When all the members arrived at the new location, their expressions completely changed.
"This..." Their faces grew grave.
They ignored the huge amount of mortal Rank blood and pieces scattered everywhere, and instead observed some spots which had Rank 1 as well as Rank 2 blood.
A few of them were bewildered as they noticed that all the Rank 1s and 2s here had died too swiftly. The poor spiders were not even close to being a match against their attacker, as there was no human blood, nor was there any large environmental damage.
After a quick survey of the battleground, Aria adjusted her spectacles with her index finger and reported her findings to the team.
"Six Rank 1 and two Rank 2 spiders died here, and countless—perhaps between five hundred thousand to a million mortal Rank Crimson Tide Spiders—have also met their ends here. Also, the ground is a little wet, not just with blood. The man-made pond is empty, yet the inside of it is still soft, which shows it was filled with water until recently. That's all."
All of them, including the newly arrived Thalia, sucked in a deep breath to calm their abnormally beating hearts.
This was a total massacre!
Probably all the Crimson Tide Spiders except the Rank 3 had perished in this place in one clean sweep. Just how powerful were the attackers? Master Rank?
All of them turned toward Stormborne to hear his findings.
Stormborne smiled bitterly and slightly lowered his feathered hat with his hand. "You guys won't like my deduction."
Tiberius's mouth twitched. "Captain, don't tell me... This was all done by a mid-stage Rank 1 Mana Wielder?"
Stormborne slowly shook his head.
Just as the rest of them were about to sigh in relief, Stormborne suddenly spoke words that nearly made them puke blood.
"Two mid-stage Rank 1 Mana Wielders."
Thalia tried to hold back her laughter but in the end couldn't and started laughing loudly. But soon her laughter came to a halt as she looked at the others with a puzzled expression.
Wasn't this supposed to be a joke from the captain? Why weren't they laughing? While most of them even had pondering looks...
Kairos thought deeply and in the end decided to hear what Stormborne had figured out. The entire thing was too abnormal. As a group that goes through life-threatening situations every now and then, they had to understand any such weird situation as much as possible and not just skip through it—or else it might come back and bite them one day.
He requested in a serious tone, "Captain, please tell us what you think and feel, even if it's just your guess."
The rest of them also looked at Stormborne with serious expressions, except Thalia, who was totally bewildered by everyone's expressions.
'Are they all serious? Do they really believe two Rank 1 Mana Wielders could do all this? Even two Rank 3s couldn't!'
She also turned toward Stormborne, waiting for him to say that this was all just a joke, and then she would laugh at her teammates for being such fools!
Stormborne slowly nodded. "Two mid-stage Rank 1 Mana Wielders fought these spiders, and one was the same—an extremely talented Water Element user. This person had killed almost all the Mortal Crimson Tide Spiders with the water collected from the pond. I'm not sure how. Though, since the Crimson Tide Spiders are weaker against the Water Element, it might have worked somehow. The other Mana Wielder had probably used a longsword or a similarly long, sharp weapon to fight. That's all I managed to gather."
Thalia's face turned ugly. She immediately cried out, "So, this wasn't a joke?!"
Everyone ignored Thalia, while Tiberius patted her shoulder while shaking his head as if she were hopeless.
Thalia's face turned green and blue, but she didn't retort further.
If all this was true, then she wished to fight these Rank 1 Mana Wielders personally to see if they were really that capable!
Perhaps she was too strong all along and just hadn't realized it. Seeing how amazing these Rank 1s were, she felt she was simply underestimating herself all this time!
Kairos sighed. He asked a question that made no sense, but he still asked, "Is it possible these Rank 1s were just hiding their true rank and playing 'sheep eating tiger'?"
"Possible," Stormborne smiled, "but why would they do that, especially since these traces of their presence would soon disappear? And from my own experience, I'll say that these mid-stage Rank 1s were very inexperienced."
He gently shook his head.
He also found the entire situation very strange. People who could fool others while lowering their ranks could usually only lower it by, maybe, one minor rank—and even if it was a major rank, a mid-stage Rank 2 still couldn't create this absolute massacre. Also, all clues suggested that these two had fought with their own capabilities and not by using some powerful artifact, though they definitely used high-tier weapons for certain.
The rest of them were still tongue-tied. At this moment, Aria addressed them, "Captain, with this we can understand why the Rank 3 Queen left in such a hurry after her evolution. But where did they all go? And these Apprentice Ranks—did they all perish under the Queen?"
What Aria suggested was reasonable, as running from a Rank 3 Mana Beast as a Rank 1 was nearly impossible.
Stormborne no longer held back and used his spiritual sense to its full extent, as there was no sign of the Rank 3 Queen anywhere within the village.
Suddenly, his expression changed drastically. He quickly pointed toward the east. "This direction." After saying that, he disappeared.
The others also didn't hesitate and dashed in the direction where Stormborne had pointed.
After running for a while, all five's expressions turned grim.
They could feel the area pulsating with the Rank 3 Mana Beast's presence—almost as if it had fought a life-and-death battle here and suffered heavy injuries.
When they arrived at the battle scene, their hearts started beating erratically.
They knew that a cataclysmic battle had taken place here—one that had obliterated everything in the area—and the battlefield only began from there, as they could see the devastation continued beyond their eyesight, perhaps for miles.
Thalia hugged herself and spoke while trembling, "W-Why do I feel so much Rank 3 Mana Beast presence all around, almost like... almost like..."
"It had bled a lot here," Kairos completed her sentence, to which Thalia gulped and nodded.
"But there are no bloodstains here—no, there are, but it almost seems like they were washed away. By rain?" Tiberius asked while looking everywhere.
"No, it was deliberately washed using normal water—and not only that, many things were intentionally removed from this place, including soil, rocks, destroyed trees, and other things," Aria concluded from her rough observation of the scene.
They were all confused and checked around, and indeed the area was quite odd. Perhaps after a few months, everything would seem normal—except the obvious destruction and the catastrophic battle that took place here.
It was hard to judge accurately what had happened here. Some things seemed due to battle, some seemed deliberate.
Aria pointed toward the far end, where the trees, rocks, ground, and everything seemed crushed in a wide, straight line—almost like a gigantic ball or a hill had been dragged along while destroying everything in its path for miles.
She didn't say anything more and hastened in that direction.
The others were not surprised, as they could sense Stormborne's presence from that direction far away, so they also followed behind Aria.
While sprinting, they couldn't help but admire the destruction. This was pure physical destruction—unlike spells or the cutting force of a blade.
It took them quite some time, and they finally arrived where Stormborne was. They glanced toward where he was staring.
The area in front of Stormborne was a large pond; nothing seemed too strange at first sight, except the pond was strangely in the middle of the destroyed environment. But soon, their faces scrunched up looking at the pond.
They then looked toward their left and felt their hearts palpitate with horror.
That area was very weirdly destroyed, as if a powerful advanced spell or something similar had been cast—but that was not why they were so shaken.
They felt a huge amount of the Rank 3 Mana Beast's blood—and perhaps internals—had been sprayed all across that area. It was almost like that place had taken a bath in a Rank 3's blood and organs.
They turned toward Stormborne for answers. Although they had their own guesses, they wanted to hear the truth of the matter from him.
Stormborne didn't know how to describe the fight. From his observation, everything seemed jumbled up and unreasonable—almost like the people who fought in this place were of a completely different breed. They didn't fight normally, like one would expect from a human or any creature, and also, the various actions taken by the Rank 3 Queen made no sense.
If the Mana Wielders participating in this battle were that powerful, then why fight like this? It almost seemed like it was a long, tedious battle.
Stormborne had never come across such a strange battle scenario ever in his long life—or even heard of one—especially since he knew what creatures had participated in the battle.
A battle between three mid-stage Rank 1 Mana Wielders and a Mystical-type Newborn-stage Rank 3 Mana Beast—just how ridiculous this already sounded—and that was not the most absurd fact either.
Stormborne thought a little and decided to be honest.
"Well... this was a very strange battle. Three mid-stage Rank 1 Mana Wielders against a Newborn-stage Rank 3 Mana Beast, and the Beast was thoroughly beaten throughout the battle. It was also heavily injured, and if my guess isn't wrong, one leg was completely severed off, and other legs were also heavily maimed. In the end, it was even forced to use its trump card..."
Stormborne raised his hand up for the others to see.
In his palm was a tiny shard of a white, bone-like structure—its diameter merely a few centimeters.
Stormborne had found it buried deep inside a surviving tree far away, toward the direction where the Rank 3's internals had spilled forth.
He had found no other pieces—clearly, everything was taken away from the place—and the Mana Wielder participants had even dug up soil and ground to take away everything, in case they left something behind. Which again made no sense, because if they were disguised Master Ranks, they could simply use their Spiritual Sense and not take away unnecessary things. Yet, it almost seemed like they couldn't do it and were truly just Apprentice Ranks.
Then just how could Apprentice Ranks even cut through a Crimson Tide Spider's Rank 4 armor? Not to mention take away the entire corpse? Even he would be hard-pressed to do all that.
"The Spider Queen's trump card was broken, and she somehow blew up from inside. The large amount of blood and organs which were forced to spill out were cleansed using river water flowing not far from here."
"I don't know the condition of the participating Mana Wielders of this battle anymore, or where they went. I can also no longer say for sure if they were truly Rank 1 or not—after all, the Rank 3's corpse is also gone. It is not something even I can take away inside my rings as a whole, especially if the Rank 3 Queen had released her Rank 4 armor."
The five of them silently listened. In the end, they just sucked in a cold, deep breath.
They were having headaches just from hearing all that. This event was just too weird—nothing made any complete sense. They desperately wanted to seek out the culprits and ask: What exactly are they—Mana Wielders or a new type of Mana Creatures?!
"Let's leave it as it is. They have gone too far for me to track—almost like they had flown or teleported somewhere. But one thing is for certain: the Newborn-stage Rank 3 Mana Beast is dead."