The strong gust of wind was clearly no natural occurrence, Henry understood that immediately. As for who was responsible, he could only guess, but his guess wasn’t far from the truth.

  There was an elderly mage, pointing at him while shouting at the top of his lungs as if he was trying to rally the scattered soldiers and mages. The tter were the ones that regained their composure first. They gathered around the elderly mage and together, they began a chant while waving their staffs around.

  Henry didn’t know what the mages were trying to do but it didn’t matter. It wouldn’t be anything beneficial to him. He spat a bolt of fire at the mages just as they began casting. The elderly mage stopped his chant and tapped his staff on the ground. A translucent barrier formed around the mages. The firebolt hit the barrier and it dispersed into nothing without making a crack on the barrier.

  “Anti-magic barrier?” Henry ventured a guess.

  Henry could hear the mages’ heartbeats scking. Witnessing the effectiveness of the barrier boosted their confidence and assurance. This worked in Henry’s favour. He lunged at the mages and none of them seemed concerned about his rapid approach. He then thrust his cws at the barrier. He made a rge crack in the barrier and his cws only made it into a tenth of the barrier’s thickness, and that was all Henry needed. He unleashed Aura Bde. The crack spread until it covered the entire barrier, and then the whole thing shattered into millions of tiny fragments.

  The mages paled and gasped but the elderly one maintained a composed expression. He took out a scroll from somewhere on his robe. The scroll glowed brightly before unleashing a torrent of fire towards Henry. The elderly mage grinned, mockingly, assured of his victory. The fmes razed the ground and everything it swallowed along with Henry, turning the soil and sand into gss. That was just how dangerous the fmes from the scroll were. However…

  Henry was impervious to fmes, no matter the nature. He emerged from the smoke, unscathed. Before the elderly mage could express his disbelief and surprise, Henry used his Jetstream Breath and all of the mages were bisected horizontally.

  “Hm?”

  Henry noticed it immediately. The elderly mage was not among the mages he cut in half. He was gone. Henry tried to locate the mage with his senses but nothing came back positive. It was as if the elderly mage had somehow disappeared far away from the area.

  “Emergency teleportation?” Henry mused. He remembered seeing such a spell in the stories he had read in his former life. A failsafe that teleports the user to some safe pce in the case of a sure-death situation. If the elderly mage could teleport at his whim, he would have used it against Henry in a fight instead of using it to escape.

  Though the mages were dead, it was not the end for the army. Far from it. Not all the mages were dead, only the ones in the vicinity. Moreover, there were still many soldiers who were still alive and able. Seeing and hearing the commotion, they were already rushing towards Henry, dragging their war machines along.

  The first war machine that they managed to transport close enough to Henry was a ballista the size of a tank. Seeing that, Henry almost wanted to ugh due to how slow they were being. After the ballista was in range, they took a full minute to set it up and ready it for firing. In that span of time, Henry could have destroyed them and the ballista. He would have if it wasn’t so pitifully funny.

  Henry sighed. “...This is pathetic.”

  The soldiers took half a minute to aim the ballista at Henry. As the captain barked his orders, the markings on the ballista glowed.

  “Fire!” the captain shouted.

  The bolt was released from the ballista and the bolt shot towards Henry like a cannon. No doubt the bolt would easily tear boulders and steel at such speed and strength behind it. However, Henry needed only to flick his hand, and the Aura Bde split the bolt into two perfect halves. The two halves flew past him and struck the soldiers who were creeping up on him.

  “A fortress made of only stones would not be able to withstand a few of these,” Henry surmised. If the soldiers had tens of these ballistas, it would be easy to invade Ulrum. “What’s next?”

  As if right on cue, the sound of explosions could be heard from a distance.

  “Those sounds… cannons?”

  As Henry was wondering, projectiles were falling towards him from the sky.

  “Ah, mortars. Holy shit. The Lavans st a day against these weapons.” Henry felt relieved that he decided to intervene now.

  The projectiles bombarded Henry while he was still musing to himself.

  The soldiers cheered when they saw this.

  “Cease this foolery!” the captain shouted. “Our enemy is not confirmed dead yet. Be on your—” The captain didn’t get to finish his sentence as a rock came flying and smashed open his head.

  “You morons just love to show your backs, don’t you?” Henry mocked as he strode towards the soldiers without any wound on his body.

  Seeing the gruesome death of their captain, a few of the soldiers dropped their weapons and scurried off of the battlefield. Those that remained were at a loss. They could only grip their weapons tightly and wait for Henry to approach them. The ballista was still in working condition but none attempted to use it.

  “Is it this simple to break their morale?”

  Right at that moment, the sky darkened and thunder began to rumble. The ground around Henry shook and walls of dirt were raised around him. The thunder in the clouds continued to bre and roar until one bolt descended abruptly upon him. After that single bolt, more followed. All the bolts struck the same pce over and over until the dirt walls were destroyed by the onsught.

  If the soldiers hadn’t just witnessed the gruesome death of their captain, they would have cheered and celebrated. This time, they kept their eyes on Henry, or at least on where he was standing. The smoke and dust had covered the area.

  “What are you all standing around for?” baulked a mage standing on a cliff overlooking the spot where the confrontation was. “Move in and confirm the kill!”

  The soldiers looked up. They were about to retort but when they saw who it was, they kept their words to themselves and reluctantly obeyed the mage’s orders.

  “Useless bunch,” the mage scoffed under his breath. He was dressed in garments that denoted his status as a mage but one gnce from anyone could tell the fabric used was of the best quality. Unlike his peers, he had no staff in his hands.

  “Your Grace, we have finished the count,” said a young soldier who ran hurriedly up to him. “More than half of our forces have been decimated. Three-tenths of our men are dead.”

  “What of the general?”

  “...Dead… too, sir,” the soldier replied hesitantly.

  “What about Aristan?”

  “He’s nowhere to be found. He’s most likely dead, Your Grace.”

  “Unlikely. He’s sly. He had fled the battlefield, more like.”

  “A-as you say, Your Grace.”

  “And our arsenal?”

  “A dozen Syers. As for our siege weapons, most are still intact but we ck the man to operate them efficiently.”

  “Efficiency be damned. Man all of the weapons and deploy all the Syers here. Our enemy is not to be underestimated.”

  “Understood, Grand Mage.” The soldier nodded and scuttled off to rey the mage’s order.

  Just as the Grand Mage turned his attention back to where he had unleashed the lightning barrage, the smoke dispersed, the bodies of the soldiers scattered about, and a rge Dragon stood where the human figure had been.

  “Not even a scratch… The stories did not exaggerate.” There was not a hint of panic on the mage’s expression despite witnessing the ineffectiveness of his attacks. In fact, he beamed with a nasty grin. “Excellent. You will be the perfect familiar. I must have you.”

  Henry unleashed Fire Breath on the snarky young mage upon hearing his decration. The fmes turned everything it touched into cinders but the mage was not among the damages.

  “He teleported away?” Henry muttered. “No… he didn’t teleport away. He breathes but I sense no life from him, only Murux. He wasn’t real? A projection, perhaps? If that’s the case, where’s the real body?”

  Henry looked around. Everything was in a terrible shape. The once lush forestscape was nowhere to be seen. Destruction and death had ruined it all. The soldiers mounting the ballista had long made their retreat, leaving the war machine alone. Henry did not bat an eye and quickly destroyed the ballista with a single firebolt.

  Henry followed the trail left behind by the retreating soldiers. There were more of them ahead from what he could hear. He took to the air and he found the remnants of the army in no time. They were gathering what remained of their forces and arsenal.

  In the centre of it all, there was the mage he encountered just now and other mages were surrounding him as if he was an important figure. Which he probably was, Henry gathered. He did hear the soldier calling him “Grand Mage”. Judging by how the soldiers listened to him, the Grand Mage must be in a position that rivalled a general.

  “The enemy is here!” the grand mage announced. “To your stations and prepare to attack!”

  Henry wanted to wait and see what they would and could do in their state but he refrained from letting his curiosity get the better of him. As he was about to gather his breath, the air around him began to shimmer.

  “Oh, not this again,” Henry groaned. “Fine, I’ll py along.”

  Henry did not move and let the spell catch him. As an unseen force pulled him to the ground, the war machines moved into position. Three were ballistas and four were some sort of cannon. There were others but they were not in use, probably due to the ck of manpower. The operating war machines were all trained on him. Going by how the mages were chanting something, Henry figured this was not all to their offensive but Henry wasn’t about to let them keep on doing their thing.

  Henry unleashed the breath that he had been amassing. The bze consumed the projectiles, turning them all into ashes.

  “Barrier!” the Grand Mage yelled.

  Barriers were instantly formed above the army. The fming vortex crashed into the barrier. Cracks formed all over it but not breaking through it. The barriers were effective, however… there was no way to prevent the heat from getting through. Henry heard screams. He also heard wails. By the time the fmes dissipated, most of the soldiers were curled up on the ground, groaning. The heat did quite a number on them.

  The force continued to pull Henry down. Even once he reached the ground, the force kept him trapped in pce. This was the part where they bombard him with all sorts of attacks but considering how most of them were just decimated, there was no onsught.

  Henry assumed his human form and walked out of the trap. Henry guessed the spell was not meant for someone or something that could change their size willy-nilly.

  Henry didn’t drop far from where the army gathered. He emerged onto the clearing and the stench of burnt flesh assaulted his nose. There was no death but given their state, death would have been better. The soldiers’ metal armour didn’t help with the heat either. Henry strode through the dying and wailing soldiers towards where the mages were gathered.

  Then, Syers appeared in her path from seemingly nowhere. At the same time, the mages finished their chant.

  “This is the end for you, beast!” the grand mage decred.