“Buy time for the team to regroup. I trust that you can take on the injured beast? Just make time.” I said to Vernon.

“I can.”

“Okay. Rogan you stay with me.”

No way I’m going on this without a meat shield.

“I’ll begin…” I raised my left hand, and crimson translucent plates appeared beside me in great numbers, more than a couple of dozen.

With a wave of my hand, they flew forward like a flock of birds. Rogan looked at them with shock on his face, perhaps surprised that I was able to do such a thing.

Piece by piece, they stuck to each other until eventually, which only took a second, made a wall that blocked the entire road. The beasts stopped, confused by the blockade. Then they turned towards us, the orange one in particular stared at me intensely. It tilted its head, narrowing its eyes.

I then said. “Go, Vernon.”

And there he went to engage his target.

At the same time, the wall I made scattered, while several pieces vanished. They were not easy to make, and it was quite a struggle to generate that number. And to be honest, those were weak, if the beast had hit them, they would have broken pretty easily. But the purpose was not to hold them, but to make them pause for a moment, just to get their attention.

My scattered magical plates flew towards the orange beastman and began covering its body.

“What is this?!”

I slowly curled my fingers in, and as did the barriers began to close. I felt resistance. Normally, I wouldn’t need to do any gestures to manipulate the barriers, but this time I needed concentration. Both different colored barriers vibrated as they got closer and closer to each other, as did the beast itself.

The two barriers, his and mine, two repelling forces colliding.

The beast’s face contorted, the two forces causing the vibration must be hurting it. Heh.

But it was resisting, and it was getting harder to keep my plates compressed.

“Ggh…” I groaned as the two of us had an indirect battle. “R-Rogan, wait for my say and s-strike it with your lightning. Aim for its right shoulder.”

“Yes.” He clenched his spear tightly as lightning began to crackle.

The beast groaned before bellowing. “Enough!”

I split off a few barriers, flying their way to a certain someone. Then I subtly waved my other hand and poured in mana. The beast’s armor began to split apart into tiny pieces. I narrowed my eyes and held my breath, my barrier to its right shoulder shifted aside.

A second later, after the beast’s armor split into pieces, they glimmered a little.

“Go!” I shouted to Rogan.

With a thrust of his spear, a powerful piercing lightning was unleashed. A magic so powerful that they could demolish a knight right below his level, or perhaps turn a normal human into a pile of ashes. At the same time, the moment that he unleashed the lightning strike, the beast’s armor exploded.

With it, I dispelled the barriers, and at the same time, the pieces of shields I conjured from my free hand formed a wall in front of my knight, which protected us both.

The beast’s attack destroyed everything around it, but with it lacking any shields, Rogan’s lightning struck it cleanly and unhindered. I only saw a glimpse of it just before the dust obstructed my sight, but that was still a relief.

A few seconds later, the dust that filled the air slowly settled, my shields cracked, but still standing. But it was not easy to hold it, the beast’s attack was stronger than I liked.

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The orange beast kneeled on one knee after Rogan’s painful strike, heaving loudly. It was bleeding, but it was not fatal enough to render its arm immobile.

On the other hand, the other beast was spared from the explosion, it would seem the orange one can control which direction to direct its attack at. That being said, the dark beast was beaten up quite badly, wounds and bruises all over, its face swelling. Apparently weakened.

Wew, Vernon’s quite the badass.

Speaking of Vernon, he was not spared from the enemy’s attack. However, my barrier was currently protecting him in a bubble, to his surprise I imagine. Important thing was that he's safe.

All of my barriers vanished as I sighed.

And then, my men that were down before, charged towards the beastmen. The orange beast’s attack from just now could have reached them, but they were prepared and were able to defend themselves in time after they realized. And given the distance, the damage they would take would have been less compared to being in close proximity.

Chains wrapped around the dark beastman, restraining it.

“I’m not yet done!” The orange beast roared and threw magical slashes towards those coming for it.

At the same time, after a little more beating, magic disrupting shackles were locked on both the hands of the dark beastman.

The elite knight, Elson, after making some distance between him and the orange beast, spoke to it. “Surrender! Otherwise we’ll hurt your friend there, terribly.” he pointed his sword towards the other beastman.

The orange beast paused and turned his head to look at his companion. The latter had swords from the knights pressed to its skin.

The orange beast growled bitterly, then turned its head to glance at me for a moment. Then it lowered its hands. “Fine, I surrender.”

It was immediately bound in golden chains by a pair of priests and Elson went on to lock the shackles on both its wrists.

“You made the right choice.” said Elson.

“...”

It was supposed to be over now, where everyone can have a brief time of respite. However, on the far side of me, away from my line of sight, someone used the wind to propel himself from the ruined buildings and shot forward like a speeding projectile towards the dark beast. With a swing of his sword amidst the momentum, he slashed through the dark beast’s throat. The knights guarding the beast were stunned for a moment, processing what had just happened.

The stranger didn’t stop there, however, and immediately went after the orange one, but Elson clashed with him. Sparks flashed at the impacts of steel. The stranger immediately backed away from all his enemies.

Aaaw, one died. A shame.

Needless to say, what suddenly interfered was an elf. Wow, he was waiting for the right moment, a round of applause!

The orange beast’s eyes were wide in shock. “Yuro!” then he turned to the elf. “Elivar! You bastard!”

“I hope you understand, Evry. We can’t let you get in the hands of our enemies.”

“...” the beast, Evry, glared at him. However, lowered its eyes a second later. “... Of course… but Yuro…”

“Do not be sorry for him. But that’s not important right now. I will also kill you.”

My men went on to attack him, but the elf waved his hand and dozens upon dozens of thorny vines rose from the ground to attack them. Not any normal soft vines, but sharp and robust. Still, that must have cost a sizable amount of mana.

Then I sensed the gaze of the living beast pointed towards me.

Hm?

It returned its eyes to the elf.

“Not yet Elivar! We can still do something meaningful!”

“What?”

“That one right there!” it used its chin to point at me. “She smells funny!”

Hey! That’s rude.

“I recognize it from the festival. It’s the scent of the Princess!”

Vernon immediately returned to my side.

Elivar turned his eyes towards me with wide eyes. “The princess? Here? Unbelievable. You were here this whole time?” he grinned widely. “Hehehe… Hahahahahaha! Finally! You are here before me!”

“Elivar! We must take her down together!”

“Hahahahaha! Very well!”

All the vines shot towards the men guarding the orange beast, mixed with a storm of sharp winds, knocking away all in their wake. The golden chains that bound the beast vanished. It stood up and grasped the shackle in its left hand.

“Restrain it!” Elson shouted.

But Elivar suddenly appeared right next to the beast and drove away all that was coming.

The beast pulled the left shackle, his muscles straining. “Aaaaaah!” He pulled with as much strength as he could muster, and the shackle broke apart. With the other one free, he went on to pull the right shackle.

Haaaaaah.

I internally sighed.

I sure now wish I had my daggers. But… well…

The shackle broke, and the beast threw them away. Orange barriers appeared to protect it. “We make this quick, Elivar.”

“I know…”

“Protect Vogue!” Elson shouted, and both the standing knights and priests formed a perimeter to protect me.

“Vogue…” Rogan whispered to me. “We should retreat.”

Retreat? Hm… Yes, that is a sensible decision. But, retreat where? These two appeared to be willing to give their all, even their lives, to kill me. With the orange beast as the tank, it would only be tiring. But I guess keeping my distance would be the better option.

“You two, protect me.”

Then, the vines rattled and formed a perimeter around the two non-humans.

The elf then loudly declared. “Princess! Today, you will fall!”

Who the fuck are you to tell I’m gonna fall?

How annoying. Why couldn’t people just shut up and give up, hm? If they did, this would already be over.

But I guess rats fight back when cornered.

Still, this pissed me off. I hate it when things get harder.

“Take care of them.” I said to my soldiers.

Let us pray that I don’t need to face these little cubs myself.