Elijah and his minions exited last and were greeted by the sight of Erik standing next to a group of three men bound by earthen shackles. They were all unconscious and Aric was already in the middle of slitting their throats.
“Let’s take care of their main camp now.”
Chapter Begin
A few hours later Elijah and Root stepped out of the shelter Elijah had created for himself inside a trunk. It was night by now and he looked down to see the other three where he had left them before his short nap.
Aric looked up as Elijah began making his way down to their branch. “Good morning princes.”
Elijah snorted as he landed next to them. “What’s the plan?”
“As we have discussed.” Kael nodded at Aric. “He will shoot burning arrows onto their roofs.”
“And you’re sure the roofs are flammable?” Erik interrupted Kael, leaning forward.
Elijah nodded as he thought back to his encounter with the fire mage who was probably the enemy leader. “Even if not, we still can simply clash head-on with them,” Kael suggested.
“Elijah, You and Erik are going to take care of the enemies who try to reach us,” Aric said as he got up. “We should start soon while it’s still in the middle of the night. Some guards are walking around the wall, probably because of your invasion last night, but they shouldn’t pose a problem.”
“What if our plan doesn’t work?” Elijah asked. He was unsure of how much use their simple plan would be against a whole camp of enemies. Wouldn’t it be too easy if they defeated them simply by shooting arrows at their camp?
Erik put his hand on Elijah’s shoulder. “Then we’ll improvise. The camp is full of Tier 1. Don’t get me wrong, but even you managed to invade their camp and get away despite being only Tier 1. They’re probably absolute newbies.” Elijah tried not to be offended by Erik’s comment.
“If it weren’t for the war with Serpent’s Embrace, we would have met way more resistance here. But compared to the threatening non-existence of the guild, the fight for a newfound rift is secondary.” Aric said before he clapped. “Just relax. We’ll take care of this real quick and then we’ll be on our way back to Whisperwind.”
“Fine.” Elijah relented after he saw how convinced the three were of their tactic. They descended to the ground together with Erik who began creating a several-meter-tall wall around the tree their friends were on. Elijah also created numerous wooden spikes on the trunk, making it challenging to climb the tree. While their enemies could climb other trees and reach Aric and Kael from higher ground, they would make sure that no one managed to do so.
Minutes later, Elijah could see the first blazing arrow shining in the night sky. The arrow shot forward like a bullet as Aric was strong and skilled enough to shoot it at the camp in a straight line. Elijah couldn’t see quite clearly from this distance but he was sure he saw one of the arrows hitting a guard after the original arrow multiplied into three different ones.
He looked upwards to see a flame flickering in Kael’s hand while he handed Aric the next arrow. Another arrow shot forward, multiplying into three and landing in the camp. They continued for half a minute before Elijah could see and hear a reaction from their enemies. By now several buildings were burning and the fire was spreading fast.
Aric kept firing one arrow after another and it looked like a rain of flames as the arrows continued to multiply mid-flight. Elijah even saw a few arrows shooting through literal walls made of wood and stone before they landed.
The whole camp was awake within five minutes and the first group of Cloud Raiders was already rushing toward them as the rest tried to extinguish the flames.
“Elijah, can you throw me toward the camp?” Kael called from above as he jumped down from branch to branch. “Aric will keep shooting arrows but I want to spread the fire inside the camp. They have a few people with fire abilities who contain the fire.”
“You shouldn’t go alone,” Elijah answered as Kael landed next to him. “Throw me anyway. I want to prevent them from doing anything against the fire.”
Elijah nodded before they left the perimeter of the forest behind. Several enemies almost reached them, but Aric slowed them down by shooting occasional arrows in their direction. Seeing all the enemies in front of him reminded Elijah of last night when they all pursued him and he was running for his life. The tables have turned.
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He enlargened his hand more than he had ever before while Kael and Erik shot fireballs and earth projectiles at incoming enemies. Elijah’s gaze lingered on his hand for a second as he took in the strange shape he formed it into before he told Kael to sit down on his hand. He already struggled with his balance because of the huge hand but the problem only worsened with Kael’s additional weight. “Ready?”
“Throw me.” Kael negated his weight with his [Weightless] skill and nodded. Erik started laughing at the sight of Elijah catapulting Kael towards the enemy camp as the two of them traced Kael flying through the air. “You’re so weird, Elijah.” Erik continued laughing as he sat down on Elijah’s hand as well. “Throw me too.”
Elijah laughed in response as he sent the earth mage flying above the heads of their enemies. A few of them tried to intercept their flights but either an arrow from Aric or a skill from each of them prevented the enemies from intervening.
Elijah reformed his hand and followed them on the ground together with Root. The enemies started laughing and the nearest one called out. “Aren’t you the bastard who ran away just yesterday?”
He didn’t get an answer as Elijah’s arm exploded forth, burying through the man’s body. The sudden death of one of their friends surprised the other Cloud Raiders and they increased their pace, their minds set on murdering Elijah. A few even started shouting things about revenge and Elijah’s mother but he ignored their furious insults and started taking them down one after another.
In the distance huge blasts of fire told Elijah that Kael was fighting against the enemy leader while Erik was already taking down one building after another, adding to the chaos that ensued in the camp.
Enemies were shouting left and right as Elijah and Root arrived at the wooden wall he had slipped through before. This time, Elijah made no effort to remain undetected as several enemies were already on him. Root jumped at one of them and overpowered him in a matter of seconds as the other three tried to hit Elijah with their weapons.
Elijah threw his mace at a woman to his left who wielded a hatchet before he lunged forward to bury his fist into the liver of a man. The third enemy, a tall man wielding a longsword, tried to hit Elijah from behind but Timber suddenly shot forward, dragging down the man’s sword-wielding hand. Elijah made good use of the opportunity his minion provided him and pulled his mace towards himself before he crushed the enemy’s head with a swing.
Timber returned to Elijah’s arm while Root stood next to him. The action of his minion slightly surprised him as it acted without an order. He killed the surviving man and woman before he continued deeper into the camp. This time Elijah didn’t travel across the rooftops. He even had to take detours as flames blocked the paths through the camp.
Enemies continued to attack him on sight but Elijah took care of them as he followed the trail of destruction. He could even see dead bodies burning inside the flames. It was a gruesome sight.
Despite the cover Elijah pulled over his mouth, he started coughing minutes later. The heat was unbearable by now and he hadn’t seen any enemies for a minute. A hut in his vicinity started collapsing which was the cue for him to get away from the camp. No need to take unnecessary risks.
He stumbled through the debris as sweat trickled down his brows. His eyes began stinging and visibility worsened with each passing moment. Fortunately, he wasn’t far from the edge of the camp and found himself outside the settlement a minute later. Root surprised him when it suddenly lunged forward, smashing its fists into an enemy Elijah hadn’t noticed. The man cried out in pain as more surrounded him.
“We’ll kill you, bastards! This whole mission was supposed to be easy money and now you fuckers came and destroyed everything!” A burly man shouted as his fist flew toward Elijah’s face. The man seemingly didn’t care about defending as his guard was wide open. Elijah took advantage of it and dodged the strike before he landed a kick in the man’s side. He could hear ribs breaking as the man fell to the ground, overwhelmed by the pain.
Elijah couldn’t suppress his coughing while he fought against the other enemies. On his orders, Timber stayed out of the fight while he and Root took care of the six remaining enemies Most of them were only wearing undergarments or parts of their armor so Elijah had nothing to loot after the fight was over.
“Elijah! Root!” Erik’s shouts reached him before Elijah could see the man. He was entirely covered in dirt but grinned from ear to ear as he approached them. “Most of them are dead. I destroyed their spatial formation. We’re done here. Let’s look for remaining enemies and regroup with Aric.”
“What about their leader?” Elijah asked between coughs. “Dead, Kael took care of him. He’s spreading the fire to the last part of the camp. Why do you cough so much, are you so sensitive to that little bit of smoke?” Erik said and laughed while slapping Elijah on the back. “Get yourself a potion from Aric later, can’t have you dying from inhaling too much smoke.”
“I will,” Elijah said as his head began aching. “Why aren’t you affected by the smoke?”
“I’m used to Kael making a mess of the battlefield and used dust from the ground to push the smoke away from me.” He demonstrated his tactic as he continued. “And I covered my mouth and nose. We started from the opposite side of the camp where the fire hadn’t reached yet so I was only exposed to a similar amount of smoke as you for a few minutes at the most. Probably.”
Elijah only groaned in response as they began scanning the surroundings for leftover enemies. They started their search in the opposite direction of Aric’s position and split up to cover both sides of the camp before they met again at the side of the camp Aric could see. Elijah’s headache passed after around ten minutes but he continued to take in deep breaths while he went through his side of the camp.
Thank God Kael and Erik got here before I did. They have defeated the majority of the opponents. A few enemies survived but he took care of them easily before he arrived at their starting point. Erik arrived together with Kael five minutes later. They spent the next twenty minutes extinguishing the fire to prevent more damage to the forest and leveled the whole settlement after burning all corpses.
Aric joined them halfway through the process and clapped his hands as the last flames died out. “Let’s get off the island now.”