“What can you see?”

Oscar Ball was running a quite complicated magic, but still had the leisure to answer Arthur’s question.

“I think it’s an 8th tier.”

“Are you sure?” Arthur said with a grimace. “Let me see.”

Oscar used air magic to lift Arthur up. From a point dozen meters above the ground, the pair had an uninterrupted by the forest line of sight on their target.

“So? What do you think?” Oscar asked Arthur.

“I think you are right. It’s two tiers above us. That will be problematic.”

Oscar’s spell created a few meters wide telescope in the air. Layers of compressed and decompressed air created lenses, allowing the pair to observe monster’s details even from dozens of kilometers.

“It’s some reptile. Seems like a snake, but it’s an 8th tier. After seven evolutions…” Oscar was carful with his assessment.

“Snakes are neither social nor that smart. We may be able to take it down.” Arthur was looking a bit excited about the fight. Oscar saw that as an inexperience. He was 195 years old and was nearing his end. Arthur was the same tier as him, but he was only in his fifties. Old age for a second or third tier human, but not for them.

“Well, it’s an 8th tier, if you haven’t heard me earlier. Even if it was stupid before it’s no longer the case.”

“The rest still stands. It should be weaker than an average 8th tier.” Arthur was not giving up.

“If it survived to this point, it’s not weak. Most likely it has some innate magic”

Normal magic was highly unlikely in this case. Magical knowledge of humans was accumulation of thousands years of practice and research. Some solitary monster could never reach similar level of magic skill as the pair had. Not unless it was hundred thousand old, which was also extremely unlikely. Even though Arthur was a close combat fighter, and wasn’t interested in research and development of spells, he knew a dozen of spells for practical use.

Oscar continued. “We also can’t be certain about its other skills. It could change class skills with each class change. It’s an 8th tier - the snake experienced changing class seven times. “

“But you know that we need to do something, right?” Arthur asked. “By the way, how long until it reaches the frontier?”

“It depends how long it will take for sleeping, hunting, and if it change its pace. I suppose… a week. Maybe a bit more.”

“So, what do we do? I think the reconnaissance is completed.”

“Let’s engage.”

“What?” Arthur was surprised. He expected Oscar to retreat and inform the king and the rest of dukes. Arthur and Oscar were dukes – people with 6th tier battle strength. Humanity had only 6 such individuals. The king was in the 7th tier.

“Plan B” Oscar said.

“Ok.” Arthur was visibly reluctant about that course of action.

Both of them started running toward the enemy. After few hours they were close to their destination. The two were very fast. Oscar, even though he was a mage and very old, he was still in the 6th tier. His physical abilities, while not comparable with Arthur’s, were still way above ordinary people in 2nd or 3rd tier.

Oscar took a vial from his bag and drank the content.

“Are you sure? I will have quite a problem if you die.”

“Don’t worry. Just taking some intelligence enhancing potion won’t kill me. Actually, I am planning a small essence sacrifice, so I will depend on you to take me away.”

“I thought you didn’t trust me.” Arthur said with a tone of joking around.

“It’s different.” Oscar has a calm and serious face. He didn’t believe Arthur will betray him. ‘In the imperial court? Sure, we are all backstabbers fighting for limited resources. Here? Never.’ Oscar obviously couldn’t be absolutely sure, but there was no other choice. Imperial court always had been saying that unity is the most important factor, if humanity want to survive. ‘ Even if the empire is only in name, I agree. Arthur also has no other choice’ Oscar thought.

“Well, I suppose I should use this,” said Arthur while taking few vials and drinking the content.

The snake was hundred meters long and a meter and half wide. Its scales were metallic black. The pair was three hundred meters from it. The snake didn’t bother with the pair. Normally, beings one tier lower are most desired prey. The two humans’ tier were lower by two than the snake. They were only some light meal – good enough when you are hungry, but otherwise not preferable.

Oscar started drawing a telepathic spell inside his mind. Soon, he connected with snake’s mind.

‘Hello… I … talk… you.’ The snake didn’t know any language. Oscar could only communicate with feelings and ideas. The snake felt the intrusion in its mind. It moved its head in Oscar’s direction and hissed.

‘I… talk… no… fight…’ Oscar continued, hoping the monster wouldn’t just attack them.

‘Weak… can… kill…’ Oscar felt snake’s answer, while it started creeping towards Oscar. Unfortunately, Oscar couldn’t just read monster’s mind. The current spell wasn’t much intrusive on recipient’s mind. A stronger spell would probably immediately enrage the monster, as it would take that as an attack.

‘We… warn… danger… north’ The monster on its current course was heading north, towards the southern border of humanity.

‘What… danger… i… strong’ Its body was about 15-20 meters from the pair. The snake coiled around them.

‘Many… us. Few… one… evolution… lower… you’

Snake hissed. ‘No… warn… threat… you… weak…’

‘Many… our… strength… some…. stronger… you… fight… you… hurt…’ Both Arthur and Oscar were thinking how to escape, would go awry. Oscar was occupied with the spell, so he couldn’t cast anything complicated, but Arthur was ready for a dash. Oscar continued. ‘We… protect… young… you… evade… our.. land… we… pay… tribute…’

‘Tribute…’ Snake asked telepathically.

‘Food… Essence…’ Oscar replied.

‘How… much…’ Oscar replied with some thoughts about quantity. ‘If the monster agrees to the proposal, both parties will benefit,’ Oscar thought to himself. While both food and essence were in a tight supply, giving some to the monster would be better than taking losses from an eventual battle.

‘Yes… you… pay… I… kill… no… you… go… through… you…land…’

Oscar’s heart sank. There was only the king in the 7th tier, Oscar lied. They couldn’t let this monster through their lands. Actually, Oscar would agree if this was some strong 7th tier, but an 8th one? Impossible. It would notice humans are weaker than they stated. They could escort a 7th tier monster, but an 8th tier was too strong.

Oscar asked why it wants to go through their lands, but the snake replied that it doesn’t want to take detours. Oscar offered guides to make the journey easier, but it just replied that they should guide it through their lands instead. Oscar even raised tribute, and send an image depicting humanity as a race, that will go to any lengths to protect their young ones, even if they would need to swarm an enemy and die en masse. Nobody wants to fight fanatics.

Unfortunately, the snake was adamant on going straight. Oscar changed a few components of the spell and sent a signal to Arthur. They both kept their poker face, and weren’t giving any signs to the monster. Oscar send some additional persuasion to his enemy. He felt snake’s impatience, the monster were unused to negotiations. Oscar hoped that it would stay still for some time, as he started to crumble the current spell and draw a new one. He left few components so the snake could feel the presence in his mind, though the spell wasn’t working. The three of them stayed in relative silence, while Oscar was stealthily creating a death affinity spell.

‘Hopefully, this guy is now responding,’ Oscar thought. He didn’t feel bad about ambushing a negotiation partner. ‘Honour? This monster can’t communicate anyway, it won’t tell anybody, and current negotiations have already failed. There’s no place for honour in the life and death affairs.’

Oscar was close to completing the spell. He created an additional small spell to draw essence from himself, performing the sacrifice. A terrible pain attacked his body, but he kept the poker face. ‘A little more…’ Oscar knew, that there wasn’t enough essence in the air to power up this spell quickly. Only by drawing from himself, he would be able to damage the snake.

Oscar hadn’t had a death affinity. The spell also affected his soul, however, to way lesser effect than a recipient of the spell. The monster started hissing. ‘Come on… Wait a little more…’ Oscar prayed. The snake clamped its body, trying to catch the pair. Arthur didn’t wait any longer. He gripped Oscar and jumped up from the encirclement. The snake hissed even louder, when he failed to imprison humans. Both Oscar and Arthur felt a strong force pinning them to the ground, as if they weighed a ton. ‘A innate spell… It stopped playing around,’ Oscar thought. Not only that – a glimmering white barrier appeared on snake’s scales and even on its fangs and inside its mouth. The monster stopped playing around.

Oscar heard once again sank. A second innate spell wasn’t important as Oscar had been preparing a death spell that should temporary deprive the monster of its magic. ‘The barrier, if it’s an elemental one, then we may be doomed. Come on, a kinetic one!’ Oscar thought while Arthur took him into his arms and started escaping. He was slower because of the snake’s gravity spell, but he could still run, especially when boosted with his own life affinity spells.

The snake dashed for them. Oscar gambled everything and used his meditation skill. He lost all his external senses. There were tranquility and peace here. Ironically, Oscar knew he needed to complete the spell, or he would die in a second. He pulled all his mental capabilities into the task and fired the spell in the snake’s previous direction.

When he opened his eyes, he saw snake’s maw and heard the hiss of soul mauling agony. Arthur hit the snake with a spear and dodged to the side to avoid still moving snake’s body., though they hit the snake with their bodies in the end and bounced back. The monster temporary gave up on them as he was concentrating on the pain. Arthur grabbed Oscar and thrown him away. Oscar flew for few hundred meters, bouncing from the ground like a stone from a surface of water.

That didn’t do much to Oscar, as his 6th tier body was very durable, however, Oscar was in a bad shape. He was barely able to move, because of the sacrifice which caused damage to his body. His soul was slightly injured and he couldn’t cast anything big. Oscar was glad that the backlash from the intelligence enhancing potion hadn’t hit yet. He looked at the fight.

The snake was thrashing everything around in its pain. The trees in this forest could be at best 5th tier, probably 4th. They were tore out from the ground and busted apart, incapable of resisting an 8th tier monster. Arthur was throwing spears on the monster. He tried to do it from the trees, as he used water magic to increase the gravitational pull on the spears, but he couldn’t do much from his angle. The spears were being deflected harmlessly by the snake’s scales.

‘I can’t fly Arthur above the monster in my current position’, thought Oscar. ‘I could push air mana into him, but he doesn’t have the air affinity. Air mana will harm his body’

Arthur rushed at the monster to attack it from the above. The snake had to get used to the pain, as it came at Arthur. He retreated, incapable of fighting the monster directly.

‘Let me help you a bit’, thought Oscar and cast some light magic and created illusions of human warriors. They were crude, and any human warrior could see through them, but he was hoping that the snake wouldn’t, as it never saw humans before.

Dozens of humans rushed from the forest at the snake from all sides. It hissed and threw its tail in the sweeping attack, obliterating a bunch of illusions. Arthur and the rest of illusions rushed at the snake, climbing on it. It attacked again, sweeping again. Arthur managed to land on the snake’s body, along with some other illusions thanks to distractions. The snake attacked some illusion with its maw, intending on eating it alive, but was enraged, as there was nothing. The monster hissed angrily and stopped attacking. It started observing illusions and entangling its body to scrub everyone on board.

Oscar tried to run some distraction with illusions, the spell had a low enough requirement for essence, and he was able to continue even in his current state. Arthur took out a special spear – an artifact – a weapon with inscribed spell and independent source of essence to power it. He stabbed down helping himself with the use of water magic to increase the gravitational pull on the spear. It went in for a half a meter deep.

The snake hissed in anger and more pain, but now he knew which figure wasn’t an illusion. It tried to crush Arthur with its body. Arthur abandoned his spear and jumped down, the snake’s body broke off the protruding part of the spear, further aggravating the wound.

‘It’s time to go,’ thought Oscar. ‘That spear’s enchantments were in its head, it should still work.’ The spear was producing vibrations meant for injuring internal organs. Oscar started creating a shadow teleportation spell for Arthur. ‘He won’t be able to escape from the snake otherwise.’ The spell was going to heavy injure Arthur’s internal organs, as he hadn’t had the shadow affinity, but Oscar decided it’s necessary. He also prepared one of his artifacts capable of flight.

The snake threw its head at Arthur. He sucked large amount of essence from the air, as neither snake nor Oscar were using it, and there were plenty of essence in the air. Arthur increased gravity of the ground before him. The snake’s descent was faster than it anticipated, its head crashed on the ground, sliding in the Arthur’s direction, as he dashed to the side. The monster attacked with the tail, intending to bisect Arthur. He tried to dodge, but was too slow. His arm was wrested out. He was thrown on a tree by the hit. The snake once again tried to bite him, but a dark substance flowed out of the tree’s shadow and pulled Arthur in.

Arthur was spited out from a shadow close to Oscar, due to the Oscar’s shadow teleportation spell. He grabbed Arthur and used his artifact – a carpet. Air started to concentrate under the pair, generating pressure. Oscar also filled his body with air mana, decreasing his weight. The pair started flying. Oscar started casting spells to further increase their speed. Blood was flowing from the Arthur’s injury. The snake spotted them and rushed in the chase. Oscar looked behind, when he and Arthur were hundred meters high.

The snake jumped up, like a spring, and was going to catch them. Oscar decided to not risk evading, as the monster could maneuver in the air with its tail. He cast quick air spell, increasing air pressure between him and the snake. Oscar’s injured soul was incapable of drawing large amounts of essence, so he once again took from his own body. Air pressure started pushing him, as the snake was getting close. It hissed, but the air pressure always pushed them a few meters ahead. Gravity finally ended the snake’s jump. The monster landed on the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust.

Oscar was lying on the flying carpet. He couldn’t move, as the second sacrifice further damaged his vitality. He could feel, that he had lost even more lifespan. A sacrifice normally wouldn’t take lifespan, but Oscar’s lifespan was near its end, his body was deteriorating, just because of the old age. He still had over a year, though.

“I thought I supposed to save the other one,” said Arthur. Oscar had no strength to reply. He was glad, that Arthur was conscious. He should be able to heal himself with his life magic. The backlash from the intelligence potion was coming and giving Oscar a sharp headache. The situation wasn’t good, as any flying predator would be able to hunt them down. Oscar could only hope, that they would be able to reach the frontier softly. In the worst case scenario, he was prepared to fight. He would die, but he was an old man anyway. His life was not worth much. Oscar was going to power level some of his descendants and then let the best one to kill him. ‘Dying from the old age is just a waste of resources. It’s better to give some of my remaining essence to my killer to raise their level.’

Oscar wanted to protect his family, but he knew, that to protect them, he need to protect the humanity to being with. Arthur was a young duke level combatant, someone already vital to humans. Oscar was prepared to give his life to deliver him to safety.

Oscar moved his head a little, as strength was slowly returning to his body. He wanted to check whether the snake was chasing them or not. He could not see it.

‘Good, maybe I have already won,’ thought Oscar. The snake was a major threat to existence of humans. Six dukes and the king would not be able to repel it on their own. Many count level combatants would be needed to operate magical heavy artillery spells. Alchemical artillery should be also used. They wouldn’t be able to kill it anyway, but that was not the goal. Repelling it would be enough. Fortunately, that may not be needed.

Oscar lied to the snake about humans’ forces, stating, that they have multiple 7th tier (king rank) combatants. He negotiated transit for quite a time, always in a way that was certifying the presence of 7th tier combatants. There was high chance the snake was successfully deceived.

The snake’s soul injury should heal in a few days, but the monster would have it hard to remove the spear. Internal essence in the artifact would end soon, but it should barely work on some essence scraps from the air. It would be mostly annoying, but that was at least something.

Oscar and Arthur were only in the 6th tier and they managed to injure the monster. Seven tier fighters should be even stronger, and the snake thought, that there were multiple. There was also magic the snake had never seen before. Oscar hoped, that the snake would just decide to avoid humans’ territory being afraid of possible death. Maybe the monster would just avoid them, knowing that it would be impossible for it to forcefully cross. Either way was fine.

“Why do you think the snake wanted to go through our land so much?”

“I don’t know,” replied Oscar with a tired voice. “Maybe it was in hurry.”

“Do you think it was escaping from something?”

“It can also chase after something, or maybe it didn’t want to take the detour out of pride.”

“Let’s hope that’s the case”