We left Ariana’s house this morning for Avareel. We’re going back to Avareel because if it’s been conquered by beast man, they need to connect the gate to their capital to set a new city as their city. The capital itself located thousands of kilometers from this city. Even if we have enough black water for the hover motorcycle and going by inter-city road, we still need 100 hours or more non-stop driving. But, going by inter-city road is out of question since its beast man territory and we’re human. We’re going to be stopped. If we go by another road, it will take us double the time. But again, it’s impossible without the black water.

After going downhill by running, we use the hover motorcycle to reach Avareel. Reis just reminded me that in a terrain with no road, running would be much faster than riding a vehicle. As my injury is healed already, I used Speed of Wind to slide through the air and the ground. I carry Erfia by piggyback ride her. I don’t know what Ariana had done to her body, but now she could fill my mana ring just by touching me which connect her and my ring.

Reis used Earth Slide Magic to keep up with me. It’s nearly same with my Speed of Wind in term of appearance, but it does things differently. It makes the caster can slide through the ground at ease by moving the user away from the ground. So, the user is like a doll that controlled from the ground. But the one controlling is the user itself.

After running, or sliding through, downhill for 20 kilometers, we take another 50 to 60 kilometers to reach Avarel. We’re riding the hover motorcycle right now. By using its full speed, we will reach it in less than one hour. If, I used this method instead of rode a carriage when we headed toward Ariana’s house, maybe I wouldn’t get all those injuries. But at least I got a glimpse of Reis’s fighting capability.

“Let’s review the plans all over again. I will create a diversion by wreaking havoc and releasing all those slaves. Both of you head for the Gate of the World to make sure it’s ready to use. I’ll head for the gate after two hours of wreaking havoc. Clear?” I tell the plan once again while I’m driving the hover motorcycle.

“Okay.” Erfia and Reis answer me simultaneously.

“And don’t forget to put your mask the whole time. We don’t want them to discover your true identity.”

I handed them the mask when we were on Ariana’s house. Starting from now on, they need to hide their face when they’re with Mada the Raider. That time is right now.

We’re just a kilometer away, and Reis jumps with Erfia with her. I take a look for a moment to confirm they’re landing safely. After I confirm it, I slow down the hover motorcycle and stand in top of this motorcycle. I put my mask on. I take my long bow, Pointing Tip of Desperation, from the Keeper and shoot few explosive spears at the gate guards. Another few explosive spears to destroy the gate. Avareel is not a big city, so it only has a wooden gate as its gate. I put Pointing Tip of Desperation back in the Keeper and take the twin hook, Snake Hook, from it.

~By the will of red blood, let this body of mine contain your whole might. As I say, blood transformation. ~

~By the will of wind and the earth, let these touches the greatness of your might. As I say, speed of wind~

With the new mana ring, I could use these two spells at the same time for at least 24 hours straight, unlike the previous one that only last one hour at most.

Arrows are showering at me from the top of the gate. But by Blood Transformation, I can easily deflect all the arrow that’s going to hit me. I jump from the motorcycle and let it pass through the damaged gate. I land at the top of the gate and jump to my left. With the Speed of Wind, I slide pass through them and kill everyone as I pass by. I do the same with the enemies on the right side. In just a moment, all the enemies in the gate are already annihilated.

The party really took a toll on their defense. Normally, it would need more than that to breakthrough a city gate. Even I can see remnants of the party in this place like a pile of trash, beer drums, and some decorations.

I take a look at the whole city for a moment. Even if they say it’s a city, I say it just a small town. It only has 3000 hectares as its territory.

With my blood transformation, I can look much further than normal eyes and I can roughly grasp the condition of this town. The Gate of The World is near its center, so I need to take their whole attention to the side of the town. This town only has 2 gates, north and south gate. Right now I’m standing at the north gate.

Their troop’s main camp is in the center of the town, and the slave is in the west site. So, I’ll head to their main camp and wreak havoc on anything between, after that I’ll head to the south gate to do another wreak havoc. After I kill maybe half of the troop, I’ll free the slave and make the slave running amok. At that moment, I must head to the Gate of the World where Reis and Erfia will wait. All of it need to be completed in less than two hours.

I look at the town and see a lot of troops is heading this way. I jump and land on the hover motorcycle that stopped after hitting some wooden stand and put it back on the Keeper.

“HERE I COME!” I yell as I march forward with Snake Hook in my hand.

***

It’s been an hour since Mada started to wreak the town. I still can’t comprehend how a single man is capable of doing such thing easily. I can see tons of dead bodies in the street around the north gate. It seems no one is around the gate anymore.

Erfia is a talented magic user. I’ve just taught her Earth Slide less than an hour ago and now she’s able to use it like a child’s play. We slide through the north gate and enter an empty house. I look around to confirm that no one is around.

“Erfia, we’ll head directly to the Gate. Tell me if you see someone, okay?”

“Okay.”

We’re slowly sliding through the city. Earth slide is not only suitable for travel or fighting. It’s also suitable for stealth mission like this as it creates no sound.

I can see every houses are destroyed so bad. It seems the Beast Man was rampaging and took everyone as their slave.

“Reis, troops are coming from the east.”

I listen to Erfia and we enter one house to hide. We wait inside the house until those troops pass us.

“It seems everything goes just like Dad’s plan.” Erfia praises Mada with her cheerful voice.

I wouldn’t call it a real plan as the plan is only for him to wreak havoc and free the slave to create a diversion for us. It’s so simple. But the main thing is it can only work with a capable man like him. If I’m the one who creates the diversion, all I could do maybe run around and causing some small wreck along the way. There is no way I can face a thousand beast mans head on like him.

“Reis, come here!”

Suddenly I hear Erfia’s voice is coming from the back of the house. Wait, since when she’s in that place? Did she just use earth slide in this house? But, earth slide can’t be activated if you’re not touching the ground and this house has a wood as its floor. Is that mean that I was too occupied with thinking Mada’s capability? Damn, how come thing goes this way? It seems since Mada snuck in my bed a few days ago, I became softer to him. But it can wait.

I walk silently toward Erfia. Erfia shows me the inside of a closet. There’s a little boy lie down on it. He’s still breathing but slowly. If I guess, maybe his parent was taken as a slave and they hid him here. I wonder how long since the last time he ate or drunk.

“Erfia, can you summon water for this boy to drink? I guess he needs water.”

“Okay,”

Erfia makes a motion with her hand and then water comes out of thin air. I put the boy’s mouth right in the water and make him drink it. After a little time, he finally opens his eyes up and coughs. Too much water I guess? Even though he opens his eyes, I doubt he will be able to walk right away. But, at least it will do until Mada releases all the slaves.

We make another move until finally we reach the Gate of the World. I can see everything around it is in a wreck. We come closer to the Gate of the World and I try to operate it by using the control panel on its side. It is rather easy to operate Gate of the World. All you need to do is choose the destination and it will open by itself.

Normally a Gate of the World is locked with a password, but apparently the password has been removed and no password anymore. As expected from a beast man. They’re relying on their power too much that they don’t like complicated thing like giving these kinds of things a password. They usually put 5 to 10 guards around it. In normal circumstances, it is safe as no one would be able to pass 5 to 10 beast man guards with guns and weapons. But against one word fugitive like Mada, the conventional human way of giving it a password is much more secure.

Mada should have been done by now and reaching this place at any moment. I’ll just have to wait for him to arrive.

***

Damn! Removing a slave bind magic of a hundred people took about half of the mana inside my mana ring. Its color is changing into red and blue stripes. While I was mass killing all those beast mans, the one hundred people removed the bind magic of the others. Not so long after that, all the slaves had been freed, and they fought back. A battle is emerged and everything went chaos. I took my chance and went straight to the Gate of the World.

I slide through the air and ground toward the Gate of the World. But, suddenly a big armored beast man in blocking my way and swinging his axe. I dodge and stop a few steps behind him.

“Even if I can’t kill you, at least I’ll see the face behind that mask.”

The beast man turns his body and shows me his face in his helmet. A rhino type beast man eh. It is said they have the same power as lion type but they’re slower. Even though they’re slower, they have a thicker and tougher skin compared to a lion. Even a normal arrow can’t penetrate it. Adding those armor, there’s no way a normal person could win against it.

“I’m not so sure you can do it!”

Just a moment after I say it, blood is gushing from his neck and some other part of his body. I put some cut in his body the moment I passed him. Even if his skin is thick and adding those armor, there’s no way he could escape some broken part and injured skin in a war. I simply cut all of those injured skin and make it worse. A lot worse. In less than a minute, he falls due to blood loss.

I leave him and head for the Gate of the World. Finally, I reach it. Reis and Erfia are already on it and the Gate of the World will be opened in a short time.

As the Gate of the World is activated, we’re walking pass through it and we arrive right in the capital of the beast man race, Ul Thadur.

“STOP IT RIGHT THERE!”

Apparently, a welcome party has been prepared for us on the other side of the gate. I look around and see an army has already surrounded us with their weapons pointing towards us.