Listening to Daimon's orders, Blacktooth immediately flew towards the shore, Mellie sent her seahorse back to the beast pouch to let it rest, the cages were carried by Blacktooth.
The girls jumped on top of the shark's head, while the female nobles reluctantly got on Blacktooth's back, the devil goblin shark race isn't exactly appealing to the eye, so it was obvious they weren't comfortable with it.
But seeing that the queen as well as the Valas Duchess were confidently standing on top of the shark's head, they followed Mellie and Daphne.
Annete saw all the nobles which were rescued by Daimon and she inwardly nodded, though she didn't understand why some were inside a cage while others weren't, also she of course noticed the hand sized miniature black castle which was now hanging from Daimon's waist.
The queen's eyes glowed for a split of a second, a surprised gaze flashed on them fo a split of a second before she mumbled.
"You got a pretty decent catch".
Daimon chuckled in response, but then he got serious.
"Yeah, but we can discuss that later… that guy is coming back and he isn't alone".
Blacktooth felt a chill running down his spine, there was strong violent presence coming his way, so he accelerated as much as he could, but he was still intercepted midway to the shore where the portals back to the Warhammer city were.
Two figures stood in front of Blacktooth, one of them was of course Sting, whose appearance was quite miserable, his clothes were ragged and his body was full of wounds, specially the right side of his body, his arm's skin was practically peeled away and half of his face was a bloody mess.
Since he wasn't screaming of pain it's obvious he had swallowed some kind of potion, but his wounds weren't healing or maybe they were healing at an incredibly slow speed, which shouldn't be the case as only a Stellar rank can leave scars on the body of a Stellar rank.
Based on Sting's hatred filled expression as he saw Annete, Daimon knew his body was failing at refining the potion, that also explained why he was so affected by the Duchess's attack.
As a middle stage Stellar ranked, his mana should have been strong enough to parry most of the damage, but since he couldn't properly circulate it, he received the attack upfront and as a mage it took a toll on him.
In fact, Daimon was surprised he didn't suffer more, as that attack was insane, though it exceeded what he could calculate, he guessed at least was at the same level of an early stage Stellar ranked, and that is a lot to say considering the huge gap between a half step and the real deal.
Also Daphne's mother mana reserves dropped about a third part, of course he didn't dare to use infinity eyes to see inside of her magic core as she would probably notice, but the amount of laws floating around her diminished about a third part, so he based his guess on that.
Back onto the current problem, the other figure was practically fine, with the exceptions of some burns in its clothes here and there, not that it made a difference as the one wearing it was… ugly as hell.
The other person that appeared was a fat man in his forties, for human standards it was ugly having some kind of acne marks on his face, but since it has green skin and horizontal pupils it was clear it wasn't a human.
"Yo, Sting did you really get your ass handed by two Half Stellar ranks, it seems the Devil Stingray pirates have an unearned reputation", the large tongue of the man hanged out of his mouth as he gazed at the queen and the Duchess.
The Duchess aggressively snorted as her mana once again gathered around here before saying.
"The captain of the Marsh Toad pirates, what is an ugly toad like you doing so far from your sewer?".
"Woah, time out lady, if you shoot that in this direction you'll hit your own allies, besides it was you the one who attacked my fleet first, so this is legitimate "self-defense" kekeke", said the toad man with a lecherous smile on his face.
The toad man's aura exploded out of his body, though it was "only" an early stage Stellar ranked, it was one Stellar ranked more than what the Elemental and Mermen Seas had at disposition right now.
After the pirates related to Sting were subdued, the forces hidden in the ships had no option but to come out and join the battle, so everyone had an enemy to deal with, even the king had to fight to keep his wives safe.
And that wasn't the worst part, but the apocalyptical sight above in the sky, result from the clash between the four currently present heavyweights, at this point all of then had unleashed half of their mana and just with that, the heavens seemed to be about to tear apart.
Thunders echoed with each one of their movements, the explosions of mana result of their clashes blew other Stellar ranks away, they were simply on another level so their battle had to be apart from the rest.
Sting's body suddenly expanded, though it seemed to fight to grow more it was unable to do so, but it still increased his height about ten centimeters, the veins in all his body bulged which made him coldly glare at Annete, he had no other option but to stop half way, stuck in the middle of his transformation, which was similar to the pirates gaining some traits of a magic beast.
Black corrugated skin grew on his arms, neck and face, his eyes became bloodshot but his face was only half changed, giving him a bizarre appearance.
"Well, that explains why this toad bastard is with you, the two of you are ugly both in the outside and the inside", Annete's sharp tongue of course dealt some damage to sting, whose transformation would normally have given him an imposing appearance if completed.
"Shut up bitch, whose fault do you think it is, that I can't harmonize anything in my body!", shouted Sting with an angered voice, he who is considered a playboy among the pirates is being called ugly, he was livid.
The toad man on the other hand seemed to take things more lightly… or not.
"Don't lose your temper Sting, once we captured these little beauties, you'll get to discover the pleasure of taking a woman who disdained you, their powerlessness and despair is intoxicating kekeke", said the toad man.
Sting sinisterly laughed in response.
"For a change I actually agree with you, what a shame the almighty strategist of the Mermen Sea didn't take into account how many portals can be opened in a certain amount of time, even the Trident Marshal reached his limit, and he is the only one who can bring other Stellar ranks to this place".
"Accept your doom, if you kneel and beg for mercy I will spare you and your sister, so you can serve me if not, humph be prepared to experience a living hell!".
The toad man's tongue which reached his abdomen made some lewd gestures as he gazed at the Daphne's mother.
"I haven't tried the wife and daughter of a king before, new day new experiences kekeke", he added.
Daimon couldn't help but thank to the loose tongues of the pirates, judging by Annete's serious expression Sting was telling the truth, which meant people in this planet needed to have an equal or superior strength to those who travelled with them through space.
The transportation array was being disrupted by all the spells that were being casted in the battlefield, and the Trident Marshal apparently already used his reserves of the space law bringing his subordinates, the other nobles and neo nobles as well as the royal guards of the king.
And the others couldn't even bring a Half Stellar rank, so things were getting kind of complicated.
'I'm going to use my strongest ability, with that I can restrain these two for about ten seconds, take these girls and run all the way to the back line, sister Valas will escort you all the way', said the queen directly to Daimon's ears.
Sting had recovered some of his ability to use mana, because his "rhythm" has changed after using that boosting process, the queen and the Duchess could handle one middle stage Stellar rank together, but not two of them, specially if they had to protect others while fighting.
Sting saw the resilient expression on the eyes of the queen and he snorted.
"Do yourself a favor and be a good loser, this time we outwitted you, I would hate to have to let my subordinates destroy that pretty face of yours", he said with a sinister smile.
"Those are some big words Sting, I wonder why didn't you ask this Empress whether you were allowed to declare your victory or not!".
A sudden voice which wasn't too loud but somehow reached everyone's ears, made all the presents turn to the south.
To their surprise there was the head of a spear coming out of the sky, the spear then forced the space open, tearing a portal of about one hundred meters tall, from which a tall woman wearing a black dress came out, there was still blood dripping on the tip of her spear.
Also, thousands of pairs of eyes could be seen glowing from within the portal, at her back.
'It took you long enough Karmandi', said Daimon directly to the snake general whose head just popped out of the portal along with a large pack of magic beasts.
Sting's face twisted, he perfectly recognized the woman whose aura was so sharp it hurt the eyes just to gaze at her, it was none other than the one they tried to frame so the Elemental and Mermen Seas mutually destroyed with her, the Black Empress, a middle stage Stellar ranked magic beast.
'Sorry the Empress and me had to take out some garbage, that Skelefiend was really useful to take the principal traitor out… but the Empress killed him too by mistake, don't worry we'll compensate you for the loss', answered Karmandi.
Daimon bitterly smiled, the woman was clearly angry, her yellow eyes had vertical pupils similar to the ones of a snake, and she was giving off a really threatening aura.
By the time the portal closed a large army of about fifty peak Arch ranks and two Half Stellar ranks had appeared in the middle of the battlefield.
"You said she wasn't going to come", said the toad man with a grim expression, he was clearly afraid the of the black haired woman, maybe because in the nature snakes killed toads pretty easily.
Only now the attention of the woman was drawn at the toad man and, she sinisterly laughed as she pointed her spear at him.
"Oh, the heavens must be on my side, I will get to cut off the heads of three scumbags in a single day".
Everyone was confused as there was only two enemies in front of the woman, until she gazed at Karmandi who threw a bag at the feet of Sting and the toad man, a circular object rolled out of the bag, it was a severed head… a man's severed head to be more accurate and if you observed closely, he had some resemblance with the toad man.
"I don't discriminate anyone for their race, so I thought nothing when a toad species joined my army and even climbed to become a general, but as of right now, I can tell you all the spies you planted are gone".
This time the toad man was the one whose expression became twisted, the severed head at his feet belonged to his first son, the one who was closest to reach the Stellar rank and he is dead now, not only that judging by the horrified expression frozen on the face of the severed head, it wasn't a peaceful death.
"Go and help the guys from the Mermen and Elemental Sea, this Empress needs to release some steam", said the woman as she craned her neck.
"Ohhhhh!", the magic beasts roared and then poured like a sea current towards the battlefield, they surrounded an enemy and literally shred it to pieces before continuing with the next one, in a matter of seconds the tables were turned.
Karmandi and the other Half Stellar ranked magic beast, which was a white sea snake stood in front of Daimon and the others.
"Queen of the Mermen Sea, I Karmandi the newly appointed Marshal of the Black Empress's army, will protect these children with my life, don't worry and fight to your hearts content", said Karmandi to Annete.
Annete stole a gaze at Daimon who nodded at her and only then she shrugged.
"Sister Valas, let's teach these idiots not to mess with our little princesses", said the queen as she grabbed her lyre.
"Mm", the Duchess nodded and her body exploded in mana.
The Black Empress wildly laughed and then her mage flashed towards the toad man, whose eyes were bloodshot.
"Booooom!".
A huge shockwave made Daimon's hair wave, but the impact was blocked by Karmandi and the other snake, who were escorting them to the back of the battlefield.
It was then when Daimon's eyes glowed as he looked at the black castle hanging from his waist and he grinned.
'Karmandi, do you want to make a bet, if I can make this battle end in the next five minutes you'll owe me a double compensation for the loss of a valuable hostage, if not then we'll be even, what do you say?'.
The snake general raised an eyebrow, the battlefield was too chaotic, the Stellar and Half Stellar ranks were fiercely fighting with each other, so how was it possible to end such a battle in five minutes he thought before saying.
'I accept, no hard feelings for the loser'.
Daimon nodded.
'Deal'.
The next thing Karmandi saw was that Daimon's aura skyrocketed, he then placed his hand on the black castle thing hanging from his waist and then he saw those strange white flames appearing in his hand, before they were absorbed by the miniature castle, before the thing vanished into thin air.
…
A few seconds passed without nothing happening, but as Karmandi was about to ask what were they waiting for, a horrible scream echoed through the battlefield.
"Aghhhhhhh!!!".
Normally a scream would not raise a reaction unless it came from some of the big shots, this was specially true for the heavyweights fighting above in the sky.
But this time one of the two battles above in the sky was interrupted in cold.
"Shyrel, you bastards, where is she!!!", the mummified Skelefiend descended from the sky in a flash, he tried to attack all the presents but was blocked by the Aurora.
