Several days had passed since Punk and his group set out on their escape. During this time, they faced many battles, both big and small. Even Punk, facing such a frequent battle, started feeling very tired, both mentally and physically. This fatigue was even more challenging for warriors with lower levels. Princess Nesa, who used to encourage them, stopped talking. It's understandable given the circumstances.
At first, the guards were full of energy, but as they kept facing danger, they their hearts began to fill with confusion, numbness, and anxiety. And a gloomy feeling hung over the group..
With the increasing number of battles, the Princess's guards' already small group had also begun to lose their numbers. And this kind of reduction in number led to a continuous weakening of this group's combat strength, making it more challenging to face the chasing forces.
This hopeless circle started to gradually devour all hopes of this group. What was even more frustrating was that no one could see the light at the end of this vicious tunnel.
As the border of the Kingdom of Dylan got closer and closer, the enemy's pursuit had also become more frantic and intense.
So now, the severely weakened escaping group could no longer face the pursuing teams as effectively or as quickly as they did in the beginning. And It seemed like the possibility of successfully escaping Prince William's claw was shrinking every step they took. The only thing that still continued to give this group a little hope was the "invincible" status of McNeesey in the soldiers' hearts.
McNeesey did show some gesture of solicitude and condolences from time to time to appease the young wounded soldiers. Their wounds couldn't heal well in the very damp environment. He also expressed sadness for the soldiers who lost their lives after the battle. Additionally, he tried to motivate everyone to take shorter breaks.
But, he was a mage, after all, not a presidential candidate who was proficient in incitement and speech. His empty encouragement soon lost most of its effect for most of the soldiers there, except for the young Princess who always believed in McNeesey.
Punk closely watched McNeesey when he stepped up for his brief speech. Punk keenly noticed that the green leaves on McNeesey's injured wound were no longer twisting and growing as they had been before. The vitality that had been consistently flowing into McNeesey's body had also recently started to weaken.
And previously, in several critical battles, even when this team suffered heavy casualties, McNeesey did not come to kill those trainee-level team leaders who were extremely vulnerable in front of an official mage.
It could also be argued that keeping one's true strength concealed might be reasonable on a few occasions. However, if one still chose to "hide strength" when facing a major loss of strength, then it was not wisdom but outright stupidity.
Of course, there was no doubt that McNeesey was not a stupid person, so the reason for his inaction could only be that he didn't have the ability to take action.
Facing such a dangerous situation that could be said a life-or-death crisis, Punk did not feel any fear or worry, as worrying would only make oneself more confused, and fear would be a meaningless behavior that only consumes energy.
Useless emotions, such as these, had been entirely discarded by Punk's soul as early as he was still inside the void.
What's more, Punk still had a faint hunch in his heart that McNeesey should still have a trump card that could not be underestimated, or at least he still had the final means of dying together with his enemy.
"Burning clouds! I didn't expect to see them in this world."
Punk gazed at the fiery clouds in the sky. The cloud-like flames rolled and stretched in Mira's radiance, painting the entire sky in a brilliant red hue!
The current Princess Guards couldn't be called a retreating army. It was more like a retreating squad, as apart from the Princess and McNeesey, the only survivors were Punk and two other warriors. Like that of the old mage, combatants with low battle strength became cold corpses as early as the fifth or the sixth battles.
Of course, the enemy would never sympathize with their helplessness; instead, they would only rush forward more excitedly to give the exhausted group the final blow.
As Mira's brilliance slowly descended below the horizon, another group of pursuers appeared in the dim dusk.
In fact, after more than a week of such high-intensity battles, Punk's level had increased by two levels. And now he was a ninth-level trainee mage. The relationship of soul level and combat power was very interconnected, or at least that was the case until the official level, as higher soul level meant faster mana recovery and quicker casting, and this upgrade benefited Punk even more as a semi-ancient elve.
But even with his new upgraded soul level, Punk felt exhausted, as the previous few battles were as close and dangerous as being on the edge of a cliff, and they almost got caught up by the enemy's main force.
Now, the two remaining warriors were also wounded. It could be said that except for the carefully guarded Princess, everyone was nearly at their limit. Even though no one said anything about it, everyone understood that they might not survive the next battle.
"Damn! Damn! Just a bit further, just a little more before I reach the territory of Dylan Kingdom."
A warrior leaned on a sword that was half-broken, gasping for breath. He rose to his feet, ignoring the cracking bones and bleeding wounds, and hoarsely shouted in the direction where Mira had set, his hair matted with dried blood fluttering in the waning battle qi. His golden armor, bathed in the setting sun, made him resemble an injured lion, both fierce and cornered.
Even Princess Nesa, who had always maintained optimism, inevitably showed desperation in her eyes at this moment:
"Everyone, are we really going to fail? Are all those soldiers really sacrificed for nothing?"
Tears blurred Princess's vision. At this moment, she was not the "Her Royal Highness" whom everyone looked up to, but just a helpless young girl named Nesa!
Even in such a desperate situation, Punk did not feel worried. With only such a short distance from the border, even if McNeesey had no trump cards, he would be able to make a forced escape with his own trump card, that was unless Lunka himself was stopping his way. But Punk didn't dare to underestimate the potential of an old and experienced official mage such as McNeesey.
Sure enough, sensing the enemy encircling this squad from all directions and watching the red-eyed little Princess about to be smashed by a fireball, McNeesey shielded her in a dilapidated manner with his half-body. Then, like a hungry wolf who was robbed of the last piece of meat, he let out a bloody roar that even creeped out Punk.
Even when seriously injured, Mage McNeesey was polite and never even spoke loudly, but at this moment, his eyes became blood-red in anger. The blood vessels in his hand started to pop out like green tendons. Previously, he was even struggling to move, but now his body started to dazzle with green lights, and from his arms, he summoned countless emerald green vines with thick roots, which instantly created thick woodland about the size of five football fields. All the vines elevated McNeesey mid-air and then covered him entirely and became a 20 meters tall Giant made with countless vines. The vine giant was enveloped in a magnificent green glow. A substantial emerald energy flame was burning in the eyes of the Vine giant, and the surging green energy slowly solidified in every gap of the vine giant!
Finally, the vine giant, bearing a striking resemblance to McNessey, opened its mouth toward the enemies and unleashed a fearsome roar that shattered even the fiery clouds in the sky!
" All! Of! You! Die————!"