Lucian refilled her liquid mana stock; a few minutes of rest were already enough to refresh all her skills. Then she looked at him and asked, "Where is he?"
Damian pointed at the very back of the tribe alliance army. The Drakyn was quite skilled at hiding his mana level—almost matching the other King-level tribesmen around him, a few of whom were heading toward the ice mountain, leading their tribesmen into the fight. He could lower the mana leakage, but the distinct mana signature was impossible to fake. The Drakyn's location was a secret even among the tribesmen army. The guy could fly, so he often left the army too, sometimes for a long time.
Damian had told Lucian about his comings and goings regularly, though. There were two more Emperor-level creatures in the army, but both were non-intelligent types. One was an enormous, big fat dinosaur-like being laden with tons of materials. The guy seemed to be used more for transportation than anything else.
Not all natural beasts had violent natures. Even those that did rarely fought to the death with other creatures. The other creature was a violent type, though. It was barely the size of an adult elephant, but for its own species, that was huge. It was a pitch-black crow with a blood-red beak and feet. Even the edges of its giant wings were red. Compared to its size, the mana inside was immense. Still, it wasn't that old—probably had become Emperor-rank only recently. There was a King-rank half-amphibian tribesman who always rode atop the black crow.
"How do I go back?" the princess suddenly asked just as Damian was about to open a wormhole.
Lucian looked back at her and held her shoulder, looking into her eyes. After a few seconds, she said, "My friends will take you anywhere you want to go. They won't let you be harmed."
The princess just nodded. When Damian started opening the wormhole, they heard the princess whisper behind their backs, "Good luck..."
But Damian didn't stop. He kept making the wormhole bigger until it was large enough for the entire air step platform. She wasn't going alone, obviously. Damian pushed the half-transparent platform inside and came out right above the part of the tribesmen army where the Drakyn was. They were, needless to say, surprised to see a dark structure appear out of thin air high above them. Spacetime spells were something Damian had not seen anyone use in this world. The magical abilities and knowledge of this world seemed far behind what Damian knew from his childhood in his magical world.
Damian brought the platform down until they were just hundreds of meters above the ground, and everyone below could see them clearly. Drakyn was still hiding, with a hood on his head and a robe covering him from head to toe.
"Keep an eye on the human army," Damian said to Sam, who nodded.
Even if Lucian managed to defeat this Drakyn, it was necessary to show that the human army was powerful and united enough to face any tribe. Not all would turn away after seeing their rebel king die. If the king pulled his people back, the tribesmen would think of them as easy prey—and then no one would be there to stop the broken army from charging at the city walls without any care.
Lucian jumped down; Damian followed behind. The rest stayed on the air step. Damian changed its mana source from himself to a full liquid mana container of his.
The tribesmen finally realized who had just jumped down. Those who could fly quickly began to rise and head toward them, while the men on the ground stood ready, calculating where Lucian would land. But all their calculations were wasted as Lucian froze people alive—creating a giant slide to break her fall and land directly in front of the Drakyn.
All his loyal tribesmen—and even some humans—quickly gathered around the Drakyn, surrounding Lucian from all sides. The crow rider also reached them. Damian remained hovering a few meters above Lucian in the air.
"Can you make sure they don't interrupt?" Lucian said from the ground. Her voice was barely loud enough for those around her to hear, but Damian heard it loud and clear.
"What did you say, woman?" asked a muscular, humanoid bear standing right in front of the Drakyn, trying to protect him.
Neither Lucian nor Damian replied. Lucian simply pulled out her sword, opened the two mana containers, and began chanting. Her piercing eyes were focused in only one direction. Thousands of men reached for their weapons and took a step toward her—but she ignored each and every one of them.
Damian followed her lead and launched three spells simultaneously, conjuring three 60-meter-high solid ice walls. Two appeared right beside Lucian—one on each side—leaving only a two-meter gap in between for her to move straight forward. It led directly to the Drakyn. The third wall appeared behind him—Damian made that one extra thick so it wouldn't break easily. The closest people surrounding Lucian froze and became part of the wall. The rest were left outside, staring at the giant white structure forming out of nowhere.
The Drakyn finally removed his hood and ripped apart the robe too—his shiny white-scaled humanoid body, clad in steel armor, stood ready to face Lucian. His face was calm, but there was clearly some hesitation in his eyes at having let the enemy come so close and being suddenly cut off from his people. The bear-man and others still stood in Lucian's path.
Lucian killed the first guy that came in her way while running, then used a wormhole to come out directly behind the Drakyn. The guy was no rookie, though—he instantly raised his pure white sword and blocked Lucian's aura-clad steel blade.
The white sword, unlike anything Lucian had faced in this trial before, completely negated her aura damage. Only the force behind her blade held strong against the towering, muscular Drakyn man with his enchanting deep blue eyes.