“What is this pathetic sight?!” Lord John barked at his men. “How could you let a filthy vermin run laps on you like this is a chariot race!”

None of the knights around John dared to respond or even make a sound. They only stood in their place waiting for new orders.

John clicked his tongue before looking at the battle raging in front of him. The muddy ground was soaked in blood, both that of the beast and the humans. The clashing auras and skills pierced through the night and illuminated the forest.

“How many did we lose?” John looked at one of the men standing next to him.

The knight gulped before answering, “We have not made a proper head count, my lord. However, I believe that we have lost at least five squads.”

“That’s a third of the army we brought,” Lord John seethed and stomped on the ground. “In what world does this result make sense? We have auras, we have skills, how are their men stronger than ours?!”

“I believe that their stats are simply higher, my lord.” The same man that answered before responded once again. Just as the words left his mouth, he knew that he had messed up. The other knights looked at him with uneasy eyes while John’s anger only grew stronger.

“It is that fact that I do not understand, genius!” John’s facial muscles contorted as he glared at the knight next to him. “We have just won a war that cost us half our men! We killed thousands of those monsters, we should be the ones growing stronger, not them!”

The many sounds of the battle ahead was all that could be heard after John’s rant; all of the knights just looked forward at the battlefield with stiff expressions and postures. The sight of multiple men all stronger, taller, and more muscular than John standing in terror was almost comical. However, no one dared to laugh.

The count glared at the knight that made the mistake of responding to him before, “So, do you have any answer to that question, genius?”

“No, my lord. I do not have an answer, my lord.”

John raised an eyebrow before continuing in a low voice, “Huh? Interesting. It seems that you’re not as much of a tactical master as I thought you were.”

After bullying the knight for a bit, John looked at the battlefield in a happier mood. Even after losing more men, the tides had shifted in favor of his army. The red bear was growing weary, and it would breathe its last at any moment.

“At least we can recoup some of our losses by killing this ugly beast. The power and the achievements that we will gain from it must be tremendous.”

John then looked at the knight he had been bullying before with a smug face, “Moreover, that lord system we have been promised by these gods, it is only natural that I am the one to acquire it. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes, of course, my lord,” The knight hurriedly nodded. “Only you deserve to be in possession of it.”

“Well, maybe you do possess such wit after all,” John laughed. However, just as the knight started laughing alongside him, his expression shifted and his eyes became cold. The knight immediately gulped and broke eye contact, focusing instead on the battlefield.

Time quickly flew by while the battle raged on. With each minute that passed, the beast accumulated more wounds on its body. Soon, flesh started giving way to bones, while thick blood flowed on the ground like some cursed demonic porridge.

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John chuckled, “It seems that our win is all but assured now.”

However, just as he was gleeing at his future victory, a bright orange light grabbed his attention from within the dark trees. With incredible speed, the orange and white dot grew bigger in his eyes before he understood what it was—a fireball.

“Shields!”

Two of the four knights that surrounded him immediately walked forward and activated their spells. Two small walls made of mud and earth merged into a big one that blocked any incoming attack, or so it should have.

Fire erupted with a massive explosion and destroyed the massive wall as if it was made of dirt. The two knights that were in front were immediately caught and burned by the raging flames while John’s pupils dilated at his incoming doom.

“Save me!”

With his cry, the two knights that were next to him immediately changed their expressions. Their faces transformed from ones of horror and existential fear to being expressionless. Their eyes glinted with a golden light, but there was no life behind them, their pupils were hollow.

The first knight jumped in front of the explosion to mitigate its damage even by just a little bit. On the other hand, the “genius” knight pushed John away and blocked the flames with his body.

His expressionless eyes stared at John for a second, before he fell to the side. His back melted from the flames, showing charred flesh and protruding bone burning with orange and white fire.

As the inferno took shape and raged on around him, John hurriedly scurried away. He pushed himself back with hands and feet while his face contorted with a primal ugly fear.

“Floyd! Raven! Protect me!”

Fire ate away at the grass and roots at a shocking speed, cutting off the noble from the rest of the army. Soon, it reached the trees, and only then did the armageddon start. Burning trees fell on top of others, spreading the fire further and growing its intensity.

Seeing his life in danger, John immediately started running back, without thinking of his men beyond the flames. At that moment, he only wanted to survive.

* * *

“Good shot,” Alfonse high-fived Roy, before the latter laid down on the trunk of a tree, exhausted.

As the fire started spreading throughout the clearing and reaching the trees, the knights backed off the beast slowly but surely. One squad after the other ran to the side of the forest that was not yet engulfed in flames. If they dallied any longer, they would be all burned to death, even if they ended up killing the red bear.

“Let’s go and wipe them out,” Jack said with enraged eyes. “It’s time to get even with those motherfuckers!”

“Let’s fucking go!” Hassan was about to unsheathe his sword and charge in when Marth stopped him.

The captain took a deep breath and looked at everyone, “This is just my advice and I’ll do as everyone wants, but I think we should not chase them.”

Everyone looked at Marth with confused expressions, before Jack grabbed at his collar and growled, “Why? Those fuckers killed Parker! They even killed your boy, Conrad. Why the fuck do we not go for them!”

“If we chase them, we’ll all burn in the fire,” Marth replied without much of a change in his expression. “Right now, we should focus on killing the red bear. Hawk can snipe them from above without much trouble.”

Jack glared at Marth with wrathful eyes for a few seconds while Alfonse tried to calm him down. Finally, he smashed his fist on a tree root, crushing it. “Fine, we’ll do as you say.”

He then looked at Hawk and said, “Make sure to fucking kill them. Get them for us.”

Hawk nodded with a serious expression, “I have five arrows left, you’ll get five heads.”

The archer then climbed up the tree next to him better than a monkey could. In just a few seconds, he was already at the highest sturdy branch he could hang on.

Marth looked at the rest of the men and said, “Okay, on the count of three we’ll charge in.”

“Wait,” Roy let out a weak protest. “There is no need to risk it.”

He then looked at Alfonse and asked, “Open my backpack. Give me that blue potion.”