Logan makes his move

-Baron's Manor, Pato-

Baron Emil fell down into his chair, he had been fighting all night and the beasts only retreated after the sun rose up into the skies. He cursed the bastards who had caused this disaster. Even though he couldn't see up close, he had seen colorful slashes in the distant sky, and from how it looked like it was some people who were at least at Grand knights level fighting.

The Grant family had a few Grand Knights and he had seen their practice fights while he was still in the main house of the family. He had to fight off a level two wind wolf. It was hard to keep it in control, of its speed. He was really tired by the time he forced the wolf to retreat so he wanted to sleep right now. But there were still things to do.

His losses were not small as many of the houses and shops on the outskirts of Pato had been affected. The loss of life shouldn't be small as it happened during the resting hours. Even though commoners' lives were not worth much, they were essential to the running of a town and also in the mines. If the mine was damaged, Emil wouldn't be able to escape the punishment from his family

On top of that, when he returned he found a letter left by the brat of the Wyndall family that he had taken his leave, due to the changing circumstance. As the presence of a Grand knight in these parts was not a small matter. Emil only hoped that he doesn't meet any disaster during the return journey.

For now, he could only report this to his family and let them investigate the issue. Maybe he would even get some resource help from the family. He arranged for some of his trusted guards to lead the relief operations.

He wondered if his wife Selena was still in bed, he looked forward to her comforting him. But when he returned to his chambers, but Selena had already left the room, so he could only fall into the mattress and was soon off to the dream world.

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-Outskirts of NewMoon Woods-

Victor's night was not so good, they had to face off against two level 2 shadow wolves, even though they didn't have a pack, they were much stronger than the rest. He had thought entering the woods would give him time for recovery. But who knew soon after he got rid of the beast tide, He would be targeted by these two wolves.

The wolves are medium-length with black coats and looked deceptively frightening. Along with the shadow element they mastered, they are very difficult to target in the dark. Due to this many of the guards suffered severe injuries. If not for the quick response by Rowena, they would have lost a lot of lives.

But as the hours dragged on, Rowena was getting tired even with all the potions she was taking to restore her energy. After there was no potion available to restore mental strength in a short time. Thankfully, the Sun has broken through the barricade and shone its light in the woods.

The wolves were now very uncomfortable, but they didn't want to leave just like that as they had spent a lot of effort in wearing down their prey. Due to that they finally made a mistake and the female wolf was hit on the hind leg with a fireball, which broke her hind leg. Rowena fell unconscious at the same time.

"Harper, don't let that wolf escape back into the shadows, kill it" Victor shouted as he activated his energy to slash at the male wolf in front of him.

The wolf wanted to rush to the aid of its mate, but the prolonged fight had dulled its senses, and was not able to avoid the slash. Even though it did not injure him, it was enough to keep the wolf in place for time being.

Victor didn't hesitate to unleash slash upon slash to force the wolf backward, even though his energy reserves were already low. This was the last chance for them, as Rowena was already down, and only five of them could actually still fight.

On the other side, Harper brought the other three guards and surrounded the female wolf. It was already injured but it was still able to move about. It warily eyed the prey which had now become its hunter. Its mate was still being pressed back by another foe.

Harper charged head first toward the wolf, hoping to force it to dodge, unfortunately, the she-wolf decided to pounce toward him as well. As they were about to clash the wolf managed to unleash a shadow ball at him. Harper was caught off guard and was blasted away by the shadow ball. The two guards behind the wolf also pierced through its body at the same time, killing it.

The death of the she-wolf made the male wolf charge rashly at Victor while coating its front paws with shadow energy, Victor utilized this to sidestep the wolf and severe its head. Victor looked around and saw Harper's bleeding lifeless body and his unconscious wife. The rest were all sprawled on the ground, if there was another attack right now they would probably be wiped out.

Fortunately, they had survived this disaster, he wondered why there were Grandknights in this forsaken region, he would have to report to the city lord when he returned to Lumia city. Victor let out a sigh of relief and walked toward his wife.

Little did he know that there were two pairs of eyes watching their camp some distance away, they quickly disappeared and no one noticed their presence.

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-Saint Rodin Academy-

Faith was not in a good mood. Even though she had been able to exhort a high-class meditation technique from her father, going to a backward place like Lumia was a waste of time for her. In that place, even a Baron could rule over towns, unlike here where Barons and Viscounts were just taken as common soldiers.

But she had already promised her father and couldn't go back on her word anymore. She made her way along with her father to the airport where the flying ship was parked. What made it worse is that she could see a nineteen-year-old boy with green eyes, an olive complexion, and curly brown hair standing among the group supposed to go to Lumia city with them.

His name was Dirk, a noble from Lumia city and he had joined the academy two years ago and reached mid-stage of level two last month. This guy was a narcissistic fool who always thought highly of himself and had been behind her since she first saw him half a year ago.

As soon as Dirk saw Faith coming, he along with his friend Gregory ushered towards them.

"Greetings Your Excellency"

"Greetings Gentlemen, is the ship ready for departure"

"We are just waiting for your orders, Sir"

"Very well then let us move along" Edmund led them toward their ship

The ship was built in a regal style with draconic designs. The interior is quite spartan and is done in azure and white colors which also represent the Saint Rodin Academy. It was called Cantera Dragon and was a fast ship compared to others in the airport. But it would still take them around a month to reach Lumia city in it.

"Greetings Lady Faith" Dirk came towards Faith.

"Greetings Sir Dirk" Faith frostily replied, if it was anyone else they would have moved away just with that, but Dirk didn't wish to end the conversation that fast.

"Lady Faith, Lumia city is my hometown, I would love to give you a tour of the city when we arrive, May I have this honor" Dirk put on his most handsome smile as he asked this.

"I am sorry, I don't wish to travel around as I have just started to study a new meditation technique" Faith declined straight away. What a joke, she already couldn't stand his nauseous smile and couldn't wait to get away from him.

"Oh, that's unfortunate, if the lady wishes I could help the lady in understanding the meditation technique, I have gone through most of the apprentice stage techniques of Saint Rodin academy" Gregory put in.

"The technique I am practicing is a private collection of my father Count Edmund, are you sure you want to look at it" Faith sternly looked at Gregory.

Meditation techniques were more valuable than anything else in this world. and trying to steal it, is an offense punishable by death, especially one owned by a Count. Count was not like Barons and Viscounts, they were more like commanders in the army. They had the right to express their views before the Emperor.

Gregory started to sweat all over when he heard this,

"N-No, I didn't mean it that way Lady Faith" He hastily replied and looked at Dirk for help.

Dirk looked at the stammering Gregory and felt pleased, he was a bit angry when he cut him before offering help to Faith, but their families were close and it wouldn't do good if he caught the attention of the Count, so he hurriedly tried to smooth things over

"You have to forgive my dear friend Gregory, Lady Faith. He has always been fascinated with different meditation techniques since childhood and forgot himself for a moment"

"It would be better if that's the case, now if you will excuse me, gentlemen, I would like to have some rest" Faith departed towards her room as soon as they boarded the ship.

Dirk wanted to follow along and keep her company but due to the mishap with Gregory, he could only watch her leave.

He glared towards Gregory, "You really know how to mess up things, you are lucky the Count didn't notice or it would have been much harsher"

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-Abandoned Watchtower, NewMoon Woods-

Logan was sitting on his throne made up of Beast skin and bones. He was a tall, tan-skinned man has a suspicious feel about him, and he has a birthmark on his face. He has multiple tattoos on his left and right upper arm.

He was wearing scruffy clothes that are neutral-colored and loose and flowing. He is usually seen wearing a certain style of a cape.

He looked down at the two men who had found a merchant caravan.

"Are you sure they are all injured?" Logan asked them.

"Yes, brother they are all tired and injured. They had killed two shadow wolves." Drogo, the short dark-skinned man replied.

"And they have a lot of goods on them" Logan was excited, just last night he had felt like they would die, but luckily most beasts didn't run towards their watchtower.

"Yes boss, there was also a beauty who was throwing fireballs" Porto added lasciviously the boss always shared the women he captured after his use.

"They have at least six carriages, so there should be a lot of valuables as well. If not for the beast tide they might not have entered NewMoon woods" Drogo added.

"hahaha call all the men, we have some fat sheep to catch" Logan instantly gave his orders, he couldn't delay as his men had already taken half a day to report to him. If those merchants recovered he would have to pay a heavy price to loot the caravans.

Not to mention it had been a few months since he last caught a woman, and he couldn't wait to capture that caravan. Life in the woods was quite depressing and lonely and surrounding towns knew of his face so he couldn't peacefully enter them.