Chapter 124 124 The Other Side

As a result, his scream acted as a caution for the rest of the team members while the grenade exploded before he could die at the hands of the monster.

The explosion sent the panther flying far off into the distance but to Zach's surprise there were no signs of severe bodily damage like he would expect from a normal human. As if to make his thoughts into reality, the panther recovered in less than five seconds and was once again on the offensive.

Zach was dumbfounded by the bizarre nature of the entire scenario. This was his first time witnessing such a scene within this world as no one had told him about the existence of such a powerful race. He wondered why such a race wasn't the overlord of the world if they had this much strength to spare even after being bombarded by a grenade at such a long range.

"What kind of strength is this? And what is that thing?" Zach muttered to himself in astonishment as he carefully analyzed the fight in order to grasp anything that could give him a clue regarding the identity of the monster.

Bruce sensed his confusion as he knew that Zach wasn't aware of many things that were considered common sense in the empire. Therefore he moved closer to him and tried to explain the situation.

"I can only assume that this is the same mage who attacked us earlier with the Prince."

Zach looked at Bruce incredulously as if he was unwilling to believe a single word that left Bruce's mouth.

"Do I come off as such a gullible person? How come I can't see the resemblance then? Is it some kind of forbidden magic skill?" Zach asked still confused about the whole situation. Still he acquiesced to Bruce's explanation since the latter looked quite confident that his explanation was true.

"It's not a skill; rather it is not magic at all. I can only think of one thing that can increase the strength of a mage by that much while bringing about such drastic side-effects along with it. I think that the mage used an upgrade potion earlier after his battle with Christina and is currently pushing himself past the normal boundary. He will either end up suffering from a severe backlash that would potentially kill him or he will lose his strength permanently. Upgrades in general and especially violent ones like this come with the most severe drawbacks. I am sure that this mage would be of no use to anyone in the future. So we just need to hold out until he is tired from his rampage and loses all his energy. We need to buy as much time as possible to survive until then."

Since time was of the essence in this situation, Zach needed a careful strategy in order to escape from the hands of the mage as well as the prince who was no doubt heading their way at his fastest speed. As soon as his horde managed to meet up with the panther, it would become impossible for Zach to escape along with his soldiers.

Therefore, their only chance for survival would begin with the death of the mage before Kolt could get to them.

Thanks to the trucks, there was still some time before Kolt would be able to catch up to them. Therefore Zach could prepare in advance and prepare some things in advance to hold the advantage.

Ordering his troops to retreat into the forest next to the road, he followed suit along with Bruce and Luna. They moved as they took cover behind trees so as to throw off the panther monster so that they could avoid dealing with him. They needed the panther to consume his energy after all.

Thanks to the dense trees in the forest, the battle almost came to a halt as the monster's vision could not penetrate into the rear end of the forest. Zach's troops were masters at guerilla warfare and therefore used the entirety of their skills in the favorable environment to attack the panther.  As a result a mini battle began in the heart of the forest where the agile panther was being bombarded with firepower from all the sides. But whenever he moved in order to attack in a certain direction, he would be interrupted by the troops in the opposite direction so that the others could retreat further. The same process was repeated again and again in order to irritate and control the attacks of the mage so that they could minimize damage. Showers of bullets one after another hit the panther but its body was as strong as ever.

Of course, nothing could actually hurt him in his current juiced up condition. The only task that had been assigned to them by Zach was to keep it occupied and engaged for some time in order to tire it out. Only then would they have the chance to kill it to avenge their fallen comrades.

...

Sarah went straight home after listening in on the conversation between Zach and the Prince. She had been the only person who had heard about the intentions of the prince after everyone else had left. Therefore, she was sure that Prince Kolt and Zach would soon be on the opposite ends of the ring.

Since she had already seen the number of troops that Prince Kolt had brought with him, she decided to gather all the fighters and mages in the household so as to be prepared to fight against the troops at all times. Knowing Zach's temperament, she was sure that a large scale battle was a must by the time the wedding ended.

When she discussed her plan with her father Calvin, he decided not to intervene in the battle. Calvin was a seasoned veteran in the field and knew that a clever rabbit needed three burrows in order to truly survive in the cutthroat world. Instead of fighting on the battlefield and offending the royal family directly, he went off to prepare something else after informing his daughter to take control of everything. He believed that his daughter would be able to handle everything with ease considering her strong upbringing and her genius level intellect.

Sarah took the forces she had gathered and rushed towards the Luther family mansion where the wedding was taking place. She knew that the troops had surrounded the place and it would be difficult for Zach and the others to escape. Therefore, she was planning to open up a gap in the perimeter being controlled by Prince Kolt.

But before her forces could even reach the Luther family, there was an explosion that was loud enough to shake the entire city. It was at that moment that she knew that she was still too late and the battle had already begun.

Even though she increased the pace of her forces by motivating them, she couldn't reach in time to support Zach's retreat. By the time she reached the scene of the explosion, Zach and his allies were nowhere in sight. The only sight in her eyes was a devastated battlefield that was full of deep craters, scorch marks and corpses strewn across the landscape.

The condition of those corpses was so revolting that Sarah almost threw up at the spot.

Nevertheless, she urged her forces to follow the sound of the explosions in the distance so as to catch up with Zach who would no doubt be running away from the deadly pursuit of the royal forces of the Prince.

The same thing repeated over and over again as she followed the trail of explosions. Not once did she witness the battle between the royal forces and Zach because she was too late every single time. So she urged her army to travel faster and put her horse into a gallop. Her followers imitated her and rushed behind her.

It wasn't long before they heard two distinct but successive explosions in the direction they were heading. Sarah was sure that Prince Kolt might have caught up with Zach and another battle might have started between the two. This time she could surely reach the scene in time in order to earn Zach's goodwill.

The first thing that came into her sight was the mass of royal troops all spread out with the intention of surrounding a small area of the forest. She assumed that Zach was somehow fending off the forces with the help of his men which led to Kolt laying siege to the forest.

The sound of loud explosions continued along with bursts of light from multiple directions within the forest which meant the battle was still taking place but at a lower scale which could only mean that Kolt was keeping his distance from the battlefield.

While she was sneaking in from behind, another force seemed to be thinking of doing the same thing as her. The force was similar in size to hers but it intended to flank the royal forces from the direction of the woods.

Her eyes crossed with the person leading them for a moment. She was finally able to breathe right after she confirmed the identity of the other force. It was none other than Barry, Christina's brother, who was leading Elizabeth family's forces in order to support his brother-in-law.

Both the groups understood each others' intentions in crossing over such a long distance for Zach. They had a tacit understanding that their personal clashes and competitions didn't matter at the moment as the only objective the both parties had was to facilitate Zach's escape in order to strengthen their ties with him.

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