"I'll be damned." Damon softly cursed under his breath.
Ms present threw a glance at him. The boy looked to be in denial.
Not surprising, after all, they just went from the frying pan, and into the fire.
For the first time in her life, Ms present regretted not following her father's orders.
A little over a week ago, some kind of seismic disturbance was felt around the general location of Black sands island.
When she heard her father was about to send an exploration group to figure out what was perhaps the emergence of a treasure, she pressured her father into letting her lead the exploration.
But instead of taking competent guards as her father ordered, she took a couple of Theta ranked guards. And she herself was only an Eta+ ranked aetherial.
Not long after they docked at the shore and ventured into the island, they were met with a large group of feral blue tigers.
Three out of the guards bought her supposed escape with their lives.
Sure they were loyal, and were willing to lay their lives for her, but them dying for her didn't necessarily mean she would survive whatever they encountered.
Usually she couldn't care less if they died. After all they were just some incompetent guards she decided to pick on a whim.
But at the end of it all, she was the one who brought them into that situation. So she would be lying If she said their deaths didn't weigh on her.
Also, without these remaining three, getting out of this hell in one piece would be hell of a task. Even though, she was fully confident of being able to do so.
So she decided to save them, if anything, it would make getting out of this hell easier. As soon as she came to this decision, she turned to the tensed Mira.
"Mira, without captain Baldor and ivan, the chances of getting out of here are zero. Our only chance is assisting them in destroy those abominations."
"But my lady...." Mira began to interject, but was cut off by Ms present.
"Enough, that is final."
She then turned to Damon with none of the humor in their earlier interactions.
"I want you to come with us."
Damon's brows furrowed.
'Huh? Who does this bitch think she is?'
If there was one thing both Damon and the former Damon agreed on, it was that they didn't like being told what to do.
Ms present ignored the frown marring his face, and continued.
"I know you're smarter than you look." she said calmly.
"Okay now I feel insulted." Damon muttered, his arm instinctively reaching for his face. 'But then again, this isn't my real face.' he thought.
"And I'm also sure you know that you alone cannot survive this hellscape. So here's my proposal. You help us save the others, and together, we can figure out a way to get out of this mess." She proposed.
"I think that the only option you have." she added.
As Damon listened to Ms present's pitch, he realized she was hitting on the right mark.
But she was wrong about one thing. That he had no options was only true for the him before black sands island. According to Damon, as he was now, he was probably the one who had the best chance of leaving the Ashen Deadlands alive.
Hell, he could simply spread his reflections in different directions, and anytime his main body encounters a threat, he could simply swap places.
Sure it was going to be a pain, but it was better than risking his life fighting against abominations for some people he only met yesterday.
Which is why, "You're kinda right, but that sounds very dangerous. And i love my life very much, thank you." Damon flatly refused.
Hearing his blunt refusal, Ms present was at a loss for words. One could even see a hint of frustration creeping up her face, before she manage to suppress it.
'Why isn't this idiot taking the bait?' she thought exasperatedly.
She inwardly composed herself, and decide to switch to another tactic. If trying to bait him using their collective situation didn't work, she would use another one of her ways.
A cold smile appeared on her face.
"Okay how about this?" she began. "If you help us deal with these creatures, and save my comrades, I can promise you anything you want. Be it money, resources, and even ties with a noble house."
'A very lucrative offer.' Damon thought. At least to someone who hadn't once been a prince. For Damon, these things were not priority at the moment. Getting out of here was.
But the human heart was known for being greedy. He wasn't a prince anymore, and right now save for the 21 golds knotts he still had, he had nothing else in his name.
"How much money and resources are we talking about exactly?" Damon put on his best expression of a business smile.
He had decided to accept Ms present's deal. But he was still going to spread his reflections to look for a way out. It would be even better if one of his reflections manages to find a way out first.
'The idiot is taking the bait.' Ms present inwardly thought.
"My lady, I don't think they can keep holding on for long if we don't act now." Mira spoke drawing their attention.
Most of the fog in the surrounding area had cleared by now. Even from a distance, one could see that both individuals fighting the creatures were barely holding on, and that their injuries were piling up.
And as Mira said, it won't be long before they go down.
Ms present turned back to Damon.
"As much reasonable as possible. We can discuss the terms later, but for now, time is of the essence."
Damon countenance turned serious.
"Fine by me." he nodded.
"Good, I'll support the captain, you two can support Ivan. Whichever team manage to dispose the of the creature first, would come help the other." Ms present spoke.
Seeing none of them object, she didn't say a word more.
Ms present unsheathed a narrow double bladed sword with a straight blade.
"Whoosh!" The ground beneath her feet showed faint signs of cracking as she shot towards captain Baldor and the undead he was up against.
The air cracked as with frost raced as Mira also shot towards Ivan, a surge of ice left in her wake.
Now only Damon remained stationary.
"Let's hope I don't regret this decision." he sighed. As he began walking towards the fight, two unseen phantoms separated from his body, and an instant later, two perfect replicas of him materialized.
Wasting no time, both the reflections sprinted in two different directions.
Damon had decided on two for now, since he still had a fight before him.
With a flex of his technique, aether flowed into Damon's muscles and bones enhancing their physical capabilities, and then finally his skin.
'Alright let's get this over with.' he thought. Damon knew he wasn't at their level, and all he could do was provide support whenever he saw the chance.
He watched as Mira's addition lessened the pressure on the Ivan by stunning the abomination with a massive ice burst.
Seizing the opportunity, Damon burst forward like an arrow released from a bow.
He reached the abomination like a spectre, his sword aimed at its chest.
–Clang!
The sound of the odious creature blocking Damon's sword with one of it's limbs was like that of a hammer hitting metal.
'Its claws are this hard?' Damon marvelled in disbelief.
But still, he didn't disengage. With a sharp pivot of his feet, he spun, swinging at the creature's head only for one of it's limbs to shoot towards his unguarded gut, giving him no choice but to abandon offense and jump backwards.
Even then, the creature's limb still scraped him, knocking the air out of him.
'Damn, just a light graze and it feels like a sledgehammer on his gut.' Damon thought as his boots skidded to a halt against the ground.
Even with Damon's attack thwarted, the creature gained no respite. Ivan's swung his longsword at the horrid creature with considerable power, forcing it to focus it's attention on him while Mira attacked it's flank with sharp jets of ice.
–SKREEEEE!
The creature screeched in agony as Mira's ice seared through it's flesh. Apparently the ice stung.
With this exchange, the uncanny group of three realized what they needed to do. They just had to go kamikaze on the creature, giving it no chance to recover or heal from the injuries they inflicted.
Mira and Ivan would attack together, making it focus on them, then Damon would catch it off guard and try to deal a fatal wound. The trio kept going on repeat like that for a while, suffering more injuries, before a chance to take it down finally appeared.
Seeing another opportunity, Damon encased his sword in aether, then rocketed towards the vile monstrosity with the use of mirage steps, making it seem as if he was leaving afterimages, thereby confusing the odious bastard.
Ivan and Mira instantly gave way as he reached the creature's side but not before the creature's claws viciously swiped at Ivan's calf.
"Arggggh!" Ivan screamed. The impact had mangled the the flesh in his calf, and shattered the bones in his shin.
Even with the successful assault at ivan, Damon's sword still slid through the creature's shoulder, cutting into its flesh, but couldn't reach the bone.
'Why the hell are it's muscles this hard?!' Damon thought in awe.
–SKREEEEE!
The creature let out another screech of pain, or perhaps anger.
"Hold it down!" Mira bellowed.
'What the hell does it look like I'm doing?' Damon inwardly cursed as the fiend grabbed into his sword with it's bare hands.
Mira rejoined the fight with a sharp stake of ice that tore through the other part of fiend's torso. And even with the injuries he sustained, Ivan steeled himself through the pain and with a sharp swing of his sword, cleaved it's head off.
"Thud!" The severed head hit the ground.
With it's head cleaved off, the creature slowly lost all animation, and the only thing keeping it standing was Damon's sword which was still embedded deep in its chest.
–Squelch–schlkk!!
Damon withdrew his sword from the creature's body, making it tumble down with a thud.
The three of them heaved a collective sigh of relief at the sight of the corpse. The bastard was able to mend it's wounds within seconds.
'No wonder he wasn't able to take it down alone.' Damon thought taking a glance at the crumpled figure of the knight in shining armor.
'Great heavens, Ivan are you okay?' Mira rushed to the Ivan who was barely holding back his urge to scream.
'Women and stupid questions. Does he look like he's okay?' Damon rolled his eyes.
From the knee down, Ivan's right leg looked as if a beast had chewed on it. The only attachment between the knee and the rest of the leg, were a few tendons. Frankly it looked disturbing.
'Yeaaah, he's cooked.' With Ivan's combat power crippled, he was a dead man walking, not that Ivan could even walk with the way his leg was, but you get the reference.
Damon himself wasn't unscathed. He had a few broken ribs, bruises covering most parts of his body, and his sword arm hung limply by his side.
'At least I'll heal up with some healing potion.' Damon thought. 'But him? not unless any one of the four has a healing ability.'
'Come to think of it, where are the remaining two? How come I'm not hearing any sounds of battle?' Damon frowned.
'Don't tell me they're...' Damon chilled at the thought.