CHAPTER 103: We Failed, Father

Soon the battle was over, the five returned to the shore.

Drake has wounds in his body.

The others have some but much fewer.

But they still had the pride of winning on their faces.

The mythological beasts landed and had their bodies become smaller than their gigantic sizes.

As compared to their hosts, they all looked grim.

Just as the five of them got close to Hunter.

"Pack your things."

It wasn't congratulatory message or job well done that they heard from Hunter, instead it was these words.

"Wh- What's wrong?" Nixon asked.

"Why don't you look behind me and understand what is going on?" Hunter said seriously.

When they did look, they felt like cold water washed over them.

The number of knights that were with them a while ago was now just half of it.

Half were missing, together with Juno.

"This..."

Even Drake couldn't help but to feel heavy in his heart.

"She made it clear then, if one were to die, then pack your things. It only means we are not cut off for this battle at all," Hunter pointed out.

He sighed and looked at Leon who was feeling grave at the loss of his friend.

By the time he realized it, he heard Juno's shout and the next thing was of him disappearing.

That only means one thing, one demonic beast got him.

Together with the others.

Just then Qirin returned to their side.

"How about your side?" Hunter asked.

Qirin shook its head, a few disappeared as well.

"Please, can you leave us be for now?" Hunter asked Leon.

Leon agreed and left with his knights.

Even he can see clearly the problem of their group and he felt somehow disappointed by it.

"Seeing your looks can I ask a thing," Hunter said to the mythological beasts.

"This fight? What do you think of it?"

The mythological beasts looked at one another before black tortoise opened his mouth.

"It was an overkill."

Nixon and the rest looked at their mythoogical beasts.

"That's right, if you weren't thinking about simply killing that demonic beast then you would have noticed it. That as you battled, your attacks actually started interfering with one another. To the point where the attacks weakened making you all think that the beast was far stronger."

He looked at each of them, "Black Tortoise was right, it was an overkill. In reality if you just looked closely, Black Tortoise and Roc was enough to battle that beast."

He felt like laughing, this battle actually belittled the strength of the mythological beasts.

Indeed they fought the demonic snake with all of them present.

But that is because they were bullying it.

But this time it was different, they are there to kill it and help the kingdom.

"We have killed the remaining knights," he then said with coldness.

They all felt ashamed at this outcome, they were focused on the battle that they didn't realize what was going on in the other side.

"You never listened even to your mythological beasts, are they your accessories?" he asked.

Now he understood Saphira's frustration.

She wanted them to see this but because of their own pride and haughtiness, they couldn't and only know they were wrong.

But she didn't want them to only see that they were wrong, instead she wanted them to understand the gravity of each decision they make.

"If I were the commanding officer, are you going to listen unconventionally?" he asked again.

And he could see that Drake and Willow were answering him with a yes.

He could only shake his head, "I only realized these things with this outcome. What kind of leader am I then? That I allowed such a thing to happen."

"But she said, we are to work on our own," Willow answered.

Hunter finally laughed, "Ah seriously our group is a complete mess. The group of ten year old kids from back then is gone. The ones who can do everything splendidly with or without the command of their leader. Much better than this group of eighteen year olds."

He can clearly tell as of this moment that they were better back then.

Better in coordination and decision making.

That is because they understand one another the most.

That allowed them to move with the thought that the other will move this way and that way.

But right now, they are relying too much on their own strength that this coordination was completely gone.

"Are you really telling me that you just followed her command, pinning this mistake on her?" he asked Willow coldly.

"I didn't mean it that way," Willow replied looking away.

"This is the first place to start our mission, but it was already so pathetically done. Just pack up and go back to the Empire," he said before turning on his heel.

Qirin returned inside having his own deep thoughts.

The others could only follow back with their heads bowed down.

As they walked back, they saw Hunter bring out a communication orb.

Only the royal families of each kingdoms and Empires had this orb.

A pair each family.

Because it was created with so much difficulty, its number wasn't a lot as well.

"We failed father," Hunter said.

"What do you mean?" Reginald asked.

"We pathetically failed on our mission," Hunter repeated.

"..."

Reginald waited for him to explain what he really meant.

"We... chose to eradicate the darkness instead of protecting the people from darkness," Hunter explained.

Even though he was the only one who did things differently, he still feel that he failed because he was unable to 'save' those people.

Reginald sighed, "Why don't you regroup and I shall speak with your group as a whole."

"I will call you then," he replied before cutting off the communication.

"I deeply apologize, your majesty," Ernest Fletcher said.

He had just returned with Radcliff Amethyst, they simply took some sample back before they are to investigate more about what happened in Alquira Empire.

And he had just found out that his wife actually delayed the departure of his daughter by a day.