"How much longer?"
"Ten minutes, monsters appear out of nowhere and halt our advance. We need to surround the area with fire, or else this won't work." Talon reminded Xerxes, who held tightly to his spear.
"Tsk."
Talon heard Xerxes click his tongue. He played with his spear and was boiling from the inside. Xerxes was being called by the flames, but Talon did not allow him to go any further. Talon's job in accompanying Xerxes was not only to help subjugate the Anarchy Lord but also to control the beast they were about to unleash.
'This plan's major hole is the chance that Xerxes going berserk after absorbing too much fire. He won't do much now, but everything will change once the fighting really gets going.' Talon looked at the fire crawling from one tree to the next.
The hellfire was about to be born, and Xerxes with it. Orthus and the other Controllers meticulously used the wind to spread the fire, and then the others chopped the nearby trees so the fire did not catch fire and spread it to other locations it was not needed.
The Rear Squad was observing the movements of the monsters with Artemis. When the fire began to find their jobs less taxing, they gathered near the main camp where the Attack Squad was with Xerxes and Talon.
"How is it looking?" asked Orthus, his breath showing a cloud.
"The Monsters are moving as we have expected. Some will try to escape, but the Rear Squad is controlling them… but something's weird." Artemis' eyebrows met in the middle.
"What is it?" Talon asked, wanting to know everything before they dive into action, 'I've memorized the information of every single Squad member. However, one crucial piece of data might mean life and death… I need to keep every single one of the Squad alive.'
"The monsters that are coming out are injured or bleeding. They are filled with fear and scrambling to escape… we don't know why yet. Whatever is happening in the depths of the Forest must be making everything go crazy. I have some thoughts on the matter." Artemis looked around and whispered, "Might be the Durandal fighting back."
"Could it really?" Orthus was unsure.
"I believe that's the most likely conclusion as well. The Phoenix is one of the Calamity-Monsters. If it awakens, then the monsters might react negatively to it."
BOOM!
"What's that!?"
"Oh no, is the Anarchy Lord awakening!?"
"Shit, are we too late already!?"
A clamor exploded when a white light pierced the heavens, turning the night into daytime for a brief second. It was so bright that everyone felt that they would be blinded. All but the four Squad Leaders were confused.
"Shit… the Phoenix is awakening, Orthus."
"I know."
Talon urged Talon to move faster, and that they did. Orders were given, and even the Rear Squad was tasked with spreading the fire.
They had to move quickly, or else everything would be all for naught. What would have been tens of minutes was reduced significantly, and they moved at first sight of a favorable wind.
Twenty-three elite people and two leaders, that's the attack squad.
The Attack Squad moved in unison, their steps together and their fervor rising. They met with injured monsters along the way, ravenous and insane monsters that showed their ferocity against the group of Knights.
"With me!" Talon shouted, and the others moved in unison with him.
The earth underneath the monster coming to them was lifted and then upturned. Talon, with three others, caught the monster on its legs, and then a red blitz ran through its body.
Szzzzzzzoommm!
The experience points, or rather the life point of the monster, were spread to everyone in accordance with their actions, and then Talon quickly led more and more of them forward and rushed through the entire Forest as fast as they could.
They were moving fast so they could rescue Isaac and stop the rise of an Anarchy Lord, and after a grueling fight, they felt the air change.
Their rough and hardened skin could tolerate the scorching heat of the fire. The monsters were overcome by sheer will and numbers, but their path was barred by pure and unfiltered will to kill.
Disgusting and malignant, as though a snake was crawling up their skins. It felt like a centipede burrowing on their skins and entering their ears. It was dangerous. They understood that. The earth was shaking, and the monsters roared in the land waiting for them.
Enter the Heart, and they would meet death, but they steeled their hearts with a roar and raced through the Forest to save a taken companion and stop a calamity from being born.
Yet, they were met with no danger, only a river of blood.
Pitter-patter their slowing steps went, their heart racing for what they arrived at was not an army of monsters but a mountain of dead bodies.
A mountain of carcass than a mountain of stones.
The stench of death rises with the black smoke, choking those with weak stomachs.
Sitting atop this mountain was a young man with a scythe resting on his shoulders, the young man they wanted to save.
Isaac held the black scythe and looked at them with a smile, "You came?"