Chapter 69: Factions
Gayle looked at the body of someone she once knew. While her company was less than pleasant, the sight of her corpse and blood on her hands still brought a nauseous feeling to Gayle’s stomach. This was someone she used to know, even if she was a lying cheat. Ending her life just felt more…personal.
Gayle pulled the sword out of the girl’s throat and a sea of blood leaked out, dying the ground red. From behind her, Conrad was walking towards the scene with a limp.
Conrad stared at her, wondering how she came out unscathed from the prior blast. All of those attacks happened to be fire based, and he knew that Gayle’s father was from Agni, but even he would have been a little roughed up from that combination of attacks. How was it then, that she came out unscathed? Whatever happened to the venom injected in her veins? Is she…actually physically stronger than me?
A moment of silence took place between the two, before Gayle spoke.
“So?”
“Every individual of the enemy party is confirmed to be dead.”
At that statement the girl nodded her head in grim silence, and the two walked back to their squad. Once they did, Gayle was welcomed to the absolutely exhausted members of her party. All of the backline was completely drained of energy, while the frontline suffered broken bones and torn muscles. The most unfortunate member was Dan, whose arm was almost completely cut off at the shoulder.
There was only an inch left until his arm was fully severed, but luckily the battle ended quickly, and the remaining members of the party worked together to stitch his arm back up. Luckily all bloodlines had a much faster healing rate than their normal human counterparts, especially the more physically inclined ones. The nerves of his arm and body would slowly reconnect as time passed on. Although he could not engage in combat for at least three months, it was better than completely losing his arm.
Of course, Gayle was not happy. It was because of her that her group had suffered. In fact, she was lucky that they didn’t perish because of her mistakes. The leader of the enemy group seemed to sense the danger coming off of her, and ordered his own backline to nuke her with a combination of attacks. At the very last moment, Gayle triggered a synthesis of both her owl and firelight illumination bloodlines, burning the venom within her veins and growing a certain affinity and resistance to fire.
The blast created a large area of smoke that allowed her to assassinate two individuals, and regroup with her team to carefully take down each remaining member. In the end of it all, she still had no idea why the enemy party intercepted them, nor who the mastermind that sent the group towards them even was.
Though soon she was going to have a chance to find out…
“...Prepare yourselves, people are coming.”
“Huh!?”
“What!?”
“We’re in no shape to fight.” Pane, the individual who turned into an twelve foot bear, said.
“Well…we can only hope they’re not here to battle.”
“They don’t seem to be united, so we can count our lucky stars.”
“Of the people coming towards us, there are four groups approaching us and they seem heavily guarded against each other.”
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“They were probably on their way towards the slave city too, until they heard the disturbance that happened here.”
“So what’s the plan?” Conrad said.
“Plan? Is there really a plan to get out of this mess?” Kina voiced her thoughts.
The girl was exhausted from the previous battle, and now that more people were coming she was increasingly frustrated, and deep down, she was afraid.
“We know from their movements that they aren’t allies, if we’re really lucky they’re enemies. That’s our ticket out of confrontation.”
“Observe them all. Notice the characteristics and traits that they have.”
“I will make the decision to ally ourselves with another group if necessary, even if we have to make an enemy out of another faction.”
“The first step is getting out of our situation to recover. The next step will come when we are more prepared.”
The group members listened to her reassuring words. Her unwavering confidence and calm despite the situation was what earned their respect and admiration in the first place.
“Should we get up and act like we’re ready to fight then? Show them we aren’t tired from the battle?”
“From the explosive blast, the scars of battle left, and the obvious corpses remaining…no.”
“Anyone with a bit of intelligence can tell we must have fought a hard battle. Even worse because we’re young, so they’ll assume we’re more tired than we should be.”
‘Though honestly they might be right…’
“They will know that we’re tired. We just have to show them that we aren’t easy.”
“From the traces of battle and our looks, they can assume that we’re young and talented. One of them might even be a draconic heir, and recruit us to serve under them.”
“That’s what we wanted, right?”
“But don’t we still have to pick the right one or we might die…”
“Enough questions. If there’s a sensory type with incredible hearing, they can hear our conversation from miles away.”
“Look sharp. Don’t look aggressive, but don’t look weak and submissive either.”
“Uhh, look like Pane on any given day.”
The rest of the squad members looked at the twelve foot bear who held a confused expression on his face, before they tried their best to look tough without trying.
“Get ready. The first group is already coming, prepare yourselves.”
…
From the distance, a group consisting of three hundred individuals approached. The sheer amount of people caused some of the group members to waver, but immediately they noticed that most of them were mundane humans. A hundred of them served as utility members and workers. Yet another hundred of them…were beautiful women in scantily clad clothing.
‘Well…at least I can easily tell their character by the way they handle their convoy…’
In the middle of the horses and carriages were twenty slave men holding up a large palanquin, and riding inside were two individuals. A young man who had spiky white hair and handsome features, and a woman with her mouth and nose covered by an elegant mask. Gayle locked eyes with the woman from a tremendous distance away, and judging by her eagle-like eyes it was safe to assume she was the individual commanding the previous enemy party.
This…put them in a terrible situation. Gayle was sure that they were coming towards them exactly because her group had wiped out their squad.
The white haired young man and eagle eyed woman were already a major threat, but additionally the remaining eighty members of that group consisted of warriors. All at either novice or adept level, the same level that most of her group members were at. The difference however was that they were all much older than her squad, and much less talented. In a few years she believed that every member of her group would surpass them…but that was if they were given the chance to grow at all.
Luckily another group was approaching from the opposite direction of them. They seemed to be unafraid, and even antagonistic of the white haired man and eagle eyed woman.
Their numbers were much less, yet they looked much, much more menacing. There were around forty of them and half consisted of tall and strong human beings, who’s skin held traces of rock and stone. The other half, consisted of literal lifeforms made out of stone and metal. Many of them could be called stone elementals, or rock golems. Some however, were made out of metal itself, proving to be even more hardy and dangerous. The idea of such a creature smashing all that weight down on soft flesh was less than ideal.
The whole group was all very imposing but the thing at the very back of their faction was beyond monstrous. One might mistake him for a giant, but his gray skin and terribly large stature was much more than that. The being was young, only around twenty years old, but he was already eighty feet tall. As he grew older and older, he might even be able to touch the clouds one day. He…was a titan.
But…why was such a person here? Each titan was a strategic asset of the earthern hearts, and here he was carrying a large amount of supplies on his back like a pack mule.
That was when Gayle looked at the very front of the convoy. In front of the stone rhinos and other metallic beasts whose name she did not know, was a single individual wearing a pristine, priestess-like hood. Unlike the white haired man and the eagle eyed girl, this individual of royalty walked on her own two feet.
As Gayle observed her more and more, she was increasingly shocked at the identity of the being before her.
Noticing her gaze, the woman took off her hood and smiled. Everyone was presented to the display of a beautiful woman made out of ocean stone, crystal, and gems. Unlike the others, beautiful green moss and other such vegetation grew all over her, and just like Eok she was teeming with life and vibrancy. Gemstones of ruby were embedded in her elbows and knees, her eyes were made of beautiful emerald and a single diamond laid in her chest.
While it was a strange sight, the woman was majestically beautiful, like a masterpiece of nature.
On Gayle’s face, her mouth opened wide in an expression of pure shock and disbelief.
‘The crystal daughter!?’