Child of Destiny

......

Frozen Kingdom

The expedition team continued to explore deeper within the region and recorded all of the things necessary.

They had encountered various types of monsters and each of them was pretty strong. And since most of these monsters were not recorded in the bestial encyclopedia, they saved all of the data that had gotten.

Their exploration was hard since two of their core members couldn't join the fight, Shin and Arthur. Because they used their two-fold berserk earlier, they immediately entered a weakened state that made them unable to take part in any battle.

Fortunately, the other members of the group were also strong, so it didn't matter much if they were present or not. At least, until they met the other armies that were mentioned in their sub-quest.

Both Leonard and Lawless could take Arthur's role of being the tank. They might not have a strong defense as a knight, but their strength was obviously on par if not stronger than what Arthur had.

Zero and Faker also had powerful attacks and they were flexible with their roles, so they could also be Shin's substitutes when it came to his role.

Moreover, Shin could also focus on giving out orders since he didn't have to be present on the frontline. He could give more accurate commands and even adjust the formation of the group when necessary.

Black Hand witnessed Shin's commanding skills in action once again. As a fellow strategist, he was curious how Shin would deal when it came to all kinds of scenarios and how much different his methods were in comparison.

Most of the time, Shin was using the same approach that a normal commander would take but there were some circumstances where he would suddenly give out an unexpected command that even Black Hand couldn't comprehend.

Then later, the priest would realize their purpose as the battle progressed. It was as if Shin could see what was going to happen in the future and would also have a countermeasure ahead of time.

Shin's approach was different from Black Hand who was solely focused on the flow of battle and read the movements of the opposing side before responding accordingly.

He could also do what Shin was doing and read a couple of moves ahead, but Black Hand also knew that he would not be able to do it as fast as Shin.

S.Tigris commented that Shin was also probably using an 'intuitive' way of commands, just like what the Tigerkin was doing most of the time.

This made S.Tigris and Black Hand a powerful duo within the Wing's Alliance despite them not having a high position within the guild. The combined forces of intuitive and intellectual moves that they could maneuver when fighting together were really had to deal with.

But seeing those two qualities present within a single body made it even more terrifying.

As key figures with the forces of the Wing's Alliance, both S.Tigris and Black Hand could only agree with each other that they couldn't be an enemy of Empyrean Talons.

No matter how much they look at it, there was nothing to gain in provoking this group of monsters.

...

As the group go deeper, the monsters that they were encountering were getting more and more troublesome. And most problematic of them were Ice Trolls which had an insane regenerative ability and powerful strength, as well as the Artic Orcs which boast their muscular bodies with crazy defense and unparalleled power.

Compared to those two types of monsters, the rest were practically a joke. Fortunately, there was no undead type of monster that could revive as insanely as the fallen Great Blue Wolf Army.

Speaking of armies, the group also found the two locations of the other two armies that they were looking for.

They fought those two armies and just as Shin had predicted, they were much weaker compared to the previous army that they just faced.

Lycan told them that the Great Blue Wolf Army ranked two among the four armies, so they were already expecting that the other two armies were not as strong as the wolves that they faced previously.

They first headed to the location where they could find the members of the King Ghost Army.

Shin was right about his suspicion about them. Most members of this army really turned into Spectral Assassins after being cursed by the God of Winter.

Dealing with them was pretty troublesome since they kept on disappearing during the battle. There were even some Spectral Archers hiding in the woods, firing shots at them from time to time.

Dealing with the stealth skills of the army was already troublesome enough, so adding the fact there were also ranged-type humanoid monsters made it even harder for the group.

Fortunately, the silver lining that they had in this situation was the fact that these monsters had a very low Health Bar and only an average defense.

On top of that, Simba and Lawless became the key figures in this battle since they could rely on the innate traits of the Beastmen race to deal with the Spectral Monsters. They could feel the movement of these monsters or even scent them with the enhanced sense of smell that they had.

They could repeatedly lock on the moments of the Spectral Assassins while informing the rest of the group where the possible ambushes could come from.

This was where Shin took a bold move of letting Leonard and Lawless ran wild on the battlefield, leaving their backline partially undefended.

This was a risky move since both Shin and Arthur still couldn't have an impact on this battle since they were still under the effects of the weakened state as a penalty for using the two-fold berserk earlier.

But Shin seemed to be confident at defending themselves on their own. He let S.Tigris be their temporary frontline as Leonard and Lawless were on a rampage in a distance. As another Beastman of the group, he could also sense the movements of the Spectral Assassins even though it was a little weaker than the other two.

Arthur might be much weaker compared to his usual form, but his battle sense and combat control were still present. He assisted S.Tigris and took care of the area that the Berserker Tigerkin had failed to cover.

Zero was also present in there and constantly warded off the Spectral Assassins that were trying to get near them from the rear. He was also deflecting the arrows flying on their way with his wind elemental skills.

This was an unusual setup where these two top players were assigned to be defensive instead of launching an attack where they could shine more.

Under the protection of these three and the support provided by Black Hand and Cloe, the rest of the group, which were the ranged players, could solely focus on the offensive.

Faker was also a key figure in this battle as he was tasked to take down the Spectral Archers hiding in the woods and trying to snipe down the group from the shadows. As a top-class assassin, the such job was a child's play for him, he was taking down targets one after another.

Shin orchestrated the formation pretty well, making the group showcase their skills pretty well despite not being in the perfect form that they could have been.

This King Ghost Army also had the berserk ability to absorb the energies of their fallen companions. But the group didn't think too much about it as these opponents were not as strong as the previous ones that they faced.

They also didn't have the four generals unlike the Great Blue Wolf Army, so dealing with them became much easier. Aside from the leader of the Spectral Army, who had a skill set of both Assassins and Archers, everything else was just a walk in the park.

The group took down the entire spectral army and freed them from the curse much faster than in their previous battle.

The group could proceed to their next target after that battle, but Shin suggested taking their time and exploring the surrounding areas.

It was for them not to exhaust themselves too much. They needed some time to relax a bit after taking on consecutive battles with such high intensity.

Following his instructions, the group continued to explore the nearby areas in a more relaxed manner. They also harvested a lot of rare herbs and mined a couple of high-quality ores along the way.

The potions that they crafted previously helped them a lot during the exploration. And since there were a lot of herbs around, they didn't hold back from using them. This was one of the main reasons why their team remained healthy in the previous battles.

After recovering their strengths and regaining their peak forms, Shin suggested that it was now time to proceed to their next target. The team already warmed up after defeating the monsters along the way, so they were pretty pumped up for the next battle.

It was like what Shin had expected, the Sky Griffin Army indeed turned into a heavy cavalry of undead monsters. There were a lot of Dullahan, Death Knights, and Undead Knights in this army and each of them was mounting an undead horse that was comparable to Lord Rank Monsters.

The three types of undead were already strong enough to give the group a real headache, so adding these powerful mounts put a lot of pressure on the group.

But since they were currently in their complete form, the group didn't back down and faced this army head-on.

It might be a foolish choice at first look but the group held their grounds pretty well against such an intimidating army.

Shin already studied this army and they had an obvious weakness despite their unrivaled strength. They might be powerful but their attack patterns were too basic and repetitive.

Aside from that, the combat prowess of these undead monsters significantly dropped when the knights were separated from their mounts. Their attack patterns became even more simple, making the job of taking them down much easier.

Shin and the group might have expended a much longer time compared to the previous two armies but they steadily took the cursed Sky Griffin Army down in a very steady manner.

The only problem that they faced was still the general of the army. It was an Abyss Knight Undead mounting a Ghost Griffin.

Its battle prowess was similar to what Lupus Steel had when he transformed into a werewolf. And since its mount was a flying-type monster, the group had a hard time fighting it.

But since it was their sole enemy, the group was still able to fight properly, especially when Shin and Arthur were already in action. The two had their respective flying abilities, Arthur in his 'Lava Walker' Form and Shin with his signature wings attached on [Dawn's Mantle].

Zero also joined them in the aerial battle as he also had a flying skill of his own. He could float in the air with the help of his wind elemental mana, then he skillfully used some air blasts to do some aerial maneuvers during the fight.

The trio worked together to force the Abyss Knight to be separated from the Ghost Griffin, weakening their fight capabilities.

And when the knight fell on the ground, the rest of the group, who were waiting patiently on the ground, unleashed their powerful skills to take it down as fast as they could.

The battle might take longer than they had expected but they still successfully killed the Abyss Knight and the Ghost Griffin in the end.

With such a convincing victory, Shin and the others were now a step closer to the later stage of the quest.

Though, the opponent that they need to face was the most powerful army among the forces trapped within this land. Even Shin couldn't figure out what kind of monsters were they going to face.

But one thing was for sure, this battle was going to be much harder compared to previous battles that they faced so far.

...…