Loud clacking noises came from the algae forest to the west. They heard some shouting, but the voices were drowned by the sound of what could only be described as a waterfall suddenly coming to life. Hera glanced at Vash, who was in her line of sight, hidden on top of one of the towers close to where they were setting up their ambush. With a knowing nod, Hera told her court to land on their hands. Everyone was close by, but they were hiding in the middle of the ruins just before the tunnel that would lead the humans to the doorway they had to take. However, to make sure they were all hidden, they weren't able to see each other. The solution was to use the court to give them signals. During the last few days, they realized that the room was too quiet, and the natural sounds of the place were very unique. It's not exactly scary or sinister, just very close to white noise. Because of that, voices and spoken words are carried farther away. Or at least, that was the impression they got. When one of them spoke, everyone else was able to realize that there was someone speaking close by.

That was why Hera suggested using her court for signals. Landing on top of their hands meant they had to get ready. A soft pushback meant that the humans were getting close, and a tap meant it was go time. More yells and sounds of spells being tossed around echoed across the area, and they seemed to be escalating. A small part of Hera hoped the humans would get defeated by the monsters. It would be easier to get the research materials, whatever they were, from the monster than from people who could actually try to run away in order to complete a mission. She frowned for a moment, thinking about her reaction. In this fight, she would have to kill the humans, but there wasn't a part of her that saw a problem with that. Maybe it was because of Silah and the anger she still felt about the experiments that the guild was doing, or maybe she had become numb to the idea. And it wasn't as if she wanted to kill anyone. She wouldn't feel pleasure doing so. Their deaths would just be a means to the end.

All other team members were also on board with this. Even if they didn't like the idea, what the guild was doing couldn't be allowed to continue. According to the intel they got in the file, this group of humans was also part of the experiments, and not just some random people who were tricked into participating in this. Killing them would also give the Alliance a better chance to pretend they had nothing to do with this as long as Hera and her team were able to hide their tracks, which was very much the plan. And so far, things were falling into place. The humans were only attacked by the monsters because of the trap Vash and Skyler set up. By using the call of one of the weaker monsters here, they were able to lure the crabs to their position, and a secondary spell made them angrier than usual.

The noise stopped, and soon, Viper warned, 'They are coming here. One of them is injured; their arm is hurt, but it's already being healed,' the Spymaster was flying as high as he could while using the hidden frontal screen to stay hidden while out in the open.

Hera nodded and told the rest of the court the same. The ones who were working as messengers gave a soft push to the rest of the team. The Empress also told Forge to use his skill. He was inside one of the ruins, surrounded by a soundproof bubble with Gale by his side. This was the weapon that was going to be awakened this time. He didn't get a new element like Ember, and the awakening effect was the same, doubling all the scaling and making skills more powerful while the cooldown was lower. The spear was also visibly different. Before, it had a brown handle with a silver edge engraved with flowing green lines to trigger the wind ability. Now, the handle turned almost translucence, and the blade was a beautiful shade of green. There was also a pair of long jade strands coming out of the greed edge in a spiral. He also didn't get a new skill, but there was one skill that changed significantly.

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Awakened Wind Fury: The wind can understand your intentions even better than you do. With this skill active, the weapon creates 2 wind clones to follow up your attacks. The wind clone attacks deal between 80% and 150% of the damage dealt by the original. Your luck stat influences the number and damage of the attacks.

Duration: 1 minute

Cooldown: 30 minutes

Mana Cost: 3 000 000.

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The skill became more expensive, but even so, Hera believed it was worth it, especially since the effect would also duplicate her court. Gale got closer to the Empress, allowing himself to be wielded by her just as the humans got close enough for them to hear their voices.

"I still don't get what the fuck was that. Since when are those fucking crabs this aggressive?" a man complained while looking at his exposed arm. The sleeve of his armor had been ripped out.

"Just shut up, will you? We killed it, and we moved on," this time, a woman spoke, but it still wasn't the person carrying the box.

"Fuck you. This still hurts. It doesn't matter if you can heal it," the man scoffed.

"Fine. I won't heal you next time, then," the woman started stomping her feet, moving a bit ahead of the group.

"Can the two of you wait to bicker when we are done? No one is enjoying this," the man who was carrying the box said.

They stopped talking for a moment and continued getting closer to the place where they would be ambushed when one of the other five raised their hand, making them all halt. He was the only one wearing a dark red cloak, while the others all wore black. "There is something wrong."

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"What?" the woman asked.

"I don't know. It's just a feeling," the man replied.

"Now you have a feeling. Where was that before the crab showed up?" the man without a sleeve huffed.

"Shush!" the last of the five, a woman with long black hair, walked forward, her head down, looking at the ground for something.

Just as she crouched, Roan poked Ink, who was by his side, giving the signal to go. He was one of the three members of the team who could do that. The beastmen had his enhanced senses, the harpy was in a tower, getting a better view of the area, and the Ophidianite had her court spread around the area. When Roan gave the signal, all the court members poked the team, telling them it was time to strike.

Everyone sprung into motion. Skyler triggered a spell aimed at the humans to disorient them with a high-pitched sound; Neria pulled the water from the surrounding area to create a wave and make them fall. Roan and Flint both jumped at the closest people, the long-haired woman and the man with a dark red cloak. Vash jumped and dove down, playing a tune to buff the team while he got closer. Unfortunately, he was the farthest away from the rest, which meant he would still take a few moments to arrive. Hera also had a brief delay. She was connected to the pool of Styx spell, and despite the size of this one being much smaller, with a radius of about 50 meters or so, it still took a moment for her to connect every strand of mana together and trigger it.

That didn't mean she left her team alone since her court was with them, providing cover and helping during the fight. As the humans realized that there was something going on, the one carrying the box tried to run away while the others moved to protect him. Skyler's spell was only able to make them a bit dizzy, but they were strong enough to overcome it. With Roan and Flint being blocked and Skyler and Neria being attacked by the remaining pair, it looked like the courier had a clear path to escape. Or that is what he thought. Just as he split from the group and started to gain some distance, a pair of tonfas flew from the side, slamming against his legs and making him fall. As a follow-up, a large two-handed axe came crashing down. The man spun to the side, avoiding the blow, but he was stopped by a recently materialized pair of thick armored legs of the Leviathan. Without missing a beat, he triggered a skill that let him dash forward, turning into mist even from that precarious position. Unfortunately for him, mist was the one thing that he shouldn't have used. As his body became that fog, a massive silver snake made out of the same material appeared from the shadows, wrapping herself around him and squeezing. Since both were currently mistreated, one could interfere with the other.

Daskka opened her mouth and was about to snap it shut around the courier's head when the man regained his physical form in an attempt to escape. He slammed on the ground since the snake had pulled him up and noticed wisps of purple, orange, and green floating around just as some of his attributes suddenly dropped. Before he could understand what was going on, a pair of large feet slammed against his back as Livy jumped on top of the courier, voiding the box on his back. There was a loud crack sound, but it wasn't enough to break the man's spine, only damaging some of the bones. Lurize, Viper, and Crimson appeared right after that, aiming their weapons at the man's neck. The first handful of attacks were stopped by various barriers and protections he had in place, but after a few moments, they wore out and allowed the court to finish him off. Nimbus also didn't waste time and grabbed the box, getting it away from the body.

"You filthy creatures!" the man in the red robes snarled as he kicked Roan to the side, used the vegetation to pin Ink down, and dashed towards Nimbus and the titled blades, brandishing a katana to attack them. But just a few meters after leaving Roan, he was blocked by someone else.

"Don't talk shit about my kids," Hera used Gale to push the katana down to the ground and force the man to spin around, stopping with his back against the titled blades who currently all had a single mission, take care of the box.

"Are you running a monster orphanage?" the man snarled and pulled his katana back, going for an upward swing. Hera parried it, but there was another strike following it up. She tried to block it again, but this time, the tip of the blade grazed her armor, triggering the wasp wings to protect her.

Tapping her foot on the ground, she turned the water on the floor into ice and started sliding, using the Dorohla Style made by the Naga to fight. Even then, the attacks of the man with the red robes didn't stop, nor did they become any easier to defend against. With each move, he seemed to become stronger, faster, and more precise. He should be a fighter or an explorer with the rage skill to improve his abilities. Or worse, someone who had a ramp-up skill and the worst was still to come.

Trying to avoid getting hurt, the Empress triggered her earth elemental armor, but even that was cut by the man's weapon. She wasn't getting a chance to strike back or even cast spells, and it wasn't as if the rest of the court could come help. They were all fighting against the other humans who were more powerful than they expected and realized the flying weapons were trying to come to help the Ophidianite. The man struck again and again, making progressively bigger cuts on her body, and his katana seemed to grow with each strike, doing something similar to what Crimson did, absorbing her blood to grow stronger.

Realizing that if things kept going like this, her titled blades would intervene and potentially lose the box, the Empress triggered Gale's [Awakened Wind Furry], creating two copies of herself to fight by her side. The entire rest of the court also got one copse thanks to the [Army Of One]. In addition, seeing that she was far enough away from her team members, she activated [Toxic Mist], creating a thin layer of orange mist that started to spread from her body, covering an area of 10 meters. Finally, Forge also used the [Phoenix Touch] skill, igniting all the court members and their copies with Sacred Fire, the fire that could heal their wounds and damage their enemies.

The man in the red cloak coughed in the mist and tried to attack again, but he was blocked by the two copies of Hera, who pinned his weapon on the ground. Any advantage he had in this fight was now gone, and Hera was going to make the most out of it.