The Red Headband students that had returned were told to be on standby back at the base. What Dame did notice was after entering the Red Headband sleeping quarters, just outside guarding the entrance to the main courtyard, there were a lot more teachers.
There weren’t just new Red Headband instructors, but also a number of guards including more men with masks on their faces, members of the Erupting Fist Clan.
Right now, on the second floor, everyone was stationed in one room, and that included Mada and Ricktor.
“It’s clear that they are keeping an eye on us, that they don’t want us to leave,” Dame commented. “Although we have bought some time, the situation is a bit more difficult than what I imagined.”
“And what exactly is that situation?” Mada asked. He was sitting in a seat, picking off parts from the corners of the wooden desk and throwing them onto the floor, frustrated by everything that was going on.
“We had agreed to help your damn friend to go up against the academy, so where is he, what is he doing? The academy has already targeted us!” Mada claimed.
“I thought you were on the fence,” Simyon commented.
Mada stayed quiet after that, not sure what to say. Even he was undecided, whom to trust, what was best. The one thing he would do is keep his mouth shut because he did feel slightly indebted to Raze for the food back then and ending the dreaded assessment early.
“I would like to know, where is the young leader that I agreed to follow. In this tricky situation, is there some type of plan?” Ricktor asked.
Dame didn’t want to say it, but right now, they were in the plan. He expected them to go out and search for Raze, but he never expected the Vice-principal himself to go out and check.
‘When they get no word back from the Lethal Bite Clan, I wonder what their actions will be then? If a fight does break out, I wonder how the Crimson Crane will handle it as well.’
Amir had entered through the portal; he continued to be in the same pose with his hands behind his back. He looked around at the sand-like world to see if there was anything he could notice.
The first thing that came into his sight was the building structures in front of him, and how they were partly destroyed. Jumping from his position, he landed right by one of the destroyed structures.
“It’s quite clear that there was a battle in this place, but the wind, it’s moved the sand all over the area. Any tracks and such will make it quite hard to come by. I wonder if there’s still anyone alive.”
Amir looked around the nearby area even more to see if he could find anything at all, but either the place had been cleaned up, or it was long lost.
“There is a way I can confirm if anyone is inside here or not, without having to search the entire dimension.”
The Vice-principal jumped a large distance out from the normal structure and landed in the sand. Soon, he could feel a large rumbling underneath his feet. The sand was shaking, and it was getting darker right beneath his feet.
The sand sunk slightly and popping right out from underneath it were large razor-sharp teeth. Lifting his foot up, he swept it down, letting out a large strike.
His body hovered in the air for a few moments before he kicked the air, moving him to the side, and the beast, the sandworm he had struck, had been killed just like that.
“Let’s speed things up a bit!” Amir stated as he lifted his leg and swung it through the air. The giant mounds of sand in front of him disappeared.
The sand flowed, moving like a wave in the completely opposite direction, revealing underneath the large mounds of sand more earthworms with their large bodies.
They started to wiggle and tried to burrow themselves deeper into the sand. Before one could, though, Amir was already standing on top of them, with his foot ready to strike.
“Let’s see how many of you it takes until your boss comes out,” Amir smiled.
Going from one earthworm to the next, it only took a single technique to get rid of them. He was killing all of those that were hidden, and then finally he had gotten what he was looking for.
The entire landscape was changing in front of him. Sand was swirling around the areas and were uplifting into the sky creating a type of sand vortex.
The giant beast looked like it filled the entire sky. Slowly, the sand was falling off leaving a larger body. A sandworm, but this one had four large limbs on its side pointed and sharp like a spider.
“So you’re the dimension boss of this place. This will be a loss for the academy, but what I will gain out of it will be a lot more favorable.”
Shaking occurred throughout the dimension, and it was felt by the Crimson Crane. They had moved from their position in search of another area that was built up with buildings.
At the same time, the body of Feebie was placed in the river, with heavy rocks to stop it from floating up, making it harder for anyone to find the body.
Meanwhile, Raze’s body was placed on the cold floor, but he looked peaceful as he slept away.
“It’s still hard to believe, this is the Dark Magus that we were searching for, right?” Alba said to the rest of the group that was practically staring at him. “He’s just a kid.”
“I don’t find it hard to believe that this is the Dark Magus,” Reno replied. “What I do find hard to believe is that he is just a kid. The way he talks, the knowledge that he has, and the conviction to his goal, it is beyond that.”
“And that’s why he’s still a good ally to have.”
Right then, dropping down from above on the outside, Froma, who was on lookout, had entered.
“Alba, I think you should come out and have a look at this.”
Alba rushed out and jumped to the rooftop. As they did, they looked in the distance and from afar, they could see the giant beast in the sand.
Both of them knew what it was straight away, without a doubt that was the dimension boss.
“Wait, what summoned it, does that mean someone is in here with us?” Alba asked.
Just then, they witnessed the large giant creature that could be seen from afar like that of a tornado, get hit by something. It was too small but its entire body squashed down.
The body of the giant beast wavered in the air before it fell to its side on the floor.
Right in front of their eyes, the dimension boss has been killed.
“The dimension boss, it was just killed!” Froma stated. “That means the portal on the outside, it’s now closed, right!”
“Not just that,” Alba replied. “Most people think that the dimension gate from this side doesn’t close until everyone exits it, but that’s not the case.”
“There’s just a large window. If we stay here too long, the portal from the inside will close as well.”
Now all Amir had to do was stand by the dimension portal, and whoever was inside would come to him.
Chapter 417 The Strength Of An Army
With the dimension boss beaten, Alba was biting the fingernail on her thumb as she was trying to figure out what was the best thing to do.
“Reno, what do you think? Usually, I have Cronker advise me on these types of things, but he’s not here,” Alba asked.
“Hey, why Reno?” Tilon asked. “Do you think Cronker and Reno are the only two smart ones or something?” Tilon said, banging his shield on the ground so hard that a loose sandstone from above fell and hit the top of his head.
“Alright, go on,” Tilon replied, going back to sit down while rubbing the top of his head.
Reno continued to evaluate Raze before giving an answer.
“The worry we have is that we have to look after Raze. Will he wake up before the portal closes? From the look of things, I doubt it,” Reno replied as he was tapping the side of Raze’s head, but there was no reaction at all.
“We saw what Raze can do. It’s clear he can open portals to other dimensions, but we also don’t know all he is capable of.”
“There’s a good chance if that portal closes up, we might be stuck in here.”
“I see, I see, so we should head to the portal,” Alba stated with her finger in the air like it was some type of genius plan she had come up with.
“Well, then we have to think about the enemy, right? How many are there that are in here? This is an initial stage realm. That means to defeat the dimension boss the warriors don’t have to be at a particularly high stage to defeat it.”
“But from what you saw with Froma, how did it look?”
Alba was imagining how she would take out the beast herself. From the look of things, maybe it was a level four beast and it was taken down in one hit.
“At a guess, a high-stage middle mid-warrior, is that the saying?” Alba replied.
“A high Stage 8 warrior,” Reno replied.
He himself was a stage 7 warrior that had recently managed to break through to stage 8 but was in the low stages. Alba was around a high mid-stage 8 warrior herself.
But the differences within the stages were higher. Stage 9 warriors; low, mid and high, there was a big difference between them as well.
“Of course it’s hard to tell just from seeing one move, but I would say it was at least that,” Alba continued.
“Right, and we don’t know how many of them there are. While fighting, will we really be able to protect the Dark Magus… sorry, Raze. I think we should use Raze from now on since it’s an identity he wants to keep secret.”
Scratching her head, Alba was now even more confused about what to do. If they stayed, the portal might close and they had no way out.
If they went to fight, they might be overpowered and have difficulty protecting Raze.
“I just want a solution.”
Reno smiled hearing this.
“Just send a couple of members that work well together to scout out the area and report back.”
Looking at the members available, it didn’t take long for Alba to decide.
“Alright, Lilly and Tilon, a nice spear and shield combination. If the opponent looks easy enough, maybe deal with them, since we will have to either way to get out of this.
“If there’s too many, then come back here.”
Tilon stood up from his position, and Lilly made sure her hair was tied up properly as she held onto her spear. The two of them agreed as they gave a nod.
“Remember, we don’t have any more pills from the Dark Magus at the moment. So there will be no second chances,” Alba stated.
The Crimson Crane had been helping Fixteen sell the pills they had, and just before arriving, they had attempted a few raids on portals where the pills were needed.
They always wanted to leave some for emergencies, but thought when meeting the Dark Magus they might be able to get more from him.
They never expected to just be sent off straight into battle like they had been.
Before moving out, Tilon placed the sword wrapped in cloth down by Raze’s side, although he was confident in his shield to protect such a weapon.
The words of Dame played on his mind. It was such a precious thing, and the last thing they would want was for it to get into the hands of the enemy.
With that, the two of them were off. Froma, who was still on top of the building and looking out, informed the two of the direction of where the beast was taken down.
They would inspect the area first before heading to the portal.
Quickly traveling with their foot techniques, they were able to cover a large distance easily and found themselves in the fighting area.
The sand hills that would usually naturally form had all been pushed away. It looked like a crater the way the sand had moved.
And what was left on the ground were the dead bodies of the beasts.
“Look at this!” Lilly called Tilon over. She then proceeded to stab the dimension boss right in a certain spot making a fist-sized hole.
Then with her hand, she reached in and pulled out the level 4 crystal.
“The crystal was still inside,” Tilon said.
“Exactly, although in middle-stage dimensions, something like this is easy to come across, it’s still something that we wouldn’t leave. Especially a dimension boss crystal, since they are a little more special.”
The dimension boss crystals, although still at certain levels, tended to have a little more power compared to regular crystals when being used as Qi pills.
Some had stated that even certain techniques would improve, or techniques they were unable to use before could now be used.
“With how many beasts are here that have been killed, and so quickly, it’s most likely to be more than one person, right?” Tilon asked.
“I’m not too sure about that,” Lilly replied, “We’ll just have to see.”
The two of them continued to move, and eventually, they had returned to the first sandstone-built housing village but it was different compared to before.
The buildings in the area, all of them had been destroyed; they were flattened. Even the large tall trees, they had been hit and forced into the sand.
“This wasn’t like this before when we arrived, right?” Lilly asked.
“No, was there some type of infighting that occurred in the group, why would they just destroy everything in sight?” Tilon asked.
They looked around the area, and they noticed it was leveled, the area was so flat that they could even see the portal in the distance, but there was no one standing in front of it, or a group of people ready to attack.
“It was so I could spot those coming here a bit easier,” a voice said, as they gently landed around ten meters away from them.
“Now, in an area that is meant for staff members and students only, I manage to come across warriors, and middle-stage ones at that. It is quite clear that something is amiss here.”
“So are you going to talk, or are we going to have to fight?”