With Rita recovering in his shadow after she used about three quarters of her mana reserves in that spell, the battle was momentarily over, but they couldn't stay here anymore.
The last part of the battle was too flashy and while Daimon more or less knew what the forces of the pirates were like, the Skelefiends were still a mystery, specially because of that enhance process which has been bothering him since earlier.
It was really early in the morning anyway, so taking a couple of hours to rest was perfectly fine.
The problem now was what do with this pack of magic beasts who had gathered here, not all of Ulkrear subordinates followed the orders of the sea fleas, some surrendered and submitted to Karmandi.
Of course Daimon made sure none of them were puppets for the Skelefiends, in which case he would have exposed them.
The beasts were getting a bit wild over the sight of the meat of a Half Emperor magic beast, so Daimon turned to see Karmandi.
The snake general had some wounds here and there but nothing a Half Emperor magic beast would be worried about, in fact they were already getting covered by new tissue, though it might take a while for his new scales to be as tough as the old ones.
But what was an urgent matter is the fact that he used a lot of mana in that last attack.
"Karmandi, how about we go half in the "loot", Rita held that guy down but your attack was what made him ran away", proposed Daimon.
Needless to say but the snake general was surprised to hear, the human young man bring this matter by himself, he was prepared to have a discussion about it, since he knows humans tend to be greedy, though he would understand it when dealing with a high ranked treasure, which even magic beasts would go crazy for, if not for him suppressing them with his aura.
Daimon saw the dubitative expression in Karmandi's face and he chuckled.
"What's the use of wealth if you can't enjoy it, a Half Stellar ally increases my and mine companions chances to live, but only if you are in condition to fight and I'm sure a couple of hours isn't enough for you to recover your mana to its maximum capacity".
Normally Daimon would negotiated more, an habit he caught up thanks to Erin's "merciless" tactics, but he also heard the snake general's honest answer earlier and honorable allies are harder to come by than treasures, in his opinion.
"Very well, let me do the honors", said Karmandi as he used a thread like water stream to cut the arm in two equal parts, he picked up the upper part and willingly let Daimon the lower one which included Ulkrear's claws, as he has seen him using a sword and those are perfect for that.
"This position is compromised, we have to find a place to regroup, my subordinates need to rest too", said Karmandi as he chewed on a piece of Ulkrear's arm, while holding the whole thing with its snout.
"I think I have something in mid… but we have to travel in secrecy, because I don't want it to get exposed", mumbled Daimon.
Karmandi nodded, but he was a in a predicament right now, his army doesn't' sneak on enemies they often clash head on, of course that doesn't mean they are suicidal, as they attack those in their same leagues, but Karmandi doesn't have a subordinate here which can hide other's presences.
"Wait, centipedes move underground, can you tell that guy to make a tunnel in which you all fit?", asked Daimon.
Though that centipede had poison attribute apparently, it had the proper "tools" to bite away rock, and he could soften stones with his poison as well.
"Oh, it's worth a try, Toma let our ally travel with you and follow his instructions, Gabriel I trust you can find that place even underground, right?".
Daimon nodded in response, as he jumped and landed on top of the centipede's head, making it growl a bit, but ultimately accepting it both due to Karmandi's orders and the fact that the young human helped his comrades quite a bit
"No problem, by the way do any of you have ice attribute, I need that sea flea to be immobilized to get some "answers"?", asked Daimon.
Karmandi first became smaller until it was of about the same size as the centipede, to not waste time before ordering a sea turtle who had an ice ability to seal the sea flea into ice, and transport it over its shell.
"Let's go".
With those words, Daimon sat down cross-legged on top of the cetipede's head as the latter dived into the ground creating a tunnel for the whole pack to move.
Of course Daimon also added his dark curtain and he even took out the piece of Sea Devil ore he had, everything to reduce the presence of the group.
Once they were underground, Daimon realized that Karmandi's subordinates were pretty useful, even the weakest ones had their own things, for example some were bio-luminescent, so the tunnel had a stable non traceable source of light, as it wasn't powered by mana.
"Say, Karmandi you came here to rescue your enslaved comrades, but what if they weren't enslaved to begin with?", asked Daimon to kill time along the way.
The snake general mentioned that Ulkrear was somewhat related to the Bottom Shredder race, and while the low ranked ones might have been forced, their leaders weren't pushovers, so the most possible scenario is that they betrayed the Emperor ranked magic beast they all served, in their seek for power, maybe convinced by that enhancing process.
Karmandi sighed, as he answered.
"I also think that's the case… in the end I guess traitors exist in every race", said the snake general with a slightly defeated voice.
Among the Emperor ranked magic beasts with which he has had contact, the Black Empress has always treated her subordinates the best, going to war against others for their sake, protecting the young so they could grow and become strong despite the harsh competition for survival in the Maelstrom Sea, which happened to be Karmandi's case.
And even then at the first sign of benefits one of her generals has already betrayed her, that is what he is aware, who knows if there are more traitors in the shadows, which he can foresee already.
"I guess honorable beings are hard to come by", said the snake general as he squeezed some blood from Ulkrear's arm, and handed it to his subordinates, of course he gave each a quantity based on their realms, to not make them explode, it was mainly to help them recover faster and boost their vitalities.
…
The rest of the travel was pretty much uneventful, Daimon didn't want to draw any attention so they took the long route and about half an hour later they were about to reach the hill in which his camp was.
"Stop here for a moment", said Daimon to the centipede.
With his infinity eyes he could see that even this down into the ground, there were some pieces of the Sea Devil Ore, they were of course smaller but they were there and he counted with it.
Using his claws Daimon carved them out and sent them to his inventory, after removing about three of them which were all what there was in a diameter of fifty meters, he created an opening where the centipede could advance again.
They were now right below the cave where the girls were waiting for Daimon, the centipede created another cave and all the magic beasts laid down to rest, Karmandi gave some of the flesh of Ulkrear's arm to his strongest subordinates before he swallowed the rest, to refine it later.
Daimon saw the snake general reducing its size even more until it was of about four meters, about the size of a young anaconda.
"These guys need to rest, do you mind if I go with you, I want to see with my own eyes those princesses you mentioned, because I don't understand why would Ulkrear go to such lengths to capture them, there are other ways to reach the Stellar rank and while they may take more time, they are way safer than betraying our Empress, Ulkrear is too much of a coward, this couldn't be his plan at all".
Daimon shrugged.
"That's not up to me to decide, they are in my group but I can't take decisions for them, give me a second to ask".
Karmandi nodded, he understood that his petition could be misunderstood, but he thought that maybe he could notice something strange/remarkable about those princesses, to be honest he didn't know a thing about humans and their culture, so he was also curious.
'Mom, I'm back… with some new allies, I'll explain you all later, are Mellie and the girl from the Elemental Sea awake?', asked Daimon through the mental connection.
'Welcome back darling, yeah all of them are awake now, taking advantage of this "no-boys allowed" time, we all took a bath and we are about to prepare something to eat~', said Aisha.
Daimon bitterly smiled, they were treating this like some kind of camping, but again they were pretty much safe here, and he went into this little mission alone for that same reason, Aisha would be safe in the battlefield even if she was alone, due to some reasons related to her being his soulmate.
But the Risha sisters, Mellie and Jasmine weren't included in that, and he alone wouldn't be able to grant their safeties, that's also why he went and looked for an ally, and triumphally returned with an army at his back.
'Okay, there is someone who wants to meet them…', Daimon more or less told his mother about Karmandi, and how they had a temporal contract, it didn't even take five minutes, and then Aisha told the two princesses about it to see what their opinion was.
Needless to say but both Mellie and Jasmine were speechless, not because a Half Stellar rank wanted to meet them, but because Daimon who left at most for two hours returned with such an ally.
Again the Risha sisters couldn't help but laugh and remind Mellie to get used to these kind of things happening, whenever Daimon is around, of course Jasmine heard it too and her eyes glowed for a split of a second, as such scenarios which would be considered extremely hard to come by apparently happened a lot, near the silver haired boy who saved her life.
'That guy wasn't like this, now that my eyes aren't clouded, I can tell that most of the time he was bragging but he never proved anything with his actions… and Gabriel is the exact opposite, his companions are the ones who compliment his actions', thought Jasmine.
"I don't see a problem, he wouldn't have even considered it if it was dangerous for us", said Mellie, Daimon had agreed to act as her bodyguard and she had no reasons to doubt about his criteria.
"I agree too", added Jasmine keeping her reasons to herself.
'Everything's okay darling'.
With Aisha's greenlight, Daimon asked the centipede to dig a hole in the roof of the second cave he made, jus enough for Karmandi to fly through it, Daimon held onto the snake general's tail and they both soon reached the natural-made cave where the girls were
"Good morning ladies, I brought some help", said Daimon as both he and Karmandi landed a few meters away from Aisha and the others.
