Miscalculation

A shriek so loud and full of fury echoed through the forest, making all heads turn to the source of sound. Hana knew what was going on; the white early-staged Lord female Silver-banded Eagle managed to break through the restrictions placed upon her by Grand Elder Watershade and was currently trying to leave the confines of the underground tunnel network. She had then encountered the first barrier. Hana had a live feed of the spirit eagle's progress by the second, provided by her lurking Elemental Fiends.

Boom!!

Boommm!!

Boooommm!!

The white Silver-banded Eagle was ramming one of the barriers placed within the tunnel she was trapped in with tears of blood streaking down her face. She could feel Lord Fearsilver's aura dissipating into nothingness.

The white slightly-transparent barrier was very sturdy; it shook hard, and dust fell, but that's about it. There were at least four barriers from the eagle's current location to the opening of the artificial 'cave' she entered previously. Hana had asked her hardworking termites to seal all the openings in multiple layers immediately once they entered. It was a contingency plan to prevent the Silver-banded Eagles from leaving the trap, in case they managed to shake off the Elemental Fiend swarm. Shiro had been led through a special inconspicuous route prepared for him in advance from a different location.

In fact, the artificially made 'cave' had quite a number of tunnels crisscrossing deep underground. The majority of them were made as dummies; dead ends that served as a trap for the hostile Silver-banded Eagles. When one had hundreds of thousands to a million hardworking minions, such feat was indeed possible within an hour of preparation. Once a Silver-banded Eagle reached a dead end, she instructed the Elemental Fiends to seal its way out and focus on immobilizing it through human-wave attacks (or rather, termite-wave attacks), of course, without killing it. It was a waste to kill off precious future workforce. That'll be stupid. Just like this, she had managed to stop all other Silver-banded Eagles from regrouping. The only one left was the white female Silver-banded Eagle.

What Hana did after that was just adding multiple barriers in all possible routes, blocking the female Silver-banded Eagle from approaching the Eagle Boss to prevent them from teaming up. Divide and conquer were the best course of action since her team had less manpower. She had done the same thing during the previous subjugation of the Elemental Fiends. Now, since their vomit was a strong enough material to make barriers, there was no need to involve Shiro and Chomper anymore.

Hana calmed down and instructed the Elemental Fiends lurking by to work together and bind the white bird before she managed to break the barriers. Logically speaking, the white Silver-banded Eagle didn't have what it takes to bring down the barriers since her level was quite far from the dead Eagle Boss. She was very sure that the Elemental Fiends will subdue the bird in time.

Droves of Elemental Fiends appeared out of nowhere and spat noxious-smelling white liquid at Lady Eagle. She lifted her razor-sharp silver wings to dismember the poor termites' heads in a row without remorse and continued slamming the hardened wall in front of her. Lady Eagle realized that the disgusting white viscous liquid drenching her wingtip was the same material as the wall. After a few seconds, the whitish liquid solidified on the surface of her wings, making them blunt and heavy. It was harder to control too.

Lady Eagle became more cautious after that and immediately killed appearing Elemental Fiends on the spot to prevent further trouble. Wave after wave of attacks from the Elemental Fiends did not deter Lady Eagle's cause; she kept on ramming the pungent white wall as hard as she could.

After awhile, her eyes shone with hard light, as if she had made a tough decision. She pulled her white feathers savagely and tossed them in the air. The silver-coated feathers moved as if they were being controlled and stabbed her heart, puncturing it deep. Blood gushed out from her fluffy white chest and the corners of her beak. The blood immediately burned with a bright white light.

Lady Eagle's aura broke through its limit!

She had forcefully increased her levels temporarily at the expense of burning her blood essence!

Lady Eagle's blood essence was but just a few. They were the core that contained her whole life's potential. Burning a small amount of them meant that she would have an immense amount of energy befitting her true capacity for a short period of time at the expense of voiding future advancement. Burning the majority of her blood essence would make her wither and face death due to loss of vitality. In the heat of revenge, Lady Eagle had lost her rationality as she planned to fight to the death with the enemies outside! She had lost her will to live since her beloved had left her forever! And it was all due to her seeking revenge blindly with bloodlust. Her stupid actions had divided the team, and ultimately, they were picked off one by one by the enemy.

Lady Eagle immediately pounced at the barrier with all her might. She used her silver-reinforced beak to heavily peck the barrier. Seeing that the barrier didn't fall, she used all the energy in her body to peck again and again! The first barrier crumbled after dozens of attacks!

Hana stood up in shock, startling the confused-looking Ta-chan and the diligent Elemental Fiends around her! She immediately relayed instructions to her spiritual termite swarm to jam the opening and drown the eagle with their spit as soon as possible!

Thousands of Elemental Fiends pursued Lady Eagle relentlessly, choking the tunnel. Although they had an advantage in numbers, the narrow tunnel had limited them from utilizing what they were best at; swarming a spiritual beast to death. Although it did limit the Silver-banded Eagles' mobility, the characteristics of the tunnel similarly reduced the Elemental Fiends' effectiveness, evening out the playing field.

After a few seconds, large swarm came from the front too, choking both sides of the tunnel. The white Silver-banded Eagle ignored them as she moved fast to the second barrier and attacked without relent. Time was of the essence at the moment. She was determined to finish off her enemies no matter what! She killed the Elemental Fiends like harvesting wheat when she needed to, and pounded the barrier so hard until her beak was hurt badly.

The third barrier, breached!

"Everyone! Evacuate now! We don't have time!" Sensing an imminent danger fast approaching, Hana issued an emergency order for everyone to retreat immediately! The crazy eagle cleared the obstacle like a boss! Ten out of ten she will be exacting her revenge here! They were out of time!

The aunty thought this one was weaker than the Eagle Boss! What was wrong with the world?! This was so unfair! All the fighters in her team were still recuperating to deal with the incoming threat effectively! This was the biggest miscalculation in her plans!

The Elemental Fiends were hastily retreating into several nearby tunnels as they brought the comatose Lord Shiro away under Hana's absolute command.

The fourth!

Hana, "O__O||||||||"

…

By the time Lady Eagle broke through to the surface, she had been riddled with serious internal injuries for burning her blood to obtain the much-needed extra power. The white substance covering the whole underground structure was so sturdy, even the now deceased late-staged Silver-banded Eagle needed to ram it at least three times before a hairline crack appeared. Although the insect swarm might be considered trivial to a Lord-level spiritual beast, they still posed as quite a significant obstacle to the female Silver-banded Eagle with all added challenges stacking together.

Going through four layers of barriers had cost Lady Eagle a lot.

Her eyes had lost their luster, her snowy white feathers were in patches, her whole body covered with splashes of the white substance, hardening some of her joints, her chest was dripping wet with blood. Her labored breathing was loud and hoarse, signifying her deplorable condition.

Lady Eagle spread her previously confined wings and flapped hard towards the location where her spouse's spirit dissipated. She had lost her egg, and now she lost her spouse too. Grieving while immersed with fury from wanting to exact her revenge, she stopped thinking. She focused on what was ahead with deadly determination.

...

She's coming!

Hana was really shocked and appalled at the same time! She was so sure the Elemental Fiends would be able to petrify the white eagle in time before she managed to breach through. They had performed the same group attacks to immobilize all other birds; and it was way easier to catch all of the singled-out Silver-banded Eagle. This had led to Hana's miscalculation again.

The time it took for Lady Eagle to punch through all four barriers was less than ten minutes, with six minutes on the first one, three minutes on the second one. She had taken its inability to break the first barrier for granted and had told the others to quickly collect all the leftover meat as soon as possible before evacuating. By the time she realized they were out of time, the female eagle had already reached the final barrier.

I really need to improve my planning and the number of contingency plans. This is unacceptable! Again, Hana felt the bitterness of being 'defeated' with her own plans. Failing could lead to being wiped out. It will be the end game for not just her but her whole team.

Her negative thoughts flickered through for a moment only, for she couldn't afford to dwell on them too much. They were in danger. A berserk beast at Kuro's level of strength was highly unpredictable. She quickly calculated her next course of action in a flash. She informed the damage-dealers to tank their withdrawal while they fight with caution.

The injured white Silver-banded Eagle appeared within minutes and immediately attacked the unfortunate Elemental Fiends first; the scent of death was the thickest from them due to handling the bloodied 'meat'. The Silver-banded Eagle slashed through with her silver-reinforced wings like cutting weed using a brand new sickle, relieving the Elemental Fiends' heads from their body. Her actions were highly similar to the late Eagle Boss. Seeing all the meaningless death from her faithful termites, even Hana's cowardly heart wept and raged inside.

While the Elemental Fiends provided a small window of opportunity for Hana and co. to retreat, the heavily exhausted Kuro quickly came over and covered the ground. At the same time, the Sanctuary's team blocked the airspace. Their intentions were clear; the crazy female Silver-banded Eagle wasn't permitted to go after the rest before dealing with them.

Ta-chan, who was hurriedly moving beside Hana in panic, roused up from the bloody massacre behind it, afraid yet unwilling to be the next victim on the chopping block. Thorny branches sprouted out in midair. It rapidly encircled itself, together with Hana, who was riding on King-chan's back, into a football-shaped 'nest' made of large, sturdy thorns while they were still on the move! Ta-chan was a very intelligent beast; it knew its life was connected to its new master in some incomprehensible way; hence, it extended the protection to cover the creature too.

Its action triggered the white spiritual eagle's attention!

…