The Mistborns left through the portals quickly. Their Steam Suits—each one as precious as a City—were destroyed, and since they were high rank Mistborns, they had huge bodies. If they didn’t get new Steam Suits quickly, they would dissipate into the air.
Falsi, and Bjorn flew to the portals while dragging their bodies. They could already hear the scolding they were going to get after returning to Lord Mists.
Kael was calm, unlike them. Whether he had accepted his fate, or he believed that he wouldn’t be scolded was unknown.
A moment later, the portals closed.
Silence slowly returned to the battlefield.
The tension from earlier still lingered heavily in the air, but the momentary danger had finally passed.
Alice stayed beside Emily for several minutes. Emily’s emotions had calmed somewhat after the Mistborns left, though her eyes were still red and swollen.
Nearby, Averon moved around the ruined battlefield while dealing with monsters attracted by the earlier explosions and roars. The battle between the Mistborns and their team had shaken half the area, and creatures from nearby zones had naturally started gathering toward the noise.
Still, Averon looked happier than ever.
The Silver Coins and the equipment drop scattered around the corpses were practically treasure chests in his eyes.
Not far away, Emily’s newly contracted Mini Boss crushed a charging beast beneath one vine while the Crimson Sky Wyrm burned another group of monsters from the sky.
Averon laughed loudly after finishing off a Two-Headed Hyena alongside one of Emily’s summons. He wiped blood from his blade and turned around.
"That should be the last—"
The space nearby suddenly warped.
A ripple spread through the air before a ghostly bird shot out from the distortion.
[Master!]
Tirra flew down excitedly toward Emily.
The ghost bird looked exactly the same as before, though a blinking paper tag was tied around one claw. However, the moment Tirra noticed Emily’s red eyes, the bird froze in alarm.
[What happened? Why are you crying?]
Emily opened her mouth, but before she could even answer, Tirra suddenly spun around furiously toward the other summons.
[All of you are so useless! What are you doing if you can’t even protect Master!?]
The Mini Boss snorted dismissively and looked away immediately after sensing Tirra’s weak aura. To it, Tirra was barely worth acknowledging.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm had been about to do the same.
Then it suddenly froze.
Its expression became strange.
It realized it also acted arrogant towards Tirra, like Thorn Tyrant acted towards it.
For some reason, seeing Tirra acting arrogantly toward stronger beings reminded it of Thorn Tyrant’s behavior earlier. The Catastrophe’s face twisted slightly.
The Catastrophe’s face scrunched up. It used to think that power meant everything, and it had no reason to pay attention to weaklings, but after seeing Thorn Tyrant, it realized that acting arrogant looked.... embarrassingly childish.
The Crimson Sky Wyrm disliked that realization greatly.
It quickly rationalized with itself. Unlike Thorn Tyrant, it still had pride. It was loyal to Emily, yes, but it had not completely thrown away its dignity like the Thorn Tyrant.
Still... maybe acting less arrogant toward weaker summons would not hurt.
After a moment of hesitation, the Crimson Sky Wyrm lowered itself from the sky.
[It was our fault for not serving Lady Emily properly. We apologize.]
The three Blazing Petrodactyls immediately copied it and lowered themselves as well.
[Hmph! You should be sorry!] Tirra puffed up proudly.
Inwardly, the ghost bird felt incredibly satisfied.
Finally.
These Overlord-ranked summons were listening to her.
So what if she was the weakest? She was still their senior. The first summon always held authority.
A faint smile finally appeared on Emily’s face again while watching the antics of her summons.
She raised her hand gently.
"Tirra, come here."
The ghost bird immediately flew onto her shoulder.
"Where are the others?" Emily asked.
[They are already on the way. They told me to tell you not to approach the Boss Monster yet. The Boss Monster is very strong, and many groups are already fighting over it. They said it is better to regroup first instead of rushing ahead.]
Emily nodded slowly.
"What happened with the Florathi?" Alice asked.
Tirra’s expression became more serious.
[Lady Avery and the others escaped by using Stone Giants as distractions. But there is a high chance we will encounter the Florathi again near the Boss Monster.]
Alice gave a small nod.
Emily had intentionally left Tirra behind with Avery’s group earlier. The ghost bird possessed the ability to warp directly to Emily’s location, making it perfect for regrouping.
Avery had attached a tracking tag to Tirra before separating.
Ideally, Emily herself should have received the tracker directly, but the Florathi’s sudden attack earlier had left no time for that.
Tirra quickly explained everything that had happened while waiting for the others to arrive.
Several minutes later, multiple figures finally appeared in the distance.
Avery led the group while Eleanor sprinted beside her. The others looked exhausted from their escape, though fortunately nobody appeared heavily injured.
The moment Eleanor arrived, her sharp gaze immediately swept across the battlefield.
"Give me a short report," she said.
"We got a Mini Boss and eliminated the Mistborns," Averon answered.
Eleanor’s expression changed slightly.
"You encountered Mistborns?"
"Yes, they ambushed us after confirming Emily could tame the Mini Boss. They waited until the she was about to start the contract process before making their move," Averon explained.
Eleanor listened silently while Avery and the others grew visibly more serious.
After hearing the full explanation, Eleanor stepped toward Alice and Emily.
"Good job, both of you." A smile broke onto Eleanor’s face. "I’m proud to see how far you two have progressed."
Alice looked visibly pleased despite maintaining a neutral expression. Emily immediately became embarrassed. The memory of her earlier emotional outburst returned instantly, and her face reddened again.
Before Eleanor could comment on it, Emily hurriedly spoke.
"W-we should go to the Boss Monster quickly. If we arrive late, we might lose the loot and the Title."
Eleanor looked toward Avery briefly.
Avery gave a small nod before speaking.
"We can take our time. Our main goal isn’t the loot or the Title. It’s the Boss Monster itself," Avery said.
"What do you mean?" Averon frowned.
"We need the corpse of the Boss Monster so that Emily can tame it," Avery said. Emily had already told her about her equipment upgrade and that her taming limit had increased from one to three every day.
"Huh...?" Averon blinked, taking a moment to realize what she meant. Then his expression changed, pure shock appearing on it. His gaze snapped to Emily. "You can tame more than one monster every day!?"
Emily nodded.
Averon genuinely did not know how to react anymore.
A hundred percent taming success rate was already absurd enough. But she could do it multiple times a day?
He had always believed Isaac was the most ridiculous awakener among them, but now Emily looked even more terrifying.
For a brief second, Averon almost asked about her bloodline and Class directly.
Then he remembered the livestreams.
Countless powerful figures were definitely watching right now. He couldn’t ask the question here.
’I bet those high and mighty lords are screaming and going mad right now, unable to believe Emily’s abilities,’ Averon thought, smirking.
"Do we really need to ignore the rewards and the Title completely? The other groups will divide the corpse among themselves anyway. We’ll still have to fight them. We might as well try to get the Title," Alice said.
"They’ll already be exhausted if we arrive later, so it makes sense if we don’t participate in the main battle and preserve our strength," Averon added from the side.
Avery looked at both of them before shaking her head lightly.
"I think you two misunderstood something. Our main priority is the boss monster. That said, we will also take the Title and loot." A smile appeared on Avery’s face. "We are going to steal the Boss."