Michael didn't expect Marie Wang and the others to approach him. Their team worked together since the start of the Battle Exchange, spending a total of three months on improving their teamwork and tactics.
Since four out of five members of the Blazing Sun team were already at the Peak of the 3rd Tier they could only focus on fortifying their body and mind refinement as well as training together. Asking Michael to join them all of a sudden didn't really make sense.
Nonetheless, Michael was curious to know how much the Blazing Sun team had improved. He wanted to see them fight.
Since the dimensional portal was now active, several teams rushed to it. Michael saw Kaleb and his team near the entrance of the dimensional portal, as well as Lincoln and Zeke, who had teamed up with Quinn.
'Zeke's Illusions should be quite useful against the Tekur. They have another Supporter in their team with an boost Soultrait. Hmm…They want to focus on enhancing their individual combat prowess as much as possible before combining the crowd control Soultrait of their 5th member with Zeke's Illusions. That could work very well.'
Michael analyzed the people around him. He'd researched every participant of the Flag War. Therefore, he could tell who everyone was according to their appearance. Even if Michael didn't really focus on their names or background, he could tell what type of Soultrait they possessed and how strong they were. That was all that mattered right now.
"Did you know that you're very popular among the Descendants these days?" Sera Kani asked, her eyes darting toward Michael.
She grinned at him, causing goosebumps to spread all over his body. That was how creepy her stare was when she looked at him.
"Popular? If you mean to tell me that I'm the most hated among the Descendants I'd like to inform you that you suck at your choice of words," He responded without really paying attention to Sera.
"Most hated? I'm not so sure about that. Sera probably meant to say that many talk about you these days," Marie Wang joined the conversation as they approached the dimensional portal.
"Talk about me?"
"Yeah. They talk about you and it's actually not about the fact that you've become Maria's Primal Amplifier. Some talk about that but most Descendants don't dare to say anything wrong. After all, they don't want to get on Maria's wrong side. They have better things to do than offending the Seraph family, especially since every family will sooner or later need the Seraph family's help to heal one of their own."
"What are they talking about then?"
"It is actually pretty simple. They talk about your relationship with the Zenovia family. Everyone knows, by now, that you possess multiple Soultraits. Nobody really knows how many you have since you never announced it openly. However, it is well known that you have a Soultrait related to Ice. That is why some Descendants wonder whether you are an illegitimate child of the Zenovia family – precisely an experiment of the Zenovia family to grow a supernatural warrior with a handful of Soultraits."
Michael raised an eyebrow and scoffed.
"I am not related to them though. I procured the Ice Soultrait within a Lord Rift," Michael revealed.
Sera Kani appeared next to him. Her shoulder bumped into his side and her eyes glimmered with curiosity and the spirit of gossip as she asked, "In that case…why are Kaleb and Alice so nice to you? You were even able to get close to Lincoln and Zeke. The Piedra and Lavita Heirs are quite…difficult to approach."
"I don't know," Michael shrugged and pointed at the dimensional portal, "But what I know is that we should stop gossiping."
It was time to step into the dimensional gate.
Once they stepped through the whirlwind of energy the space around them twisted. Sera Kani had many questions to ask but Michael had already disappeared.
The Blazing Sun team was right behind Michael, hoping to end up near him. After all, the dimensional portal teleported everyone to various locations all over the isolated realm if they didn't enter the portal simultaneously.
At least, that was how it usually worked.
Michael was already accustomed to space twisting around him. It was a little bit more intense than the Runic Gate's teleportation, but it was similar to Zeroa's portals. Therefore, Michael could focus on his environment the moment he appeared inside the isolated dimension.
The first thing Michael noticed was that he was not alone. The Blazing Sun Team appeared near him, but there was more. There were at least 20 teams of the Tritan Alliance that had been teleported to the same location.
Michael saw Kaleb, Lincoln, and Zeke, who looked just as surprised at the other teams as him. It was not normal for so many teams to end up in the same location right from the start.
However, even more startling was the surrounding environment. They had emerged in a large plain with little to no trees and bushes to find cover. The soil was blueish-gray and dark-blue grass was the only natural flora Michael could find for as far as his eyes could see. There were no monsters either.
The only object that provided some cover from potential attackers was a humongous black pillar. The pillar was black like charcoal. It had a rough surface and was several hundred meters tall. The black pillar was thick and was as wide as the Colosseum.
'The Dimensional Pillar!' Michael realized, his heart skipping a beat.
Until now no team had ever emerged near a Dimensional Pillar during the Flag Wars. It was the first time for something like that to happen – with close to 200 members of the Tritan Alliance at that.
Many Awakened figured that the Dimensional Pillar stood in front of them, and they began to strike it. Despite being humongous and extremely thick, the Dimensional Pillar was not indestructible. It was resilient but attacks with the destructive power of a Tier-3 Awakened were enough to hurt it. It was just that destroying a Dimensional Pillar would take a while.
Even if hundreds of Awakened attacked the Dimensional Pillar simultaneously, they would have to spend a few hours until it would collapse. That was more than enough time for the Tekur to reach them and attack. The Tekur would gather around the Dimensional Pillars to protect them, after all.
"If we spawned so close to the Dimensional Pillar…who says that the same–..." Michael trailed off as he watched the other Awakened rush at the Dimensional Pillar to destroy it as soon as possible.
Suddenly a rock the size of a house manifested in the air. At first, everyone thought that the rock belonged to their allies. Therefore, nobody stopped in their tracks. Only a small group of selective individuals realized that something was wrong. Nobody possessed a Soultrait that could manifest a dark rock that radiated immense heat.
No warning was given as the dark rock smashed down in front of the Dimensional Pillar. It burst into countless pieces that propelled into all directions with tremendous force. An explosion resounded through the vicinity. Screams and shouts rang out only to be silenced by a second explosion that reverberated through the frontlines.
Two large craters emerged in the ground beneath the feet of a Warlock Centaur who had been charging at the Dimensional Pillar just a moment ago.
Not even the remains of the Warlock Centaur were left behind as the craters swallowed him whole.
While only one Warlock Centaur died, many sustained injuries. The meteorite that burst into countless shards upon impacting, inflicted wounds on every single being on the frontlines. For a moment the healers of the teams were stupefied. Fortunately, their instincts kicked in quickly. Hearing the muffled screams of the injured, the healers began to move to heal their comrades.
Michael glanced at the injured only for a moment before his eyes traveled to a small group of beings that appeared from behind the Dimensional Pillar.
The beings were somewhat humanoid. At least, they walked on two legs and possessed two arms. Silver carapaces covered their bodies and wings sprouted out of the backs of some of them. Their heads looked like a cross between a honey bee and an ant, with long silvery mandibles growing out of their cheeks.
The beings had lanky legs and looked skinny at first glance, but Michael didn't make the mistake of underestimating their physical combat prowess.
He knew what those beings were.
The Tekur race had arrived.
There were only a dozen Tekur, which a group of 200 members of the Tritan Alliance could deal with, but the initial strike of the Tekur was already enough to tell that they were not to be taken lightly.
The power of the meteorite had been enough to kill a Tier-3 Warlock Centaur and injure more than 20 Awakened – prodigies of the Tritan Alliance.
"Are they usually that strong, or is that just one of them?" Michael heard someone ask. It was a Descendant, whose entire body was trembling in fear at the sight of the two-meter-tall Tekur.
Michael had no answer and the same seemed to apply to the other people around them.
"If you don't dare to strike first, we will," A loud voice with a heavy accent rang through the surroundings. The clattering of the speaking Tekur's mandibles caused shivers to run down the spines of many humans.
One moment the dozen Tekur were together and in the next moment four Tekur disappeared. The remaining eight Tekur released their energy with a burst and used their Soultraits to get started. Meanwhile, the four Tekur who'd disappeared a moment ago appeared on the front lines.
Their lanky arms lifted high into the air as they appeared next to the healers.
"Try not to die too quickly. We want to enjoy this a little bit!"
