Races: Online

Terror swept across the camp.

Theodrick stepped back slowly, his hands were clammy as he tried to unsheathe his sword—he stared down at the wyvern that landed itself on the fireplace. The creature plunged down from the sky and let out a shriek before turning around to the people present, its large tail flicked and flung the other [ Soldiers ] behind it into the distance.

Crash!

The sound blasted itself into his eardrums while he held the blade in his hand, the creature in front of him was too occupied with the sights around it—even passing over their scaly gaze past him. Sweat trickled down from his neck and slid into his armor as he measured the odds. Glancing from the corner also showed different states of soldiers, some shouts emanated from outside the camp but within here, most of them had immediately readied their weapons.

Now it made sense why it hadn't attacked at once.

Even the creature was wary, eyeing them and hissing but uncomfortably stood around them. It was aware that to some extent it was surrounded by a lot of flesh bags that had their pointed sticks drawn and ready to stab at him.

"There's no snack here—" Before one of them could even finish their sentence, another wyvern dove from the sky and greedily caught them up in his jaws. Screams pierced into the silent night as the soldier tried to stab it from within its mouth but was eventually gulped down.

Coldness seeped into Theodrick's veins as he watched the scene unfold, a stray leg dropped into the ground and tainted it with crimson blood. Some of his fellow [ Soldiers ] were beginning to stray from their positions, if one of them could end up as fodder by standing around. Why wouldn't they run away?

But they needed to hold their position and keep the one at bay. No swords of theirs could make enough damage unless it was enchanted or a [ Sharp Edge ] skill was used and they had neither of those. Or even if they had a [ Skill ] no one was willing to throw themselves into the creature as a sacrifice.

They needed more than—

Thwack.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

The familiar sounds zipped through the air right above their heads and dove towards the two monsters. And arrows that shouldn't have gone past the thick scales of a wyvern dug itself through an eye and then into its leathery wings of both wyverns. 

"Hold your formations." A voice commanded about a hundred meters away from the bloodshed. Amidst the chaos of the night, somebody stood undeterred, a bow in their hand and a quiver of arrows hung across their back. They had picked up another arrow that flew across the sky—hundreds of feet into the air as it hit its mark.

Somehow it was enough to bring down another wyvern down the sky.

Hope surged through his chest as he recognized who had finally arrived, the [ Master Sergeant ] had begun to order the rest of his own specialized men to charge into the heat of the battle. Theodrick didn't know if it was enough as [ Spearmen ] and [ Shieldmen ] began to take the frontal assault.

The wyverns tried to attack blindly with their tails, swatting and bringing down some [ Soldiers ] but the [ Defensive Formation ] stayed on hold. Military training began to take over as the [ Soldier ] gripped the sword more firmly in his hand—one man couldn't dare face a wyvern alone but with a number, it would be a battle of attrition to some extent but they could win this.

And yet something made him waver for a moment. Relyea.

He could only hope that she was fine.

.. .

Within the office of the [ Headmaster ] of Kraelonia Academy, it felt unbearably cramped with a number of its [ Professors ] gathered up together in the room. Added more to the ever increasing tension that elevated and sparked arguments among them. 

The majority were willing to postpone themselves from fulfilling the orders from [ High Commander ] in order to try and bring more villagers nearby the city. But they really couldn't just ignore protocol—despite being separated by thousands of miles, the [ High Commander ] held more authority than a simple [ Headmaster ].

If they had been so simple.

The City of Gloria was preceded by no [ Noble ] but governed by the elected people and those held in esteem, a city fit for adventurers and fighters… would they really retreat in the face of such danger? The people inside the room were defiant and unwilling to give up their stance.

Until another [ Message ] arrived.

Or perhaps that was not the most proper term, the very same mirrors that they had used to watch the [ Test Trial ] for the new incoming students flashed as a figure came into surface. And no matter the old role the [ Headmaster ] had played and contributed only decades ago with Joseph and his wife—at the end of the day, they were still servants of the [ King ].

The infighting had gone silent, the entire room was hushed even without a [ Spell ] as the man within the mirror gazed out towards the inhabitants of the room. Even not being physically present within the room itself, their regal air still seemed to penetrate past the distance of the scrying mirror.

Questions began to plague and dot their minds on why they would contact the City but everyone remained silent and awaited the words of His Majesty.

.. .

A cold breeze blew through the city and escaped into the meadow outside of it. The wind tickled and brushed against blades of grass that swayed against their secret hymn and melody that were perhaps only known to Sylphs. The night sky had no clouds in sight and the soft pale glow of the moon sent their beams across the entire land. Everything around them was momentarily calm.

It was the eye of a hurricane.

The silence that permeated and spread across the fields before him, the lightning bugs glowed and flickered rhythmically as if in a light orchestra that dotted and casted a halo glow accompanied the deer, rabbit and other herbivores that grazed across the grassy lands—they soothed his senses for a moment but at the same time he could electricity course through his veins.

Any minute now.

Or perhaps it was agonizingly much longer.

Han had no idea as he glanced at the other folks who were now in formation. He couldn't see the [ Wood Elf ] but they were to station themselves in the heart of the forest, arranging a small 'party' for the incoming beast. Besides the light provided by moonlight and the lightning bugs, the [ Light Elf ] was prepared to change the landscape before her into sparkling daylight to capture the eye of the incoming beast and draw its attention.

A [ Mermaid ] sat on a log of wood that had been cut down far earlier, there was no water source for her to use, and she was unwilling to use the ones that were already within the plants—to much of the relief of the [ Wood Elf ] so instead she only needed to sit down, temporarily a background character to the scene that played out before him.

Finding roles for the [ Tiefling ] and [ Shadow Elf ] were much harder as both could either be an asset or a hindrance depending on what actual beast came around. If the Gargantuan Centipede came up, both Tierra's destructive blows and Bleu's poisoned daggers wouldn't do so much against its chitin armor. 

If only someone had the power to blitz through a monster with one punch.

But that wasn't possible, at least not possible right now, because who knew how much stronger one could get within the context of this world? Perhaps he would be given the opportunity to find out later but right now he had to focus on this set up because… something lodged on his throat as the cold breeze became far too frigid for his senses.

Maybe it had been far easier for him to do crazy antics before, all the danger he had to pose whenever he pulled a stunt was on himself, but this time around he was in charge of the group he was with and it wasn't only their fate that was laid in his hands. It included everybody else in the city.

Imaginary or not, in this moment—everything was real and vivid to him as his own life.

"Han?"

He blinked and whirled around and met face to face with Ellynn and this time her cloak was drawn back, it allowed him to see her elfin features now from her finely shaped ears but more than that was the otherworldly beauty that  she held. It was around the same amount of eternity that he had felt when her father had promised himself as an ally.

But that had been overwhelming and overpowering, whereas she…

Her green eyes narrowed at him for a moment as she crossed her arms over her chest. There were the comfortable traces of humanity on her features and she acted as much as any person he'd known. But now they weren't being confined inside the Kraelonia Academy, it made him wonder why she even went there in the first place—but he had to address the glint of determination as she asked, "What do you need me to do?"