Second World

Four Winds looked at the incoming enemies. The most menacing was no doubt the eldritch beholder and her brood.

The small beholders rushed forward ahead of the eldritch beholder. They seemed like ravenous creatures that just found their prey. Running below them were the charging elven soldiers.

"Prepare to defend the siege weapons!!!" Four Winds yelled and rushed forward. At the same time, he sent messages to guild leaders with headquarters to summon their guild armies.

Kabaka was still at a loss from losing his chief badge. Four Winds' shout woke everyone in the command base from their trance. Kima returned to moving the troops using the war table.

They couldn't dwell on the incident just now. The enemies were already before them. They had to deal with the situations at hand. Kabaka realized this. He shouted commands to have everyone engage the enemy troops.

The Themisphere army led by Emris and Isabelle also rushed forward. The siege weapons stopped their offense and moved back as the troops started clashing.

In terms of number, the joined forces between Themisphere and Verremor still outnumbered the Aurebor army. The beholders might be numerous but they didn't cover Aurebor's disadvantage in number. But what they lacked in number, they made up for it in ability.

Level-wise, the small beholders weren't that troublesome. These small beholders had levels ranging from 40 to 60, which was the level range of regular soldiers. Their grades were either elites, special elites, or rare elites. If only judging from their levels and grades, Themisphere and Verremor armies should have no problem, but the two armies soon found out it was not the case.

The larger beholders had higher levels and grades while the smaller beholders had lower ones. The larger the beholders, the more tentacles they had. All these tentacles had eyeballs at their ends, the same as the eldritch beholder. These small eyeballs couldn't shoot green rays like their great mother, but they shot black pellets that caused dark damage.

The most troublesome of their abilities was mind control. The big eyes in their bodies shone with ominous green light when they found their targets. The targets their eyes locked onto suddenly froze.

The comrades of these frozen soldiers tried to wake these soldiers from their trance. Those soldiers moved again, all right. But instead of continuing their charge, these soldiers turned and attacked their comrades.

This mind control ability had limitations. It could only control targets that were two grades and ten levels lower. Since the highest level and grade of the beholders were level 60 rare elites. They could only mind-control basic and elite-grade soldiers who were not higher than level 50. Even so, having one's comrades suddenly turn and attack his fellow soldiers was a great disruption. The Verremor troops couldn't maintain a proper formation due to this.

The worst thing was that the beholders didn't have to maintain the link. Once the mind control hit, their targets would fight on their side automatically. The beholders could go and do other things, but they couldn't mind-control a second target until the first one died or was freed of the mind control, and they had to stay within a certain distance from the controlled target.

While the small beholders could only mind control one target, the eldritch beholder could perform the same ability using each of the eyeballs on her tentacles. There were hundreds of these tentacles on the eldritch beholder. Each of these eyeballs shone a green light and took control of one target. In just one move, the eldritch beholder mind-controlled hundreds of soldiers. Since she was an eternal grade, her mind control could affect rare elite soldiers up to level 85.

One of the targets controlled by the eldritch beholder was Mkulme Giantkiller, Umeza's son. He was a level 78 rare elite.

"No…!!" Umeza shouted when he saw his son start attacking his comrades. He rushed over with his three-headed wolf to stop his son from hurting his comrades or the other way around.

"Damn it!" Four Winds cursed. Having so many high-level combatants switched sides was a complete disaster. Not to mention the psychological impact on the soldiers who now had to fight their comrades.

"Makubwa, we need to stop that eldritch beholder from causing any more harm to our army!" Four Winds yelled.

"F*ck!" Makubwa cursed. He wanted a glorious battle but he was not keen on fighting that eldritch beholder again. Not to mention there was no Quetzalcoatl to take the eldritch beholder's focus.

"We will help!" Emris' voice was heard. He and Isabelle came to them flying. "We need all the high-level mythical grades available."

Aside from Makubwa, Emris, and Isabelle, there was also Samuhn, the shaman king, who cast Flight and joined them. Then there were the two other war chiefs.

"I want to help but I can't fly," one of the war chiefs, Katili Strongbone, said. He was a melee fighter who fought using two giant serrated blades, but most of the time he only wielded one. The other blade was strapped at his back.

"I also can't, but my pet can," the other war chief said. Her name was Kuona Longsight. She was a bow-wielding orc who was also a beastmaster. Her pet was an Iron Griffin. The griffin had black-metallic fur. The iron griffin was the strongest in terms of strength and defense among griffins. She climbed onto the griffin and was ready to join the fight.

"Let me help you," Isabelle said to Katili. She cast a spell and a pair of magical wings appeared on the orc's back.

"We will go too. Blizzard, Mist, are you with me?" Four Winds asked. A pair of red wings appeared on his back. He had gotten a wings tool not long before the war started.

Violent Blizzard was the same. She also had a pair of wings sprouting behind her. "Right behind you, chief," She replied. Purple Mist cast the fly spell.

The nine took to the sky, flying toward the eldritch beholder.

Some of the small beholders saw these nine approaching their great mother and tried to block their path. The nine easily dispatched these small beholders.

The eldritch beholder noticed these incoming nine. Her wicked giant mouth formed a sneer. She sent a mental command to all her brood to move aside and let those nine approach.

She was amused by how these nine attempted to take her on.