"Look at those two suitors of yours. They seem to be ready to die for you," said the Rank 11 Chitinid, whose face was crammed with eyes, as it lifted its head and looked toward Edric and Damian. "The Violet Obsidian's forbidden arts, huh? Well, well, well… Guess that little snake isn't entirely weak, after all. "But they won't get the chance to kill me today. Please give me a second, dear therian female. I'll take you back to our lair once I kill these two," it added. In a fit of anger and panic, a surge of power ripped through Emma when she saw that the Chitinid was about to attack Edric and Damian. She broke the Rank 11 Chitinid's restraint and instantly regained control of her body. At once, she lunged and wrapped her arms around the Chitinid's lumpy, tumor-ridden tail. "Edric! Damian! You guys are no match against it! Don't worry about me! Run! Quickly!" she yelled at Edric and Damian.Since she hadn't officially formed a bond with Edric yet, Emma figured both Edric and Damian wouldn't die even if she perished today. They would just drop a rank or two in their strength at worst. Still, falling one to two ranks in strength was no big deal for Rank 8 and Rank 9 masters like them, for they could quickly cultivate it back. "D*mn it! How dare you grab my tail?!" The Chitinid whipped around and fixed all its eyes on Emma, who clung to its tail. In its mind, it was chewing her out. No one else but my master can touch my tail! Heck! Not even my own brood can lay a feeler on it. Yet, this therian female actually dares to grab it?! How unforgivable! "Fine, then. Since you care about those two male therians so much, I'll eat you in front of them now." With that, the Chitinid's mouth, which was sliced from ear to ear, suddenly yawned wide and swelled into a miniature black hole. Upon seeing this, Emma gasped inwardly. What on earth is this sorcery?! As she lay on the ground, she watched helplessly as the Chitinid leaned over to swallow her. With her mere Rank 4 strength, she couldn't fight back at all. "Emma!" "No!" Edric and Damian's gut-wrenching shouts rang in her ears. She wanted to take one last look at them before she died. However, she gave up upon realizing her body locked up again. Well, it's better this way. I'll gladly get swallowed and die here if I don't see Edric for one last time. Good thing this Chitinid acts fast enough to the point that Edric and Damian miss the chance to sacrifice themselves for me. Sacrificing myself is better than letting them both die.Well, I'm still winning this time… though in a messed-up way, Emma thought, shutting her eyes in despair. Just as the Chitinid's miniature-black-hole mouth was about to close over her, a streak of fire suddenly shot across the sky and illuminated the entire forest. As the cry belonging to a bird echoed through the night sky, a massive fireball tore through the air and slammed into the Chitinid with a boom in a split second. The blast left a roughly three-hundred-feet-deep crater in the forest. Sharp pain ripped through Emma's chest, and she spat a mouthful of blood. Then, her vision went blank. Before she passed out, a shock wave hurled her like a rag doll. … The ground broke apart. Sand and gravel whipped through the gale. Trees within hundreds of miles were instantly carbonized. Yay! I'm saved! Or maybe not? Emma thought. Hmm… not sure! I'll just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, Kael rushed in with his men. However, they were sent flying by the raging shock wave before he even spotted Emma. … Continuous chirping sounded in a damp, dark ravine after some time. Emma lay beside a shallow pool. A chubby, black bird the size of a palm stood on her messy hair and kept pecking her forehead gently with its inky beak. Despite chirping impatiently, it dared not peck hard, appearing to be afraid of hurting her. A soot-dark stick was jammed along its ragged wing, and the sight was almost comical. Lucien continued to chirp, urging Emma to wake up, as he stared at her, who was charred by his Phoenix Trueflame. In fact, his anxiety drove him to hop frantically across her brow and leave a few smeared claw prints. He would've thought Emma had been killed due to his and Silas' slip-up if it weren't for the fact that he could still sense the rise and fall of her chest and the faint pulse of ability around her. Three months ago, he and Silas had gone to the outer battlefield to fight the Chitinids. However, because the Chitinid troop this time was massive, it took them two months to finally push the swarm back. Just as they were ready to head back to the Empire, the people on his own side set him up, and Lucien was forced to stay behind. For the sake of saving him, Silas, too, stayed with him at the outer battlefield. Being in the outer battlefield meant that they could only receive orders from the Empire's Commander-in-Chief. Other than that, no signals got through. Moreover, it was extremely easy to get lost.At first, in an effort to get back to the Central Planet as soon as possible, he and Silas planned to seek the help of a few scavengers. Yet, luck seemed not to be on their side. Not only did they fail to spot scavengers, but they also ran into a Rank 11 Chitinid. It wrecked all their gears, lightcores, and weapons. The only good news? They managed to tail it all the way back to the Empire's borders and to F-268.