On Myna's hate list, the ones in first place were bats, followed by black bats.

Smack, smack, smack!

Myna furiously slapped himself three times in the cheek with his wings. Feeling the very real pain, he was reminded that it wasn't a nightmare after all. His first instinctive impulse was to yell out as he dove into the Dimensional Gap. Just as he did that, he stopped halfway and hopped back out from the Dimensional Gap and screamed hysterically towards Grimm who was standing far away from the Reconnaissance Craft.

"Oh my G.o.d! It's time to go Young Master! The bats I ate previously had come to take revenge on me! I don't wanna turn into bat s.h.i.+t!" (Lunaelle: Myna's shenanigans always tickle me but I laughed for a full minute here.)

Under pressure, thoughts flashed through Grimm's mind as his teeth gritted hard together.

"Myna, you escape on the craft! Don't bother about me!"

This kind of scenario… looked like it was plucked straight out from a cheesy romance novel.

As a pair of lovers face the impending disaster that was about to take their lives, one would inevitably sacrifice him or herself in order to buy time for the other lover to escape. What Grimm yelled at Myna was exactly the kind of thing the self-sacrificing person would say to their lover as they parted ways.

And most of the time, the other person would reply stupidly with a cliche "if you stay here, I'll stay too" sort of line. Then they'll stick together to face the threat side by side and project a final show of true love.

Though, the reality for Grimm was…

"Okay."

Myna rode on the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft and fled without even turning back to look at Grimm. There was no cheesy dialogue and he cut straight to the chase. In the blink of an eye, Myna disappeared into the horizon without a single trace.

The sequence of events were polar opposites, and almost made Grimm scream out in disappointment.

Although the situation almost made Grimm laugh in a fit of anger, he still did not pause for any hesitations. The Sabbatic Goat Staff hammered the ground nearby this tree's roots causing the ground to rumble and quake.

Crack, crack, crack, crack…

Following a few high intensity shockwaves as the staff slammed into the ground consecutively, the rocky surface was turned into a loose pile of stones. Although some parts of the tree's roots were damaged, it did not faze Grimm as he struck down with an Ice Sword.

Screeeeech, screeeeech, screech…

Even as the torrent of Ice Bats closed in on Grimm's position, he calmly continued collecting parts of the tree's roots quickly. Then, he inhaled deeply under the Mask of Truth while he stabilized the rhythm of his intensely pounding heart, just as both his irises gradually turned into a frog-like one.

At that moment, the incoming swarm of Ice Bats slowed almost to a halt in Grimm's vision.

On the flapping wings of the bats at the forefront of the attack were a pair of claws that were covered in a light blue Frost Energy Orb. The offense power of these Ice Bats varied greatly, ranging from ten to a hundred or more.

The issue here was that there were tens of thousands of these individual Ice Bats!

Their skulls that roughly made up a third of their entire body had their jaws wide open, revealing their dagger-like fangs. Their eyes were glowing ominously a faint shade of red.

"This feeling...Soul Slaves?!"

Grimm could not believe it. These Ice Bats were Soul Slaves?

Then whose Soul Slaves were they?

They couldn't possibly be a sorcerer's soul slave since their bodies did not emit a human sorcerer's aura.

No wonder there were no traces of native creatures of the Burrow World on this mountain range.

Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble…

At that instant, the swarm of Ice Bats had seemingly drowned out Grimm, piling onto him like a small hill of Ice Bats. It was certain that Grimm would get torn to shreds, quartered by the bats into their lunch.

If one were to really get swarmed by this many bats, even some Level-3 great sorcerers would start fearing for their lives, let alone Grimm whose chances were extremely slim.

***

On the other side, in the cabin of the Starfall Reconnaissance Craft.

As the air flashed, Grimm appeared shocked and out of breath. In his hands was a struggling Ice Bat wrapped in the Green Python Thread, both its eyes still locked onto Grimm like a predator on its prey.

"Caw… Young Master, you scared the c.r.a.p out of me. I thought you were gonna become bat s.h.i.+t for real."

Myna eyed the Ice Bat in Grimm's firm grip as he asked, "Tonight's dinner?"

Ignoring Myna's question, Grimm held firmly on the still struggling Ice Bat's neck with one hand as he broke both its wings with his other hand. He then gazed into the Ice Bats eyes.

Grimm's eyes were the eyes of a sorcerer.

Those eyes were calm, wise, cruel and deep. If a weak creature were to face directly into such a gaze, it would undoubtedly make them feel eternal fear.

This sense of fear was what countless experimental specimens felt as breathed their last breath on the sorcerers' test bench.

After a moment of observation, Grimm snapped the neck of this Ice Bat with a loud "snap", after which he took out the Crystal Ball.

Grimm stored the soul of this Ice Bat into the Crystal Ball. Then the Crystal Ball as well as the Ice Bat's body was tucked away into the Dimensional Gap.

Grimm started murmuring to himself, "I was right, its soul was indeed enslaved by some other creature. As for the tens of thousands of bats from just now, to be able to enslave this many… seems like the work of a World Lord or a Soul Creature that has a four or higher level."

It really did not occur to Grimm that in the Endless World, there were other creatures from foreign worlds that already discovered the secrets to enslaving a soul.

If so, then this group of creatures would likely develop into a civilized world to challenge the sorcerers. The Sorcerer World must put an end to this potential threat and stop their abilities, or wipe them off the grid completely!