239 Another Ambush

The forest between Agora and Sigalla was dense and the rain was making their journey laborious. Inside the Jewel, Don was supporting his head with his fist and thinking about what trouble Arwen got into in Mairis.

BANG!

Suddenly a ripple of energy clashed with the Jewel and sent the Jewel flying into the forest in full force. 

"My King!"

Don heard his men shouting but the shouting sound became distant and he could only hear the cracking sounds of trees breaking as he was bouncing around the Jewel.

"Pch!" Don spat out a mouthful of blood as the Jewel came to a stop.

"Ah!"

He could feel immense pain in his arm and slowly turned his head to see the bone sticking out of his right arm. Since the black energy was blocking the battle energy from circulating, his body couldn't heal itself and before he could access the space ring, the Jewel was attacked again.

The skies turned dark and the thunder clasps gave out a gloomy feeling. Half a moment later, the sound of the sound barrier-breaking could be heard as he tried to stand up.

"Ca...Cat"

He could tell that at least six of his ribs were broken and organs inside were damaged due to the head and the amount of blood coming out of his head and mouth, he knew he wouldn't be able to stay awake for a long time.

But inside his head, he still didn't get any reply from Catalie.

"Bang!" a large gigantic sword made of red energy smashed into the Jewel with an explosive bang, filling the air with an intense heat that blew across the environment. The Jewel's roof crumbled under its might, forming a huge hole on the roof. If it wasn't for Reghy's scales, the sword would have hit Don and crushed him.

His face maintained a grave expression as he looked at the hole through his bloodied eyesight. From this, he could tell the strength of this person should not be weaker than a peak grandmaster.

The surrounding air around the Jewel and him began to ripple with heat as if a meteorite was streaking through the sky before another attack of sword smashed into the place where Don was. Fortunately, he was able to use a tiny amount of battle energy and move aside before the attack could land on him

Gritting his teeth in pain, he slowly crawled out of the Jewel as the rain started to soak him and wash away the blood. For a few mile radius, there was no tree but a huge crater around him and broken remains of what seemed to be huge trees.

Suddenly, another three streaks of red energy came across the sky like shooting stars with a fiery trail. By this point, he was completely surrounded by the ocean of fire. It was fifty meters tall and covered the sky with its flame. There was nowhere in front that Don could hide, so he could only try to stand up and continue trying to communicate with Catalie.

The temperature within the sea of fire had been so hot that the energy from the shield that he had around his body instantly shattered and ignited the furs on his armor on fire. It was so hot that even his hair, eyebrows, and beard were on the verge of burning up.

"Bang!"

Suddenly, another loud explosion could be heard as the sea of fire exploded. The darkness of the storm was illuminated for a brief moment, and the birds that were taken shelter under the trees had flown away terrified.

Within the sea of fire still, Don had suffered another great hit as the hit broke more bones in his body. Spitting out a mouthful of blood, he was on the verge of losing his consciousness.

"Hmm, even after using such powerful attacks, you are still alive, impressive"

Until now he had no idea who was attacking him and looking at the direction of the voice, he vaguely saw a group of humanoid forms floating in the air above him.

With his heavy injuries, he couldn't even stand straight let alone fighting them. However, if he still didn't do anything, he would be killed by these mysterious figures. Risking his life, he concentrated on his battle energy as coughing more blood out. By forcing out his battle energy, he dashed out of the fire controlling the air element and disappeared into the forest.

While running, the crack on his leg bone split as he stumbled down on the ground coughing a mouth full of blood. He slowly tried to regain his breath and at this moment, he had used as much as battle energy he could, fighting against the dark energy.

Suddenly, a blue glow could be seen across the sky above him as one of the humanoid figures appeared near him.

Sighing to himself inwardly, he resigned himself to accepting that disaster that's going to befall him. Caressing the wound on his chest, he could only feel shame. He had promised Sister Elena and the villagers that he would avenge them, but now he seemed like not far away from joining them in the afterlife.

Looking at the leaves and sticks on the ground, he used his remaining strength and dug a hole to put his space ring. It was too late to use the healing potion because even if he did, without the ability to use the battle energy, he would be killed by these figures. If he was killed by these figures, he didn't want them to find his space ring that had the most valuable things inside.

Throwing his space ring in the hole, he covered the hole back up with dried leaves and sticks to prevent anyone from noticing. Then, turning around, he began to leave the area.

He continued to move a little farther leaving blood trails so Knight could find him. After a few minutes, he stopped to catch his breath and waited for the figures to come. Right now, he had given up on running away and he wanted to die fighting them, not running away from them because, at this moment, he knew that he can't escape them anymore. It was time for him to die like a king as tears started to flow out of his eyes thinking about everyone's faces in Everlight.

Not too long after, another blue and red flares of light could be seen at the very end of the horizon. Flying toward at lightning speed, the humanoid figures came to a stop in the air above Don.

Although it was dark and gloomy due to the storm, this didn't bother him at all as he was waiting for them to show their faces.

"King Don, aren't you going to try to escape? why did you stop?" 

Slowly the figures descended through the trees and startled him. He had never seen horrifying creatures like the group in front of him. They had the shape of a human but there was no skin on them, only muscles. Two big eyes stared at him through the sockets and since there were no lips on their faces, their teeth were showing as he couldn't tell whether they are smiling or not.

"Did our bodies shock you?"

The one standing in the front spoke with a cold sneer. Even with his bloodied eyesight, he could see the guts and organs in some of their bodies. They were more horrifying than the skinless creatures.

Standing on the with the support of his black sword, he looked at the horrifying creatures in front of him. Even if he had decided on not running away, he did not plan on making it easy for these ugly bastards. At his death, he would at least take one of them with him.

Few of them were floating above Don calmly without making a single move. The guards of Don weren't here yet, so they had to make sure they don't reach him before they could finish the job of killing Don.

A moment later, two more groups of these creatures arrived at the scene surrounding him. The three groups then locked him within a ring, making escape impossible for him.

"You bastards (cough)...are (cough) the ugliest...bastards...I've ever (cough) seen" Don slowly said while coughing more blood onto the ground.

"Why don't you try to contact your men through the Khal?" Ignoring Don's comment, the middle one calmly asked him. It was another shock to him that they knew about the existence of Khals because it was an ancient dwarven technology and according to Catalie, only the dragon king had these. Yet, these ugly creatures in front of him talked like they knew everything about Khals.

Hearing the creature in front of him, he snorted as he gripped the sword hilt tighter

"It takes sixteen grandmasters to take me down huh? What a useless group of ugly bastards "

Blood leaked out of their muscles as they heard his words. They looked like they were offended by his comments but because they had no skin, he didn't see any expression.