Over at Suri's side, it was just as Aeon had said.
Several explosions landed in front of Suri and he watched as beasts get blown into bits by the barrage of spells. But the number of Serans were not just a few. It was almost non-existent. Now, it even seemed that the joint effort of several hunters had more impact than the Serans.
Suri forcefully charged forward and slashed his glowing sword at the beasts. His sudden appearance enabled the other Serans to take a short break and catch their breaths. Suri did not stop attacking until the smaller beasts started voluntarily avoiding him.
The people gawked at the tall person in awe.
Seeing this, the Remorans at the back started giving Suri even more support, greatly reducing the burden on him.
They started pushing the beasts back with brute force! They inwardly rejoiced and their warcry reverberated through the air.
Boom boom boom!
Spells exploded everywhere, producing countless colorful lights. Dust and dirt covered the faces of the people, but they stood firm.
With Suri standing at the front like a war god, the beasts were no match.
But in reality, Suri, just like any other mage there, was also at the very bottom of the rankings. He was still just an E-ranked mage. He was just a little better because he had experienced systematic training. He started getting tired as the stream of monsters continued pouring in.
After quite some time, their advance stopped, and they started getting pushed back again.
Suri gritted his teeth. He had just realized how bad the situation in their area was. The Serans were just too few! Or was it because most of them had already died when he was still on his way?
Suri cursed under his breath. He didn't want to admit it, but he thought that he was going to fail the task assigned to him. Suri was filled with self-disappointment. If only he was much stronger.
Suddenly, he saw a long trail of purple light flying through the sky.
It headed right into the midst of the beasts just in front of Suri's area.
Strangely, it silently disappeared into the ground where it landed. For a moment, people even thought that it was a joke. But then, the sky suddenly reflected the purple light that rapidly spread across that area.
The purple flames roared as it started to devour any beast that came into contact with it. The beasts that were supposed to advance started running around wildly, trying to put out the flames that latched onto their furs and skins. But instead of achieving their purpose, they merely served as a medium for the flames to increase its domain. The flames passed from one beast to another, causing even more chaos.
But this chaos was not directed to the people.
It was finally time for payback!
The people charged forward with passion.
The beasts that attacked Suri's area started to decrease. The burden on their shoulders immediately lightened. Those who did not face any more beasts assisted the others.
Suri stopped attacking to catch his breath. He used his gigantic sword to support his weight and panted heavily. Any person that went right past him did not dare apprehend him for not doing anything, though. Instead, they stared at him in reverence.
"Kid," a person approached Suri, "I suggest you rest while running. The left side is in danger."
"Assistant Supervisor!" Suri acknowledged.
"Save the formalities and go," Dan said as he moved forward. He would be taking charge of the area. "I'll catch up in a bit."
"How about the center?" Suri asked.
"They're doing quite good," Dan answered before disappearing from Suri's view.
Suri stood up straight and smiled. He started jogging to save as much energy as he could.
….
Aeon slashed at the beasts who breached their defenses.
Their area was extremely bright. Naturally, because the area in front of him was already a sea of flames. However, it was still not enough to deter the enemies up front. Moreover, there were even more beasts at the back, just waiting to get their turn.
Aeon covered his nose with a cloth in order to prevent inhaling any of the smoke.
So far, he had already slain about 15 beasts with ease. The problem was that he didn't have much support. Their area had the least Serans and Remorans, so he had to scramble around whenever a beast broke through from another part of their area. He even had to run back on forth multiple times just to protect the few remaining mages they had.
Aeon pounced on a beast again. He scaled its body and swiftly cut its neck.
Just when Aeon landed, another beast already had its mouth wide open, ready to take a huge chunk from his body. Aeon thought that it was already too late to dodge. He moved to parry the beast's bite with an attack of his own when it suddenly got blown away sideward.
Aeon's slash hit nothing but air. He looked towards the side and saw Suri, his sword extended in front of him.
"Yo!" Aeon greeted him, "how's everything on the other side?"
Suri rushed forward and engaged with another beast. Aeon did the same and slashed at another one.
"Dan took over. He asked me to come here," Suri replied after finishing off the average-sized beast in front of him.
Aeon stabbed a beast's heart.
"That's good," Aeon said. He thought nothing wrong about the command. He really had a hard time earlier before Suri came. "Since he's there, I might as well go all out."
"Go ahead. Selena and I will keep things here at bay."
"Thanks!"
Aeon bent his legs and jumped towards the heart of the beast army. In the dark of the night, only a few people saw his figure. But even then, those few people thought that it was merely their imagination.
Aeon started feeling the scorching heat as he got closer to the roaring flames that Selena made earlier. Gently, he landed in the middle of a few beasts. Aeon calmly brushed off the ashes stuck on his shirt as he assessed the surroundings.
Rooaaaar!
Seeing a human amongst them, the beasts roared in rage. It clearly did not appreciate his presence. The ones nearest to Aeon, in particular, stopped moving forward and ran straight towards him.
Dance of the Celestial Swords: Full Moon Blade!
Aeon spun and slashed both his swords at the same time, covering a complete 360 degrees around him. From above, the flash of his swords looked like a white plate that resembled a complete moon.
Shhhhh!
The wind blew outward.
The bodies of several beasts around Aeon were cut cleanly in half, even the ones of those who did not charge at him. Their severed tops slid from their lower body.
After finishing his attack, Aeon's body was slightly leaning forward, his swords outstretched by his sides and blood covered their blades. Aeon calmly stood straight and flicked them both at the same time to rid them of blood. Then, he moved towards the place where the beasts were more concentrated.
At first, Aeon walked as he slashed at the approaching beasts. Then, he started jogging. The moment he deemed that the spot he was in was already good, his body turned into a flash of light.
Dance of the Celestial Swords: Constellation!
His body flickered in and out randomly at different spots on the battlefield.
His moves were extremely unpredictable.
He could practically appear anywhere that it was convenient for him. If needed, he would appear in front of the face of a large beast. Sometimes, just behind them to slit their throats.
Whenever he appeared, he would slash, killing a beast or two. After that, he would immediately disappear. The process repeated multiple times. Beasts around the area dropped to the ground one by one.
After he finally cleared the area, he used Shooting Star in order to transfer to another one. Then the same thing would happen again. He would wreak havoc amongst the beasts with Constellation one more time.
At the back, Suri and Selena pressed forward. There were significantly lower beasts that headed their way, so it made no sense for them to sit still and wait. Dan should also be over on the other side by that time.
It was finally time for the sweeping.
The two advanced while killing the beasts that were still struggling on the ground. They started from the outer area then slowly moved into the center. The other mages followed them closely behind as they cheered and howl at the moon.
At one point, they finally bumped into Aeon. He was covered entirely in blood and he was breathing heavily. Despite this, he still had a smile on his face that looked quite eerie due to his appearance.
The other people who didn't know Aeon immediately felt uncomfortable. They shivered from the bloody sight of him. To them, Aeon looked more like the grim reaper. They couldn't even understand how the person got there before they could.
"Good job," Suri said as he resumed moving forward.
Aeon started walking towards the center too.
….
Merell slowly opened his eyes. His body ached all over, and he was extremely famished. He could slightly make out the sounds of multiple explosions. However, because of his current state, he paid little attention to that. He continued staring at the unfamiliar roof, utterly confused.
"Mister, are you finally awake?" a young man's voice came from right beside him.
Merell struggled to turn his head, but before he could fully execute it, the young man who spoke earlier came within his field of view. His head was now just above Merell's and the person was smiling at him.
He could only stare dumbly back at the boy. He had absolutely no idea where he was at the moment and didn't know who the person was. The last thing he could remember was that he was on the way to rescue a group of students.
Then… he blacked out.
"Fo...od" Merell struggled to speak.
The young man immediately understood, but then he started to panic. He had no food on his person. Moreover, even if he did have some, it was usually just enough for the whole day lest they expire. He already ate the last of it a few hours ago when he took his dinner. Suddenly, he thought about something. "I'll be right back, mister!"
The young man left. Merell could only listen as his footsteps slowly faded away. He closed his eyes once more. He was extremely weak and wanted to save as much energy as possible.
After a few minutes, the young man returned. This time, he had a basket full of food with him.
Merell opened his eyes and was shocked to see lots of food placed on his chest. He smiled crookedly.
The young man immediately realized his error and took away the food that he placed on Merell's chest. Then, he went to the other side of the room and dragged two chairs towards him.
He assisted the Merell and helped him up to sit on the chair.
Merell obediently ate the food that the young man fed him. He also drank a lot of water to push everything he ate down.
After a few minutes, Merell indicated that he was already full. Then, he stared at the window.
"Kid… can you... take me there?" Merell asked with difficulty.
The young man saw that he was staring at the window then nodded. He took his own chair and placed it beside the window. Then, he supported Merell using his shoulders and brought him to sit on the empty chair.
Merell eyed the surroundings as if it were new to him.
He thought that the sight of the night sky was very nice. But when he looked towards the area outside the town, he was surprised to see flashing lights. Surely, they were from several spells exploding simultaneously.
Enemies?!
Merell strained himself to look at the battlefield. After a few moments, he sighed with relief.
The young man saw his expression and immediately asked, "are we winning?"
Merell nodded.
Suddenly, the young man pointed towards the darkness asked another question, "but what are those things?"
Merell followed his finger. At first, he didn't see anything because it truly was too dark. However, after a few moments, he finally saw where the lad had been pointing at. Just along the horizon, he saw several colossal shadows that moved slowly at a steady pace.
He was immediately overcome with shock and confusion.
Are those… magical beasts?!
….