Chapter 16

After Aldrin left the camp a few moments later there was a great explosion within the fortress, the warriors battling with the orcs outside barely noticed anything as the loud rage of war prevented them from paying attention to anything outside their immediate environment but a certain figure noticed it.

Sitting within a tent in the temporary camp was a middle aged figure, he suddenly lifted his face and glanced in a certain direction, a moment later the orc that were swarming out like a broken dam suddenly began to retreat into the forest like an ebbing tide.

“Wait when did the kid leave this place?” The middle aged figure suddenly called out in surprise before stepping out of the tent. Amara who was still resting was startled into alertness

“Where is your young master?” The figure asked

“Commander is….” She looked around before trailing away into silence, ‘when did he leave?’ she couldn’t help but wonder in awe as she hadn’t noticed him leaving at all making him seem like he just suddenly disappeared

“That brat, did he use a concealment scroll or artefact?” The middle-aged man grumbled to himself in slight displeasure

“You come with me.” He said and before Amara could react she felt his palm land on her shoulder as a strange force permeated through her body and off they went into the air. 

Amara closed her eyes from fear but after a moment she couldn’t help but open it out of curiosity only to see the earth speeding below them, she looked around and could help but be a bit marvelled at the view from a height, soon they reached the position where the warriors were battling the orcs or rather massacring the rapidly retreating orcs.

“What’s going on?” Amara couldn’t help but ask, orc weren’t known to be very smart, retreating en-mass like this only meant something had happened.

“That brat has caused a commotion inside the fortress.” The middle-aged man replied with a weird smile.

“Everyone commander is in the fortress, attack with all you’ve got, destroy the orcs.” Kane’s suddenly roared boosting his voice so all could hear it, they were about to run out of time for using the bloodline formation but with the little time they had left they began to rampage with even more ferocity, their aura and bearing increased dramatically as they transformed into a gigantic meat grinder that mowed down the orcs, with the blood dragon aiding them it was just too exaggerated.

“Don’t tell me he went to destroy the teleportation circuit on his own?” Amara said with a gasp

“We need to go help him out.” She quickly added

“Don’t worry he doesn’t need our help, he has already destroyed the circuit.” The middle-aged man said as he stared at a certain direction, Amara wanted to argue but when remembering that the person was currently flying in the air and while Masters were capable of flight only grandmaster were capable of flying with such ease and speed at which the middle aged man flew and thus she kept mute afraid to offend such a figure otherwise it would be easy for her to die without leaving behind a trace.

Due to the concentration of the Orcs in one location killing them en-masse was pretty easy and it was even easier since the Orcs weren’t fighting back but after about a minute the blood dragon exploded into a bloody mist and all the warrior felt their blood flow backwards, the bloodline formation had exhausted its time limit, the stronger ones were able to manage but same couldn’t be said for the others.

Kane and the other team leaders glanced at each other for a brief moment.

“Everyone regroup and take a moment to rest.” Kane gave an order and the warriors regrouped into a tight formation before taking a breather, while Kane looked at the fortress that was just in front of them now and let out a sigh.

‘I hope you’re alright commander.’ He thought to himself. He initially had the urge to keep pushing the men to charge through despite their weakened state but upon remembering the initial order of the commander to retreat he had a rethink, ‘the commander is probably not in high danger’ he thought to himself before ordering the men to take a brief rest, pushing them forward when in a weakened state would only lead to the men sacrificing their lives pointlessly if that was the case and the repercussion of that wasn’t something he could bear even if he had ten lives.

“That one has some brains.” The middle-aged man in the sky said and Amara couldn’t help but furrow her brows, while it was true that after using their bloodline power they would enter a state of weakness but weren’t they supposed to put their lives on the line to save the commander, seeing her confusion the middle-aged man couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Do you think that brat is an idiot who would do stupid things and act impulsively?” He suddenly asked and Amara cocked her head slightly to the side, she wasn’t very familiar with him and despite all the bad things being said about him it all revolved around his inability to use zen, no one had ever mentioned anything about him being stupid or impulsive rather there were even some word of praise about his intelligence and resourcefulness.

“No.” She replied while shaking her head

“Then why do you think he would be in danger, of him to have headed in there on his own he must have his own plans, we going in would only obstruct him, I even believe he must have ordered his men to retreat but they’re currently acting on their own.” He replied and Amara came to a sudden realization.

Most of the warriors possessed revitalizing and healing potions in their arsenal so after five minutes of resting and under the halo of these potions they were up and ready to go again, after a quick meeting amongst the team leaders they charged through the gates of the fortress and began to kill the orcs with utmost efficiency but as they proceed further they encountered swathes of dead orcs which left them stunned as the team leaders couldn’t help but smile wryly.

Soon enough they cleared the remnant orcs within the fortress and their goal was completed but they still couldn’t find the commander, they tried getting to him through the communication device but couldn’t get through, after a while someone discovered the temple and the portal that was swirling within it and alerted the others, just as they were gathered within it contemplating what to do, the middle-aged man flew in with Amara.

Seeing someone fly in they were all at alert but were hesitant to fire as he was holding one of their comrades hostage, seeing their hostile looks Amara quickly explained to diffuse the tension only then did the team leaders discover that the figure was quite familiar, although before now he was always wearing a mask, discovering his true identity as a grandmaster they couldn’t help but feel a chill run down their spines.

“Great sir, we have a feeling that the commander has passed through this portal as that’s the only explanation on why we can’t find him anywhere.” Kane reported as the grandmaster landed in front of the portal, he studied the stabilizing devices that were set all around the portal and nodded in agreement.

“Yes, he’s inside.”

“Then we should go inside and lend him a hand, he might be in danger.” Jon, one of the team leaders suddenly said but the grandmaster raised a palm

“If he needed your help he would have waited for you to get here, we’ll wait for him for a while.” He said but was feeling a little displeased inside, the original reason why he was on this mission was to explore the demiplane since sometimes demiplanes would contain some powerful entities within it but now Aldrin had obviously boycotted him and chose to explore it on his own. 

‘I’ll let you suffer a bit inside, then you’ll learn not to look down on your elders.’ He thought to himself, but perhaps if he knew Aldrin was currently monopolizing several spirit essences he would regret not charging in immediately and having a share of the pie probably losing out on his only chance to ever become a supreme master. 

But after waiting for about an hour without any movement from within the portal everyone finally lost patience and the grandmaster chose to check out what was beyond the portal, no one had any dispute with that since he was a bona-fide grandmaster, his strength alone was more than all of theirs combined.

The middle-aged man stepped through the portal and a moment later the view before him changed and he was standing within a dark ruin reminiscent of an ancient battlefield, the crimson moon in the sky seemed to radiate bloodthirst which permeated the air.

Barely a few moment had passed since he appeared in this demiplane when suddenly the earth began to rumble as though something was awakening, before he could react or figure out what was happening the bones on the ground began to rise and assemble into undead skeletons leaving him quite perplexed.

‘Why are these things just awakening, didn’t that brat come into this place?’ he couldn’t help but wonder to himself with a slight frown, the skeletons in front of him completely assembled but he didn’t even bother with them, his aura washed over like a tide completely crushing them to powder, he levitated into the air and what he saw shocked him lightly, there was an endless swarm of skeletons for as long as the eye could see, it was as though his appearance had triggered the awakening of the entire plane.

“Wait, the concealing artefact, could it have made him move unhindered in here, that kid is sure as meticulous as they come, I wonder who’s better between him and Kael in this aspect.” He muttered to himself as he flew along ignoring the skeleton army on the ground but after a while he soon encountered those capable of attacking aerial objects either with battle techniques or arrows and it became a little troublesome especially due to their uncanny cooperation.