Year 2, Winter, First Month, Third Week.

From the Royals to commoners, passing through all races, regardless of the Country or their heritage, everybody accepts the Origin as the immutable truth. Although fate and destiny are also universally accepted, few truly understand the threads that connect all beings, and even fewer would be able to grasp it. As the ancient saying goes, fate is a capricious thing, its tides change like the wind’s direction. However, there’s no such a thing as coincidence, everything happens for a reason…

Toni could barely process what was happening, the attacks seemed to be coming from nowhere, they were being cut from all sides while their enemy only laughed. The identity of the maniac was obvious, he was Mage, but they never expected he would be capable of throwing invisible attacks so effortlessly. It took them almost five minutes, or more accurately, it took them 12 deaths to understand how to counter the Mage’s power. The defenders finally realized that blocking their front was useless if the attacks could come from the sides. So, they got close and formed a gapless line of shields.

The marks of cutting continued to appear over their shields, but they finally had enough room to organize a counterattack. Unfortunately, only a few archers stayed to cover their rear, but they would have to do it. At Toni’s mark, eight enhanced arrows whistled towards the Mage. And they soon realized their mistake, the wind Mage made a backhand gesture that easily changed the arrows' trajectory. At least, the attack served to distract the Mage, giving them time to retrieve and move their wounded.

Using a wind energy trick, Windsor brought one of the fallen arrows to his hand. The hate in his eyes finally receded and was replaced by curiosity as he traced the drawings with his fingers. When he felt faint traces of wind energy, he could finally comprehend how the arrows resisted his Wind Shield. He could feel the power in the drawings but couldn’t understand it. Who is the backer behind these villagers? Maybe there was more to it than just destabilizing the Wind region.

The pause in the Mage’s attack felt like a blessing in the middle of these Originless events. Many could disagree with Toni’s leadership position, but who else besides the defender would be capable to stay calm in this situation? The young Councilman who was said to be slow and simpleminded quickly took control over the situation and organized a defense line. Even if they were to die here, they would buy enough time for the rest to escape.

Toni’s resolve seemed unshakeable, which greatly help to calm his subordinates' nerves. However, on the inside, he was also scared. His mantra was never so helpful, just do your best, just keep doing your job. The only time Toni’s confident posture was threatened, was when he saw Karl’s father being carried back, he prayed for the man to survive. But once he got over the initial shock, this made him even more motivated to buy them time. Unfortunately, the pause seemed to have come to an end.

“Who gave you this?”

The hunters glanced at Toni without relaxing their defenses. It didn’t look like their leader was planning to answer the enemy. The Mage let out a disappointed grunt.

“If someone had cooperated, I would have been magnanimous and spared their lives, after all, the Army is in dire need of slaves. But maybe I expect too much from lower-borns such as yourselves… Playing was… enlighting, but it’s time to finish this…”

Toni gulped and checked on the fleeing villagers, he could still see a few disappearing among the trees. This wasn’t enough, they needed more time.

For Windsor, it was insulting to use his powers on such weaklings, previously, he was betting his time to see if the Mage would appear. But it didn’t happen, so he would just eradicate them and move on, maybe the other party was trying to escape his grasp. With his left hand, he reached for the wind energy in his old-looking staff and started to extract it with a rotating movement. The dense grey energy continued rotating until it formed a Windwhirl that left Windsor’s control, raging towards the hunters. The Windwhirl continue to grow as it rotated towards its targets.

Toni realized it was impossible to dodge the Hurricane that already grew higher than all the trees around them, so he commanded the defenders to hold each other and prepare for the impact. They barely had time to lock their arms, before being dragged and tossed around. The lucky ones were thrown to the sides, but the others were dragged to the center before being launched into the sky. Toni accepted his end was near, he looked down in regret as he felt the pull increasing, he only wished he could have delayed the Mage a few more minutes. May the Origin protect his family and friends. From now on, it’s on your hands, Karl.

He barely felt his body being raised then dragged and…

“What…?”

Instead of moving towards the furious Hurricane, Toni saw its image getting further away. Then, he finally noticed an arm circling his torso, he was being dragged away from the spell. Before he could fully comprehend the situation, he was put down and released by a cloaked figure. Windsor grunted dissatisfied as two other cloaked figures appeared between him and the rest of the hunters. One of the cloaked stepped forward and slightly bowed.

“It’s an honor, your Grace.”

The masculine voice didn’t look natural, more like it was being projected than spoken. Windsor didn’t look surprised, he replied without hiding the annoyance in his tone.

“Humph… Your trick is unnecessary, I’m not a sound user… Why are you here?”

The dense air bending around the Wind Lord made his stance clear. However, the cloaked figures remained unfazed. Although the cloaks hid their expressions, it looked like they were smiling.

“Hmm… We have business with a certain group…”

Toni was also confused, he took a step back and tried to place some words together while his savior stared at his shield.

“What… Why…”

The mysterious person took an exquisite wooden box out of nowhere and passed it to Toni, who look at it suspiciously before accepting it.

“Why did you help me? What’s this?”

The cloaked figure answered with a feminine unnatural voice:

“You could say our interests align… This is a gift for the one that crafted that weapon. You should gather your friends and leave.”

The defender gave another step back instinctively tighten the hold over his shield, but when he heard the word friends, he looked around and saw the few defenders that had been tossed around struggling to stand up and leave this dangerous zone.

“Thank you.”

After saying the only words he could think of, Toni gathered his bearings and left after joining the few survivors.