Rise of the Blood Sovereign

The 3.5 meter-tall ape that could smash apart trees like they were made out of cardboard was almost invisible thanks to the two giant serpents that had coiled around it completely.

Muffled sounds could be heard coming from inside the ball of serpents as the ape still tried to struggle, but it was for naught.

The mage\'s face was covered in sweat as she continued pouring mana into the serpents in order to strengthen them and extend the time they were active in the world. Compared to some other powerful spells that needed a longer casting time, this one only needed a couple of seconds, but the drawback was that the caster needed to constantly channel mana to the serpents in order for them to continue existing in the world.

Once the mana was cut off, the serpents would disappear, they would scatter through the air and return to being pure mana once again.

The sound of bones being crushed could be heard inside the ball as the Bronze Knights around the mage continued fighting the remaining Bronze Core realm apes. Thanks to the mage and her previous help, they had a relatively easy time taking down the apes.

The two Silver Knights were still fighting against the first Silver Core ape, and it was clear that they were winning. Wounds had piled up on the ape as the two knights fought brilliantly against it.

Their seamless teamwork made it hard for the ape to do anything to them, and in a manner of minutes, it was down on its knees as the wounds it had suffered, and the blood it had lost had made it weak.

The moment the ape showed weakness, the axe-wielding knight quickly charged before swinging his axe toward the neck of the ape, only for the latter to suddenly move and dodge the blow before tackling the knight.

As the ape stared down at the knight, a smirk could be seen on the knight\'s face as a sword suddenly exited through the throat of the ape.

"Did you really think I would fall for such a trick, you damned monster?!" The axe-wielding knight shouted out as the ape fell to the side and started thrashing around.

The wound was serious and blood was continuously flowing out from its throat. The ape couldn\'t breathe and it would not be long before it would die because of it.

The axe-wielding knight suddenly stood up before lifting his axe high up in the air. Fire enveloped the axe as the knight slashed down on the ape\'s head.

His attack had not only split the head up, but the shockwave it produced shook the mountain as the fire spread around the ape and enveloped its body completely.

"Hey, why did you do that?!" The other knight suddenly shouted out as the axe-wielding knight stared at him in confusion before a panicked expression appeared on his face.

"Shit, sorry, I got too excited." The knight said while scratching the back of his head, fully aware that he had messed up.

Because of his actions, the fur of the ape was now burnt and wasn\'t worth as much as it normally would.

All the monsters they killed were theirs, and they were of course planning on taking the bodies with them to Orsvald. With the fur in such a state, they would get a lot less money for the body compared to how much it was normally worth.

The one killed by the mage fared no better since it was completely crushed by the serpents, bones were sticking out from the body and the fur was ripped apart at multiple places.

The sole reason none of the two knights had used their abilities before was simply that they didn\'t want to damage the fur of the ape too much, and because the axe-wielding knight had gotten too excited, he had briefly forgotten about it and used his ability, damaging the fur greatly in the process.

"Damn it, man, you could have killed it without using any skills, look at what you did now, look at the state of this thing." The axe-wielding knight had extinguished his flames after being berated by the other knight. The body of the ape was burned, the fur had become darker and it was even black in multiple places.

It was worth less than even 50% of its initial worth now.

"Take out the core, we\'re leaving the body here." The knight said as the burly man stared at the ape.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"Well, it wasn\'t me that burned the body and destroyed most of its value, so of course I won\'t be doing it!" The knight said before going down to the caravan the axe-wielding knight sighed before taking out a dagger and starting to cut into the body in order to get the core out.

The situation down at the caravan had also quieted down, with only a couple of apes remaining.

Some of the adventurers were trying to not kill, but capture the apes alive in order to bring them back to the city. After some time debating the whole thing, they decided against it as they simply didn\'t have anything to use in order to not only bind the apes but also to stop them from making any noise and to transport them easily.

If the apes were to be brought with them, it was a given that they would be incredibly noisy, which could lead to monsters coming to attack them more frequently and in higher numbers.

Not only that, but more powerful monsters that were of the Silver Core realm could potentially show up more often thanks to the apes making a ruckus.

The caravan stopped for about 30 minutes in order to let the adventurers rest up and also take out the cores of the monsters they had slain. The caravan leader was quite generous and he allowed the adventurers to do whatever they wished when it came to the monsters they had slain.

Usually, caravans were not this generous and they would be the ones getting the cores and bodies of the monsters. They would, of course, reimburse the adventurers, but it was always for a lower price compared to what they would get in cities.

Many were not happy about this, but there was little they could do since the contract would clearly state that, and there was no going back from it.

After 30 minutes, the caravan continued moving as Lyle and Adam were back on top of the carriage. Many were impressed by the two men since they had gone down in order to help out with the apes.

Since the two were placed up on the carriage as long-range combatants, they didn\'t have to go down and fight a melee battle against monsters, but these two did.

That was not the only reason the others were impressed as the strength the two had shown made it obvious that they were used to fighting like that. Lyle and Adam had taken out a couple of apes each and saved some adventurers from getting seriously injured or killed by the apes.

As for the mage and the other two Silver Knights?

They had gone back inside the carriage they had previously stayed in. The adventurers and mercenaries were excited about the fact that there was a mid-grade Silver Mage amongst them.

Not only was she powerful and could defeat a powerful low-grade Silver Core monster such as the ape by herself, but she also did it with little to no difficulty. The other two knights were also impressive and could potentially deal with a low-grade Silver Core monster by themselves, but when together, such a monster stopped being a threat completely.

There were 4 people that had died in the attack and 3 were injured. Out of the three, none were seriously injured and could continue fighting after resting for a couple of hours and allowing their injuries to heal.

The caravan had no healers and thus they had to use medicine and rest in order to heal their injuries. Healers were always rare and everybody would pay very high sums in order to have them in their caravan since they could limit the injuries and could even heal those of the same realm in mere seconds.

Even life-threatening injuries were possible to be healed by healers that were of the Silver Mage realm and above. That was why they were always sought out by many adventurer guilds, powerful organizations, and the army.

No healer would find themselves short on money thanks to their service is quite costly. To employ one healer of the Silver Mage realm, one would need to fork out triple the money they would spend on getting a normal Silver Mage.

The caravan had no such person in their midst, and the adventurers were used to that. Mages were a rare sight, healers even rarer, and to have one being employed by a caravan was something that could rarely be seen.