'Was I discovered?' Gerald opened his eyes wide and tried to be as still as possible. Luckily the movement discovered wasn't from him but from something else in the other direction.

The mages and a few soldiers directed their attention to where the man was pointing.

Giehahah!

A creepy laugh came, followed by many dark beings rising from the ground.

"Pah! It's Goblins! These little freaks tried to ambush us!" Spitting on the ground, one of the mages became angry. He considered himself pure and noble, so dealing with these ugly things wasn't exactly his favorite thing.

"Blast them apart! Don't let any of them escape!" said another mage. This one was much older, probably in his late fifties, with hair that already started to become gray.

But there was no weakness that came with old age on his face. No, instead he was brimming with vitality and his gaze was sharp like that of an eagle.

He wore a simple brown robe that reminded Gerald of what monks wore back on earth, it's just that the old man's robe was full of gold and silver, with dark-yellow gems all over.

"Hands of Stone!" the man yelled and the ground trembled. Two giant arms rose from the ground a dozen meters in front of him and mimicked each and every movement his real hands did.

The horde of Goblins was nothing before him as he crushed them like ants with his giant stone arms.

"Leave some for us, master!" A guy, dressed in fiery-red clothes with gold-trimmed edges shouted. He lifted his jewelry-decorated hand and gathered Mana for his spell, "Fire Storm!"

Fwoosh!

A streak of flame shot from his hand and split into many fire snakes mid-air. They each targeted one of the Goblins and swiftly struck them on the chest. The beasts were knocked back and burst into flames, dying shortly after.

"Woah! High-grade spells! These guys are amazing!" Gerald admired their work from afar. He watched the Water mage from before turn around and control Ice Spikes like a circular blade saw, mowing down Goblins as if they were grass.

It appeared that this spell used a lot of Mana though, as the mage had to soon stop his imposing display of power.

"Watch out! Ice Shield!" A female Water mage shouted and cast a defensive spell. Almost instantaneously a semi-circular glistening ice barrier formed around both of them.

Boom!

Not even half a second later, a fiery explosion hit the ice, cracking it slightly.

"A Goblin Mage! Those bastards actually tried to pull a double ambush!" the mage in red clothes hollered in anger.

But it wasn't just a simple Goblin Mage. No, there were about another dozen Hobgoblins with crude bows and stolen crossbows in hand, ready to shoot a volley of arrows at them.

"Take cover!"

Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh~

Each of the mages protected themselves with magic.

The old man simply hid behind the giant hands, the woman kept her Ice Shield active, and the male mage who was shooting fire simply lay on the floor to avoid the arrows.

In the second that was needed to re-knock the arrow, the experienced mages already hurled a torrent of spells at the nasty humanoids, completely overwhelming them with superior firepower.

Gerald watched as a storm of flames, ice, and stones rained on the Goblins and completely obliterated them before they even had a chance to react.

"Isn't that a bit overkill?" He smiled wryly as he watched the now completely scorched and fragmented ground. He felt weirdly excited watching all of this. Almost jittery even.

He felt something compelling him to stand up and join the fight, but he eventually suppressed that feeling and sneakily moved around.

He continued sneaking around for a while and nobody noticed him. His advantage was that he could observe what was happening within a radius of thirty meters around him, even looking through walls, with his Magic Eyes.

The human warriors slowly gained the advantage and with good teamwork managed to crush the opposition.

Goblins, Hobgoblins, and Orcs fell one after the other and their caves and huts were burned and then crushed to kill any possible hiding monsters. It was also to prevent them from easily making a new nest in this place.

Orcs higher than Iron-7 rank died by the dozen, Hobgoblins by the hundreds, and the Goblins were too many to even count.

Being in the middle of all this death and destruction, Gerald was feeling weirder by the minute. He almost wanted to tear apart his shirt and scream and fight to release the pent-up tension.

"Huff, I need to get out of here..." He was starting to sweat and breathe hard.

"There is someone over there!" A person shouted, this time it was directed at Gerald. "Don't let any of these beasts escape!"

In his daze, Gerald reacted slowly and only realized it was him they were talking about when a few mages already started their chants.

"Shit! I have been found out!" He gritted his teeth and jumped up, shouting, "Stone Body, Iron Heart!"

"Ice Lance! Die beast!" A mage cast his spell, and just as the name implied, a lance made of ice shot forward towards Gerald's back.

Bam!

The impact was strong and it made him fall forward on his face, but luckily the defensive spells were already cast, so the only damage from this deadly attack was a light bruise.

"Ow, you fucking bastard!" Gerald rubbed his back and cursed, "You are lucky I'm not a vengeful person, otherwise you'd be dead!"

The mage was stupefied when he saw that the target he attacked was actually human. But then he realized that the human was unharmed after his strongest single-target spell.

He shouted, "Wait, who are you?"

Gerald was covered with a hood, so his face could not be seen and he was not going to reveal himself just because some guy wanted him to.

"Hmph!" Gerald snorted and then jumped up.

To the shock of the people present, he didn't come back down, but instead just continued upward before changing directions and disappearing in the distance.

"Trevan! Who… Who was that guy?" the red-robed mage ran close and asked.

The guy that shot the Ice Lance, Trevan, answered with a shaky voice, "I- I don't know… Rayner, he- he...just...ignored my attack…with his body!"

"How can that be?! Your Ice Lance can pierce through iron armor easily! He had to have some expensive armor underneath his clothes!" Rayner quickly made a reasonable explanation.

Trevan opened his eyes wide in realization. "Oh, haha, that's right! I'm so stupid!" He slapped his forehead and laughed.

Just because people usually wore armor on top didn't mean that some people didn't hide it under a layer of clothes. "I can't believe I fell for his trick!" he said.

"Hey, you guys! What was that?" The female mage and the old man calmly walked over.

"Bishop Argoch, Lady Castri!" Rayner smiled warmly as a greeting. "We aren't too sure of it either. A person was hiding in the grass over there and when Trevan attacked, he flew away," he explained.

"Fly?" The old man, Bishop Argoch frowned. "Was it a fellow Mage using a high-ranked Wind spell perhaps?"

"We aren't too sure either," Trevan interjected. "But if he is using Wind magic, is it possible he's a High Elf spy?"

"That's unlikely." Shaking his head, Bishop Argoch continued, "Elves wouldn't go so far south, besides there is still the Empire between them and us. They have no reason to be here."

Rayner nodded, "I agree with Bishop Argoch, it's more likely to be a spy from the Burronian Empire than an Elf. At least they have a reason to be here, what do you think, Lady Castri?"

The woman didn't have much of an opinion and just shrugged, "Beats me… Let's just clean up here and return back to the Fort."

A few more words were said before the old man spoke again, "You boys and girls finish things up here, I'll go and speak with the commander."

"As per your orders!" the youngsters spoke in unison.