On each of the three sky sparrows, there would be a vulpera to check on the Griffins that were captured.
“Three males and seven females, Master!”
Once each was checked, the results were all sent to a Bearman together. The Bearman used his loud voice to repeat the same message to an intermediate priest.
The leading intermediate priest said joyfully, “The beastly god blesses us. We’ll head home now.”
The rest of the crew all screamed in excitement. They were finally allowed to go home. This was a very risky mission for them. Treading into the human world was nothing short of risking their lives. Besides, the objective of the mission was to attack the Griffin knight squad, which was supposed to be the strongest air force in one of the three existing human empires. If just one advanced priest managed to find them, they would’ve all been killed within an instance.
Once the crew finished packing up, the ten pace eagles returned to the back of the sky sparrows. They were supposed to be agile creatures, but the trip home was long and tiring. Long-distance travel was something for the sky sparrows to do. The orcs wanted to conserve the pace eagles’ stamina in case the humans were chasing after them.
While checking for the right direction, the intermediate orc priests jumped down from his pace eagle to the back of a sky sparrow. He took out a circle plate, activated it, and started sending messages to his fellow soldier that was somewhere else. That someone was at the platform over at Bahu Castle. When he opened his own circle plate, he could see a text that read, “We’ve killed them all. The mission is complete.”
“They’ve been killed! Our mission is completed!”
The intermediate orc priests shouted towards the four bearmen that were attacking Head Commander Dunmore. They were all very pleased with this news. While shouting all at the same time, their eyes started to become bloodshot. With every swing of their axes, they could smash out giant holes out of the ice wall generated in front of them.
Head Commander Dunmore cried to Prince Horace, “Your Highness, it’s been my greatest honor to have ever served you.”
The orcs were going on full strength. Head Commander Dunmore knew as much. His defense was enough to block the attack of two orcs. If he decided to go for a final push, he could probably manage to block against three, but that would still leave one to attack him and Prince Horace. He was at his limit now. There wasn’t much he could do after spending so much of his combat qi.
“My honor is my life!”
Head Commander Dunmore had no choice but to scream louder. It was a cry of desperation, which activated the fire qi hidden inside of him for his entire life. He had never used fire element combat qi before. If he was a little luckier, he might get the time to become a double-element head knight commander properly.
It was truly an unfortunate thing. Fire combat qi and ice combat qi were supposed to counter each other. Head Commander Dunmore was using both, and it completely disrupted the vital system inside of his body. All of his energy burst out uncontrollably, like fire on oil. He couldn’t even protect himself, let alone the prince that was behind him. The only thing he could do, so it seemed, was to use his shield to cover up Prince Horace.
Head Commander Dunmore focused his power of the Will to his front. He was a guardian knight, and his mission was to protect Prince Horace at all costs. Once he was too tired to fend on any longer, he was left with no choice but to withdraw his shield.
When the ice wall disappeared, the four bearmen warriors were left with a giant gap in front of them. Head Commander Dunmore was finally in their sight, and they quickly slashed towards him. Yet, something felt strange to them. They couldn’t sense the energy that was erupting inside the human they were attacking, but death, as they sensed, was very close.
The four bearmen wanted to retreat, but as experienced warriors themselves, they didn’t think that it was right to hold back a powerful attack that was already launched. Thus, they decided to press on. That’s when Head Commander Dunmore did the unthinkable. He threw his sword at the intermediate priest, and without any weapon, he ran towards the four bearmen that were going at him.
“Go to hell with me, you filthy animals!”
As though going for a hug, Head Commander Dunmore opened his arms and ran right towards the four bearmen warriors. When he was halfway, his body finally couldn’t take the energy that was bursting out of himself. Even his armor couldn’t withstand the impact of the explosion. Like blades, fragments of what he was wearing shot towards all directions. The bearmen were the first to notice the danger, but the giant bears they were riding were not fast enough to react.
And like that, the four bearmen were shot and sent flying towards the outside. It was the same for their mounts. They were all thrown away like toys. The platform was supposed to be a high altitude platform. It was about several tens of meters for the bearmen warriors to fall from the top. There was no chance they would survive this.
The intermediate orc priest had no idea that this would happen. Still, his “white bone armor” was powerful enough to block against the knight’s big sword and the shattered armor fragments that were coming at him. It was the explosion that he had a problem guarding. Even when he was just at the castle’s outer brim, he was still forced to take a few steps back.
Almost all the intermediate priests that participated this time were experienced soldiers. Instead of giving up, this one particular orc priest quickly summoned a skeleton before he was about to fall. This was a critical decision that saved his life. The skeleton took some of the shock waves for him and prevented him from going towards the very edge of the castle. When he was really about to fall, the skeleton grabbed his arm and threw him towards the sky.
As the intermediate priest was in midair, he took the sky sparrow control card and summoned his sky sparrow to catch him in time. The fall didn’t happen. Once the sky sparrow retrieved him, the sour look on his face was starting to look even worse. The skeleton he summoned was smashed into ashes, which damaged his power of the Will.
The intermediate orc priest stared at Prince Horace. Prince Horace was still under the protection of the shield. There was a dagger on his body. Blood kept on pouring out of him. At the same time, a window nearby was smashed open as another intermediate priest jumped out. A sky sparrow also caught him, and they both flew towards a higher altitude.
On the platform, Head Commander Dunmore’s shield was completely broken into pieces. Due to the impact of the shockwave, the dagger plunged into Prince Horace’s body. It didn’t go straight into his heart, but it did manage to do some very serious damage to him. As someone who had never been physical, he was very close to losing his own life.
Nevertheless, Prince Horace could still feel things. He could feel himself getting colder and colder, and eventually, he saw a white light that was appearing next to him. It was an intermediate wizard. He probably tried to come here as fast as he could, but he did realize that it was way too late.
As Prince Horace was still found to be alive, the intermediate wizard carefully took out a healing potion and used it. He didn’t dare to take the dagger out of Prince Horace. Once the effect of the potion wore off, that was when Prince Horace would most likely die.