While the trio were going kamikaze on the creature they were fighting, the undead fighting captain Baldor didn't even stand a chance once Ms present joined.
In fact it seemed like they were toying with the detestable beast for the sole reason that anytime the creature was about to make contact with either of the duo, it's momentum would suddenly slow down to a crawl giving the two more than enough time to deal the horrid creature extreme damage.
From the outside it seemed like the creature would suddenly stop, waiting to be cut.
All these phenomena had to do with the effects of Ms present's initial ability. And it was also why she was confident that she could get out of the Ashen Deadlands even if she were to be alone.
Ms present's initial ability was a localized temporal field. In said field, she could manipulate the relative time of herself, others, and even the environment.
Due to that, the creature was dealt with relatively quicker than the one on Damon's side.
A minute, two, three, after they had defeated the undead, Ms present didn't move an inch in an effort to go support Damon and the others.
At the fourth minute, captain Baldor couldn't hold himself any longer.
"My lady, I can still hear the sounds of battle. I think we should hurry to help before anything untoward happens." The bald man spoke.
During the fight, the two groups had strayed away from each other. They couldn't see the others, and the fog was not helping. The only thing they could perceive from the fog, were the sounds.
Ms present looked the bald man up and down. The man was injured, but not serious enough to impair his fighting capability. Nothing some healing potions wouldn't fix.
"Hold your horses captain Baldor. You heard Ivan, there is more than one of these undesirable creatures. If the three of them can't even deal with a single one..." Ms present paused, "I see no purpose in saving them. After all they would just die all the same."
"But my lady...." he began, but was cut off by Ms present's interjection.
"Chill down will you? if they're half competent, they'll survi...." she suddenly stopped, before her lips broke into a cold smile.
"Ah, would you look at that, silence." she chuckled. The sounds of battle had ceased. Either they had defeated the fiend, which was most likely to be the case, or they had lost, which was less likely the case. But she was more on the former.
And a few minutes later, she was proven right when they heard steps being made their direction. And in the fog, she soon saw the silhouette of two figures.
'Two figures?' she mused. 'I guess the idiot didn't make it. A pity, he was quite amusing.'
But as the figures became more visible, she realized something was wrong. One of the figures was said idiot. And that wasn't the only thing, were they... running?
***Damon's POV***
'Come to think of it, where are the remaining two? How come I'm not hearing any sounds of battle?' I thought.
'Don't tell me they're...' I chilled at the thought.
'No Damon, be positive.' I chided myself. If they were dead, who the hell was going to pay me the money and resources I was promised for my troubles?
"Cut... off my leg!" Ivan's wheezing voice cut through my train of thoughts.
"Wait... is he serious?!" I asked baffled.
Mira instantly protested.
"What?! I can't do that!" she exclaimed.
"Do it!" he rasped. "At least I'll be free from the pain."
"Damn it." Mira cursed. "Fine, bite on this." She tore a piece of her cloth.
Ivan accepted the cloth, and stuffed it into his mouth, then urged her to go ahead with a nod.
"Sigh, don't make me regret this." A sharp icicle materialized in her hand, before she used it to sever the tendons holding the mangled lower leg to his knee.
"Mmmphhh!" A muffled scream broke from his mouth. His face gained a new shade of pale.
Mira hurriedly brought out two bottles from a spatial storage, uncorked one, and poured the liquid it contained on Ivan's stump. Then made him drink the contents of the second bottle.
It wasn't until the stump started healing, that Ivan's face grew less constipated.
Meanwhile, I also gulped down a vial of healing potion.
"Hhhhm, how refreshing." I hummed as my body slowly started repairing itself. It'll take a few hours give or take, before I'm back to my optimal state.
After she finished tending to Ivan, Mira turned to me.
"Captain Baldor and my lady must have disposed of that creature by now, so we should hurry and meet up with them."
'Seems she's so confident about Ms present's strength.' I thought.
"Yeaaah, about that..." I drawled glancing at Ivan. "You said there were more than one of these creatures, so how many exactly did you sense?" I inquired.
Ivan nodded. "I sensed two more besides the one captain Baldor was fighting." he replied.
I stiffened. "So there's still one more. Can you sense where it is at the moment?" I asked calmly. But inwardly, I was anything but calm.
'It better not be anywhere near here.' I grimaced.
He nodded, then closed his eyes as if in concentration.
A few seconds later, his eyes suddenly snapped open. A look of pure terror appeared in his eyes.
"What's wrong?!" I hastigly inquired while looking all around us.
"The third one..." he paused. "It's near captain Baldor and my lady!"
'Ah thank God!' I inwardly heaved a sigh. I didn't have it in me for another fight right now. If that undead had been anywhere near us, I was fully prepared to swap away.
But it appeared that Mira and Ivan didn't have the same sentiments as me.
"What?!" Mira exclaimed, eyes widened. "Then we can't dally any longer, we have to go there immediately!"
"I'm sorry, we?!" I asked with a tilt of my head. I was not getting anywhere near that thing.
Mira stood up frowning.
"It's part of the deal you made with my lady is it not?"
My face fell.
"Well yes."
"God forbid, but if my lady falls, there will be no one to give you what you were promised."
'Is she retarded?' We were in no condition to fight another one of those creatures. Ivan was useless, Mira was...well, much like myself, with a few broken bones here and there. And I was sure captain baldy and Ms present were also injured or at the very least exhausted.
And about what I was promised? what will what I was promised do for me once I was unalived, or worse get turned into a frickin zombie.
But... "Fine." I sighed. 'This is gonna end well.' I inwardly added.
"Ivan," Mira crouched. "You'll direct us while I carry you."
Ivan hesitated, glancing at me, but perhaps because it had to do with their lady, he didn't protest and quickly got on her back.
"They're about two hundred meters in that direction." Ivan gestured north, or at least where I thought north was.
And so we took off in said direction.
About ten seconds later, we began to see two figures through the fog. A few more steps, and the fog was finally thin enough for our eyes to see the figures clearly.
The moment Ivan could see them clearly enough, he all but screamed.
"Captain, my lady, there's one of those creatures not far behind you."
Ivan's voice had not finished echoing when a violent "THRAKK!" sounded through the air.
A huge tentacle with a width the size of my torso had lunged from beyond the fog and gripped captain Baldor's torso with impossible speed.
I instantly froze, no everyone one froze.
'What the fuck?!'
"CREEEEAK!" The tentacle squeezed. The sounds of captain Baldor's bones creaking under the might of the grip unfroze us.
As for the bald man himself, he couldn't even scream. Blood slowly started dripping from his nose and he was getting blue, perhaps from the lack of oxygen.
Mira, Ivan, and I, stared, eyes widened in terror, and Ms present?, Ms present was stealthily moving away from the scene of action. She was halfway breaching the distance to us when,
"SPLUTCH!" A sickening pop echoed in the surrounding as Captain Baldor's head popped off–blood spurting from his remains.
'Dead... he's dead just like this?' my mind couldn't comprehend just how quickly he had died.
"RUNNN!!!!" Ms present sped away, her yell tore through the air– breaking me from my dazed state.
I sent a burst of Aether through my lower limbs, then broke into a sprint after Ms present, with Mira trailing right behind me.
"SHLARRP!" A slapping sound echoed in the air.
I instinctively glanced back, and then I saw it. Ivan's body had fallen off Mira's back, or more precisely, a tentacle had wrapped around his sole ankle.
"SAVE MEEEEEE!" he cried as the tentacle disappeared with him beyond the fog.
Mira's steps faltered, but she hesitated only for a second, before steeling herself and then dashing past me.
"Ah shit, now I'm the one left behind!" I cursed in frustration.
"SHLARRP!"
"I'll be damned!" Another tentacle had clasped onto my upper body.
"CREEEEAK!" I tried to resist, but it kept increasing the pressure on my body.
'Ahhhh, shit!" Was the last thing I said, before my body shattered into shards of light with a soft crack.