"What the hell was that?" Thane asked Kara as they regrouped and continued their journey.
The original plan was to overwhelm Victoria enough that it doesn't seem forced to have Thane save her and in the process inject her with a poisonous substance that would weaken her significantly in the near future.
But not only was Thane not allowed to make his move, things had gone completely out of hand. If not for nibbleskin these things might have succeeded in killing one of them at least.
"I don't know, Windbery is supposed to be in control" Kara sent in a covert way.
Yes, windbery had let loose the beetles and was in control of them. The fact that they were left to grow in that size was completely his fault.
"That…." Thane seemingly realizing something paused, then looked far into the dark where the beetles had come from.
Windbery was very effective, much more so than himself. Something like this would never happen on his watch….
Unless
Around several hundred meters away from where they stood, a young man in a black cloak with a coffin beside him could be seen looking down at a fleeing figure.
"Fuck!!" He cursed in frustration as he gribbed tightly on the dagger in his hand while a trail of blood dripped down.
He created distance with the main group so he would be able to deal with things like ambushes and could spot threats before they arrived.
After all, tracking one man was much harder than tracking a group.
So when he saw the beetle rushing towards Victoria and the rest, he followed the direction it came from and attacked the person behind it.
Unfortunately, that person had escaped in the last minute. He couldn't kill or capture him.
"That's verified" he whispered under his breath as he tried to regain himself from breathing heavily. They were walking into a trap and he knew it for sure now.
10 minutes later
As they walked, Enzo's figure appeared in the horizon as he inched closer and closer to them.
"Hm?!" Thane, the first person to notice him, immediately flew into a rage.
"What the hell did you think you were doing going off like that? We were almost killed back there, and you were doing what? Playing hooky?" Thane berated.
He sounded genuinely frustrated by Enzo's behavior and sounded more like a father scolding his wayward son.
But Enzo did not pay him a hint of mind as he walked through the group and towards Victoria.
"There was someone controlling the beetles a few hundred meters away from here. I was able to drive him away" Enzo explained not to Thane but directly to Victoria.
At this point, there was no need to feign cordiality anymore. Thane had probably inferred that he had clashed with Windbery, he was a threat through and through now.
"Ahhh a person? That's strange" Victoria raised her brow but before Enzo could say anything she patted him on the shoulder.
"Good job, let's keep pushing forward" Victoria didn't miss a beat as she walked to the front.
It was as if she didn't want to know what Enzo had to say.
"Sigh" Enzo struggled with his anger for a few seconds with clenched fists, however, he soon let go. Victoria wasn't stupid and he knew this but he couldn't help but try to convince her to leave.
This unfortunately was not possible.
he sighed and simply walked forward, directly passed Kara and grabbed the now tiny nibbleskin.
"Need somewhere to rest buddy?" He asked as he placed nibbleskin in his arms to recover and continued to follow behind Victoria.
Kara and Thane watched all that happened, a confused look on their faces, these guys were behaving extremely strange.
But…as long as they moved in the right direction what could they realistically say? Nothing.
Time passed and they could no longer tell if it was night or day, as they pushed through the subterranean hell. Several more attacks came, each harder than the other.
But with Enzo, Victoria and the rest working together they were able to push back every effort to stop their advancement.
"I haven't been able to get close enough to do anything" Thane complained bitterly to Kara.
Ever since Enzo came back, he had not left Victoria's side , any attempt to inject her with his poison was constantly being pushed back.
The kid was a serious thorn in their plans, since he had made up his mind that they were no good.
"Why don't we just kill the kid?" Kara questioned with a raised eyebrow. In fact she didn't quite understand why Enzo was even still alive. The first person thane was supposed to kill was the nobody, no one would even care.
"Kill him? That will be hard" Thane said with frustration. What did Kara know? He had been trying to kill Enzo since the very beginning.
Giving him death battles against creatures that could rip him apart in the disguise of training, trying to use the skeleton king against him, and even trying to catch him off guard. There was nothing he hadn't tried.
Enzo wasn't particularly strong, just a stubborn cockroach that refused to die.
"He's too slippery," Thane added, not going into the details of his failure.
"Hmm it doesn't matter then, weak or not Victoria will still fall, it was just a precaution anyway" Kara spoke with confidence.
Kara's confidence should have reassured him of course. But, instead, it unsettled him. The legion's plans were absolute, they weren't supposed to speak of them like afterthoughts.
Something was off.
"Hehe, I'm kidding. An opportunity is about to reveal itself" Kara smiled coyly.
They were already very close to the pool, if her calculations was correct. What laid in front would be the biggest challenge for Victoria yet.