Eiwin shook her head, recovering from her surprise. “Focus on the task at hand. There are still enemies for us to dispatch.”

The group nodded at her, getting ready to reenter the fray. Off to the side, the guards they had just saved were looking at them with grateful gazes.

Eiwin nodded at them. “Go help your other companions! We will clear a path towards the entrance of the fort.”

The guards nodded, not hesitating to follow her orders. Most of these soldiers had only opened a handful of veins, and they were nowhere near as strong as Red and his sect members. Still, when they worked together and used coordination, they were more than capable of dealing with a few monsters.

It was why the fort was yet to collapse.

While the guards wandered off, Eiwin already looked for their next target. The group began moving towards the heart of the melee, where bodies of both monsters and soldiers littered the ground, and the fight was still raging on.

Bears, deers, goats, wolves, even a handful of birds made up their enemy numbers. The boy saw many creatures for the first time, but he didn’t have time to admire them.

Like a well-oiled machine, Red and his companions carved a path through the battlefield, just as they promised. Narcha charged into the middle of combat with her saber, throwing monsters away and giving the guards more space to breath.

Then Eiwin dove in with lightning quick and precise strikes that broke bones and threw the monsters off balance for her companions to finish. Rimold used his daggers to target weak areas of the beasts, while Rog was the most deadly in combat with his arrows that buried themselves deep into the monsters’ flesh.

Red and Allen also helped by flanking and stabbing monsters, but they knew better than to engage against the creatures head on. What the boy accomplish against that wolf was, at the end of the day, a matter of both opportunity and luck. It wouldn’t work for every situation, and Red knew better than to delude himself as such.

Still, in less than a minute, the group had already left their mark on the battlefield. Almost ten monsters fell to their hands, and the tides of battle in this area changed.

The guards managed to regroup, but at the same time, the remaining monsters’ attentions were placed on Red and his companions. In the blink of an eye, the group found themselves surrounded by ravenous creatures clawing and biting at them.

Narcha and Eiwin still managed to hold the front line, but more of them slipped through and started to reach for Rog and Rimold. Red and Allen were forced to help, but there were too many monsters for them to deal with at once.

Then, just as they thought they would be forced to retreat, their allies joined the battle.

One of the leading guards started barking orders at his men. “Go! Reform the line! Push them back!”

His soldiers did as much. They started to cover the group’s flanks with their spears and long weapons, relieving the pressure off of the back line.

Allen smiled when he saw this. “Come on, let’s push them back!”

Surprisingly, the soldiers all roared in support of the young master’s words. With Narcha and Eiwin at the tip of this spear, slowly but surely, they started to push back the monsters to the outer walls.

At that point, it seemed like the threat of death started to overshadow their crazed thirst for blood, as some of the monsters started to retreat out of nowhere. Red frowned when he saw this, but this still benefited them in the end.

The monsters that remained behind were quickly dispatched, and suddenly the group found themselves without enemies to fight. Once the soldiers saw this, they roared in celebration.

“We did it! We beat them back!”

“Shut up, you morons!” Narcha cut them off. “The battle is still not over! There are other monsters around the camp!”

The soldiers stopped celebrating and nodded at the woman with solemn expressions. Allen, too, who seemed just about to join their celebration, lowered his sword back down.

The leading guard that had regrouped these soldiers looked at Narcha. “You’re right! We will follow you and help you clear the rest of the camp!”

Narcha shook her head. “No, you idiots! We want to be fast, and you would only slow us down! Go back the way we came from and help the rest of your colleagues!”

The soldier looked disappointed at her refusal before hearing the last part of her words.

He looked back at his men with a resolute expression. “You heard her! Let’s move back and reinforce our brethren!”

Soon enough, the soldiers were off, and Red’s group once again resumed their journey towards the front of the fort, where the battle was the fiercest.

Some lone monsters sought to stop them, but they were quickly dispatched by both Narcha and Rog before they could even approach them. Finally, as they circled around large barracks, they laid eyes on the fort entrance.

Or what remained of it, at least.

The scene was complete chaos. Destroyed barracks, fires, splintered wood logs. Not much remained of the so-called fort they had built in such a hurry.

Yet in the middle of it all, the battle still raged on.

Red saw Captain Orvin commanding his men as they fought against the monster horde. The guards here seemed more organized, forming a line and using their long-reach weapons to keep the monsters at bay. Yet, this formation already showed signs of collapse.

Here, most of the monsters were Skycrown Wolves, probably almost fifty of them. Their snow white coats were smeared in blood, both from their wounds and their victims, yet the beasts continued to fight without a hint of reluctance or reason in their eyes.

There were easily over a hundred guards trying to keep these monsters at bay, yet even then, they were suffering constant casualties.

It was a fearsome sight, yet what caught Red’s attention the most wasn’t that. Instead, it was the battle being fought not too far away from there.

Red recognized Gustav’s two bodyguards, the large man and the woman, fighting against two particularly large white wolves. They both were wearing their wooden masks and still sporting their leather armor from the meeting. The man was wielding a large saber, while the woman seemed to be using a greatsword.

Yellowish Spiritual Energy that the boy couldn’t identify emanated from these weapons, as with every strike, bright blade energy would fly forth from them to strike at the wolves. Yet, these bodyguards weren’t the only ones using spiritual energy.

The two wolves seemed to be emanating a white mist from their body, and every step they took seemed to freeze the surrounding ground. Red saw one of their claws clash against the man’s saber, causing a sheet of ice to form around the weapon and causing its yellow glow to wane ever so slightly.

Still, the large bodyguard seemed to be emanating pure physical might as he simply pushed the enormous wolf away with its saber, before pushing his offense again. The woman, too, seemed to use large and strong strikes to keep the other creature at bay, and for the moment, it didn’t seem like either side had an advantage.

Narcha gritted her teeth and looked over at Eiwin. “What do we do? Do we help the guards first or the bodyguards?”

This was a pertinent question. The guards were losing, and they could use the help, but if Gustav’s bodyguards were free of their enemies, then they could clean up the weaker monsters without much issue. Not to mention, the group did indeed have a handful of talismans that could help with the occasion.

Eiwin hesitated for a moment, before coming to a decision. “We will help the guards first. I can’t bear to see any more of them die.”

No one in the group protested. They had a few issues with the town guards in the past, but their relationship was mostly amicable when it came down to it. As for Gustav’s bodyguards, that was another matter, not to mention it didn’t seem like they needed the help, anyway.

Just as they were about to go and reinforce the guards, though, Red felt another strong fluctuation enter his detection range. What surprised him, though, was the direction it was coming from.

“Wait!” He called out to his group. “There’s something above us!”

His companions all froze and looked up.

Rog squinted his eyes and frowned. “I can’t see anything.”

Red, too, started to examine the night sky space above their heads, but even with his dark vision, he failed to spot anything at first. A few seconds later, though, he saw a silhouette against the starry night sky.

It was approaching the ground at a tremendous speed.

It didn’t seem to be targeting the group, though. Instead, it was flying straight at Gustav’s bodyguards.

Before Red could say anything, a shape seemed to materialize out of the dark night sky, diving towards the large man. The bodyguard noticed its approach, but before he could do anything, the creature was already upon him.

A pair of talons ripped into the man’s shoulder, dragging pieces of armor and flesh with it. Then, before the bodyguard could even react, the bird flew up and disappeared into the night sky again.

The man stumbled, and the wolf he was fighting with took this opportunity to attack. He barely managed to put his saber up in defense, but he was unable to muster his brute strength from earlier to throw the wolf back. Instead, it was the man that was pushed back a few meters, and a wave of ice spread from his sword to his arms.

After seeing this, his companion tried to go help him, but the wolf she was fighting with seemed to notice her eagerness and chose that exact moment to press his offense, forcing the woman away. The man was thus left to his own devices to deal with the wolf, and it didn’t seem like he would last for long.

Just like that, the tides of their battle had turned.

“What was that thing?” Allen asked in a fearful tone.

“Not native.” Rog frowned. “I don’t know what it is… I can’t see it.”

“Gods damn it!” Narcha gritted her teeth. “We need to help them before they get killed!”

Eiwin hesitated and looked back at the guards fighting against the wolf horde. They, too, seemed on the brink of collapse.

It took a few seconds for her to make a decision.

“Allen, Mister Rimold, with me. We’ll go help the guards.” She looked at the rest of her companions. “Red, Master Rog, and Miss Valt, go help Gustav’s bodyguards. If they die, the battle may already be lost.” Her gaze lingered on Red. “Only you can spot that bird, so make sure to keep an eye open!”

‘That much doesn’t need to be said.’

Although the members of the group showed some signs of hesitation, they knew better than to protest their leader’s orders at such a critical moment. Red looked over at the sky.

The bird had flown out of the range of detection and not even his dark vision could spot it in the sky. Yet, somehow Red knew this flying beast was there, waiting for the next opportunity to strike.