Days are running while Eli and Kayden strive to safely infiltrate the underground city of the temple.
Meanwhile, the convoy team was now fast approaching the ambush point.
While Crown Prince Ranon's side were pretty excited, the Seirende's side was clearly anxious. The more anxious they looked, the more that the Crown Prince could not wait for the day when they would finally be entrapped in the ambush point.
Now that Leon was not around and was now utterly immobilized, who could stop them now?
The blood prince had been in the ambush camp for three days and there were no signs of him ever recovering from his severe wounds and injuries.
With that, the camp also started to move their troops to complete the formation needed to trap the entire convoy group.
Finally… The day has come for the convoy team to enter the ambush point.
The ambush point was set up inside a desert gorge that stretched for about a few kilometers. With the speed that the convoy team was going, they could only finish traversing the gorge for three days and a half.
As such, this region is the perfect place for ambush.
When Mishael saw the entrance of the gorge his heart tightened but still composed himself. This region is inevitable for them to enter. Because making a detour by land would make them vulnerable to numerous quicksands which would make their mission almost impossible to achieve without suffering casualty.
"Halt!" Mishael raised his hands and asked the entire convoy to pause for a while.
Seeing that the leader of the team suddenly stopped everyone looked at Mishael with a questioning glance.
"We will traverse this region for three days or so… I implore you to be vigilant because once we enter this place and suddenly be ambushed by either an unknown monster or a group of enemies, we can only fight for survival." Mishael looked at the troops and warned with a grave tone.
The journey so far has been smooth sailing… so smooth sailing that he, Kazimir and Antoine were worried that they would suddenly let their guards down and be careless.
"Remember, we could only fight or die… that is why I will remind you right here, right now… that you have to be vigilant and fast enough to react to the situation. You hear me, men?"
"Yes captain!" The troops all saluted and responded with a serious expression.
Most of the time their leaders were carefree and seldom stern, but now that danger might really be close, they knew that Mishael was not only making them anxious.
Listening from inside the carriage, Crown Prince Ranon's lips curved into a mocking smile.
'Look at them trying to fight their inevitable fate? If only they knew that their deaths were already set in stone!'
Should they know that there were more than a thousand troops already stationed inside the gorge, lying in wait, would they even have the guts to enter the region?
But of course these were just Crown Prince Ranon's thoughts, in the end his goal would be achieved once the ambush is successfully carried out. Only then will he go back to brandishing his real personality and no longer act like an innocent prince.
Hearing the troop's reply, Mishael nodded and mobilized the men once again.
The first hour of entering the gorge was quiet and seemingly smooth, but none of them dared to let their guards down.
"It's too quiet… I don't like this feeling…" Antoine looked around the two walls of rock and sand formations that had already blocked their path, only the path forward and the path behind would be their choice. "Shall I summon a flying beast to see the situation from the sky?"
"Just store more mana and be ready… we don't know what will happen." Kazimir shook his head and replied, they could not afford to lose mana at the moment.
"Let's go ahead… The faster we exit the region, the safer we are going to be…" Mishael told the two princes.
With that they sped up the pace and traversed the region nonstop.
Only when they saw that their horses were already at their limit did they reluctantly paused and camped for the night.
"We managed to finish more than what we had planned to achieve today… maybe we can reach the exit in just two and a half days…" Kazimir checked the map and recorded their position. He was amazed that they were able to get further than their target progress.
"Just rest for the first half of the night… we will take turns at the vigil." Mishael looked around and saw the two princes' exhausted faces, and so he suggested for them to rest first.
"Are you sure, Captain Mishael?" Antoine looked at him worriedly.
"En… I'll be switching with you anyways… there is no problem." He replied.
In the tent, Crown Prince Ranon reported their location and quickly received the ambush team's reply.
"We will move by dawn…" The other party answered, making Crown Prince Ranon's eyes glint in wild excitement.
"Arabella… tomorrow is the day…" He mumbled softly as he looked at the corner.
"We will get ready…" As a response, he heard Arabella say.
The night quickly passed and the dawn arrived in no time.
Kazimir and Antoine with their troops stood vigilantly as they guarded those who were resting. They looked at the sky which was already turning blue and wondered if they had survived the night.
But a few minutes later, a shrill shout could be heard in the camp followed by the sound of arrows raining down their tents.
Kazimir reacted quickly and activated the defense spell. Antoine also mobilized his men to alert the entire camp that an enemy was attacking.
"Ambush! Everybody up!" They called, quickly awakening those who were in slumber.
When Kazimir saw that the majority had already awakened, he looked at his men and ordered, "Retaliate!"
With that a bloody fight ensued, but because of the treacherous camouflage of the enemies at dawn, there were already many casualties on their end.
"Summoners support!" Antoine saw that his brother was already having a hard time and so he quickly summoned several contracted beasts at once and initiated the attack.
Mishael did not join the fight as it was already clear to them that once this kind of thing happened, one must stay in the camp and immediately look after the criminal.
After all, the criminals might be their target.
"Continue to pressure them, let the Crown Prince's people inside do their jobs… They have to be bought some time in order to get the prisoners out." The Lieutenant of the second ambush camp ordered.
"Yes sire!" The troops immediately replied.
Crown Prince Ranon on the other hand did not need to do anything. After all, Arabella and her troops already knew what to do.
He just obediently followed the troops to bring him to safety. As soon as the Lieutenants and other well known mages did not appear themselves, this attack would not be associated with the Vanderford Empire.
On Mishael's side, he quickly assembled his temple knights and went to the prison cages.
"Quick, activate the defensive array and immediately form a protective circle to go against the attackers. We cannot let them get the prisoners out!" He ordered.
And so along with the temple knights, Mishael immediately engaged in a busy fight against the enemies who initiated the ambush.
However, after bitterly defending their post against the ambushers, another group of mysterious enemies appeared out of nowhere and attacked them.
What's even more complicated is that they were surprisingly strong as the top knights in the temple.
"This is not good! They have read us thoroughly." Mishael frowned, these mysterious enemies clothed in black had such bizarre combat skills.
Their sword and other battle movements seemed to have been specifically created to counterattack the temple knight's combat moves.
What's more they have a peculiar power which leads his men to become disoriented and illusioned.
"Curse users?" Mishael could only conclude one thing about this, but then nothing is settled yet as of the moment.
"Continue to hold your position, once the daylight fully appears, we might be able to figure out their tricks…" Mishael tried to get his men together and keep their minds focused, no matter what, they had to survive, and each fallen soldier meant that they were one step closer to imminent death.
Just as the men were about to acknowledge Mishael's words, a mocking laugh was heard nearby.
They did not know if it was because of the nature of the deep gorge or that the enemy was using some trick, but they could not figure out where the voice was coming from.
"You can fight as hard as you can but you can never beat us in this game, even if you wait for the daylight to fully appear." A woman's mocking voice was heard, she talked to them as if she was giving a death sentence.
Then her figure slowly emerged in front of Mishael and his men. Mishael narrowed his eyes, although he was not privy of the woman's identity, he could still recognize her appearance.