“So, you stayed?” Klaus asked, walking beside Miguel as they took the left path. From the waterfall where the team split, there were three routes—left, right, and center.
The Legacy alliance took the central path, Lawrence’s team went right, and Klaus’s small team chose left. All of them were heading toward Willow Forest, just through different routes.
Miguel staying behind had come as a surprise to Klaus.
“I did stay,” Miguel said, his face devoid of expression.
“Why?” Klaus asked. “I thought you and Lawrence were buddies.”
“I stayed because this is the team I signed up for, where you’re the strategist and Anna’s the leader. And Lawrence is not my buddy; we’re just from the same city,” Miguel answered, picking up his pace to avoid walking side by side with the annoying white-haired bastard.
Klaus watched as the brute, double-bladed axe fighter walked away with a smile on his face.
‘I guess I didn’t misjudge him. He’s a good guy, just a dick who couldn’t take a loss,’ Klaus thought to himself. This tension all boiled down to Anna. It seemed both Miguel and Omari Hackman had their eyes on her, but Klaus swooped in and won her over.
While that might have been reason enough for Miguel to jump on Lawrence’s bandwagon, he chose to stay. It was unusual behavior for someone who had a grudge against Klaus.
The same could be said for Omari, who Klaus knew still hadn’t accepted the fact that the Ice Princess had already been claimed.
What Klaus didn’t know, however, was that Ella had already tried to recruit Miguel to join their crusade against him, but Miguel rejected it without a second thought.
Although he disliked Klaus, Miguel still had his integrity, something Klaus respected in a person.
The group quickly advanced. Hanna and Kay, along with the new archer Lucas, were now leading due to their enhanced eyesight. Klaus stayed at the rear, using his superior senses to sweep the surroundings for any threats.
‘My senses are getting restricted the deeper we go,’ Klaus suddenly realized. He had started with a 40 km wide scanning range, but now it was down to 35 km. The deeper they ventured, the more confined his range became.
By the time they had crossed 70% of the Fractured Mountain, his sensing range had shrunk to 15 km. This meant his team members were now only a few meters within his detection range.
The archers, with their enhanced eyesight, could still see as far as 2 km, but even that range was dropping lower by the second.
‘This trial was built well,’ Klaus sighed inwardly.
It had been 26 hours since they entered the trial. They had already passed through Alpha and were now 85% of the way through traversing the Fractured Mountain, crossing fractured terrains teeming with vicious monsters.
They had fought and killed dozens of creatures. With their numbers reduced to just 16, Anna was able to manage the battlefield far more effectively—something Klaus knew was because they were all working cohesively as a single team now.
They had each faced many harrowing monsters, some Tier 5 and even a few Tier 6, but they never faltered in their attacks.
Thirty hours into the trial, they had crossed 95% of the Fractured Heavens. They took a brief rest to recover before pressing on. Oracle was just like the real world—except death wasn’t permanent.
“Ruby, watch out!” Klaus shouted as a vine shot toward Ruby, one of the two mages who had stayed. Before she could dodge or defend, the vine was already upon her.
But just as it was about to wrap around her, a sword flashed forward, cutting off a few feet of the twisted vine.
Although it didn’t stop the vine’s advance entirely, the severing gave Ruby a few crucial moments to move away.
Lily had saved her in time, but there was no chance to celebrate. Vines were all around them now—dozens of them, slithering and closing in.
“Archers, move closer to me. Mages, cast barrier spells. Swordsmen, keep cutting them down. Lin and Zing, create defenses around us. Klaus… do whatever you want,” Anna quickly commanded, and everyone sprang into action.
Hanna, Kay, and Lucas, unable to fight the vines with their bows and arrows, quickly moved closer to Anna, who, along with Ruby and Scarlet, managed to raise a few barriers that slowed down or stopped the advancing vines.
Lily, Kilian, Omari, and Mark also sprang into action, cutting down the vines as they came. Although Mark was a spearman, he kept up with the flow, efficiently cutting down the vines.
Your next chapter is on empire
Miguel, Danny, and Daniel brandished their heavy weapons, following up with attacks that cut and shattered the vines.
“Keep moving,” Anna urged, as the group advanced slowly while defending themselves.
Klaus kept swinging his sword, cutting down the vines that kept coming at him. He scanned his mind for the type of vines these were, but he couldn’t identify them, so he asked.
“Anna, what kind of vines are these?”
“They’re called Twisted Hunting Vines. They attack using echoes and are highly resistant to ice and fire. So, the only way to avoid their attacks is to move out of their sensing range,” she answered.
“Thanks,” Klaus smirked and stored away his sword. With a flick of his hand, a ball of flame appeared.
“What are you planning, Klaus? Fire can’t burn them,” Anna said as she saw Klaus holding the flame.
“Ordinary fire, maybe. My fire? I don’t think so.” He moved forward and, with a quick throw, hurled the flame ahead.
Boom!
An explosion erupted the moment the flame hit the ground. Like a dragon unleashed, the fire roared and engulfed the forest in front of them.
He quickly moved to the left and did the same, setting more of the forest ablaze.
“Klaus, what are you doing?” Anna asked, watching the fire burn furiously.
“What do you mean, what am I doing? I’m burning the forest down. No trees, no vines, right?” Klaus said, hurling another flame to the right. Soon, fire surrounded them.
Anna quickly cast an ice barrier, but it was too weak against the intense heat. It dissipated almost instantly, making everyone grimace. Klaus smirked and then summoned the Ice Lotus, immediately activating the Absolute Ice Domain.
Instantly, everyone was enclosed in a domain of ice that quickly extinguished the flames around them. The fire burned fiercely for a few minutes before calming down.
However, in those few minutes, they had managed to destroy 4 kilometers of the forest. It was both bizarre and effective for what they were trying to achieve.
“That worked better than I hoped,” Klaus said, watching as everything green had been reduced to ash.
“Let’s go. We’re almost out of the Fractured Mountain. We need to hurry before the others beat us to the main goal,” Klaus said with a smile, despite the shocked expressions on his team’s faces.
If only they knew it could have been worse if he had called forth the dragon instead—but who was asking? They quickly left the area, and soon, they exited the Fractured Mountains and stepped into the Willow Forest, where they were immediately greeted with a chilling surprise.