The three groups left the facility and moved along the long path, leading them out of this part of the labyrinth. This branch of the place was very long, and it was one of the reasons the Shadow Talons were worried about this operation. It would take them some time to reach a crossroads, or any place where the path would split. After almost an hour of travel, they were just a few hundred of meters away when a group of humans appeared. Once they saw the Alliance members, they attacked without even saying anything. However, both the Shadow Talons and the Harmony Guardians replied in kind.

The group of humans was somewhat large, having about 10 people. That would make them have a one-on-one match against the alliance members. Or so they thought. Leo and his group were in the center, being protected by the others, since the hunter refused to stay away from his uncle and the rest of his team insisted on staying by his side. From the outside looking in, it made it seem as if they were prisoners that had been captured. Even so, that group of four humans and one giant rain frog didn’t participate in the fight. They focused on protecting Marco.

Roan was the first to reach the reinforcements, swinging his double hand axes at their tights. The first human failed to see that coming and a large gash appeared on his leg, but the second one tried to block the blow. When their weapons met, the woman’s arms were flung backwards violently. Just the impact was almost enough to take her shoulder out of its socket.

Right behind that was Flint, using the exoarmor to get closer. He slammed his fist against a tower shield being held by a man in the frontline. A loud ringing sound echoed as the metal of his gauntlet clashed against the human defenses. Without moving his arm, the pistons on the dwarf’s armor triggered, piercing through the shield and sending the one holding it flying backwards with a mechanical fist.

Using the now broken metal of the aegis destroyed by Flint as a step, Hera jumped above the humans, landing in the middle of the group. In her hands, a pair of rare venomous chackrams appeared at the same time Pyro and Clay were summoned. The tail spike on her tail and the chain whip mid swing. The trio spun around, slashing at all the humans nearby before she called the rest of the court behind the group.

The towering forms of Livy, Lurize, blocked the human escape route as Vulcan jumped and started kicking everyone. The large claws in his feet working to rip their armor to shreds. Anyone who got close to the kangaroo would face the heavy hammer that was on his hand. Viper and Crimson were nowhere to be seen. If anyone doubted their presence, a sudden appearance of five blood red claws of energy that bisected one of the humans was more than enough to confirm their participation. Storm, Glacia, Shadow, and Sun were also fighting, but they were on the less flashy side of things. They were not using any skills or powers, only going for the kill with the edge of their blades. Robin and Twiggy were floating above everyone. The tiara continuously behaved as the general, telling everyone where the enemies came from and where they should aim while the bowblade focused on interrupting any projectile that came from the humans.

Skyler and Vash stood back, only sending spells or buffs to their team to serve as support. Neria, on the other hand, never even glanced up from Marco. She was completely focused on healing him and trying her best to at least keep his condition steady. The moment the humans appeared, she knew they were no match for the Harmony Guardians, not now. After power leveling, they were no longer just a random team that was going on missions, but now an elite force that few could pose a threat to.

“What happened to her?” Leo gasped as he watched Hera cut the throat of a man who go close. She spun around and continued for an attack against someone else, not even stopping to confirm if her first target was dead.

“A lot,” Neria replied as she was finally able to protect Marco’s lungs from the outside air.

From what she could tell, the man spent years in some place where oxygen was scarce. That forced his body to pull much more air than it was used to, even his lungs grew to accommodate more air. Because of that, now that he was in a place with abundant oxygen, his body was pulling more than it should have . Without proper care, he would quickly be affected by oxygen poisoning. If the Triton ignored that, the flood of symptoms that would follow would hinder anything else she tried to do.

Leo glanced at Neria, “She was such a sweet girl. She could fight monsters, sure, but people… I remember when she had to kill someone to defend herself and that almost broke her.”

“She still is very sweet. In my opinion, at least,” Neria used another spell to scan for the other issues with Marco. There were so many that she didn’t even know where to start. He was severely dehydrated, but at the same time, had signs of overhydration as she noticed pockets of water inside his body. But those were old and stale. The best way to go about it would be to let him sweat, but it seemed like there was something wrong with his Eccrine glands, or even worse, his nervous system. He was burning up but wasn’t sweating, “Fuck. Why didn’t you bring a healer?” Neria groaned. There was too much for her to do at once and she couldn’t focus on solving the problems.

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“I’m a healer. Well, explorer with the healer role,” the woman with tight leather armor and a pair of daggers said.

The triton turned to the woman, “What’s you name and level?”

“Sophia, level 45. Healer was the first role I got, so it’s the one I know the best,” the woman replied, almost as if she was talking to a drill sergeant.

Neria turned back to Marco and continued speaking, “Keep his temperature at 35 to 36 Celsius. Ideally close to 36. He is frying so aim for lower so his core will cool too. If you feel you can do more after five minutes, tell me. This is a marathon, not a sprint, make sure you can hold that for as long as we need.”

“Yes ma’am,” Sophia replied, and quickly cast a spell. It was very different from what Neria was doing. The triton was controlling the temperature of the water inside Marco’s body while Sophia was covering him in a layer of cooled air.

“Anyway, you asked about what happened to her. Ask her about it. It’s not my place to say, but she told us about you and Tiger. How she helped the two of you connect,” the triton shifted her attention to the pockets of water inside Marco’s body. She carefully controlled them in a trickle, removing it by going through his pores. Only someone with an exceptional control over liquids could do something like that, and luckily, Neria was that someone.

“She did?” Leo glanced back at the fight. Only one of the humans remained, and Roan executed her without hesitation. The Harmony Guardians and the Shadow Talons quickly went through the humans belongings. Checking if they had any good weapons or useful items and grabbing all their tablets. Everything they decided to take was placed inside a box made by Flint that would stop signals from getting out.

“Yes,” Neria glanced up and asked, “Are you done?”

“Yeah! We are just deciding what to do with the bodies,” Skyler replied.

“Let’s just toss them in the tall vegetation. Best-case scenario, they vanish forever. If not, they will pop out here in a few minutes. Either way, we will be gone,” Liraelle suggested.

Everyone looked at each other, and once they realized no one had a better idea, they went with it. Pushing the bodies to the side so Tiger and the gurney could pass by without much trouble. They continued moving, this time, Paige, the human mage that came with Leo, took the lead to point to the right direction. It took the group a good four hours to get there. During that time, more human reinforcements came along and triggered an alarm loud enough to be heard throughout the entire room. At a couple of different points, they also heard shouting from the opposite wall, but thanks to the labyrinth, they were able to continue moving without meeting anyone else.

Hera was constantly watching the map to see where they were. And once Paige said their destination was close, the Ophidianite felt her heart skip a beat. They were very close to where Asterion marked something on her treasure map. And everyone was tired. If they found a safe place to rest, she could take a moment to do some actual exploring to find whatever the guide told her to find. They ended up passing directly on top of the mark on her map, but she couldn’t see anything. Only the grass and the green cornfields on either side. As a last attempt, she even sent her court inside the walls of vegetation, but to no avail. There was nothing to be found. Sending Viper into the sky also gave them no information, not related to what Asterion told her, anyway. Instead, once the Spymaster in his dagger form broke through the top of the walls, he was able to see some humans flying around. They would dive inside random areas before coming back up. It was clearly a faster way to search for them, even if it would be at the cost of their numbers.

“Shit. The humans are flying above the grass. They check an area, fly up and go to the next wall,” Hera told everyone.

“How close are they?” Flint asked.

“They are far away for now, but they are moving fast. Viper wasn’t seen because of the hidden frontal screen. We need to be careful not to do anything that would show beyond the illusion,” Hera continued.

“That’s fine,” Paige spoke up, We are close to the doorway. Just a couple more minutes,” she glanced at Marco, “But the gurney might be an issue.”

“Do you mean to cross to the next room?” Syrinx asked.

“That won’t matter. The gurney is like a small vehicle. If someone is on top, they just move together. It’s the path to get there. We are going underground and there is a very narrow curve,” Sophia explained.

“I do have a couple of spells to move rock and dirt, but I use them more to make camp. I don’t know if it will work there,” Fernando, the archer of Leo’s team, added.

“I have some too, we can figure something out. Worst case,” Hera turned to Flint, “Can you remake the gurney? If you use it for the materials.”

The dwarf frowned, “Not one like that one. I can make something to carry him, and the materials will help, but it won’t be as mobile.”

“I thought you were a crafter?” Paige gasped.

“I make weapons and armor, not beds. That’s a completely different thing,” Flint huffed.

“How about you, Hera? Your dad had a mattress store, right?” Leo turned to the Empress.

The question made her pause, “Yeah… and I do know he made some of the bed frames by hand. But I never tried to make one. But now I think I should.”

“Either way, we have options if we can’t take the gurney along. Let’s just move,” Neria had fixed some of the bigger issues and there was no excess water inside Marco anymore. But he was still far from being well. His bones were too weak, and his skin too thin. Anything could become a problem and she was sure that if he was wounded in any way, the infection that would follow would be beyond her abilities. Part of her couldn’t even believe this man was still alive. It showed an enormous amount of resilience, or a very cruel individual who knew exactly how much they could push before someone broke. Neria hoped that Marco was simply this strong willed. If not, she prayed she would never meet the person responsible for the man’s state.