Chapter 429 - Sudden Development

Ren was leading the Silvaria Kingdom's group away from the battlefield.

Cecil's clone was constantly giving him updates on where the monsters were going to burst out from under the ice using its Mana Sense.

The clone also informed him of the groups that were pursuing them and what route to take to best avoid their ambushes.

Ren had to constantly relay orders to everyone present and it was especially hard to make everyone calmly listen to the orders in their current situation.

There were times when one or two people lagged behind and were caught by monsters because they didn't listen to his orders. Thankfully, Cecil's clone was there and it quickly rescued them and healed their wounds.

The group maintained a high level of focus and caution while they continued to run away from Cecil's battle with the Megalodon. The only thing that caused them to grow frantic was the fact that no matter how far and fast they ran they couldn't get any further away from the battle.

The clone hadn't informed them that Cecil would maintain a few kilometers distance between them so that he could maintain the connection, but it was better this way since they wouldn't be able to relax.

It was never a good thing if people relaxed with a looming danger nearby. If they knew that Cecil was purposefully maintaining a constant distance between them and no danger from the Megalodon would come to them, who knew whether they'd continue to seriously run away or not.

Of course, the opposite way could happen and they'd still maintain their current frantic mindset and pace, or they could question the motive behind Cecil doing this, but regardless of either scenario, this was a perfect opportunity in Cecil's eyes to show the earthlings that this world wasn't the peaceful one they had lived in before.

There were still many disillusioned people in his family's kingdom that thought that they were safe and could maintain their peaceful lives as they had done like when they were previously back on Earth. The non-combatants in the group were the prime examples of these kinds of people.

Cecil was very irked by this because he had to take care of luggage while participating in these dangerous trials where not only monsters, but also other humans were constantly looking out for opportunities to do away with each other.

Other than the trusted allies that they had from outside of the trials, the other humans couldn't be trusted. Even the Omnifaust Republic, the Azure Falcon Sect, and the Kanhui Family that were previously allied with them weren't yet trustworthy in Cecil's eyes.

Only Ren and a few others knew about this truth. Today's friend could be tomorrow's enemy, especially now that the conditions of the second stage's trials had suddenly changed. The only ones they could truly trust were the Regulus Kingdom and the Revertia Holy Kingdom.

The Regulus Kingdom was solidly allied with the Silvaria Kingdom because of Fatima's engagement to Rowan. The Regulus Kingdom's future queen was from the Silvaria Kingdom so it wouldn't make any sense that they'd betray them in the trials.

The Revertia Holy Kingdom was allied with them as well because of the High Priestess's Sister being the future bride of the Silvaria Kingdom... Also, said sister was currently in the hands of Cecil who had purposefully taken her away.

Cecil had other motives by keeping Celestina with his group. He still didn't trust the Revertia Kingdom just yet, but since he had a card in hand that would keep them on his kingdom's side no matter what, he wasn't going to be worried about them for the time being.

The group continued to push forward frantically and from time to time, a few in the group would turn around and look back at the large monster that their party's leader was facing.

Seeing Cecil block and counter every attack that the Megadolon sent towards him... they couldn't help but feel a deep sense of fear and admiration towards the young man.

What did it mean to have true power? This was what it meant. This wasn't power that money, status, or prestige could bring. This was power that stood far above any other and it couldn't be taken away.

Power brought by money, status, and prestige could easily be taken away. If one lost their money or their source of income, their power would be stripped away. If one's status fell, so would their power. If one's reputation and prestige was tarnished, well, the outcome would literally leave them powerless.

Not Cecil's power. Power gained through the effort of cultivation and was visible in the eyes of the masses. This sort of power can only be taken away by death. No other means in the world could take this away from a truly powerful individual.

While everyone was thinking something along these lines, a sudden change occurred. Cecil's clone was the first to notice and it immediately shouted, "Get back!"

A large explosion suddenly blew up in front of the group and they were all forced to stop. The explosion wasn't caused by a stray attack from Cecil and the Megadolon. Ren and a few others immediately readied their weapons and looked around carefully.

The blizzard was really hindering everyone's vision and they couldn't see from where the attack came from or who had attacked them. They only knew that the general direction came from ahead of them.

They didn't have to wait long because a voice cackled from blizzard ahead of them and a few silhouettes emerged.

"Hahahaha, look at these little rats scurrying away!"

The leading person in the group had fiery red-hair and even in this blizzard, he only had a fur mantle covering his bare upper body. From the way there was fire burning in the palm of his hands, it was him who had sent the attack earlier and cut off the group's path of retreat.

Cecil couldn't quite remember it, but he found the person who had attacked somewhat familiar. He quickly sent out his Mana Sense and probed their cultivations.

He was quite surprised that the leading figure had cultivation on the same stage as the 3 individuals who were close in level to him. The only thing was that it still seemed a bit unstable, like the person had just stepped foot into the stage and hadn't yet stabilize his cultivation.

It was an admirable feat, but it was unfortunate because he had mistakenly targeted Cecil's group. If it had been any other group, he would have been quite the fine catch and his nearly 40-man group would easily be able to advance to the trial's next stage.

The overall cultivations of the enemy group were far ahead of Cecil's group. There were many early-stage Mana Core cultivators present in the enemy group, while only Cecil was the Mana Core stage expert on their side.

Only Ren and a few others were in the Mana Sea Stage and even then, none of them were at the late Mana Sea Stage.

Lewis, who was at the lead, immediately sensed their low cultivation bases and he scoffed disdainfully at them.

"Hmph, to think a bunch of weaklings like you were able to make it to the second stage of the trials. How audacious, thinking you fools could play on the stage that we are on!"

"..." Ren and everyone remained silent and didn't reply to his mockery.

They held their guns and weapons at the ready. Even though the disparity of strength between the two groups was like heaven and earth, Ren and the others believed that they would be able to hold their own for a while thanks to the weapons that they had.

It was only thanks to the equipment that Ren and Cecil had provided were they able to hold their own against the monsters from the first and second stage of the trials.

Seeing their unmoved and determined expressions, Lewis sneered at them and waved at his fellow clan members.

"They have some peculiar weaponry, go bring me one!"

3 from the Baphamet clan rushed forwards in attack. Ren and the others quickly took formations and the sharpshooters began shooting their guns at the 3 approaching individuals. They had all received an order by Cecil to quickly take care and kill all of the humans that tried to attack them.

Some of the gunners were still reluctant to take away another's life, but from the murderous intent and ill-intentions that the other side was threatening them with, they steeled themselves to do something a normal teenage earthling would deem to be unthinkable.

They shot to kill. In their current situation, it was either them or the enemy and obviously, they would rather have it be the enemy since no one in the group wanted to die.

They had already felt the horror and terror of nearly being wiped out by the monsters' surprise attack. They naturally didn't want to feel that again.

Unfortunately for them, their targets weren't those large and clumsy aquatic monsters but nimble human beings that wouldn't take on a magi-tech gun's bullets. The 3 individuals from the Baphamet clan moved around in an irregular fashion and didn't take a single hit from the curtain of bullets that the Silvaria sharpshooters had rained down upon them.

They missed and continued to miss. The enemy was getting closer and closer but not a single bullet had struck. The sharpshooters couldn't keep up with the speed that the enemy cultivators were moving at due to the disparity between both sides' cultivations.

The Baphamet clan members moved at a speed which the Silvaria Kingdom's people couldn't keep up with by using their cognitive vision. At the back, Lewis had put up a large flame barrier in front of his group to prevent any of his comrades from being struck by the mana bullets coming from their enemies' oddly-shaped weapons.

He frowned for a moment when he felt the impact of the bullets hitting his flame barrier, but since it didn't collapse, Lewis sneered at the enemy. Fortunately, something good happened for the Silvaria Kingdom's forces.

Whether it was fortunate or not, the Baphamet clan members grew c.o.c.ky after not having been hit once by a bullet and looking at the flame barrier that their leader had casted, they thought that they too could try to block the bullets by using a barrier, but unfortunately, they couldn't be any more wrong.

When they put up a shield, the mana bullets immediately pierced through it and struck them.

"ARGH!"

"GYAH?!"

Two of the Baphamet clan members were struck and once Ren and the others saw this, they immediately focused their fire at him. The other clan member which had continued to dodge the bullets immediately took action and pulled away his other comrade.

The unfortunate one which was currently being focused down upon perished not long after. The Baphamet clan members had forgotten to realize one thing and that was the difference between their cultivations and their leader's cultivation.

The difference in strength between a flame barrier conjured by a Mana Core Stage expert was miles apart from one conjured by a Mana Sea Stage expert. This one mistake caused them to lose a member of their tribe.