The mage Expert leading the group of men towards Yellow Village suddenly stopped startling the men following behind him. The mage then reached into his pocket and retrieved out some kind of amulet which was currently blinking with a red light. He had two of such amulets on hand and were something that were of his creation. Each amulet is actually connected to the another which each of the other Experts in the group had. Their main purpose was to show whether or not one of them died while they were nowhere near each other. The one that the mage was currently holding told him that the the holder of the amulet was in a critical condition and in danger of dying.
Raising his hand into the air the mage cast a spell that shot out into the sky which began bursting out in a flashy way to draw some attention. You could say this was foolish but this was a signal that was used by him when there was some kind of emergency and everyone needed to regroup. Even if nobody was looking into the sky the way the spell burst out was in a pattern that was known to the other Experts.
The leader that was making his way towards Mountain Village heard the sound of the spell and saw the direction of where it was at. He immediately rushed over with the other people that were in his group.
When he met up with the mage's group he saw the mage still looking at a amulet similar to the one he was wearing except instead of glowing blue like it normally does it was blinking red. The leader asked quickly, "How long has it been since this started happening?"
Responding in a worried manner the mage responded, "I sent out the signal not long after I felt it go off so about five minutes ago."
The leader cursed to himself saying, "Dammit the Imperial forces arrived here too soon, going by their usual speed they should've arrived in the area in three days." He then concentrated a bit to think, "Maybe it isn't the entire force but to be able to wipe out the entirety of one of our groups it at least must be of decent strength.Regardless we must head back to the cavern gather everything up and leave right now we can't delay this."
Agreeing with him the mage nodded his head and the entire unit started moving out. Not even a minute since they started to head back a large sound of something being shot towards them rang out but before they could properly react whatever was thrown crashed in several men injuring them in the process.
When both of the leaders looked at what was thrown they couldn't believe what they were seeing. The object thrown at them was the arm less body of the other Expert of the group but not only was his body arm less it was completely mutilated like someone was torturing him for a while. His face was no longer the confidant one that he had when they separated instead all that was left was fear and anguish.
They didn't have much time to look at the body before they felt a rush of danger fill their instincts. The mage instantly raised a barrier all around them when he felt it because he didn't know where the attack was coming from all he knew was that there was an attack coming.
Sure enough they saw a sort of purple sphere filled with some kind of pressuring energy forming at a ridiculous speed which then proceeded to explode. The barrier the mage raised barely held out for a moment before it was destroyed and the attack managed to reach the entire group.
After the dust settled both of the Experts looked around to see the condition of their men. The Experts themselves weren't too troubled by the aftermath of the attack especially the leader as he had a strong bodily defenses in the first place being a warrior. The mage was able to raise another barrier but just around himself in time to block the attack but the shock wave still hurt him a bit.
The other men were in a decent condition with most of them being lightly injured with a few that became unconscious from hitting their head when they got knocked down. The only problem was that the attacks didn't let up because as soon as the Experts confirmed how everyone was several crescent slashes rushed out of their surroundings going towards the weaker men.
Feeling out the strength of the attacks both of the Experts knew that it wasn't something that could be taken lightly. They assumed they were being ambushed by a group so they needed to preserve their numbers if they wanted to survive this encounter.
Without any form of dialogue between the two they immediately went into action to block the incoming attacks. The leader took out his double-bladed axe that was on his back, pushed his internal energy to it's peak and started to block the attacks. The mage was using his earth elemental spells to block the slashes while also using barriers to block the incoming slashes.
While their actions were appropriate and well coordinated they still underestimated the power of these attacks. They were able to block them but the way they were sent out were in a way that some of them were able to slip by them. The barriers that the mage put around the other members were cracked after only receiving one of the slashes another one not only broke the barrier but also severely injured the person. The leader was struggling because he was feeling the full force behind these attacks and it was causing his to sweat profusely.
Luckily for both of them the onslaught of attacks soon stopped allowing them to catch a breather for a bit. They lost almost half of their men in that attack with only twelve still remaining or injured.
Both of the Experts were getting tired of being in this sort of position so after regaining their focus they sent out attacks in the direction that the slashes were coming out of. They were soon disappointed by the fact that it didn't hit anything as they didn't think that the unit would be able to move so quickly after an attack like that.
While they were still concentrating on finding the enemy unit they heard screams sound out from behind them. When they turned they saw that one of their men was being held by the throat while another was stabbed in the back with a saber. When they looked at the figure holding the man they saw that the figures eyes were staring at them.
Looking into the figure's eyes caused both of the Experts to fill a large chill along their bodies. There seemed to be no light in the eyes but it felt like looking into a never-ending abyss that would suck you in if you looked to long. The worse part was the amount of bloodlust coming from the figure that even the Experts with their long history had only seen from enraged beasts.
Without breaking eye contact the figure broke the neck of the man he was holding and also retrieved his saber from the other dead man's back. He then released all his power for everyone to feel getting ready to begin his assault.