Ebony and Ning Xin returned to reinforce the others, but they were already finishing up.

"Anyone injured?" The Grand Water Mage draped in a dark blue robe asked.

She was a healer.

The three Grandmaster warriors that fought the stronger Earthfly had slightly deeper cuts, so she tended to them. The others only had light cuts and bruises at best.

They led the way to the silent fight in a deep crater that looked as if a meteor had hit the ground.

He could see a truck-sized Earthfly that was sliced through the centre. It was different; other than its smaller size, it had a thick brown shell that was covered in black scorch marks. The thin, flat blades near it should’ve been its wings. They looked sharp.

A plated man the size of a huge beastman was taking on two of the same type of Earthfly. Ebony could barely follow their forms and figures, despite their size.

"Stay away!" A lady’s voice reached the top of the crater where they were standing.

The dishevelled fire mage was supporting the warrior; he had stopped long enough for Ebony to spot a missing arm. Freshly missing, the fire mage was holding on to it. The water mage who was also a healer, noticed that before he did and was in the middle of dashing down when she heard the fire mage’s warning

None of the other Grandmasters beside him moved to reinforce the duo. The ranged fighters didn’t even dare to help and draw the attention of the two fierce-looking Earthfly. It wasn’t a fight they could intervene in.

Ebony couldn't Identify all the Grandmasters present, but the dual sword wielder could. The dozen people he was standing with were around 310 to 330. The single-armed warrior was 348, and the grand fire mage in the air was 345. While the oddest frame in the crater was a man dressed in black at level 367, having his hand placed on the head of a light brown Earthfly, the size of a family car.

Neither the man nor the insect queen were moving.

The rogue was sweating, trying to focus as best he could while the royal guards were gunning for him only to be held back by the warrior and fire mage.

He wasn’t winning the exchange as the wings of the queen were beginning to twitch.

"We gotta support them somehow." Ric said.

"How? We’re just going to distract them and break the bal-ug!" The water mage was pulled aside violently.

"They noticed us!"

All of them have already backed off a great distance

Fortunately, the healer was saved from an attack that cut deep into the crater and passed them.

The scream that followed wasn’t pleasant to hear. The single-armed warrior took a deep gash that cut right into his shoulder; his armour probably saved him from being sliced completely through. He had interrupted the royal guards' attack to save them.

"Boss!" The human warrior with the sword and shield called out.

The other royal guard didn’t let the opportunity presented by the warrior who fell on his back go. It went for the swiftest charge it could, an earth-infused stab with a sharpened earth head.

Ebony wasn’t sure if he could make it in time, but he had sent a stream of his mana to the warrior and fire mage before they dodged the unseen attack.

The warrior’s body didn’t reject his mana, and he gave him an augmentation of agility and strength for whatever it was worth. His mana came into contact right before the Earthfly smashed down; they didn’t see him dodge, but Ebony could sense through the mana that he sent into the Grandmaster warrior that he managed to roll away by the skin of his teeth, saving his life.

The mage, on the other hand, looked at him when his mana touched her mana infused body. He was unsure if she could tell he was trying to help and not harm her or if she noticed the effects. She let his mana through after a moment of hesitation. He buffed her Intelligence. Wisdom would be useless for her since she was flying, and others wouldn’t be able to recover mana while casting, unlike him.

It wasn’t much, but she noticed a slight difference.

The effect was small, as her fire magic did little more than give the Earthfly a new paint job. Ning Xin realised that from the start.

The three warriors saw that their ‘boss’ was still alive and dove in to save him, no longer caring about their own safety. The water mage did the same, she didn’t appear to be able to fly.

Ning Xin was about to charge in as well, but not before he could pull her back.

"She’s breaking free." His voice was heard by every single one, including a scout hiding some distance away.

The wings of the insect queen were vibrating faster and faster.

The two of them didn’t say a word to each other but burst for the queen at the same time. They weren’t even a match for the royal guards, and there was little chance they could even escape from something that appeared way scarier.

The royal guards wanted to block their path, but Ric showered them with arrows that pestered them, then a gush of water made the insects' earthen protection wet and heavy. Buying enough time for Ebony to skid to the left of the queen while Ning Xin stopped by her right.

He saw the level 367 Grand Rogue’s eyes locked tightly.

They put their hands on the barely moving queen, and he unleashed his domain that only reached him and the queen. She sank deeper into the ground. His ice couldn’t even dig an inch in; he controlled their burst into frost flames, hoping it wouldn’t knock the Grandmaster out of focus with whatever magic he was using.

Ning Xin lashed out at whatever vitals she could poke at, but her full powered thrust didn’t even scratch the queen’s open eyeballs. She continued trying till she saw no difference even after three consecutive Rampaging Mortal’s Pulses and a thousand thrusts that she was free to build up.

She copied him, but instead of putting her hands on the queen, she squeezed both her blades into the queen's mouth. Her blades sparked and burned.

Ebony tried his best to attach a thread of mana to everyone to enhance them with Battle Song. He didn't really need to play a song, but the different vibrations for different augmentations produced different sounds. Now that he had condensed it into a thread of mana, it wouldn’t attract attention from people or monsters.

It wasn’t much help, but better than nothing.

They heard another scream from the ongoing battle with the royal guard, but he knew it wasn’t a fatal blow to whoever it was with his senses.

His flames only just managed to dig through unbelievably thick earth mana. The queen was mostly encased in ice, but he knew it wasn’t even inhibited by his ice, but rather by the rogue’s efforts.

He managed to stop its wings from flapping, but once his flames crawled onto the queen’s actual body, the layer of ice he built shattered, and the rogue coughed up enough blood to splash onto Ning Xin. The queen Earthfly screeched. Her opened mouth let the flames and lightning mana burst out, but Ning Xin was in complete control, so it didn’t harm her or the rogue.

He doubled down with the ice mana in his robe and Icicle, recreating the layer of ice that was glowing underneath with his flames eating into the struggling queen.

They kept the status quo, but the rogue’s complexion wasn’t looking great. Ebony thought it would be a good idea to smash violent mana vibrations into the queen’s head, but his mana wasn’t penetrating her skin or whatever outer shell she was made of. He only shattered the frozen earthen layer.

He stretched his arm out to Ning Xin with his sleeves rolled up, the rogue’s eyes still locked tight.

Ning Xin’s lower mask vanished and she took a large bite. He was softened up since he was losing mana extremely fast, even with the small range of his domain. She drank a bit of his blood and her heart stopped beating.

His Glacial Models, which were helping with the fight against the royal guards were completely shattered, but the blocks of ice flew toward and above him. Ning Xin dragged out whatever mana she had and filled the formed orb up with flames.

The rogue coughed up even more blood and opened his eyes.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Ebony stuffed the compressed bomb into the queen’s open mouth, dragged the rogue with gravity repelling him and Threading Stride to push him further.

Ning Xin managed to shatter the flimsy, frozen wings before flashing backwards. That was the only part she could damage, even after all her strengthening.

The queen broke free from her imprisonment and was clearly aware of something being stuffed into her mouth. She didn’t manage to spit the ball out.

‘Hot damn.’ He couldn’t help but be a little surprised.

The explosion they expected didn’t come.

The queen’s lower jaw came off.

That was it.

At most, some of her internals were burned. But the queen was spasming a little, and he could only guess that Ning Xin’s infusion of lightning and his frost flames that were still digging into the queen were doing something.

"Run…" The man in his grasp weakly said.

None of them needed his reminder, as everyone was on the move already.

Ebony didn’t think his mana amplification for everyone would've played such a large part. The group of weaker Grandmasters managed to kill one of the royal guards. He attributed it to the water mage. She had drowned one of the royal guards in a large bubble of water and dove in to fight it inside her water bubble. He even thought it was similar to his domain.

The royal guard had been weighed down by its own earth armour that got wet. The water mage still couldn’t match the tough bug and escaped her own bubble within seconds, but the fire mage backed her up, and they boiled the poor bug to death.

The close-range fighters had a very tough time with the other royal guard, despite so many of them ganging up on the big bug. It was a miracle that he didn’t see anyone dead. Ric was missing; he ran off into the distance right after his first attack.

The insect queen broke free right after one of the two remaining royal guards got boiled to death; he had gotten partial experience. Probably from his assistance in reinforcing them with his sound magic and his Glacial Model’s short exchange.

The last guard didn’t take the chance to attack their backs but instead retreated to its queen’s side instead.

The queen didn’t attack immediately, disoriented from losing her jaw and expelling the cold that was getting deeper into her.

"Great job with the wings!" The heavily plated dying warrior with a missing arm and his other shoulder cut almost halfway down had a resoundingly hearty voice. He was getting piggybacked by his party member with the water mage healer right behind, reattaching his arm.

An earth shaking screech pulled all their attention away. It was clearly one filled with rage and not fear.

"Urg…you jinx." The high-level rogue shook his head, it was still throbbing with pain.

"Uh oh." The voice surprisingly came from Ebony.

Ning Xin couldn’t help but look back when she saw him glancing back.

"Scatter!" Someone shouted.

Behind them was the queen having her larger companion holding her up and acting as her wings.

The royal guard dive-bombed them with an even greater speed, using its queen as a payload.

They had created an immense distance but it seemed almost pointless as they would catch up in the next few seconds.

❅❅❅

"Bon! Where are you!?" Ric urgently yelled into his bracelet. He had left at his top speed the instant the battle began.

"ELL!" Ric cursed when he got no reply.

"Baron, follow me! I know his last location." Thomas wasn’t far away.

He was glad he sent his fastest scouts on this mission.

"What’s the plan sir?" Thomas knew that the situation with the Earthflies was far from ideal.

Ric scoffed.

"We make it a battle between queens." He took another swig from his waterskin.

"...I better get a pay raise sir!" Thomas broke out of stunned silence, looking straight into Ric’s eyes.

They had a good laugh.

It didn’t take too long before they knew why Bon picked up but didn’t speak. He was just about to get discovered by the queen he was keeping his eye on. Ric must have spoken too loud and drew the queen’s attention to Bon’s hidden location.

Ric pushed Thomas into the vegetation, using a skill he didn’t like to use. He charged mana into his bow and an arrow that glowed so fast that some mages might not be able to keep up with it.

It definitely caught the bug's attention when it exploded in its face.

"Heh, catch me little bugger." Ric taunted, chugging down the rest of his alcohol.

He took something out of a pouch by his hips and threw it at the queen. Rare paralysing powder.

His arrows and attacks would just bounce off.

He had the second most exciting race of his life with the inhibited queen-ranked insect that wasn’t capable of flight. It didn’t care about the environment and tore down everything in its path.

Another leap brought him into the open, where he saw all the freelancers. He smiled at his incredible timing and how his plan seemed to have fallen into place.

His follower leapt after him and crashed into the Earthfly queen that was in the middle of a similar chase.

"Am I too late?"

❅❅❅

"So you didn’t run after all!"

The man carrying the one armed warrior couldn’t move away from the queen’s flight path in time and was crying with joy; that had been too close for comfort.

"Time to go h-" Ric was interrupted by his ringing bracelet. He reluctantly probed it with mana to pick up the call.

"Sir!" Another one of his scouts yelled.

"What now?" Ric wanted to take another sip but he ran out.

"Gorpede is on the move! Towards Hata! Together with flood totas!" His scout didn’t seem to be worried about raising his volume.

All of them cursed except for Ebony, Ning Xin, and the one-armed warrior who had his arm reattached on the move. Ric connected his callstone with all his scouts and got them to retreat.

"Who’s Gorpede?" Ebony had to ask.

"Who? Just the king of Vermin paradise!"

"What kind of insect is it?"

"Huh? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a gerpede?"

‘Gerpede…oh, centipedes. Wait…no way right?’ Ebony was initially a little dumbfounded by the name they had for centipedes, but if he were to translate a gor to length, the monster was literally called "kilometrepede"

"You’re telling me it’s a gigantic gerpede."

"You tell me, that wave of flood totas earlier? It would be a matter of less than five bites for the Gorpede. And, it’s a bona fide king-class monster of levels unknown not these figurative 'queens'."

"And that thing is also running away from something?" Ebony curiously asked.

Apart from the battle between the giant beetle and the fly, their escape was filled with silence. The beetle seemed to be losing. It must have been considerably weaker if it couldn’t win a fight against a wounded Earthfly queen.

A soft vibration came from Ric’s bracelet again.

"What now!" Ric got snappy after he picked up.

"Baron Ric, uhm…" Ric recognised the voice, it wasn’t one of his scouts but one from his town.

Ric took a deep breath, calming down as he dodged stray earth projectiles from behind.

"Speak."

"Th-the king is here!" His trustworthy assistant reported

"WHAT! I just barely got the report that Gorpede is on the move, and you’re telling me he reached Hata!?" Shellshocked would be an understatement; Gorpede was far deeper in Vermin Paradise. With its outrageous size, there was no way none of them realised that it bypassed them. The whole forest would quake even from a distance, and they haven’t felt anything of the sort, so they should still have plenty of time.

"What? Sir, I don’t underst- gorpede is on the move!?"

Ric then heard his assistant talking to someone else, but it was too soft for him to make out the words clearly.

"Who were you talking to? No, more importantly, you weren’t talking about Gorpede?" Ric’s stress levels were already high; he didn’t need additional confusion.

Ebony, on the other hand, recoiled when something obliterated his mana perception. Obliterated, his perception of mana got wiped out by something that passed by them from the front.

"Hmm?" A deep voice that wasn’t from any of those present echoed.

For some reason, all of them stopped running at the same time.

There just wasn’t a need to anymore because the loud clashes between two queens disappeared.

"Madam Veronica’s granddaughter?" The one who spoke had a similar build to Ebony, just slightly taller. It was a man with dark pink hair and even darker eye circles—a man with a face too handsome to be human.

It was a face everyone present recognised, except maybe Ning Xin.

‘Barrier king.’ Ebony had seen the unbelievably handsome face a few times on statues. He could see some resemblance between Hector and him. That didn’t really matter; his mana perception came up blank. He would’ve felt more blind than when he was actually blind if it weren't for the fact that he could still sense gravitational waves.

There was a film around the barrier king that made it such that gravitational waves didn’t land on him. If Ebony still had his mana perception, he would be able to tell that it was the barrier king’s magic body.

"Who are you?" Ning Xin had her hands on her blades.

Ric was already on one knee, together with the other Grandmasters, injured or not

"The Empire’s King." Ebony sent a thread of mana into her ears and she tensed up even more.

"Here’s a little meeting gift." The man tossed them a black ball.

Ebony caught in on her behalf when he sensed the thick gravity mana it contained. The ball weighed a couple tons even though it was the size of a walnut.

He knew what it was.

The Earthfly queen, her royal guard and the beetle queen. This compressed ball of flesh was everything that was left of them.

‘How did he squash all of them into a…flesh ball? Barrier magic? A simple compression?’ Ebony could make some guesses, but none of them saw what happened. They were simply running; they didn’t even have time to blink and this ball was all that was left.

‘And he's gone.’

With the weight off all their shoulders’, they stood up and slowly made their way back to Hata town. Their work here was done.