Gerald waited patiently as the Phoenix pierced its own chest with its beak and dug around to find the Core.

It was a bit unnerving seeing a living being do that without releasing any sounds, but he didn't have time to care for that. He had blood to catch!

Unfortunately, he quickly discovered how nearly impossible the task was without Telekinesis. The drops of boiling crimson liquid simply splattered on the ground before his eyes and were absorbed into the thirsty stone.

But then he remembered the useful property of the Ring and stored the raining droplets straight from the air. He then summoned them back out inside the vials, so the end result was the same.

Some feathers were also yanked out and he made sure to collect them all. No point in letting them go to waste.

"Gaaah! There... we... go!" The Phoenix managed to dig out its Core and bring it to the surface. Its flesh was still connected to the red crystal sphere inside it.

"Hand it over," It demanded.

Gerald didn't complain and gave it the flower it so desired. The Phoenix quickly gobbled it up and swallowed without any preparation whatsoever. It then lowered its beak and broke off a piece of its Core. The piece of the crystal was exactly the size Gerald requested, not more, not less.

It seemed the bird didn't try to haggle at all.

Before anything else happened though, the Phoenix flared up again, only this time all the heat became concentrated on its chest, burning around the wound until the flesh became molten and started to flow like fresh magma.

Similar to how the Elixir of Life worked, the wound closed in a flash of light and fire, and wiped any evidence of prior damage.

"Wow… I guess you weren't really struggling with those attacks back there, huh?"

The Phoenix didn't answer but instead gave him a look that made Gerald feel like he was silently being laughed at.

Struggling against those puny attacks, how funny was that? The Phoenix barely held back its laughter. It was an immortal being! To think those tiny people ever hoped of taking it down was laughable!

Even Demons couldn't kill it, much less these ants.

But it refrained from mocking an entire species only because it still needed to get something. "Now, the information, spit it out!"

"Sure, sure, relax, I'm a man of my word…" Gerald took out his map and began explaining everything...

Dug was not happy.

He had spent thousands of gold, got indebted to some really shady people in the Empire, hired the best underground mercenaries money could buy, and even convinced a noble to do him a favor.

And for what? Everything went to shit! The Phoenix was gone!

He grumbled as he sliced the throat of the last attacker. They came on top in this skirmish. The group of hunters came hunting the Phoenix just like them, and yet they thought it was a good idea to attack other humans.

"Ridiculous!" Dug cursed his bad luck and kicked the corpse. He had tortured this man, but the fool was worthless. Nothing important came out of his mouth till the moment he died.

All he came to know was that a bunch of coincidences led to the two groups' meeting. And having spent the last two weeks basically wandering through the desert, the hunters became impatient and bloodthirsty and attacked as soon as they saw the magical bird.

Dug wanted to kick himself for not using his trump card immediately. Perhaps if he did, the Phoenix could have been brought down much faster, leaving them with ample time to prepare for the clash between groups.

Now it was all in Gerald's hands.

Dug didn't have much hope though. The mysterious man he picked up by chance proved to be extremely useful during their travel, but for some reason, he nearly lost his life all of a sudden.

Since then he was unable to use magic, or so it appeared, and even if he didn't, fighting alone against the bird was impossible. There was simply no way one man alone could bring it down.

It would be a miracle if he even managed to catch up to it, considering the Earth Dragons weren't made for long sprints.

Luckily he left a bunch of scrolls to one of his men, which allowed them to turn the tide of battle in their favor.

He didn't hold much hope for his victorious return though. Instead, he ordered his men to quickly gather all the blood of the Phoenix they could find, and store it safely.

Clothes, weapons, boots, helmets… Anywhere a drop of Phoenix blood was splattered, they carefully scraped it off, wiped it away, or did whatever they needed to get it into a vial. After hours of hard work, they gathered a pitiful fifty drops of pristine crimson Phoenix blood.

There was much of it that fell on the ground, but that was impossible to collect. If it was possible, even licking it off the floor wouldn't be too far for him, but alas...

Dug held the bottle in his hands, looking at the minuscule amount they gathered, and sighed.

It was not enough. It was not enough so much that he wanted to cry. If he sold the stuff to the highest bidder he could probably get just about enough to pay off his monetary debts. But that was less than a tenth of what he needed.

If he showed his face there again, a fate worse than death would be all that was waiting for him. Some people you simply couldn't afford to disappoint. And his actions were bound to disappoint many of them. He knew them all too well.

He was never worried about a chance of failure.

He was either going to succeed or die trying! But now he was alive, and he had failed. His people? Most of them were dead.

Gear? Gone, destroyed, or used up.

Money? None left. He didn't even have a chance to regear and try again. And the Phoenix was probably going to avoid any human presence for the next decade anyway.

It was over, and he had lost.

Gustav placed a hand on his friend's shoulder and tried to cheer him up, "Come on, it's not all that bad… We can sell the blood, disappear to an island somewhere far, far away, and spend the rest of our days basking in the sun and drinking with pretty girls."

It didn't work. Dug was completely in his own world, deep in thought. He might be fine, but what about his family? He personally didn't have anyone special, but what about his brothers and sisters, his cousins? If he ran away they would most likely suffer retaliation from those people.

He sat down and just stared into the distance where the Phoenix disappeared to. It was minuscule, tiny as a grain of sand underneath his feet, and yet, some hope remained. He just sat there, praying for a miracle.

About an hour later, Gerald returned. Riding slowly on his tired Earth Dragon, he returned to the place of battle. He had a tired look on his face and a grim expression as he jumped down.

"I'm sorry," he said and shook his head. "I wasn't able to stop it. It got away."

Dug released a soft sigh and closed his eyes. He expected as much. And so, the last grain of hope was shattered.