“Echo!! What are you doin- Aaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!”
Kael screamed before he quickly adjusted his body in the air and landed on a building’s rooftop in a superhero pose,
But then,
“Fuck! I knew this was impractical.”
He cursed out loud as he stood up, his knee limping painfully.
He took a deep breath, getting used to the pain.
He turned towards Echo to see where he was going but, he soon realized he had another much more important problem to deal with.
“Screeech!!!”
He was surrounded.
“Fuck…”
He cursed.
Four Flyings were right in front of him, staring at him menacingly, ready to attack. Kael glanced back and saw the soldiers who were a little over 700 meters away from him.
In the end, he made a decision.
[Skill: Roar of Dominion]
“RROOOOOOAAAAARRRRRRR!!!”
He activated his skill, but this time, instead of attacking the frozen beasts, Kael used this moment to run away and regroup with the soldiers.
‘Tsk.’
He snorted in his head.
To use this Skill as a way to escape…
He now needed to wait for a minute to be able to use it again and in such battles… a minute could be very decisive.
‘What was he doing!?’
Kael was angry.
But then,
“Hero Kael, we were attacked by seven Flyings, Sarah is hurt.”
Kael heard Lyra’s voice.
She was using Echo to transmit her voice from the Eastern Forest all the way to Kael.
“What!?”
Kael widened his eyes in surprise.
Why?
Tobias clearly told him that the Flying only attacked the humans who were inside the town. Many soldiers had saved themselves from getting attacked by the Flying just by being outside the town in the previous attacks.
Heck, even the group of soldiers who ran away last time only dared to do it because they knew the Flying wouldn’t attack them.
Then why…
And as if knowing what Kael was thinking, Lyra continued.
“We still are not sure why it happened. The Town Head says that his assumption was wrong. He made a mistake. It isn’t that the Flying do not attack humans outside the town, they just never had a reason to do it before.
All this time, the Flying always had closer targets inside the city, so they never bothered with humans outside the settlement, but today, since we killed all the Agiles here, we became an open target.”
Kael would have considered this theory. For now, however, he didn’t have time to think such things through.
As if thinking the same, Lyra reported.
“Since we were unable to regroup in time, we weren’t able to react in time. We have suffered five casualties—two militia members, three from the emergency unit. Seven others are injured. The injured soldiers… some of them won’t make it without immediate help. They’re bleeding out. One of them…”
There was some hesitation in her voice before she continued,
“He lost his arm to a talon strike. He’s barely hanging on.”
Kael felt a lump in his throat, his expression turned even grimmer, and Lyra continued.
“The good news is that the situation is under control now. Because of Sarah, we were able to regroup. Sarah, however, is unconscious and requires urgent healing, so Echo will take her to Aria. The rest of us will still require an hour to get there. As for the Flyings here, please leave them to us.”
After those words, Lyra stopped speaking.
“…”
Kael turned silent.
There were many things going on in his mind.
‘When you lead, you must learn to live with the deaths of those who follow you.’
Marshal Therian’s words echoed in his head.
His body trembled. For now, however, he continued to run and joined his soldiers who were facing five other Flyings.
He stared at the Flying who had come down, trying to tear an injured soldier apart with its talon, and without wasting any time, his Magic Circles appeared in front of his palm and a 2-meter-long Flaming Spear was formed.
Whoosh
The Spear rushed forward, instantly piercing through the Flying’s body.
“SCRREEEECHHH!!!”
It screeched in pain, its body fell on the ground, and using this chance, the soldiers pounced on it and pierced its body with their swords.
This time, since Kael wasn’t the one who got the last attack, he didn’t get any CE. He, however, didn’t care and rushed towards the rest of the Flying, targeting them all with his Flaming Spear.
“Soldiers! Follow my lead! Finish them after I attack. We need to reduce their numbers!”
He ordered as another Flaming Spear appeared above him.
The Flaming Spear was one of the strongest Second Circle Spells Elira had taught him, an attack with piercing power that almost rivalled a Third Circle Spell.
All this while, the only reason he wasn’t using this spell was because he wanted to save his Mana.
But now…
He decided to change the plan.
There were too many of them. He needed to get rid of them as soon as possible in order to avoid more deaths.
Even if he ran out of Mana in the process.
Whoosh
“NOW!”
Kael shouted as the Spear pierced through another Flying.
Whoosh
Then another.
Whoosh
And then another.
Within the minute, Kael and the soldiers killed three more Flyings, out of which, Kael only got one kill.
[CE: +449]
Just as Kael was about to conjure another Flaming Spear, he felt a sharp headache.
‘Fuck…’
He cursed.
His Mana was depleted.
Helpless, he could only get near Drak to shield himself from all the Aggro he had pulled while the rest of the soldiers continued their attacks.
Of course, this didn’t mean Kael was done.
He still had his Skill he could spam.
“RROOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!!!”
Once again, the Flying froze.
“Move! Move!”
Kael shouted.
Again, he wasn’t using the Roar of Dominion as a means of attack. The soldiers were already injured, and these Flyings were too fast. Their ability to fly made it much more difficult to engage them directly. Almost none of the soldiers had the proper means to attack them mid-air.
Engaging in the battle would only increase the number of casualties, so Kael was using the time he got from Roar of Dominion to continuously increase the distance between them and the Flyings.
He couldn’t afford any more deaths.
“Do not slow down! The Flying are far away! Focus on moving! Speed up!”
Kael shouted, passing down the orders.
“Lord Kael.”
Then, he heard a voice.
It was Aria.
“Sarah is with me, and she is safe.”
She delivered the good news.
And this wasn’t the only good news she delivered.
“Echo will now be returning to you.”