After a quarter of an hour, Acma stopped two kilometres from the temple. He didn’t want to get too close to avoid been detected by the enemies.

“Alice, show me the situation in front of the temple”

“Yes, Master”

Multiple live videos appeared on the screen inside of Acma’s helmet, covering scenes like inside the compound of the temple, the armies of elves and beastmen and the survivors with more than 50 elf warriors guarding them.

Acma focused his sight on the video of the survivors and it immediately enlarged. Most of the survivors looks weakened and while the rest of them had a blank look in their eyes. In front of them was a group of a beaten men and women, probably the resistant who resisted their capture. Some of these people were lying on the floor.

Acma gritted his teeth while his eyes were looking at the guards. At the same time, he was calculating their distance from each other and finding a way to bring them down in a shortest time. After a while, the result he got was approximately between one to two minutes depending on the guards reaction. It might be longer.

He shook his head. One minute was too long.

“I need to find another way to save the prisoners”

He rejected his own idea.

He shifted his sight and then focused on a bird view video covering the whole area in front of the temple.

The temple was located between two small gardens and enclosed in a 2 metres tall wall. Like most of the Buddhist temples, this temple was also built facing east and in front of it, there was an empty space. The army and the prisoners were gathered there.

The army was divided into two sections, elves and beastmen. The beastmen were standing on their feet with the elves sitting on their mounts. They looked orderly and disciplined. In front of them, several riders and a huge bearman were facing a group of humans who were standing 50 metres from them. There was another group of elves not far to the right, guarding an important looking woman who was riding a unicorn.

The prisoners were sitting together at the left side of the army, separated by an empty line about 5 metres wide. Men, women, elderly, children and infants, all of them were closely watched by the elf guards.

Acma closed his eyes and all the videos disappeared. He rewinding the scene in front of the temple in his mind, again and again to find the best way to save the prisoners.

“The small group in front of the army should be their officer but the true leader must be that woman. Damn, she’s gorgeous”, he thought.

After a few minutes, Acma knew that his options were limited. The biggest problem was he didn’t know the individual strength of the soldiers. It would be a huge problem if all of them were stronger than him.

“I must determine their individual strength first”, he came to a conclusion.

“Let’s go closer, Silver”

Silver moved its feet, carefully threading between the buildings and streets. Acma was nervous because he needed to avoid been detected at all cost.

After a long while, they arrived behind a double-storey house at the edge of the empty space in front of the temple. After a few calculations, he used Phantom Step and landed on the roof soundlessly with Silver left behind the house. He laid on his stomach and carefully moved to the ridge.

“It would be great if I could see their level through drones, so I don’t have to do this. This is troublesome. I wish the Overseer will upgrade the system in the future”

From the ridge, he could clearly see the level of the soldiers from the panel above their head.

“All the ordinary soldiers are knights only. That woman too. But her guards are elemental knights. Same goes with the officers at the front”, said Acma in his mind.

Since he already obtained the information he needed, he retreated behind the house, sat on the ground and leaned his back against the wall. He looked at the sky while rubbing Silver’s back who was sitting next to him. He was thinking about his next move.

“I need to be extremely careful if I’m going to free the prisoners to avoid any collateral damage”, Acma muttered.

He prioritized saving the prisoners before anything else. Although those prisoners weren’t his family or friend, but they shared the same root as him, the Earth. If someday he want to talk about earth, he can talk with these people. So, when these people’s life were threaten in front of him, it’s normal to save them.

“Do I even need a reason to save people?” a thought suddenly appeared in his mind. It made him smile.

“Alice, do you know what there are talking about?”

“The elves are demanding the survivors in the temple to surrender and kneel to the 3rd Princess of Isebial, Princess Nidhwen. They also claim that this town is now a territory of Isebial Kingdom”

“Tsk. They talk like they already own the place. That woman is a princess? That’s even better. I can use her as a bargaining chip to free the prisoners”, Acma spat.

His initial plan was using his speed, Phantom Step and several supreme guardians to kill the guards and then summon Sawa to separate the prisoners from the enemies. But the guards were strong and they would retaliate if they were attacked. Some of the prisoners might get killed in the process and Acma must avoided that from happen.

“Hmmmm... how should I make an entrance so all their attention will be on me?”

Acma looked at Silver and asked,

“Do you have any ideas?”

Silver tilted its head and its green eyes were looking straight at Acma.

“Nevermind, I already have one. Let’s go”

Acma stood up and dusting off his butt. He turned his body around and then looks at the furthest elf guard at the space between the prisoners and the army.

Knight Urdir LVL 237

“Here we go. Blink”

Acma reappeared right behind Urdir. Before the oblivious elf could notice, Acma grabbed his neck, lifted him off the ground and threw him toward the temple.

Urdir flew and flew and then

Bammmm!!

He hit an invisible barrier. He floated in the air for a second before crashed down onto the ground.

“Alice was right. There is a barrier around this temple”, thought Acma.

He walk leisurely toward the temple followed by Silver. He noticed that all eyes were on him, from the prisoners, the guards, the beastmen, the elves to even the princess and her guardians. Some of soldiers followed the flying Urdir with their eyes almost out of the socket. They couldn’t fathom how a powerful knight like Urdir was thrown like a dirty rag.

Acma ignored them all.

“Summon: Sawa”

A globe of purple light appeared beneath Acma’s feet and it slowly raised both he and Silver floating 20 metres in the air. Then, the globe enlarged before forming a huge coiling python with Acma and Silver standing on its head. The coiling Sawa took a large space so the army had to move to avoid been crushed alive. The prisoners were safe because Acma purposely avoid them. He also did this to enlarge the distance between the prisoners and the army.

With his jet black armour and a huge silver wolf, standing on the head of a hill-size python, Acma’s appearance was kind of ... evil. No, majestic.

The prisoners were looking at each other. Some of them had their face brightened with new hope that the newcomer will save them. However, most of them still have their gloomy look because they’re still surrounded by enemies.

Things were different on the army side. An unrest erupted among the beastmen because they knew who the newcomer is. That was the person they chased overnight who annihilated the werewolf tribe and destroyed their den.

The elves maintained their indifference but their leaders were frowning. They heard the report from the captain of Beastmen Brigade about this newcomer. But seeing him openly flaunting his power with their own eyes, made their blood boiling.

Looking down on everyone, Acma was satisfied that he got their full attention. He willed Sawa to move its head toward the army leaders. Sawa lowered its head and move toward the army leaders. Just after it moved, Acma noticed a werewolf running out of its group and jumped toward him.

Wind Chaser Ranulf LVL 241

“I’LL KILL YOU, FIEND!!! DIEEEEE!!!!”, it roared as it jumped high in the air.

Acma turned his head toward the jumping Ranulf. It raised it right arm above its head and Acma could see its claws were glowing with faint blue light.

“Stone Shield”, said Acma with a low voice.

Instantly, a round stone shield at the size of a large plate appeared in front of the Ranulf’s nose before it could released its skill.

‘Thud’

Ranulf crashed its head against the stone shield before it could do anything and the momentum it gained by jumping forced its body to swing forward.

Taking the opportunity, Acma willed Sawa to slam the helpless Ranulf with its tail to the ground.

Acma let out a sigh before turning his head. Sawa continued moving and stopped between the army leaders and the representatives from the temple.

Elemental Knight El’Tael LVL 356 Elemental Knight Meluinir LVL 345 Elemental Knight Sidhon LVL 318 Great Berserker Arturas LVL 311

A staring contest began between Acma and the these army officers.

A few moments later, Acma broke the silence.

“This is our home and we are not your subject”, he said coldly. He meant to say that the elves were trespassing Boulder Town.

“What do you say?” questioned El’Tael.

“Release those people”, Acma replied while maintaining his posture.

“...”