Chapter 289: Contemptuous smile. (1/2)

'... Why is she so calm then?' Ozul could not help but think in his heart.

Facing a Rank-10 Magical Beast, even a Rank-10 Mage would be discouraged if not at least a little worried, but Darcia faced the Sovereign as if she was confident to deal with her.

Just like how the Sovereign did, others would have thought that her calm expressions were only a facade to cover her panic-stricken inner turmoil, but Ozul knew better. He had no problem in reading her emotions which revealed how casual she was actually feeling about facing the Sovereign.

'Does she have something up her sleeve?' Ozul wondered while slowly increasing the distance between him and the Sovereign.

The Sovereign had all of its focus on Darcia and the latter's attitude was only making it easier for Ozul to avoid catching the Sovereign's eyes.

He had purposely made it so the Sovereign would have all of her attention on Darcia and he could find the opportunity to kill her during that time.

In the confusion, he could take her Spatial rings and hope that his hand was stored inside. But even if Darcia didn't have it with her, he would have an easy time getting it from Lammert who would have no one to rely on after Darcia.

At least that was the plan he had in mind.

He actually hoped that Darcia didn't have the arm with her since he could easily lose those Spatial Rings in the chaos, but it was highly unlikely since his arm would be the safest beside a Rank-10 Mage.

While Ozul was still in his thoughts, he felt the sudden surge in the Mana from the surroundings.

The Sovereign was gathering Mana around it in a very casual manner, not caring to even hide it. She was confident to deal with a single Rank-10 Mage with no backup.

Everything was going according to what Ozul had thought it would, except for Darcia's behavior which was almost the opposite of what he had predicted.

He readied himself for anything unexpected when she waved her hand and a fancy-looking cannon decorated with gold appeared floating in mid-air before her.

'Cannon? Against a Rank-10 Magical Beast?... No...' Ozul understood that if she had taken out a cannon while the Sovereign was gathering Mana, it could only mean that the cannon had some use.

Moreover, he noticed those engravings on the gold plating around the cannon which looked more or less like the ones etched on the artifacts.

'Don't tell me...' Ozul had a bad feeling as he noticed the invisible contained on its top connected to the gold plating.

Even though he didn't understand what Darcia planned to do, he continued to slowly sneak behind her while her focus was still on the Sovereign.

While he was being extra cautious, the Sovereign on the other hand started laughing at the sight of that small cannon, ”Gahaha! And I was thinking that you might have something up your sleeve after all. But if this is all you have, then old age has really been affecting you, bahaha!”

The Sovereign mocked, laughing like a real human which made Darcia quite pissed off as Ozul instantly caught on to her change of emotions. By now, he was sure that this old woman was quite sensitive about her age.

In her rage, she forgot to use the cannon and instead instantly cast a huge spinning disk which shone with a bright white light at the Sovereign who only sneered in response.

boom!

The disk hit the giant wolf covered in flames-like fur without any resistance.

Dust rose and quickly settled down, but the Sovereign was standing still in her position with no obvious injury from Darcia's spell. Some might have even questioned the power behind that spell if not for the giant craters formed beside the Sovereign.

”Tsk! You don't want to play, I presume,” the Sovereign growled as she bore her teeth at Darcia before a concentrated beam of fire was shot at Darcia without even giving them a chance to blink!

Although it wasn't directed at Ozul, he was still a little closer to Darcia so getting affected by the beam of fire was unavoidable.

He had the leisure to create a thin layer of the Ball of Purity in front of him to protect against the burn of the heat, but Darcia wasn't so lucky as him.

She barely dodged at the last second while protecting the cannon with her. The beam of fire would have melted the cannon if it was made from any weaker materials.

'No! I cannot let this continue like this. I must finish this!' she shouted in her mind as she realized how close the cannon was to being destroyed just now.

She immediately created a distance between her and the Sovereign as she noticed Ozul's figure in the middle as well.