68 You and what Army?

Stanis went into deep thought a short while later.

In truth, whatever war Alyona was talking about was of little interest to him. Humans? There was not a single human that could challenge him; humans weren't his opponents, whether it through his moral compass or in terms of raw power.

Instead, what he thought of was how to become tier-four. It was a bit of an obvious thought but he felt closest to the gates of tier-four when he had pushed his body past its limits against the Spectre when he had released the last ice crystal. However, at the same time, he instinctively knew that he hadn't even touched the gates yet, let alone passed it.

All this told him was, once again quite simple and obvious, that he would need to push his current self over a cliff in order to enter tier-four. And that wasn't optional either, he could either do it by choice and stay ahead of the other humans and toe-to-toe with the emerging monsters, or he would be forced to do it when all the other humans caught up to him. That wasn't an option in Stanis's mind and thus he would have to voluntarily throw himself into the face of mind-numbing danger in order to reach tier-four, something this war against Humans wouldn't provide.

Having decided his path in his mind, Stanis began thinking up ways to pace through it. He could do it straightaway. And then die… Considering the fact that he couldn't beat the Spectre boss alone and the fact that the pressure the Spectre boss had provided hadn't been high enough for him to reach tier-four, meant that he would die straight away when he challenged a monster strong enough to put on enough pressure.

Having crossed out that plan, Stanis went onto the next one. Train himself up in the village before leaving to cross the bridge to tier-four when he felt ready. This way he could make sure that the village was going in the right direction, his direction, before leaving and also train himself and others up at the same time.

He looked across towards Orena, Caleb and finally Sil, his expression warm by the end. Yes, this felt like the right pace to go at. The only thing he would add on top of that was adequate armour, after all, none of the armour the system supplied was even close to good defence for him. Instead, he would have to create a good pair of armour himself in the Smithy.

Now done with his thoughts, Stanis called Sil, Orena and Caleb over.

"I won't be participating in whatever war the Yora village is waging." Stanis said.

"In that case I won't participate either" said Sil, shaking her head simultaneously.

"No, you will. And so will both of you, Orena and Caleb. You three know how strong I am, a war against other Humans is nothing but a waste of time for me--"

"--But for us it's good practice, no?" finished Orena.

"You sure about that?" asked Caleb, "We might not be as strong as you are but we were the strongest in the village prior to you coming. And I can't really see anyone progressing faster than we have in this past month, meaning we'll be just as overbearing on the enemies as you are, equally a waste of time for us".

Stanis had given all three of them a few simple circuits to practise and Caleb was already thoroughly enjoying the benefits from them. He knew that Stanis could teach them far more than just that and feared this was his way of distancing himself from them.

"No." replied Stanis, "You will be the strongest on the battlefield, sure, but there should be a few enemies who should prove a challenge to you."

Caleb was about to argue back when Stanis gave him the open palm, telling him to stop.

"I will be focusing my time in the Smithy, making myself a good pair of armour while also training myself up. During this time, come to me in order to test yourself and practise. When I feel comfortable with my strength, I'll leave the village and enter tier-four."

Caleb was fine with this arrangement, as was Orena. This especially applied to Sil as she knew she would get preferential treatment anyway.

"You saw the strength the Spectre boss had. You also know that those teleporters allow new enemies to come out, and so far they've only gotten stronger. You should be pushing yourself if you want to survive in the future, let alone thrive." said Stanis. This was half a command and half encouragement for them. They would, without doubt, rise back to the top ranks of the village within a day of returning, but that didn't mean they were allowed to slack back off.

The conversations between the four quickly died off, eventually returning back to silence. All four of them were circulating mana as the hours ticked past.

****

It was six hours into the ride that Stanis reopened his eyes. They were now close and he could sense something watching them. He used Scout and sense, its range now far larger than what it was back when he had left the village a month ago, easily catching the sentry in his sight.

Stanis told the Jaguar he was riding to speed up until it reached the vanguard of the Jaguar pack. This was where the strongest of the strongest Jaguars were: Serb, Niss, Ragaar, Lisi, Gragr and Hoo. Niss, Ragaar, Lisi, Gragr and Hoo were basically Serb's captains, Niss being the head Captain under his control. All five of them had also made the top ten in the Spectre raid.

"Serb, slow down the whole charge" said Stanis.

"Why, are we close?" said Serb.

"Yeah, just a few minutes from here. I just sensed one of the guys watching us, allow him the time to get back to the village and prepare the reception to welcome us."

"Aah, I briefly sensed something watching us. That's fine, I prefer a loud welcome anyway."

****

It was an hour later that Stanis saw the village in the distance. Well, before the village was a large army of Humans, around 600 of them from first glance. It was a given that they were armed to the teeth as they prepared themselves to murder the charging monsters in front of them.

One of the scouts had sprinted all the way back to the village just a few minutes back, loudly and frantically announcing that there was an army of monsters charging this way. It was fine if they changed directions, but in the case they didn't…

It was now that Alyona could actually see the army of monsters that she regretted the decision to send half the forces to attack Haven just a few hours back. If she had known this was coming, she wouldn't have even imagined committing to such a foolish decision. Worse still was the fact that she now felt as if the scout had been severely underplaying these monsters' strength.

They seemed to be some kind of big cats, big big Leopards or Panthers maybe. Not that size necessarily meant strength after the apocalypse, but the feeling these cats gave her was heavily foreboding, so heavy she felt she would collapse any second. She hoped that was just a stupid gut feeling and nothing more as she turned towards Drak, nodding her head as the charge was ordered.

300 out of the 800 forces began the charge, all heavily armoured with tower-shields. The rest began moving once the frontline was quite a distance ahead, moving with both haste and caution as they looked out for any surprise attacks. And yet despite their caution, they were still surprised as tens of large icicles formed by the big cats, who had actually stayed put the whole time. The icicles shot through the air, the heavily armoured squad being swatted like flies as one after another was struck down.

This wasn't even the worse of it, instead the worst of it was when the arm-sized icicles once again formed near the big cats, before once again shooting out. A similar amount of armoured troops were downed, all of them hit near the thighs or knees. It was like a continuous replay of the first scene as the icicles kept forming, the big cats actually grinning and laughing as they saw the comedic scene in front of them.

If this show of overpowering force wasn't enough for the humans to turn back, then what came next definitely was. A man and woman strode out of the big cats, picking up speed into a sprint as they ran head-first towards the incoming squadrons. The man was using a wooden stick to beat people into the ground while the woman simply used a devilish skill, man and woman running away wrought with fear as if they had just seen the devil incarnate.

Most of the stronger troops had left to fight on the frontlines a few hours back, but there were still a few left, and they showed themselves as the man and woman were eventually forced to stop their charge. However, it was like the world itself was on their side as warrior after warrior was lifted into the skies, allowing the man and woman to carry on their progress.

It hadn't even been ten full minutes when Drak screamed retreat, the remaining forces retreating with high enthusiasm.

The man and woman were no longer human-shaped specks to Alyona but clear, cut figures. It might have been a month since they had disappeared but Alyona instantly recognised them, her eyes popping out of their sockets at this. They had been strong, in fact the strongest in the village, but not this strong, not close to this strong.

She simply felt the energy leave her body when she saw the big cats calmly crossing the distance, a few licking the bloodied ground while doing so. The injured people who had been left behind in the retreat were healed up as the cats passed, they too, confusedly, joining the walk.

It was Jayesh, who stood next to Alyona, who felt his jaw drop as he saw who was in the centre of the cats. None other than Stanis Volkov…