Rhode successfully pulled out one hand, struggling to climb out of the wall.
The magnificent tower, covered in cracks, emanated a dazzling light, a sign that Rastillos' magic was reaching its final stage.
"Ugh..." Rhode's entire body began to feel a stinging pain, his clothes starting to be corroded.
While trying to escape, he urged the Canyon Vanguard to move faster.
Bang! Bang Bang!
The giant pincers of the Canyon Vanguard struck the tower, the cracks becoming more dense, finally allowing Rhode to break free.
Right after, the magnificent tower shattered and collapsed, the gigantic stones disappearing before they hit the ground.
"Impossible! My Dingir's Tower..."
Rastillos' strongest magic was forcibly interrupted!
Rhode plummeting from the sky, but had no extra magic power to summon the Beaked Bird.
Fortunately, the Canyon Vanguard spread its wings, allowing Rhode to land on the large purple sphere on its back.
In the game, that sphere served as a 'weak point', but in this world, it became the 'cockpit'.
When Rhode landed on it, it was like falling onto a soft trampoline, except he wasn't bounced off but sank slowly into it.
In a sense, this still counted as a 'weak point', after all, if Rhode inside was eliminated, the Vanguard would vanish too.
After entering the 'cockpit', Rhode's view changed, seeing two large screens in front and many smaller ones around him.
That was the vision of the Canyon Vanguard, seemingly like some insects with compound eyes, able to simultaneously view a wide field from multiple angles.
Though its vision was slightly inferior to the River Crab, Rhode increasingly suspected its kinship with the crab.
"You actually broke through my Dingir's Tower... my strongest magic, my masterpiece..." Rastillos landed on the ground, the steel spikes around him disappearing.
He seemed somewhat dazed and angry: "Unforgivable, unforgivable!"
Rhode now had no time to care about the enemy's thoughts, his magic power wouldn't last long, success or failure depended on this.
All he could say was: "Destroy him!!!"
The Canyon Vanguard gathered a bit of its strength, flapped its wings twice, and turned into a purple phantom dashing forward.
"Don't be ridiculous! Guardian Holy Beast!" In an instant, four figures appeared in front of Rastillos.
Just as Rhode had no time to see what creatures they were, they were already knocked away.
The Canyon Vanguard charged like a big purple bowling ball, not stopping for four, not even for forty pins.
"Wha..."
Rastillos showed a terrified expression, making every effort to summon a shield, but even he did not trust its efficacy.
The Canyon Vanguard mercilessly slammed into Rastillos, and Rhode seemed to hear the sound of bones breaking, unsure if it was an illusion.
Nevertheless, Rastillos spewed a mouthful of fresh blood, flying away like a ragdoll before crashing into the bushes out of sight.
Rhode's magic power could no longer sustain, the form of the Canyon Vanguard gradually turning ethereal and then disappearing.
The Rhode inside the cockpit fell to the ground.
"Ow ow ow..."
It wasn't the fall that hurt, but the previous injuries weren't light either.
What Rhode most wanted now was to summon red and blue to heal himself, and... to get some experience.
But he temporarily lacked the strength to do either.
"Damn it..."
With depleted magic power, Rhode sensed other jungle creatures returning to the Summoner's Rift, including those that had followed Elfman.
The most troubling was the loss of vision.
He had just seen Elfman meeting with the brother and sister the client was searching for, but it seemed they were surrounded.
Rhode sat cross-legged, needing to quickly recover his magic power.
...
Separated from Rhode, Elfman broke into the northern forest riding on the River Crab.
With the cooperation of the jungle creatures, he defeated a team searching for Mar and Vina, and then used the Shadow Wolf's sense of smell to find the siblings' hiding place.
Mar was a young man as robust as Elfman, wearing leather armor, a war skirt, and long boots, draped in a toga, holding a round shield in his left hand and a long spear in his right.
Vina was an exceptionally attractive beauty, dressed similarly to Mar, but wielding a round shield and a longsword.
Elfman revealed the emblem and delegation letter, earning the siblings' trust, then quickly explained the situation.
However, Mar didn't believe his words at all:
"What a joke, everyone in our village can fight, gathering at least three hundred warriors! How could they be defeated!
Father... Father was the strongest warrior of the old generation, undefeated in life! Even mages..."
"Here, you should recognize this." Elfman produced a piece of blood-stained cloth.
Although somewhat rude, Rhode had cut this from the old chieftain Peter's clothes to make meeting the siblings easier.
Mar and Vina were very familiar with the patterns on it, reserved for the chieftain and the strongest warriors of the tribe.
"Brother..." Vina covered her mouth, tears welling in her eyes, "It's father's clothes, he, he's telling the truth..."
"Impossible! I'm going back to the village now!"
Elfman stopped him: "It's true that we must leave here, but for now, we can't return to the village.
The forest is full of enemies, and at least one is very strong; my companion is buying us time, we must go somewhere safe first."
Mar's face was tense: "Move aside!"
Elfman remained unmoved: "Peter's last words, asking us to find you, to take you away."
Hearing it was his father's last words, Mar's body trembled slightly, but he was clearly reluctant to flee.
"Brother." Vina grabbed Mar's arm, signaling him to calm down.
"Damn it!" Mar vented his frustration by thrusting his spear into the ground, "If I hadn't run off, if I were in the village..."
Elfman couldn't bear to say that if both siblings were in the village, it might indeed have been completely wiped out.
"There they are! Found them!"
"But why are there three people?"
"Anyway, Zankuro's orders are to capture those two, charge!"
Mar noticed their outfits: "It's them! The strange people who appeared near the village before them!"
Vina clenched her longsword and shield, preparing for battle.
Days earlier, the siblings wanted to find these suspicious people; now, the tables had turned, and they were being hunted...
"No time left, just follow me!" Elfman dashed forward, "Partial Takeover · Beast Arm! Manly Man!"
Elfman punched three soldiers holding swords and blades into the air.
A few were just raising their magic staffs when Beaked Birds launched feathers to knock them down.
"So strong!" the siblings exclaimed, quickly joining in the battle.
But as more soldiers responded to the shouts, the three could only fight their way out, aided by the jungle creatures.
Midway, the creatures suddenly launched a fierce attack, each vanishing one by one.
Elfman's face turned pale: "Damn, Rhode!"
The siblings and Elfman moved back together, standing back to back.
Vina asked: "What's with those beasts?"
"It's my companion's magic," Elfman said gravely, "he might be in trouble."
In this situation, either Rhode was in a dire battle needing support, or...
Elfman could only hope he had run out of magic after defeating the enemy, and nothing worse.
In any case, he had to get out quickly, to meet up with Rhode.