(Zack)

I allow myself to drop, falling rapidly into the path of the party. At the last moment, I stretch out my wings and glide, landing in a light run while coming to a stop. The guests prepare to attack me, the pair of Dark Knights holding out their swords as the Paladin manifests a barrier in front of the main warrior, the old man they're protecting during the journey.

Tucking my wings against my sides, I hold out a hand.

"Fireball," I say, and a dozen Fireballs form around me, then soar around the small party, slamming into hastily-erected Barriers, breaking all of them before striking their targets.

The damage was diminished to negligible, but that doesn't matter. So long as they know I'm not their enemy and the others know I'm not their ally, I'm good with that.

Drawing my sword, I lunge forward, flapping my wings once for a boost of speed as my feet leave the ground once more. Quicker than the guests can track, I'm past them, Zack's Blood drawn and cutting through a barrier, then into the stomach of the closest mage. Just as quickly, I withdraw my sword and spin cutting off his head as my tail stabs into another mage's neck.

Someone attacks my wings, and I snarl, twisting in the air as my feet touch the ground, then I lunge forward, my sword cutting through several erected Barriers. As if something so pathetic could actually stop a sword as powerful as Zack's Blood, especially when swung with as much Strength as I have.

I reach the mage who had shot the Fireball at my wings, and my free hand punches through his chest, grabbing his heart on its way. I release his heart before withdrawing my hand, then I behead him for good measure.

A series of spells strike me from the side. Fire, water, ice, lightning, air, magma, and magical missiles. Zack's Blood absorbs most of that, and the rest simply splash across me. Not many Adventurers in the Boundary have over a thousand Willpower, and mine's a quarter that higher with my current form. It will take them using stronger spells to actually bring me harm.

Turning my head in the direction of the attacks, I send a chilling glare to them, one filled with all the power of my Intimidation. It freezes the ten mages in their tracks, giving me enough time to take off again, soaring over the ground. I behead one with my sword, then another with my foot. I wrap my wings around myself to block a Fireball. Jeez. Be creative, you fuckwads.

Spreading out my wings once more, I soar up into the sky and check the location of my guests, who are still charging towards Maelnor, this time with only four mages chasing them as the others focus on me. That's good, even if other mages are going to chase as well as we battle. Partly to save their own hides, partly to kill those who know they're coming.

I drop towards the front of the group of mages, crashing through the Barrier that was manifested in an attempt to stop my drop. I land on one of the mages, my boots crushing his head into the ground. A flick of my wrist sends my Zack's Blood knife into another mage's chest, and a bit of telekinesis pulls it back to me.

Taking a moment away from the fight due to an idea that formed, I hold out a hand and pull on the mages chasing the guests. More specifically, their feet, causing them to fall on their faces. Then I yank, causing them to fly towards us a bit. That's all I can focus on for now, but it should help the guests a bit better.

Twisting around, I smack the Lightning Bolt to the side, taking a small bit of damage from that spell. It's a stronger one with a few Levels put into it, causing it to have some effect. Not enough to paralyze me, though.

With a flap of my wings, I'm soaring forward once more, slicing into the mages with my sword. By now, they've realized they need to use their stronger spells if they want to hurt me. Spells with higher Levels and training, and with higher Ranks if possible.

No matter. All that does is make me even stronger due to Blood Frenzy, but I really don't need that. These aren't monsters, they're Adventurers, and they die quite easily. I sense a few meteorites – much smaller versions of the Meteor Skill – coming at me, and twist, cutting through them with my sword and flicking the halves towards the mages.

A step, a flap of the wings, and I'm in front of the one who used that spell, my palm striking his face with enough force to smash it into a mess of blood, bone, brains, and whatever else is there. A quick glance, and I see that the mages are spreading out.

No matter. I can round them up easily, but even if I couldn't, they'd still be easy targets for me.

The rest of the battle goes much the same as before. They can barely hurt me without using powerful Skills that drain a bit of their Mana, and the spells that do hurt aren't a bother to me by much, even as my Health starts to near half. Meanwhile, any I draw close to dies, and while some of them are fast, having likely taken on rogue Classes at some point, none are fast enough to escape a Level 501 Eidolon.

It only takes me a full two minutes to kill all fifty-two that didn't get too far from the field. Only four others actually managed to continue after our guests, but I'm pretty sure the Adventurers in the neutral zone were successful in taking care of them.

Looking around at the bodies, I smile.

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Loot time!

I feel my tail flicking around in my excitement as I loot the dead. Not everyone can store money in their Inventory, since its size is determined by their Level. In addition to that, they have goods on them! Potions to drink quickly without needing that second-delay for the Inventory, talismans, and more!

Nik will probably make me give at least some of this stuff up, but I'm definitely keeping the money.

After I finish looting things, I look at the wagon, where the beastborn slaves are looking at me in fright. A quick check shows that like most beastborn, none of them are allowed to wear anything, since they aren't 'people'. Wait, one has a loincloth.

Well! They're going to get some clothes once the Dark Order gets them.

"Hi!" I say, and the beastborn all flinch. "I'm Zack! I'm not an enemy, and… yes, I am that Zack. Hi! Oh, that's because I'm using a Skill to change my form. Watch!"

They're a bit confused because I don't look like 'Hero Zack', so I disable Eidolon form. That doesn't make me any less bloody, but it does make me look like me again.

"See?" I say. "It's a new Skill of mine, and it's pretty fun. Anyway, if you guys want, you can serve the Dark Order now. Perks include the ability to take regular baths, eat three meals a day with some snacks between, clean clothes to wear, a warm bed to sleep on, and even some spending money. Cons include having to listen to Gold, since he's sort of in charge of the servants of the Dark Order in Maelnor. He's a dog beastborn.

"By the way," I look at a cat beastborn who looks around my age, his hair a dark grey. "Are you familiar with a hyperactive wolf beastborn who calls you 'Kitty'? Just seeing if you're the one he's mentioned or not."

His mind immediately conjures up an image of slave-Max.

"Yep, that's him," I say, and everyone's eyes widen. "Wait, did you guys only just realize I could understand you? I even responded to your thoughts when I first started talking. Anyway, I'm now naming you 'Kit', because that sounds cool. I'll make sure Gold knows it. So that beastborn is free now, and his name is Max. He's also on my team, and he misses you. I'll let him know you're here once you're settled in."

Kit immediately freaks out, and I can tell he's afraid. Yeah, that's probably because Max and him did have a sort of antagonistic relationship, but I'm sure Gold will keep a lid on things. Plus, I don't blame Max for wanting to stay dry and pushing Kit into the rain so that he could hide under the bench.

They can't get settled into the order if we're just hanging out here, though, so I use my power of sight to check the neutral zone. All is well.

"Alright!" I pull on the wagon with my telekinesis. "Let's get you guys to the others."

I summon my Eidolon Wings and start flying, making sure to not go too fast, for the comfort of the beastborn, but fast enough that it doesn't take a few hours to return. It only takes me about twenty minutes, and in that time, the beastborn wonder among themselves if I'm really Hero Zack and if Gold really will be in charge of them.

We reach the neutral zone, where the four mages who had chased are guests are dead, our guests waiting for us here, having already been healed up by the waiting Adventurers. One of the Dark Knights has his helm off, and he gives me a disapproving stare.

"Did you really loot the corpses?" He asks.

"Theodore!" I exclaim. "Your armor's different!"

"I had new armor made," he tells me. "Seriously, Zack?"

"What?" I ask. "It's not like they were going to be using that stuff anymore."

He sighs.

"Nik said you'd probably do that," he tells me, and I shrug. "These were their slaves?"

"Yeah," I answer. "Oh, right, I didn't remove their collars yet."

I do that real quick, startling the beastborn who can't even keep up with my movements, then drop all the collars at Theodore's feet.

"There you go!"

"You have way too much energy," he says.

"That was, like, a warmup to me," I grin at him. "The monsters in the Experience farms put up more of a fight."

I walk over to the old man and look him up and down. His elemental merges are pretty strong. Around as strong as those on Nik's team, which means those five are going to look damn good when they're this guy's age. He looks like he's seventy or so, even if a somewhat-fit seventy.

"I thought Adrian was the oldest person in the Boundary," I say. "But then I find out from Nik that there's one who's even older?"

"Yes," he smiles. "My continued life isn't known to many. Nik hand-picked the people for this job, choosing only those who knew I was still alive for it."

"What's it like, being nearly a thousand years old?" I ask.

"I'm only seven hundred and fourteen," he says.

"Close enough," I shrug. "You're old enough to have seen more than a hundred Cities fall. I heard you've even fought in a few of those battles, before you retired."

"That is true," he tells me. "This body might be a warrior's, but it is still aged and suffering from problems that come with that. This is the turning point in the war, however. If we win this battle, it will be our first success in thousands of years in the war. The first time a City has been successfully defended. I am not going to let that happen without my own contribution. Every additional fighter will increase our chances of success."

"Yeah," I smile. "You're not going to be fighting with your sword though, are you?"

"No," he gives me a sad smile. "I have learned the hard way this body does not like to fight that way anymore. Time is not kind to such techniques. I am not without spell and support Skills, though, and will provide support that way."

"Where will you be staying?" I ask. "While you're here?"

"In the Dark Temple," he answers. "I was a Blood Priest at one point, which is why I never became a Paladin or Priest, so I'm able to enter it. It will give me the lowest chance of being discovered until we want it known that I am alive and here."

"Alright," I stretch. "I suppose I'll travel back with you and the beastborn, so that I can get cleaned up. Don't want my team seeing me covered in blood. They might have figured out the reason we're here, but… best not to remind them that I'm the incarnation of hell itself."

He laughs as the Scholar not supporting the two Illusion Walls approaches us, one of the Dark Knights pulling the wagon. The Scholar creates an Illusion Wall wrapped around us, then we travel back to Maelnor at a quick pace. I want to hurry over, but I'd rather not use Conceal just to do that.

I want to see the beastborns' reaction when they meet Gold, the First System Beastborn, as they're apparently calling him. Among other things. Plus, they all seem to be in awe of me, now that they've realized I really am Hero Zack, and their awed expressions are fun.

So is Kit's expression when he sees Max fighting. Oh, right. Gold's here…

Well, their reactions at seeing him are amusing!