Everyone thought they had more time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. The humans noticed Vash’s spell, and they picked up speed to meet the group. Hera saw them arriving at the top of the valley on four different mounts. Two wolves of different colors, carrying a single person each. A large motorcycle with two people, and a bull carrying the remaining two. They were running along the small mountain, following the caravan with ease.

“Look at we have here! Monsters pretending to be people,” one of the humans riding the wolf laughed.

“It would be cute if it wasn’t so pathetic,” the other wolf rider replied.

“Stop messing around and let’s just kill them. Take it seriously. We don’t have time for games,” a woman on the back of the motorcycle said.

“C’mon. Let me have some fun. It’s been ages since we saw one of those things begging to live,” the one in front of the woman scoffed.

“Kai, stop being a dick. It’s fine if you enjoy that, but not everyone shares your tastes,” the woman on the back of the bull shook her head.

‘Are they really treating us like dungeon monsters? As if we couldn’t even understand what they are saying?’ Nimbus asked.

‘I think so. Well, tough shit, I’m not waiting for them to strike first,’ Hera waved her hand, sending a large spray of poison needles at the humans.

Most of them realized the attack was incoming and sidestepped to evade the attack. The ones on the motorcycle couldn’t do the same. Still, they deployed a barrier to stop the attack. But it wasn’t fast enough. A few of the needles passed through and hit them, and Hera could already feel the poison on them.

“Oh, look. The snake has poison,” the one in front of the bike rolled her eyes before shrugging, small scintillating lights fell from her shoulders and covered the pair before the feeling the Ophidianite had vanished. It seemed like they had just detoxify her poison.

Skyler’s voice came through the communicator, “Everyone be ready. Randolf is going to pull the brakes. When we stop, we go for them. Leave this for the Harmony Guardians. The rest of you stay back and just try to not be caught in the crossfire.”

“That one is one ugly bastard. Those blue skins freak me out,” the one on top of the bull pointed to the side car where Neria was located.

“Well, don’t fight them then. But how about we stop… Oh crap,” before the person riding with them could finish the sentence, Randolf pulled the brakes and the four mounts in front of the carriage helped the container to stop.

The humans continued running for a few meters as they found a good place to turn around and come down the valley. Not all of them did that. Some continued on the top of the mountain to not lose their advantage.

‘Viper, Crimson, you two are going up. Nimbus, stay with the caravan. Try to block anyone from messing with the container. Everyone else, let’s intercept,’ Hera avoided saying anything out loud not to ruin her plans.

“Honestly, can you stop? You are only making this harder on yourself. We know how this end,” the man in one of the wolves said as he approached the now stationary container.

“You talk as if they would understand us, they are just animals,” Kai, the man driving the motorcycle, said with a sinister smile. He seemed to be the youngest member of the humans.

Hera quickly used her [Observe] they were too cocky for this to be a normal group.

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Kai - Shadowdancer - Level 60

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Cyrus - Technomancer - Level 62

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Anya - Whirlwind - Level 62

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Zara - The Crimson Fury - Level 61

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Bren - Thunderheart - Level 63

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Elara - Starlight - Level 60

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They were all higher level than Hera and her group. And they had an assigned title. Like Insomniac or Frostbite. The system only recognized those extra names when they became well known enough. It was a point of pride for those who had it. And it also meant they were notorious enough to be famous.

“Now that’s just rude,” Bren, the man on the bull, huffed as he saw the notification telling him someone used [Observe] on him. He had a large war hammer across his back and some light armor that exposed his muscles.

“Any chance we can just talk this out?” Vash asked.

The human laughed, “Sure, you can talk. It won’t change the result. You all die here, and we get your supplies,” Cyrus, one of the wolf riders. He had various gadgets dangling by his belt. All looking dangerous and unstable.

“Fuck this then,” Skyler sent out a sonic boom from the side that caused all the humans to cover their ears. Each of them felt as if someone had just slapped both of their ears at once.

Seeing that moment of distraction, the Harmony Guardians sprung into action. Flint, Roan, and Hera, with her court, dashed across the field to reach the humans. The Empress had already created a pair of venomous daggers. Lurize, now in his awakened form, dashed towards Bren. Being the strongest member of their group, the Royal Tutor wanted to take care of the problem while he still had a chance. After all, his current attributes should be closer to level 70, if not more. Reaching the man, the titled blade pushed him out of the bull and dragged him to the other side of the mountain. Eventually, the human was able to stop the movement and push Lurize away. Then, he brandished his war hammer and struck at the armored beetle. His attack missed, but opened a large crack on the ground. In repose, the Royal Tutor imbued his zweihander with venom and attacked back. But the man evaded the attack with the same ease. The pair continued to strike and gauge each other with every blow while the battle raged on the opposite side of the mountaintop.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

Nimbus was still with the caravan, and he would stay there, only helping with some barriers here and there. Livy went to help Flint deal with Zara, The Crimson Furry. The human seemed to be heavily focused on strength, allowing the Leviathan to have a contest with her. Viper was trying to help Vash face Cyrus, the human who was betraying his name. After all, that was the name of the second Hero, and the creator of the guild. Someone who preached teamwork and how all people should be treated fairly. Yet, here this man was, with the same name and attempting to remove several civilizations from the MAZE. Vulcan was with Roan, both going after Kai, the assassin. He would come in and out of shadows, but between the beastman’s senses, and Forge’s fire, they were able to pinpoint the man’s location. Skyler and Neria were doing some long range fighting against Elara, blasting spells and barriers back and forth, showering the battlefield in mana.

Which left Hera to face the Anya, the one called Whirlwind, together with Crimson. The Empress gave a mental nod to the Spymaster, and both rushed to meet the human. At a first glance, this woman didn’t seem to be anything special. Leather armor and an earth colored staff on her hands. Suddenly, Hera felt a looming sense of danger coming from behind and ducked, avoiding a strike that came out of nowhere. Yet, it wasn’t a person behind her, just the end of a staff. The weapon turned into sand and returned to Anya, reassembling itself and increasing. This was the first reason for the human’s given title. Her attacks would come from every direction, as if her enemies were trapped inside the eye of a hurricane.

Crimson took that chance to vanish, using the [Hidden Frontal Screen] to not be seen. When she was close enough, she lashed out with a [Rending Blade] aimed at the woman’s stomach. Unfortunately, the human evaded, being able to see the attack at the last moment. Crimson only managed to graze her target, but that was fine. The most important part of her skill was the reduced healing, and considering the humans had a proper healer in their team, the Harmony Guardians would need that debuff.

Hera wasn’t just waiting around, either. When she saw the Spymaster moving in, the Empress tried to distract the human, firing off various spells. Mostly poison needles in the hopes of being able to exploit that power against her target. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. Even with the boost coming from Lurize’s awakened form, the human managed to block and parry all the projectiles. Once the sneak attack failed, the Ophidianite lunged forward with a pair of venomous daggers and a venomous tail spike. If the woman could make her staff appear at any location, trying to match the weapon’s range would just cause problems.

Anya twirled her staff, making both ends target Hera first, then Crimson. She was still unsure what these new kinds of being were. If they were part of a new species or just some monsters wearing clothes. As her staff turned into sand and solidify just before the strike, she changed to a more hand to hand approach. Going for punches, jabs and kicks at the two snake-like creatures in front of her. Initially, her strategy worked, being able to hit both Hera and Crimson repeatedly before they could block or fight back. Yet, the damage was minimal. Even if these kinds of attacks were more than enough to deal with some monsters close to her level, these two level 56 snake beings didn’t seem to care.

After the fifth hit, Hera’s [Attack Pathing] came into play. She became able to recognize where the mana of the staff was and where it would be formed. Which also meant she was able to block, dodge, or at least lessen the blows coming her way. For Crimson, that was a bit harder, since she would have to lean into Hera’s feelings instead of her own, but she was still able to show some progress. With a frown after seeing this duo able to fight back, Anya triggered the second reason for her given title. She tapped a yellow strip on her leg. A talisman that turned into sand and covered her surroundings in a localized sandstorm.

Hera held back a smile while she felt the tiny particles of sand slamming against her body. They didn’t hurt, not really. It was a similar feeling to rain on a windy day. Small pricks that were annoying, but not to the point of being a problem. The main issue was visibility. Or it would be if Hera couldn’t use [Ophidianite Sight] which focused more on the temperature. Anya’s talisman didn’t bring sand from a desert or a beach. It created sand with mana, and that sand was created at a much colder temperature than the human body right in front of the Empress.

She wasn’t the only one benefiting from it. Seeing the sand cover an area, all the blades rushed inside, not all to help Hera, but to be covered in sand and let Clay’s [Seal of Tectonic Might] empower them. After all, he had suggested for them to roll around on the beach to be covered in earth. A sandstorm was even better.

For a brief moment, Anya thought she had the upper hand, but then Crimson jumped out of the sandstorm, attacking the woman’s legs and vanishing on the other side. Before the human could answer to that blow. Hera did the same, with a pair of slashes aimed at the arm and her tail spike aiming at the leg. As quickly as she appeared, the Ophidianite returned to the sandstorm.

Anya turned around, trying to understand how they were able to see her like that, only to have to block a chain whip that came out of nowhere. Clay’s [Crushing Grip] quickly wrapped around her staff and while the woman struggled. Crimson came for another attack, stabbing her in the shoulder. Anya yelled, asking for healing, but her healer couldn’t see her due to the sandstorm. Instead, she raised her hand towards Crimson’s tail and made the entire sandstorm to gather around it and solidify, encasing the Spymaster in a tomb.

When everything cleared, Elara, the human healer, noticed Anya’s situation and tried to help, but the little healing she was able to cast before Vash blocked the spell was reduced thanks to Crimson’s early attack. Hera moved towards the woman’s back while Clay still held on to the staff and used her Break Combo with the [Grasshopper Stab] aimed at the woman’s spine. The Empress didn’t like this, but she felt, with each of the blows of the sand staff. If it was anyone else, this human might be able to knock them out in a few strikes. The only reason she was able to take them was the benefits coming from Lurize’s awakened form. To make matters worse, she could tell everyone else was having trouble. Livy was being pushed back by the Crimson Fury while part of Flint’s armor had broken. Vulcan and Roan were unable to even touch Kai, who kept weaving in and out of the shadows. And the rest were hardly doing better. If she wanted to win this fight, she wouldn’t be able to pull her punches.

Hera’s combo struck true, blasting the human woman with a powerful attack, but despite the close to a million mana Hera spent there, she was still alive. Just barely conscious. Shadow came flying from the side and cut a small part of her leg, then smacked the back of her head with the base of the weapon. With a spin, he continued and pierced the right side of her chest, right between a couple of ribs. It didn’t take a doctor to know the attack hit one of her lungs, if not her heart. When the Scythe pulled back, Anya fell to the ground, unable to breathe properly, as her strongest recovery skill had been sealed.

Crimson was set free, and she lunged at the opportunity to finish the job. Stabbing the woman’s back and biting on her neck with her snake fangs.

Some of the human yelled, calling for their fallen comrade, but before anything could be done. Bren and Lurize broke through the middle of the mountain. The Royal Tutor was holding the man’s head with a single hand in front of him, clearly having used the human to forcibly dig that tunnel. He then dropped Brenn to the side, his head mostly gone and his body covered in bruises. A single clean cut split into two pieces the large war hammer he held.

Lurize was different now. His armor was wider and the golden color now shined as if it was made out of light. His double horns now had a split at the tip and created the prongs of a Hercule beetle. The Royal Tutor, and Hera’s first court member, had just activated his awakens skill. For the next 9 seconds, nothing would be able to hold him back.