"There doesn't seem to be any other trace… is this a tr—!" Before she completed her sentence, a few presences suddenly charged straight at them. "Watch out!"
Even though she tried to warn them, their movement was swift and precise.
Gargan, who had a muscular body and trained instinct, became the first one to react to the sudden situation. He immediately turned around while raising his hammer, trying to stop whoever dared to approach them.
But before he realized it, ice emerged from the ground and circled around his arms and legs, stopping his movement.
"!!!" Gargan widened his eyes in surprise. He could easily crush this ice with brute force, but when he applied some pressure on the ice, a black phoenix dove down from the sky.
"Kh." Gargan gritted his teeth, realizing that this phoenix would surely hit him.
Still, they were Spirit Grandmasters. Fil might have reacted a bit slower, but the phoenix came a little later than the ice. So, he managed to react to this one.
Suddenly, the phoenix was distorted and twisted until it became a single black dot and eventually vanished.
While he did manage to save Gargan, the world seemed to be breaking apart as a muscular man emerged, swinging his hammer.
"Fil!" Gargan turned around. He used the time Fil bought for him to break the ice and rotate his body, planning to use this momentum to strike the guy with a hammer.
But when he swung that glaive, another person appeared with his blade cutting Gargan's right hand.
"!!!" Gargan widened his eyes. His body had shifted to the side instinctively, trying to avoid a certain death. And it seemed that the other party had realized it and shifted its attack from his body to his arm.
Even though he might be able to cut his body, the wound would be too shallow. So, he wanted to take the strong arm to gain a huge advantage in the later battle.
However, doing that alone would be underestimating him, the vice commander of the Greenwood Kingdom's royal army.
After taking that arm, he rotated his body, using the momentum to swing that blade, trying to split Gargan in half.
But a distortion in the air suddenly appeared in front of the sword, stopping his swing.
It was Fil, who blocked that attack for Gargan. But due to him saving Gargan's life, he couldn't do anything to the one with the hammer other than raise his thin arm to stop the hammer.
Unfortunately for him, the hammer came from Paul. The strike immediately broke his arm's bone apart and the momentum allowed the hammer to reach his body, causing a crack on his ribs. Luckily, he managed to jump to the side, lessening the force while using the hammer to launch him away.
As for the Serpent, she was the first one to recognize the trap and immediately moved away instinctively. Laufey had told them that if they were ever attacked by a Spirit Grandmaster, they should leave immediately to report to him.
As soon as she saw Damian, she immediately jumped back, trying to get away from this trap.
However, a woman appeared in front of her, striking her with her blade.
Hailfa caught the blade with her hand. Her hand was swift and precise as if a snake just bit the sword. And the purple color on her hand contained the poison, not only strengthening her grip but also inflicting poison on the thing that touched it.
Unfortunately for her, the blade released a torrential wind that scattered the poison to the air above, making sure it didn't fall to hit other people.
At the same time, intense pressure gathered on top of her and started pushing her to the ground. Hailfa gritted her teeth, trying to maintain her stature. But due to the amount of pressure, the ground beneath her started to crack.
Last but not least, another person appeared behind her and struck her waist with his sword, trying to cut her down.
But surprisingly, there was a clicking sound as if the sword just struck a metal. If one took a look at the small gap from her ripped clothes, they would be able to see a scale like that of a snake scale.
This was a trap. Hailfa never thought they would fall into this kind of trap. At the same time, the opponent seemed to be stronger than they expected.
She realized Paul was the one hitting Fil. Due to Fil preventing Gargan's death, he ended up getting heavily injured by Paul even though he could completely stop Paul's attack.
This showed how strong the Spirit Grandmaster that Laufey was talking about was. In a single ambush, a Devil Bishop could easily be defeated by this man.
She never thought Noel had this kind of guardian to help him. At the same time, she realized that Noel, Stella, and Jonathan were surrounding her, preventing her from going away.
And the reason why they couldn't notice them earlier must be Rose's illusion. That was right. They must have been under Rose's influence before they knew it. She might not be the one harming them personally, but without her, this ambush wouldn't succeed.
Even though they managed to escape from the worst outcome, it didn't change the fact that they were in a pinch.
'Think, think, Hailfa. You have to find a way to get out of here and inform Sir Laufey.' Hailfa, as an expert in espionage, tried to find a way to escape from an ambush. She was also familiar with a sneak attack, so she should be able to find a way out.
After all, they might be outnumbered, but the only one who could kill them was that mysterious Spirit Grandmaster while the rest weren't strong enough to be their opponent, except for Paul.
But looking at how the ambush was executed, she couldn't help but think, 'This… How could they launch a high level ambush ? Do they have an assassin in their rank? And a pretty high rank on top of that?'