The groan belonged to no one else but the Imperial physician, who was now stabbed in his abdomen by the poisonous blades that the Professor had thrown out of anger.

But he didn’t feel much of emotions as he took out his vials, drinking one while applying another to his wound after removing the blade.

He knew that the human inside the Professor was already dying and grandpa’s death had crossed all the limits that would have kept him in check.

But yes, deep down he somewhere felt hurted.

‘Maybe this was the last strand of friendship I maintained as a part of our past. But today, with this, you marked the end of everything. I will still hope for your health and nothing else, Aithan.’ The Imperial physician thought, ending his friendship with the Professor, Aithan at that very moment.

As soon as he was done tending his would and steeling his heart, two people came running inside.

The Imperial physician instantly recognised the man to be none other than the one who was ordered to keep a check on Hazel, while the person following him was none other than Sia.

“Professor-” the man was about to speak when the Imperial physician immediately stopped him.

“What happened?” He asked in all seriousness, knowing no news related to Hazel should be conveyed to the Professor at the moment.

“Miss Hazel..” the captain said, unable to utter the rest of the statement.

“What about her?!” The Imperial physician asked, not being able to remain calm anymore as this her safety and health first.

“Hazel escaped.” Sia said while lowering her head, knowing she played a major role in letting her escape.

“What? Where to?” The Imperial physician asked instantly, knowing that this place was not safe for her, especially when it was surrounded by poisons from all sides.

“Towards the jungle route.” The captain was quick to answer now, thinking that the Imperial physician was truly worried about their situation and would plan to somehow bring her back.

Whereas the Imperial physician instead felt relaxed after hearing this news. Jungle route was the same one which the Black Command had chosen to enter the Imperial nation.

If he was correct, given some more time, Hazel was sure to meet the Black Command this way, and go back in safe hands.

“We should go and search for her. The Professor would definitely not leave us if he were to know about this news. Let’s go.” The Imperial physician said while taking steps towards the base, trying to stop this news from being conveyed to the Professor.

“You mean we should not inform the professor about this?” Sia asked suddenly.

“No. Satan came up with a deadly plan and now the Professor is already at the gates to finish this battle. Miss Hazel’s news would only distract him and might end up disturbing his focus on battle. Let’s search for Hazel ourselves and not decrease our chances of winning.” The Imperial physician said before hurrying both the captain and Sia.

Sia looked at the Imperial physician one more time before eventually following him.

*MARKUS AND ANDREW’s TEAM*

Since Markus and Andrew had already cleared their path while entering the palace, coming out was a lot easier.

Andrew had still kept his guards high as he knew that if the Professor was to actually chase them, he and his team would be the ones to take the first blow.

Thankfully none of them were slow like the time they were entering, which definitely helped them move faster to the shore.

As soon as Markus was nearing the shore, the first thing he saw were those seven ships which were way near the island.

“Rocket launcher gun.” Markus ordered while signalling towards the last three ships out of seven.

And as usual his ferocious men were quick enough to shoot subsequent rockets at those three, shooting at the same place creating more damage than expected.

5-6 rockets was all that it took to damage those three to the extent that water started flooding inside those ships as they started sinking slowly.

But Markus, without giving them much time, quickly started focusing on the remaining four.

Thankfully, somehow lady luck being on their side, those ships had shut their missile launchers after Victor’s sole ship, knowing that they could freely enter the lands.

But who had expected that now their death, Satan himself was standing there with open arms to give them a grand welcome which would forever be imprinted in their minds, that is, if they were to survive which definitely was impossible.

“Snipers.” Markus’s one more command while he himself took shelter, firing at the men who aimed at them from the ships.

The battleground now seemed like a one sided slaughter as the ships were unable to react to this sudden attack which was nowhere imagined to happen.

One more down, Markus was ready to aim at the next person when he received a message from Andrew’s team who were closely following them from behind.

“Markus, I can sense some movements from behind. I guess the Professor is here, but somehow I expect he is accompanied with more manpower than ours.” Andrew conveyed.

“What a timing!” Markus said to himself with a killer smirk.

Afterall he was done remaining patient and taking a defensive stance.

“Anyways I was planning to let you fight the new arrivals in the forefront. After all, he is your enemy. Handle him however you want. With the professor, it’s my personal battle.” Markus said, while quickly moving accordingly.

“But Markus, your team is quite exhausted. Do one thing, go ahead with my team. I will command yours. Plus as everyone knows, battle was never Z city’s forte. So your men, even in an injured state, would prove far stronger than theirs in their prime condition.” Andrew said, asking the team accompanying him to stop there.

“Fine.” Markus replied while taking quick steps towards the back as Andrew took the forefront now.

“Snipers will be climbing trees while others will take shelter and shoot from the ground.” Markus was fast to make plans and his team even faster to implement them.

As soon as they were done taking positions, hordes of men could be seen coming their way, with a heavily guarded vehicle being driven slowly in the centre of that crazy poisonous army.

———————–

Drink water and stay hydrated

– Kizy