Hidden Enemies Revealed

***** Trigger Warning: Violence towards animals *****

Early in the morning, the storm finally abated over Forest Waypoint. With no barrier in sight, the remnants of the True Order army attacked the city. Less than a third of the previous numbers remained. The invaders arrived to find a largely ruined city.

The damage would take years to repair. The walls and barrier alone could take decades without the proper equipment and expertise. Clearly, the Chinebarian army had taken down the barrier early and let the storm ravage the city. The enemy commander was furious.

He even coughed up blood upon discovering that not only did all of the soldiers and most of the civilians evacuate, they took every little scrap of value or burned everything that they couldn't. What did he lose most of his army for?!

True Order agents scrambled throughout the city to salvage what they could. They had taken over the defensive systems, which were reduced to lumps of scrap by the storm. The remaining civilians were forced to begin rebuilding the city.

The enemy commander urgently sent out scouts to find the escaping civilians before they got too far. In the meantime, he led half of his remaining forces to take Nafriton University. The part of his army left there should be untouched, and hopefully have some captured students and professors.

**********

The team began to move again before the storm had completely subsided. They would use the wind and rain to help cover their tracks. Several days of riding separated them from the coast of the Ural Bay. Speed was their greatest priority, but they didn't need to exhaust themselves.

Storm season was approaching. The boats stationed in the bay needed to either leave or dock in a secured shelter before the season started. That included the university's ships. If they missed this opportunity, then their next steps would become trickier.

This time Corrine kept up with the rest of the first-years. After keeping a close eye on Aayla, Corrine realized that she probably didn't keep her ability active all the time. She secretly activated her ring for a split second with low power.

Minutes later, no one seemed to notice. Corrine began to gently increase the time. She began to sweat as the seconds ticked away. Trying not to stand out, her eyes would sweep over the crowd to see if anyone noticed the spell.

Others were using their own spells to maintain their horses' speed, so Corrine's glowing ring didn't seem to out of place. No one really had time to look into exactly what her spell was while fleeing with the winds and rain still buffeting the group around.

Her horse slowly pushed towards where the Halcyon students were. They had surrounded Miss Glowery and Sir Forolan. She tried to move closer, but Sir Vear suddenly turned his head her way. Corrine immediately focused on the riders in front of her. The ring on her finger was reduced to a dull glow.

After putting an extremely innocent look on her face for several minutes, she could feel Sir Vear's gaze move away. Corrine waited for half an hour before putting more mana into her ring artifact. That guard dog had a sharp nose and pair of eyes.

The True Order still didn't arrive even after a couple hours of hard riding. Corrine was about ready to give up and start preparing for another scheme. Plenty of better opportunities to act would appear at the coast or while travelling on the ship.

Fortunately, she wouldn't need to wait. Explosions rippled through the sky behind them. Small dots appeared on the horizon.

"Enemy wizards and magical beasts are inbound! We have less than an hour!"

"Keep riding! They should not see us yet! Miss Glowery, save that spell of yours for later."

The team was trapped in a hilly region with plenty of rocks but somewhat sparse tree coverage. There were not that many good places to hide. They had to run as far as they could to hopefully find a good hiding spot or defensive position before the enemy found them.

"How did they find us?!"

"Maybe they're not looking for us specifically. The True Order should have taken Forest Waypoint by now and noticed that most of the civilians are gone."

As the dark specks grey larger and larger, many of the students realized that the enemies were heading right for them. They didn't change course as if searching at all. The enemies knew where they were. The fighting slowly advanced towards them, too.

Many dark specks flocked around another tinier one. They fiercely kept blocking the path of the tinier speck. Whenever the tinier one broke through or annihilated its opponents, new ones would surround it. The specks in the lead soon got close enough to reveal the appearance of flying magical beasts.

"Let's meet up at the destination point in one week. If you can't make it, then hide in one of the coastal villages or make your way up the coast to Craigmyle Point. Do your best to stay alive! Now scatter!"

With no good places to hide or defend, the vice president issued the order to scatter. Together, they are easy prey to target. If the group separates, some can probably get away safely. The vice president clicked his tongue. How on Tellus did the magical beasts catch on to their trail?

The group scattered into pieces, fleeing in all directions. Even the Halcyon group split up. Chris, Daren, Aayla and Jacki formed one group while the rest split off into three more groups. Corrine pretended to panic and stick near Chris's group.

"Aayla, start the spell now! Jacki, control Aayla's horse."

Jacki took her horse's reins while Aayla once again focused on the New Moon Bracelet. Chris watched the approaching magical beasts. They instantly became confused. He glanced back at Corrine then moved between her and Sir Forolan.

Corrine narrowed her eyes. Sir Vear was suspicious of her, but wasn't sure of his suspicions. She turned off her ring. Feeding it mana was wasteful since Miss Glowery's spell would block its signal. She looked off in the distance.

She could see a True Order wizard riding on the back of one of the magical beasts. He would arrive very soon. Her heart pounded in her chest as the wizard got closer and closer. Victory was guaranteed if he noticed them. Mana slowly gathered in her ring artifact. Corrine had one last trick to play.

The New Moon Bracelet trembled on Aayla's wrist. The artifact felt extremely wronged. It could feel the rising mana stored in the ring artifact, but couldn't touch that mana at all. Aayla glanced at Chris then tilted her head towards Corrine.

Aayla had long noticed Corrine's odd, sudden obsession with her. Chris had always been suspicious of Corrine. The girl had spent most of her time around Vanessa Landrienne at one point. Therefore, she should have spent a lot of time with that snake Marc Lupton.

Corrine had never really shown an interest in Aayla or Daren before. Now she was sticking to them like glue. Chris kept a close eye on Corrine. As soon as Corrine lifted her hand to cast a spell, he was ready. Unfortunately, so was Corrine.

They attacked at the same time. Their magic spells cancelled each other out, but Aayla lost focus and the mana concealment dispersed. Chris attacked again with his sword, this time striking down Corrine's horse. The traitor fell face first into the dirt.

She remained alive and intact since Chris had no time to deal with her. The magical beasts found them in seconds. The group had no choice but to continue running. The enemy wizard gleefully laughed and urged his magical beast forward.

"Hahaha! I've finally found you, you little brat! By bringing the Forolan heir into custody, I will finally get the recognition that I deserve! Haha –"

His magical beast exploded into flames. The enemy wizard tumbled down from the sky in charred clothing before finally stabilizing himself with flight magic. Stallesso Forolan had finally caught up when the magical beasts turned to catch Daren.

"Tch. You villainous cur. You will not escape from my hands again. Christopher, get Daren out of here now! I'll handle these mongrels."

The earth shook as several magical beasts fell from the sky all at once. One should never turn their back towards Stallesso Forolan during a fight unless they had a death wish. The enemy wizard cursed and summoned the magical beasts back to defend him.

He could not defeat Stallesso Forolan by himself given his current condition. Killing this annoyance would bring enormous glory in addition to making the hunt for Daren Forolan easier.

"Bah! I'll destroy you this time, you old fossil."

"Big words for such a pathetic dog. No, a rat. Can you do anything without treachery or sneaking around behind others' backs?"

As the battle unfolded in the air, the students fled down below. Chris forced Daren to look forward and keep moving. The True Order would send reinforcements soon now that they spotted a big target. They had to leave.

Daren tightly gripped his reins as desperately reminded himself that his grandfather could take care of himself. The small group of four quickly sped off into the distance.