Chapter 71 - Move Fast!

Thick vines sprouted at incredible speed around the giant troll and his cronies. Before they could respond or even say a single word, the vines had wrapped around their bodies and were squeezing hard.

The large troll's eyes bulged out in furious indignance and he exerted all his strength to rip the vines apart. But furious indignance turned to surprise as the vines did not budge, but instead continued their deadly squeeze. Surprise finally turned to horror and within seconds, the large troll and his cronies were no more.

Leaving behind the one crony who didn't join in the shouting.

Isabella looked at him and nodded approvingly. Although his face was initially clouded with shock and fear, it was already back to nonchalance. 

"What is your name?" Isabella asked him.

"Garuz." He replied gruffly.

"Garuz, you are now the representative for the area that was previously represented by…" Isabella pointed at the mound of vines which was the giant troll. "That troll. And I appreciate your agreement and support to King Biruz's plans for Zan."

"You are welcome, My Lady." Garuz said. Indeed, his control over his emotions was admirable. His boss and his friends just died, and he was already doing a good job as the new representative. Admirable.

Isabella nodded to King Biruz to indicate that the stage was his once more. King Biruz smiled in appreciation and stood up. 

"Gather the trolls in the big cities. We will begin our journey to Rin-Turah in exactly 7 days!" King Biruz declared.

"7 days? That's impossible. It will take us that long to make our way back to the cities! Not to mention that we have to go to the villages to make the announcements. It will take us at least two weeks to be ready!" A troll from one of the farthest cities spoke up.

A murmur of agreement rippled through the crowd. Just a slight murmur. Nobody wanted to stand out and face the deadly vines.

"If you return and spread the news via borg riders, yes, it will take two weeks at the minimum. But as a sign of goodwill, Rin-Turah has given us a gift." King Biruz whistled.

GROOAARRR!!!

A giant black Wyvern appeared in the sky.

The trolls blanched. But before they could do anything else, the Wyvern swooped down, landed in front of King Biruz, and laid down prostate, who promptly leapt up upon the Wyvern's back. 

"Tamed Wyverns, for each and every one of you." King Biruz said softly. 

Silence greeted him. King Biruz smiled and said. "Follow me." 

He took to the skies and left in the direction of the grassland where the three girls and the Wyverns were.

The trolls stood up silently and followed him. They were still in a daze.

*-*-*-*-*

Shira bent down low on her Firestorm, her Wyvern and urged her to fly faster. Firestorm responded admirably and accelerated once more. 

The space near her shimmered for a moment. Poof! Kan-Dar and Princess Yellow appeared. 

Shira grinned. She knew Dari would teleport to this area. 

"Fireball!" Shira cried out. Firestorm immediately cast a giant fireball which sped towards a surprised Kan-Dari. She put up a red shield hastily. 

BOOM! The fireball smashed into her shield and disappeared.

"You used Red level skills! You lose! AGAIN! HA!" Shira cried out triumphantly.

"You… You cheated!" Kan-Dari responded hotly. She was extremely frustrated.

They had sparred for three times, and all three times, Shira had actually won! It was unbelievable. She had tried literally everything she could think of. Turtling, golem barrage and even teleporting around to frustrate Shira had failed. Personally, she had thought that her golem barrage would be effective. It was a GOLEM barrage, for crying out loud! Tens of golems launching themselves from literally EVERYWHERE and whizzing towards Shira, all the while throwing rocks and parts of themselves at her! 

But Shira's new Wyvern was not merely great with fire, apparently she was also quite the athlete. She nimbly dodged every single projectile aimed at her and even managed to close the distance between them! 

"I did NOT!" Shira replied smugly.

"How did you know I will teleport to this area then, huh?" Kan-Dari said accusingly.

"Well, let's just say I did cheat. How did you think I managed to know where you'll teleport?" Shira asked with a wide grin.

"You… You…" Kan-Dari stuttered. "Shamanism!!" She finally blurted out. 

Shira laughed out really loud. 

"Black magic! Voodoo magic!" Kan-Dari continued as she gained traction and grew warm to her topic.

"Pagan sacrifices!" Shira chirped. "Yes, that's exactly what I did! I befriend gullible little elf girls and then sacrifice them to the evil God Gomomumushu-GomGom. And in exchange, Gomomumushu-GomGom grants me visions of the future!"

"Rogue Mage! Evil-doer! Take my Golem Barrage Part Two!!" Kan-Dari shouted. Tens of large golems appeared on the ground a few meters below them. Within seconds, they had launched themselves furiously at Shira and flung countless stones and rocks at her using their many arms!

"Gomoshushushu GOM GOM! GRANT ME VISIONS OF THE FUTURE!!" Shira shouted wildly as well, as she desperately dodged the rocks and golems. 

"You mispronounced his name! Ha! He won't answer your evil call this time!" Kan-Dari shouted gaily as she launched even more golems.

"GOM GOM!! Help me!!" Shira shouted. "We're already on first-name basis! He wouldn't mind me mispronouncing his name!" 

BOOM!! A golem finally hit Shira. It was so frantic that Shira didn't have time to react at all. Thankfully her blue shield was already up, if not she would have become meat paste.

"YES!!" Kan-Dari shouted. "TAKE THAT CULT WOMAN!" 

"YOU TAKE THIS!" Shira roared out in anger. 

Hundreds of fireballs coalesced into form and accurately smashed into all the rocks and golems that were flying about. One particularly nasty looking fireball zoomed accurately towards Kan-Dari. 

Poof! She teleported away. And appeared right before a grinning Shira.

"KYAAA!!" Kan-Dari yelped in surprise. 

"GOTCHA!!" Shira hooted. 

BOOM!! A massive fireball exploded all over Kan-Dari's red shield. 

This time, the force was so powerful that it actually sent her and Princess Yellow tumbling down from the sky. However before they crashed, Kan-Dari teleported once more and disappeared from view. 

Shira grinned widely as she looked around for her. "Quick, ask your sister again. Where did they go?!" Shira whispered to Firestorm. "Above us? Okay! Let's go!" 

Shira quickly flew up. But even after piercing through the clouds and flying for a few seconds, she didn't see any trace of Kan-Dari.

"Where are they?" Shira asked Firestorm. "What? She's not replying? Oh that sneaky little-" Before she could finish complaining, the space around her rippled as the spatial prison finally took form.

"GOTCHA!!" Kan-Dari shouted gleefully.

"Grrrrrr!" Shira tried to move, but she couldn't. It was a high level spatial prison!

"You sneaky little girl! You were actually colluding with my Wyvern! Thankfully she confessed in time! If not I would have suffered another loss at your hands." Kan-Dari laughed out happily. She finally caught Shira!

She dragged the spatial prison along with her victoriously as she made her way back to Liz'An to show off to her.

"Hey Liz'An! I caught a sneaky little rat! Do you want to see -" Kan-Dari stopped abruptly when she saw Liz'An speaking to Isabella and King Biruz.

All of them were on their Wyverns, and were pointing at the Wyverns below them with serious expressions. 

Kan-Dari immediately released her spatial prison, and the two girls went down immediately to take their place beside Liz'An. 

"Greetings, Archmage Isabella." Shira and Kan-Dari greeted Isabella formally. 

Isabella smiled at them. "Hello girls. You seem to be enjoying yourselves out here."

Shira plastered a wide smile on her face and replied. "We were undergoing training to better prepare ourselves for aerial combat, Archmage. I believe that is what the future holds for us."

"Indeed." Kan-Dari chimed in.

"Excellent." Isabella said. "I agree wholeheartedly. Which is why I am requesting ten thousand Wyverns to go into the interior of Zan to pick up the miners and swiftly bring them back to Rin-Turah so that they could begin mining immediately. 

Shira glanced at Liz'An. Her brows were furrowed and she seemed to be in consternation. 

"Our orders were to bring the Wyverns back to Rin-Turah immediately for training." Shira told Isabella. 

"I understand. Which is why I am only requesting ten thousand. You understand that if we do not do this, it would delay the arrival of the troll miners by a full month. It would have adverse repercussions on King Aloxandros's plans for the war."

Seeing that the three girls were silently considering her words, Isabella pressed on. "I can fit ten trolls on a Wyvern. Ten thousand Wyverns will give me a hundred thousand miners. That would be enough to get things started. Once in Rin, you can confirm this with Dubaza or Princess Aleyria if you want to. But for now, I believe the best course to take is to send the Wyverns with me to the Zan interior."

"Alright. In fact, let's send more than ten thousand. Let's send twenty five thousand!" Liz'An decided.

Shira and Kan-Dari looked at Liz'An incredulously.

"We need to move fast." Liz'An said with a shrug.