The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 723  Through The City

The mage with Othello sealed the ceiling with a barrier, and Karl closed it completely with the [Stone Barrier] spell, locking them all back inside.

Then the mage cast a spell that brought the main barrier back online, though it was nearly out of mana storage. Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"We can open the barriers again when it's time to leave. But for now, we all need to rest and recover before we make ourselves a vulnerable target." He explained.

Karl shrugged. "That's fine by me. But isn't this a bit too much? It sounds like a full invasion of the Royal Palace and surrounding area. Nevertheless, they're so confident that they're not even trying to hide their identities. I get that we're not exactly the most feared nation on the continent, but they've got some serious guts."

The group with Othello nodded in agreement, but the Paladin frowned. "Some of the bounties say that the claimant will get a large plot of land in return. Now, I don't know about you, but unless it's the leader of a nation, doesn't that sound a lot like they're planning to completely topple the Golden Dragon Nation?"

Karl paused while he considered that. "I think it is possible. If there was some rumour spreading among the other nations that the Archbishop was in poor health, would that not embolden them? Without our Totem Rank strength, we're even less organized than other nations, who have Overlords in Towers all over their maps."

Othello chuckled. Karl might have slightly misunderstood the actual politics of the other human nations, but it was true that most of the Towers were headed by Overlords, and they were spread fairly evenly over the nations, with each of them controlling a section of farmland and surrounding villages as their own semi-autonomous region.

"Speaking of which, where are the other two? Did they get away?" Othello asked.

Karl shook his head, and Remi hissed an answer. {We didn't permit them to leave. There just weren't any bodies left.}

That reminded her. She was getting sloppy, and she needed to clean up the last one for Sister Rae's bath.

The Monarchs gave her a strange look as she used a tiny [Cyclone] to wash the floor and made the body vanish, but when she was done, it was like no battle had ever happened.

Karl passed out fruits and roast meats from Remi and Hawk's spaces, so everyone could recharge as the waited, and Othello began to draw a map.

"The communications are out again. There is a Mana Storm forming over the city, and it's interfering with all sorts of electronic signals. We can talk to others in the city still, but even contacting the Capital was sketchy. They had to try three times before we could understand that they needed us to send teams here. The storm is getting stronger as well, so we should try to either regroup or clear an area of the surface before the actual storm part of the mana storm begins."

"Too late. I can hear the drops falling on the barrier above us. It looks like we will be fighting in the rain." Karl sighed.

Othello shrugged. "Better than fighting in a basement."

-------------------------

On the other side of the city, back at the apartments in the Palace, Dana slowly removed a dagger from her arm as she stared down at the body of a Palace Guard.

The man had suddenly attacked her, and he had died just as quickly. Dana's spell had hit after he was already dead, executed by his former comrades for his apparent treason.

But she wasn't bleeding. A waft of black mist extended from her arm as the dagger was removed, and it healed before Lotus even had a chance to see if it was poisoned.

"What was that?" She asked, shocked at the sudden assassination attempt.

Cara knew it instantly. [Thor, tell her that she's got Void Body active. Remember how Karl said that the new Scaly Leafa Golem heals the whole team? Well, he's got Void Body active all the time. We just didn't notice because nobody is dumb enough to stab one of us.]

Thor relayed the explanation to the rest of the team, while the Guard Captain stared at Dana in awe. Then he snapped out of it.

"You need to cleanse her anyhow. That dagger is poisoned. When whatever healing spell she has active wears off, the poison will take effect." He insisted.

Once that was done, a tense situation began to build in the room. One of the Guards was a traitor, which meant that there might be more traitors among the Palace Guard, both in this room and elsewhere in the Palace.

But they had no way to tell who was and who wasn't. It wasn't like they were disguised Giants, just humans with different loyalties. A foreign spy didn't see himself as a traitor. He was loyal to his actual employer, and possibly even a noble person, so his soul wouldn't look suspicious with Soul Sight.

And they had hired far too many foreigners for the Royal Guard.

Outside the room, the storm was raging. The air crackled with lightning and magic, while the wind howled and the rain poured down.

It was getting stronger by the second, and the gardens outside were already starting to flood.

The radio calls had mostly fallen silent, as the constant thunder made it too difficult to get a clear signal through, and the battle was beginning to wind down. The attackers had begun to retreat, either after completing their assignment, or when the danger level got too high for their power.

The declining battle hadn't reduced the fury of the mana storm building over the city, and Tessa could feel the power crackling on her skin as the events in the region drew the attention of her patron deity.

In contrast, Lotus was nervous, as the storm was not a natural phenomenon. Something was happening, and all of her training as a Priestess hadn't covered anything like this.

Especially when the power in the clouds began to rotate, creating mana tornados in the upper atmosphere.

That was the signal for the last of the attackers to flee the city before it was no longer possible. The storm would interfere with any sort of spell casting, and soon it would be nearly impossible for a mage or magic type class to do even defend themselves.