Boom! Boom!...Boom!Boom!Booooooom!
From up above, Alex and the Marell family clan members saw the ground below where the tunnel passed, starting to cave in after expanding a little.
Inside the tunnel, just when the first explosion occurred, a huge yellow barrier appeared in front of Butler Francis from the floor to the ceiling of the tunnel.
While enduring the fiery explosion bombarding its surface as a dozen Talisman Scroll activated one after another, completely barring the fearsome burning energy to advance any further behind him. The light ahead almost blinded him.
"Retreat! Everyone, retreat to the hill!" Butler Francis yelled in a moment of desperation after seeing the orange flames engulfing every soldier ahead of him.
He then took the lead to cover their back and summoned a stone wall to block the rest of the energy after his High-grade Protective Talisman scroll breaks under the bombardment.
Hearing this, the cultivators next to him immediately instinctively followed their leader and retreated. But just as the explosions started to calm down, the tunnel began to shake, and the ceiling above began to cave in on them.
Seeing this scene, the faces of those soldiers became as deathly pale as snow!
Butler Francis quickly retreated without caring about the rest of the soldiers, whether they fell to the ground or were crushed under a rock.
Butler Francis created a rock shield above his head as he quickly falls back with the rest of the soldiers.
'Dammit, how did they place so many explosion type Talisman scrolls inside the cave with a triggering type scroll? What were the scouts doing when they had gone through the tunnel at first? How did the enemy know we were going to use this tunnel in the first place' Butler Francis was cursing hi subordinates for not checking the tunnel properly, which caused his army to bear so many casualties.
Thankfully, only a part of the tunnel had caved in due to the blasts as their retreat was still not hindered.
Suddenly, the soldiers that were ahead of Butler Francis stopped moving.
Something seemed to be stopping the entrance on the hillside of the tunnel.
"Move!" the Butler shouted. The soldier tried giving him space, but the tunnel was jampacked.
Up ahead, vibrations of fighting, sword clashing, with battle cries sounded, which caused the face of the Butler to become ashen and then red due to extreme anger for being played like this.
"I said, move aside, now!" Francis forced himself to pass through the crowd.
Just as he came at the entrance, he saw it blocked with the debris of rock. Someone must have created a blast at the door to cage them inside the tunnel.
"Hmph, you think this can stop an Earth Elemental Gathering Realm Cultivator like me, then you must be dreaming."
Butler Francis placed his hand on the rocks and channeled a large amount of yellow-colored Qi to his arms. The stones seemed to vibrate a little at the start, but then almost after five seconds, the rocks that covered the entrance exploded outward with a considerable force.
Anyone standing outside would have become a paste, and even people standing far away might be hurt due to the stones flying at them like a missile or so Francis had thought. But when he came outside, he saw the place empty, devoid of his soldiers or enemy. There were signs of fighting, but he found no one to be out. Even the horses they traveled on had vanished.
The soldiers behind had the same blank look. Due to the trap and the destruction of the tunnel, only sixty soldiers survived, excluding their leader. Some are still trapped inside the rubble and waiting to be rescued by their comrades.
Butler Francis turned and started to climb the hill to reach the top to search for his soldiers and the enemy location.
When he reached the top, he first looked in the direction of the city but found no significant movement. Suddenly he saw something from the corner his left eyes.
"There they are!"
To his left was a dense jungle that spread from three to four kilometers towards the south and the west. He saw his soldiers being tied and carried away on the back of their horses by some men wearing black uniforms. They had just entered the forest when Butler Jon ordered his men to follow behind him and ran towards the woods at full speed. He has to save his captured soldiers as soon as possible.
Being a cultivator of the Elemental Gathering Realm, his speed was much above the rest of the soldiers; therefore, he quickly created a gap as he entered the forest while his men were still far behind.
The forest was dense, but Francis could follow the tracks of the horses. Just as he ventured more than a kilometer inside the forest, Francis felt the hair on his neck standing in fear.
A surface of rock covered his head and the neck almost immediately when he felt a movement behind him.
Crack!
The protective cover made of earth elemental broke apart when it was impacted by a vast force. Butler Francis felt a jolt in his body has his neck got almost punctured by the sneak attack from the person suddenly appearing behind him.
The earth around Francis vibrated as he channeled his Qi into the ground by using an earth elemental battle technique.
"Hundred Thorns Earth Barrier," Francis roared in his heart and turned the ground around him into a Forest of Earth Lances sprouting randomly.
It could be used both as an attack and defense. The person behind him had to stop the follow-up attack, or he will be turned into a sieve by the earth elemental lances suddenly rising from the ground around him.
Alex had to fall back when he first saw the changes in the ground around Francis. This rock lances are not just any regular rock that he can crush with his fist.
They are entirely made up of Earth Elemental Qi, making them sturdy enough to receive an attack from a high grade or even peak grade Black Ranked Weapon.
