After giving a streak of fire to the magician Dimas my group was escorted out as they saw no reason why we should be there. Our opinion is useless to these important people and the fewer people in the room the fewer witnesses you have about what will be discussed in that room.
I doubt any of those nobles would want a rumor to get around that he is willing to sacrifice soldiers or adventurers to avoid risking the lives of more important people, another accurate rumor for any noble's fame and that he wanted to abandon civilians because he would be very troublesome to get them out of the city that can be attacked by the terribly powerful beast.
The fewer people in the room the smaller the chance of something like this happening and if it does the suspect list is quite short. After we were removed from the room, we were escorted to one of the guards' stretching units which is vacant.
With no more reason to stay awake the whole team went out in the comfortable stretching beds, well Zephyr had been out for a while so he was only moved from the couch they were sleeping on to a bed by Gloria.
I don't know how long we slept, but when I woke up with a start, I saw the reddish light of the setting sun. I really feared that the city had been attacked by the alpha beast, but by the lack of noise of death and destruction betrayed I could relax to find the city was at peace.
When I climbed the wall looking for any sign of a battle on the horizon, I was surprised that everything looked normal. No booing nor black smoke rising to the sky, a storm, signs of battle the only thing striking and out of place and the very small mountain on the horizon that was where the alpha beast leveled up and one black mountain compared to the others mountains in the landscape.
After admiring the calm and silent landscape for a few minutes I turn around to see Hilda and Alice. Looks like I'm not the only one curious to find out what happened to the alpha beast, and it's obvious it's no longer in that region.
I wonder where the owl went, but I'm sure it must have left a trail of destruction wherever it passed.
When the three of us were going to make our way to the cafeteria a black figure was blocking our way, when I say black and the most direct description of the warrior in front of us, his armor was black and basic, black hair, black aura just like his shadow element and finally his skin was as black as the rest of his clothes.
If he wasn't being the target of direct sunlight, I think he would have gone completely unnoticed, even if he stood out like a black flame in my eyes.
"Sleep well? You must get out of here as fast as possible to the training ground full of teleport matrix. There's nothing bad going on with you guys, but your likeness here isn't a good reminder of what's happening to the townsfolk."
"What is happening? We don't know what happened during the last few hours."
"I know, but that doesn't change what I said before. Many soldiers will lose their comrades and their likeness here will make them remember or even relive this horrible event that just happened."
"Follow my orders kids, when we leave here, I'll tell you what happened during the last few hours."
"Of course, sir."
After returning to the room, I finally managed to identify this guy's level, his aura resembles the power of a red core warrior, but as he is completely fused with his shadow element the color of his aura is black. This is the first time I have seen something like this, I wonder what kind of training or process he had to go through to be able to unite his aura with his elemental energy in this way.
It didn't take long for the whole group to be a few steps away from the teleport matrix, along the way I saw several soldiers and guards with downcast eyes and even a few who seemed a little off. Something really bad happened with the onslaught of the city's troops.
When we arrived back at the training ground, it didn't take long to find ourselves in one of the large tents waiting to be interrogated or briefed by some of the examiners.
"That gentleman was quite different, do either of you know who he was?"
To my surprise, the answer did not come from Alice or Hilda, but Zephyr who only saw the dark aura warrior quickly and for a short time.
"He must be part of the shadow guards, and amazing that he was used in this way his unit tends to stay out of the public eye or even the common or low-level nobles."
"There really shouldn't have been any more nicks that the examiners could have asked to transfer the message or it was his decision to get an agent out of town before something bad happens. The unit of shadow guards has a great deal of autonomy in the field."
"What is a shadow guard?"
"I only heard a few of them because my father had a childhood friend who joined this unit. They go through terrible training that has dire side effects and those who stick out and move on to the next levels of training can hardly be considered human after that, with many rumors that the strongest shadow guards don't even have a normal identity anymore, they say that their faces and appearances can be changed as they like, even their aura level can be modified for the sake of their mission."
"Stay away from them and don't ask any more questions about them. Just get into trouble with that kind of person and ask them to get into trouble."
How exciting, but a dangerous element in my life, but from the fear I could see in Zephyr's eyes, he is more afraid of the people responsible for transforming these guards than the shadow guards who survive these trainings.
My thoughts were interrupted when a familiar figure entered the tent with a folder in his hand. Medri Forceti sat in the chair across the table and I smile reassuringly.
"I don't know if I should believe you guys are lucky to have survived or should I think you guys are pretty unlucky to be there in the first place. I believe that all of you should be fully aware of what kind of danger you will put yourself in."
"First we'll sort out your quests and then we can have a more informal chat, you'll complete two quests and report back on events and provide the realm with a taste of the alpha beast's mana. Great contributions in a time of need, and of course you will all be rewarded for your achievements, but before I go to that I must say that you will not be penalized for the last mission you will take."
"This is because the village that was being besieged by the possible magical beast no longer exists. They were unlucky enough to come close to the path of the alpha beast that has now been dubbed the howling deadly storm, I don't understand why idiots who are so fond of giving nicknames to powerful magical beasts that kind of nickname ends up becoming or are adapted to the legendary titles attributed to powerful magical beasts that kill thousands or millions of innocent people."
Medri takes a clear stand against giving prestige or glamor to a magical beast that becomes famous for killing innocent people.
"What happened to the alpha beast? We are out of date with what has happened in the last few hours, we were moved here shortly after waking up."
"It's normal. After you went to bed the town mayor together with the leader of that branch of the guild created two groups, one of them with adventurers and high-level soldiers to serve as the main fighting force against alpha beasts and the second to assist them during the combat."
"That was a big mistake, thousands will die without even being able to have a chance to contribute to the fight against the alpha beast. As you know the owls have a very strong and deadly Aryan attack, they use both the wind and lightning element to create their domain, the alpha beast is no different it released a massive amount of mana, elemental energy from both the lightning and wind element during combat."
"The elite group barely survived while the second group that was furthest from the combat was completely destroyed, the soldiers who will find themselves in the domain of the magical beast have been targeted by its rivers and will die miserably without even being able to resist."
That explains the faces of the survivors, seeing thousands of comrades being decimated instantly destroys anyone's spirit, the city can even collapse when the surviving soldiers process everything that happened.
Seeing a magical beast easily decimate its companions as if it were nothing and something devastating, but that was only the beginning of the battle. I'm really curious what happened to the elite group.