Fefar covered himself in his aura, layer over layer.
The fire that exploded out of Jonas after the second pulse of red. It ate at the ground and everything it had touched. Without even a matter of seconds, it engulfed them in tiny pockets of isolation. If it had not been for their previous actions, letting out their aura's full power, they would have already been burned to a crisp.
Instead, they were separated—aura's and all—and had to watch as the scorching heat crept closer and closer to them regardless of how they screamed or reacted.
Was this a warning? Punishment for their attempt to strong arm the King of the entire colony? How could a single man carry such amounts of flame and with such destructive power. It made no sense unless he was a Master already. Just disguising his powers under some form of concealment.
And with how many different treasures were found every few years and bordered by the royal family and its dukes, he could believe something that powerful could exist. It must be a mythical item to hide the undeniable nature altering existences that were the Masters.
As he placed the fifth layer, the flame seemed to leap forward in an unsatiated hunger.
It crashed into his shields. Bringing them down one by one. The most outer flashed out like it didn't even exist. The one after lasted only a second longer. The flames ate the shields slower after each one like it was running out of power. By the time it reached his final one, it was only enough to leave massive cracks.
Fefar could only watch in frozen horror. Only once did it stop did he register how close he was to being nothing more than ash.
"Father in heaven!" He fell to his knees, legs too weak to keep him upright.
He started to panic in desperation to survive, almost forgetting his own brethren. He pulled deeply into his reserves using every ounce of power he had in his thin and emaciated body. Fefar couldn't care less what happened to his body and path moving forward, all he could think about was getting out of this now.
He had to make it out alive, too many poor and unlearned people relied on him and his leadership. He latched onto that thought, giving himself enough strength to react.
He knew full well that without him, he wasn't so sure his bandits, The Big Cats, would make it out alive from the horrific situation they found themselves in. An army of Orcs larger than any he had seen in his lifetime barreled down towards them as they sat here posturing and posing. They hoped to somehow get into the city and use its walls to have even a chance to survive as the smaller bandit groups began to filter in.
They had not expected the frickin King of the Colony himself to appear in their way.
And by the way Ioral reacted, they had no chance of surviving if they actually attacked, attempting to overthrow what seemed to be an arrogant man from the top. How could they have known the man himself was so powerful, the three of them using their auras in full force could not even garner a twitch much less a real reaction.
It made them more than desperate. Not for their own lives, but those they had sworn to do anything they could to help survive. Even if it meant enslaving themselves to someone as cruel and evil as a high noble.
"Bandits! We have to recombine our auras to stave off the fire! It'll kill us all if we don't get together! I don't know how you did it, but we all must join forces to survive!" The king's general roared. Her voice did not allow for even a hint of insubordination. A true and tried veteran of great conflicts.
She didn't even blink the entire time until she almost blew them away with how powerful her aura was for someone at the same stage on the Path as he was. Then again, it made sense she was a monster if she served an even greater monster.
For a few seconds, nothing had happened. Fefar even began to question if the others even heard her commands.
But then his brethren's familiar powers reached out to his. Using his gained skill from his Path, he combined them to one whole more powerful than any of their individual parts. It was holding up, but wasn't powerful enough to stave the flames off indefinitely.
That was until he felt ten other auras trying to blindly slam into his. They thought they would just combine like a slime would, Fefar felt insulted somehow. But, he had no time to continue on that train of thought. Without even thinking of the consequences, he allowed the men and women of the King's entourage to join him and his brethren.
He may not have liked it, but it was the best way to survive this situation.
Just as they melded together, creating a monstrous aura unlike any he had ever imagined himself, the flame started to back off towards the epicenter. It looked to rush back just as aggressively as it had tried to devour everything around it.
Fefar looked around as a cocoon of fire surrounded the King. It constantly swirled and rotated around him in a never ending cycle. It's heat only increased considering the distance, but what was worse was how bright it became. Too much for even his Path strengthened body.
"W-what happened?" Ioral asked, a quack in his voice. He was where he had been seated last, on his knees just like he was.
Everything around them was disintegrated. The pavilion was no longer in this world, probably nothing more than dust now. The area around them was completely blackened by the flames, and the closer you get to the King, the more glass and crystal like the ground was.
How this would happen, he did not know neither would he ever want to.
"Listen and listen well, maggots!" The King's general, Ash he recalled her being called, stomped towards them, forcefull destroying the link between them. "If my master had not wanted you as his, your deaths would have already been executed. Unlike my liege, I have no mercy. Swear loyalty or face the consequences!"
A plume of smoke rose from the walled village. In a streak of it, came a projectile in fury and anger.
A woman crouched with widened eyes and insanity lingering in her eyes. She wore long robes with at least five different colors on her shoulder. Even his uneducated self knew exactly what that meant.
A mage. Master of not one or three fields but frickin five!
"I-is this the sleeping dragon?" Lank asked. He was intimidated, something Fefar would have never imagined.
Ash laughed. She pulled out her sword and looked at them with a condescending look. "Your not worth my attention. How dare you think you are even a speck of dust compared to my master's sleeping dragon." She turned towards the lady who literally was growling at them. "Medulis! You finally come out of seclusion. It's been a while."
"I felt it! An Old One! It was small but I know what I felt!" She threw her head around without much care to her health. Then her eyes fell on the cocoon of fire. "N-no! My King! He isn't ready for something like this! We needed more time!"
"Medulis, calm woman. He is just entering his Path. No different than…"
Fefar felt his stomach drop. His body couldn't hold him up anymore so he laid down completely. The monster had yet to enter his Path…
Yet, he withstood their concentrated aura and then blasted them with a flame so powerful he could see it turning a dragon to ash.
All while he was nothing but a mortal body and soul.
The prospect of what the King could become had Fefar shivering in absolute terror.