Kyle and team Sandstorm left the barrier around the fortress.
"And you don't have a plan?" Falk asked.
"What kind of plan am I supposed to make?" Kyle asked. "I saw a rough map, and that's it. I saw a couple of bases and the locations of some powerful beasts. There's not much planning I can do. We get as close as we can to the Ether Essence, start digging, and hope that nobody kills us."
Usually, the team had a plan since Kyle essentially scouted the surroundings with Sven. Sometimes, they also used Lily's flying golems to scout.
But this time, there was no scouting.
Beasts generally stayed in their territories, and they also left a bunch of traces behind. Finding and keeping track of them was not that difficult.
However, these were humans, and even worse, they were soldiers from an enemy kingdom.
They moved around constantly and rarely left traces behind.
"Michael, you got the Spell?" Kyle asked.
"Of course," Michael said. "It's not difficult to understand. Even Fighters can learn it easily."
"Even, he says," Falk said with a snort.
"You know what I meant," Michael answered with a frown.
"You're always so serious," Falk said with a laugh. "I'm just messing with you."
"Oh, sorry," Michael said with an awkward laugh.
"Alright, that's enough banter," Kyle said. "We have to get serious now."
The atmosphere between the members turned more serious as they looked at the huge mountain in front of them.
"The Ether Essence is around 150 kilometers from here," Kyle said. "With luck, we won't meet an enemy on the way."
"However, you have to keep in mind that people in the Third Realm only avoid the surrounding 30 kilometers of the Ether Essence and the actual World Peak. That means, we can meet any kind of enemy within the next 120 kilometers or so."
Falk sighed. "Why can't we just have an escort?"
"Defense is not always the best defense," Kyle said. "The more soldiers we have in the enemy territory, the more people the enemy has to use to deal with them, pulling them away from the frontlines."
"Yeah, idiot," Lily said with an arrogant laugh. "These are the basics. How do you not know something this simple?"
Falk rolled his eyes.
By now, he had gotten used to Lily's constant attacks on his ego.
The team climbed up the mountain and jumped from peak to peak.
Since the enemy knew that the Skysand Kingdom's primary base was here, they knew not to send people here.
After around ten kilometers, Kyle changed his approach and told his team to slow down.
Then, he looked at the small army of golems following them.
The golems were quite noticeable.
After all, every single one of them was about three meters tall and quite stocky.
Sadly, there wasn't much they could do about that.
Lily needed her golems, and she couldn't just hide them.
'Hide them?' Kyle thought.
Then, he got an idea.
After preparing some things for about ten minutes, team Sandstorm continued.
They jumped from peak to peak, traveling towards the Ether Essence at full speed.
The further they progressed, the more nervous they became.
They were only about 80 kilometers away from the Ether Essence, which meant they had entered the most dangerous zone.
If there were people in the Third Realm present, they would most likely be somewhere here.
Both sides tried their best to cut off any reinforcements before they could reach the Ether Essence.
The battle around the Ether Essence was tough, and people in the Third Realm rarely joined due to the danger.
Even more, people in the Third Realm were not invincible.
A team of Peak Second Realm Fighters could take down an Initial Grandmaster, despite the Realm advantage.
Kyle told his team to slowly move through the lower mountains.
Over the next minute, they managed to traverse another ten kilometers.
Now, only 70 kilometers lay between them and their target.
Just as they went around another mountain, Kyle's instincts shouted at him.
"Enemy attack!" Kyle shouted before jumping backwards.
BOOOOOM!
The next moment, the face of the mountain beside them blasted open, and a shower of gigantic boulders rained down on them.
Yet, this was not a normal rock slide.
The boulders actually fell at the speed of bullets as soon as they left the rock face.
Kyle jumped back with everyone else.
He had been at the very front of the pack, and when the rock slide started, he was in the middle.
If he hadn't warned the team in time, he would have been at the front with the remainder of the team in the middle.
Falk and Michael were at the back, and they managed to get out of the rock slide in time.
Selene was in the middle, and she pulled Lily along with her.
While jumping back, Selene dodged one boulder after another.
Luckily, she was only near the edge of the rock side, and she only had to avoid five boulders.
Those had been the fastest boulders, and they had arrived before all the other ones.
If Kyle hadn't warned them, Selene would have been buried.
This was not a weak Spell.
Naturally, an enemy Sorcerer had launched this Spell, and based on its power, it had to be a Grand Sorcerer.
The Spell worked similarly to how telekinesis worked.
It tore huge boulders out of the mountain, which then shot towards the ground at incredible speeds.
This was an Earth Affinity Spell, and it was called Major Rockslide.
Its focused potential for destruction was not very strong, but it had a huge area of effect.
A properly timed Major Avalanche could take out a big group of Mid Fighters.
The boulders were too fast for Kyle to react.
He wouldn't be able to get out in time.
As the boulders buried Kyle rapidly, team Sandstorm retreated.
This was not an enemy they could fight.
Naturally, Michael immediately used the alarming Spell to call over all the nearby sentries, but they would need a bit to arrive.
Team Sandstorm noticed that an incredibly fast and small person shot towards them from the top of a mountain.
"Grandmaster!" Selene shouted.
The team fled as fast as they could, dropping everything unnecessary to gain more speed.
The Grandmaster took out a spear and launched several attacks.
One ranged wind technique after the next was launched, but Selene shot most of them down with her arrows while escaping.
Obviously, this Grandmaster wasn't focused on ranged attacks.
After a bit, the Grandmaster stopped chasing after them and ran back to the rock slide side.
"Get rid of any tracking Spells!" the Grandmaster shouted.
A Grand Sorcerer had already appeared beside the rock slide.
"Already done," the Grand Sorcerer said.
"Good," the Grandmaster said, grabbing the two humongous, metal boxes Selene and Falk had been carrying.
"What about the last one?" the Grand Sorcerer asked, gesturing to the rock slide.
Naturally, Kyle had also been carrying a metal box.
"We don't have any time! The sentries will be here any second!" the Grandmaster shouted, grabbing the Grand Sorcerer before running away.
'Lucky!' the Grandmaster thought. 'We intercepted a delivery to the frontlines! Stuff like this is always worth a fortune!'
While running, the Grandmaster looked at the two huge boxes he was carrying.
"I wonder what's inside."
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