Karak watched the city guard as his left hand tightened around the heft of his spear. They moved to arrest the people he had pointed out earlier, each of them having already passed the line they could approach without authorization.

They listened to him, because at this point, almost half of the city guard members were ex-Dawn Hammer members, preferring the easy life of a guard to the constant, daily struggles of a guild member, their life split between hunting dangerous monsters out of the walls, and fighting in dungeons.

When Euon allowed them to resign, Karak was one of the few who tried to argue against him. After all, they used precious dungeon slots and even more precious skills. No other guild would have allowed them to leave without paying a humongous punitive fee. That time, when Euon chuckled and said some things were more important than money, Karak assumed that it was Euon being softhearted again…

Just like the time he decided to help Karak after he lost his right arm.

However, as he watched the guards follow his orders during an emergency without even checking in with their superiors, Karak finally understood what Euon meant. Sometimes, favors were more valuable than anything else.

He gave another signal, and Mahruss and a squad of elites charged forward, breaching the headquarters of the Night Blades. With most of their members already arrested by city guards, they failed to put up any resistance.

Karak watched from a distance, not joining in on the action. "It's weird, right?" he murmured.

"Your Perception is getting very annoying," Jertann said as he stepped out of an alley. "You ruined my entrance."

"You should ask Euon to train you on it along with accounting," Karak teased.

"Oh, was your arm preventing you from speaking all along," Jertann countered. Karak smiled, but that didn't prevent him from feeling surprised. He never would have believed that they would have felt comfortable with their problems. Him, with his loss of an arm. And Jertann, with his persistent anger problems, keeping him back from the fighting.

Karak grew up with him and knew exactly how hard it had been for him to stay back and deal with the logistics while everyone else fought at the frontlines.

Karak had no doubt that, had it been anyone else trying to teach Jertann about holding back while everyone else got stronger and stronger, he wouldn't have listened. But, it was different when it came to Euon. Jertann respected him enough to listen … and after months, he was finally calm enough to watch the battle from afar.

"A great challenge," he admitted, pausing to catch his breath.

A red flash in the distance, near the walls of the outer town, pulled him out of his thoughts. "Cultists. Follow me," Karak said and started to rush toward the explosion. Mahruss was busy with the headquarters, but they still had another hidden team for emergencies.

"Organize the civilians," Karak told him once they arrived at the outer town, near the build-up of destruction mana. He waited at the edge even as he used his Perception to understand what they were trying to do.

Karak hated cultists, but that hatred didn't mean he would barge forward without thinking and potentially cost the lives of civilians.

He knew how terrible that was from firsthand experience.

The mana started to get denser and denser. "Everyone below level sixty: To me!" Jertann declared, his voice echoing. He lacked Charisma stat, but that didn't seem to matter as everyone gathered around him. For all his faults, he had always been an excellent leader during emergencies.

While Jertann organized the retreat, Karak coordinated with the hidden forces, planning to wait for their arrival before barging forward.

But, the buildup of mana didn't allow that. As it grew, Karak recognized the structure. A summoning array. If he waited for the reinforcements to arrive and support him, the summoning would be complete.

It was time to rush forward solo. He tightened his hold on his spear and activated it, using his meager storage of mana, and rushed forward.

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The moment he burst into the courtyard, he found himself facing a crowd, counting thirty, standing alert as they surrounded a mage who was busy with the summoning ritual, protecting him. "Work quickly," the leader shouted as he moved forward to engage Jertann, and five soldiers split and followed him.

The rest quickly closed ranks.

Karak tensed even as he raised his spear, taking note of their movement. Watching them, Karak quickly came to a conclusion. With the exception of the mage maddened by destruction mana, they were not cultists. They were too disciplined.

If it wasn't for Euon's teachings, Karak would have thrown himself forward, hoping to take the summoner down before the ritual succeeded, hoping that his sacrifices would be worth something.

But, after working for a long enough time with Euon, he had learned one very important thing. Details saved lives. It was especially true for him with his Perception. Rather than retreating, he pulled to the side, watching the way his enemies reacted.

The leader chased him, and the four soldiers followed, but the others were slow to react to his presence. A weak variant of command skill, Karak determined immediately. Four of them followed him fast enough, but they weren't that strong.

Merely around level forty.

Karak couldn't help but give out the ghost of a smile for a moment at that thought. Just months ago, he would have treated level forty as a barrier he could never bypass. Now, he was ready to engage with thirty of them, led by a knight with his own command skill, all on his own.

He continued to circle, forcing the formation to react to his presence. As he kept moving, their formation got messier and messier. For once or twice, he clashed with the knight, but he pulled back before the other four could surround him.

Yet, during the clashes, he never revealed an ability higher than Expert Spearmanship. He could have killed a few if he used his Master Spearmanship to the limit, but if he did so, the rest would only pull back tighter.

With every clash, he let them push him back more, doing his best to suppress his unnatural terror. It wasn't the first time he was facing Destruction mana, but it was not a feeling one could get used to easily. As the mana density got stronger and stronger, so did his fear.

He pushed that primal fear to the back of his head, his brain working hard trying to come up with an approach. He just needed one opportunity. One distraction …

It came in a familiar form. Jertann.

"Surprise, bastards!" he shouted as he barged forward, his hammer glowing brightly as he rushed forward. With their level difference, Karak was confident that he was considerably stronger than Jertann. But, he wasn't above admitting that, with his tall and thick stature, swinging a huge hammer, he made a more intimidating sight than a thin, one-armed man.

Just for a moment, their attention strayed. Karak trained with Euon for too long to miss such an opportunity.

He rushed forward, his spear glowing even more intensely as he did his best to aim true. A stab to the arm, even from a mana-imbued weapon, could be recovered from.

A stab through the eye, much less so.

Karak ran at full speed, the gallop of his spear delivering death. A second was all he needed to stand in front of the cultist mage. He dodged the predictable blast of mana arrow easily and stabbed the mage in the head.

Then, he stabbed his enemy twice more just to make sure he was dead. Cultists were hard to take down.

"I thought you weren't supposed to fight," Karak said with a rare chuckle as he reeled back after hitting the defensive line from the back, half of them not even aware that the mage they were protecting was dead, and stood next to Jertann.

"I didn't want to leave poor little Karak alone," Jertann chuckled. "Just like old times, right?" he said.

Karak stood next to him. "Yes, just like the old times."

"Kill them," their commander shouted, realizing that their ploy had been ruined by two people. Without the need to protect the mage, they were far more dangerous. Alone, Karak would have died. But, he had fought together with Jertann since they were able to walk unassisted, and their coordination was impeccable.

Having extra abilities didn't mean that they forgot how to fight together. They just had better options. Jertann charged forward, Karak supported from the side, his spear unerring… They fought, dodged, bled…

But, merely a minute later, the remaining forces started to run away. "Well, it was fun," Jertann said as he breathed hard.

"Yes, it was."

Only then, Karak noticed a cloaked figure on a roof, watching them. He tensed up. Even during the fight, there was no way he just missed him. So, it was either an assassin, or a mage.

Either way, the mysterious enemy was confident enough to just watch them rather than ambush them, which was not good news.

"Who are you?" Jertann asked.

"Don't worry about it, young Hero, I'm a friend," the figure said as he looked at Jertann, not paying any attention to Karak. Which, unfortunately, proved to be more than just arrogance. He waved his hand, and a dozen mana bolts appeared, taking down the escaping enemies.

Another wave, and Karak found himself frozen. And, the blue glow around Jertann suggested that he was treated the same. The cloaked figure floated down. "I have to admit. It was smart of Zolast, tricking everyone to convince them that the Hero is dead, when he was just here, safely hidden under everyone's noses."

Karak wanted to ask exactly what he was thinking, but the spell prevented them from speaking. The figure cast another spell on Jertann. "Interesting. So, a calamity seed devours the Divine potential. I would've assumed it would overlap, but maybe the old man still had some tricks."

Then, he turned to Karak. "Once you wake up, tell Zolast that Bertnam sends his regards…"

With that, everything turned dark, leaving him at the edge of unconsciousness, alone … and most importantly, with a lot of questions.