“It’s done.”
Sarah, who saw Lyra getting rid of the rest of the Agiles through her Bond, muttered in a low voice.
“…”
“…”
At first, silence fell over the place. No one could believe what they had heard.
After all, these were the same beasts who had killed so many of their allies and had caused havoc and destruction all over the place. Last time, these beasts had nearly managed to destroy their entire town.
The soldiers were even worried that they might reach the basement area and kill all the villagers.
Agiles were nothing short of a nightmare, and now…
They had taken all of them… without a single casualty on their side…
None of them could believe it.
A soldier blinked, lowering his sword with trembling hands. Another glanced around, searching the faces of his comrades for confirmation that this was real. This continued until finally,
A young man drafted into the emergency unit shouted.
“W-We did it!!!”
And as if all of the soldiers had come out of their reverie at the same time,
“We did it!!!
We did it!!”
They exclaimed in joy.
Sarah’s body shuddered at the sudden shout. She felt like her eardrum would burst.
“Hey!”
She shouted back in anger.
“Stop shouting and extinguish the fir—”
She was about to give further orders, but then,
“Hail the Hero!!!”
A soldier cheered.
“Hail the Hero!!!”
“Hail the Hero!!!”
One after another, more and more soldiers joined in, all chanting Kael’s name fervently, and Sarah stopped.
“Well…
This you can do for a while…”
She muttered in a low voice.
She had seen how worried Kael was the entire time he was here. In the carriage, he had been constantly studying the mission details, ramming his head while he tried to come up with a plan. Even when he was keeping watch at night while the rest of them were asleep, he seemed worried and lost in thought.
And despite all that, these people had looked at him with distrust and doubt.
Sarah hated it.
Sarah absolutely hated how these townsfolk treated the Hero, even if the Hero himself didn’t seem very affected, even though the townsfolk’s reaction was understandable, she still hated it.
And now, when Kael was finally being recognized for his efforts, she was happy.
This was the reverence and love the Hero deserved.
She nodded continuously, satisfied.
But then suddenly,
“The battle is not over yet.
Regroup and return.
Sarah, take command.”
Everyone heard Kael’s voice, and the instant the Hero mentioned her name, Sarah’s face brightened up.
She quickly turned towards the soldiers and passed down her orders.
“Put down the fire,
Call the archers,
Regroup, and remember, keep the movements to a minimum!”
“Yes, Leader!”
The soldiers saluted before they got to work.
…
Back to the northern side of the town, Kael, who had finally taken down the last Brute, stood in silence as he grabbed his shoulder.
His right arm was trembling. Jumping from Echo and landing on that Brute with a punch wasn’t exactly a good idea. While it did allow him to deal with three Brutes within a few seconds, he was hurt.
He felt like he was unable to move his right arm as he intended to.
Of course, with the training Arlan had practically instilled into his body, the injury didn’t have a very deep impact on his fighting ability. He could still fight and…
It wasn’t all for nothing.
[Name: Kael Carter]
[Race: Human]
[Age: 22]
[Level: 17 → 18]
[CE: 1548/2800]
[Talent: Dragon Genesis]
[Talent Rank: SSS Rank]
[Strength: 45 → 46]
[Agility: 46 → 47]
[Speed: 43 → 44]
[Stamina: 46 → 47]
[Defense: 48 → 49]
[Mana: 56 → 57]
[Intelligence: 44 → 45]
[Charisma: 43 → 44]
…
Yes, he leveled up.
‘To think I could level up just by killing six such beasts… That’s around 600 CE from one beast.’
Kael thought inwardly, surprised by how easy it was to level up on the battlefield. After all, to get the same amount of CE, he needed to put in so much effort in either learning new skills or mastering his existing ones.
‘Heh.’
A smile appeared on Kael’s face.
This feeling of getting stronger… it was addicting.
For now, however, Kael suppressed his emotions. Just like he had said before, this wasn’t over yet.
“Screechh!!”
Kael looked up, and his eyes fell on the Beasts that worried him the most.
The Estwyn people called them The Flying.
These beasts were large and terrifying, each about 10 feet long. Their wings were torn and jagged. Their bodies were covered in dark, coarse feathers. Their faces looked monstrous, with sharp, hooked beaks and glowing eyes that seemed full of rage and malice. Long, razor-sharp talons extended from their feet, ready to tear into anything. They flew in an erratic, chaotic way, adding to their unsettling presence.
*Picture*
The Flying were the most difficult bunch to deal with, even for Kael.
After all, unlike the Beasts on land that he could somewhat control, tactics usually failed when it came to airborne beasts.
Or at least, he wasn’t taught anything that could be very useful yet.
Not to mention, the information he had on The Flying was extremely limited.
While he did read about the Skyscraper Beasts on his way here, these beasts were not the same. With their intelligence lowered, they were entirely different beasts with completely different habits.
So what Kael knew was all that Tobias had told him.
According to the Town Head, there were three things he needed to keep in mind:
The Flying react to heat and movement.
They only attacked the Town and its people.
And they do not react to other corrupted Beasts.
After months of being attacked by these things, this is what the Town Head had found, and all this while, this is what he had been using to keep the damage to a minimum.
Tobias always ordered the civilians to light up bonfires above some of the town’s buildings. The Flying, who only reacted to movement and heat, usually had two options:
One was to attack the moving troops,
And the other was to attack the buildings.
Tobias didn’t know why, but The Flying always chose the buildings.
Usually, he would have concluded it was because they reacted to heat more aggressively. However, every time a group of troops moved around the town, The Flying changed their target and attacked them.
In the end, Tobias made an observation.
The Flying would continue to target the buildings as long as the troops were facing the other beasts. However, the instant a group of troops distanced themselves from the beasts and rushed to some other point for whatever reason, they would attract The Flying’s attention.
This was also what Kael had used today. The bonfires were lit, attracting The Flying’s attention and allowing them to swiftly deal with the rest of the Beasts without aerial interruption. Now, however…
Things were different.
The Brutes were gone. Now, they weren’t the troops that were ‘facing the Brutes’—they were now open targets. And while it was still fine since they weren’t moving, the moment they moved, the Flying would attack.
Not to mention the soldiers were hurt. They needed to be taken to Aria so she could heal them.
And while Kael did think of bringing the Brutes’ bodies with them so it would look like they were still fighting, the Brutes’ bodies were simply too heavy.
In the end, there was no other choice.
They would need to face The Flying head-on.
“Be prepared.”
Kael spoke with a grim look on his face.