Shortly after, the battle naturally ended, the lizardmen were not enough, they had lost their strongest combatants and many had died in the first clash, eventually one by one they fell before the troops and their corpses were collected.
The group stayed to spend the night in that cache while Gloria recovered…
This is one of the most annoying things for Gloria, she did not know what the problem was with her cultivation technique, although her mother has a similar defect she is capable of using it for hours of combat and recovering does not take her more than 5 to 15 minutes, and on top of that her mother told her that even her own case is not something normal…
So why is this happening to her constantly, is it not a bit useless to have a technique centered on speed, but not have the endurance to use it for more than half an hour?
It is almost like having powerful muscles, but not being able to use them, that is her situation, that is why Gloria withdrew from her life as an adventurer and stayed doing casual jobs for her aunt Cecilia and uncle Johan, Isabella's parents, because with her condition she could hardly go out to hunt beasts for days on end without exposing herself to mortal danger easily.
And it is not that she is bad at fighting, her current maximum speed is 100 km/h (62.14 miles/h) and she could reach it in barely 15 seconds, her enemies can hardly keep up with her pace if they have the same level of cultivation, but the crimson energy accumulates in a horrible way inside her body, so although she can defeat opponents of her same level with some ease that is only if the fight does not drag on…
It is like the case of that girl Mariane, Feicui Long's disciple, when she reached the elemental realm grade 9 peak, she was no longer a match for Mariane, it is true that Mariane is a kind of Viscount rank leader and has great talent and cultivates a mixed Supreme God technique, being a terrible enemy, but even so at least they should fight on equal footing.
But Gloria was defeated simply because she could not defeat her rival in less time than she could endure… although well it is not like she could even injure her, that woman could deflect her cuts with her bare hands without energy coating, she had seen her fight against energy beasts and literally strangle them to death.
Gloria only sighed… she must find the cause of her problems or change techniques if she wants to continue having relevance both for the now county and the newly founded barony, how to do it she would think about later…
…
The next day Gloria realized that they were running out of space, so they passed by one of the hideouts and unloaded the resources from the caches, they really are not many useful things either, mostly food, water, ammunition and maintenance items along with some useless spare weapons made of mortal metals like bronze, iron and even copper.
The only valuable things are the energy beast hides which there are quite a few of, the energy stones, cores and materials from other energy creatures, it is obvious that the lizardmen are preparing for a long duration incursion.
Gloria then after unloading what they do not need tells them: "Let's continue, yesterday we managed to dismantle about 7, let's try to surpass ourselves again with about 9 or even 10."
Cathleya, the orc woman commander of these troops nods and says: "That's right, Miss Gloria is right comrades, we must dismantle them as quickly as possible."
…
Seven days passed, Gloria's team had managed to eliminate more than 75 caches in record time, with this 92 of the original 100 caches have been erased, but Gloria was not going to feel satisfied until they eliminated them all.
Today they started very early, since that encounter a few days ago, they have not found many enemies, it is almost as if they have eliminated almost all the force assigned to protect the caches.
The troops walk in a careful march in this treacherous forest, everyone learned how dangerous it can be a few days ago, they were almost ambushed by a group of ember wolves of about 75 members, if it were not because they made them get distracted by a group of fauns that was fighting against some lizardmen, they would not have survived…
When they see the first cache they smile, since they do not see any lizardmen, but even so they are not careless, Gloria takes out one of the surveillance golems that Feicui Long gave them to avoid traps and formations and releases it at the entrance of the cache.
The small golem of about 21 to 15 cm with an energy beast eye on its clay head, takes small and careful steps before using earth swimming and submerging into the ground to proceed deeper into the cache.
Gloria takes out a small sphere that shows them how the cache is an improvised hut, there is nothing interesting, except the shaman's totem which is used as a marker for the lizardmen.
She did not understand its functioning well, but it is very precise for them, Gloria then enters decisively and quickly cuts the totem after ordering them to take everything and leave…
By the afternoon they are about to destroy the last cache, on the way they run into Alexei who is idle along with his troops walking, looking for prey.
Alexei greets her saying: "Oh Miss Gloria what a coincidence, how has it gone with your task?"
Gloria smiles politely and tells him: "Mr. Alexei, very well, we are on our way to destroy the last supply cache, would you like to come with us?"
Alexei tilts his head and thinks about it before nodding saying: "Yes, why not?, after all we have gone 3 days without finding scouts, I think we already eliminated all those in the area."
The two teams join and march together, but despite that Gloria feels something a bit strange, she does not know why, but something tells her in her instinct that this was a stroke of luck for them.
After a few hours they could see the cache through a telescope, she realizes that her premonition was correct. From here she could see how a group of 105 lizardmen are gathered, she cannot hear what they are talking about, but she sees them arguing very angrily.
…
Mathenk'Ktek is very irritated, she arrived from the central camp in foreign lands because she heard a rumor she did not like, her young miss has disappeared and her life or death is unknown.
She finally cannot endure it anymore, she stayed in the central camp to respect the honor of the great serpent shaman, but her young miss has disappeared because of Malakli-Li who sent her in a miserable scouting group, just because she dared to eat a few prisoners, without consulting her.
The furious lizard woman, an imposing alpha with large muscles and clearly battle-hardened, with multiple scars and with her two battle axes on her back, looks at the other lizard woman while the breasts of both touch and tells her: "Malakli-Li damn bastard!, how dare you send my young miss without her escort!, do you think the shaman will save your Li clan from the wrath of the Ktek clan!?"
Malakli-Li her body visibly younger and practically clean of scars, but equally imposing or even more, since her muscles look a bit larger, combined with her royal blue scales give her a majestic appearance.
She not only does not look intimidated, but looks at the lizard woman with disdain: "Didn't you send a regiment of the dark spears to secretly protect her?, or are the elite Ktek troops so useless that they cannot even protect their young miss?"
Mathenk'Ktek looks at Malakli-Li with murderous thirst and tells her: "You are being too arrogant, do you think I would not dare to kill you here and now?"
Malakli-Li shrugs saying: "Would you be able to do it?"
Then extending her arms she turns looking at the other lizardmen and women and says: "This is why the Ktek clan lost the centennial swamps against the Viltek clan, you yourselves saw it, not only is your young miss useless in combat, incapable of protecting herself, but on top of that your elite fails in their missions, well… that is what happens when you follow heretical beliefs."
Mathenk'Ktek who was already steaming before finally cannot take it anymore, grabbing her pair of axes she performs a brutal attack, all the lizard women open their mouths in surprise and horror…
But then the axes are stopped dead by a powerful hand saying: "Stop."
A more imposing lizard woman of about 2 meters than the two appears holding the axes, but the voice does not come from her, but from the smaller lizard woman in front of her, the lizard woman bears symbols of a serpent and says: "The wise shaman has given an order, our sisters have been hunted nonstop, the enemy does not bother to hide, we have to go out and leave the auxiliary camp, if anyone opposes the order…"
The large lizard woman quickly pulls the pair of axes and lifts Mathenk'Ktek by the neck and the small one says: "I will not mind giving a lesson to the Ktek clan and killing one of their generals in front of everyone."
Mathenk'Ktek then stays still, she knows that this serpent shaman does not lie, one false step and she is in the next life…
Seeing that, the small one nods and the large one releases her, then passing by Malakli-Li's side she tells her in a very low voice: "Later you will tell me about the heresy of the Ktek clan…"
…
Gloria held her breath, thank goodness they did not attack recklessly, in that camp there are warriors in the ascending realm!, not one, not two, but 7 in total!, the worst were that small one and her two bodyguards, she could feel that their power is at least in the middle of the ascending realm or at least very close at third grade of the ascending realm.
Gloria then turns around and orders: "Hide yourselves with silence talismans and restrict your cultivation aura to the extreme, otherwise we will be dead if they notice us!"
All the troops including Alexei's obey without a word, while every second that passes of the march of the lizardmen troops becomes eternal…