3 Calm Before the Storm

His peaceful frolic was suddenly interrupted by the racing hundreds of black phoenixes charging towards him.

From his comfortable seating spot, he sluggishly rose up with his ever apathetic face.

He slothfully raised his right hand on a shoulder level. Then followed by quick and sudden swipe movement, causing the air around his surrounding, energetically flew upwards.

The huge load of ravaging gust made the carpet dances as well the leaves of the hallowed tree, carrying a number of its fragments.

The flaming black birds intercepted by the frenzied breeze caused the former to explode in the midair. Haven knew that the most effective to exterminate those swarm of burnings insects was to expose them in an atmosphere of pure oxygen, causing a combustion in the process. As a result, all of them fade-out before they can even touched their target.

His face was still calm but with subtle annoyance.

"I-is Drakogo pointed his against us -chirp?"

"I can`t believe his doing this again, I wonder when he would learn"

"Pardon!?"

The flustered bird voice out a confuse reaction, but he denied to answer.

(I can't just say to the little fathered servant that that colossal charred reptilian, sometimes drops a heavy offensive magic over my head, if her ears got a word about this, the other guardians will take his head for sure)

Pay it no heed... Anyway, what can you see through his area?

Her troubling doubts promptly forgotten when her master gave an order. She spread her folded wings and flapped, lifting her body to a better position.

From her clear and rounded tinted-grass eyes, a micro magic circles appeared. From her all-seeing-eyes. She suddenly flustered at the inconceivable image she saw.

"Ma-my lord!? –chirp"

"What?"

"Drakogo is….. Drakogo is unconscious! –chirp… he is trap inside the [divine cage] spell. And there are five adventurers around, one is Demon lord your highness! -chirp"

"I see… where are they?"

"At the center of the forest –chirp, if we don't hurry, we may lost the strongest guardian -chirp.

(What the hell is a demon lord even doing here, they should be busy fighting angles for the continent of [Divinarya]. I guess having a stray or two is something to be normal. It's explainable to see why the charred reptilian lost despite of his enormous amount of mana. I should test it for myself then)

"Inform the other guardians; thou shall not interfere."

She caught in surprise for his Excellency's undaunted declaration. It's because she knew the power of that demon more than anyone. She`s worried for her Excellency's sake spite of knowing he will be victorious at the end. It's because—

"It's a demon lord, your Excellency –chirp…. Even if you will be end up victorious, it will all be for naught if you get caught of the permanent cursed at the time of his death, you will—"

She stop before she finished her sentence after noticing his master began strolling a few strides away, leaving his book at the base the hallowed tree. He stopped to the spot before the slope of the grassy hill began.

"Only if you get caught, but it`s impossible for them since..."

From his position, the javelin protruded coming out from the converging of earth. As soon as the javelin finished its shapes, he pulled it out.

He positioned himself to a javelin thrower`s stance. From his stretch hands, the winds from the surroundings converges to the earthed javelin. Followed by the surging electricity from his muscles. From the combination of the compressed 3 elements, anyone who will take the hit will surely die.

As soon as his preparation ready, he finished his sentence—

"Nobody can catch the wind"

From his stressed muscles, he released the powered javelin with his explosive strength. That mighty throws caused a powerful shockwaves and a backlashes from its departure. A heartbeat later, he followed suit with the same power and opposite reaction. He burst forth like a juggernaut with a relentless speed matching the pace of the thrown javelin. Like 2 arrows released from the same bow at the same time; one surfing to the sky, and one running from the ground.

To secure Drakogo-chi quickly, I don't need to negotiate to those buffoons… I need to kill them on sight and to that—

He change his trajectory the moment he passed through the black trees.

I need to assassinate them from behind after that arrow hits its mark.

Simple but brilliant plan coming from his genius mind. That heavy powered javelin will cause explosive shockwave from its impact –adding with its air compressed cover with matching electricity –the shockwave from the impact will be amplified. Plus the electricity will trigger a natural buff. Electric buffs can prevent mage from regenerating its mana. This will put a pressure on them. Once they expecting the enemy from the front, a backstab to the off-guarded adventurers from the rear will surely wiped them out.

ooooOoooo

[The master will surely believe you lots have the potential to defeat me since you have a demon lord on your sleeve… Thus, all we need to do is for you to cast a high tier restraining spell on me and use my high level skill of "playing dead" so that we can fool my lord out of his playground. Then u can have fun at the stage. Be informed that I'll be muted once I started, so don't bother asking further questions.

Once you'd finished to plan out your strategy, I`ll send the invitation letter. It's a win-win for you, as well as for me]

As the king recall their earlier plan, he gave off chortle. They already in position to counter the foreboding assault.

"It`s unbelievable that he truly gave his words. He let himself be caged in by the some strangers he just met just for the sake of his entertainment.

"Truly as you say your Majesty, he sure is surprisingly rational that I`m starting to doubt if they really are a monster just as the adventures describes it"

"Your right Henry. They just doing their obligations, the blame should not be fall entirely in them alone, we adventurers did the first mistake…. Talking to that dragon helps to ease a little, the ill will I felt against him. My fathers had his part of the responsibility. What really had transpired here was truly just"

Using [telepathy] spell –which give them the advantageous of communication during combat –they seem to have engage to a mild discussion. They are starting to have a different idea of what the common picture of the island was. But not everyone—

"Alicia you shouldn`t have warm feelings for those creatures here…. beasts are beasts. That's the reality…. They killed us people. And that is not something we shouldn't forget just because we encountered a rational talking [danger beast]"

"Sasuna is right, Alicia... don't forget what those damn creatures have done to your father`s squad, also.... don't forget what they have done to me earlier.

Clive can't helped but to grimaced as he remembered embracing his cold fate. Alicia denied his opinion.

"You died because of your phobia isn't it, that dragon doesn't even touch any of our skin…. And as I recall, the guardians wasn't the suspect behind death of my father`s guild-mates… it's the portentous enemy that we are to face soon. Don't worry, the guardians are the only rational [danger-beast], when it comes to the normal types, impression towards them won't change.

All right everyone, seven minutes had passed after the invitation. If we moved just like as we planned, he will surely meet his defeat.

Since Drakogo gave them a little information about their enemy named Haven, they assumed that he is not powerful alone but very intelligent as well. As their strategist, Henry, predicted, he most likely going attack from behind, knowing he has the geographical advantage. But that plan was very simple for a genius that defeated the eight guardians of the island. Since he was a genius, there`s a possibility he had already thought through his plan. Thus, they assumed he will assault at the frontline.

Their strategy was to plant a [divine cage] trap – a spell with five meters radius of invisible magic circles which can be triggered whenever someone had step on it – on the perfect spot for ambush in the frontier. The vanguard position (Henry), would be standing on the top of that spell together with Clive`s clone. This will give them the image of two vanguard tanking all the offensive attacks. The clones of the enchanter would be 30 meters to the rear, perfect safe spot for the supporting role in large scale battle. And at their middle would be the clone of king and the sorcerer which gives a high magical destructive power. Each clone was standing on their own [divine cage] trap. But where is the real ones?

They are hiding in the side of theirs clones six meters beside it with an invisibility spell. Clive which has the assassin class in the mage-knight category, his job was to observe around and deal any possible contingency.

Their scheme was to let vanguards deal with the enemy. The planted trap will trigger in 3 seconds upon the caster activation. Three seconds was plenty of time if the enemy is really the enemy that they perceive. He can clearly escape his predicament with ease. To remove his wings, Henry will force his enemy within a radius of five meters to forcedly fight him the moment his enemy step on the range. That spell [berserkers call] will give an additional resistance status within the duration of 10 seconds upon activation. But the powerful has its own downside. Anyone within its radius will be forced to fight the caster be it an enemy or an ally. That's why [ranked A] adventures who acquired this spell rarely used it.

The Clive`s clone –since it's a clone –its physical damage was reduced by half. Clones doesn't have the capability of casting a magic, only physical attacks. This will give a least amount of damage to Henry.

Since Henry will cast that perilous magic, both of them and the enemy will be caged inside a hemisphere barrier with it indicated size of five meter radius. The support will augment the parties both offense and defense. The two sorcerer will blast the enemy inside the magic-permeable cage by high powered offensive magic. Then the game is over. Henry can reincarnated if ever he died inside.

But that plan can be failed if the enemy finds its way to bypass the vanguard and intended to kill the mages first. That will be the clones' job as a decoy. If he assaulted one of them, the real ones will come out and forced him inside the trap`s radius until its finished its three seconds triggering time. Then it's the adventurers win. Or that's what they thought.

(My enemy is a demon lord. A race which has both Ki and mana surpassing the maximum scale of humans. I'm pretty sure he has a brain too given he`d defeated my strongest subordinate. He must be thinking that the strongest threat of the island was already taken care of. I`ll definitely destroy them from the rear.)

The sprinting boy has no clear information about his enemy. That's why he acted on the discretion of surprise attack. The losing side would be to the adventurers since they got the wrong judgment.

But Henry also included the possibility of a surprise attack from the rear, that's he had positioned Clive as a field monitor to the rear side above the tree. He can send a message to party if ever that possibility was true. It will give the party a little time to adjust their positions and strategies to the unexpected turnabout.

As they finished their group discussions, Henry –the vanguard, felt something powerful raining down from above. The dragon also notice it, which gives him the signal of the start of the show. He opened his eyes as he voiced out his feeling of enthusiasm in his mind.

(So its begins...)