Navin pointed at Ethan with a wing and his body was covered in a light crimson flame, eliminating dirt residues and sweat.

Two seconds later, the flame was gone and Ethan was completely clean, even his clothes looked neater than before.

“Master, I could just take a bath, you know?”

“Baths are for relaxation. To cleanse the body, fire is the most effective.”

This cleaning flame ability was something very useful that got rid of the bad smell, bacteria, dirt, and practically any foreign substance on the body.

But Ethan still liked to take showers and baths.

“Besides, you don’t have time for taking a bath, hurry up and change your clothes, get ready for battle.”

Ethan opened his eyes in surprise but did as he was told.

He pulled clothes out of his Spatial Ring; a white undershirt, long sleeved dark blue shirt with silver lines forming runes, black pants, blue socks, and black boots.

These clothes were one of various sets his Master had given him when they were hunting beasts in the desert yesterday, they were enchanted with protections and enhancements for the body.

After getting changed in a hurry, Ethan leaned out the window and Navin pointed to a cloud of rising dust in the distance.

Ethan enhanced his sight with Qi and almost fell out the window due to the surprise.

The dust rising in the distance was due to a stampede of monsters. There were hundreds of them, mad blood-thirsty beasts running towards Lauhr City.

“Have the people in the city noticed?”

Ethan asked, if they hadn’t noticed yet, then they must be notified immediately.

“Yes, they are gathering people and preparing the defense of the city, this place is filled with Monster Hunters, they will manage the situation.”

“Should we help them?”

“If you want to, you are free to do so.”

“Master… you could flap your wings and those monsters would be gone, right?”

“Yes, I could.”

“Then jus- “

“No.”

Ethan was taken aback by the curt reply.

“Why?”

“I am not a god, Ethan. And definitely not their god. I am also not responsible for them and I’m not obligated to solve their problems for them, much less one they can solve by themselves.”

Ethan was silent for a moment before replying to his Master.

“Then why did you make me get ready for battle?”

“Because you have the right to choose whether to help them or not. Just as I can choose not to intervene, you can choose to fight.”

“I see…”

So his Master was giving him the chance to help the people, even if his Master wasn’t planning to get involved, Ethan guessed if he got in a dangerous situation then Navin would interfere and save him, it made no sense to let his Disciple die.

“I know what you are thinking, kid.”

Navin said and made a toy hammer appear out of thin air, he proceeded to hit Ethan on the top of his head with it. The hammer made a funny noise upon hitting, though it didn't hurt him at all.

“You are not going to get yourself half-killed to make me intervene, alright? If you get beaten by the beasts, I will take you and fly away from here. So think a better strategy if you want to help to save this city.”

Ethan gave his Master a little smile and a dry laugh.

“Was it that obvious?”

“Quite a bit. Now come on, before you go fight those beasts there’s something I want to show you. I’m going to teleport you to the sky, be prepared.”

“Oh, o-okay…”

With a thought, Navin teleported with Ethan to the sky above the city and both floated there.

“Whoaa!”

“I warned you before teleporting.”

“You didn’t give me even a second to prepare!”

“Hey, don’t be like that, this isn’t your first time teleporting and also not your first time flying. Anyways, the horde of beasts is coming from the northeast, but there’s another threat coming from the west, look.”

Ethan stared reproachfully at his Master but still looked to the west, where his Master was pointing. There was a group of 10 people standing at the top of a dune their backs to the city as they stared into the distance.

Navin was pointing to something ahead of that group of people, but there was nothing else in sight.

“The real trouble is this.”

Navin said as he continued to point at that empty space, then something happened. As if it were the waves on a lake, a barrier dissipated, revealing a group of hundreds of soldiers galloping fast towards the city.

“Those guys are the real danger to this city, they are an advance party full of elite soldiers. While they don’t have the strength to take this city normally due to the City Watch and the Monster Hunters, they are taking advantage of the beast horde to attack the city.”

The soldiers raised shouts of surprise and astonishment as the expensive concealment spell they had used was dispelled, they were discovered before they expected.

However, they were seasoned soldiers, so they continued their attack, it was time to start, there was no time to waste.

“Then what now?”

Ethan asked from their vantage in the sky.

“Now you do as you please, I just wanted to show you the whole picture. Will you fight the monster horde or will you fight the soldier battalion? It’s your choice.”

Ethan silently pondered his options. He wasn’t confident in either choice.

Sure, he had hunted beasts yesterday, but that was a controlled situation with his Master help, now he couldn’t let himself fail or his Master will take him away and the people here won’t get help.

His Master had said the city and its people were in danger, but not that it was inevitable that they would fall to the beasts and the invaders. But Ethan felt he could help, so he wanted to help.

The second option wasn’t easy either; if he fought against those soldiers, he was likely to lose; they were professional soldiers while he had only a couple of days of training, no matter how superhuman he felt, there was magic in this world, those guys were superhuman too.

Besides, Ethan was not a murderer, and he didn’t know what he would do once he killed a person. He had spent the whole night inside the Mind Space training constantly, destroying the dummy, but that was it, that wasn’t murder, that was breaking a doll, not a living person.

The vivid memory of mutilated corpses on the street sent a chill down his spine.

There was only one choice then, he would risk it with the beasts.

“The beast horde, if we can solve the situation there, then the Hunters can go back and help defend the city from the invaders. Who are those guys that seem to be waiting for them, Master?”

“They are a Prince and a General of this country, accompanied by 8 escorts. They plan to fight the invaders and buy time for the Hunters to solve the monster horde issue.”

“A prince? Then why doesn’t he go into the city and defend it from the safety of the walls?”

Now that he thought about it, Ethan wondered why the Hunters were going outside of the city to fight the horde instead of repelling them from the fortified walls of the city.

It was kind of dumb to go outside if they could stay in a safer position.

“The walls of Lauhr City are filled with magic wards and were built to withstand beast hordes, they would also be effective against an invading force trying to take this strategic spot communicating with the Desert.”

“Then why are they going outside?”

“Because the walls are malfunctioning right now.”

“What!? At such a time? Were they sabotaged or something?”

“Oh, you have keen insight. Yes, a spy within the city sabotaged the mechanism that activates the walls, it will take them a couple of hours to repair it. That’s why they are taking the battle outside of the city, to prevent the weaker population from getting hurt.”

Even if the city was known as a place filled with hunters and strong fighters, there were many people who were not fighters, a society could not survive with only warriors, after all.

“What about the spy?”

“He was caught and imprisoned, some hunters are interrogating him right now.”

“I see… well, then. Master, please take me to the beast horde, I will help the hunters to fight it off.”

“As you wish, feel free to go wild, your clothes should keep you safe from most damage, but don’t go receiving attacks blindly, ok? And make sure to always protect your head, keep your mind cold even if your heart is blazing. I’ll watch the results of your practice with meditative training.”

“Master, will you really not help?”

“I am helping right now; I’m even sending my own disciple into their fight despite this conflict having no connection with us.”

“You know what I mean, Master.”

“Yes, but I am not going to fight for them, ‘flapping my wings’ as you put it to kill these beasts will only bring unnecessary attention to you and they will start being a bother trying to know how we did it.”

“Then… if there was a way for you to help without killing the beasts, or without being noticed…”

Navin stared at Ethan's eyes, and the young man was sure that his thoughts were crystal clear for his Master.

“Ugh… okay, Ethan. Tell me your plan.”

“Thank you, Master!”

“This kid… I feel like I’m teaching Adeline again…”

“Who?”

“Never mind, I'll tell you later.”

They disappeared from the sky as Ethan started discussing his idea with his Master.

Prince Amir’s group had noticed the presence of the invading battalion due to General Jiten’s instincts, and an observation artifact had confirmed the approaching soldiers, but they were surprised by the dissipation of their concealment.

“Did something happen there? Their concealment went off.”

One of the escorts asked another while carefully watching the approaching battalion. They were already at spell range, the battle was imminent.

“It’s possible their spell just finished its effective time or the magicians who supported it ran out of mana, but that’s unlikely.”

“Maybe they decided they didn’t need to hide anymore once they saw we were waiting for them here.”

“Either way, our objective does not change, prepare to engage. Remember, our goal is not to kill them, but to hold them back until the Hunters arrive after taking care of the monster horde. We can eliminate them then, but for now we must save strength for a protracted battle.”

Prince Amir interceded and gave his orders.

“Yes, Your Highness!”

“That said, there are some things where we can’t be stingy about, launch large-scale magic, Anwe, Rufus!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Two of the prince escort stepped forwards, holding staves in their hands, they were the only two mages in the team. Despite their melee combat prowess, they had trained in combat magic but magic was not their main focus.

They both raised their staves and chanted their respective spells.

“Arise, sands of our land! Gallop the winds and unleash your force unto our enemies! [Sand Storm]”

“Roar, thunder of the skies! Gather, spirits of lightning! Come forth and strike down my enemies, [Lightning Tempest]”

Anwe’s Sand Storm spell and Rufus’ Lightning Tempest spell were unleashed one after the other. The first covered the invaders, hitting them with great force, even making some of them fall from their horses, it also made them blind to the second spell.

Lightning fell into the group, striking many. However, their mages reacted and managed to cast magic defenses, protecting the invading force.

In the middle of the sandstorm, the commander shouted

“Keep going forward! This is just a short duration spell; it won’t last long! Charge!”

Before he could charge with his men, he heard noises of pain and horses’ neighs, the enemy had slipped through his ranks using the sandstorm as cover.

“These damn desert rats! I will kill you all!”

With sand hitting their faces and entering their eyes, and strong winds blowing in their ears, it was difficult to find the enemy.

Shouts and sounds of explosions due to the mages’ spells were all around them. By the time the sandstorm spell started to lessen its strength, there were over 50 soldiers of the invading soldiers lying dead on the ground, with many others wounded.

General Jiten was specialized in fighting multiple opponents at once, and with his ability to summon and throw many spears he was the main contributor to this result.

They had wanted to focus on those who looked like mages, but they could not get them all, they didn’t have it easy when fighting people in the middle of the sandstorm either.

30 mages, 14 archers and 6 cavalry soldiers dead, 250 more to go. It was a good start for Prince Amir and his team, but the enemies were strong and outnumbered them 25 to 1, the real fight started now.

Each of the Prince’s escorts threw numerous black spheres to the enemy soldiers.

“Now, Rufus!”

Amir shouted and Rufus pointed to the enemy soldiers with his staff, throwing many small fireballs at them.

The fireballs were weak but their objective was not the soldiers, but the spheres Amir’s escorts had thrown.

Upon contact with the fire, the spheres exploded, killing and wounding many soldiers.

Anwe raised his staff and with a wide motion stroke the ground, making a huge wall of sand that immediately dispersed over the invaders.

Amir’s team used this as cover and attacked again.

A group of 70 hunters rode fast towards the northeast of Lauhr City, they were heavily armed, ready to fight back the beast horde.

The man leading the group was a veteran hunter called Kareb, he was tall with a muscular body and stern countenance, he was respected by most of the people in the region and recognized as one of the best hunters in the city.

He had traveled the world and hunted monsters all his life, he possessed survival skills for almost any environment and was well-versed in many combat arts.

He was confident in driving back the beast horde, but he also had a bad feeling about this. A spy sabotaging the city’s defenses right before a beast horde was way too coincidental, now they were forced to fight outside the city to avoid getting civilians in danger, so the city defense was weakened and there was no reinforcement for the City Watch.

He didn’t like this situation at all.

But all he could do was face the beast now and return quickly to the city.

He was pondering about this issue when he noticed someone standing ahead of them, closer to the marching horde of monsters.

A boy with copper-like hair, wearing strange clothes that didn’t seem suited for the desert environment. Was he a foreigner? His skin looked far too white for someone living under the desert Sun.

“Hunters of Lauhr City! Please return and head to the west of the city! There are invaders from another country heading to the city!”

The boy shouted at them from the distance, despite being far his voice was clear on their ears, maybe he was using some kind of magic art to amplify his voice.

“What? Invading forces?”

The hunters were surprised at the boy’s statement, some shouted, some laughed thinking it was a bad joke, some were silently pondering the truth in his words.

Kareb was one of the latter.

The boy’s words confirmed his suspicions, but he could not simply turn around, the beast horde was still approaching, they needed to buy time for the restoration of the wards in the wall.

But if the invaders arrived and took the city, then retaking the city would be extremely hard.

A decision needed to be made, and it had to be fast.

“I will drive the horde away, you guys return to the city and help to protect it! The invaders are a troop of 300 soldiers, they are currently fighting against one of your country’s princes!”

“A prince is here?”

Kareb’s pupil contracted slightly; if there were members of royalty here, the consequences of that battle would be much bigger than the loss of a strategic place near the Desert of Death.

While the hunters started discussing among each other whether to believe the strange boy’s words, they saw him start running towards the beast and then change direction to the north, deeper into the Desert of Death.

He moved at an astonishing speed for someone so young, he was running faster than some of the hunters gathered there.

Then they watched something that made them believe his words: the beast horde changed direction, starting to chase after the boy, like wild dogs chasing a bloody piece of meat.

Kareb noticed the boy had some strange object in his hand raised over his head, that must be the thing attracting the beasts.

Kareb wanted to shout at him, to tell him not to do that, that it was their job to fight the beasts, that he didn’t need to risk his life that way, one of the hunters could act as bait using whatever the kid had in his hand to drive the beasts towards him.

But he couldn’t do it, the kid was too far ahead, there was no way to overtake him without getting caught by the beasts.

“Tell me your name, boy! I shall remember it as belonging to a courageous man!”

That boy, no, that man was acting as bait to gain time for them, risking his life for a city that wasn’t his, and informed them of the danger of invaders before heading deep into what was considered by all as a Death Zone. That was worthy of the respect of all hunters present.

“Ethan, my name is Ethan Bhreg.”

The young man’s voice was heard.

“We owe you a lot, Ethan Bhreg. If you survive, I’ll serve a feast on your honor, and if you don’t then I’ll personally build your tomb on a place of honor!”

Kareb made an oath of the Desert, it was something reserved only to brothers in arms and men of high respect; the other hunters were stunned after hearing him, such words were not to be taken lightly.

“Come on! We owe that youth the chance of helping our city, make haste and return, kill all the invaders and protect the prince!”

Kareb turned around and roared at the other hunters. They all started riding back at full speed, some doubted that mysterious youth’s words and expressed their opinions during the ride, but the majority thought otherwise.

No one would risk their life like that for a lie.

His words were proven right as they got around the city and noticed the fight near the west gate.

Two groups fought while approaching the city, one was way smaller, barely ten people fighting hundreds, but they were more agile and cunning in their tactics, slowing down their riding opponents by using gas bombs, quicksand spells, and explosives to keep the invaders at bay, they were covered in numerous wounds, but still continued fighting.

It was easy for the hunters of Lauhr City to recognize the prince due to his royal garment; he moved fast and delivered deadly blows to his opponents.

The other prominent figure was a tall warrior with a halberd-like weapon, he sometimes summoned copies of his weapon and pierced the enemy soldiers. He was fighting with a man who seemed like the enemy’s commander, a man in vermillion armor with a greatsword in his hands.

The hunters clashed with the invading soldiers, 70 coming to help 10 and fighting against over 200 enemies.

But they did it without hesitation. There was no need for presentations or asking for explanations, the fact was one: enemies were invading, so they would repel them, they would kill those who dared to try to steal their land!

Running at his top speed, Ethan looked behind him and saw the blood-red eyes of monsters chasing him, that sight made him break his limit and run even faster.

“Are we out of sight?”

Ethan asked between huffs, running and speaking was not something easy even now.

“Yeah, the hunters have left, the fight on the west side of the city is intensifying. On the other hand, the monsters have you right on sight.”

Navin hovered in the air over Ethan, he didn’t move his wings to fly, he was levitating with some magic.

“Ok, Master, make me fly and we can take these beasts away from the city.”

“Are you tired already?”

“No, but- “

“Then keep running, don’t be lazy.”

“Easy for you to say that when you are flying!”

That shout almost made him lose focus on the running technique.

“Be careful with your steps and keep your breath steady. Anyways, I am not the one who came up with this plan, it was you, so you must work on it.”

The Phoenix laid on the air as if he was on a cushion, spreading his wings wide and yawning.

“You should be able to run for quite a while now, right? Just be careful not to run out of energy or the beasts will get you.”

Ethan sighed in resignation and kept running deeper into the desert, the beasts were chasing him fast, closing the distance.

“If you let the beasts get you, I will throw that bait into the city.”

“Master! Don’t joke with that!”

The ´bait´ Ethan held in his hand was a strange stone that attracted the monsters by stimulating their aggressiveness, his Master had given him that after he had proposed his plan to drive the beasts away.

Ethan had originally planned to have his Master use some earth magic to make a fence or a chasm so the beasts could not pass to the city, but he had denied due to it being too flashy and hard to explain.

Ethan then had proposed to attract the monsters with some distraction or bait, at which point Navin presented him with that blood-red crystal.

“Then don’t think on getting caught, those lazy thoughts of giving up and depending on me are a detriment to your cultivation path; get rid of them, they are worse than useless.”

“Ugh, sorry, Master.”

“So long as you understand and rectify your ways, no problem.”

Navin raised his beak and looked behind Ethan, there was a huge crashing noise right afterward, as if a boulder had hit a wall.

A huge monster had crashed against an invisible barrier behind Ethan, if the barrier hadn’t been there…

“Masteeeer!!”

“Just keep running, you’ll be fine.”

“For how long!?”

“Just a couple of minutes, then we can return. Are you sure you don’t want to fight these beasties?”

“I can’t fight them, Master. they are too many!”

“Such low ambition and underestimation of yourself, you say you can’t win, but have you not improved your breathing during your run?”

“Uh?”

Ethan hadn’t noticed, but he had been talking better and better during his running just now, no longer speaking between huffs.

“Silly kid, you are more talented than you think. But okay, if you don’t want to fight, I won’t force you.”

Navin flew away into the distance, high in the sky.

“Umm, Master? Where are you going?”

Only silence answered him.

“Master, come on! Hey! Hey!”

His master was only a dot in the distance now.

The monsters got really close to Ethan, close enough to reach him with their claws, tails and some disturbingly long tongues.

“Fuuuuuuuucckkkkkkk!!!”

Ethan accelerated, running with the wind faster than before.

“Masteeeeerrrr!!! Wait up!”

Deep in the Desert of Death, a young Disciple ran after his flying Master as a horde of beasts chased after him, while the people of Lauhr City fought for their lives and freedom against an invading force.

Each one had their own struggles, and even if they did not know it, all of them were connected.