Just as they had crossed about ten meters, an aura-clad fist made its way toward Damian. It was too slow to catch him off guard though.
"No!" Damian heard Karl shout, but the punch had already come—delivered by one of the pugilists, a girl, no less.
Alex was running beside Damian, glancing his way from time to time. Sensing an opportunity, Alex grabbed his sword, channeling his aura into it as he began to draw it. Damian had expected as much. He was holding seven spells for just such a situation.
With a quick activation, Damian summoned a small air shield. The punch cracked it but failed to break through. The force of the strike injured the girl more than it damaged the shield, leaving her already damaged health bar dangerously low and glowing yellow. She faltered in her pacing, and Damian seized the moment. With grace and precision, he grabbed her injured hand and hurled her toward Alex. The two collided and tumbled over the bridge, splashing into the moat below. Alex hadn't even managed to draw his sword fully.
Karl followed close behind, swinging another aura-clad fist seeing that it had already started. It shattered the already-cracked air shield. In response, Damian began chanting in a seemingly random pattern, creating the illusion of casting while preparing to unleash his runic spells freely.
The others readied their weapons—some aiming at Damian, others at each other. But before anyone could act, a massive hand descended upon them from above. Instinctively, everyone ducked. Taking advantage of the chaos, Damian activated two wormhole spells simultaneously. The first entrance appeared behind the entire group, allowing the feeble Knowledge Keepers at the rear to escape. The exit was positioned at the far end of the bridge, offering a direct path across.
Maelor, Kamisen and Einar, alongside the pugilists, quickly understood the plan. Ignoring Damian, they pushed toward the back. Chaos ensued as the two groups shoved each other, with the Knowledge Keepers caught in between—dragged and thrown back by the stronger pugilists.
Damian watched the spectacle unfold, slowly rising as the crowd raced for the wormhole. Karl was the only pugilist who stayed behind, continuing his assault. Damian blocked Karl's aura-infused punches with his longsword. Smirking, Damian pushed Karl toward the stone railing.
Surprise flashed in Karl's eyes at Damian's unexpected strength. But he didn't yield. Planting his feet firmly, Karl increased his aura output, meeting Damian's power head-on. This forced Damian to put his full strength into the clash, steadily driving Karl back. Despite the resistance, Karl held onto the stone railing, refusing to go over.
Now that was one goddamn pugilist.
Seeing no alternative, Damian activated one spell embedded in his blade. The sword erupted in massive black aura flames—a forbidden spell from Faerunia, it helped output his full aura force without any input from him. Karl's eyes widened in shock, his knees buckling under the sheer weight of the attack. With one final push, Damian broke through Karl's defenses, grabbing him by the neck and throwing him over the bridge.
He could have easily brought his health bar to zero, but that felt unfair. He needed to beat them all up equally—no special treatment.
His Knowledge Keeper teammates gathered around him after being tossed around by the others. It didn't take long for those jumping into the wormhole to realize something was wrong—people were entering, but not coming out on the other side. But by then, it was too late.
A massive hand descended, prompting everyone to duck for cover. At that moment, Damian unleashed two more spells: two full tornadoes that violently pushed them into the wormhole, forcing them through against their will.
The violent winds dragged the remaining pugilists, Kamise, Maelor and their allies into the wormhole, emerging not at the other end of the bridge, but right beside the giant ape's massive leg.
Alex, Karl, and the pugilist girl watched from the side as the ape glanced down at its feet. The newly arrived group, disoriented and confused, slowly looked up—and then began screaming and thrashing in panic within the shoulder-deep moat filled with water.
Alex, Karl and the pugilist girl tried in vain to distract the ape and save their friends. Meanwhile, Einar survived the tornadoes by embedding her dark red aura-clad sword deep into the bridge. From her vantage point, she stared down at Damian and the Knowledge Keepers.
Damian smiled politely, gesturing with his sword to provoke her. But Einar wasn't so easily baited. Her eyes darted to the wormholes, noticing the trick—there were two. She turned to take another route, but the wormholes vanished before she could escape.
With no other option, Einar began hurling aura slashes toward Damian's group. Damian quickly erected a series of air shields, and the team sprinted toward the civilian zone.
Once there, Damian activated a powerful laser spell roll, severing the bridge in a wide gap to prevent anyone, even with second ranker's enhanced stats, from crossing. Einar cursed him loudly, but Damian ignored her as he and his team reached the safety of the civilian zone.
Damian's teammates began collecting the civilians, swiftly storing them in the spatial storage boxes.
They had five storage units between them, excluding Damian's two, each capable of holding up to 8 dummies, though already partially filled with loot. Damian also packed his storage to the max. Out of the initial 80 civilians, the Knowledge Keepers had secured more than half. Though not everyone could fill all five boxes, the total came to over 50 something, thanks to their thorough work in clearing the whole area.
Now, all they had to do was get back safely and survive until the end. Damian watched as the survivors of his earlier confrontation struggled to climb out of the moat and regroup at the bridge. Some were attempting to build an earth structure to cross near the broken bridge, but Damian had made the gap too wide for any structure to remain stable—and the ape was relentlessly on their tail.
Meanwhile, Alex, Kamisen, Maelor and the others were discussing something across the bridge standing together. Outside of the monster's range.