Empeor Gerald sat beside the headless corpse of the peacock flamebird with his back against the wall. His whole body ached. Sitting down brought some relief.
He gazed at the undone parts of the boundary wall.
He whispered to himself, "That place should be patched up as soon as possible."
The cloud of dust and smoke that hung over the city was lighter but still heavy. One could see things about five metres ahead. However, the area where the emperor was was clear.
Thud! Thud!
Emperor Gerald heard approaching footsteps. Due to his high perception, he perceived that the people approaching were not enemies. So, he still sat relaxed.
A centurion of people in black clothes marched into the clear zone. Their gazes were searching. When their gaze fell upon the emperor and the headless carcass of the flamebird, the leader of the centurion became conspicuous.
The leader was an elf named Buckberry. He was a few inches taller than six feet. He had long black hair that ended at his shoulders. Like most male elves, he was handsome.
Buckberry said to the group, "Fifty men should take guard on the walls. Twenty should take guard on the ground. The other twenty-nine should go out and find survivors."
The group precisely divided themselves without discussion.
Buckberry and his men wore black tactical shirts and black tactical pants. They were members of the Camelot Special Operations Unit. Every special operations officer in this scene had a handgun resting in a holster hanging around their hip.
This handgun was called Pierce. Pierce was designed like a revolver. Pierce had high shooting power, making its bullet a dreaded entity.
The Camelot Special Operations Unit was not a publicly known unit. It was a secret unit. They were controlled by the emperor through section leaders.
A section leader of the Camelot special operation unit headed the unit on a city level.
Buckberry was the section leader for Brave City.
Buckberry approached Emperor Gerald.
The emperor noticed that the section leader's clothes looked relatively clean for someone who had been in the city during the attack. He became curious about Buckberry's previous movements before this meeting. His curiosity was apparent in his gaze.
Buckberry caught the emperor's gaze. He said in defence,
"We were in our underground office when the attack happened. No one reported to us until one of us wanted to get some air."
Emperor Gerald said, "Our home is in a vulnerable state. Go and stand guard with your men. We may fight another battle."
Buckberry left the emperor and went to stand guard with the twenty special operations officers.
Emperor Gerald could see that the entire blade of his sabre gleamed red. Any other person who could see his sabre at this moment would still see that it had a golden hilt and a silver blade.
The emperor held the hilt in both hands, with the tip of the blade pointing towards the sky. The sabre was before him, and the tip was slightly above his head. He calmly said,
"Absorb."
The red essence on the blade travelled from the hilt to his hand. The red essence was absorbed by blood vessels at his wrists. This caused the blood vessels on his arms to glow red.
This continued for almost three minutes and was over. The sword returned to its regular nature in the eyes of Emperor Gerald. He felt rejuvenated; his mana levels had been recharged.
The saber stole the mana in the body of the peacock flamebird after it had been beheaded by the saber.
Emperor Gerald got back on his feet. His whole body ached as he got up.
POW!
A red lightning strike struck the emperor, and he transformed into the Red Dragon.
The red beast ascended and flew in a direction at high speed. The momentum and flapping of its wings dispersed the cloud of smoke and dust. The dragon did this in various directions, and soon the city was almost rid of dust and smoke.
The red dragon slowly made its descent to the ground. When he was a jump away from the ground, he shapeshifted back to his human form and landed.
He stood guard with Buckberry and his men at the foot of the wall.
An hour later, a battalion of soldiers and a group of more than 100 masons arrived at Brave City from the city's western boundary wall. The masons had cement, sand, and other materials that would be used to fix the fallen wall loaded in carts dragged by donkeys.
The repair of the fallen wall began. The battalion of soldiers took up strategic positions around the wall.
Satisfied that there were enough men to defend the city, the emperor took a squad of soldiers and headed south of the city. They were going on feet. The bunkers that housed the evacuated civilians were located south of and outside the city.
[A squad of soldiers consists of ten people].
Emperor Gerald and the squad arrived before a cluster of stones outside and some kilometres away from the southern wall of the city. The terrain was a grassy plain. The average grass height was a few inches above the ankle.
"Drop your weapons and identify yourselves." Camelot soldiers who concealed themselves in the grass revealed themselves. They surrounded the emperor and his company.