Rhun sighed as he looked over the town wall. The morning air was cool, the kind of crisp air that made the town of Karan look peaceful for once.

'Today looks like a nice day,' he thought lazily, leaning against the stone rail.

He had learned, over the years, that he could tell how a day was going to unfold just by the way the sunlight touched the rooftops.

The glow over the eastern buildings usually gave him a good hint.

He squinted his eyes, observing how the sun shone directly on the tiled roofs.

'Yeah,' he thought, letting out a small yawn. 'It's going to be quite an uneventful day.'

Of course, he had tempted fate the moment he said that.

The ground suddenly began to quake.

At first, it was subtle… a small tremor under his boots but within seconds, the vibration grew violent.

Dust fell from the wall's edge, pebbles rattled, and the shaking intensified to the point that the soldiers beside him had to grab onto the railing to keep their balance.

"What the fuck?" Rhun muttered, eyes widening.

It wasn't a normal quake… this was something else entirely. He turned toward the outskirts beyond the wall, and what he saw made his stomach drop.

Out on the outskirts, several large cracks had split open across the ground, stretching for hundreds of meters.

Bright light flashed from within them, followed by the booming sounds of explosions.

Thick black smoke began to rise as flames erupted out of the crevices, twisting toward the sky.

"It's coming from the outskirts!" one soldier shouted.

Rhun's hand tightened on his weapon.

"Is it a spell?!" he yelled, they weren't at war yet but he had to make sure.

But as he looked closer, he could tell immediately that this wasn't any kind of spell he'd seen before.

There was no visible mana pattern… It was definitely something man-made.

"This isn't normal…" he muttered.

He turned to his aide. "Lanre!"

"Yes, Captain?"

"Get the mages, now!" he barked. "And tell them to prepare themselves!"

Lanre saluted and vaulted off to the other side of the wall, jumping away with a zip.

Rhun looked back toward the horizon, clenching his jaw. "Alpha Squad… advance!"

The command echoed across the wall.

A moment later, the sound of zip-lines filled the air. The soldiers equipped with movement gear leapt off the wall, their grappling hooks shooting out with metallic clicks as they descended rapidly toward the source of the explosions.

…

Azel felt warmth on his face.

It took him a moment to realize he wasn't dead.

He blinked, the brightness of the sun stinging his eyes slightly.

When his vision cleared, he found himself sitting on the wreckage of a broken concrete slab, pieces of twisted metal and rock all around him.

In front of him was a massive crack in the ground… it looked like a wound in the earth itself. From within, fire was still spewing out in bursts, lighting up the air with waves of heat.

'I see,' Azel thought, exhaling slowly. 'So we made it out in time.'

He stood up, brushing off the dust from his cloak.

The teleportation circle under their feet was gone now… It had completely deactivated, probably because the other one was destroyed when the rest of the base had exploded.

He glanced down into the flaming crevice. It wasn't as deep as he'd expected. In fact, it almost irritated him.

'Damn it,' he thought, shaking his head. 'It wasn't even that deep. I could've blasted our way out instead of using the portal.'

Behind him, Erblim stretched his black wings, shaking off the soot that had gathered on them.

The little crow fluttered up to his shoulder, sniffing at the air.

"Master…" Erblim said, tilting his head slightly. "There are several people approaching from the east. They don't have mana or aura, so I'd say they're regular soldiers. But…"

He paused, eyes narrowing. "A little farther behind them, I sense stronger presences… people with magic."

Azel nodded slowly. "I see."

He could already guess who was coming.

Soldiers meant the Karan Wall Guard, and mages… probably the town's Mage Division, this would be his first time seeing them.

The corner of his lips curved slightly.

"Perfect timing," he muttered to himself. "Might as well take the credit for this."

If there was one thing he wasn't planning to do, it was letting someone else claim the glory.

After everything he had just gone through underground, someone needed to acknowledge the effort… and he wasn't above giving himself a little promotion in the eyes of Karan's people.

Besides, it would reflect well when he went back to the Empire too.

He turned back toward his companions. "Ravik, how are you holding up?"

The werewolf sat nearby on a chunk of broken stone, his chest heaving with deep breaths.

"It's just exhaustion," Ravik said, forcing a faint smile. "Using my partial transformations that many times, then going full transformation at the end… took a lot out of me."

"Then rest for a bit," Azel said. "You did well."

Ravik nodded gratefully, sitting back down as Azel began to climb down from the wreckage.

The heat intensified the closer he got to the crack.

Erblim perched comfortably on his shoulder, watching the smoke rise.

"Humans really like to blow things up," the crow said. But then again… who was he to talk? Ahrya loved blowing things up as well.

Just then, he heard a familiar whirring sound… the distinct zip of grappling hooks cutting through air.

He looked up and figures were descending upon them at incredible speed.

"Showtime," he muttered, crossing his arms.

Rhun landed first, his boots hitting the dirt with a heavy thud.

Several soldiers followed, fanning out around him as they aimed their rifles toward the wreckage until Rhun spotted Azel standing casually near the flames.

"Azel?" Rhun shouted, both shocked and confused. "Were you the one who did this?"

Azel smiled faintly, brushing dust off his shoulder. "Yeah. You might not be aware, but there was a whole enemy base built underground… right below your noses. The gangsters in town were working with them."

Rhun blinked, staring at him like he'd just spoken nonsense. "Underground?"

Azel pointed toward the burning fissure.

"You can check for yourself. Their base stretched all the way under here. What you're seeing is what's left of it. The fire's from their own explosives."

Rhun leaned forward, squinting down into the flames.

The heat made his clothes feel hot. "Does that mean their entire base is burning right now?"

"Pretty much," Azel said. "And I'd recommend not sending your men down there right now."

Rhun exhaled slowly, still processing everything. "I'll be damned…"

Before he could ask more, the mages arrived.

They landed gracefully behind the soldiers with their own movement gear, each of them wearing the standard military cloaks… long black robes with gold embroidery and the town's insignia stitched on their chests.

Their leader, a woman with two scars crossing her left cheek, stepped forward.

Her hood shaded most of her face, but her eyes glowed beneath it.

She looked at Azel without any hint of emotion.

"So, you're the one who caused this," she said flatly.

Azel turned to face her with a smile. "Caused? I'd say I cleaned up your problem."

The woman's expression didn't change.

"Regardless," she said, her tone firm, "you'll need to come with us. There are questions that must be answered."

While he didn't expect them to immediately believe him… She sure was being rough about it.

"Alright, let's go."

He would eat breakfast there.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.