Almost all the Guards of Parania City rushed toward the East when they saw smoke rising from the granaries burning in the distance.
They left their barracks unprotected because it didn't even cross their mind that someone in the city might attack them, let alone set them on fire.
Unfortunately for them, this was part of the intricate plan of a seven-year-old to turn their happy festival into a disaster.
Just a few minutes after the soldiers left their barracks, Armand and Alina snuck inside and headed straight to where they were storing their weapons and ammunition.
They were carrying several oil barrels in their storage rings, which was more than enough to set the entire barracks ablaze.
The two moved with haste, placing the barrels in strategic locations before backing away.
Armand had a grim look on his face because he never thought that there would come a day when he would sabotage his own race just to keep a war from happening.
"Let's go!" Alina shouted, snapping Armand from his daze. "Burn it, Armand!"
"Dammit!" Armand cursed out loud as he summoned a small flame in his hands, which he threw to one of the barrels that was near the weapons racks.
Once he was done, he turned around to run as fast as he could without turning back.
A few seconds later, several loud explosions rumbled inside the Barracks, setting it ablaze.
Armand and Alina were able to escape safely and fled in the opposite direction of the barracks.
They knew that they only had a few precious minutes before some of the Guards returned to put out the fire in the barracks.
After making sure that they had run a sufficient distance, the two made a detour to go to the meeting place they had all agreed on beforehand to go to after they finished their part.
Armand and Alina suddenly found themselves running alongside many people who were either heading to the barracks or the granary to put out the flames.
It was complete pandemonium, and everyone in the city rose up to lend their hand.
Unfortunately, the majority of the men were drunk, so their movements were slow. If this incident happened on an ordinary day, they would have already arrived at their destinations.
Thirteen had deliberately chosen to execute their operation on the day of the Harvest Festival because he was hoping that everyone would be too drunk to do anything.
His gamble worked, and because of this, the flames spread like wildfire, even burning the forest behind the granary, making it a hellish sight.
Half an hour later, the two arrived at the meeting place and saw Dixon and Thane already waiting for them.
"Where is Zion?" Alina asked.
"He's still not here," Dixon replied. "It might take him a while to return, so I suggest we—"
Before Dixon could even finish whatever he was going to say, Vassago landed on the roof above their heads.
"Head to the granary, we have a change of plans," Vassago stated using his Master's voice. "Find an opportunity to neutralize and capture Paven Merdosk. I am currently headed there right now."
"Is he crazy?!" Armand gasped in shock. "How can we possibly capture the City Lord when almost all the warriors are at the granary right now?"
"Of course, we will not capture him when he is surrounded by people," Vassago replied. "We will find an opportunity to catch him when he heads back to his residence."
"We're going to catch him with just us?" Armand looked at the Pocopoco in disbelief. "Do you really believe that we can do that?"
"With only the four of you, it's impossible," Vassago stated. "But, we have reinforcements on our side."
Five people suddenly made their presence known, making the four Tigerkins take out their weapons.
However, when Dixon and the rest saw the man leading the five humans, a look of surprise appeared on their faces.
"Y-You?" Dixon stuttered. "What are you doing here?"
"Because being here is more interesting than staying in Karabor City," the man wearing a robe replied. "Now, let's not waste any time and find our target. Seriously, that boy's boldness is growing on me. Now I understand why the mistress wants him to become her adopted son."
Armand, Thane, and Alina looked at their leader to see whether he would agree to Zion's last-minute changes to their plan.
However, after seeing their reinforcement, he couldn't help but wonder how the boy managed to gather this kind of manpower without telling any of them.
"Very, well. Let's go," Dixon stated. "But tell me later how all of you arrived here, okay?"
"Sure." The robed man nodded. "We have a traitor to catch."
Thirteen ran as fast as he could, no longer trying to hide his whereabouts.
He was quite far from the City Lord's Residence, so it was not a problem even if he were discovered by someone.
The boy could just make an excuse that he had seen the fire in the distance and wanted to offer his help to the best of his ability.
Also, no one would even think that someone as young as him would dare to enter the City Lord's Residence on his own.
When Thirteen arrived at the scene, he was unable to proceed any further since there were thousands of people blocking his path.
Because of this, he decided to climb one of the roofs in an attempt to find the City Lord among the masses.
Only when he managed to climb a rooftop did he see the extent of the damage that was happening before him.
The entire forest was burning, which illuminated the darkness of the night.
Due to how bright the surroundings were, Thirteen was able to spot the City Lord, who was at the very front of the people, giving orders to create a blockade to prevent the flames from expanding.
The forest was a good distance away from the eastern edges of the city, so there was no threat of the fire spreading toward the city.
Paven also understood that it was too late to save the granary and the underground Food Storage, so the only thing he could do was minimize the damage as much as possible.
The Champions used their strongest attacks to create ditches, preventing the fire from spreading in the surroundings.
Everyone who had strong, explosive attacks was at the front lines, creating a control line, while those who had come to help in the beginning only stood there to cheer them on.
There were people who could use Water Spells, but in the face of such a huge inferno, their spells didn't do a lot of help.
Because of this, they simply assisted those at the front to ensure that the flames would not move beyond the boundaries that were created to suppress them.
Thirteen then gazed towards the West, where another blazing inferno was taking place.
Fortunately, the Barracks were far from the main housing facilities of the city, which guaranteed that the flames wouldn't harm the innocents.
"What a mess," Thirteen muttered. "I'm just glad that no one was hurt."
The people that were standing on the roof beside Thirteen all nodded their heads.
They all agreed that what the boy said was true.
None of them had foreseen that such a tragedy would occur, especially when they were celebrating the Harvest Festival, which was one of the most important festivals of the year.
While everyone was watching the world burn around them, Thirteen heard the hooting of the owl, letting him know that his reinforcements were now headed in his direction.
Although he wanted to watch for a little while longer, he knew that time was precious.
Because of this, he left the roof in order to reunite with his teammates, who would help him deal with the City Lord, who was fuming in anger due to the losses he had suffered in just the span of a single night.
