"…I see what I can do about it." He can't make promises he couldn't keep, and thinking back on his track record, it might not be possible to say he won't be chomped on again.

"Yes or no?" She stole all his attention with her intense glare.

"Yes."

"Good. Your turn." She completely turned her body around with one of her swords sheathed.

Embracing her into the greatest shell they could cast, all five creatures had their minds full on their spells with the sword witch tearing a bite out of the Orca's heart on a skewer while mischievously locking eyes with the Orca she was eating.

"Don't worry. They each have 3 delectable hearts inside that chest of theirs." She shifted her sword towards his mouth, but he rejected the offer; the incoming spell required every bit of mental processing to counter.

Unaffected, Xin merely smiled and continued tearing into the raw snack bite by bite. He wasn't sure how to feel about her Gluttony now being strong enough to overcome her rage. However, he had the ability to feed her, so it wasn't an immediate issue.

Xin didn't even have much rage nowadays, battle mode or not. It seemed more like pride than wrath compared to her younger years' pointless anger.

An ice meteor larger than the small Domain they set up showed its form after the constant dispelling efforts of his Numbers dropped. 'They cast a shell over their actual spell to interrupt our dispelling efforts.'

The ice shell melted against the external layer of vibrational mana but they tore through with relative easy before more ice rippled away by the Mantle of Reservation.

Almost in equilibrium, the external ice shell tore through his Domain's external shell of sound and reversed Mantle of reservation to let the spell within loose inside and shower all of them inside, including the Toddiums that were sharing the space. Ebony had already dragged the woman with her cheeks full and lips bloody.

Their plum bomb didn't even propel a metre forward before the entire Domain was showered and exploded in blue light of the Orcas spell. The ice plum's shell slowly disintegrated and unleashed its own mixture of mana after their Domain's outer shell closed up again to prevent the Orcas from escaping and dodging the collision of both their combined spells.

Dusk in hand, Ebony pushed as much Will as he could to contain the exchange of explosions within the reversed Mantle of Reservation. Sensing the instant destruction of 3 layers of turtle shell bark on their tree, he felt Xin's shoulder shrug and continued to support the Mantle of Reservations around their tree shelter and the Domain itself. The mana consumption rate was immense but nowhere close to the rate that surviving the Void Tardigrade's sneeze required.

'What a complicated spell…" Ebony's senses and Dusk were observing the Orcas' spell. There was a form.

A wheel of numerous finger-sized ice Orcas was ferociously spinning and swimming across the actual Orcas' bodies to protect themselves.

The explosion of mana seemed to be made of even smaller, molecular-sized ice Orcas look for a source of mana and explode. They were able to individually target frost flames, fire, blood, lightning and arcane mana to disrupt combined elemental effects and break down and combat the explosion in real time. The speed at which the complicated spell was doing so was unbelievable, and they weakened the plum bomb's explosion in real time.

The ice mage watched in awe of the spell, it was hyper-efficient. 1 tiny ice particle was breaking down hundreds of his and thousands of Xin's mana.

'It's compressed, but the mana isn't even that dense, a Tier 6 skill equivalent, and a combined effect of three of their minds. And a monster who doesn't eat Worldcore's essence, their Intelligence stat should be dozens of times higher to begin with.'

The strength and efficiency of the Orca's spell weren't enough to overcome Ebony's abundance. But the plum bomb still exhausted itself before it burned and dug through the Orca's defensive mana skin spell.

Stepping out of the tree trunk together on the ground, they looked up to see the three Orcas shrink. One of them was puppy-sized while the other 2 remained roughly average human-sized. Their glowing and ever-shifting mana skin was still on, as if ready for round 2.

"WONDERFULWONDERFULWONDERFULWONDERFULWONDERFUWONDERFULWONDERFULWONDERFUL WAITFORMYSOLDIER I'MCOMING I'MCOMINGI'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING I'MCOMING STAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERESTAYHERE" Ebony didn't know what to think about when the Worldcore's excitement shone through in attempts to annoy him again.

Unexpectedly, the smaller Orca swam down gently and nibbled on Xin's hand that she put out before he saw her do so.

Ebony, Dusk and the other 2 Orcas watched without moving a muscle. The cute Orca moaned and rubbed itself against Xin's waist.

The Domain's encapsulation slowly unveiled while the Orca's mana skin dissipated instead of going back into their bodies. Unlike Ebony, they couldn't pull back mana into their chassis.

'Their mana pools are at 44.6 to 45.3% filled. Possible hunt…maybe not.' Ebony's ability to gauge another creature's mana pool had improved over time but the accuracy rate depended on the target's ability to hide their mana, so there was always some error that he accounted for from the fluctuations.

Thinking he, or they, stood a chance against the Orcas, he then noticed his mana pool was nearly empty, excluding his regeneration, while Dusk was more than half down from what they'd charged since they'd landed on this planet.

Their physical and magical ability seem to be a little below the Orcas' too. He lost in physical might while Xin lost in magical prowess.

Their magic was stronger than his, but Will and his Domain helped to cover the gap drastically because they couldn't challenge his Domain buff with their weaker Will.

Xin didn't have too much of a physical advantage, even though she was handling two and even three of them at the same time, it was more due to her ability to target weaknesses while her hunting and sword technique was simply superior to the limited moves the Orcas had in the air.

It might be different underwater, but these Orcas weren't even water-bound creatures by birth; they were supposedly born in lakes of snow and ice.

"Oink?" The food hunter stumbled while attempting to stand, but light gleamed in her eyes when she smelled food.

'If they are proper Kings, a Saint is impossible for us, even if they are crippled.' Ebony didn't even consider finding a non-fighter. It was simply unrealistic if they had so much trouble against properly trained Kings.

Furthermore, although unknown to the Xengs or Oplot, Gearhart was of a proper fighter Class.

Besides, Ebony hadn't even figured out how to defeat a Boiler Knight. He wasn't intimidated by the thought of fighting them and them being clad in full Legendary armour and weaponry, but their Aether Sorcery was a bit of an unknown.

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No amount of his clones searching helped with finding out the Boiler Knights' abilities, and he hadn't seen them in desperate action.

On the few occasions his clones saw them activated against an external Worldcore threat, they cut down other Emperors so fast there was not much for him to gleam.

'A monster, maybe with many supercharged plum bombs.' His wife seemed to have sensed his thoughts or at least the emotions behind the thought. The plums he used against the Orcas weren't even half charged since he lacked the mana at the moment.

"I haven't done this since I was unclassed, but let's do it. Let's plan a proper hunt." Ebony raised a proposition.

"Mmm. Let's." Planning for a hunt instead of charging in without thinking…that was almost unfamiliar territory. "That sounds like fun. But we don't have to look for one, I believe something is coming for us already."

"So that's why I felt queasy all of a sudden, did the Worldcore say something?" She put her hands on her hips and gestured to the piglet and Orca, both size-adjusting creatures, to stop climbing her ankle or swimming around her waist pouch of snacks.

"It's sending what it calls a soldier. Sounds like something that can be killed." Ebony approached the Orca with a stab wound, and it allowed him to seal part of its uninjured body to expedite the healing. The intrusion of his mana allowed him to confirm that Xin was right and the Orca had 2 hearts remaining within its chest.

It didn't have extreme regeneration speed for its internals. Their unconcerned reaction told him they had regeneration capabilities.

"Feels distant. I think we have time. This place is much bigger than Elcra or even Teheil." She had the Orca spin in the air when it followed her clenched fist round and round before letting it eat.

The relatively uninjured Orca that was silently observing their child getting tamed by food nudged Ebony's shoulder.

"Is Vent somewhere nearby?" He guessed.

A half nod and shake was given. "Here but a bit far?"

A confirmative nod this time.

"Can you reach him?"

Their next movements were body language unfamiliar to him, swimming up and down, shaking their bottoms and tails. Unable to decipher their meaning, he searched for his partner, who was engrossed in playing with two gluttons.

"Oh, they're saying it's difficult and cold to go near their master now, but if we go together, we might be able to make it without freezing to death. Vent is trapped, so they're asking us to follow and help." The emotion whisperer might as well be a mind reader if she were correct.

From the intense body rubbing the large Orca was giving her and its bright eyes, she was probably right on all points.

"Huh? Our lightning magic will be more useful?" Xin cocked her head, she completely mirrored him by now with her confusion.

During the battle, Ebony's Lightning Tether barely caught on after his partner's lightning-infused body and swords landed an attack and Lightning Tether was pretty much completely ignored even without their mana skin spell on. Her current words also caught his attention.

Dusk put down the active Domain, and the ambient influence on Will returned, so he balled up some lighting mana around Dusk's tip and waved it around to test for any anomalies.

"It diffuses in lightning. Let me try Will-infused lightning." Ebony reported. "Can you try too?"

Due to his lacking ability with lightning magic as a Generic Skill, he got Xin's help to experiment too.

Sadly, Xin wasn't even affected by the ambient conditions to begin with due to her Intent keeping her in a normal state. As long as she infused Intent in her mana, her mana wouldn't be affected either. While his Will and Will-infused mana was weakened and tampered with all the same. Only Dusk or unfading Will was unaffected.

It produced heat.

The ambient energy diffused in lightning mana to produce even more heat than lightning mana itself did tenfold.

Weird but nothing he couldn't cope with. Xin wasn't even interested in why no extra heat was produced for her. Although he knew it was because her Intent washes away the influence before it could diffuse with lighting mana, he felt slight pity that he could personally experience the process and experiment to find the root cause and effect.

"Let's feast!"

The gluttons exploded into action and were out of sight within moments.

Ebony perceived where they were. Poising Dusk like a javelin and tossing it at full power. That impatient glutton didn't even bring one of his Will Relay Buffers.

With the tree form still here and 2 sealed Toddiums who were safe from the explosions still parked beside him and the two adult Orcas who were shaking their head at their child's antics, he picked up a few tree trunks outside their battle's range to use as firewood.

Their lineup was getting stronger. The Toddium brothers should have cooled off, so he let them out when mealtime came around.

"Look, we're sitting still like good boys and girls," Scarlet commented while handing food over to the two bodyguards. The Orcas and Piglet nodded cutely in response.

The Chilblain Orca was a family of 3, the child was a daughter. From the woman who's surprisingly good with animals, they estimated that the Orca family was not even two centuries old, and the child was hardly a century old.

As for Miss Wiggles, she had no idea herself because she falls into hibernation all the time and never had a reason to keep track of her age.

The amazing emotion reader couldn't actually communicate with the Orcas, so they couldn't get their names. They likely had names for Vent to address.

A ten-metre-tall Turtle Fort carrying his tree shelter was their new transport after the costly fight. They moved slowly and steadily and didn't camp in one spot.

Ebony left his combat piano back home for the weaker hibernating Turtle Fort, so it was a pity he didn't have another sound magic augmenting weapon with him. None of his wedding gifts included an instrument.

It was eventful too, but the Orcas dealt with all the monsters attracted to their foreign presence while Ebony didn't waste a single drop of mana for aura and suppression.

All of it funneled into Dusk, connected to the Turtle Fort and a small portion for their Conditioning.

Miss Wiggles was the only one who didn't join their training sessions while the two bodyguards attempted to get everyone to understand each other's basic battle styles.

Covering less than 4000 kilometres in 3 days saved him mana but they would take years to go where the Orcas were leading them to. All of them, including the Toddium brothers could easily cover this distance in minutes at the cost of energy. A couple of them wouldn't even need minutes if they were desperate.

Still, Ebony was the only one present who could traverse the distances they needed most efficiently. Unlike these explosive fighters with explosive movement speed that would burn them out in moments, his Fortification made movement easier, and his skill was made for traversing distance no matter the terrain.

So he let them rest comfortably on the Turtle Fort when the 6 Numbers took over a body under their ride and picked the giant up on their shoulders before Flickering their heavy carriage forward. The Numbers reduced their ride's mass by making their bodies with the fort's excessive mana.

The abundance of gravity mana made movement much more efficient.

Resting their head on Papa and Mama Orcas' bellies with young Orca within his arms and Miss Wiggles within his wife's, they were watching an entertainment detective series together. The Toddiums who couldn't stop them joined them and were digging into caramel popcorn at the side.

He'd imagine his partner to be satisfied with a full belly after the bountiful hunts they've been having, but day by day, he was sensing growing displeasure from the look she gave him.

"Did I forget to do something?"

"You didn't." She dug another handful of popcorn for herself and Miss Wiggles.

"I feel that you're unhappy?" He was unsure.

"It's nothing. Maybe staying this way is taking a toll on me. Tell us when the environment is getting too rough," Red, as she called herself, explained.

It did make sense; this form of her was supposed to be explosive in her energy output. Especially emotionally, a berserk state.

He was forcing that down with his Will and extreme abundance of mana, making use of the 'soothing' quality of his Fortifications to keep her from targeting everyone present as prey and acting on it.

'That's true, but she's still keeping something down.' Ebony decided to trust her Intuition. If she wanted to say something, she would never have a reason not to in her current state unless her Intuition decided it wasn't suitable.

Red had no confidence issues, and she wasn't the type to keep her feelings secret. Black, on the other hand, would be shy to say some things.

Ebony returned the mental processing to keeping all his spells up, preventing the breakdown of his Domain. It combated the consumption of mana that the environment caused while keeping his Domain warm like spring noon.

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