"The ruin under this mountain contains a dark crystal deposit?" Aria asked while glancing at the crack in the mountain wall up ahead.
"Looking at those crates of dark crystals and minecarts lying around outside the entrance, it does point towards that. Nevertheless, I guess we'll only know for sure once we head inside," Leon replied.
"Mm," Aria nodded.
Shortly after, Leon, Darlene, Aria, and Duna openly approached the ruin entrance in the mountain and entered it.
The lack of security spoke volumes of the Red Ghoul Clan's list of priorities. Rather, they had no sense of alertness whatsoever.
They've grown complacent during the reign in the region and never expected trouble to come knocking one day, which is today.
…
Shortly after Leon, Darlene, Aria, and Duna disappeared in the mountain crack, Nyfarella shifted her attention to the Red Ghoul Clan's outpost.
"The ruin should have more guards supervising the dark faes' labor. I should quickly finish my job here and rejoin the Lord," Nyfarella muttered.
She gripped her tier-6 sword and strolled right into the outpost.
With no sentries keeping watch on the wall, the red ghouls in the outpost failed to notice Nyfarella until she passed the open gate and stepped into the outer courtyard.
"Hm? What's a dark fae doing here?" a red ghoul wondered.
More red ghouls began to take notice of Nyfarella's presence, but even then, they did not sense the slightest hint of danger or alarm.
What could one dark fae do?
Puchi!
Without warning, Nyfarella closed the gap on the nearest red ghoul and beheaded with a clean slash of her tier-6 sword.
Blood sprayed from the red ghoul's neck before its body dropped to the ground with a thud.
In that instance, the red ghouls within the outpost froze and failed to process what exactly had just happened right in front of them.
One of their clan members died to a dark fae?
How is that possible?
Puchi!
Nyfarella followed up on her attack and beheaded another red ghoul that stood not far from the first one, sending its head flying.
The red ghouls were finally enraged after witnessing the death of their second clan member.
"Kill her!" a Greater Demon-level Red Ghoul roared.
The commotion quickly attracted all forty-eight remaining red ghouls in the outpost before they all rushed at Nyfarella like an angry mob.
But without adequate defense, they were all cut down like weeds.
Puchi! Puchi! Puchi!
Nyfarella swung her tier-6 sword and overpowered the red ghouls with brute strength, cutting them, weapon and body, in half and reaping their lives.
She swung and swung until she noticed the red ghouls were no more.
Only their dismembered bodies and blood were left, scattered around her in the outpost's outer courtyard.
She glanced around with an empty feeling.
"Red ghouls have fast growth but little potential and intelligence. As such, their clan could never rise to high rank and always stayed as a mid-rank demon clan… To think that such a clan would give my Dark Fae Clan so much trouble in the past…" Nyfarella muttered.
Despite decimating fifty red ghouls, she did not feel the satisfaction of defeating her clan's oppressor.
No, it was far from enough.
She needed to kill more.
Nevertheless, Nyfarella did not depart from the outpost immediately; she entered the inner courtyard and searched the area.
It didn't take long before she discovered many crates of dark crystals stored in the storage room before she collected them all into her interspatial ring.
Only after she made sure there was nothing left of value in the outpost did she finally leave to catch up with her Lord.
…
…
…
Roughly fifty-five miles west of the Dark Fae Clan, a group of dark wyrms and dark faes arrived at the foot of a mountain peak.
"Lord Nightingale, this Green Goblin Peak, the home of the Green Goblin Clan," a dark fae informed.
Green Goblin Peak had many cave openings, both big and small ones, running along its foot, and many more caves existed deeper under the mountain.
At the same time, numerous passageways connected the caves interchangeably, forming a complex network and maze under the mountain peak.
"Although I have never been inside the Green Goblin Clan, I heard it is easy to get lost if one is not familiar with the terrain within," the dark fae added.
"That is under the premise that we can even enter it," Nightingale nonchalantly said.
The cave openings were too small.
"Nevertheless, since we've arrived at the Green Goblin Clan, let us not waste any time. We have the entire Great Blackrock Mountains to conquer," Nightingale mentioned.
"Surely, no one here wants to lag behind the other groups that headed for the other demon clans, but let me tell you what; I will not settle for subpar performance. No, we will outdo the other groups and be the one to conquer the most clans in the Great Blackrock Mountains!"
"Begin the attack!" Nightingale ordered shortly after.
Nightingale's words had the dark wyrms and the dark faes' blood pumping, but her order was unclear; they did not know what they were supposed to attack.
"What are we attacking, Lord Nightingale?" an Arch Demon-level Dark Wyrm asked.
"The mountain peak, of course! Since we can't enter, we just have to shake their nest and lure them!" Nightingale stated.
The dark wyrms quickly understood.
Within a few short breaths, they quickly began their attack on the Green Gobling Peak, causing it to shake with tremors and tears to form on its surface.
Some caves within the mountain peak even collapsed from the dark wyrms' onslaught.
Before long, an army of angry green goblins poured out from the cave openings en masse and rushed into action to defend their home from collapsing.
However, the power difference became apparent in the first clash!
Several dark wyrms directly flattened hundreds of green goblins with their enormous bodies while others swallowed dozens with their gaping jaws.
Fear quickly replaced the green goblins' rage like a splash of cold water, causing tens of thousands to cower several steps back towards their caves.
"Stop!" the goblin chief shouted.