Jay was looking at his enemies carefully. He could feel a faint pressure from the twins. This wasn't because of their realm but the way they acted instead. They had the air of an expert, something one would only get after years of standing at the top. They also both had a small dagger on their sides but this seemed to be more for show than anything else.
A minute passed before bodyguard Gustel caught up to them. Even if he wasn't as fast or strong as a Tier 1 warrior, when it came to defense he was certainly equal to one. Their enemies were certainly strong but they had a glaring weakness.
Their team composition was terrible!
If you fight in a group you had to have a bunch more warriors compared to mages. Mages could easily be overrun on their own, usually, their physique was a bit weaker so if they weren't defended properly they would die quickly in battle.
It was often said that the swordsmen were the sword of an army, the spearmen were the shield and the mages were the bazookas.
They were extremely strong but also extremely hard to produce.
In order to cultivate mages, you needed magic books, resources, luck and just a bunch of gold in general.
Seeing the 2 mages before him Jay got a bit greedy. If he managed to just incapacitate these mages instead of killing them he might be able to gain 2 mages that were Tier 1.
The big problem with mages was that truly strong spells needed about a minute to build up, even if you could always send off a spell earlier it would be weaker.
Bodyguard Gustel shouldn't have a problem keeping the Tier 1 swordsman at bay for a bit and then Jay and General Green could knock the magicians out.
This certainly would've been his plan if it wasn't for the 10 other warriors.
Each of these was strong, similar to his own elite soldiers. If he had general Green fight against this group Jay was afraid he might lose. And if they both engaged they might be able to stall them for long enough for the mages to prepare their spells. After this, it wouldn't take much for the battle to get extended until the reinforcements of both sides arrived.
Looking at the enemy reinforcements on the horizon, Jay realized there was no way he could win once they arrived, even with the 30 soldiers he had that should arrive by then.
"Are you the Lord of your people?"
Jay asked this question after some hesitation. He figured his enemies should also be troubled right now. Even if their forces might be able to stall them, it was uncertain.
"We are."
The 2 tall, fair ladies spoke in unison after looking at each other for a second. The lady on the left was wearing a silver robe while the woman on the right wore a red robe.
After another second the woman in red spoke.
"We split the ruins in half. You may have the half on your side while we get the one on our side. We will block off the doorway between the two halves."
Hearing these words Jay laughed impolitely before speaking up once more.
"And I am guessing you get the room that has been unexplored so far, General Green, bodyguard Gustel, let's take them out shall we."
He said this just loud enough so that the twins could hear him. He knew they weren't stupid, they would surely try to stall for time if they found an opportunity. Just as Jay got ready to announce the attack they once again spoke, nervously, playing right into Jay's hands.
"Alright! You get to explore it first, we will send people ourselves in 24 hours until then it's all yours."
Jay smiled slyly as he silently retreated back into the ruins, he was not going to just let these people be, but since they didn't seem to be very smart, and seemed quite scared of death, Jay didn't think of them as too great a threat.
He would just have to put sufficient defenses on their side until he was ready to attack them.
After concluding this business the trio met up with their troops again before descending once more.
Jay believed their words, they seemed genuinely nervous and even a little scared when dealing with him. He was confident they would hold up their end of the deal, at least for now. Once they realized the area they connected to was actually a forest and not a desert, this would surely change.
But well, since they couldn't see the outside from the places they had been in, there was no threat of that.
Even though Jay was somewhat puzzled himself, wondering how this ruin had connected regions that should be far apart, he figured there might be some clarification inside of the unchecked room.
Bit first, Jay decided to take a somewhat savage precaution. He had noticed on the other side that the Tier 1 male was the first to enter the door, if this was always the case, he had a little something that would cripple them in case they tried to follow them.
A while back they had killed a bunch of zombies, this had gotten him a lot of zombie blood, something that would cause someone to get a high fever if they touched it.
Obviously, he had a few vials with zombie blood inside of his interspacial ring.
He found a rock on the ground that sort of formed a cup shape, he carefully transferred some zombie blood in there. The thing that made his precaution possible was that the door which leads to the desert tunnel which opened towards the side of the main ruins. Thus, Jay opened it a sliver and put the stone holding the zombie blood on top of the door.
This was very similar to a prank that was popular on earth, where the same was done with a bucket of water, the only difference was that now, it was done with some blood that would cause someone to fall gravely ill.
After taking this precaution, Jay found his way to the door that was yet to be opened.
Jay eagerly opened the door, yet in the next room over he was greeted with yet another group of people who were just busy looting the room.
...
Bruh