Emma together with the others follow the path of the tracks and to try to hide the sound of their steps she uses a silence scroll, the task of her group is to ambush and kill the reinforcements or explorers and she will already execute it with all her power without holding back in the slightest.
Everyone walked carefully without leaving the effective range of the scroll, hiding their aura as much as possible, not because they were afraid of the enemies, but to not cause a commotion and alert the surroundings, which could make their prey escape or even worse alert energetic beasts, other monsters or even reinforcements.
The path is extensive, it was noticeable that it had been used hundreds of times by beasts and monsters, since in the dense forest that characterizes these zones, its width and lack of grass stood out.
Kyuuuk a small sound is heard coming from Molly, Mila who was carrying her in her arms immediately says: "They are close, get ready."
Mila releases Molly but Molly does not fall to the ground, she continues floating while a slight violet glow covers her, Mila takes a small book and the same medallion from which Molly came out.
Emma takes her spear from her side, at first several of the troops seem confused, they had already seen it before but they did not understand why this spear is so short, because it literally looks like a thick metal rod with a spearhead measuring barely about 50 cm, but when Emma exerts force while holding it downward and upward, that is when its true form is revealed…
With the downward force it is seen how a part of the spear falls rapidly while the tip rises at an equally high speed, the spear shaft although thinner quickly reaches 2.1 meters, the body that looked blackish green before now changes and shines with a beautiful emerald green and the tip turns golden, at the same time a pattern of golden lines begins to draw itself… this was her spear, her family calls it the pride of the dragon.
Emma then tells the enchanted troops: "What are you waiting for to prepare yourselves?, this is not a game, you can die if you stay absent-minded."
The troops realize that the women of Emma's team as well as the combat maids and Miss Evelyn are already completely prepared with their equipment in combat position and they quickly react doing the same.
Thus they take the last steps for their first encounter…
…
It was early in the morning, Valtoe'ktek was riding her faithful giant wood-scaled lizard, leading this group of idiots that she was forced to command, an alpha female like her should not be here but enjoying and drinking in the camp while the inferior idiots take care of the search.
Then she heard a complaint from another rider saying: "You damn idiot!, what do you mean you don't have any more holy leaf!?, wasn't it your job to make sure to carry it with you!?"
Furious the lizardwoman was about to draw her sacred sword to decapitate this damn useless thing, when the third rider who had joined them recently stops her saying: "Kasha'ka, stop, you can't kill him."
Kasha'ka furiously shouts: "Zathare'k, why can't I kill him?, this damn useless thing has already committed many mistakes, what difference does it make if one dies or not, we have thousands of these idiots at home, the least we have the right to is to use them however we want."
Zathare'k sighs and tells her: "It's not that I care much about this worthless thing, but this is not home, this is foreign land, our mission is to find the location and prepare the ground and we cannot reduce our numbers, that is why despite our orders being to act separately I joined you when we met, you wouldn't want the great serpent shamaness to cut off your head to give it to her pet, would you?"
Kasha'ka then trembles and softly says: "I-I d-don't w-want t-that." With that she puts away her sword and sits in silence not without first giving a strong tail strike to the lizardman.
Valtoe'ktek then irritated by all this stupidity asks the shaman: "Old man, are there nearby traces of the guardian serpent in this area?, of the crocodile queen?, of the venerable turtle? Or even of the great lizard?"
The nervous shaman says: "No my lady Valtoe'ktek, there is nothing nearby, the traces continue guiding me, heading toward the mountain range…"
Valtoe'ktek sighs holding herself back, while thinking damn Malakli-Li… when I return home, you will pay for this, I will not let this humiliation pass.
She was thinking about how to take revenge when suddenly she feels a very great sense of threat and when she rises taking her sacred steel spear and says: "Who dares!?"
Then it is when all the surprised combatants try to take combat positions, but it is too late because a bolt at very high speed pierces the shaman's neck as if it were butter and even the force manages to break the delicate neck in two.
…
Emma and her team had reached a hill that allows observing the small clearing in which the lizardmen had stopped, the first thing she noticed was that there was another giant wood-scaled lizard, in addition to another 4 lizardmen.
The colors varied, there were bright white scales, white scales with black lines, sky blue, cream green, grays and a few blacks, but the ones that stood out the most were the elder who was brown in color and walks slowly with a staff with energetic capabilities and those mounted on the lizards which were marble white, royal blue and forest green in color.
Emma listens to the conversation waiting to find information, but almost everything was pure nonsense, she almost jumped with rage to kill them all at once, but she restrained herself thanks to the words of her lord that had made her realize that she was too impulsive.
And that wait would bear fruit, because when she heard that they were looking for something related to beasts, she knew that was what she was looking for, she had to capture that lizardman alive, no matter what…
But she was not stupid, she knows that there are threats that must be dealt with first… and that is the shaman, of all cultivation paths, the first objectives to be eliminated are mages and elementalists for their great area damage, then spiritualists and psionics, although it depends if these latter two focus on pure mental or spiritual damage or control or manipulation, the order is reversed.
A shaman like him is perhaps the greatest threat of all, not because his power by itself is great, but because of his other capabilities, she herself as a worshiper of a god knows it, being able to count on the help of an external entity is something that can change the game, that is why many times clerics are also priority targets, you do not want them to summon a herald in the middle of the battlefield.
Emma orders with a serious voice: "Haru, shoot the elder with all your power."
Haru looks at her and does it, she also knows how dangerous the summoning capability of someone like that is and without hesitating she takes her precious mixed crossbow, it is a relic of her clan, unique of its kind, made with energetic wood from an ancestral cherry wood tree and with parts of spatial steel, legend says that it is capable of piercing space, although that is not proven, it does have a dragon gem feeding it.
Placing her finger on the trigger she clearly aims at the most delicate part and then she does it, she fires with a whistle of great speed, the bolt gains energy and flies in a straight line where it pierces the elder's neck from the side with such force that the neck bends in an unnatural C shape.
Emma then does not wait, she is not going to let the enemy take solid positions: "Lily, Clara follow me, the rest attack now, before the shock passes."
Clara and Lily respond strongly: "Yes!"
With an incredible speed that would not seem possible for someone wearing heavy emerald steel plate armor, Emma jumps from the small hill and boosting with an emerald impact and then slides falling in the middle of the lizardmen and taking her spear.
She pierces toward the shoulder of the alpha lizardman, who had been alert since before, barely missing and managing to make a small cut removing a few scales from her body and making her dismount from the lizard.
The other two alpha lizardmen quickly turn to help the leader, but then two more figures appear behind them, the first of them with two sabers that quickly attacks the royal blue lizardman who is barely saved because her giant lizard crashes its tail against the incoming attack.
And the other figure throws two swift blows with a kind of gauntlets of a flexible metal, the green lizardman saw this out of the corner of his eye furious, with his two double swords he blocks the attack being knocked off the giant lizard, which places itself between its mistress and the enemy.
Soon the other troops launch themselves into combat and more and more people appear in the combat zone, Emma who sees this realizes that her advantage of surprise begins to disappear, she has to hurry…