Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

The plant struggled under the effects of the enchantment placed on its body by Liam, infusing the parts of itself that he had left magic runes on with mana in an attempt to erase those runes.

But as soon as the creature tried to move its mana to erase the runes, its body weakened against the Spirits and Spirit Masters acting against it.

Half of the Spirits had already been destroyed by them, but they came from the Spirit Puppets and not from the cultivators acting against it. Each of them stood firm, seeing the moment to intensify their attacks while the creature's attention returned to defending itself from the primary culprit of its water loss.

The two First Officers moved their forces, each activating the most powerful attack skill they had against the plant.

Toby raised a spear into the air, making his weapon burn in red flames, while his muscles grew in size, making more attack power available to him.

At the same time, the woman leaped into the air, causing small clouds to concentrate around her, with blades of air and lightning forming in her vicinity. She danced, using every movement of her body to propel these blades against the most vulnerable parts of the plant, leaving Toby to do the dirty work of attacking the plant's strongest point.

Liam followed the fight from a safe distance, making Thal'Korr use his abilities to create shadow demons around the plant and try to paralyze it, however subtly.

The leopard supported him by attacking using the wounds already visible on the plant's body, wounds caused by the Spirits of the two First Officers subordinate to Liam.

At that moment, the creature found itself in the terrible situation of either letting itself be attacked by these enemies or stopping the water loss related to the enemy runes.

It bet on removing all the runes from its body and dealing with the opponents with what it had left at the end of this action.

Toby took advantage of the way the plant had underestimated him to infuse all his power into that attack, involving some of the anger at having been forced to flee earlier in that move.

When he reached the main stem of the plant, close to the ground and the most important root of this plant organism, he scorched the purple matter in his path, making the plant, already wilted and with lethargic movements, emanate one last sign of resistance.

After a great tremor that caused stones and bark from the surrounding trees to rise from the ground and attack the surroundings, the plant emitted a sound of defeat, letting its body fall to the ground as if it were beyond its limit.

Part of its body burned, setting fire to already dehydrated parts of its existence, while the others attacking it got the upper hand in tearing its body apart.

Jane almost felt an ache in her heart as she watched the plant suffer from so many sides, regretting not being able to preserve such a wonderful organism.

But she understood the need for her companions to be decisive while killing a plant creature as problematic as this one.

In the end, the plant still destroyed all the runes that Liam had placed on its body, but it couldn't escape Toby's flaming spear, having its body separated from its roots and then cut into many pieces.

The two First Officers fell to their knees on the ground from exhaustion, having lost more of their Spirits, and consumed all the mana left in their bodies.

But they had won, defeated a creature from the end of the fourth realm, even though they were several levels weaker than it!

"Hahaha, Chief Porter, you really are amazing!" Toby celebrated with a triumphant smile, extremely pleased with the result.

Winning was always good, but beating opponents stronger than yourself was much better!

Liam sighed in relief as he saw his warriors resting after destroying a large part of the Necrotic Parsnip's roots.

The fight was over!

However, they were still in the middle of a dangerous forest, where they couldn't afford to be casual. "Let's collect the remains of the plant. Time to head back to City Five!"

The Herbalist, the Alchemist, and the Healer set to work collecting, being the only ones with the energy and knowledge to manipulate the remains of that dangerous plant.

Liam and his two First Officers consumed recovery potions, while the remaining Spirits returned to their soul spaces.

Almost all the Spirits from Liam's puppets had been destroyed. Meanwhile, Thal'Korr and the Silver Winged Leopard had barely survived, and would only need a rest before returning to their best states.

The situation was not so good for the two First Officers. Both had reached the end of the battle with only one Spirit each remaining. The other three Spirits each had been destroyed and would need some time to recover.

Their journey through the outskirts of City Five proved much more difficult than they had initially thought. Liam learned on this mission how dangerous the sect could still be for him, even after all the recent magical growth he had undergone and his promotion to Division Chief.

As he returned to Five City later that evening, he couldn't help but consider the dangers he would face traveling across the continent.

Demon Gate was certainly not a good reference point. The sect was very strong and had powerful creatures artificially positioned in the headquarters. But the sect trained its members to understand Twin Land's cruel reality.

What happened tonight could happen more naturally around the continent, and one of them traveling through Twin Land could possibly come across a similar dangerous situation in the future.

'I need my women to replace the professionals I would need when traveling around the continent. That will make everything easier for all of us.' Liam thought to himself.

...

The group completed the rest of the journey to City Five without any major problems. After recovering the mana spent earlier, they scared weaker creatures from their path, while sidestepping the territories of powerful existences.

So they walked for almost three hours, until they saw the entrance to City Five, this time in the gloom of night, each of them bearing signs of battle and fatigue as they passed that post again.

Guards different from those of the day they had started this mission stood outside the entrance, but these Officers greeted them in the same way as those of days past.

Liam looked into the eyes of one of those masked men and asked, "Has the situation in the city gotten much worse in the last two days?"

"No. Some disciples have died, Division Chief. But we have had none new cases. It looks like the lockdown is working to stop the plague from developing in the city."

"That's good." Liam thanked him with a nod before continuing his ascent to the peak of the hill.

The streets and central staircase of the city were even quieter than when they first passed through. Near the middle of the peak, the tents outside the Infirmary were buzzing with the movement of Officers and First Healer Officers.

Liam put on the mask that Guardian Jasper had given him, something that could be worn for up to 24 hours in contaminated areas, but which only lost its characteristics when worn continuously for that length of time. Liam and his group had only worn their protective items for 11 hours over the last two days.

He arrived in the medical area and called the Healer he had spoken to earlier.

"We dealt with the plant behind the crisis. We've brought the remains of it with us for you to use to end this crisis." Liam said as he indicated the Healer of his group.

The black-robed, masked woman stepped forward and said, "We believe we can kill the fungus using the remains of the plant. We probably won't be able to save those in the most serious condition, but it is possible to stop the spread of the fungus and save the less serious cases."

The Healer felt interested and soon took leave of Liam's group to follow the Healer and other Healers in the area to study together what they had brought.

The Alchemist followed with the group, warning that they would need to bring in the Alchemists from City Five to help solve the problem.

Only Liam, his First Officers, and Jane stayed behind, watching from afar as the situation was resolved.

"Let's wait until dawn before we return to the inner ward," he said as he sat down on a stone bench, keen to see an end to the crisis before bringing his mission to a successful conclusion.

Over the next few hours, Guardian Jasper would join Liam to watch as the group of local Healers and Alchemists burned a concoction and spread its smoke throughout the city.

The patients most affected by the fungus would not recover, but the less affected would improve at impressive speeds, until, shortly after dawn, the Healers themselves would let their breathing masks fall off.

"The plague is finished! City Five is saved!" said the Chief Healer of the area, followed by a round of celebrations, and the Guardian's order to end the lockdown!