Ambush

“Tch. They saw through us,” Saaya exclaimed, annoyed.

After having been tricked by the investigation team, Saaya decided to let Meixia go and jumped towards the quadrupedal troglodyte walking on all fours and landed on its back.

Everyone then came out of their carriage, except for the Premier and the Crown Prince.

Zum went out of the golden carriage, to see what was happening. He saw Saaya on top of the troglodyte’s back, with the mysterious shadowy figure that attacked them the other day.

“Chief Saaya....?”

He was still processing what was happening. He didn’t understand the situation, since he was not given any briefing about the plan either, as he was also a suspect.

“Everyone, get into position! Get ready for battle!”

The Lord Commander ordered everyone to stay alert. The Lord Commander, Arudo, Meixia, and Xiaohui prepared themselves to fight the three enemies in front of them.

“Princess! I’m counting on you to keep His Divinity and the Crown Prince safe!” the Lord Commander exclaimed.

“Understood, Sir!”

Zum was frozen still. He didn’t know what to do.

“Zum, Saaya is an enemy. She betrayed us,” Arudo said to Zum, trying to make him realise what was going on.

“Wh–what...? No, that’s not....”

“We have been investigating it and we found out that she is a spy. We now have to arrest her.”

Zum felt like his mind is shattered. He couldn’t believe that Saaya betrayed them.

“Here you go, Four.”

The mysterious shadowy guy gave Saaya cloak that was similar to the one he was wearing. She then changed her cloak to the one that the guy gave to her. They had the same attributes, meaning that they were working together.

“Thanks, Hamlet.”

On the back of Saaya’s cloak, there was number 4 printed on it. However, there was no number on Hamlet’s back–– the mysterious shadowy guy.

“Saaya, as a punishment for betraying the team and attempting to kidnap the Premier, I sentence you to die,” the Lord Commander shouted at her, declaring his intention of killing her.

“Please, call me Four,” she said, confessing her true name.

An all-out fight finally broke out. Although outnumbered, the three of them did not have trouble dealing with the Sacred Guards.

Saaya–– whose real name turned out to be Four––fought the Lord Commander on her own. Arudo and Meixia fought Hamlet, the shadowy guy. Meanwhile, Xiaohui and Yumi fought the troglodyte who was trying to take the Premier and the Crown Prince away.

Haru finally grasped the current situation at hand and took some action. He brought the black carriage closer to the red carriage which contained the Premier and the Crown Prince to let them two come into the black one, grouping them together with the Holy Monastic. Haru did this so that he could focus on guarding one carriage.

“Your Divinity! Your Grace! Come!”

The two of them swiftly stepped out of their carriage and moved to the black carriage. Although the troglodyte tried to grab them on their way there, Yumi and Xiaohui blocked its arms so that it couldn’t reach them. After the three of them got in the same carriage, Haru then went to Zum.

“Zum, please take care of them.”

Since Zum was still in shock and he couldn’t fight, Haru decided to entrust him with protecting the Premier, the Crown Prince, and the Holy Monastic. Haru then joined Xiaohui and Yumi to fight the troglodyte.

“Haru! It’s been so long since we fought together, huh?”

Yumi was excited to fight alongside Haru, despite the chaotic situation. The last time they fought together was in the academy, which was years ago.

The troglodyte was a giant with twice the size of all four carriages combined together. It walked on all fours, with each finger the size of an average-sized human. It also had an elongated mouth which gave it an advantage to chomp on enemies with a longer range. It was bigger than the orc they were fighting on the day of the Lantern Festival.

“So, what’s the plan?” Xiaohui asked Yumi and Haru before getting into action.

“This troglodyte is an A-class monster. Every monster has a core that acts as a source for their fyx energy. Once we destroyed its core, it will vanish.”

As an Exorcist, Yumi was more than experienced in dispelling monsters. She dealt with monsters and ghouls every day for work.

“How do we find that?” Xiaohui asked.

“The source has to be somewhere in its body. Search for a particular part of its body that is concentrated with fyx,” Yumi explained.

Without letting them finish their strategy, the troglodyte swung its head to sweep the three of them away. Xiaohui and Haru managed to jump on time to avoid it, while Yumi tried to block it with her arms.

Yumi stopped its head from pushing her away. She then charged a punch concentrated with fyx energy and sent it to its cheek.

“Groaaaarrrr!!!”

The troglodyte screamed in pain. Yumi packed a lot of damage in her punch.

While the troglodyte was distracted by Yumi, Xiaohui and Haru climbed on its arm to reach for its back. They searched for its core.

Yumi used medix to coat her eyes, a special technique used by Exorcists to find a monster’s core. She tried to detect the source of the troglodyte’s core.

Before Yumi could get a thorough scan of its body, the troglodyte grabbed her without her realising it. She was too focused on scouting that she forgot to defend herself.

“Yumi!”

Yumi was captured in its hand, clenched tightly. Yumi tried to escape, but the troglodyte was too strong for her to get away from its grasp.

Yumi then added more fyx energy to coat her whole body. Her fyx energy aura was so thick that the troglodyte started to lose its grip due to the pain Yumi caused to it. After a little bit of space was opened, Yumi then sent a kick using her knee to its palm. The troglodyte was in pain and lost its grip on Yumi.

Yumi’s fyx energy texture was coarse and rough, like a sandpaper. It was a very useful defence mechanism as it could also be used offensively. Every physical attack from Yumi dealt more damage when added with her fyx energy texture.

Because Yumi hurt the troglodyte, it then struggled and shook Xiaohui and Haru on its back. They lost their balance and made them fall to the ground.

Unlike Xiaohui who safely landed on the ground, Haru fell pretty badly. His legs got injured from the fall and he couldn’t get up.

The troglodyte noticed the two who fell from its back, lying on the ground. It then tried to slap them using its hand, trying to squash them into bits.

The troglodyte was too fast for Haru to dodge. Since Haru couldn’t stand from his injury, he was about to get hit by its attack.

Before the troglodyte’s attack landed on him, Xiaohui drew the photon blades from his spear and swung it at the troglodyte’ wrist. Its hand then detached from its wrist and fell to the ground.

“GRaAAaAawRrRr!!!”

The troglodyte screamed in pain as its hand fell to the ground. The hand detached from its wrist then slowly started vanishing into thin air. Meanwhile, its wrist which Xiaohui cut started exuding fyx energy.

“Be careful! It can regenerate!” Yumi exclaimed.

The troglodyte started regenerating its hand after being cut by Xiaohui. Slowly, parts of its hand started reappearing.

While Yumi was stealing the troglodyte’s attention, Xiaohui immediately healed Haru’s legs using medix.

“You’re a healer?” Haru asked in surprise.

“Not as good as Meixia, but yeah.”

Although he just learnt medix recently, Xiaohui turned out to have a talent for healing. Not everyone had the ability to heal, so it was really quite a special ability.

medix healing helped to heal someone by stopping further injury and accelerating their metabolism for a quicker recovery process. The recovery itself depended on the injured person’s metabolism and the healer’s healing capability. It was also important to note that the healing needed some time to process and it couldn’t recover lost limbs or any other body parts.

Seeing that Haru was injured and being healed by Xiaohui, Yumi decided to distract the troglodyte to keep it occupied. Yumi then came up with a plan to dispel the troglodyte completely.

Meanwhile, inside the black carriage, the Premier, the Crown Prince, and the Holy Monastic were sitting inside the carriage vigilantly. They hesitated on what to do.

“Should we go out and help them?” Yujin asked.

Seeing that his sister, his best friend, and other Sacred Guard members were fighting the enemies made him want to step outside and join the fight alongside them. Haneul was also thinking the same.

“Apologies, Your Divinity, Your Grace. I would suggest you not to go join them. It’s gonna be hard for them to fight while keeping you two safe,” the Holy Monastic stopped them.

“But––”

“It’s better if we stay here, so they can focus fighting. Let’s trust them.”

After hearing his opinion, the two then decided to remain in the carriage, waiting for them to finish the battle. All they could do was pray for the safety of the people fighting for them.