Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

The chaos after the death of the general of that area lasted for a while. The magic people were completely enraged and kept fighting even though the favor wasn't on their side. Thanks to that, they lost three Battalions while they barely reached the walls and killed around two hundred soldiers who watched the retreat.

Branden considered sending more soldiers to make good use of that opportunity. Still, soon, he realized that it would be useless since it would make things more chaotic than anything.

In any case, the other seven battalions were still back in the camp, and they didn't make any move. They will probably wait for the other generals before doing anything.

"Sit. Down." Terra said when the group finally had the chance to rest.

"Why are you so pissed when we won an important battle?" Rain asked while sitting on the floor of the wall.

"Because it feels like you have some kind of disease that forces you to almost kill yourself all the time, and that increases my workload," Terra replied and then took down Rain's shirt, showing his back completely bruised and purple.

"Well, sorry for not being strong enough not to dance around the battlefield without getting hurt," Rain shrugged.

Instead of wondering how many bones he broke, it was better to ask how many bones Rain didn't break. While his friends saw him fighting for a while, they didn't see him the moment that the enemy general treated him like a ragged doll. Jori and Reca had some bruises, too, but they were fine.

Things would have been different before, but by sparring with Rain, they learned how to fight using their heads, so it was weird for them to see Rain that messed up.

"Good work, everyone," Branden said when he arrived. "Taking the head of the general will truly help us in the next few days… the enemies won't be able to attack three places effectively like before. It would have been better if we had brought the body of the enemy, but it can't be helped."

Rain wondered what Branden was thinking of doing with the body of that general; Rain heard some crazy stuff was done with the bodies of generals to demoralize the enemy's troops in times of war. It made him realize that he still was a guy from a modern world… the fight had been hard, but there was no hate involved.

If anything, Rain was thankful for the enemy since he got a lot stronger by killing him.

At the same time, Rain knew that Branden had grudges against the magic people… they were responsible for the deaths of his grandparents, which spoiled him a lot, after all.

At that moment, Rain realized why Branden never showed up to visit his grandparents… he sure was acting like he loved them. At that time, he was supposed to be nine years old, so perhaps his mother forbade him since it might cause problems for them. The entire Lonard family was considered responsible for the fall of Tristan; after all… still, taking it back wouldn't erase what had happened.

"From now on, you should keep your guard up all the time, Rain," Branden said. "Most of the loyal underlings of that general died in the previous battle, but some others might try to avenge him and demoralize our troops by killing you."

"Fine by me, there will be no shortage of enemies," Rain said, and then he felt Terra poking on his broken ribs. "Ouch, ouch…"

"You can think more about fighting once you are completely healed, which isn't something that will happen today," Terra said.

"Not a problem. Wounds like this are nothing," Rain shrugged. "I will start recovering my Mana now in case you are out of it already. Only if all of my limbs are broken will I won't be able to fight."

"Perhaps we can do that in order to make you listen?" Terra asked.

"You seem too stressed. Perhaps you need a hobby," Rain said.

From what Rain could tell, Terra's hobby was her work, and she liked when her patients followed her instructions, but she got pissed when dealing with patients like Rain.

It couldn't be helped; Rain was determined to test his limits on a daily basis… that world was a dog-eat-dog world, and he wasn't planning to fall behind. Besides, he died once when he was just twenty-five; he wasn't planning to die that young again. Living three hundred years seemed good enough; he just had to become a muscular martial artist old man.

Regardless, Terra fixed Rain's body enough to the point that his breathing didn't make him sweat cold. His bones were still mending, but it was a lot better than before. Walking didn't make him feel anything, either.

"You should be completely fine in three days. That being said, if you get bit in any spot that is remotely wounded, you will feel pain like never before," Terra alerted him. "At the same time, the vibrations of any powerful attack will make your whole body tremble in pain; I believe that I don't have to tell you what might happen if you flinch on the battlefield thanks to such levels of pain."

"No, you don't have to, ma'am," Rain said while putting his shirt back.

After saying that, Rain began to meditate. His health was already back to full, so he could only wait for the bones to mend themselves naturally. He had plenty of time for that since that day, all the armies fell back once they learned that they lost one of their generals.

Some people with good eyes began to spread the news that the remaining generals had a meeting to confirm that. After that, the sunset, and it became impossible to tell what they were doing from a distance.

"We should try to get some rest while we can," Jori said as soon as it got dark. "It will be hard to believe that they will attack at night again… they will seriously rethink their strategies before making any move that can alter the flow of the war.