Discreetly, Cale walked back and forth between the creatures as he got closer to the Thormod. He only had this one opportunity, so he kept a low profile to not stand out from the crowd. So far it seemed to work well, as none of the creatures nor the Thormods seemed to notice that a human was walking beside them. His only concern, therefore, was the chairman himself. He had not yet been spotted, and that gave Cale a headache. Also, he had no way of telling when a Thormod had the ability to connect, but according to Nodiavi, there weren't too many of them. For sure, there will be some around, but Cale could not be at all places at the same time. Therefore, all of them had received the order to report the appearance of a Thormod with the ability immediately.

, Rangar announced, almost simultaneously, as the leader stood in front of Cale in proximity. Cale couldn't help but grin as he walked a mere 20 meters behind him and was not detected.

, Cale announced, letting one last glance glide across the plain.

"10, 9, 8", he then began, noticing the dragons dropping their shadows to the ground. Some of them had broken through the cloud cover, leaving dozens of Thormods to look up into the sky in surprise. Some Thormods even took cover immediately, while the leader of their group looked around silently.

"7, 6, 5", Cale counted down, fixing his gaze on the leader as he used his mana to determine the position of all the Thormods. As soon as he launched his surprise attack, his cover would drop and he had to use the first few seconds to get rid of as many Thormod as possible.

"4, 3, 2", he continued to speak and began to enclose his body with a tight barrier layer and bunched his Igrikum.

"1."

For a moment, it felt like time stopped as Cale directed his mana at that Thormod. Clearly, he could see the leader's gaze fall from the dragon down to his own body, but it was too late. Without even getting a chance to scream, Cale abruptly expanded his Igrikum, causing his body to burst into countless separate pieces. Like a shower of blood, his remains dripped onto the ground as the other Thormods began to scream in panic.

"Ambush! The enemy has already spotted us!", one warrior shouted, prompting Cale to kill him next. Chaos broke out among the Thormods as well, and even the creatures seemed to spread aimlessly across the lands all at once. One creature ran full tilt into Cale, but he was not deterred by this. With hundreds of small barriers at once, he dissolved a block of Thormods into thin air. One step further and the right part of the Thormods lost their lives. Without comment, he slowly moved forward, killing everything in his sight.

, Cale announced dryly. Instantly he set off at a sprint and shot forward, still in the guise of a creature, killing without regard. Among the chaos, he was the only one moving purposefully in one direction, which caught the eye of a Thormod.

"The Elos...", he managed to say, before Cale killed him with an elegant movement, and all his colleagues behind him. The Thormods' shouts even made it easier for Cale to find them. As soon as he heard their voice, he began his hunt. Just as he was using wind magic to split one creature into two, his colleagues reported to him.

, Aaron interjected, but at the same moment all connection to the 3rd seat broke. Surprised, Cale turned in his direction and let his perception grow larger, but he seemed too far away.

, Cale called out in his mind and spotted a young Thormod in the corner of his eye, a student that he killed without thinking. But at that moment he decided not to keep hiding, jumping into the air and looking out for the rest like that.

There was no answer from Aaron. A futile attempt by Cale, as he could very clearly sense that his mana was non-existent. Again his eyes wandered to the east, in which Aaron should be. Not getting an answer from him for so long made Cale abruptly nervous.

Should he wait or take the risk and leave his post?

, Grischa called out loudly to the High-Magician and the first dragons also came forward in confusion. But of all, it was the Eldest who made no sound. Like Cale, he listened silently to the shouts, his concern doubling with each passing second.

When Cale felt that chaos would break out among them at any moment, he lost patience.

, Cale interrupted the exclamations that echoed in his head.

In the next second, the Dragons began a joint swoop, while the High-Magicians confirmed the statement. Cale could feel the sensation of mana multiplying abruptly and tried to bring his trembling hand under control.

They went on the offensive.

With a loud bang, dozens of flames shot to the ground, killing all life between the search party and the first line of defense. Cale, on the other hand, now abandoned his stealth as well and began to fly faster, always mindful of the fact that Aaron was alone with 3 leaders. Of all the participants in the fight, Aaron was probably one of those Cale had expected to be able to handle on his own. Not getting an answer from him made Cale more nervous than he thought he would be. He didn't care that the Thormods might break through the defenses. If need, he would spend all night hunting them all down. His concern was entirely for Aaron.

Immediately, he shook the thought out of his head that one of the Thormods had teleported behind him and killed him. Aaron would have been too careful with that, he would have certainly noticed and retorted.

, the scout of the dragons spoke up to make matters worse. So the Thormods had indeed waited and launched a two-front attack. But all at once, Cale realized where the other leaders were.

, the dragons replied and split up. They had expected something like this to happen, but the whole thing didn't please Cale at all. They could still manage against two leaders, but against Chairman Hosik? Even Cale was unsure how powerful the man was and if he didn't have another ambush in mind.

, Rangar's voice rang out for a brief moment. As with Aaron, however, his existence suddenly vanished and Cale abruptly got goosebumps. But at the same moment an powerful pain overcame him and with a loud scream he fell from the sky. Breathing frantically, he held his chest and straightened up as he passively noticed the creatures around him.

Cale reached out his hand and let out a clenched mass that abruptly set the surrounding creatures on fire, causing meter-high red flames to appear. But he could not stop. He could not and would not stop. Like hot oil, his mana orbits boiled and he felt as if his body was melting from within. The only salvation at that moment was to use his mana.

All of it.

It was his own mana that was causing this pain. Recklessly, it shot through his mana pathways, trying to escape so that Cale had no control over his body. The mana would kill him if he did not release it. In the first moments, Cale didn't understand what had happened, but when he looked around and spotted the defenseless creatures, he realized it.

The Mana of Nature was gone.

, Cale cried fearfully and began to fly again, which was a lot harder for him than before. His three inner barriers had fallen. But what was worst was the fact that he basically could not feel his Igrikum.

, he screamed, shooting his mana like crazy at the ground. It was like a big waste of mana, but Cale had no way to act otherwise. His masses would only cause him problems if he tried to control it now. He first had to reach a level where he could move again without any difficulties.

A muffled bang in the distance made Cale look ahead. Since his vision was dim, he could only dimly make out the sea, but the columns of smoke told him that someone was fighting there.

Cale had been so put off by his pain that he hadn't realized he could feel Aaron's mana. Faintly, but it was definitely there. It felt a little strange, but Cale ignored that fact. He forced himself to control his body to the best of his ability before shooting forward. Wind whipped frontally against his face as he didn't raise a protective barrier, so he held an arm in front of his face. And then he saw it. The leaders. A woman with two short swords in her hands and a slightly shorter man behind her. A few feet from them, Cale spotted what he thought was the body of the third leader.

But when his eyes fell on Aaron, who was being attacked by countless Thormod, he acted instinctively.

"Aaron!", he roared in a loud voice and shot to the ground before grabbing him and pulling him out of the fight. Without hesitation, he let a wave of fire appear behind them, which allowed Cale to get a closer look at Aaron. He was bleeding like crazy, one eye was half closed and one arm appeared to be broken. However, as Cale held him in his arm, he felt how much blood the man was actually losing.

"Ca...leb", Aaron brought exhausted to the word, which made Cale's heart beat faster.

, he shouted in panic in his mind as he cleared the ground in front of him of creatures and fell to the ground. Carefully, he set Aaron down and abruptly began to pulverize any life that approached them with the help of his fire magic. Only then did he feel a sense of security.

"By the Elder's beard, you look terrible" Cale replied ironically, beginning to direct fire with one hand while carefully cleaning Aaron's body with the other. He tried to get an idea of how badly Aaron was hurt, but his concern was confirmed. His wound on the chest was too big and all at once Cale got tears in his eyes, which he immediately wiped from his face.

"These... little leader... can block nature's mana", Aaron brought out convulsively, coughing up blood. Cale, however, ignored the comment and began to travel his clothes off his body to get a better look at the wound. "You... need to get rid of him."

"Let me look at your wounds first."

"You don't have time...", Aaron complained. Cale, on the other hand, took off his jacket and tore his shirt to get a long piece of cloth, which he wrapped around Aaron's heavily bleeding wound. "...time for that. If... he reaches the others, we'll lose the first line of defense."

Stunned, Cale stared at the pale mage, who held himself upright with one hand and looked straight back at him. Cale was aware that Aaron was right. If he didn't take care of this leader immediately, then they were in danger of losing because entire war. If the High-Magicians were unable to communicate with the dragons or use their Igrikum, then they were just drops in the bucket.

"Put this on your wound and stay awake, Aaron. I'll take care of those and then get you to the healers right away", Cale finally gave voice with a smile on his face as he took Aaron's own hand and pressed it onto his wound. With one last look at the injured High-Magician, Cale stood up, tore the mask from his face, and rushed through the flames.

With one hand, he knocked the flames from his face and stepped out onto the wide expanse where dozens of creatures waited. Cale ran his bloody hand through his hair and combed it back, his gaze would be fixed on the two leaders. They probably couldn't teleport, and the fact that they couldn't run away should be obvious to them as well. Maybe they had some idea who Cale was, but he didn't really care. He had to fight without his Igrikum, something he hadn't done in a long time.

Without a sound, he reached his hand to the ground and began to make the ground shake.