Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

Despite the chaos that the battle brought to Tristan, the general population was still hiding in their homes. It was early in the morning, so it made sense that most people would still be at home…

The group found some soldiers around, but they dropped their weapons and dropped to their knees as well with their hands on their backs. Some soldiers grabbed those weapons since some of them broke or suffered a lot of damage thanks to the golems.

"Spread around the area using the same formation from before as a basis, don't cluster on a single area and become easy targets for the enemies!" Branden shouted. "They won't go down easily, and once they realize that they lost, they will try to take down as many with them as possible."

Following Branden's words, the soldiers began to spread around. The group of seven hundred had decreased to four hundred. However, they still easily took over the streets of the city while marching toward the eastern wall. Considering that the enemies had the heat sorcerers and the quicksand executioners, they could still cause much damage.

The more the group approached their destination, the more they could hear the sound and feel the smell of the battle. The smell of a battlefield was different from the smell of death… probably because in such a place, people died in droves, and it was relatively easy to find people that died without fully preparing their hearts for it.

As such, one could feel the smell of shit, piss, blood, and flesh burned…

Despite that, the group remained focused on the task ahead, and it didn't take long for them to notice the enemies close to the walls moving to face them.

"Their numbers are smaller than I had anticipated…" Jori said.

The enemies split their group in two; half of them had around three thousand, and they were moving away from the wall to keep the chaos of the battlefield from reaching the walls. That would disrupt the focus of the other three thousand on the walls and nearby that were holding back the main army.

"I need to be three hundred meters away to be on my best range. Open the path for me again, and I will burst open that gate as well," Branden said.

"HOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!"

While Branden didn't give an explicit order this time, his underlings answered it like that was the case. They were five hundred meters away, and the enemies were exactly where Branden needed to be… while the enemies outnumbered them right to one, the soldiers still charged toward the enemies alongside the mercenaries.

"We just have to open the path, and victory will be ours!" The white mustache old man shouted.

Those were the words of someone who didn't care about dying as long as they achieved their goal. Rain would rather focus on surviving while achieving the goal… regardless, the heat sorcerers pointed their hands toward it, and soon, several fire tornadoes emerged in the city. The spells began to destroy the brick on the ground and leave a trail of destruction… the enemies truly didn't want a melee.

"Rain! Go!" Jori said.

Rain wondered if his allies wanted him dead so badly to the point that they would tell him to run straight to the fire tornadoes. Still, he knew better than that… his Impulse, or so he decided to call his skill, was something far rarer than he had imagined.

Leaving his allies alone for a short while wouldn't kill them, so Rain sighed and then stepped in by using his earth magic. With one step, he got closer to the fire tornadoes, but he zigzagged around them and soon passed by them before they could close in. Still, Rain felt the smell of smoke coming from his clothes.

"Holy shit… how hot will this be at noon?" Rain thought.

In another step, Rain closed in toward the enemies, they opened their eyes widely when they saw someone so nonchalantly approaching them, but they didn't hesitate in pointing their hands toward him. The temperature around Rain increased, but soon his body slammed against one of the targets, and before the guy could fall, Rain kicked him in the stomach and made him fly and knock down several others.

"This will hurt me as well…" Rain thought.

Killing the enemies wasn't the best option to stop the fire tornadoes… it was to knock them down, and to do that, Rain lowered his posture and used Impulse again with all his might and toward the enemies on his right side. Before long, fifteen of them were knocked down almost out of nowhere. Rain hit the first with his shoulder, but the pressure still made him feel some cracks on his right arm.

Fortunately, the hard work paid off. He saved some mana and also was rewarded for it. Several fire tornadoes began to dissipate, and Rain could hear the sound of shouts approaching.

An unknown skill has leveled up.

The Healer's Path received 300 experience points.

An unknown skill has leveled up.

The Healer's Path received 300 experience points.

…

Several enemies died thanks to that attack, and the other enemies realized that despite his size, Rain was a far worse problem than they had expected… several of them raised their hands, and fireballs appeared and flew toward him.

Rain tried to run, but they followed him… without any other choice, he used Impulse and knocked down a bunch of enemies like bowling pins and then grabbed one of the bodies and used it as a shield. The temperature of the corpse began to increase, and it didn't burn at all.

"They really can absorb heat…." Rain thought.

Rain didn't have time for that, though. While some of the fire tornadoes disappeared. His allies were still far away from him… in the end, Rain decided to speed things up before more casualties could take place. The screams of pain in the distance made him realize that it was no time to consider only his safety…