Ominous pillars of hoar rose into the sky, wide as they were at their tallest before their peaks became intangible. The guardsman's report belied the vastness of the destruction. If not for the danger ahead of them, Regulus would've honored the man with a drubbing for his negligence to detail, but thought better of it. When faced with a threat beyond even his reach as a once mithril-ranked spellcaster, he was loth to stand on discipline. Let alone the ceremony of it.

He was joined by Cirri atop the southern parapet. Even though it was late into dusk, with the sun set, the horizon wasn't quite as dark as it should have been. What Regulus expected to be mauve twilight there, instead glowed in mixed oranges and deep Carmine. It took him several minutes for his eyes to adjust to notice its steady growth in intensity and breadth.

"How far away is it?"

"No more than twenty kilometers away by a glass's reckoning, sir."

"That means we have about four hours to react." Cirri guessed, borrowing the looking glass from the sentry that led them there.

Regulus nodded grimly, "Roughly that, maybe less. At the rate those flames are spreading, they might make better time with the trees downed. Three hours at least though."

"That's not nearly enough time to evacuate."

That was what he feared. Despite the village's meager population of a hundred and a dozen or so more, roughly half of them were far too aged to evacuate farther north, away from the coming battle. For others, it was a matter of devotion. Hunt was, as Knor implied, a prison of sorts, however voluntary it was. Its inhabitants may fear the end, but it was better than abandoning generations upon generations of heritage. The main difficulty in the evacuation would be just that. Stubbornness could be a virtue, but simultaneously deleterious in its nature.

"We have to stall for time until everyone is clear. For now, gather up the rest of the guard to direct the evacuation."

"What about you?"

Regulus's mouth curved into a wide grin, "it'd be a waste to let good target practice go to waste."

"Just don't die out there? Our little girl will kill you if you do. And don't think I won't join her."

"Wouldn't want to risk that, would I?" He leaned down to envelope Cirri in an embrace. It was easy to forget how small she was, "But just in case."

"Don't worry me like that." She tightened her grip on his sides.

By what Delark had told them -objections from his escorts aside, the monster leading the wolves was rather sizeable and enormously powerful. Not that Regulus wasn't aware of that already. The forest told that story all by itself. He easily mistook that scale of destructive power for a dragon, which was certainly no easy feat. Yet, his suspicion of dragons only felt like a euphemism for something far more sinister. Beasts like these were millennial catastrophes, and it was certainly more than half that since anyone laid eyes on one.

It was too early.

But to think that he had the opportunity to fight a legendary beast, on par with even a Kilandrok! Long before he met Cirri. he wished his death would come as an honorable one, carried by the claws and fangs of renowned monsters. The very thought electrified his entire body, as it still did now. Not with fear, or anxiety, but with pride. It was hard not to smile at that sort of nostalgia.

That was then. There were things more important to him now than he could have predicted. Cirri called her little, but Corella was still in Pirsk working for the Empire's guild. He had to make sure her parents were still around to come home to after receiving her Bronze Tab.

He released Cirri to descend the southern battlements. Everything he needed was already on his person from the stint in the forest. There wasn't a chance to take any of it off, which he desperately needed for the rank smell. Unfortunately, that would have to wait.

There were a few frays on his mana cloak, no thanks to those monsters, but the wear hadn't dispelled the enchantments emplaced. Physical and mana defense wardings, layered atop a base of mana amplification. The garment served its purpose well, even though the defense enchantments were somewhat redundant. Wind made for a potent barrier, after all.

The gate opened after a wave to the guardsmen stationed there, "Tell the elder if I'm not back in an hour, don't expect me to return."

"Y-yes sir!"

The words flowed so confidently through his unwavering smile, in part to ignore the uncertainty ahead of him, the rest to put the jittery young guards at ease. It would be a rough time, and although he might enjoy it, there were consequences should he fail. If these monsters were to defeat him too early... No, they wouldn't. He would see to that.

"Then I'll be off..."

Regulus had struck a runner's starting stance. Before the guards could say anything more, a downdraft from the sky above arced toward his back, rocketing him forward.

It wasn't often he could let loose. Cirri was a healer and hadn't the stamina to keep up with his wind. Their jobs together quite often reduced this technique to little more than a superfluous utility skill. There were times, and under extremely specific circumstances, he could freely use the wind's power like this. One of them was exactly what he was using it for now.

To protect her.

The forest edge passed by as a liminal haze, blurred by the sheer speed he forced. Little time separated the periodicity of the trees but didn't hinder his progress, even in the twilit shadows of the forest. Well-honed reflexes made ducking under branches and sidling between trunks trivial. Ears attuned to the whistling wind around him made navigation that much easier.

As he pressed further, Regulus perceived the pungent smell of wood smoke growing stronger. Howls began to intermingle with the distant roar and clangor of conflagration ahead.

"Right here should do." He muttered.

A foot firmly planted, and with it, the wind dissipated.

The beasts were roughly a kilometer or two away by his best estimate. It didn't matter how far away they were for what he was planning, but if he wanted to buffer against possible failure, then coming in close proximity to the wolf pack was his only choice.

"Right, how did this go again... compress some wind over a core of fire..."

He closed his right fist, and held it at arm's length, wincing slightly in anticipation of what came next. A blinding flash of light ensued, forcing him to shut his eyes completely.

They opened on a dozen marble-sized spheres in the palm of his hand. A cerulean outer layer, backed by a white-hot inner core. It was something he picked up once in the Demihuman kingdom. They were a crafty bunch, well versed in mana manipulation like this. Not much could be said of their hospitality during pre-accords times, but that much was to be expected. Hundreds of years of war wouldn't make them amenable to any outsiders. He was lucky to even pick this much up while hiding in a city on the other side of the western border.

One by one, the marbles were slotted into hollowed gnarls, wedged between branches, or tucked under a covering of dirt. When he ran out, another flare lit up the shadowy forest around him. Ten minutes of the same left a long line about half a kilometer wide and half that long covered by the mana capsules.

"Now, all that's left is to wait."

A hasty withdrawal later saw him in the branches of a tree some distance away from the area.

"Should be there any second now..."

He watched the fire get closer and closer. If not for the elevation and the occasional fluttering of wind magic, the suffocating smoke would have taken him by now.

"Any second..."

Mental calculus wasn't Regulus' strong suit. Nor was any of that academic malarky guilds taught these days. His intuition, however, never failed him.

It began with a shuddering of the ground, followed by an oppressive shockwave that imperiled the branch he crouched on. Then, followed by another, and another. Each resounded as a crack of thunder, perhaps more powerfully. Amid the cacophony, agonized cries reached his ears.

Looks like holding them back will be easier than he thought.