The members of the Crimson Caravan ran like a wild pack of animals. Their leader gave them permission to attack and kill if they had to. They were planning to capture them alive and use them as slaves.

"Archers, next volley!" Karkus didn’t hesitate to order the next wave of arrows to strike them down. Despite the friendly way the human had talked, he sent his men to attack and kill without a care.

It was obvious they came here with the intention to capture the pix inside and use them as slaves. It was exactly as Silas warned him.

"Hold the line, soldiers, the reinforcements are coming!" He screamed loudly to make sure the enemy heard him, but they didn’t care.

"Oh, reinforcements, how nice. But our reinforcements are here too. Come out boys!" From the bandwagon, several more members of the Crimson Caravan jumped into the sand; they were using all kinds of weapons and trained beasts at their sides.

Hungry dogs and wolves, poisonous snakes, and fearsome monsters that looked like a crossbreed of a bear and a lion with spiked hair that could pierce armor.

Karkus understood immediately the difference in power, but he couldn’t let his people fall into despair. "Defend the wall!"

The arrows rained down on the army, but they only had time for three volleys before they reached the walls. Their weapons could harm the cloth they were using as armor, and they repelled the first few attacks.

The man noticed the quality of their equipment. "You can try to pretend you’re alone, but those weapons and armor can’t be made by anyone. You must be getting supplies from someone. Or maybe the Rock contains more minerals than we expected, and they began to mine it before us?"

"Agh, too much thinking. I’m just going to ask him after we take over."

The wave of enemies didn’t end. There were dozens of soldiers pouring out from the bandwagon, along with animals and even elementals. By this point, they had started to lose terrain.

The dogs mauled a pix to death, and the air elementals broke down the wall with small tornadoes. The sand elementals engulfed the soldiers and drained the water from their bodies, leaving only dry corpses. Karkus crashed into the wall as the bear-lion creature stabbed him in the gut and sent him away with his claws.

"Uf, uf," he was bleeding in the abdomen and his vision was blurry. "Hold the line!" Despite his pain and the deaths of his people, he was determined to defend this place.

If we fall here, they could also attack our homes back in the forest. We aren’t going to let others take our land or kill us for food anymore!

"Raise your weapons and fight back!" He charged back at the beast, and then…

A gunshot was heard in the desert. It came from inside the tunnels. It wasn’t a single gunshot but multiple ones. The attacks were halted, and the pix pushed back the dead bodies of the invaders.

"It looks like the one I was looking for decided to come of his own volition." The gaudy man had the same smile as he watched the guy walk over the corpses of his subordinates with a gun in hand.

"Are you with the Crimson Caravan? Do you not care about your subordinates' lives when you throw them around like this? Answer me!" Jacob was furious.

***

This was the second human he met in more than a year after Silvano. He couldn’t help but compare the two of them.

Silvano, who shed tears as he explained his experiences and his loneliness. He saw real emotions on Silavano's face as he recalled the ones that died for him. Looking at this man, it was clear he didn’t feel anything for his subordinates.

"You aren’t going to even spare some feelings for your companions? You're the one who attacked us and threw them to their deaths!"

"Hey, that’s pretty hypocritical; you’re the one who killed them. If it bothers you so much, then just lay down your weapons and let us put collars on everyone. It's that simple. If you collaborate, I can make the pain shorter instead of dragging everyone into a pointless fight."

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The man had no intention of stepping down or ordering a retreat. The subordinates kept attacking and releasing beasts.

"Bastard!" Jacob shot them on the spot; he unleashed a barrage of bullets over them. Because of his late arrival, some of the people defending the entrance died. He wasn’t going to let more soldiers die here.

His attack speed stopped the army and bought them time to regroup. They had shields and armor, but his bullets pierced right into the weaker parts. It became clear that the weaker troops couldn’t fight him.

He didn’t waste time and shot right at the man's leg. He wasn’t going to kill him; Silas probably wanted to interrogate him. "Stay still."

Three bullets hit the man right below the knee, but instead of blood, a window cracked.

"What?" The air turned into some sort of glass. There was nothing around the man’s leg, but it definitely stopped the attack somehow.

"Oh, you think I’m going to just stand here without any protection against your power. It looks you can just shoot that gun. Sorry, an attack of that level is never going to pass my power."

The soldiers raised their bows and shot another volley, but the sky cracked once again. All around, the arrows stopped in the middle of the air as if they had struck glass panels. They were immobile in the air. The only thing they did was crack the air more, but the man moved his hand, and the cracks disappeared.

"See, I can protect all my subordinates without moving."

"That power, are you a Guardian?"

"Oh, you know about the classes too? You can’t possibly have learned that on your own. I’m giving you one last chance to surrender and accept my kindness. Tell me, who is the one behind this? Is it a group or an individual?"

"Still refusing to back down? I won’t tell anything to someone who just comes to yell orders."

He shot more times, but the invisible glass panel stopped every projectile. He tried to attack the ones getting closer, but it was the same. The man’s power covered everyone like a mantle. There was no blind spot. Every angle he attacked was rendered null.

Soon the army was back at the walls. He had no choice but to attack with more power. His gun shone under the sun and charged his more powerful bullets, but before he could attack, the sand broke and a bunch of plants trapped everyone.

"Huh? plants in the desert?" That was only the beginning.

A multitude of plants trapped the crimson soldiers and twisted their limbs in opposite directions. He could see the vines moving around, breaking his power like nothing. An explosion came from one of the tunnels; it hit a sand elemental in the face, turning his body into gray dust.

"Send the air elementals to block those bombs!" he ordered, and the soldiers followed. They whipped them in the direction they wanted, they combined their powers to make a tornado.

He saw a woman in the back shooting something that looked like a bazooka. "Don’t get cocky!"

He raised his power around the elementals and the glass exploded everywhere along with the fire. The inside was safe; not even a bazooka could pierce this barrier. He only had to wait for the tornado to grow large enough to send it over them. The wall would collapse, and they could enter the tunnels of the Rock.

The man smiled to himself but then felt a sense of loss. "What? This attack?" He could feel his power growing weaker.

"Attack from the inside, Emily. This barrier focuses on the outside, leaving the inside much weaker."

"Got it!"

Emily held his orb close and sent a magic wave right below the elementals. Plants sprouted from below the sand, and sharp thorns slashed the air elementals like paper. Just as Silas said the inside was weaker, a type of plant with a ramming head crashed against the barrier and destroyed it in a single attack.

"I knew it. You guys are working for someone."

"Wrong, we’re Dawn. You owe us an explanation for attacking our people." Silas took a step forward, accompanied by Emily and Nadine. "That color scheme, so you’re the famous Crimson Caravan. I didn’t expect to see a human with them. That four-arm freak talked us down in a very rude tone. We kicked his ass, so you better watch how you speak to us."

"What? You know about Se’ky? Is he still alive then?"

"Sure, he's our prisoner; we have him in a neat gift package for you. But you brutes attack us before talking, so maybe we’re just going to give back in small pieces." He was pissed about the attack at the wall and had every intention of upsetting him.

The man didn’t waste more time. "Enough. If you are responsible for what happened to Se’ky, then my two objectives are here. I don’t need to hold back anymore." He touched the gemstone in this collar, and it began to glow.

At the same time, the crimson soldiers made noise and yelled as their leader got serious. The air elementals reformed their bodies, and the beasts howled with excitement.

"Those things are more durable than they look. Did you steal his power?" Emily whispered at his side.

"Yeah, he’s definitely a Guardian. He can cover almost everything with his power. Without Franco, I don’t think we can break from the outside, so try to attack on the weaker side as before."

"I can try to immobilize him with my sticky bombs, but the problem is the sheer number of enemies." Nadine pointed to the enemy army.

Even the four of them plus Silvano, who was hiding in case of an emergency, would have trouble dealing with a player and an army of this size.

"They aren’t like the wild pix tribes. Their armor and weapons are of high quality. Combined with that guy AoE defense is going to be hard. Can you pierce the wall if you use more power, Jacob?"

"Sure, I can partner, but we need to do it in one hit. I haven’t used my full power. We need to take him down in the next shot, or he’s going to stay on the defensive for the rest of the fight."

"Too bad your servant is too big to cross Silvano’s portal; he could have killed them all on his own."

"His name is Meliae; how many times do I have to repeat it?" Emily was annoyed but stopped as the enemy was about to do something.

"As the Master of Ceremonies, I declare—"

"Stop David!" A man came from inside the tent.

"Master!"

"Let’s listen to what this Dawn group has to say."