章 268: Flame Barrier

"A bunch of lunatics!"

Gerald ran away from the Elves. He didn't plan on interacting with arrogant narcissists, they were the worst kind of people to be around.

And he fore sure wasn't going to let the Elf use him as a dumping ground for his dissatisfaction. It was best to just distance himself and let them bicker among themselves.

They didn't look like they saw eye-to-eye. Most likely they worked as a team because of circumstances more than anything, at least for the time being.

Either way, he didn't care.

He kind of regretted not confirming where all the Mana was coming from, but it wasn't difficult to guess. And it was still increasing, so the battle at the front lines should become a bit easier. At least mages wouldn't have to conserve their energy and could fight to the limit every single time.

As Gerald returned to the wall, a surprise was waiting for him.

A group of warriors were chatting near the campfire and having a meal sponsored by the city.

It was just some simple flatbread, roasted meat of common farm animals, and some cheap beer. Enough to keep you going through the day, but nothing more.

However, the faces were somewhat familiar, and it only took him a moment to remember who they belonged to.

"What are you guys doing here?" he exclaimed, and slapped one of the guys on the back.

That one quickly turned around. "Who…? Gerald? Is that you?!" Kerius exclaimed in disbelief. "Damn man, you have changed!"

Then he looked up slightly after examining him completely, "Have you…grown taller?"

"Could be," Gerald shrugged, "I'm still young after all." In truth, his friend from the Iron Hawks did appear a bit smaller than he remembered him, but who cares. The difference was small.

"What are you doing here, anyway? I thought you worked in Geldern?" he asked.

The members of the Iron Hawks were all here, with the addition of Doven and his brother Derrick coming from the Silver Phantom. It appeared their group truly fell apart after the death of two of their members.

"Well…" Kerius started, "Long story short, our Guildmaster noticed that all monsters were moving towards the capital, so he sent us and a few others to help. We were here almost a week ago already, we just didn't know you were here also. We only heard some rumors about Black Onyx yesterday."

"Oh, so that's how it was! No wonder… What about…?" Gerald turned to the two brothers.

"If you are wondering about our party, yeah, it's gone. Just the two of us were left in the end, so we decided to join the Iron Hawks," Doven answered.

"We are called Iron Phantom Hawks now, by the way," Kerius mentioned. "But yeah, we combined our forces. Although, usually our elders wouldn't approve, since we aren't related. But times change you know…"

"Sure."

The youngsters continued chatting about various topics, mostly about the monster attacks, but also about interesting rumors and recent events.

As they were laughing around the campfire, the city wall slowly and quietly charged up. As Mana concentrations rose, another spell was cast from the Palace, and the wall started to glow.

Bright red and golden runes appeared on the surface, and following an ear-piercing thunder, a barrier suddenly rose into the air, creating ten meters tall wall on top of the stone one.

The sudden change gave many quite a fright, and the resting warriors quickly jumped on their feet, ready to fight. Exclamations of shock and surprise soon drowned out the relaxed conversations, and those sleeping were also abruptly woken up.

"What is that?!" someone exclaimed, the shout existing between fear and worry.

The defenders quickly jumped back and observed for a moment to assess the situation.

The barrier was red-ish in color and semitransparent and moved like waves of the sea. Every few seconds or so, a thick wave traveled from the bottom and diminished in thickness as it traveled upward. Eventually, at around ten meters or so, it finally ran out of power and ended, leaving the sky exposed.

Just like humans, the monsters at the front were frightened by the sudden change but were quickly pushed forward by those in the back. As they touched the barrier, their fur suddenly burst into flames and their flesh melted and their screams of pain filled the air.

The smell of burning flesh was soon swept by the wind and carried across the city.

"Woah!"

"They are burning…"

"Woo-hoo! Yeah, get those fuckers!"

Many warriors and soldiers erupted with cheers and laughter. The monsters were burned to charcoal when coming in contact with the barrier and only burnt corpses managed to force their way through.

Gerald wasn't so optimistic though. The barrier wasn't perfect, and the monsters could still come through even though they were dead. It was not a good sing in his opinion.

As such, he jumped on the wall, reinforced his hand with magic, and touched the barrier.

There was immediately a sizzling sound as his skin heated up, but it wasn't anything much. A slight burn mark, that was all.

"Hmm, it's even weaker than I thought…"

He pushed even more Mana to his skin, reaching the limit of what his cells could take. He touched the flame barrier again.

Nothing happened.

He grinned. The barrier provided some resistance, however with a strong push, his hand went through. The hairs on his forearm instantly turned to smoke, however his skin remained undamaged.

A goblin tried to attack his hand, but Gerald gripped him at lightning speed and yanked him through the barrier. The beast burst into flames as it passed through with surprisingly little resistance.

The Goblin screeched and flailed around, trying to free itself, but Gerald held it firmly in his grasp and the silver fingers dug in its flesh.