Confrontation I
"What about all the Tars in the Outpost? Shouldn’t they retreat as well?" Sam asked when the convoy passed through the gate leading to the Citadel.
Many people followed her sentint, wondering why they were the only ones retreating.
Osho’s expression turned grim at the question. However, Ellie saved him the trouble of explaining.
"They won’t." She said calmly, her voice cutting through the noise of her classmates.
Everyone stared at her in confusion, but one of the soldiers finished for her, his voice somber.
"They can if they want to, but they won’t. Beast Tars have a duty towards their Citadel. The Tars in the Jordan Outpost will buy ti for the Citadel to properly get its defenses up to defend against the beast tide." Everyone’s faces blanched at that.
"But... wouldn’t it be more effective for them to return to the Citadel? We need all the help we can get... right?" One student said.
"Yeah. I get it’s a beast tide, but it’s not like this is the first ti we’ve dealt with sothing like this. We’ve handled more with less... haven’t we? Aren’t they unnecessarily risking their lives?" Another spoke.
Osho wanted to agree with them. While he hadn’t experienced them per se, since coming to this world, he’d been around long enough to know that the Citadel had been assaulted by beast tides before. When those happened, all activity within the Citadel was to be ceased and everyone would wait indoors until the problem was cleared.
Dealing with them never took more than a few hours, at most an entire day, but the casualties were always ager with the resources being used to resell the attack being negligible.
As such, allowing the Tars in the Jordan Outpost to retreat seed like the only wise option as they would be unnecessarily risking their lives if they stayed. At least. That is what it seed like.
Osho had never encountered a beast tide in person. He’d watched videos of them, sure, but he’d never looked at one in the face or gotten as close to one as he was now. Yet sothing told him that this beast tide wasn’t normal in any way, shape, or form.
Not only because of Gale’s reaction, but due to the weather change.
For starters, ever since Gale hatched, the bird, other than acting like an obedient brat, never seed concerned when handling other beasts. In fact, the only other ti he’d felt Gale’s emotions towards a beast change was towards Sugil and Mrs Jane’s Salamander. For the forr, it was interest, likely because he could sense the potential the snake possessed, and for the latter, it was begrudgingly respect as he recognized the creature was stronger than himself.
However, what Gale was feeling now was different from both of those. It was genuine wariness, as well as an underlying sense of defiance.
As for the thing about the weather, well, he learned so ti ago that when beasts or any creature reaches a certain level, the world starts to react to their presence without any conscious action on their part.
For instance, if a beast with the ice affinity reached a certain stage, then simply by existing, the surrounding temperature would begin to drop drastically until everything around it began to freeze. This phenonon was better known as Bestial Dominance, where the beast was recognized by the world itself.
Sothing that applied to only Elite rank beasts and above.
But while beast tides led by Elite ranks were rare, they did happen, and they could still be solved with enough ti.
Heck, when the Citadel was first created, it faced the assault of several elite-ranked beasts and their armies at the sa ti and ca out on top. So just one shouldn’t be too much of an issue, albeit stressful.
But Osho couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing was wrong. Everything about the entire situation just seed off. It was a gut feeling with no basis whatsoever, but he had a feeling he was right.
On top of the bus, Mrs Jane stood facing the darkening weather, her expression serene but eyes sharp.
At that mont, a dark signature materialized next to her. Ellie’s bodyguard.
"You can take your young mistress and leave." She said without facing him.
"I can’t." He said flatly and she glanced at him with an arched brow.
"You must have sensed it too. The ambient Mana is being destabilized by sothing. I can’t perform any long-distance jumps while it’s like that." He explained calmly as he faced the sa direction as her.
"I see, I’m guessing you’ll prioritize protecting her, then?" Mrs Jane asked.
"Naturally." He nodded before adding. "But I’ll protect the boy as well if the situation arises." Hearing this, Mrs Jane nodded.
"What do you reckon is the rank of the leading creature?" She asked again.
"Definitely Elite rank." He answered without missing a beat. "However, it isn’t like any Elite rank beast I’ve co across. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it shouldn’t even exist. Even from here, its Aura just feels wrong." Once again, Mrs Jane nodded.
"The people in the Outpost should be able to buy a decent amount of ti. However, sothing tells we will still encounter the beast tide before getting our reinforcents." She said and the man nodded as well.
"Well, you seem to have things under control up here, so I’ll leave you to it." He said before vanishing in a mass of shadows.
Mrs Jane exhaled slightly before staring back at the approaching cloud, her eyes narrowing slightly.
’What are you?’ She wondered in her heart.
___
"Sir! The Skyblight Harbinger has suddenly accelerated!" One of the Handlers exclaid as he stared at his screen.
"Give a live map of it!" Major Thompson ordered and the image on the live screen changed.
Soon, everyone saw as the massive creature which had originally been moving at the sa pace as its army suddenly accelerated. Its speed was simply absurd as it easily broke the sound barrier, and coupled with its large size, moving at such a speed started causing massive damage to the ground below as powerful winds were left in its wake.
"Soone tell why its doing this all of a sudden." Major Thompson ordered, his eyes holding a touch of confusion.
Nothing about this beast was normal, but to leave its army behind was beyond strange. The reason beasts even gathered an army before attacking a Citadel was that they knew their individual strength wouldn’t be enough and they’d need underlings to support them. The Skyblight Habinger, despite its strangeness, seed to follow this rule as well.
But now it completely stopped doing so as it surged ahead, and it didn’t seem like a random action either.
"Wait a minute. Sir, it’s heading straight for the students of the Bright Spark Academy! Its targeting them for so reason!" One of the Handlers shouted and Major Thompson’s eyes widened.
"Soone inform Lady Jane imdiately!" He yelled.
___
Osho felt a chill run down his spine and Gale’s eyes narrowed.
No one else seed to notice, but Osho felt it clearly. Sothing was gazing at him and his beast, and it wasn’t trying to mask its intent in any way, shape or form.
And its intent was suffocating.
If he had to compare, it was like all those gazes he’d felt when he first entered the wilderness were simply a drop in the bucket compared to this... this thing.
He imdiately broke out in a cold sweat and started panting, his face going deathly pale.
"Osho, what’s wrong?" Ellie asked as she saw his strange reaction.
"Is he having a panic attack?" Kurt wondered out loud as everyone stared at him with surprise and worry.
However, just like last ti, Gale let out an irritated snort, and suddenly, the pressure Osho felt eased. However, he didn’t feel any safer.
"Sothing is coming!" He said through gritted teeth.
Before anyone could wonder what he ant, a shrill screech entered everyone’s ears.
On the bus, Mrs Jane stared at the black dot that was rapidly getting closer, her eyes narrowing.
"So that’s what you look like, huh?" He murmured, her enhanced vision easily allowing her to see the massive creature that flew their way with purpose.
The screech hadn’t even ended before the sky darkened, the black clouds quickly forming above the creature.
Everyone in the buses covered their ears as the sound hit them, the drivers losing concentration as the vehicles nearly went off course. But a film of Mana suddenly protected each vehicle and the terrible cry lessened in its intensity, allowing the drivers to quickly regain control.
The creature briefly halted its advance and eyed Mrs Jane nacingly.
’How vile.’ Mrs Jane thought, the creature’s very presence was causing the ambient Mana to change ominously. Then there was the dark dust ut passively released. Wherever it touched, trees wilted and grass died.
"Your very existence is like a sore in the world. No wonder they called you a Blight." She mumbled and pointed her hand its its direction, orange flas coalescing into a ball of destruction and heat.
"I’ll burn you away."
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