Chapter 134 - Evacuation Plan
The extremely large group of civilians were quickly evacuated through the portal, while the warriors and the triumvirate stood behind to make sure that nobody would attempt to attack the civilians from behind.
After about twenty minutes, it was their time to pass through.
The moment the three members of the triumvirate came out of the portal that had appeared right in the middle of the other tribe's encampment, their leaders let out a breath or relief.
These tribe leaders had never seen a portal before, and the closest thing they knew to the portal that had opened right in their camp, were the ones they had known from their world's history.. The portals from which the carrier of corruption had come out.
They had only managed to relax after seeing that what came out of the portal weren't monsters, but kids, and elderly people.
This was the first time that the the head scholar had been teleported, so, her face was just as shocked as the faces of the leaders of the second tribe.
She immediately turned to look at Roley with extreme admiration, and just as she was about to say something, Edmund said to the strongest of warriors, and the chief hunter "We have to go to the other tribes.. We could each need one of you as proof that we mean no harm."
At the same time, Roley looked at the head scholar and the other tribe leaders, and said "The members of this tribe should regroup as well. We'll bring the other tribes here, and then move them again out of the area. Also, there is a good possibility that, while you regroup the people here, you'll be attacked by more of those corrupted warriors.. Be prepared."
He then walked next to the strongest of warriors, and before disappearing, he said "Relax, don't fight it."
The same happened with the chief hunter, and Edmund.
For the next couple of hours, the two couples composed by Roley and the strongest of warriors, and Edmund and the chief hunter, spent the majority of their spiritual essence to teleport from one tribe to another, making them regroup in a single square, open a portal, and have the entire tribe cross it before moving to the next one.
When each of them reached their fifth tribe, they started to find the tribes fighting against members of enemy tribes.
The strongest of warriors and the chief hunter immediately join the fight and support the tribe that inhabited the land the very moment they arrived.
The two of them were so strong, that their single aid was enough to quickly give an advantage to the defending party.
From that moment on, they would open the portal only for the civilians, while they would take the warriors with them as they teleported into another tribe's camp.
When both groups reached their tenth camp, they were accompanied by dozens of early chief level warriors, which were usually second in command to the very leaders of the tribes they had saved.
They would work as reinforcement, and would immediately obliterate the attacking parties, whose main objective was to stall for time until the monster's army arrived.
They would then send the civilians back, and have the warriors join them to the next tribe base.
-----
Five hours later, a hundred of the tribes that occupied the territory had been completely evacuated. Only those who had been convinced to join the king of the monsters were left.
It is important to understand one thing.
The wasteland world was nowhere near as big as Daniel's world of origin.
The monsters inhabited two thirds of the liveable territory, which comprised hundreds of thousands of kilometers from one side to the other, while the remaining third, was occupied by the humanoid's tribes.
The tribes weren't close to each other at all, and they populated the territory in an extremely sparse way. Yet, thanks to their powers, their warriors were able to travel thousands of kilometers in a matter of a few hours.
Their only problem was that, being divided into groups, the strong warriors were tied down by the young and weak members of their tribe. That was the reason why their race had become sedentary, and had divided the territory between singular tribes.
At sunrise, the army of monsters had finally reached the territory of the tribe lead by the triumvirate. Unfortunately, they found no one.
The army of monsters was enormous, and it counted hundreds of thousands, if not millions of monsters.
Similarly to the army of warriors, they strongest members of the army of monsters were slowed down by the weak members.
It was for that reason that the monster, when at war, would usually divide into groups composed of monsters of a similar level of power.
Of course, the monster had no idea why they couldn't find their enemies, as they had been corrupted, and had joined the army of monsters in this world, they had never experienced a fight against a spiritual cultivator that had comprehended spatial essence.
On the other hand.. The ten humanoid commanders which lead the army of monsters, had personally arrived from the portals that had appeared thousands of years ago, along with the king of monsters.
This was something that no one knew.
Just like the aura of the race that inhabited the wasteland world, a strong cultivator which allowed himself to be swallowed by the corruption, would be reborn as a nigh-immortal being.
The downside, was that they would not be able to increase their cultivation past the level of corruption, and they would gain an innate sense of service towards corrupted beings of a higher level than they were.
This was also the reason why the corruption was considered such a bane.
The corruption would not be as dangerous if someone were to be corrupted at an already high level of cultivation. If that happened, they would be able to contain it, and be transformed by it. Becoming a loyal subject of the Sovereign of corruption.
The ten commanders were cultivators that came from other worlds, that had been corrupted at a level of power that, when the invasion had just started, was impossible to match.
That level of power, was the power of a peak chief level warrior.
After thousands of years, the tribal warrior had managed to increase the overall strength of the race, as the weak monsters from the past had now become larger sources of power for them to consume. Unfortunately, since they were exposed to the at a younger age, they were not able to survive past the ninety years of age.
These ten ancient and powerful warriors were more than aware of how spiritual, or to be more precise, 'immortal cultivators' fought. So, instead of starting to search blindly, one of them took an extremely old looking compass out of his pocket.
This compass was a very interesting item. Its needle was made so that, by injecting essence of corruption into one of its ends, the needle would start to show the direction where the purest amount of corruption was.
This information by itself was of no use to the commanders of the army. What was really useful to them, was the second end of the needle.
By pointing in the direction with the purest amount of essence of corruption, the compass would also show the opposite. Specifically, the point where the essence of corruption was disturbed by other essences. For example, the spiritual essence that was turned into spatial essence, and was used to teleport people away.
With a direction at hand, the ten commanders took the majority of the chief level monsters and warrior with them, and dashed towards the last known location in which spiritual essence was being used.
-----
"Here.." Said Roley with a confident tone.
The leader of one of the rescued tribes looked at Roley with dubious eyes, and said "That's a sea.. There is nothing there except for dark waters, and the monsters that lurk in them."
The tribe which was lead by this man, was based near the very sea which Roley had picked. He was an expert of the area, and his tribe had a specific occupation that, similarly to what hunters did, would hunt for monsters. But instead of hunting in the forests, or the surroundings, they would hunt at sea.
This was also the reason why one of their chief level warriors had survived alongside Daniel and the rest during the operation in the mages' stronghold.
"We can't fight against the army of the king of monsters now. We don't have enough purified warriors, and entering a full on fight against them without being able to distinguish between friends or foe, that's too dangerous." Said Edmund with a firm voice. He then continued by saying "We have a way to solve this problem.. We only have to hold on until Daniel finishes cultivating. He will be able to take you all within our pocket dimension. There, we will be able to equip and prepare our troupes."
"How can we survive at sea?" Asked the head scholar with a confused expression.
"A spatial platform.." Responded Edmund, which waved his hand the very next moment, and made a thick and plain platform appear in the air.
Its surface was only a square kilometer, but it was enough for a few millions of people to stand on for a few hours.
In order to ease the pressure on the consumption of Edmund's spiritual essence, the many cultivators which had been purifying the warriors until just a few hours ago, would have to support the platform with constant currents of air, and water.
During the following two hours, the millions of civilians were moved over the platform, that was lying on the arid and corrupted ground.
As they were minutes from finishing, from the distance, the small army of thousands of chief level monsters appeared in their sight.
Edmund turned to look at the chief hunter, and said "Can you attack them from this distance?!"
"If they come a little closer, we should be able to attack them with the weapons you gave us." Responded the chief hunter, before turning to look at the group of powerful warriors and shouted. "EVERY HUNTER, FORM THREE ORDERLY LINES, AND AS SOON AS THEY GET IN SHOOTING RANGE, FIRE! YOU HAVE TO SLOW THEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!"
The hunters of the many different tribes followed her orders, and positioned themselves in three lines placed one in front of the other. They then braced the bows they had obtained by Daniel's group, and observed the advancement of the army of monster.
The moment the army of monsters was in range, they immediately let go of their arrows, which were sent up in the air with such a power, that each of them created a sonic boom that resounded loudly in the air.
The monsters were fearless, and kept charging while ignoring the potentially deadly weapons.
At the same time, the last of the civilians had gone over the platform.
Edmund, Roley, and the rest of the spiritual cultivators were quietly focusing on creating even currents across the entire platform, which after a few seconds, started to slowly lift off from the ground, raising a small cloud of greyish dust.
The consumption of spiritual essence was fast, but thanks to the natural spiritual essence, they were able to make up fast enough for them to be able to hold on for a few hours.
As they reached a few hundred meters from the ground, the monsters had finally reached them position of the archers. Their numbers had been decreased by a few dozens thanks to the chief level hunters which had shot uninterruptedly from the ground.
Before they could be overwhelmed and slaughtered by the army of monsters, numerous watery ropes wrapped around their waists, and pulled them up.
A few of them were unlucky, and were picked while in mid air by the few airborne chief level monsters, and either ended up being killed in mid air, or were thrown back on the ground, were they would be torn to pieces by the other monsters.
Fortunately, the vast majority of them was pulled up in a matter of seconds.