Evan was in disbelief. If he was even nearby, he would likely be demolished by the coming impact. He might be able to protect himself if he made a dome around himself and hardened it by flooding the rune of hardening enchanted on his strings with mana at the last moment, but he was not willing to test that hypothesis.
In the first place, if the SSS-rank were to be further simplified into four levels, he would only be at the first, Noah would be at the third, and the dragon at the fourth, the peak. Being the same SSS rank, he only barely met the qualifications to participate in this fight, but there was still a wide gulf between the two others in this fight and himself. As much as he wanted to be more bold in his efforts to help Noah, he knew that letting go of caution would get him killed in this fight.
Ideally, more fighters would be roped in to help Noah here, but even someone like Ariel would not be able to participate here even as a newly born Sovereign, since a low circle Sovereign would only be at the peak of SS-rank. The one other SSS-rank they did have needed to be placed on standby as a necessary precaution in wars of a magical nature.
His lacking power considered, Evan prioritized caution, proceeding to turn around and rapidly place some distance between the falling calamity and himself. In the meantime that the dragon would take to fall, he set up strings once he reached a distance sufficiently far away from the two. After all, the reason he was able to exert such great prowess earlier was since the previous area had already been rigged with Evan’s strings long before the confrontation. Without those strings in this region, he would not be able to do as much.
He was able to prepare a bare minimum amount in just a few seconds. Once done, he perched on the top of a distant tree and watched the mountain fall. He couldn’t help but comment on the majesty of the sight.
“The distance between the two is roughly five hundred meters…a distance that would appear incredibly large for any other falling entity. But when it’s a beast as massive as a dragon, it looks to be falling a small distance in slow motion. It really puts into perspective how truly massive the dragon is. As for the matter of Noah’s survival, he could probably just transform and run to escape this predicament, but I suppose he’s likely waiting to transform at the last minute to summon as many thunderclouds as possible before the rate at which he’s able to do so is reduced post-transformation.”
The air displaced by the descent of the deity of the skies roared in its rage. Tempests of wind bore upon the ground, announcing the arrival of a great figure by bending every tree backwards and sweeping smaller trees away in its entirety. In the center of the rampaging winds was the only figure suitable to be its rival, the deity of the seas. Despite fighting outside its domain, the spirit of the beast of the sea was not deterred in the least in its mission to call upon thunderclouds, as if refusing to submit under the skies peacefully.
A mere fifteen seconds was all it took for the beast to fall, but these fifteen seconds seemed to stretch to an eternity’s length of time.
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And then.
Impact…
…Never came?
—
Over a dozen kilometers away, two men floundered amidst a roaring ocean of darkness, an ocean currently in extreme tumult, following the movement of earth that vibrated like a guitar string. The earthquake had significantly increased in amplitude after the jump-launch of the dragon.
“Charles! Get us the fuck out! We can’t fight in these conditions! The earth’s too fuckin’ shaky!”
“I can’t teleport, sir! The mana in the atmosphere is in disarray! Without the stability of an isolation barrier, An element of unpredictability will be added to spells, and the higher the circle of the spell, the more-”
Another imp appeared out of General Drell’s blindspot, and he screamed at Charles as he swerved to avoid it.
“Summarise, dammit!”
“I can’t control the teleport destination!”
“Tsk! Figure something out or we’ll die right here, dipshit!”
“S-sir, I-”
The eyes of General Drell, who had been looking at Charles begin to babble, widened into twin circles. Right behind Charles, an Alpha Direwolf, a creature on the same S-rank as a wyrm and General Drell himself, had made its abrupt appearance. Only a handful of these creatures existed ont eh side of the monster force, but these monsters alone each made for a hundred monsters alone. By General Drell’s judgment, the canine beast was a foot taller than LT. Charles.
General Drell was able to draw such a quick comparison between the heights of the two for a singular reason. The jaws of the direwolf, that had sprung out of the ocean around them with no warning and supreme speed, had already surrounded the right side of LT. Charles’ head.
The barrier would be unable to protect the clamp of such a powerful beast’s jaws. On instinct, General Drell shoved LT. Charles to the left with a forward dive, allowing the Alpha Direwolf to clamp down on the entirety of the left side of his torso instead.
At this point, time felt like it slowed for LT. Charles, who had been shoved out of the way. With widened eyes, he looked into the eyes of the man who had just made a sacrifice for him.
“Live a long life, boy.”
The eyes of the General closed in acceptance of his incoming inevitable demise. He had lived a long life at this point up to the grand old age of fifty, and giving it up so that the boy he had taken under his wing could live to see another day did not bother him. Rather, this was the way he wanted to go out. Not as an old man, but as an old man who raised a brave man. If anything, it slightly bugged him that he had been unable to witness the sleeping talent within the boy bloom, but he was proud regardless.
The Alpha Direwolf's jaws fully closed, and blood sprayed onto LT. Charles’ face. His horrified eyes froze, and so did his body. The barrier around him flickered and died under the weight of his crumbling emotional state. He could not even bring himself to tilt his head to look away from figure of the direwolf tear the body of his father figure to shreds.
"...Dad..."
All he could do in his hazy mind was to do what had been drilled into him in training when faced with a dangerous situation in battle.
‘FIrst Circle - Red Flare!’
In under a second following the dissipation of the barrier, under the blinding scarlet light of the flare, countless other jaws, claws and beasts snapped towards him in a maddened fervor. Just as he was about to perish as well, a blue flash cut through the red. It left corpses in its wake as it darted towards him, and brought him to the safety of the backlines.
Across the wide battlefield, a keen observer might have spotted these occasional blue flashes, a light that seemed to appear out of nowhere once chaos struck the battlefield as a result of atmospheric mana becoming irregular. The blue flash prioritized the red flares of distress, but seemed to also make an appearance to others in need of help.