The pungent smell of burned flesh invaded his nostrils as he got closer to the source of commotion, and smoke entered his eyes.
Screams of terror and desperation filled the air, and the sound of metal clashing against metal rang through his ears.
Michael grit his teeth at the sight of the half-burned corpses of his people that entered his sight the moment he came close to the thicket that separated him from the terror of the battlefield.
For the first time, Michael's subjects were dying. It was not comparable to the time he had killed Fenrir. On the contrary, Michael's heart felt like a searing hot needle was stabbing it again and again while his head grew heavier the more people died.
His mind was a mess and he regretted being too late to protect everyone. He had failed to save those who he had sworn to protect.
However, Michael knew that he could protect those who were still alive. Maybe, he was too late to rescue those who had died valiantly, but he wouldn't allow the Lionhearts to keep killing his people.
Lionhearts had a human-like physique with Lion heads. Fur grew all over their body, and they were innately born with fire affinity. It didn't even require a Soultrait to awaken before they could manifest flames out of thin air and control them.
Their innate fire affinity turned them into a dangerous race. They were ferocious and far more threatening than Gogis.
Despite that, Michael's subjects fought the Lionhearts with all their might.
'Why did nobody wake me up when they arrived?' He wondered while rushing ahead. Lilica said that she warned the others half a day ago. Didn't that mean his people had been aware of the Lionhearts' planned attack for a while?
'Only if they had told me about it sooner…' Michael thought, but his mind turned blank the next instance.
He knew why his subjects didn't wake him up. He was fully aware, but he couldn't accept it in his heart.
If the advancement of a War Rune was interrupted, the War Rune could have been damaged permanently. Even if his War Rune advanced properly, the moment Michael stopped his natural cleansing mid-way, he would lose the chance to cleanse his body and grow stronger.
Stopping a natural cleansing mid-way was comparable to crippling your talent, and combat prowess.
His subjects had known about this, which is why they chose to sacrifice their own lives rather than seeing their Lord crippled or injured.
Michael felt as if someone was choking him tightly. He wanted to blame his subjects for being stubborn, but he couldn't.
More than 50 subjects had sacrificed their lives to protect him and to make sure that he could advance to Tier-1 and complete the natural cleansing properly.
It frustrated Michael, but it made sense. In their eyes, their lives were not as important as the safety of their Lord.
Michael grit his teeth and forced his eyes to look away from the corpses. He passed through the thicket and emerged on the other side.
What appeared in his view were more burned corpses amid a burning forest. Everything was on the brink of destruction as all lives engulfed in the sea of flames were annihilated, reduced to embers.
Michael's gaze hardened and he retrieved the Hardwood Bow and a bunch of arrows as he stepped ahead.
The trees around him creaked loudly as if they screamed in pain, and he found Kelia not long after trying to use the moisture in the air and surrounding to contain the blazing flames and isolate them.
Her clothes were drenched in sweat while she gave her utmost to prevent the fire from spreading further and burning down everything, they'd worked tirelessly to build in the last few weeks.
Meanwhile, the Warriors, Knights, and Tiara fought valiantly at the front. Tiara's body was soaked in blood, and some of her hair had been burned, but she didn't seem to notice that. Her eyes seemed freezing cold while the silver spear lashed mercilessly at her opponents. She moved in one direction and thrust her spear in the other direction.
Then, suddenly, her direction would change. She would pierce the tip of the silver spear deeper in her opponent, twist the blade inside the body, and pull it out with tremendous force. Warm blood would splatter on her like a fountain, but it was almost like Tiara didn't notice anything.
It was as if her entire being was focused on the battle and nothing else mattered. Her presence was terrifying, and too overbearing for her opponents to endure.
The Lionhearts were frightened at the sight of the bloodthirsty woman of the Silverfang Tigerfolk. They retreated instinctively and tried to hide themselves and their path by manifesting firewalls between themselves and Tiara.
However, Tiara jumped through the wall of fire, unafraid of the aftermath. She pierced the silver spear through the head of the closest Lionheart and started to growl.
Her burning hair seemed to grow longer and Tiara's body arched forward. Her upper body leaned forward, nearly touching the ground before she shot forward with terrific acceleration the moment her feet kicked from the ground.
Michael was stupefied for a moment when he saw Tiara. He regained his senses in the next second, upon realizing that Tiara was fighting desperately, using everything at her disposal to gain an advantage to kill.
If that allowed her to defeat just one more opponent without any more casualties, she was more than willing to act recklessly. No matter how injured she was as long as her heart continued to beat so she wouldn't die!
While Tiara looked like a Berserker who had lost her reasoning, the ordinary Summons who had come to her aid were shuddering. More than a hundred Starless Summons wielding spears in their trembling hands were faced with five Lionhearts.
Five opponents may not seem like much, but the Lionhearts were Mid Tier-1 Adventurers with the ability to manifest fireballs and throw them at their opponents.
The Starless Summons didn't have any combat experience. They knew the theory and had trained for the worst case, but it was the first time they were faced with enemies who attacked mercilessly and were thrown into an actual battle.
A third of their combat force had already fallen victim to the searing hot flames of the Lionhearts, and more would soon follow. However, they couldn't give up and let the Lionhearts in so easily. If they were to give way and surrender, their Lord would die.
After spending weeks with their Lord – who was far more hard-working than his subjects, kinder than everyone they had known in the past, and sincerely trying to improve his subjects' living conditions in every possible way –, they couldn't allow any enemy to get too close to him.
If they had to sacrifice their lives to protect their Lord, so be it!
With that in mind, the scared Starless Summons mustered their courage to face the incoming fireballs head-on.
The fireballs soared through the air and it felt like time slowed down as they fell down like meteorites on the hapless subjects.
However, just before the fireballs could impact, star stripes of various colors soared through the air.
Multiple explosions rang through the battlefield as the fireballs exploded, yet none of the Starless Summons sustained any injuries.
At most, they were assaulted by a gust of hot air that swept through them, nearly knocking them off their feet.
Following the explosion, screams of pain left the mouth of the first Lionheart, just for the next to follow suit.
After the third started to whimper pitifully, the first of them slumped to the ground, an arrow stuck deep in his chest, another in his throat and a third in his eye.
The Starless Summons were startled to see this. Their charge slowed down as the Lionhearts slumped to the ground limply as one arrow after another struck their vital spots. The arrows were much faster than the bolts released by the Aero Crossbowmen, forget about the arrows the Archers shot.
Almost everyone turned their head to the Archer who released one arrow after another in quick succession.
A moment later, loud cheers rang throughout the entire battlefield.
"The Lord returned!"
"Our Lord finished advancing!!"
"Comrades, let's charge!!!!"
"For our Lord!!"
"FOR OUR LOORDD!!!"
Michael felt a rush of adrenaline course through him at the sight of his loyal subjects chanting his name. He wasn't sure how he deserved such loyal and trusted subjects, but it made him happy.
Simultaneously, the deaths of his loyal subjects saddened him. The thought of his subjects dying for his sake caused more energy to enter the Hardwood Bow that began to creak loudly.
It had already reached its limit and its pulling force couldn't be further increased.
However, Michael didn't pay any attention to the limit of his Bow Artifact.
He swiftly pulled the bowstring back after he nocked an arrow on it and shot. It looked like he didn't aim at all, yet his arrows hit the designated target without fail.
One arrow per second.
One kill every five seconds.
The number of Tier-1 Adventurers dying at his hands increased swiftly.
Michael was not sure how many Lionhearts attacked his territory and his people, but he knew that he wouldn't allow anyone to escape his wrath.
Their fate was sealed the moment they started slaughtering his subjects.
He killed five Mid Tier-1 Lionhearts in the first minute he joined the battle.
His power as Tier-1 Lord and his strengthened Eagle Eyes allowed him to unleash enough force to turn the Hardwood Bow into a lethal weapon with rapid fire.
But Michael was not yet done fighting. The five Lionhearts facing the Starless Summons were just the beginning.
This was where it all started.
It was time to counterattack and make them pay dearly for their mistake!
