83 Deciding to leave the compound

The prison leader was completely stupefied. The development ahead was beyond his imagination.

This was supposed to be revenge mission, to punish his younger son's killers…

This was the reason why he brought his wife, even though she was scholar magician, and didn't have much of combat abilities. He wanted her to watch the brutal execution of the killers, to derive some closure from it.

In his mind, suffering some loses on his side was unavoidable. However, and considering the difference between his forces and the enemy's, the casualties should be at minimum.

In this revenge battle, he had considered two approaches.

The first, was throwing his forces at the enemy in an all out attack, to completely eradicate them as quickly as possible.

The second, was creating a stalemate, and surround the enemy forces, without going all out, a battle of attrition so to say. This way, he'd exhaust the enemy's energy, thus allowing his son to pick off the enemy strongest warriors one by one.

Using the first approach, he'd eradicate the enemy quickly, however, this way, he'd lose more men.

Whilst with the second approach, the battle would last longer; however, the casualties would be much fewer among the prison forces.

Considering the ups and downs, he went with the second choice.

According to the prisons forces numbers and strength, they should have annihilated the compound group by now. However, two unexpected surprises popped up on the stage, completely overturning his conclusion.

The first one was the scholar magician in the compound, which nullified the prison's numerical advantage.

The second – was the presence of a special grade artifact holder among the compound group, which possessed spell capable of impacting even the undefeatable Derek, ultimately leading to his demise.

Now, it had to be said, the prison leader didn't even think of the notion that something could threaten Derek. In his mind, even if his son faces extremely powerful opponent, whether a beast or human, a one that he couldn't triumph against, then, he could simply spread his wings and retreat away to safety.

This was why in his mind, even if Derek took on the entire enemy group himself, he wouldn't worry about him. After all, he had a special graded defensive spell, a one that could take immense damage without shattering.

His son – was unkillable! He was sure of that beyond the shadow of any doubt.

Now however, he was staring at the lifeless corpse of his only remaining son, laying on the ground, in the enemy's gathering.

Feeling an unprecedented eruption of wrath and hatred exploding in his heart, he roared: "YOU ACTUALLY SEVERED MY BLOODLINE…! TODAY, I'll shred you and spray your blood on the ground! Today, none of you worms shall escape…!" Afterward, the giant turned to the lv.2 warrior that fought the summoned beast with him, before pointing at the other lv.2 warrior:"You take him and go push the beasts away. Don't try to kill him, just obstruct him for a minute. One minute, this all in need!"

Shaking the ground with every step, the earth giant burst in motion, toward the compound group.

However, just then, an unexpected thing happened…

The prison warriors that were supposed to follow him and storm the enemy didn't move. Instead, they were glued to their spots. Fear, anxiousness and hesitation clouded their faces.

Seeing this sight, the earth giant stopped in his track: "YOU…!"

Looking at them, the prison leader was speechless. He then roared: "You dare defy my orders…?"

The prison group felt gripping fear from him, however, none of them answered. They simply averted their gazes away from him.

Truth be told, the reason why they agreed to attack the compound was because they were afraid of the prison leader and his psychopath elder son. Also, the leader promised the warriors to give them life energy cores, and the magicians to give them the gemstones of the compound artifact holders.

As for the main reason why they came… it was because they had the advantage over the compound. And also, Derek was in their side.

As the prison leader said, all they had to do was to exhaust the enemy's energy and take out some of them if they saw an opening.

In other words, the risks were minimum, and the benefits were abundant. Hence, they gladly came.

But now… things have completely changed.

For starters, the psychopath bloodline magician was now dead. This meant… they had lost their heavy hitter.

And now, the leader wanted to throw them into a life and death battle against a group that not even Derek was able to survive against!

They weren't stupid… they knew that to take down a special grad artifact holder, another one of similar tier was needed.

This meant that the situation has turned on them.

Before, they were the one that had such rare figure. Now however… they enemy was the one with that advantage!

Having survived this far, none of these people was stupid…

They could see that with Derek's death, and with the presence of a special grade artifact holder in the enemy group, many of them wouldn't leave this compound alive if they were to launch an attack now, especially not when their enemy has inscribed weapons.

Truth be told, none of them was sad for Derek at all. In fact, most of them were elated to witness his pathetic demise. If anything, they now wanted to thank the compound group instead of fighting them.

So, when the prison leader issued his order, none of them had the intention to comply.

Why would they risk their lives for someone they hated?

This battle was a losing cause. And they weren't going to throw their lives away, not for that psychopath, and not when they had families and relatives to care of back in the prison.

The prison leader scanned them with eyes that were spewing fire, his hatred and fury was over the roof. He wanted to threaten them with heavy consequences, to frighten them into complying.

However… in the end, he didn't.

He was and always has been a politician. Compromising when he's at disadvantage, advancing or retreating according to the circumstances was his core philosophy.

He wasn't an implosive man, most of the time.

It was just that his son's death was completely outside the realm of his expectations.

As such, when it happened right in front of him… the sheer weight of the shock was too much for him to process. Hence, and in a rare occasion, he had lost his rationality for a moment, allowing his emotions to momentarily dictate his actions.

Reevaluating the situation with an assertive look, the prison leader could see that among those that didn't want to fight, was the mid lv.2 warrior that helped him in fighting the summoned beast, and the other lv.2 warrior.

With such strong powerhouses refusing to attack, failure was guaranteed.

Now, his first brother, Randall, was deep inside the compound, fighting a low lv.2 warrior, while his second brother was hurt. He was injured by an arrow.

As for Curtis, the rank-2 wind magician… there was no sign of him at all, anywhere.

'… That damned bastard escaped…!'

In fact, unbeknownst to everyone, Curtis had escaped the moment Derek was captured by the compound group.

When ramie fell to the ground, Curtis was one of the magicians that had launched their spells at him. He wanted to make use of the moment to take his revenge. However, these attacks were blocked by four strong warriors.

That was the moment that Curtis fled the scene.

He was a cunning man in his nature. The moment ramie returned to the compound group, he knew that his wish of taking revenge was a goner. More ever, the fact that ramie was able to capture Derek frightened him a lot. He didn't want to fight a special grade artifact holder.

Between revenge and keeping his life, he preferred the latter much more.

Reassessing the situation, the prison leader reined in his flaring emotion.

Shifting his gaze back to the enemy group, he could see that the summoned beast had already returned to their side, and was now preparing to intercept his attack. The rest of the compound fighters were already gathered in a tightly closed formation. They were prepared to fight out his forces to death.

The stark contrast between the two camps was quite obvious.

His force's morals have gone down the drain; they were in no shape to attack. While, on the other hand, the other side had resolved themselves to give their all, which wasn't weird, given that they were literally fighting for their very lives.

He himself was an earth magician. He had a rare grade artifact. His spells weren't bad at all, especially the spell that he advanced, earth guardian. Unfortunately, even if he was to us the two remaining magic recover potions that his wife had made for him; he'd most likely still be unable to annihilate the enemy.

Making up his mind, the prison leader spoke, in a husky voice: "Retreat…!"

The prison group fighters' faces lit up in delight.

Even though they could have retreated on their own, without waiting for the leader's order… however, they didn't do it.

Truth be told, they were still afraid of him.

Even though he was only rank-2 magician, like Curtis, however, the difference between the two was bigger than the gap between small domestic cat and vicious lion.

For starters, the leader had rare grade spells, which were much more powerful than Curtis's common grade spells. Second, he had magic energy recovery potions, that his wife, the potion mage, had made it for him.

The leader could simply cast his earth guardian spell that had strong defense, and keep on throwing the rest of his spells at his opponent none-stop. The potions in his possession would enable him to fight in this manner for good while.

In the first place, that was the reason why he could battle out the frightening summoned beast head on.

This made fighting the leader an utter nightmare.

For that reason, the prison group didn't want to fall out with the leader; they just wanted him to act rationally. After all, his strength was the reason why the prison was so safe to begin with.

"Carry the dead, we have to take them back with us, and give them a proper burial." The prison leader forced out through gritted teeth.

Hearing these words coming from the leader, the prison group fighters let out a deep sigh of relief. Their fearsome leader has regained his self control.

Truth be told, the prison leader didn't say so out of concern… he just did it to regain his influence over his forces.

Turning his attention to the compound side, he roared: "BROTHER…! THE FIGHT IS OVER. COME BACK!"

His brother was still fighting inside the compound. He didn't want to retreat without him.

"Darren! Darren! Come back! NOW…!!"

The earth giant roared again, and waited for a while. However, there was still no response.

At this point, the prison's leader heart turned cold. 'No way… Not my brother too…'

"You damn animals! What have you done to my brother…? You didn't only kill my two sons, but now you did something to my brother…!"

"Bring him out this instance, or I'll attack the houses and demolish them on the inhabitants…!"

The intense hatred and the seething fury shrouding these words made everyone in compound side realize that if the warrior that was fighting Lance didn't show up now, the earth mage would definitely carry out his threat.

"You despicable piece of shit…! You're the one that attacked and killed our people. Yet, you dare blame it on us, and make threats, acting as though you're the one in the right."

Brian couldn't rein in his anger, and howled back. However, on the same time, he didn't want to push things too far, hence, he signaled the compound warriors and magicians to carry their dead, and retreat to the back.

Brian wanted to let the let the enemy carry their dead members that were sprawled near them.

Also, Brian sent out two warriors to check on Lance and the enemy warrior. He could see that the enemy forces didn't want to continue this fight. Hence, he didn't want to give them any motive to do so.

Not long afterward, the two warriors returned. They were carrying the enemy warrior.

The handle of a bone knife could be seen protruding off his head. It was obvious that he was dead!

Seeing the sight, the prison fighters' were shocked…

Another powerhouse has fallen.

The prison leader gnashed his teeth so hard that they about to turn into fine powder.

At this moment, a storm of emotions rocked the prison's leader heart. This was the first time in his life that he suffers such disastrous loss.

Casting one final glance at the compound gathering, his eyes shone with a dark sinister glow, as a bone-chilling, murderous intent erupted out from his heart. Then, and in a deep, ominous voice, the prison leader spoke: "Remember my words. A month from now, you'll all wish that you had died here today, and didn't live to suffer what is to come…!"

"My two sons and my brother are no longer in the world of the living. But… you all still alive…"

"Let me tell you this – Eat, drink, sleep… enjoy your lives. Enjoy it. For what is coming for you, is something that you can never expect, or defend against…Hahahaha!"

Half speaking, half shouting, in a husky voice, the prison leader threw his menacing words toward the compound gathering. Next, and with an echoing maniacal laugh, he and his forces left the compound, disappearing behind the compound wall.

…