Chapter 19 - Battle in the Woods

Running towards the group, there were at least 30 magical beasts, all of which were large Apes, the smallest being 2 meters in size, with strong hind legs and slender, elongated forelegs. Their fur was markedly dark, and they had blood-red eyes. These were precisely the Shadow Macaques that Elijah had mentioned during the travel. Among the beasts, most were rank 1 magical beasts, but 6 of the apes were rank 2, and they were at least 3 meters tall. One of them was almost 4 meters tall, and it was the leader of the Apes, a beast that was about to reach rank 3.

In front of the Apes, were running Captain Roger, Sub-Captain Mariuz, and two of the other guards rushing with all their might, however, the Macaques were quite close to the two guards, who had a much lower level of strength than the other two, after all, they were only Qi Masters. Elijah and the other two guards were nowhere to be seen.

When the group of guards, along with Lord Menke, Dennis, Nerun and Julieth saw the oncoming beasts, they turned pale but did not lose their composure. Quickly, they got into formation, in order to face the beasts. Once the captain and vice-captain returned, as long as they kept formation they would be able to defend themselves and drive the beasts away. After all, while the magical beasts were strong, they as Warriors and Qi Masters were also quite powerful, they had life-saving weapons and treasures given by House Corena, which would allow them to face them. In fact, what they feared least was a head-on confrontation, the insidious Serpent that could turn invisible, instead, was much more dangerous for them, because no matter how much power they had, if they could not see the enemy, it would be useless.

Nerun was concerned when he didn't see Elijah, but he knew there was no use worrying. He remembered the instructions given to him by his older brother, and calming himself, his eyes acquired an almost imperceptible golden halo around his irises. At that moment every movement of the guards entered his eyes, as well as that of the Apes. For a moment he felt as if nothing could escape his sight, and he could do nothing less than marvel at the advantages of having his first ocular meridian open.

When the Captain and the rest of the guards arrived they immediately joined the formation. Mr Menke wanted to ask a question, but before he could say anything, the Captain said, "Now is not the time to talk. The other two guards and young Elijah have probably already been torn to pieces and eaten by the beasts. Only we were able to survive. Everyone into formation. I don't want slackers, if any of you put in less than 120% of your effort, don't blame me for not being merciful."

All the guards nodded and readied their Qi. The captain stepped to the forefront and raising his weapon, 3 white snakes of Qi encircled the sword in his hands. The apes were markedly close to them, and one of them, faster than the rest, lunged towards the group of guards to begin the assault, however, Captain Roger let out a shout: .

A light wave was released from the captain's sword, which reached the first ape, and before it could even defend itself, was cleaved in half from top to bottom.

The apes that were coming up behind him were disturbed when they saw the death of their companion, but instead of cowering, they became even more enraged if possible, and several of them picked up large rocks and began to throw them at the soldiers. The soldiers were able to defend themselves from the rocks by attacking them with their Qi-covered weapons, but some of them could not help but feel their arms were becoming numb.

Four of the Macaques took advantage of this moment to approach and attack several of the warriors with their long limbs. Fortunately, Dennis was able to fend off one of the Apes and even wound him. The other three were pushed back by several guards attacking at once. While Captain Roger was quite strong, his special Warrior technique expended quite a bit of Qi, and he could not use it continuously. Besides, if he strayed too far from the formation it was possible that he would be surrounded by several of the apes, and could be seriously injured, putting the group in even greater danger, not to mention that the most powerful Apes, the level 2 ones, had not yet attacked, but were waiting for their chance to strike. Their malicious eyes saw the group of soldiers as prey that would soon be in their stomachs. After all, a beast is usually more powerful than a warrior of the same rank. Still, the beasts were also being cautious because the captain was a Qi Praetorian, and his power was similar to that of their leader.

The beasts and the guards seemed to have reached a kind of equilibrium since the creatures could not break through the barrier created by the guards, but the guards could not do anything more than repel the beasts' attack. Except for the first ape that the captain had been able to kill, the rest had barely received any wounds. However, the guards were aware that this balance was precarious since they were outnumbered by the beasts, and eventually, they would be the first to tire. If the formation was broken, it was more than likely that they would all be buried in the Forest.

Suddenly one of the rank 2 Beasts hid in the shadows behind a tree. When Nerun saw the beast, he couldn't help but shout "BEWARE. Shadow Macaques can use shadows to attack from a distance. One of them is about to attack." No sooner had he said this, when from the shadow of one of the guards came a hand that struck the guard in the back, throwing him several meters towards the rest of the apes, which immediately rushed towards the guard and tore him to pieces.

Julieth screamed again in fear when she saw the guard torn to pieces. Lord Menke was reassuring her. His mission was to make sure nothing happened to the young lady, no matter what, even at the expense of the guards.

Two of the guards became extremely enraged, the ones who had arrived with Roger and Mariuz and pulled out of their pockets a round metal contraption. Each of the guards had one of these, a Mana Bomb, a rank 2 single-use artefact. They were very powerful artefacts, which could change the flow of battle, however, they were expensive and quite complex to produce. Without waiting for orders from their superiors, they launched the bomb towards the nearby macaques, causing blue explosions that destroyed everything within several meters of where they landed.

- BOOOOOOM!

With the explosion two of the macaques were completely destroyed, and another was seriously wounded. Several of the guards when they saw this rejoiced, but Menke could not help but feel disgruntled. While the bombs were powerful, they would have been more useful used as a means of surprise when more of the macaques were gathered and could have wiped out most of them and given them the final victory. Now the macaques would be prepared for the bombs and it is possible that they would not have any effect again.

Once again, two hands came out of the backs of two unsuspecting guards, who were again torn to pieces, before they could be rescued by their comrades. Roger tried to attack one of the rank 2 beasts that was in the distance trying to attack behind a tree, but before his attack had reached it, the Beast had already dodged it, although the tree was cut down by the attack.

Captain Roger could not help but turn around and ask the steward: "Please Mr Menke. We need you to help us, otherwise all of the Young Miss's guards will die". Mariuz turned to Miss Julieth "Please Young Lady. We need you to lend us some help, otherwise we will have too many casualties."

Menke frowned, as the Captain must have known that they were hired to give their lives for the young lady, and any action that might put her at risk was completely out of line. He was about to refuse the two and take Julieth with him to flee the combat zone. However, it was Julieth herself who took him by the hand and said, "Please Uncle Menke. I'm the one asking you."

Menke couldn't remember the last time the Miss had called him Uncle Menke. It had been several years now that the sweet little girl he had cared for since she had been born had changed her behaviour. He knew that while Julieth might be a bit prideful, she was certainly kind at heart and that she could no longer watch the guards fighting for her perish.

Menke could do nothing but sigh and letting go of the lady's hand he approached the back of the formation, while his eyes turned a bluish-white colour. Unintelligible mutterings began to come out of his mouth as he drew runes in the air with his hands. A magic circle was drawn in his hands and the moisture in the air began to condense into meter-long ice spikes. The Apes could not help but feel a bit overwhelmed when Mr Menke suddenly shouted:

"Ακίδες πάγου" /Akídes Págou/*

The ice spikes shot out at high speed. One of the Rank 1 macaques was pierced by the stake and died immediately. Another of the level 2 macaques tried to dodge the attack, but it pierced him in the shoulder, shattering one of his arms. The other stake also attacked the leader of the Macaques, but he attacked the stake with his fist and managed to defend himself, although, his hand was partially frozen, and blood could be seen on his fist.

Menke was a powerful Mana user and was the last guardian of the Miss. A level 35 Mana Scholar. Nerun was surprised when he saw everything that happened, on the one hand, those metal balls that could explode, on the other hand, for the first time he saw the power of a real Mana user and he couldn't help but feel excited when he saw the abilities of Mr Menke.

The leader of the Apes became extremely enraged and let out a strong roar at the guards, who could not help but put their hands to their ears. This was one of its innate skills, Bestial Roar. The weakest among the guards even began to bleed from their ears. Then, the ape took the tree that had been cut down by the captain's attack and threw it with force towards the formation of guards stunned by the previous shout. If nothing stopped the tree several of the guards would be crushed, but Lord Menke again threw ice spikes towards the tree, which was destroyed by them.

The soldiers could not rejoice for long, however, as the Apes took advantage of the moment when they took their hands to their heads to approach the guards and attack them. Dennis and Roger were able to fend off several of the Apes, but it was too late. One of the rank 2 Macaques appeared out of nowhere from one of the flanks and struck hard at two of the guards who were ejected with their arms completely broken. While they did not lose their lives when they fell, they were completely unable to continue the fight, and worse, one of the stronger Apes had broken their formation.

"Mariuz, take Miss Julieth and take her away from here. The priority is to get her to safety" Roger shouted, as he jumped towards the Macaque that had entered the formation of the guards. Mariuz was the most agile among them all, and approached Julieth before Menke or anyone else could react, and grabbing her by the hand he quickly moved away from the battlefield.

The combat zone had become chaotic. When Mariuz took the Miss away, Menke couldn't help but feel that something bad was about to happen. No one also noticed that Nerun had likewise disappeared.

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* Ακίδες πάγου /Akídes Págou/ is greek for Ice Spike.