Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

As Doaf and Amera headed in haste to the front, Nicole realized something was off here.

And so she didn't hesitate to order everyone to pick pace and start running towards the front as well. The war was already over, only handful of persistently stupid mages stood at the front and tried till now to infilitrate the sect.

But with the sudden coalescence of everyone, they couldn't survive at all.

"Victory!"

"We won!"

"We killed them all!"

Many shouts of victory reverberated all over the place while the sect cultivators screamed in triumph. This long and complicated war finally was over by their victory.

It started with everyone getting mysteriously poisoned, and now they ended this nightmare.

"Don't stand here anymore," Doaf suddenly rose high in the air as he shouted, "retreat, retreat to the sect now!"

The cultivators didn't know Doaf in person, however many saw him valiantly fighting and defending their sect. Despite his shouts, no one moved at once as they were at loss.

They just won the war, couldn't they stand here and celebrate this hardly earned victory?

"Don't stand like idiots or else you all will die!" Amera shouted as well and the next moment she turned into a ray of light. The moment that ray of light appeared, everyone recognized it without doubt.

Amera was more prominent in this war. She kept jumping all the time on the battlefield in such an eye-catching way. So when she noticed Doaf's words weren't effective, she had to step in.

The two already figured out what was going to happen without even the need to talk. If any of them were in the shoes of the enemy leaders, they wouldn't hesitate to gather up arms and come here to burn this sect to the ground.

From what the two saw, the enemies here had many tricks they didn't use in this war. Showing up through a forced portal was something special even in their higher realms.

That meant there were many hidden tigers in the enemy camp. And that also meant the army coming soon wouldn't be that soft to break.

Compared to the war they just won, this war would be on another scale.

"Keep moving forward!" Doaf's men took the lead while they pushed everyone back into the sect. As for Doaf, Amera, and Nicole, they gathered inside the sect, waiting for the arrival of whom they asked.

In fact Doaf and Amera once convinced everyone to retreat, they asked to meet up with two specific individuals; Gor and Deem.

But Nicole also asked for the leaders of the sect to show themselves up. She didn't know who these two Amera and Doaf asked for were, but she was sure they must meet up with the sect leaders now.

As they waited, Nicole heard a brief from the two about what was going to happen. Once heard that she could only sigh.

"Why is everyone interested in such a low realm?" she couldn't help but ask before recalling another fact that she missed.

This entire war that was going on brutality at the higher realms initially started from the lower realms! She suddenly realized that the one man who started all this was no one but Arthur himself.

"Was that the reason she was so much interested in him?" she couldn't help but think about her lover's weird behavior from before.

But soon she dropped this thought as she knew no matter what, having a low realmer in their side wouldn't make any difference at all.

Even if that man was the young master for the bronzed giant clan. Even if that meant gaining the favor of that clan, that wouldn't make Aemie do such a thing.

"Take them into custody," as she recalled this matter, she turned to her trusted mages now, "make them hostages inside one of the hidden worlds you have."

The mage who received the order nodded before retreating. Nicole was standing alone on one side of the first mountain here.

As for Doaf and Amera, they kept their silence on the other side while they were thinking about the incoming war.

They were all exhausted, not to mention they lost many and had many more injuries.

Fighting this way in such shape meant only one result, defeat.

"Let's hope they are unorganized and impulsive when they come," Doaf tried to look positive while saying these lies to Amera.

And the latter could only laugh and say nothing in return. She knew that Doaf was trying to cheer her up.

No matter how hard she thought about it, this war looked gloomy with no ray of hope for them.

"Woosh!"

"Woosh!"

"Woosh!"

All of sudden, the shields around the sect regained their functions at once. This alerted the cultivators around who cheered in unison.

They were pushed inside the sect and their celebration for victory was interrupted. They knew this meant the war wasn't over yet.

And now the shields were raised, as an obvious indication for that.

Nonetheless this also meant good news. The shields would protect them from anything, even giants like before.

And so they all cheered in celebration for that.

"They did what we wanted without even coming here," Amera said in admiration, "it seems Arthur… had such trusted and capable aides."

The moment she mentioned Arthur, her heart fluttered and she felt pain once more. Doaf could easily see that on her face, so he refrained from saying anything and kept his silence.

In less than ten minutes, the place got stirred up by the appearance of the five peak masters alongside their trusted people and Gor and Deem as well.

"Where is… Jim?" Doaf wanted to ask first about the traitor, but he held himself back at the last moment from saying that word.

"Where is your sect master?" Yet Amera didn't share the same consideration as him. She wanted to find that traitor and kill him with her own hands.

"Oh, so you knew all along…" Just as the two waited for an answer of his location, one man stepped forward and spoke with surprise.

"You figure out what he did?" Doaf couldn't help but ask, however that man moved his eyes around as a warning.

"I believe as a leader you value the importance of morale and the great impact of rumors in such times," the man said and his words carried a message to Doaf and Amera.

And Nicole who just came now to stand beside the other two.

The three exchanged silent glances before Amera took a deep breath. "I wish to know his whereabouts, that's all."

"I'm unfortunate to say that, but he already is dead," the middle aged man with long brown hair said while his face didn't show any speck of regret or sadness.

"Oh," Amera couldn't couldn't but mutter, "I didn't expect that."

"Did you kill him?" Doaf asked while Nicole kept her silence. After all she was thrown in the middle of something she hardly knew a thing about.

"We… don't know who did it so far," the man said in hesitation, "he simply fell off the mountain peak and died. When we checked his body, we found a sword wound there."

"Someone has already killed him before throwing him off the mountain," Doaf said in a deep tone as he started to think deeply about this variable.

"Did you kill him?" Amera asked before adding, "and who are you? Are you the new leader here?"

"I'm Woo, and I'm one of the peak masters and acting sect master for the time being," the man said before adding, "and we didn't kill him. We found him this way when we wanted to confront him about his weird actions."

The eyes of Amera, Doaf, and Nicole changed when they heard that.

"So he was discovered," Nicole couldn't help but say, "and someone disposed of him to kill any further leads to him."

This was the only logical conclusion anyone could think of.

"That means… there are more than just one," Doaf said in realization, "we need to search for that killer."

"We tried," Woo said in a tired tone, "but we… As you can see, the sect is still in turmoil from this war. By the way, why did you retreat and didn't go out there to collect the spoils of war?"

Woo's question held he doubts everyone else had.

"The war… isn't over yet," Amera had to bring the bad news to them.

"What?" Woo's face darkened while he hurriedly moved his eyes around. However he couldn't see anything but remnants of that deadly war and damage caused by the fight. "How?" he asked with much doubt in his tone.

"It's a long story," Doaf had to step in, "but to make it simple for you, they sent their vanguard before we entered the sect. They can teleport through portals from anywhere in the world, and they are strong… very strong."

"Aha," Woo nodded, "but they didn't appear here yet," he said as he realized the three in front of him were hiding something from him.

"They will," Amera said in confidence, "we just need to be ready for them when they come."

"Do you have an estimated time for their appearance?" Woo tried to dig for more info without looking skeptical or rude.

He knew if not for those strangers here, his sect would have been destroyed a long time ago. A scheme after a scheme… A brutal war after another… They would never survive all that on their own.

If not for Arthur and his forces, if not for this unexpected miracle, they would have been all dead by now.