Eolande and Rachel were stood in a large grassy plain. They were waiting for their designated general to arrive.
A few moments of silence passed by before the two could hear a thunderous sloshing sound. Looking to its origin, the girls spotted Sophie with a massive green slime next to her.
Eolande and Rachel watched on in shock as Sophie cut her own hand off since it was corroding extremely quickly. A blink of the eye later, and she was gone, leaving the two of them with the raging Emperor Slime.
"Eolande, do you know anything about this... monster?" Rachel asked as she cautiously watched the green blob froth around.
"Well," Eolande began preparing several spells, "I know that I'll be close to useless in this fight when compared to you. Nothing new. I can distract it quite a bit though."
"Your meaning?" Rachel was being uncommonly serious. Clearly, even she knew when her normal nervous and somewhat brash attitude wasn't appropriate.
"That there is an Emperor Slime, I think. I've never actually seen one before, so this could all be nonsense. They're weak to the elements, but that only applies to the gel surrounding them. Depending on its age, it could have anywhere from twenty to two-hundred cores. If we don't destroy those, then the thing will never be killed," Eolande explained.
Both she and Rachel thanked their lucky stars that the monster was still confused and busy wreaking havoc a few hundred meters away to notice the two of them. "Also, you saw how it destroyed Sophie's hand and how everything it touches dies, right?"
"Yeah," Rachel replied.
"Well, that means this thing evolved from an Acid Slime. I don't know as much about monsters as Swind and Lone do, but I'm pretty sure that's the hardest type of Slime to deal with." Eolande finished chanting her spells after she was done talking.
"So what's the battle plan?" Rachel asked her final question.
"I don't think we can kill this thing, but we can definitely keep it busy. You roast it like there's no tomorrow, and I'll try to ensnare and capture the cores when you make it vulnerable. Sound good?" Eolande said as she waved her wand grandly, enchanting the land, herself, Rachel and even their clothes.
"Sounds good," Rachel responded before her entire body turned into a mass of flames.
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"Where is this?" Itchy looked around in confusion. A moment ago she was with her friends, the next, she was punched very hard then she felt something touch her tail and she was suddenly in a different place. From what she could see, she was in a tight-walled cave of some sort.
"Hmm... How do I get out of here?" The Unhcegila coiled up her body and began to think very hard. A dangerous action for her.
It was then that a small girl whom Itchy recognised appeared out of thin air. She looked a bit roughed up, especially considering that one of her hands was missing and that the only thing stopping her from bleeding out was a small barrier green the exact same size as her wrist.
Sophie didn't have a very high Vigour stat, so the only way that she could minimize the damage from her severed hand was to seal the blood which was trying to escape her body by using her Barrier Magic.
"Ah, you're the girl who brought me away from the world tree! Spadie!" Itchy claimed as she nodded her head fervently.
Sophie gave the Unhcegila a dangerous look. "It's 'Sophie', and we told you that we'd kill you if we ever saw you again," her vicious side spat out.
"Ah, did you? I wasn't really paying much attention back then. It was raining so I couldn't really hear you, plus, I was really upset." Itchy seemed embarrassed. "Anyway, I guess I have to kill you now, huh? Where's the Nine-tails? He isn't hiding in here, is he?"
"Lone doesn't need to bother with the likes of you. We're more than enough to beat you!" Sophie was motivated.
She had brought Itchy to this cave on purpose. As soon as she saw the four generals, her more calculative and aggressive side had immediately known the best places to bring them all and the best people to fight each one, so she asked for Soph's permission to take over and went to work teleporting them. Of course, Clicker's ability hadn't told her much about the generals, but she could infer plenty on her own.
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If Itchy was a dragon of some sort like she appeared to be, then surely she would be disadvantaged in a tight cave like this where Sophie could teleport around freely.
Ideally, Sophie would have preferred if Itchy talked some more. The longer she spoke, the more time she was buying for the others to defeat her fellow generals and come to help her. However, Itchy just wanted to leave this place, so since this girl was standing in her way, she decided to attack and deal with the S-ranked girl first.
Itchy moved as fast as lightning and was upon her within a fraction of a second. Sophie could feel the swift movement of the large claws on Itchy's feet reaching towards her head.
"Huh? I missed?" Itchy looked down at her claws and saw that there was definitely blood on the ends of them, but Sophie's body was nowhere to be found.
Something extremely sharp slammed into Itchy's flank, making her scream out in pain. She whipped around and saw Sophie standing on an overhang in the cave as she created several barrier blades and continued to fire them towards Itchy. There was a small streak of blood coming out of her forehead.
This would be a battle of endurance. Could Sophie whittle down Itchy's defenses and kill her, or would she lose too much blood from all of the wounds she was bound to suffer during this exchange? Only time would tell.
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Ele'hunda was surprised at the fact that Sophie's teleportation hadn't made him feel nauseous in any way at all. Even for an XXX-ranker like himself, teleportation still left him wanting to spew his guts all over the floor.
Van, the Monarch Vampire, looked around with interest. "Fascinating. I have heard of innate abilities before, even some summoned heroes have extraordinary powers, but from my understanding, that human girl just teleported at least six times, maybe more, chantlessly and without any magic circles or much expenditure of mana points."
"She's a special one, eh?" Ele'hunda joked as he popped his neck and cracked his knuckles.
"Indeed. So much so that I wouldn't mind adding her to my collection. Then again, if that little trick of hers isn't bound to her soul, then there wouldn't be much point adding her to more than a drying rack, and subsequently, a wine glass. Human blood is far too fresh to pass up on the opportunity, you see," Van said with a big smile on his handsome face.
"I thought I could smell death about you." Ele'hunda spat on the ground. "Vampire, huh? What race? Elder? No, Arch?"
"Oh, how cute. I, my dear friend, am a Monarch Vampire. Van Gridslow Balosmaloth, at your service." Bending his body, Van performed a perfect ninety-degree bow.
"Oho? My service? In that case, do me a favour and get the fuck away from my tree." For perhaps the first time in several centuries, Ele'hunda swore. Lone's influence was certainly rubbing off on the old Elf.
"Ahahaha, you are quite the clown, aren't you, Elven King?" Van straightened his pose and pulled a tiny sack out of his waistcoat. "Do you know what this is?"
Ele'hunda prepared himself. He could tell that the conversation had ended. Like a flash, he disappeared and soon reappeared right next to Van. His fist rocketed towards the vampire, leaving no room to dodge.
A small smile crept up onto Van's face. "Tut tut tut. You shouldn't interrupt people when they're talking. It is very rude, you know?"
Ele'hunda watched as his fist went through Van's body and hit nothing. Turning around to the source of the voice he had heard a second ago, he saw Van was now twenty-meters away from him while still holding the small bag. Confusion filled Ele'hunda's mind.
"Oh, this parlour trick? Just a simple illusion, my friend. Fear not though, I am incomparably weaker than you are. I can tell just from that attack of yours. That's why I brought some friends along with me." With that said, Van held the bag by its bottom and let its content spill out onto the field.
"What the...?" Ele'hunda held his breath when he felt at least a thousand X-ranked signatures appear out of nowhere. A split-second later, his surroundings were filled with golems of all shapes and sizes, wielding various weapons and charging hundreds of different spells.
"Allow me to reintroduce myself," Van requested as he floated into the sky above Ele'hunda. "I am Van Gridslow Balosmaloth, general of the mighty and ancient Darkness Dragon, Ythmagobla, also known as the Graverobbing Creation Mage. Perhaps you've heard of me?"
Ele'hunda now know exactly why a few of these golems felt familiar to him. "You're the bastard that raids X-ranker, and only X-ranker, graves, but leaves their bodies undefiled aren't you?! You! How did you get into the tree's graveyard?!"
Van simply laughed and disappeared like smoke. He wasn't going to waste his time here. While he could never beat Ele'hunda in a fair fight, he didn't have to. A thousand X-rankers could easily hold up or even kill an XXX-ranker under the right circumstances, so Van set his sights elsewhere. His eyes could see a certain Foxkin sitting cross-legged a few miles away.
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In the Palace of Okur, at the heart of the Talso Empire, the Empress' nervousness was clear to see as she faced Tapper.
"Hmm..." The wrinkled and elderly man with a peculiar sun-headed staff stroked his chin as he looked into space aimlessly. "It isn't... quite time yet... It wouldn't... be a test if there... was no chance... of losing... Hmm..."
The Empress had no idea what Tapper was mumbling about, but she somehow found the courage within herself to ask him a very important question. "Sir Tapper... Why did you call off the Enhanced Unit just before our invasion?"
"Hmm?" Spinning his head around unnaturally, Tapper stared into the Empress' soul, seemingly. "There is... a person I am... interested in... within the regular... forces. It would greatly... anger me... were he to perish. Patience... You will... have your chance... kekekeke. Wait until... the elves have... bested the dragon."
'He thinks they can win?! I thought the point was to bring them to their knees? Who exactly is this person that even this madman values them? It certainly isn't the foxkin that he continues to spout on and on about. He only wishes to test that one, no?' The Empress was confused, and unfortunately for her, she would never get her deeply desired answers.