Chapter 418 - Source of Danger

While Ren and his large group were running away from an unknown danger, elsewhere in the second section of the trials, Luke and the Machina Reggio Empire's group were also in a similar situation.

"Shit...this is all because you two just had to oppose that stupid clan!" Luke complained towards the two others next to him.

"Then what would you have us do, Luke? In that situation, not even you would be willing to back down!" The girl wearing a warrior's attire snapped back at his complaint.

"...Tch, at least you should know when to give up, Princess!"

"Hah! Like you're one to talk! Who was the one who fired their weapon first? Was it not you?!"

"That's because you two forced me to do it! The situation was already dire and yet you both continued to—if I didn't do what I did, we'd be the ones lying on the ground dead by now!"

"Enough! Instead of complaining, why don't you two smartasses put your mind together and get us out of this situation?!" The young man who was with them roared in exasperation.

The two who were beside Luke Aerin were the Crown Prince and Imperial Princess of the Machina Reggio Empire, Maximus Reggios, and Alena Reggios.

Just a few moments ago, they had encountered one of the known strongest hidden factions of the Midgard Continent, the Baphamet Clan. There were only 10 Transcendents in the Midgard Continent, and this clan belonged to the Flame of Transcendence.

The Machina Reggio Empire also had a Transcendent-level figure behind them and that figure was always at odds with the Flame of Transcendence due to a longtime feud. This feud was carried down to their descendants so whenever their younger generation ever met up, they would always clash inevitably.

It had been a long time since the Machina Reggio Empire's young generation had gone out after a certain human nearly destroyed one of their flying fortresses, but after meeting with the Baphamet Clan's people after for so long, the two forces schemed against each other and clashed repeatedly within the first and second section of the trial.

It was because of the Imperial Family's feud with the Baphomet clan that led to their group experiencing a few unwanted clashes and injuries. Luke knew about the pointless feud between the Empire's Imperial Family and the Flame of Transcendence's Clan, but something that their ancestor and elders were always harping on about should be none of their concern.

Their best course of action was to avoid the Baphamet Clan as much as possible in the trials, but the Crown Prince didn't like that idea and decided to proceed normally without the need for avoidance.

The Crown Prince didn't want to show weakness towards his Empire's enemy and a majority of their group's people agreed with him. Only his sister, the Imperial Princess, and Luke wanted to avoid any unnecessary conflict.

Maximus didn't want to avoid any trouble and would rather face it head-on, but he did promise to not look for trouble. The only problem was that the Baphamet Clan didn't share such thoughts. They found trouble with their group at every given turn, and just now, their recent clash was going to directly impact every other faction partaking in the trial's second section.

Just a few moments ago, the Empire and the Baphamet Clan had stumbled upon each other and the Baphamet Clan immediately picked a fight with them, however, at that time, a Crimson Quadru-tail Blaze Fox cub had suddenly appeared out of nowhere when they were about to clash.

The two factions were able to immediately identify the S-rank monster cub and knew how beneficial the S-rank monster core of the beast was to cultivators who had fire-based mana affinity. It went without saying that a majority of the Baphamet Clan's people had fire-elemental mana but Maximus was also one whose mana was of the fire element.

Both sides coveted the monster cub and wanted to take it for themselves so naturally, a bloody fight ensued. The results were that the cub ended up in the Baphamet Clan's hands but before they could take the cub away, it's tribe and parents showed up.

The large tribe of S to SS-rank monsters immediately began surrounding and attacking both their groups. During the confusion because of the sudden appearance of the monsters, Luke was able to find an opportunity to kill the monster cub which was in the hands of the Baphamet Clan's people which then led to the monsters going berserk and concentrating their attacks on the Baphamet Clan's forces.

This gave the Empire's forces the chance to quickly make their escape. However, the monsters continued to adamantly chase after them and slowly, the Empire's group began losing people little by little.

As for what became of the Baphamet Clan, no one knew, but Luke predicted that they were all dead by now. The Crimson Blaze Foxes were monsters that were known to hold a grudge. The worst part about them was that they had illusory techniques which were able to temporarily charm other monsters or cause them to go berserk.

Right now, the Empire's group was on the run from not only the foxes but practically all of the monsters that they had passed by earlier who were now either charmed or sent into a rage by the foxes' techniques.

"Hurry up you two! Think of a plan to get out of this rut!" Maximus demanded as he sent a sword wave behind him.

"Tsk, easy for you to say!"

After Luke voiced out a complaint, Alena immediately yelled at him.

"Shut up, Luke! That's my brother you're talking to!"

"Why you little—Ahh, this is both your faults, both of you and your family's stupid feud! And, it's because of your brother's big head and overarching ego that we're in this mess! We could have just avoided those bastards, but NO! You're stupid pride wouldn't—"

"Enough chitchat!"

"Fine!" Luke yelled back at the prince before continuing, "The only way we can get out of this mess is either by directing the attention of the monsters giving chase to us onto other groups or by reaching the safe zone of the second trial!"

Alena had similar thoughts as him, but the second option was a bit hard to achieve.

"...Right now, trying to find the safe zone is—"

"Impossible!" Luke finished.

"..."

"We've been traveling through this godforsaken forest for a while now and yet we haven't reached the end of this section! We didn't fall into any illusory formation so it means that this section is very large! It'll be impossible to rush towards the second safe zone in our current situation so our only option is—"

"To direct the attention of these monsters onto any group we pass by!" Maximus exclaimed.

"...Yes...Although, it isn't something morally—"

"Who cares about morals when our lives are on the line? They should consider it an honor for their groups to be helping out our Empire!"

"..."

With their decision being forcefully made, Maximus ordered their mages to quickly search their surroundings with magic and find the closest group.

"W-we've found one! They're a few kilometers away from us, but they're a large group! We can probably reach them in a few minutes, but Your Highness...a-are you sure that we should—" A mage reported before being interrupted by the Crown Prince.

"Lead the way!"

"...Y-yes, Your Highness."

Luke could only shake his head at their forced decision while Alena just sighed and inwardly began apologizing to the people they were about to screw over.

*****

Opposite from Luke's location, the Baphamet Clan's people who were lucky enough to survive, were now frantically running away. Whether it was by luck or not, one of the leading foxes had noticed that the cub that was just attacked by Luke wasn't directly killed but just mortally wounded.

They had also noticed that despite the Baphamet Clan's people nearly kidnapping the cub, they weren't the ones who had attacked it. Instead it was the other people who had just fled away. A majority of the fox tribe had gone to pursue them, while a few of their strongest were hunting down these people.

Whether it was kidnapping and killing, they were both offenses so naturally, the tribe wouldn't spare any single one of the humans that dared to cross it.

The Baphamet Clan's people weren't weak, but after clashing with the Empire's forces, they were all battered and injured. They were in no condition to be thinking about taking down the SS rank monsters that were hot on their tails.

The Baphamet Clan members continued to run and eventually, they arrived at a clearing. In the clearing there was a small pond in the middle which was emanating a large amount of mana and right at the center of the pond was a submerged herb.

"Th-that's—"

"Leave it! Those foxes will catch up if we dally—"

"It's not that! Someone is sitting next to the pond!"

"Huh?"

They all looked towards the person who was sitting cross-legged behind a rock near the pond. The person had a cloak on and seemed to be sleeping.

Seeing this, the Baphamet Clan members all looked at each other before nodding simultaneously. The roars of the monsters chasing after them were already close by and they quickly rushed towards the pond, or more precisely, towards the person who was sleeping near the pond.

Cecil, who had just sat down to rest immediately cracked opened his eyes when he heard the commotion approaching him. The rapid footsteps of the people and the roaring of the monsters annoyed him.

"Tsk...I just found a good place to sleep..."