Chapter 286: Intruder
Before the wind mage could even turn her staff to defend herself...
FLASH!
A towering Blessed Wolf tore through the underbrush at high speed and riding on the back of that female Blessed Wolves was Morwenna.
The SSS-Rank Dread Queen didn’t even bother drawing her primary mythril cutlass.
She casually drew a simple iron side-saber from her hip, slashed forward at the big bat monster, and cut through it in an instant before the beast could even register her presence.
VWOOSH... THUD!
The massive bisected carcass crashed into the dirt with black blood pooling into the damp moss.
Morwenna reined in her Blessed Wolf, bringing the giant mount to a halt, and turned her stormy gray eyes toward the fourteen apprentice mages.
Her sharp face was unusually cold with her jaw set tight and her gaze radiating an intimidating reprimanding pressure that made every single girl in the clearing instantly straighten her posture.
"Pathetic!" Morwenna barked sharply, her voice cutting through the quiet forest like a whip. "You were all so busy celebrating your basic elemental volleys that none of you noticed an Alpha beast diving straight into your backline! If this were a real war against an organized army, Lia’s head would already be rolling in the mud!"
Lia swallowed hard, bowing her head deeply.
"I... I apologize, Instructor Morwenna!"
The surrounding mages exchanged nervous, thoroughly skeptical glances under their breath.
They noticed that Morwenna was being remarkably harsh today, almost as if she was deeply pissed off about something personal, and that made the girls quite skeptical.
It felt as though some intense, deep-seated frustration was boiling inside her chest, and she was using this field training session to vent her terrible mood on them.
None of the mages, of course, were aware that Morwenna was still internally reeling from Eluned’s humiliating bathroom confrontation earlier this morning... where the Nature Goddess had smugly flexed her red spank marks and listed off every single sexual position Silas had used on her while Morwenna had been lying unconscious.
Or perhaps they would have felt very sorry for her.
Morwenna rested her hand firmly on her sword pommel, her gray eyes sweeping over the quiet group.
"Listen up!" Morwenna commanded coldly. "Get ready to train... however, that is once we’ve dealt with the intruder."
Hearing her words, all fourteen mages instantly froze with their hands gripping their staffs tightly as their elemental mana flared to life.
Hidden within one of the trees... specifically the upper canopy of an ancient, moss-covered Ironwood tree fifty meters to their left was one of Sky’s Heroes.
He was an elven man wearing black clothes who was actively using nature magic to hide himself and scout on them.
"Hu..."
He was channeling high-tier Nature Magic, fusing his mana signature directly with the tree bark and leaves to render himself completely invisible to any kind of sensory magic.
’How... how the hell did she spot me?!’ the elven scout panicked internally, his eyes widening in horror. ’I’m using a Tier 3 Nature Camouflage!’
Seeing Morwenna’s cold gray eyes locked directly onto his branch, the elven scout realized his cover was completely blown.
FWOOSH!
Without a second of hesitation, the scout kicked off the branch, triggering an explosive wind-step.
He turned into a green-and-black blur, shooting backward through the upper canopy at high speed, desperate to escape back to Sky’s territory.
Morwenna sat atop her Blessed Wolf with her hand resting casually on her saddle.
"I won’t step in," Morwenna declared coldly. "Handle him yourselves."
"YES, INSTRUCTOR!" the mages immediately yelled in agreement!
BOOM!
The entire caster team exploded into motion.
WHOOSH!
’I’ve gotten information I needed... I need to escape now!’
However escape in itself was easier said than done, though the man was convinced he could do it.
The elven scout leapt frantically from branch to branch, his neural reflexes firing at maximum capacity as he ran through the trees.
He looked over his shoulder, expecting to see a team of slow fragile squishy casters struggling to keep up through the thick underbrush far behind...
They were mages after all.
...Only for his jaw to drop in horror!
THUD! THUD! THUD!
The mages were not slowly chanting from a distance!
They were sprinting through the rugged terrain at terrifying superhuman physical speeds... leaping over fallen boulders, sliding under massive root systems, and vaulting off tree trunks like seasoned assassins.
’WHAT THE FUCK?!’ the elven scout screamed in his mind, his eyes bulging wide with shock as he stared at the fast-approaching women. ’ARE THEY REALLY MAGES?! WHY THE HELL ARE THEY RUNNING LIKE ROGUES?!’
Thanks to Silas’s continuous physical conditioning requirements, the buffs from Kaelia’s cooking, and their combat training, these mages were physical monsters compared to standard squishy spellcasters.
"He’s taking the high canopy! Block his line!" Valeria yelled, her messy red ponytail flying as she sprinted through the moss.
"On it!" Thalia shouted.
Thalia slammed both of her palms flat against the trunk of a massive oak tree as she ran past it.
"Earth-Pillar Eruption!"
KRA-KOOM!
A massive twenty-foot pillar of solid granite burst violently out of the dirt directly in front of the elven scout’s flight path.
"Gah!" the scout gasped, forcefully twisting his body mid-air to avoid colliding headfirst with the stone pillar.
That split-second maneuver completely ruined his momentum.
"Now! Drop him!" Lia commanded!
Lia swept her wooden staff through the air.
"Eat this... Vacuum Shear!"
A massive invisible blade of compressed wind sliced through the thick Ironwood branch beneath the scout’s boots.
CRACK... SNAP!
The heavy wooden branch snapped cleanly in half as the elven scout lost his footing, tumbling straight out of the canopy and falling thirty feet toward the forest floor!
"Gotcha, rat!" Seraina cackled wildly.
CRACKLE-BOOM!
Seraina fired a high-voltage bolt of purple lightning directly into his chest mid-fall.
BANG!
The electric shockwave shattered the scout’s black leather armor, scorching his skin and sending him crashing violently into the damp mud below.
THUD!
"Ugh... ghk!" the elven scout groaned, spitting a mouthful of blood as he frantically rolled onto his back. ’This... I need to run...’
In order to survive this fight, he needed to attack them.
The scout came to a stop, raising his hand and channeling his remaining nature mana to fire a volley of razor-sharp Thorn-Javelins and sweeping Razor-Vine Whips at his pursuers.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Three thick wooden javelins and sharp vines shot toward the advancing mages.
"On it..." Eliora stepped to the front, raising her crystal orb. "Glacial Shield!"
CRASH!
A thick wall of solid ice erupted from the mud, completely absorbing the thorn-javelins without taking a single crack.
"And we’re on the rest..."
Sybil and Maeve projected kinetic magic circles that deflected his vine whips like minor twigs, shrugging off his nature magic as if it were harmless dust.
Simultaneously, Venma stepped around the ice wall, twirling her bronze ring.
"Arcane Disruption Bolt!"
BOOM!
A pulse of raw arcane force slammed directly into the scout’s right shoulder, shattering his shoulder blade with a sickening sound and completely disabling his casting hand.
CRACK!
Before the scout could even scream in pain—
SWISH!
Morrigan emerged from the shadows behind him, her dark shadow-tendrils shooting out from the dirt to tightly bind his arms, legs, and torso, pinning him flat against the damp earth.
"This pervert was sneaking on us... Kill him!"
Valeria unleashed a concentrated point-blank heat pulse that scorched his side, while Calia slammed a high-pressure water sphere onto his chest to crush his ribs.
Ysolde and Aurelia added blinding mana burns that locked his nerves completely.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Within less than thirty seconds of spotted contact, the elite Guerilla Ranger had been hunted, intercepted, ambushed, and left bleeding in the mud, broken and helpless.
STEP! STEP!
The rhythmic thud of wolf paws echoed through the quiet clearing.
Morwenna rode over on the Blessed Wolf, stopping directly beside the bleeding battered elven scout.
She pointed the tip of her iron side-saber directly at the man’s neck.
"Do you want to live?"
The elven scout, paralyzed by the cold steel against his throat, his shattered shoulder, and his broken ribs, could barely nod as he was seriously injured.
"N-Yes... p-please... let me live..." the scout gasped out with blood trickling from the corner of his lips.
Morwenna held the sword against his throat for three long agonizing seconds.
Then... Morwenna’s cheeks blushed deeply.
A bright dark red flush spread across the SSS-Rank Dread Queen’s pale skin as her fierce terrifying aura instantly collapsed into an intensely awkward shyness.
She cleared her throat softly, leaning forward slightly in her saddle.
"What’s the best approach for a woman to ask her man for sex? If you answer this, I’ll let you go."
"..."
The whole clearing fell completely silent. The wind stopped blowing and the birds stopped chirping.
The mages stood in a wide circle around the clearing with their mouths wide open and their eyes bulging out of their skulls as they stared at the fierce Dread Queen.
"...Ah, I’ve never had se—"
BOOM!
...
Meanwhile, on the dusty border road leading toward the neutral buffer zone...
CLIP-CLOP... CLIP-CLOP.
Two Blessed Wolves walked side-by-side along the dirt trail with their heavy paws kicking up small clouds of dust under the bright morning sun.
Riding atop the lead wolf was Silas in his Vespera disguise and as of right now, Vespera wore a dark, high-collared traveler’s coat that draped gracefully over her broad yet elegant frame, paired with dark tailored trousers and tall leather riding boots.
Fitted securely over her right arm was the sleek silver-and-gold Sil-Grave Arm Guard that Thora had custom-forged earlier.
The indestructible alloy plate glinted brilliantly under the sunlight, fitting her hand and forearm perfectly.
Its embedded defense runes hummed with a subtle comforting warmth that resonated with her mana.
Riding beside her on the second Blessed Wolf was Rowenna.
The newly evolved S-Rank Grand Runemaster looked breathtakingly beautiful.
Her long silky dark hair cascaded past her shoulder in violet-tinted waves, and her mature voluptuous figure filled out her fresh robes to the brim.
Rowenna let out a soft happy breath, stroking the soft fur of her wolf’s neck as she looked over at the Lord.
"I really enjoy riding with you like this, My Lord," Rowenna admitted sweetly, her blue eyes sparkling with quiet affection as she looked at Vespera’s sharp side profile under the morning light.
Vespera, who was wearing the arm guard which fit her hand perfectly, smiled beneath her traveler’s hood.
"I’m glad you decided to tag along, Rowenna," Vespera replied smoothly. "And this arm guard Thora forged feels completely weightless."
Rowenna looked at the sleek silver gauntlet covering Vespera’s right arm, nodding her head enthusiastically.
"It looks absolutely stunning on you, My Lord. Thora’s craftsmanship is truly top-tier. It matches your aura flawlessly."
Vespera offered a warm comfortable smirk from beneath her coat hood.
"Thanks. She certainly knows her metalwork."
They were currently riding their Blessed Wolves over to Unmovable Wall, navigating the rocky terrain and winding paths of the border ridges.
As the two riders rounded the final stone bend leading into the open buffer zone, Rowenna tilted her head, sniffing the morning air curiously.
Up ahead, she could smell something really nice... it was smoking meat.
The rich mouth-watering aroma of slow-smoked barbecue, charred oak wood, savory glazes, and roasted herbs wafted across the morning breeze, entering their nostrils.
And then, they arrived at the Unmovable Wall territory...
Around the base of the mobile fortress, dozens of Sky’s civilian contractors, guards, and low-tier combatants were bustling about, attending to routine tread maintenance, hauling supply crates, and preparing field rations.
Upon seeing them here, the people recognized the single-armed Lord immediately, greeted her respectfully, and cleared a path to Sky.
"Clear the perimeter! Clear a path! It’s Lord Vespera!" one of the fortress guards shouted into a transceiver, hurriedly stepping back to clear a wide walkway for the two wolf riders.
Vespera reined in her Blessed Wolf, bringing the giant mount to a smooth halt near the edge of a grassy clearing beside the main fortress treads.
Sitting comfortably beneath the shade of two large Ironwood trees was Lord Sky, who was chilling in shorts and sitting under a hammock that he had put between two trees.
He was dressed in casual wearing dark sunglasses, a bright Hawaiian print shirt, and casual denim shorts, holding a cold glass of iced juice in his hand as he swung lazily in the shade.
And he sighed as she arrived, greeting her with a relaxed charismatic grin as he slid his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose even though he was wearing a mask.
"Man..." Sky drawled out, looking up from his hammock. "You really know how to make an entrance, Vespera."