A pack of rank 4 Giant octopuses appeared on the shore where the cultivators of the Hive and the soldiers of the Empire were fighting.
Something was off with those magical beasts though, the level of those beasts seemed to be exactly the same, they were all in the middle tier of the fourth rank.
All the rank 3 cultivators that had been in the separate dimension and that were on the battlefield felt some similarities with the dragons of the trials, the soldiers of the Empire had only read some reports after all.
Yet, everyone knew that such a sight was rare on the Coral archipelago.
The exoskeleton of the Purple corals scared away the magical beasts in the sea, keeping the islands safe from the invasion of those creatures.
However, their eyes weren't lying to them, magical beasts were really coming from the sea and crawling on the purple shore.
'We won.'
Noah was the first to realize that the copying technique had been completed and that there was no point in fighting further.
"Retreat to the back of the island!"
He immediately gave the order and warped away while the other cultivators were still busy staring at the peculiar scene.
His order awakened the cultivators of the Hive who retreated without hesitation, some of them began to understand what was happening and could barely contain the excitement that they felt.
The soldiers of the Empire though were clueless, they stood still on the battlefield, unsure of what to do next.
The pack of Giant octopuses had more than thirty rank 4 creatures in the middle tier, taking care of them would require their full concentration and the Empire couldn't do that while being on the ground controlled by the Hive.
Yet, the magical beasts stood between them and their sh.i.p.s, even retreating wouldn't be easy since they would have to pass between the powerful creatures.
As for chasing the escaping cultivators, that option was gone in that moment of hesitation.
The cultivators of the Hive were already far away, the soldiers could catch up with the slow rank 1 cultivators but they had no interest in them, they were just cannon fodder after all.
"Return to the sh.i.p.s!"
In the end, the soldier in charge gave that order and the army coming from the Empire decided to retreat through the path occupied by magical beasts.
That situation was extremely unusual, they knew that they would suffer some losses along the way but retreating and reorganizing seemed the best option at that moment.
The army of the Empire charged toward their sh.i.p.s, it resembled a tide ready to sweep the octopuses as it moved toward the sea.
However, most of the soldiers were in the second rank, only about fifty of them were rank 3 cultivators, the strength of both sides was more similar than what appeared.
The Giant octopuses were a kind of magical beasts that lived in the depths of the sea, generally ten meters tall and with long tentacles, they rarely appeared on the surface.
The sunlight though didn't affect their view, their natural environment was something that matched some of their other qualities.
They had a powerful body that was also particularly soft, that quality was something that allowed them to be virtually unaffected by the heavy pressure in the depths of the sea.
Also, they could swim at an unexpectedly fast speed, that quality though didn't apply on the ground.
The Giant octopuses were extremely slow on the ground, the pack had barely crossed three meters when the army of the Empire reached them.
The soldiers focused their firepower at the center of the pack, they couldn't avoid them since they were still too close to their sh.i.p.s so they simply chose to force the blockage.
The pack of magical beasts was hit by the torrent of attacks launched by the soldiers, the attacks focused the specimens at the center of the pack and directly annihilated them, opening a path where the soldiers could pass.
The Giant octopuses were slow on the ground but their tentacles could only benefit from the absence of the pressure of the sea.
As soon as the army entered the ranks of the beasts to reach for the sh.i.p.s, a series of noises that resembled wh.i.p.s cracking filled the area.
The tentacles of the octopuses shot at an incredible speed and created shockwaves wherever they landed.
The cultivators hit by the tentacles were directly torn in many pieces, even the defensive spells of those in the third rank couldn't endure such powerful attacks for much time.
Yet, the army was in full retreat, no one stopped its escape to care about the soldiers hit by the beasts.
The inscribed sh.i.p.s appeared in the sight of the soldiers as soon as they crossed the pack of magical beasts.
Happy expressions could be seen appearing on their faces, those sh.i.p.s were their headquarters after all and the inscriptions on them offered a great defense, they would be safe once they climbed on their main deck.
Those expressions suddenly froze though since a tentacle six meters large appeared from the sea and coiled itself around the nearest ship.
The inscriptions on the ship lit up, the silver shield was deployed again and opposed the squeeze of the giant tentacle.
However, right in front of the incredulous eyes of everyone on the island, the circular protective layer that surrounded the ship cracked under the squeeze of the tentacle.
The shield then completely broke, allowing the tentacle to coil again on the ship, it took only a few seconds for the ship to be directly torn in two pieces under the attack of that huge magical beast.
Even Noah who was staring at the scene from the distance was amazed.
'That's a rank 5 magical beast! Divine Demon said that the limit of the copying technique was the heroic ranks but I didn't expect Chasing Demon to be able to capture a rank 5 creature!'
His thoughts led him to believe that his patriarch had captured and bound a rank 5 magical beast alive!
He didn't know much about the copying technique but he was aware that the specimen that had to be copied had to be in a specific environment filled by formations and inscriptions.
'The patriarch is indeed a rank 6 existence.'
Noah sighed internally when he realized the amount of power held by such a powerful cultivator, he sat on the ground to enjoy the battle when he accepted that there was nothing else that he needed to do.