- Age Nineteen Kyron Loeth -

“It's not her...” Kyron breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his tensed shoulders.

A shadow wolf had leaped out of the bushes in front of them and stared at their group, looking as equally surprised as they were. It stopped for a couple of seconds before quickly fleeing in another direction.

“It ran away?” Elicia asked, bewildered.

“Let's go. Remember— they move in packs.” Celeste reminded, and took the initiative to lead the way back to the tower's entrance.

“...Right. Sorry, I was startled.” Kyron apologized as he and Elicia followed behind her.

“You've already fought so many mana beasts at the wall and a shadow wolf startled you?” Elicia teased beside him, hovering her hand over her lips and chuckling.

“Yeah, something like that...” Kyron replied with a somber tone.

Elicia wrinkled her nose at the unexpected apathetic response and dropped her hand. She straightened her posture and looked in another direction, disappointed that she didn't get the embarrassed reaction she'd hoped for.

A minute into their walk back to the tower entrance, Elicia called for their attention,

“Hey, do you guys feel that?” She asked, stopping in place to have a feel of her surroundings.

“Feel what?” Kyron inquired, while Celeste glanced around for anything unusual.

“Something— There it is again!”

Elicia bent down and placed her palms on the ground, closing her eyes as she gathered mana while releasing it through her hands.

Celeste and Kyron both wore puzzled expressions. What was she talking about? They both thought before feeling a wave of mana pulse through the soil beneath their feet.

“This is bad...” Elicia muttered, and stood up with a grave expression.

“Spreading mana through the earth and detecting tremors along the ground, you were scouting?” Kyron was intrigued, “What did you see?”

“A large number of magic creatures running towards the forest's outer area.” Elicia answered. “—Along with heavy vibrations coming from the central area.” She added.

“That is bad! We better get back to the entrance, fast!” Kyron exclaimed, and brought up the rear in case a magic creature appeared from behind as he urged the two girls to sprint back to the tower's entrance.

A few minutes later, they reached a staircase leading up to a wide platform. After making their way up, they were met with the clamor of a large group of people.

“What's going on?” Elicia asked.

“These were the people who were in the forest like us.” Celeste answered while observing the crowd. Some were injured, some frantic, and others confused— none of them had a grasp of the situation.

“They must've run into some of the magic creatures you mentioned.” She spoke towards Elicia, and thought about how lucky they were to not run into any beast aside from that one shadow wolf. She noticed Kyron being silent and turned towards him.

He wore a serious expression and was looking, not at the people gathered around, but at the forest down below. Suddenly turning around, he marched to a spot overlooking the forest at the edge of the platform.

“Hey! Where are you going?” shouted Elicia, and quickly followed behind him along with Celeste.

Kyron didn't answer. Instead, he took in a deep breath, “SOLDIERS!!!” He yelled, his voice loud enough to reach the outside of the tower. He startled the two girls by his side and silenced the crowd. After a brief pause, he continued,

“FALL IN!!!”

At his command, more than half of the people quickly gathered in front of him and as if clockwork, began to form ranks. A few of them first stood in a line on the right side of Kyron and each shouted out,

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“Squad!!! Fall in!!!”

One by one, people started lining horizontal to their initial line, filling in their squad numbers.

The two girls gawked in front of them. Not even a minute had passed and the disorderly flock had transformed into an organized regiment.

Spotting their reaction at the corner of his eye, Kyron almost let out a smirk but held himself back as currently, he had assumed a commanding position. After the ranks had finished organizing and the last man had entered a squad, Kyron inspected his troops.

“Veterans!!!” Greying hair, wrinkles, aged but fit bodies— old men who had retired from the fierce fighting at the wall.

“Retirees!!!” Missing a hand, a limb, or wearing a patch over one eye— men who had been forced to retire.

“Students!!!” Like Celeste and Elicia, wearing their academy uniforms, they were a majority of the group that did not join the ranks and stood to the side.

“We have a situation occurring in the forest! One that might devolve into a stampede!” Kyron shouted.

The veterans and retirees put on grim expressions while the students murmured amongst themselves, confused.

“What's a stampede?” Celeste jabbed Elicia lightly with her elbow.

Elicia winced as she was suddenly hit at a sensitive spot, she replied while shrugging her shoulders, “No idea.”

Their exchange reached Kyron's ears. For them and for the students, he decided to give a brief explanation, “Just like at the Erden wall, a lot of magic creatures might come flooding out the forest.”

“But the magic creatures have never approached the tower entrance, what do we have to worry about?” Someone from the crowd of students blurted out and was reprimanded by a harsh “Shush!” by his friend beside him. Although most of the students thought the same, they didn't say it out loud.

From the group of people lined up in front of the ashen-grey-haired man, however, none had spoken up. The clamoring down below from the beasts approaching the outer area was enough to convince them. They were all too familiar with the sound. Coupled with the authority brought by the color of the man's hair, they didn't feel the need to ask questions and just followed orders.

“That may have been the case before,” Kyron answered the student, “But do you all see what's happening around the central pillar?” He asked, referring to the cloud of mana visibly forming around the tower's central pillar.

“You only see that phenomenon inside Arinndra's Forest. Along with the uproar of the magic creatures, I'm pretty sure a stampede of mana beasts will occur.”

The students were alarmed by his words.

“What!? Why is this happening!? We need to get out of here!”

“Won't it be bad if they manage to get out of the tower!?”

“My house is near here, I have to go get my sister!”

They finally understood the gravity of the situation, as well as the reason for the grim expressions of the people in front of Kyron.

“They're not helping.” Elicia muttered. She massaged the bridge of her nose firmly as she became irritated at their whining.

Celeste felt the same, she was of a mind to walk up and smack some sense into them, but Kyron waved a hand to stop her.

Gathering a small amount of mana, he whispered to the girls, “Cover your ears.” before performing a simple act imbued with the element of wind.

A loud clap was sent towards the direction of the students, forcing them to hunch down and raise their arms to cover their ears.

“The few of you that know how to use those weapons you have in your hands, fall in line!!! Those that feel they cannot stay and fight against the stampede, go outside now and look for people who can!!!” Kyron reprimanded.

Some of the students quickly and gladly left, running straight for the exit. Some stood up trembling, but steeled themselves before following the veteran's examples and started forming squads.

Celeste noticed a handful of students that were left behind, wanting to help but too frightened to join the fight.

“Celeste, Elicia, you two take those students to the academy. Call for some of the instructors and ask them to reinforce us.” Kyron instructed.

“Backup?? Although I want to stay and fight, it can't be helped if someone needs to call on reinforcements.” Elicia said indignantly, but her actions spoke otherwise as she had already started to walk towards the hesitant students.

Celeste followed suit— agreeing with Elicia's words, but not her intentions.

“Hey, you guys! Follow us to the academy to call on the instructors!” Elicia reached the students and commanded, crossing her arms while slightly raising her chin.

The students looked at her with uncertainty and didn't move. They'd seen her earlier beside the loud unruly-looking man up front, but for some reason didn't feel inclined to listen to her orders. They shifted their attention to the girl arriving behind her.

Striking red hair and crimson eyes, coupled with her calm demeanor— She looked more of an authority figure than the black-haired girl. Wanting to hear if she had anything to say, they stared at her in silence and awaited orders.

Celeste— seeing that they were not moving into action—didn't stop and walked directly past them. She didn't want to waste time and decided to go to the academy, even by herself.

The students were a bit dumbfounded as they were met with silence but swiftly followed after her lead.

Elicia, left standing there by herself, cried out while stomping her feet, “Don't leave me behind!!!”