Chapter 1533 1533. Trap
The Eternal Snakes were still far away. Noah and the others could avoid meeting them if they were in a normal situation. Yet, the storm of leaves limited their movements.
Noah sensed two pairs of gazes landing on his figure. The rank 8 Foolery and Fergie had turned toward him to see if he had any strategy at hand.
'The landing zone of my lower plane might be nearby since the Snakes are here,' Noah thought while inspecting the pack.
Noah didn't know how the connections between the higher plane and the various Mortal Lands worked. Even most rank 8 experts ignored how those dimensional tunnels functioned.
He had a series of valid hypotheses, but they could only give him a vague idea of how things worked. Noah didn't know if Shandal had fallen into the Mortal Lands because he was near the correct landing zone or if Heaven and Earth had thrown him back home.
'They appear to be migrating,' Noah evaluated while keeping his gaze on the distant pack.
The Eternal Snakes weren't targeting Noah and his group. They were traveling, and Noah ignored the real purpose behind their actions. They could be either hunting or searching for a region that had better resources.
Noah's instincts sensed danger, so the pack featured magical beasts that could hurt him. His experience in the Mortal Lands also told him that some of the Eternal Snakes could keep the connection between the planes open. There was a high chance that the group featured multiple rank 8 beings.
'If only I were stronger,' Noah thought before spreading his consciousness and ordering a full retreat.
The Eternal Snakes opened an exciting opportunity, but Noah didn't feel safe approaching them at his current level. He didn't want to play with existences that he couldn't control.
Darkness flowed inside Duanlong and enhanced its innate ability. The pulling force intensified and affected a large area of the sky. Most of the storm of leaves converged toward its mouth and gave a chance to the other creatures to retreat.
Noah joined that retreat, moving Duanlong only when most of his underlings managed to escape the dangerous areas. He didn't care about the slower ones. That battle was only another skimming process when it came to his pack.
However, Noah's instincts rang again, and the same went for the rank 8 Foolery and Fergie. The trio turned and saw that a second pack of Eternal Snakes was slithering on the opposite side.
The trio didn't have the time to think since a third pack appeared on another corner of their vision. Noah could finally understand what the Eternal Snakes were doing at that point. They were regrouping.
'They must have separated to increase their efficiency!' Noah shouted in his mind while remaining still mid-air.
The Eternal Snakes had blocked three possible paths, and the last one seemed to match the destination of those packs. Noah had no idea what to do in that situation. Danger lurked in every direction.
"Remain here!" Noah shouted while roars mixed with his human words. "Keep fighting the trees. We must hope that they ignore us!"
Noah was already planning how to use his underlings as meat s.h.i.+elds while speaking those words. The situation was tragic. Even his expertise couldn't make him predict that danger.
The Eternal Snakes continued their march. They kept covering the lands that they crossed with silver ice, but they seemed ignorant about the battle happening in the distance.
'At least one of these groups will notice us,' Noah thought while his gaze went on the third pack.
The third pack would cross areas near the battlefield. Those specimens couldn't miss Noah and the others.
Noah slowly began to rise higher in the sky. He would have the chance to escape if the Snakes noticed only his underlings. Yet, his hopes soon shattered when he sensed a series of reptilian eyes landing on his figure.
His movement had attracted the Snake's attention. Those magical beasts didn't hesitate to launch hisses that filled their regions and even spread past their borders.
The hisses eventually reached the other two packs, and their specimens turned toward Noah and the others once they noticed the battle happening in the distance.
Noah's guess had been on point. The entire pack of Eternal Snakes was too big for a single region, so their leaders had split it into three groups and had led their underlings into three different hunts.
Those creatures couldn't decide to ignore food. Noah and the others were nothing more than tasty meals ended up in a trap by chance.
Noah's expression grew cold as he retracted his darkness from Duanlong. His Demonic Deduction technique activated, and a series of bloodthirsty plans filled his mind.
Noah had a trump card that he had never dared to use. The cursed sword was in the eighth rank now, so it could help him fight stronger beings.
However, the drawbacks would be immense. Noah preferred to rely only on his ambition until his body improved. He didn't want his trump card to kill him.
'The cursed sword is my last resort,' Noah thought before giving voice to a roar carrying meanings that even Fergie understood.
The Foolery, the various magical beasts, and Noah turned toward the third pack and shot forward. Their only chance to survive was to pierce through that force and reach areas that the Eternal Snakes didn't dare to invade.
They didn't even need to worry about the possible dangers lurking on that path since the Eternal Snakes had just cleared it. The only problem was that they had to surpa.s.s those creatures.
Noah and the others tried to avoid the third pack, but those Snakes turned to follow their movements every time. The other groups did the same, but they were still too far away to be a threat.
'No leaders in the middle tier,' Noah concluded in his mind after his consciousness completed a thorough a.n.a.lysis of the third pack. 'Four rank 8 specimens in the lower tier.'
Noah roared again to explain what he had learnt about the pack. A few cries that carried all the details concerning the Eternal Snakes and a battle plan followed.
There was no easy way out of that situation. Noah's group had to crash on the Eternal Snakes and kill as many of them as possible to create an opening through their ice.
Noah's ambition seeped out of his figure and forced his centers of power to grow. His aura wasn't targeting his underlings, but they still benefitted from that power. Their vigor intensified, and their morale also improved.
The Eternal Snakes eventually arrived in front of Noah's group. The clash was imminent, so those creatures began to fill the sky with ice to create a ma.s.sive wall.
Noah had fought enough Eternal Snakes throughout his life to know what was about to come. He was also aware that he couldn't let those creatures complete that technique.
'I will do everything in my power to escape if this plan fails,' Noah said in a mental message forwarded toward Fergie. 'Try not to die.'
Noah's figure disappeared as soon as that message reached Fergie. A wall of dark-green scales filled his vision after the teleport ended. Noah had reappeared in the middle of the third pack.