Raymond frowned, "We can't rest for too long as we will lose track of those radiant knights."
Charlotte closed her eyes and meditated for a few minutes to restore some of her lost mental stamina. Knights relied on their physical stamina to launch attacks, while mages relied on their mental stamina. Each spell casted would expend a portion of their mental stamina, which could only be restored through meditation or sleep. The former being a faster measure of restoration.
After five minutes, although Charlotte had not completely restored her stamina, it was just sufficient enough to enable her to follow behind the radiant knights for a while.
After all was said and done, the group of mages recontinued to chase the radiant knights but instead of directly following up in the west direction, they slightly diverted towards the south-west direction. It wasn't that they couldn't retrace the path taken by the radiant knights, it was just that Raymond had found a shortcut that could lead them to the western part of lumberry forest in a short amount of time.
Powerful light magic erupted and seemingly swept through a western portion of the forest.
And agitated yell could be heard from afar, "You can run, but you can't hide!"
Jaime at this instant couldn't keep a count of how many times he had almost fallen into the radiant knight captain's hands. He still had some luck on his side as his desperate engagement with Sir Luthur advanced some of his magic abilities. If previously Jaime was a four-tier dark mage, now, he was almost close to the five-tier but it didn't make much of a difference when the one he was up against was a six-tier light mage and also a powerful knight.
After making a blind turn, Jaime secured himself safely inside a cave. From outside, the cave opening was covered with a layer of vines which perfectly camouflaged the cave. Jaime was certain that no matter how skilled the radiant knight captain was, he wouldn't be able to find the cave, atleast not in a short time.
Even if that was so, Jaime was still disheartened because he knew that now his chances to escape to the Savage Lands were almost nil since the radiant knight captain was guarding and searching around, it was almost impossible to keep on going. Plus Jaime was certain that there were more radiant knights making their way over here as he could feel the steadily increasing light magic fluctuations trying to track him down.
Since he couldn't advance, nor stay, he could only resort to retreating!
Jaime looked towards the other end of the cave that seemingly led one through a world of darkness, he knew that this cave path would lead him all the way to the central part of the forest. Jaime didn't delay as he made his escape.
Crimson, Raymond and Charlotte were making their way over to the western region of the lumberry forest. Raymond led the group through a cave tunnel that was endlessly dark, being five-tier mages, Raymond and Crimson had no problem getting used to the dark as they continuously gave out magic fluctuations which acted like echolocation and enabled them to grasp their nearby surroundings. As for the only two-tier mage in their group, Charlotte, she was too weak to be able to use magic fluctuations to echolocate and as such she had to be carried by her grandfather, Crimson Stark.
As they proceeded through the cave, Raymond spoke with nostalgia, "I discovered this cave by chance during my younger days when I used to come to the forest to train. The other end of this cave will lead one directly to the western part of the forest, also this cave was where I first met my wife, who was just a bold brave knight back then-"
Raymond's words halted as he went full alert and looked towards his front with a bit unease.
Crimson also halted his advance and stood beside his friend. After a moment of silence, he could not help but speak out, " How long are you going to stay hidden?"