Show of force!

Since his time was starting to run out, Ark didn't want to waste any more time right now.

"As long as you can heal my friend, I'll follow you!"

This was Ark's only condition, for now, what these people were up to didn't matter, what did matter, however, was the fact that his friend was dying, and they could help him.

"Of course, we'd never go back on our word!" The lady quickly answered, she was a little excited at the moment, they had gotten a very good recruit after all. As this happened though, Stanley got fed up with their attitude. It was like they didn't acknowledge their existence at all!

"Excuse me? Do you seriously think we will let you just take him away?" He thundered at them. This boosted the morale of his guards, and they started to get excited, not much happened in this little town.

"Yeah exactly!"

"Who do you think you are?"

"Get out of here!"

"Rebel scum!"

The jeering of the guards didn't affect the five rebels, even though the last one almost got the man with black hair to draw his sword out. They were used to this, even though it was annoying, there wasn't much they could do. Did they see themselves as rebels? Yes. Did they think that being a rebel was necessarily a bad thing? No, of course not. Most rebellions happened for a reason. Now, why were they called rebels? Because they opposed the government? No. It was because they opposed the holy church.

The leader of the five didn't stay quiet though, as the jeering continued, he started laughing.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA"

The thunderous laughter brought about an oppressive pressure as it reverberated in the eardrums of the guards, and most of them had to take half a step back. After a couple of seconds, he stopped laughing.

"You think this paltry little squad of yours can oppose us? I'd like to see you try!" As he said the last words, he took out his axes from behind his back. The soldiers got ready and stood in a defensive formation as a response to his actions.

The pressure emanating from the leader started to explosively grow as he just stood there, staring at the soldier for a solid ten seconds. With every second that passed, the pressure on the guards grew, and after ten seconds had passed, some guards were almost on their knees.

Stanley hesitated a little at first since the pressure even affected him, but when he saw some of his people almost on their knees, his temper flared up! He was a magician of the fire element, and all of the guards underneath his command had at the very least some skill with fire magic. Making them a force to be reckoned with if they pooled their powers, and Stanley didn't think that this person in front of him would be able to stop them all.

"Get into the 3rd formation! QUICK!" He barked at his soldiers at the top of his lungs.

The shout woke up his soldiers from their little stupor, and they quickly formed a triangular formation with Stanley at the very forefront. They all placed their hands on the shoulders of the soldier in front of them, leading up to Stanley. The two people standing behind Stanley also placed their hands on his shoulders. After they did this, they all started to quickly gather the fire Mana from within the air and their bodies.

As they accumulated the Mana, they sent it through their hands to the person in front of them, who then sent it forward once more, leading up to Stanley. With such a massive influx of Mana, Stanley's body wouldn't be able to keep up for long. This whole formation created a very domineering picture as flames dance across the sky over the guards. The pressure the flames brought with them openly contended with the leader of the rebels, creating a tense scene.

Since Stanley couldn't handle it for long, he shouted a war-cry before creating a massive sword made out of flames. He then took control of the enormous sword and swept out horizontally towards the leader of the rebels. The sword turned into a giant stream of flame as it rapidly approached the leader of the rebels, scorching everything along its path.

The leader of the rebels only smirked as he saw this attack approach him. He would've never let them finish this attack if he wasn't confident that he could stop it. He didn't need to gather a large amount of Mana in retaliation though, since he had started to accumulate it slowly a while ago, waiting for its chance to erupt gloriously.

The Mana he had been accumulating converged at the tips of his two axes, and he also lashed out with both of them in a domineering manner. The air split apart as a massive amount fo earth flew out to contend against the fire. The fire didn't get much of a chance to fight against the earth though since the earth snuffed out the vigor of the fire very quickly. Blistering heatwaves were still sent out as the collision of the earth and fire was still ongoing.

After almost 5 seconds, the earth came out on top. It sent the city guards flying as it went on a rampage after successfully defeating the fire. The leader just chuckled as he turned around towards Ark again, as if nothing had ever happened. This created a very odd scene since the carnage behind him was shocking.

A large number of guards lat strewn about, moaning from pain as they checked their wounds and tried to regroup as much as they could. Spears littered the place and blood was staining both the ground and some of the guards. The whole space behind him was also filled with a large amount of magma and stone, ruining the landscape. Stanley, at the very forefront of the guards, suffered the brunt of the attack, and he was currently face-first into the ground, unconscious.

The lady with the fiery hair smiled as she saw Ark's dumbfounded face.

"Convinced?"