Being the strategist of the Macrae family reigning at the top of Elizabeth family she had already anticipated Kolt’s move if he were to be at his wit’s end.

As a result she had come up with various ways to help Zach without compromising her identity.

Sarah was a senior water mage with years of experience and inherent talent of the Macrae family in wielding and manipulating water element mana. The fog had in fact been the concoction of several mages belonging to the Macrae family with Sarah leading the orchestra of mages to play a deceitful and illusory tone that pestered and hindered the royal forces.

As she controlled the fog to stay in place despite the attempts of the wind mages, she ordered her men to change into white clothes that were free from all kinds of markings and blemishes. As a result it was hard to deduce the forces these people belonged to. Sarah had even brought along face masks in order to keep anyone from recognizing them later on.

When her men were all dressed up and ready, she waved her hand in a graceful manner and water vapors began to rise up from the ground and the trees all around her intensifying the density of the fog even further so that even the gusts of wind summoned by the enemy forces would be unable to move it as they pleased. It looked as if the clouds had come down to the ground in response to her call.

“Trust me when I say that Zach harbors no traitorous intentions towards the human race. Hide your identity and try to hold back the royal forces for as long as possible. This way our Macrae family will definitely have a chance to establish its prestige even in the capital very soon.” Sarah motivated her people as she felt that some of them might be harboring guilt in their hearts for aiding and abetting a traitor to the human race.

Leaving Kolt’s army in the capable hands of her trusted men, she conjured a layer of water underneath her feet. She looked like she was surfing over a low wave with her bare feet as the wave took her towards Zach who was probably trying to survive the clutches of the black panther.

As she moved, the fog in front of her cleared up as if it was being split into two by some invisible blade.

Sarah had decided to help Zach deal with the black panther as it seemed to be the core of the Prince’s fighting force and his only chance at capturing Zach or his companions.

Prince Kolt was livid with rage leaking out of every pore on his skin. He had long since figured out where the fog came from. Even though he was weak, he was as cunning and treacherous as a snake. The arrival of the men in white garbs only intensified his suspicion as the majority of those mages utilized powerful magic to deal with his men. He saw through the farce of the Macrae family in a single glance as he cursed their very ancestors for trying to get in his path.

Even though he had already figured it all out, there was no way he could hold the entire Macrae family accountable for what they were doing. He had no evidence that anything like that ever happened. From a purely objective point of view, the group attacking him was made up of unknown assailants dressed completely in white. Such a group was neither wanted in other parts of the empire nor had there been any report of the crimes of such a terror group that Kolt could make use of to threaten Sarah and her men.

Moreover, the weather made it impossible to truly see another person’s face clearly even if he stood nose to nose with the other person. Fog swirled with increased intensity as the opposing forces of the wind mages and the person controlling the fog collided with each other. Kolt couldn’t put the blame on Sarah since he had seen her retreat from the battlefield earlier and the new unknown group in white had revealed no evidence that he could use as evidence against Sarah.

Filled to the brim with rage and with nowhere to vent out his frustration, Kolt shouted in a hoarse voice that was audible to all those in the forest.

“I want him at all costs. Bring him to me or your daughter will suffer the consequences of your inability.”

Even though the threat was directed towards the imperial escort turned monster that was currently fighting against the Special Forces and Sarah, everyone on the battlefield felt their hearts clench at the sudden threat from the Prince. The morale of his forces fell to an all time low and the forces of the Macrae family made use of the opportunity to cleanse their way of the hostile forces to secure a safe passage for the young lady of their house and Zach who was the target of this mission.

While Sarah was fully intent on breaking Zach out of this place and had come fully prepared to deal with whatever secret Zach had been hiding from everyone, Barry wasn’t as resolute or as decisive as her in this regard. He had previously believed in Zach only because the latter had shown a genius that no one could replace which could be used to elevate the standing of the Elizabeth family. Even the fact that Zach was his brother-in-law didn’t matter much to him when it came to the well being of the family.

When the Prince Kolt revealed the identity of the mysterious companion that always accompanied Zach, Barry couldn’t accept it. But as soon as the monster tore off her robe, he had to accept the harsh reality that he witnessed with his own eyes. He couldn’t believe how Zach could be so shameless as to wed his sister when he had been accompanying such a vile creature all this while without remorse.

As a result Barry was hesitant in continuing to defend Zach like Sarah was intent on doing. He believed that his father would have made the same decision in his situation since they couldn’t afford to offend the Norman Royal family for someone like Zach who lacked righteousness.

As soon as Kolt raised his voice to shout into the air his orders regarding Zach to the imperial escort, the panther who was being surrounded by the Macrae family mages, the Special Forces team and Luna went berserk as if some hidden switch in its circuit had been flipped.

Zach noticed its expression change in real time despite the speed with which it was attacking his allies. With a solemn expression on his face he witnessed as the panther jumped high into the air as an earthly aura surrounded its very being making it look like a bronze statue. The panther fell towards the ground with its fists leading the charge. Its speed continued to accelerate as if the gravity in its vicinity was constantly on the rise. Its body struck the ground with the force of a meteor and shook everything in the vicinity up to a hundred meters in the surroundings.

The trees in the vicinity were uprooted as if the earth had lifted its support towards their life and had parted its way around the trees. The shaking didn’t stop for a few seconds after the impact. The men surrounding the panther were all thrown off into the nearby trees or were flung off into the air far into the distance.

Seeing as it was free of the nuisances hindering it from reaching Zach, the panther lunged towards him in one swift motion with a bloodthirsty look in its eyes.

The moment he became sure that nothing would be able to keep him from taking Zach away, he suddenly felt as if the air around him had become more viscous. The atmosphere itself was slowing him down as if it wanted to prevent it from doing whatever it intended to do with Zach.

The panther got irritated as it punched twice into the air around it but to no avail. The water bubble surrounding it easily dispersed the entire force of its attacks. Water magic might not have been the best when it came to attack or burst damage, but when it came to defensive and deflecting maneuvers it excelled beyond even the wind magic. The lightness allowed one to wield the element more flexibly while the increased viscosity gave it enough density to stand steadfast in the wake of solid attacks.

Sarah was one of these water element mages in the Elizabeth family. In the entire Elizabeth city there wasn’t another mage who could proclaim to be the first water mage if Sarah declared herself to be the second. She was just that good. .

The fact that the panther had already lost a lot of its energy by creating the earlier shockwave also contributed to her impeccable defense against its vicious attacks.

Sarah showed herself as she appeared out of nowhere in front of Zach while facing the panther. It seemed as if she had used fog to create an illusion of her appearance out of thin air or she had been there in the first place. No one could contemplate which of these was true due to the lack of time to process all the facts.

Zach of course couldn’t recognize the woman and thought that she must be some ally of the Elizabeth family sent to support him. Since he couldn’t see Barry, he assumed that she had been sent here by Barry to take command of the forces in his absence.