Eyes filled with golden runes spun slowly as they watched the firm back of the golden-haired boy directing the charge below.
'He should be at least two years younger than me.' Rose thought quietly to herself.
For the past three days since entering the secret realm, she realized that she had been subtly changing. Especially since encountering the young boy, who despite being younger than her was taller. She controlled herself from voicing her thoughts upon forming and threw curse words around albeit silently in her heart.
"Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
The battle cry that sounded like it came from a legendary Phoenix announced the start of their fierce charge for survival.
Rose quickly shifted her eyes from Arlo's back to the ground. She watched with narrowed eyes as Arianne and the others made a move.
Not even three seconds after losing his consciousness, Rook regained his bearing. However, he had also fallen to the ground just like the others within that short period.
A burning flame of anger raged within his eyes, as he tried to pick himself up. However, the weight on his body which had increased by at least three times, made him struggle momentarily.
Arianne didn't miss this opening.
The blood from the corpses on the ground moved as if they were controlled by an invisible hand, before wrapping around Rook and his team's bodies.
Five seconds after Rook regained his bearing, his two cousins also awoken from their listless state. However, when they woke up, they found themselves bound tightly by thick chains.
The sound of Rook grunting followed by several cracking sounds drifted into their ears, causing them to turn their eyes to him.
Not even a second since bound, the blood chains showed signs of breaking, even though they tried to repair themselves.
A second later, Rook grunted again, intending to shatter the chains and teach the little kids who dared to humiliate him a thorough lesson.
However, his movement soon seized as several huge shadows covered him and his surroundings.
*Snarl!*
*Snarl*
The four eight-meter wolves appeared before them as two bared their fangs toward him, and the other two attacked his cousins each.
Rook's pupils contracted into needles, and instead of feeling the sensation of sharp teeth tearing into his flesh, all he felt was a deep searing pain transmitted to his brain.
But that wasn't all...
*Booooom!*
*Boooooom!*
*Booooooom!*
*Boooooooom!*
The four wolves exploded into a domain of lightning that covered him and all his team members.
Groaning slightly, Rook's eyes reddened from shame and anger, as he took in the sight around him.
The painful moans of his cousins entered his ears at the same time that he saw several snakes of deep purple lightning crackling around their bodies.
His other team members who were yet to awaken from the previous soul attack spasm uncontrollably within the raging lightning field.
But what Rook really focused on, was the sight of the firebird swooping down to carry the werewolf and vampire girls who had returned to their human forms, and his cousin Joe.
'No...'
'You can't escape...'
'I won't allow you to escape!' he screamed inwardly in his mind.
He could tell that he would need a few more seconds before he could break free from the lightning raging around his body. Time that he didn't have the luxury of.
He was already losing his mind about the missing kid and was forcibly pressing down his panic.
How could he allow the other kids to escape from his eyes and cause more problems for him?
Left with no choice, Rook detonated his poisonous mana still lingering within the corpses around them.
However, his eyes widened a split second later and he couldn't help but have a foreboding feeling when he saw the young girl whose hair was a mix of gold and light green open her mouth.
"Now!"
It was then that his move was unleashed.
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*
The more than a dozen corpses around them exploded into a deep green poisonous mist that not only swallowed Rook and his team but also Arlo and his group.
'I can move in three seconds more...' Rook thought from within the mist of poison. His mana was already fighting against the invading lightning and all he needed was three breaths to expel them all. The same situation was happening to his cousins, albeit they needed more time to break free.
Just when Rook was starting to relax, a cold voice filled with battle intent drifted into his ears, causing the foreboding feeling to return.
"There is nothing I cannot cut..."
*Zing!* A sword cry rang across the area.
"Tidal wave!"
There was a brief silence before...
*Fwoooooooooooooooooooosh!*
Silver energy completely swallowed the green poison mist, and at the same, several light cuts appeared on the bodies of Rook and his team. It was at that time that his other team members started waking up, causing them to wince from the sharp energy that cut through their bodies.
However, Rook's eyes bulged and his veins popped out to the point that they looked like they would burst at any moment.
A firebird flew unrestrained above them, as Rook watched stunned the little kids remained unaffected even though they were caught unaware by his move.
Two groups made of teens around his age succumbed to this attack, yet little kids far younger and weaker than them remained unfazed.
He couldn't understand, and as the seconds slowly ticked by, no matter how he racked his brain, he couldn't think up a reason for why he failed.
How could he know that his attack had already been seen through by Rose and that Arlo had used his spiritual energy to telepathically inform his team beforehand?
However, Rook snapped back to reality quickly as he forcefully discarded his hurt pride.
"You can't escape!"
He roared as he forcefully withstood the weight on his shoulders and stood to his feet.
His mana surged as light green essence giving out an unpleasant smell burst out wildly from his body.
Several tens of green tridents materialized above him in a split second and just as he was about to wave his hand to launch them at the firebird that was within his range of attack, his expression suddenly changed.
"MILLER, NOW!"
Arlo who had moved to the back of his group to face Rook with a rebellious look, roared over his lungs from atop Anita.
Rook flinched as the image of the boy who had disappeared in the beginning flashed within his mind. Even though he was unfamiliar with the shouted name, he still couldn't help but quickly prepare himself for a surprise attack, as he didn't dare to underestimate the kids flying above him any longer.
He was fully aware that if it wasn't for his and his team's carelessness, this series of events wouldn't have played out as it did.
But even after three seconds, the attack never came.
Five seconds later, a dark-haired boy suddenly appeared in mid-air close in front of the firebird. The firebird quickly dived down, allowing the boy to land on its back. At the same time, it escaped Rook's range of attack.
It took two seconds for Rook to understand what just happened.
"AH!" He screamed maniacally.
He had been deceived once again!
His body shook before he transformed into a twenty-meter-long serpent, that soon gave chase.
His cousins who had just retained full control of their bodies quickly followed after him.
'We can't allow them to escape!'
The same thought rang constantly within their minds.
A chase soon began.
Anita couldn't fly high into the air due to the destruction of the realm. This allowed her to still be susceptible to attacks from below.
Arlo tensed up as he saw Rook closing quickly on them. It seemed that it wouldn't even take a minute for him to bridge the opened distance between them.
Anita was currently carrying nine people including Arlo, so her speed was quite reduced.
Shifting his eyes toward Rose, Arlo opened his mouth to voice his thoughts only to close them back when he saw the relaxed look on her chubby but cute face.
"Don't worry, we have done our part." he didn't understand her but he could guess that she had seen something from her, considering that her eyes were spinning the fastest he had ever seen.
Arlo closed his eyes as he thought back to the first set of words Rose said to him when she tugged at his clothes and when their attention was momentarily stolen by the clash between the lava hands and falling meteors.
"Before the realm closes, you will become a dragon among us."
She didn't say, 'dragon among men', but 'dragon among us'.
What did this mean?
This meant she wasn't comparing him to other people but to their current group.
Opening his eyes, Arlo looked at the people currently flying on top of his summon.
'These are the most talented people I have ever met. Could I become peerless even among them?'
His eyes shifted from them, before falling subconsciously to the previous far-away floating mountain that now appeared close.
'Ba-dum!* *Ba-dum!* *Ba-dum!*
For some reasons unknown, Arlo felt like he would find the answer there.
Suddenly Arlo's expression changed. He quickly turned back and looked down to see that at some point Rook had transformed back into his human form, and was now leaping from tree branches to another as he closed the distance to them.
Suddenly, his body paused for a moment as he gathered his strength for his last jump.
Rook's body flew into the air like a launched arrow, and as his body drew a parabola, under Arlo's continuously widening eyes, he started to transform in mid-air.
A twenty-meter-long huge snake opened its jaw wide to reveal a set of fangs lining its mouth, as it tried to swallow the five-meter wide wingspan Anita.
Time seemed to come to a crawl...
"Troooooooooooooouuuuuuun!*
Just when Arlo started doubting Rose, from the side of his eye, he captured a fast-approaching object, that in an instant appeared before him and slammed against the side of Rook's opened mouth.
In that brief moment of collision, Arlo captured the appearance of the foreign object.
It was an axe, with a handle that was two meters long and appeared to have been formed by twisting several branches together.
Blood erupted into the air, and a split second later, Rook's massive body flew in the same direction as the flying axe. Arlo heard several explosions as at least two or three dozen trees were turned into a pile of wood fragments after being shattered by Rook's massive body.