simultaneously.
Their numbers and strength were more than enough to wipe out the scouts. That was something Michael was certain about.
The hunting units passed through the Untamed Jungle’s outer area using the well-developed and hidden canopy bridges. The canopy bridge network had developed rapidly in the last few weeks. It was no problem to swiftly move through the territory in a range of five kilometers, which provided great momentum and saved travel time.
Lilica accepted his orders without delay, and she handed Michael a small orb before leaving with her hunting unit.
The other members of the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team followed suit. They vanished one by one to complete the tasks they’d been given.
Michael and the rest finished their last preparations as well before they began to move.
For the next three hours, hunting down the scouts held the biggest importance.
Michael kept talking to Sun Demos even while moving to stay up to date about the situation. That way, he could convey messages to the people around him after they returned from hunting a few scouts.
The Hunters collected the scouts’ corpses and brought them back to Michael who stored the corpses of the adventurers away.
Afterward, he gave the Hunters a new target, using the information Sun Demos and his underlings had collected.
Michael was the single point of contact and a bridge for everyone right now. Due to the constant influx of information provided by Sun Demos, Michael could pinpoint the location of the invaders easily. He would relay that information to the Hunters who would then sneak up and attack the invaders.
Meanwhile, Sun Demos finished the other tasks he had been given as well.
He and his underlings finished riling up the Tier-2 Monsters located near the border to the Untamed Jungle’s middle zone.
Sun Demos came up with the idea to use the Tier-2 Monsters in the middle zone against the members of the Jungle Expedition.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkey King had made various enemies over the course of years, and his army had fought them often enough to know how to enrage them.
The Blood Oath Demon Monkeys split up and actively infiltrated the territory of their enemies during the last 24 hours.
They either stole their eggs, squashed them, or hurt their youngest. Then the Blood Oath Demon Monkeys continued to fool around with their enemies – slowly luring them away from their natural habitat and enraging them more and more.
By the time it was noon, the Demon Monkeys had enraged most of their enemies. They’d pulled them to the Untamed Jungle’s outer area where they found themselves faced with the invaders of the Untamed Jungle.
Around the same time, the Jungle Expedition began to invade the Untamed Jungle – just like Michael predicted earlier.
Yet, the moment the invasion began, the Jungle Expedition was faced with something they didn’t predict.
Given the information provided by Adventurers who had entered the Untamed Jungle in the past, they weren’t supposed to encounter Tier-2 monsters until they reached the border to the middle zone. At most, their biggest problem would be the overpopulation of fierce Tier-1 Monsters.
That was what they had expected to face and easily overwhelm.
However, the reality was brutal.
When the first Adventurers and Mercenaries encountered the hordes of angry Monsters that were dashing through the Untamed Jungle’s densely grown flora and fauna with great nimbleness, their first reaction was shock. They couldn’t comprehend how easily the monsters of the Untamed Jungle could move around the obstacles in their way.
The Monsters used the thicket to hide the changes in their movement patterns before launching their bodies higher in the air, using the ‘obstacles’ as launching pads.
The Untamed Jungle was revolting against its invaders.