The Sun was ready to hide behind the tall mountain peaks. The evening winds of the rainy season were swift and gentle.
Valerius stood before the vast army of about a hundred pearl white creatures. Each of them far surpasses him in size alone.
Even if they were the lowest of their class, they surely had the advantage in numbers. Not to mention under the rule of an evolved leader, the arachnid, they would act united —which was the main problem.
Not to mention the leader was nowhere in sight.
To make things even worse, the day was about to come to an end. Needless to say it will not be easy to face an army of this caliber in the darkness of night.
'I have to end it quickly'
Valerius concentrated as a red glow suddenly ignited in his palm. Then as if the world stood still for a moment only to compliment the sight itself as the sword appeared in his hand.
The weapon was a craft of absolute intricacy. The flaming red blade gives off the impression of absolute destruction as he stands there like an omen of death.
Beside him, Victor gasped in awe, "I've seen this sight many times before but there's no doubt it is a sight to behold every single time."
The golden interference that loomed high above the town parted, giving way, as he walked right through it.
Every step he took, the flames ignited in his wake. Everyone felt the presence of a battle hardened warrior.
Watching the creatures rushing towards him, he touched the red blade of his sword,
"Forgive me mother for I am about to take lives."
The blade flashed, fire left the expanse of his conscious sea, vaporizing tens of creatures almost immediately. In an instant flames engulfed the battlefield completely.
Living creatures were terrified of this scene but they feared their tyrannical leader more —the only way for them was to march forward.
This was the world of essence.
And some of the lucky ones born in the third order of sentient class to make the use of that essence was possible—the world called them mages.
Every mage had a core element, unique to every individual. And so did Valerius.
His core element consisted of fire and flames.
He moved ahead burning and slashing through the thick chitinous shells of the creatures.
Severing their limbs completely he crushed the skulls of the creatures with his fist alone.
Suddenly, a huge creature managed to get past him, aiming the sharp pincer at Valerius from behind.
However, he did not turn to look around, the creature's eyes ignited with blue light —suddenly committing suicide by stabbing it's own self to death.
As the giant's body fell lifeless on the ground, blue light slowly vanished from its eyes. Victor walked forward with the same ethereal glow in his deep blue eyes.
He turned towards the right, taking control of another creature and turning it in his own mindless thrall.
Creatures hissed and charged forward, however they were but mere conscious order —the first and the lowest one.
Facing humans —a being of absolutely another class.
The gap of power was like heaven and earth.
The numbers of the arachnid's army were dwindling fast but Valerius was feeling uneasy by the absence of the tyrant on the battlefield.
The area around the south gate was blazing with crimson flames. If Valerius didn't have this type of intricate control over fire, it would've started to burn the forest down by now.
At a distance, the creatures could be seen fighting each other and stabbing their own selves to death. Victor's core element really was terrifying.
As Valerius moved forward looking at the only remaining wave of the pitiful creatures and saw something familiar.
The sight he had seen many times before.
No matter human or inhumane natural creatures, in the sense of war they were all the same.
Not everyone was fighting willingly.
He saw the same expressions on the creatures as he saw on the faces of humans in the war.
They were all terrified. Scared to lose their lives.
Can't gather the courage to charge forward and possibly can't defy the will of their leader.
And as the fear overwhelmed them, they stood frozen in one place.
His sword was still burning with blazing flames. His dark abyss-like eyes staring at the pitiful creatures.
Now was the moment to make a very important decision. Whether to kill them all and prevent something like this to happen ever again or to let them go and live their lives with threat always looming above the town.
A very hard decision indeed —but for an individual who had seen brutality of war from a very young age, sparing lives wasn't that hard anymore.
After losing many people precious to him, he had come to know the real value of life.
No one can bring back who are lost to this battle and the countless before. But the least he can do is to make sure not to take the lives of someone who had already surrendered.
He sighed and lowered his sword, "it's over Victor, let's head back."
"Right," Victor replied.
The creatures of the last wave heaved a sigh of relief as they retreated as fast as they could.
Crossing the barrier of golden dome shaped interference,
"What's the situation?" Valerius asked back at the south gate to the standing guard.
"No sightings of creatures in east and north gates," the guard reported.
"Huh? That is Strange," Valerius thought deeply, "what is that tyrant actually planning?"
There were too many questions. Was this the extent of the army arachnid had managed to gather?
No it can't be. According to Valerius' reports of constantly tailing the creature for the past few weeks he knew very well how dangerously scheming he had become.
Deliberately choosing to keep the distance from humans. These are the signs of possible evolved intellect. However, the problem was Valerius did not know the extent of arachnid's thinking.
Maybe he was planning something, or perhaps this direct raid was the best plan he could come up with.
But the reasoning that made sense was it could be the only prelude to what is about to come.
Perhaps the creature leader was testing the waters with the cost of losing some small fries —before the big game.
Far in the horizon, the rays of the sun had finally retreated back into the abyss. Casting the shadow of darkness over the lands below.
Suddenly in that exact moment the sound of a loud explosion resounded in the background, forcing him to snap out of his thoughts.
Immediately a guard came running to him as he reported,
"My Lord, the east gate is under attack"
"My lord there is a wave of creatures at North gate too." Another guard reported.
As he had expected, the arachnid was finally executing his real plan.
— — — — —