Tabitha nodded her head and started walking toward the snake demon. At the same time, she stealthily took out some scrolls from her spatial ring and dropped them one by one on the grassy ground.
On the other hand, the fallen scrolls slowly submerged into the grassy ground and disappeared!
Abium also noticed this strange action but decided to keep quiet about it.
Within a few seconds, Abium and Tabitha arrived closer to Helena, Baron, and others and soon noticed that all of them were unconscious!
"Are they all right?" Abium hurried towards Helena and Baron Auguinare, checking their pulses first. After confirming both were fine, he breathed a sigh of relief and turned his gaze towards the crossbow that lay a few feet away from him.
'If I had some dark steel bolt...' His eyes soon landed on Tabitha.
At that moment, an idea appeared in his mind.
During this time, the snake demon did not act against them at all. Instead, it hovered 2 meters above the ground, looking from time to time at the dark sky.
"Heh, is this demon also waiting for Teacher Alius to break the dimension spell?" Tabitha noticed the demon's strange action and asked in surprise.
"It is possible, My Lady." Abium nodded, moved closer to the crossbow, and picked it up with both hands.
"Do you have any dark steel bolt in your possession now, Lady Tabitha?" He asked a strange question.
Surprised, Tabitha turned her gaze towards Abium and noticed that he was holding a strange crossbow with unique rune symbols engraved on every side.
'A High-Tier artifact? What is he planning to do with this?'
After looking deeply at the crossbow, she retracted her gaze and nodded.
"Of course, I do have some in my space ring. But the price will be a bit expensive, though."
'Why is she acting like a merchant now?' Abium thought she would take the dark bolts out of her space ring and give them to him.
Noticing the confused look on his face, Tabitha let out a chuckle and added.
."Even if the Royal Family members are in a life-threatening situation, I won't give away the auction materials for free, Mage Abium. It is the main rule of merchants and mages. If you want something from me, exchange it for other goods or currency." Her words stunned him.
"But won't this demon massacre everyone if we don't do something?" Abium asked with a frown and soon looked up at the hovering humanoid snake demon.
Meanwhile, Tabitha shook her head and corrected him.
"It may be a demon but it's not a mindless creature. When I entered the Royal Garden, why did it stop attacking these guards?" Tabitha asked while pointing her finger at the unconscious Helena and others.
'Yes, why did it stop attacking others? Wait, it felt threatened by Lady Tabitha and decided not to escalate the situation further?' He felt that was the possible situation.
'I also think the same, lad. This demon didn't care about weaklings and simply played with others all this time. But the arrival of this second-tier woman changed everything. Although killing this demon would still be impossible for her, she could at least inflict a great amount of damage to its body. You should learn something from them. In truth, even the ancient mages would react like this. Even if a city is massacred before them, they wouldn't care much about it and only look for the benefits.' Azolla's words made Abium ponder deeply.
In the meantime, Tabitha smiled as she noticed the serious look on his face and spoke.
"If I'm not wrong, this demon must have already got what it wanted. So, there is no reason for it to fight an equal-level opponent. The same holds true for me. I came here to protect the Royal Family members, not to battle against some abyssal demon."
'Right. She will only lose if she chooses to fight this demon. In a sense, both of them would become weaker if a battle occurred now. But...'
Despite this, something in his mind told him that if he didn't fight this demon, he would lose something very precious.
'There is a high possibility that this strange feeling has something to do with the stone tablet or something. Right. Everyone is selfish in this world. Why shouldn't I?'
Without delay, he took a deep breath and asked in a low voice.
"Can you tell me the price, my lady?"
Instead of answering his question, Tabitha raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked.
"You have a way to beat this demon, don't you?" Her voice contains a trace of surprise and shock.
Without waiting for him to think further, she locked her gaze on the hovering snake demon and licked her lips.
"If we defeat the demon, I want every part of its body."
'A body of Second-Tier Demon would sell for more than 50,000 white gold coins, lad. Not only that, but she might also extract the demon's blood essence and sell it for more than 100,000 white gold coins.' Azolla saw through Tabitha's plan and explained it to Abium.
But Abium didn't care much about the benefits hidden in the demon's body and nodded.
"I agree to your request, My Lady. After all, I'm not going to be the main player here." He said calmly and then waited.
Meanwhile, Tabitha nodded her head in understanding and spoke.
"Usually, I won't sell the auction materials to anyone because of the Orchid Auction House's contract policy. But I will make an exception for you." She stopped for a second and continued with a bright smile.
"50 white gold for one bolt. If we auction it, I might be able to gain more profit, but I'll give them to you at a low price."
'50 white gold coins. A bit expensive, but it's manageable.'
"I want to buy two dark steel bolts, My Lady," Abium spoke solemnly, took out a leather bag from his space ring, and gave it to her.
Meanwhile, Tabitha caught the leather bag and scanned it using her spirit power. After confirming if the correct amount was placed inside, she nodded her head and stored it inside her space ring.
Following that, she took out two black bolts from the space ring and gave them to Abium.
Just as Abium took the bolts from Tabitha's hand, she stepped forward and started walking closer to the hovering demon.
"Prepare the crossbow. Meanwhile, I'll play with this snake." Her cold voice echoed everywhere in the garden.
Before long, she arrived much closer to the snake demon and looked up with a cold smirk on her face.
What made Abium startle was that she didn't seem afraid of facing this demon.
At that moment, the snake demon named Surur also noticed her action, made a sharp hissing sound and said something in a weird tone.
"4##*%) #i2u$ * $)%#U%."
'It's an Abyss language!' Abium barely understood the language due to his past knowledge but couldn't understand any meaning of those words.
On the other hand, Lucius also stood up unsteadily and started walking closer to Tabitha. His left hand was broken and bent at a weird angle, while his left foot also seemed to be broken completely.
Soon, he arrived behind Tabitha and asked in an annoyed tone.
"What happened to the other mages, Lady Tabitha? Why hasn't anyone shown up yet?"
"I am also clueless about the current situation, Lucius. But Zivior said that someone is maintaining this spell from the outside. Unless they find the culprit and kill him, it will be impossible to break this dimension lock spell. Even Teacher Alius seems to have a hard time now." Tabitha said in a grim tone.
"Even Lord Alius is helpless against it?" Lucius gave a shocked look and turned his gaze towards the hovering demon. At that moment, a reckless idea appeared in his head.
"If we kill this creature, the whole problem will be solved, right?" Lucius's eyes gleamed with cold determination, and he advanced to attack again with his battered body.
Thankfully, Tabitha hurriedly shook her head and stopped him.
"Stop it, Lucius. You will only waste your time and energy. Let me help you first." She took out two green-colored potion vials from her space ring, and threw one to Lucius and another one to Abium.
"Drink this Might potion. It will increase your physical attributes for the next few minutes."
"1000 white gold coins for each." She added, conjured a 2-meter radius of water ball, manipulated it into a large wall, and blocked the snake demon from moving forward.
At that moment, the demon also realized Tabitha's plan and used its spiritual power to attack Abium and Lucius.
But Tabitha calmly waved her hand, released her spiritual power, and blocked the invisible power from even reaching closer to them.
With no choice, the snake demon quietly landed on the ground and tried to get closer to them multiple times, but Tabitha manipulated the water wall and stopped its advancement.
On the other hand, Abium caught the potion vial, opened the lid, and gulped it down.
The former king Lucius also did the same and soon noticed that the wounds on his body started to heal at an incredible rate. Not only that, but he also noticed that the broken bones eventually began to heal!
But both Abium and Lucius didn't have enough time to check out their current strength as they noticed that Tabitha had already started her battle.
...