The group continued to move through the hordes of beasts.

Monster wave after monster wave continued to threaten the team. Everyone was fighting and amazed at Dyne’s wisdom.

Dyne held his position and commanded the Ra-Seru heroes to keep on pressing forward and how to delay the enemies. With a single gunshot, Dyne managed to cause the ostrich to stumble on each other.

Dyne also did the same trick against the ogres. While the Ogres were fast and managed to jump out, the sudden evasion would give his allies an opportunity to pull away from the gap.

“Keep pushing!” Dyne commanded as he made quick commands in their rush.

Chad and Jaden continued to charge ahead and defeated numerous rats. Surprisingly, Agumon appeared near them and favored close combat. It was roughly the same size as a Kabuki Rat, but Agumon was faster.

Dyne frowned.

“This is bad. If we stay here longer, we will get surrounded. Everyone focuses on pushing through. Side teams, continue to delay the enemies as much as you can! Zenoir! Charge ahead!” Dyne gave his orders.

The Zenoir rushed ahead, and it began to use its Seru attack. Its entire body began to burst with fire. But instead of doing its Vertical Hammer, it simply ran straight toward the numerous rats.

Chad and Jaden stepped away and allowed the Zenoir to rush ahead.

The Zenoir tore through the ranks as the Kabuki Rats were screaming in pain.

Agumon jumped on top of the Zenoir and began to attack the rats and shoot more Pepper Breath on the enemies.

Chad and Jaden rode the Chocobos as Ishreth and Amorien passed by them.

The two were exhausted and received another charge of healing.

Everyone began to focus on escaping.

Dyne and the Legaia team gathered right behind Jaden’s team and were now busy dealing with the Kabuki Rats that pounced at them.

But these rats had no formation and were scattered throughout the place, making them easy to pick for Dyne and his mounted team.

SWING!

Dyne slashed out Grim, and it instantly killed the rats.

Vahn used a one-handed sword to slash the enemies as they charged through. Gala was using his hammer. The weapon smiths in Biron Monastery have modified both weapons. They were tasked to combine these weapons to create a sword and hammer, which could be upgraded.

The rarest magical material from the Ararat fortress was used, creating a sword and lightning weapon.

Vahn could easily create fire as he slashed through, but the surprising thing was that Gala could also create sparks of lightning even without an awakened Ozma.

Fire and lightning erupted to the side as the two delivered blow after blow.

The team of Chrone, Tetsu, and Shiva to the south created a wide gap at the enemy.

Noa was tasked to help them, and she jumped in and had fun fighting the enemy. She used her fast Chocobo to approach and would leap from one ostrich to the other, causing the ostriches to stumble and stampede on each other.

Shiva then began creating ice blocks that Chrone and Tetsu would hurl at the ostriches.

The northern team also widened the gap as Serge tore through the ranks. Arya had used a wind spell on him that made his strikes sharper.

The cutting wind that was concentrated on the sharp blade of his Swallow allowed him to decapitate the ogres that approached.

The Ogres could not keep up with the fast-charging strikes of Serge. Serge kept on attacking those at the edges of the Ogres formation. Arya and the Hunters would shoot the ogres at the edges, which caused the Ogres to move toward the center.

Dyne sped towards the ogres as he saw that the enemies were in perfect position.

“Serge! Retreat!” Dyne called out and began to harness the power of Brimstone in Grim.

Around Dyne was a robe that was suited for the fire mages, and it had fire-enhancing properties. Dyne abused it as he harnessed the great flames, and Grim was also releasing a great amount.

“It’s been a while since I used this.” Dyne chuckled. Serge was holding on to Grim, so Dyne could not use this attack. But now that he was stronger and the energy he could release was greater, Dyne was curious how strong the attack would be.

“Gadwin’s Secret Move! Dragon King Slice!” Dyne jumped off Choco and stabbed Grim down.

BOOM!

The fire and Brimstone erupted, and an explosion of fire and brimstone blasted through the Ogres.

Dyne quickly gathered what he could before Choco dashed by, and Dyne quickly rode it.

The ogres at the front of the charge died from the attack, and Dyne quickly absorbed their experience. As he devoured it, the new energy that these Ogres had, created a surge in power, and Dyne, stuck at level 10, began to increase rapidly.

Dyne felt it and used his Brimstone and Jedo’s darkness to stabilize the surging power.

Finally, Dyne rose two whole levels. He was now level 12, or a second-stage Martial Novice.

“Finally. A level up!” Dyne chuckled. He had already gathered a massive amount of experience from their previous raids but prioritized granting the experience to his team and the new dinosaur pets that they had acquired. Still, he received a lot of experience, which was bottled in his body.

But Dyne maximized the minuscule amount of energy from the War God, allowing him to finally cross the stage, which should have only been crossed when they awakened the first Genesis Tree.

***

Level 12

HP- 92 [154-159] // 125

Vitality- 91 [153-158]// 115

Magic Capacity- 34 [41-43] // 33

Strength- 84 [146-150] // 95

Dexterity- 63 [79-80] // 45

Force- 32[52-54] // 40

Mind Force- 36 [42] // 30

Soul Force- 55 (+7-12) // 20

***

Dyne saw his stats as he retreated and sighed.

“No increase in soul force?” Dyne complained.

“You’re insane if you're angry at that! Of course, there is no increase! You shouldn’t even be having that disgusting amount in the first place!” Strafe cursed.

The attack created an explosion that created a hole that caused the many ogres to stumble and fall.

“Change the formation! Arya’s team covers our backs! Noa! Chrone and company, pull back! Focus on defending! We have to keep pushing forward. Beyond the Kabuki Rats are more enemies! We cannot stop now!” Dyne ordered.

It was then that Amorien saw what was deep in the Mist.

“Are those… butterflies?!” Amorien exclaimed.

It looked like a shadow, but Amorien could see that their numbers were beyond the Ogres, Ostriches, and the Kabuki Rats combined.

“There it is. The Evil Fly counterpart of the Sebucus Islands. Looks like they were free to multiply here...” Dyne observed.

“Are they stronger than the Evil Fly?” Vahn asked.

“Death Wings are, naturally, way stronger. They should be as strong as the Kabuki Rats.”

“We’re diving in that, Lord Dyne?” Amorien asked. Despite her cultivation, she feared the swarm of large insects that flew in the distance.

“We’ll be pushing through that group! Get the Incense ready! Once we reach the center of that swarm, we apply it and escape! Fate is leading these different creatures to attack us! Even with the Incense, they will find us! But once we hide inside those Death Wings, we can easily outmaneuver them and make them lose our scent!” Dyne explained.

The group charged forward, and Dyne called Vahn.

“Get ready to summon Theeder. I’ll go first, and you cast Theeder at the furthest distance after I clear the enemy. Make your Theeder clear a path for us! Those flies will swarm over us immediately. Everyone, Focus on defending!”

“Yes!” The group answered, and Dyne channeled the energy for his Theeder.

He released the power, and the Theeder bolted to existence. It quickly harnessed the Lightning energy and shot through the swarm of huge butterflies.

The Turning Laser cleared out a huge amount of flies, and Dyne and his team charged through the small gap.

Vahn made another summon at the edge of where Dyne’s attack reached. The Theeder appeared and made another round of Turning laser, clearing the path.

The group reached deep inside the swarm, which was now enraged, and closed the gap formed to attack Dyne and the team.

“Everyone! Apply the Incense now!” Dyne ordered, and everyone took out their clump of Incense and covered their body with the Incense.

The three monster groups chasing after Dyne charged deep into the swarm of Death Wings, and the group began to fight each other.

“Arya! Noa! Amorien! Help me! I will cast a spell, try to pass it on to the others, and divide it!” Dyne shouted as he brought out one item that Dyne hadn’t used for so long.

The Chicken King appeared, and Dyne harnessed the power of the Wind God, trying to disperse it to the entire group and increase its power.

Noa and Arya could understand why Dyne needed their help, and as the power surged through them, they added more wind energy that spread out. Amorien also felt the power and guided the power with Soul and Force to spread out.

The surge of Wind energy caused every mounted beast, chocobo, slime, or the Zenoir to be empowered by this wind energy, and all of them were able to rush with great speed as the space around them began to shorten.

And with that, the team rushed out to escape the swarm and the monster hordes.

The group was amazed at what they had just accomplished.

“Amazing… That was… very scary…” Chad spoke.

“Indeed. Dyne’s timing was impeccable. And we only used two Seru summons!” Amorien chuckled.

“We needed that. This place is after us. I was wondering why we didn’t use Incense. It seems that those enraged beasts went after us with a vengeance. In that open field, they would just find us and attack us.”

“It’s Fate.” Dyne answered.

“Fate?”

“Yes. It's a mysterious power that Tieg, the God of this place, created to ensure that this world will follow its intended purpose. But this Fate is corrupted and is attacking us.” Dyne explained mixing truths with lies.

“You knew that Fate would be after us?” Meta asked.

“Yes, Meta. This is why I didn’t make Vahn and Noa attack with the summons to eliminate those monster hordes. We have to be frugal and attack only when needed. I knew this place would have those butterflies, and I knew they would be that many. I also knew Fate would send those monsters to kill us. So I decided to use the flies to our advantage and slip away.” Dyne explained.

“Big Bro is amazing!” Noa flapped her arms.

“Well, don’t be impressed. I have a feeling that Jeremi will hold powerful enemies for us.”

“Powerful? You mean these monsters equal to mid-level Martial Novice aren’t the real threat?” Rena asked.

“Scared?” Ishreth teased.

“A little. That butterfly swarm was… scary.” Rena admitted.

“From here on, each step we take is a defiance against Fate. And our journey now will not end with Jeremi. We are to journey to the farthest edge of Sebucus Islands.” Dyne warned.

The group fell silent at Dyne’s words.

“But don’t worry, guys. We’ll be stronger along the way. I’m sure everyone had at least one level up from all those monsters we killed. By the time we finish this crusade, we will be changed.” Dyne reminded everyone.

“And besides, the rewards are amazing...” Dyne couldn’t help but think of how he could have more Ra-Seru heroes.

“Too bad there's no way to cross the ocean and get Palma...” Dyne sighed.

Jedo and Strafe shook their heads. While it was true that every step Dyne and his team took was defiance against Fate, all that Dyne really cared about was the Ra-Serus for his game.