While Kaden was able to keep flying, some movements caused pain. Before his latest evolution, such extent of damage might have been too much, but he had much greater amount of life mana in him that was supporting him. He was already enjoying the completele, or near so, specialties that phoenixes enjoyed.

Despite all that, he had to note again that the blessed mana, such as what Marwen used, was indeed troublesome. It caused far deeper damage than normal attacks. Kaden was able to function relatively normally, but there was some pain and its source was wounds caused by the blessed mana. This included Kaden's neck too, where the damage was much deeper.

"I'll be functional, but not at full power for some time", Kaden determined. Ever since the fight, he had been able to heal, but those specific wounds just wouldn't heal. Luckily most of it was surface damage.

Then there was another matter. Kaden planned to go to beast territories. Yet, he had grown up and lived in human territories. At most he had spent a while in areas next to human territories.

Kaden had no idea where Cari built most of their cities. Surely there were some. Humans only knew of the major ones and Kaden was only aware of those.

Where should he go? Frika? With his strength, he would not be the anywhere the weakest, but nowhere the strongest either. Yet, Frika was where beasts were strongest, at least on land.

There were also the lands to further east from human territories. He knew there were some stronger beasts there too, but their number was far lower. This was the direction where people from human territories went for long term hunts.

What was left in east was only large area of mostly weaker beasts due to humans culling them there often and continuous hunting for resources. It would be much longer distance until it would be possible to live without being noticed by humans. Kaden wasn't even entirely sure it would be only beasts in those areas. They might even be uninhabited. That would mean some mana distortions and mana creatures. Kaden didn't really care. It was too far away anyway.

"It has to be Frika", Kaden decided. He had basically known it already, but he merely rethought the matter. "While I could go about my business easier, if I went to east, I'd be running into humans there. Also since there are fewer stronger beasts there, the resources are likely more scarce. There would be more of them and reason to have greater defenses otherwise."

It would also be easier to keep eye on the two empires and their churches from Frika. Distance was far lower. There was only a sea in between that Kaden could fly over. There were also land routes, but that would require slightly longer way around. Not that it would be much of trouble.

Kaden had been flying for some days, but, like previously, was more active during nights. During day's he ate what was left of Marwen, but it wasn't that much. He would be near the shore relatively soon. A day roughly.

As for Marwen's posessions. Kaden didn't like the chain. It wasn't the sort of weapon he liked to use and also seemed to be attuned to the type of mana Marwen used. Perhaps it could be altered over time, but Kaden saw now reason to. Perhaps it could be broken down into useful materials or simply sold. Though, whether or not any Cari would be interested was another matter.

Otherwise Marwen only had some orders that offered no new information to Kaden. There were also some crystals for currency and random notes of information. It seemed Marwen had moved with mimimum load.

"Oh well, I don't really care", Kaden thought to himself. "His flesh was good nourishment. Not that it gave much of any noticeable progress for my growth. I need more. Much more."

After a few more hours Kaden noted something interesting along the way. It seemed to be a military convoy transporting materials. Higher grade crystals and even cores, likely from High Beasts. The amount of guardians was relatively small and the amount of potential loot would make it worth it.

Kaden felt some greed. He could easily kill this group going for the front lines to fuel formations and tools. He swooped down, shooting fire balls at the guards. Yet, they didn't act as people usually did as they ran into a beast, instead they activated some formations to protect themselves.

Kaden quickly realized something was wrong. He sensed the surroundings to greater distance than he usually did. He noted some 'emptier' areas.

"Stealth formations?" Kaden understood immediately. Very similar to what the ships had that traveled over the sea. "This is a trap! Someone arranged these materials for me to notice. Yes, me. There is no reason to expect this was set up for anyone else. I have been noticed. Not unexpected after what I did with Juren and Marwen."

Around at that time, spells started to rain from the hidden locations. Many of them were restrictive spells rather than damaging.

Kaden screeched and released a Fire Blast and flew up. The fire deflected closest attacks. Luckily he had not landed. Taking time to get flying would have been a bit longer than simply turn around while still in flight.

While he was able to fly away, it wasn't something he could call escape. He noted group of people following him with gliders. Three gliders in total. Those were fast enough to keep up with him.

Kaden cursed and tried to speed up. He didn't want to fight this clearly prepared group, if he didn't have to.

-----

"Looks like a phoenix, indeed", hunter leader on one of the gliders said as he got a good look on Kaden. He was at early Condensation stage. "Strange to find such a rare specimen wandering around here. Truly a rare species. Young too. Perhaps too young. Its a bit small."

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"What should we do?" Another hunter standing on the same glider asked. "It noticed our trap too early."

"We will chase it", the leader replied. "Inform everyone else to keep shooting. We might have to tire it down. Unfortunately a phoenix can shrug off attacks relatively easily. Their endurance is extreme. If we get the chance, try to drag it down. We have harpoons for that."

-----

Kaden didn't want to risk fighting his pursuers. Perhaps he could win, but not easily. The group was larger than what Marwen had at the fort. They were prepared too.

"The shore is still quite far away", Kaden thought to himself as he avoided spells raining towards him constantly. "If I can get there, I will be fine, but even with my current speed, it will still take all day."

For a moment Kaden pondered, if he could get rid of the hunters by destroying the gliders. Without them possibly only the Condensation stage leader could follow him. They were military grade gliders, though. It didn't hurt to try.

Kaden shot a Fire Beam and the explosion towards one of them. The beam struck a shield surrounding the glider, but wasn't instantly able to penetrate it. As for the explosion, the others quickly provided aid and were able to deflect the explosive pulse.

It was a good attempt, but it slowed down Kaden and he found himself receiving far more attacks than before.

"Their teamwork is good", Kaden noted. "This is a hunter team that has worked together for a while at least. I am merely the next target. At any rate, this tactic could work, but its risky. I need a better chance. That shield isn't impenetrable. Despite being Sacronan's vehicle, its build should be roughly same as the ones in Saint Empire. Those I know well."

The chase continued. Kaden had plenty of time to ponder whether this was roughly what had happened to Anuu. Chased, constantly harrased. Bit by bit strength sapped. Eventually be weak enough to be taken down.

Kaden wanted obviously wanted to avoid this fate.

He still knew there was one part missing from Anuu's unfortunate fate. That chase ended with a trap. Was there another trap waiting for him? He frowned. That was the standard method for hunting phoenixes, if you weren't able to directly overpower them. He had learned much when he investigated matters related to phoenixes.

Kaden decided to keep an eye out for it.

Only a few hours later, he found his worries become true. It seemed his path towards the sea had been expected and he had been driven roughly towards one direction. There was another group of hunters waiting for him. They had clearly set up a kill zone, with formations and structures.

Phoenixes were valuable. Extremely so. They were more than willing to set up everything.

The hunters chasing him started shooting furiously, preventing Kaden from changing directions to sides and keep going or stop. He also noted that the chasers had set up some bigger weapons on the gliders. No doubt ready for any attempt to alter the course.

"I might be able to get through, but I'll be taking even more damage", Kaden thought to himself. "Yet, they will still follow me. There is no telling, if they have something more set up along the way. No... I must break their game."

As long as Kaden was forced to play by their rules, he wouldn't get away easily. It was time for a change.

"This might hurt", Kaden thought as he turned around. He had to do so by passing through the spells shot at him. Some did hit, but not critically. They were spamming it, not charging full powered spells.

Yet as soon as Kaden started his move, the hunters started using more powerful spells. This didn't matter to Kaden as he rushed towards the glider that he had attacked previously.

Suddenly something shot from one of the gliders nearby that stuck into Kaden's front leg. A harpoon. Despite the pain, Kaden tore it out immediately. It caused bleeding, but such matters were not problem as long as he didn't go too far with it.

Another passed by him, but didn't hit. Then he landed on the glider and its shield. He shot Fire Beam at it and bored a hole through it. Another harpoon was fired and it tore a gash on his back, missing his wings by a small margin. Yet, with the hole in the shield, Kaden used the Life Well through it and watched as the hunters screamed for a moment as they shriveled up and died. The glider was still going.

"Watch out!" The hunter leader shouted loudly. "It seems to be able to cast some special spells."

Usually, beasts couldn't cast much of any spells with the affinity restrictions. Lower Cari might get access to some eventually as they could sense deeper mana that was free of such limits, but it would be for most beasts first time they used any spells outside of their natural abilities. Only more advanced Lower Cari could be proper spell casters. The hunters wouldn't expect much of spell casting from beast that they assumed Kaden to be. This was a big mistake. Kaden had much greater ability to cast spells than any beast near his level.

Kaden tore open the hole in the shield and got in as rest of the shield shattered.

"Time for some modifications", Kaden thought as he tore open gliders mechanisms. "I'll add a link here between the glider power source and whatever remains of the shield. It will suck dry the fuel so its usually separate source, but that doesn't matter now."

The shield restarted before more spells could come in. The hunters seemed shocked watching Kaden do his thing.

"Then link it all to the engine", Kaden continued his modifications. "This will cause a mana feedback. The mana storage will explode soon. The shield will act as an extra charge." For a good measure, Kaden stuffed in quite a bit of his own mana. Each hit on the shield would increase it too. In fact, Kaden expected it to explode as soon as it received a large enough knock.

He wasn't done yet.

"I didn't think this would become useful", Kaden though as he pulled out Marwen's chain. It was somewhat difficult to control, but he was able to overpower it and send it towards the nearby glider. Then he forced it come closer.

"SHOOT IT!" The hunter leader was screaming. Things weren't going at all how he expected. A young phoenix was apparently crafting formations? Formation masters in general were extremely rare among Cari. It was obvious what was about to happen as the glider's system started to glow and the shield flicker. He wouldn't be able to continue the hunt alone with rest of the gliders in pieces. "CUT THE CHAIN!"

The gliders were continuing forward towards the ambush point where rest of the hunters were waiting.

"Chhh.. chdieee!" Kaden shouted as far as his voice allowed him. With the gliders close enough he retrieved the chain, beat his wings and flew off the gliders that were soon going to explode and crash into the hunter fortifications.

*KABOOOM*

The two gliders exploded. The fortifiactions were also distrupted as a hole was punched in whatever traps they had put along it. Kaden took the chance to fly past it. None were able to stop him.

-----

"What the hell is this phoenix?" The hunter leader cursed as he stopped his glider. There was no point continuing alone. The phoenix wouldn't stop to entertain him with a one on one fight. "It looks young and small. Yet, it casts spells and crafts formations? There was something wrong with it for sure."

"Shall we continue?" One of the hunters next him asked.

The leader shook his head. "Our trap is broken. Our gliders are damaged. Half of the people immediately ready to continue are dead." He spit on the ground. "In short, this is a mess. We bit something too big. Thats not a normal phoenix. Haha... to find an anomaly among so rare species. Are we lucky or unlucky? We will merely report this. Someone else can deal with it later, if it even returns to human territories in our lifetime."