The rain of lightning bolts from above finally reduced, although the storm continued to rage on. Now, only the occasional bolt struck, and it was far more spread out as it targeted the whole mountain range, which meant only one thing could happen now.

The crab immediately shouted out across the mountain range, recalling all the nameless children it sent outwards to cause strife and chaos all over, a method to remind those native beasts what it meant to oppose their king. However, this recall not only pulled them towards the central mountain, but also quickly directed them towards the east.

Because, in the crab’s eyes, only two beasts in the whole mountain range possessed this capability.

Hundreds of steel tier crabs, most of which quite weak amongst the tier, immediately began their swarm towards the wyvern and roc. Meanwhile, he made sure with a quick Sky Sight Barrier that the big crab at the top began to make its own move. With that finally confirmed, it was time for everyone to set off, with movement through such wet snow a breeze for all the group… Well, not Raccelline, but Korridan carried her as usual.

He’d already replaced his appearance with that of a large wolf, in fact somewhat similar to the stormfrost wolf he killed a long time ago.

While some of the smaller wolves would have worked before, he found that impossible with this growth phase increasing his size considerably. His current appearance drew even less attention than a lizard though, as few would be surprised by a wolf following a group of humans, in general, it was common for canines to join adventurer teams. Wolves, less so, but it happened and that led to a mistake about its commonality. Before long, all of them travelled past the north of the central mountain towards the eastern side in just a matter of minutes. On this side, even at a distance, a massive collision that the mountain had never seen before took place.

Already the ground beneath them was no better than a massive peat-bog, constantly requiring a small action to carry themselves above the ground.

Icy… He really couldn’t get used to this nickname…

Icy used his auric spirit to spread his weight over an area, whilst the rest used either skills or direct mana application to stand up.

In front of the group, a few colossal figures all clashed rapidly. Two crabs, a roc, and that wyvern… Exactly as expected, that gold tier who slipped through the cracks so long ago belonged to the crabs, which meant a troublesome battle for the gold tier lords.

However, they had two major advantages in this battle. Obviously, the crab clearly endured a surprising amount of damage even with its high defences, areas of its body not only charred black, but bleeding and even littered with minute holes all over. If it took so much damage all over, then clearly a significant portion of its mana had been drained, and now it entered the fray in such a damaged state. Who knew why it immediately attacked, but that only benefited him more.

“Well, it is going as planned at least. That bastard is still as impulsive as before,” he remembered how even in the face of Sage’s aura, the crab continued its attempt to hunt him down and kill him! Clearly, this big guy had some anger issues, or else it would actually think things through before rushing to attack.

Every single melee collision between the two sides resulted in a minor shockwave which deafened any of the beasts nearby, the innate abilities they cast ranged from minor enhancements which only barely changed how they appeared, to gargantuan attacks which left a flashy trail behind.

For example, both crabs could fire jets of super cold water from their maws which instantly froze on contact with something, not that the latter effect ever applied to the wyvern or roc.

Meanwhile, the wyvern could somewhat combine the power of its Lightning garden with the storm above to repeatedly strike the two beasts with their mental spaces. Not to mention, both of them possessed rather powerful and protected manors, which greatly suppressed the two beasts who only reinforced their minds through meditation. Whilst defended, it simply couldn’t compare to their opponents.

The six of them were barely little blotches in the landscape though, and to the four battling ferociously, they couldn’t even be considered threats. However, that didn’t matter as Mala quietly created a dark orb which floated a small distance upwards, but disappeared after half a minute. If Rebecca completed her task then…

“Oh, she’s already here. You found him then?” He saw the mana source, and female figure, quickly dip nearby their group and undid her stealth momentarily as talking would do so anyway.

Then said, perhaps bitterly, “Yes, all three resided under the lord’s tree, but they left to join the battle. I know their rough positions.” Well, he certainly had to admit they prepared themselves for him.

Purposely hiding by the lord’s tree to act as bait, it was too bad that he aimed to stop playing this game after he understood how large the gulf between them all was. It just wasn’t worth the time or effort… Although, Raccelline and the humans certainly meant that he could have his cake and eat it.

And just maybe. He wouldn’t just flip the board, but be able to kill the remaining king.

Rather quietly, the group moved around the outskirts of the battlefield in the eastern region where he cast Sky Sight Barrier to peer into the hoard of steel tiers to search out his targets.

The rattlesnake was the only one which stood out, and he didn’t really care about finding the others too much. So long as he wiped that grin off its face, he’d be happy.

And so, the group pushed through the hordes of beasts, pushing a majority out of the way so they understood not to fight. Although, his Beasten helped them understand not to fight as well. Before long, all seven of them reached the middle of the battlefield where that rattlesnake provided support to its side by suppressing the minds of crabs nearby over and over. Most of which came with next to no mental defences, and so long as someone then finished off the undefended creatures, it was a quick kill.

However, it quickly noticed the humans coming up from behind and the wolf that followed along… Its mind was strangely powerful for a beast from this mountain range.

And more importantly, why was it here specifically?

The snake’s eyes instantly sharpened as it remembered that the dragon could change its appearance with ease, and while it couldn’t sense its true form… The mind he sensed was absolutely too similar.

Even if it was wrong, why take that risk!?

As the rattlesnake began to move its mana, most of the group already noticed how its rattling arbitrarily stopped after staring at them, charging forward to fight with readied expressions. He too immediately descended his mental space, which did little to oppress the snake, but immediately sent it into a panic, one which Rebecca took full advantage of as she hid a short distance behind it, ready to catch it in a fleeing state.

He didn’t even touch the ground whilst chasing it, with the boost of the storm and the Auric spiritual bloodline boosting his control over the spirit in this focused and bloodthirsty state, all the steel tiers nearby were far too involved in the battle to afford focus to the rattlesnake.

For the crabs this was an excellent time to push harder.

But for the assorted beasts, it was just one beast of hundreds. If they tried to save it, the result might be their heads lost as well as the crabs being able to focus power a bit…

However, it wasn’t even a real fight.

Jaren released a single arrow, and Rebecca already stabbed out with a skill as though cloaked into the snow itself. Just this combo of attacks not only cut off the snake’s escape route, but it then saw the wolf-imaged dragon jumping into the air to chew into its neck. In fairness, the dragon without the lantern shouldn’t have been able to kill it, but there was no guarantee of that.

And with the help of humans…

Hang on, why were a group of humans helping it? It could only think that internally as a sudden blade swiped out from the corner of its senses and sliced through its scaled body like butter. Meanwhile, an arrow from behind easily slid through the back of his neck and almost killed him instantly…

The only thing that rattlesnake saw was the dragon dispel its illusion and look into its eyes with apathy. It didn’t even show pleasure from getting revenge… And he hated it. To be treated like a pile of dirt by the thing he tried to kill, and mocked for its naivety.

Not that much could be done at that point.

However, outside of the rattlesnake’s eyes, a wolf instead tilted the head of that rattlesnake with a paw and smirked into its dull, emotionless eyes.

At no point in reality did he dismiss the spell, it risked some other beasts nearby figuring out who he was too soon. Especially as at this very moment the final battle entered its penultimate steps.

One side clearly lacked mana, and without the variety of spells to stave off effects as well as apply curses, every moment only pushed the wyvern and roc closer and closer to winning. Both crabs now possessed massive cracks in their shells, with hundreds of feathers jammed into small gaps all across their bodies. But, worst of all, was the thick hole bored into the back of the weaker crab!

A single successful penetration caused by the wyvern’s bone spike, and from the char marks around that hole it was clear to see that some lightning played a role in that attack.

However, the other two were also injured from the battle.

The roc could barely fly as parts of its wings had been frozen and ground to fine icy dust, along with numerous cuts all over its body from high-power water spells striking its body. While it had a slight advantage by remaining in ranged combat, in reality, a good portion of its power was in physical attacks too. Less so than the wyvern’s though.

However, from the battle’s start, the king knew who its true opponent was and only awkwardly fought off the roc. That wyvern.

That single damn beast.

A massive gash across its left eye resulted in it losing sight there, and if not for pulling away in time it might have been followed up by a water jet right into its head. All over its body, scales had been pried off and frozen over to the point of shattering from a single tap. Especially when it happened to stab through the smaller crab’s shell, wherein it received a point blank explosion of cold energies.

It wanted to focus on spells more, but all the high power Adept true spells it knew also used up too much mana… And right now all four of them lacked such a thing.

However, the winner had been set. In the end, a simple difference was all that pushed the victory into the lords’ camp.

Their Mind palaces.

Both lords directly descended their palaces onto the two opponents, their massively weakened states rendering their mind’s years of reinforcements completely null. Meanwhile, the smaller crab had a fraction of the training, but unknown to the lords it was also around 40 years old.

It would have reached gold tier so long ago if not for the mountain range’s low mana density in the past. And 40 years of mental reinforcement means something at the least… But nothing against a Mind palace of this calibre when injured so dreadfully.

Without the mana or mental resilience to continue, the smaller crab collapsed unconscious immediately from the roc’s palace, meanwhile, the king crab tried to hold on. It tried to gather some mana to fight back and attack… Almost succeeding for a split second, but at the same time, it realised that the roc flew down and pierced multiple of the blackened holes in its shell with those sharp talons.

Both crabs fell unconscious, and the lords could only hide their utter contempt for the beast they suspected to have caused all this.

With furious melee attacks into the king’s head. They succeeded in their conquest.

They took over the mountain. But that begged one last question…

Who would be the new king?