The trip from the Glouswell Forest to the Great Plains wasn't a smooth ride.
Due to the upcoming battle, Lux and his friends encountered several of the Ammarian Army's flying scouts and engaged them in a dogfight.
Fortunately, the number of the enemies they faced only came in threes and fours, so Lux and Xander were more than enough to handle them.
The mounts of the Ammarian Kingdom were Griffins, which were Rank 4 Monsters. Although they were wary of the dragon, when they saw that there was only one knight accompanying a few teenagers, they thought that it would be fine if they attacked and eliminated them before they could regroup with the Yelan Main Camp.
They wanted to weaken the Yelan Army as much as possible right now, and having a Dragon Knight join their ranks was something that the Ammarian Aerial Scouts weren't willing to ignore.
But, that was their biggest mistake.
Although Xander was an Earth Mage, he was quite proficient in aerial combat as well. The thing that surprised the Ammarian Scouts, as well as Lux and Bedivere, was Xander's Mount.
The Manta Ray was surprisingly fast, moving like a fish in the water even though it was flying in the skies.
As if feeling a bit of Rivalry, Jed also performed extremely well, making incredible last second turns in the air, allowing Lux to kill the Ammarian Soldiers mounted on the Griffins' backs.
Bedivere had told him that, if given time, he would be able to tame the Griffins in order for them to become their allies.
Just like Diablo, who had the ability to tame Land Beasts, Bedivere was able to tame Flying Beasts because of his profession.
A Dragon Knight who could tame Dragons had a high chance of taming aerial Monsters weaker than him.
Bedivere's Rank would always be the same as Lux., meaning, if Lux regressed, the Dragon Knight's Rank would also regress to the Apostle Rank.
However, this was not a problem because Griffins were Rank 4 Monsters, which was almost the same rank as him.
Beasts were inherently stronger than Humans, so even if they were equal in Rank, it would still take two to three Humans to subdue a Rank 4 Monster on their own, unless these Humans had very high fighting abilities that could easily overpower the difference in strength.
Since they were in a hurry, Bedivere didn't have the leisure of using normal means to tame the Griffins.
Instead, Lux simply killed one of the Griffins, and used his skill, Animate Undead, to revive it, striking fear in the hearts of the Flying Beasts that they had captured.
Those who were too prideful to be subjugated were beaten up until they could no longer move.
Eiko then swallowed them up, making the other Griffins think that the Baby Slime had eaten their allies whole, making them more willing to accept the mark that Bedivere placed on their foreheads.
Since their former Masters were now dead, their contract with them had expired as well, allowing Bedivere to create a new contract and allowing them to become their new allies.
'Having Griffins as mounts for the guild isn't a bad idea,' Lux thought. 'After this expedition is over, I will ask Cethus back in the Outer Reaches if there are any Griffin territories around.'
In order to lure more Griffins to them to be subjugated, Lux and Xander put on the clothes of the dead Ammarian Scouts and rode their mounts.
They then followed behind Bedivere, making the other Scouts that they came across think that the two Griffins were pursuing the Dragon, who was carrying Yelan Soldiers on its back.
The Griffins that had been subjugated could only look at their comrades, who had fallen into Lux's trap, in pity because they knew what fate awaited them next.
A day later, a dozen Griffins were flying in the sky, in pursuit of the Wind Dragon, inciting more Scouts to join the fray.
Lux had revived the dead Scouts and ordered them to ride their mounts, making it look like they were in hot pursuit of a single Dragon.
By the time Lux arrived near the Yelan Main Camp, the Aerial Knights of the Yelan Army, which were riding Hipogriffs, immediately prepared to engage them in combat, thinking that the Ammarian Army had launched a sneak attack from behind.
Lux had managed to capture twenty Griffins on their trip, which was enough to make the Yelan Defenders think that the Ammarian Army had sent an elite unit of Aerial Knights to launch a preemptive strike at their camp.
After the anxious Hippogriff Riders confirmed that Lux was on their side, they allowed them to continue to their Main Camp, which surprised Einar, Keane, Val, and Malcolm, who had only arrived half a day earlier.
Lux had summoned his clone to talk to his comrades, while his real body talked to the two Great Generals, asking them if they could give Cai a personal tent.
Bedivere landed at the very rear of the Yelan Camp in order to hide Cai from the eyes of Lux's comrades, who carried artifacts that allowed those who were waiting outside the Domain of the Fallen see and hear what they were seeing and hearing.
"This is not a problem," Great General Watson said with a smile. "Cai has done a wonderful job and should be treated as a VIP."
After hearing Lux's report on how he managed to weaken General Revon, which allowed General Carran to deal the killing blow, the two Great General's impressions of Lux rose by a few notches.
For an Apostle to be able to stall an enemy General, who was a Ranker, was a great achievement, which was enough to reward the Half-Elf with military medals.
However, due to their current situation, they were unable to hold such a ceremony. They still had to prepare for the Ammarian Army that was about to attack them on two fronts.
"We will also dedicate one of our Lady Clerics to attend to her while she is unconscious," Great General Sherlock said. "She had already done her part in this battle. The rest is up to us."
Lux nodded her head in agreement.
He couldn't always be with Cai, so having someone to look after her would be a good thing.
Although Henrietta could check up on her from time to time, she couldn't be with her all the time because it would raise suspicions.
Keane, who treated Cai as a close friend, waited for everyone to disperse before meeting with Lux in private.
"Please answer me honestly. Where is Cai?" Keane asked. "Don't tell me it died?"
Although Keane found Cai to be very irritating at times, he also acknowledged the Boar as one of his trusted companions who had fought life and death battles by his side.
Aside from Lux, Cai was the only one that interacted with Keane a lot in the tournament and even invited him to their Tribe when he had no place to go.
Lux sighed because he knew that lying to Keane would only sour their relationship with each other. Just like Cai, he treated Keane as a close friend, so he couldn't treat him the way he treated Einar and the others.
"Come with me," Lux replied and guided Keane to the rear of the Yelan Camp where Cai's tent was located.
As soon as they entered the tent, Keane immediately saw a meter-long-boar that was sleeping sideways on some soft bedding and snoring like a pig.
Lux was taken aback because he didn't expect Cai to have returned to her Boar form after he left her to check on the rest of their comrades.
"Oi, stop sleeping like a pig," Keane said as he lifted his hand to smack Cai's head, but before he could do anything else, Lux hurriedly grabbed the skinny Swordsman's wrist, preventing him from hurting the sleeping boar.
"Da waaaaaaaaaaaaae!" Fei Fei glared at Keane and even summoned a Blast Bomb in her hand, ready to throw it at the skinny Swordsman who was about to smack her Master.
"Calm down, Fei Fei," Lux hurriedly pacified the Baby Golden Slime, who had stayed by Cai's side while she remained unconscious. "Keane doesn't know that Cai is hurt. If he knew, he would never hurt it."
Keane's body stiffened after hearing Lux's words, which made him look at the snoring boar in shock.
"Cai is hurt?" Keane asked. "How?"
"It's a long story," Lux replied. "Let's talk about it later. Just know that Cai has been seriously injured because it saved my life when General Revon was about to kill me. I didn't tell you guys anything because I was worried that your moods would be affected. Because of this, I waited until Cai had recovered enough to travel. I'm sorry for keeping this a secret from you."
Keane didn't speak for a few seconds as he digested the things that Lux had told him.
In the end, Keane sighed and knelt beside the Boar and apologized to the disgruntled Fei Fei, who was still holding the Blast Bomb in her hands.
"I'm sorry, Fei Fei," Keane said softly. "I didn't know. You must have been very worried about it."
Fei Fei pouted before making the Blast Bomb in her hands disappear. She knew that Keane was one of her Master's closest friends, and he would never do anything to hurt her.
However, the Golden Slime was still a baby, so she still couldn't fully control her emotions.
Right now, anyone who wanted to hurt Cai was her enemy, so even if Keane was her Master's friend, she would not hesitate to attack in order to protect her Master from further harm.
After getting Fei Fei's forgiveness, Keane sat cross-legged beside Cai as if wanting to keep watch, while he waited until the Boar woke up.
'I wonder how Keane would react if he knew that Cai was actually a girl,' Lux mused. 'I'm sure that he will be very shocked.'
The Half-Elf didn't have the right to divulge Cai's secret to others, especially Keane, whom the Boar treated as a very close friend.
Henrietta was an exception because he needed someone to take care of Cai. Although he and Cai were close, he didn't want to do her wrong by doing things like cleaning her body while she was unconscious.
The Half-Elf had made an exception and pushed this responsibility to Henrietta. Since Serenity was a Guild that belonged to Barbatos Academy, and their main ally in Elysium was the Wildgarde Stronghold and the Rowan Tribe, he deemed that it was safer for her to learn about Cai's real identity than anyone else.
This way, she could also help protect Cai's identity from being exposed in the future.
Now that one of Lux's worries had been settled, he decided to send Ishtar and Lazarus to do a bit of scouting and watch the movement of their enemies, who were preparing to launch a decisive battle against them, pushing them out of their territories, so the Ammarians could reclaim the lands that rightfully belonged to them.
