บท 71: Attack

"You're joking, right?" Was all that came out of iris's mouth. Leo simply shook his head once again, and started explaining.

"The dwarves will be cautious of us if we just walked up to them, and we'll have to fight the soldiers eventually. By destroying everything we can on our way through, we'll prove that we're not with the soldiers while also crippling them before we have to fight. Climbing the Worlds Crown is also a right of passage for dwarven royalty, crippling the human soldiers and undergoing trials meant for royalty should hopefully give them a good opinion of us."

Leo had read in the book about the dwarves that he bought, that before a king was considered they had to climb the Worlds Crown to prove their determination. If a potential King was unwilling, or unable to then it proved they were unfit for ruling. The only downside was that as Leo wasn't a dwarf, so him climbing the mountains would most likely be contributed to chi or mana. That was why he also wanted to cripple the encampment, to further raise himself in their eyes. Hearing his reasoning, Iris groaned but didn't say anything. Leo smiled and handed her his arrows.

"I'm going to be using fire and my sword, I want you to focus on targeting anyone that looks important. The main goal though is speed, if they get a chance to surround us then we're dead. We'll have to go as fast as possible." Iris smiled at his words. They had never tried to go as fast as possible before, even the trip here though it was in haste, was made with moderation for saving energy. She took the arrows and added them to her own quiver.

Leo then stood, and walked off the edge of the cliff like he did in the battle. Iris followed him a split second later, and they both kicked off the base and shot themselves forward. When they ran normally, Leo compared their speed to that of a car on a road. When they sped up at this point however, he compared their speed to a car on a freeway, in other words they were fast. The two raced across the plain towards the encampment. Though he told her to focus on archery, Iris still used the surrounding energy to cloak them so that the guards wouldn't notice them until it was too late.

As they neared the guard post they erected, Leo threw back his head and howled. Part of his plan was to cause confusion by instigating the trained dogs the humans brought in to attack. He hated the fact that most, if not all of them would die, but even Fenrir agreed that dying in defiance was better than being needlessly sacrificed. So as Leo's howl echoed across the camp, it was answered by the barking of nearly a hundred dogs. Hearing the amount of canines that answered him made Leo even angrier.

The guards that heard his howl turned to see where the wolf was, only to receive and arrow in each of their throats instead. Leo and Iris then jumped and cleared the minor wall that they built instantly, then kept running. Leo had his sword in his right hand, while his right was covered in flame, and fire arched over the tents until it hit one, then exploded.

At this point the soldiers realized that they were under attack. Leo continued sending fire out while his sword swung at every person he came across without missing a beat. Iris listened to his words, and every time someone who looked more important appeared she let an arrow loose, then moved onto the next one. In this fashion they made their way swiftly thought the camp.

Then Leo saw a pile of something that smelled familiar to him, but not from this world. He smiled evilly, and sent a fire ball at the pile of what seemed to be oil barrels. Leaving a small mushroom cloud behind him as the shockwave added to their speed. The more soldiers came out to meet them, the more fell at his blade. As they were nearing the edge of encampment and the foot of the mountains though, Leo swung his sword and heard a distinct breaking sound.

He felt a brief pang of loss at the weapon, before he saw someone who was dressed in the brightest armor he ever saw. His armor seemed to have the design of an owl, and he looked as if he was a capable fighter. Leo then flung the broken blade at his face, then moved on not even seeing if he hit the man or not. He then used fire in both hands, as the destruction of the camp increased. As they got closer to the cliff like mountains, Leo shouted to Iris,

"JUMP NOW!!" and the two pushed off of the ground soaring briefly in the air, before slamming against the cliff face. They dug their claws into the rock, and then swiftly made their way up not even looking back at the destruction they caused. There were several people shooting arrows at them, but with how fast Leo and Iris were moving only one found its way to Leo's shoulder. He groaned in pain, before yanking the arrow out and burning it. Soon they moved even out of the range of the arrows.

***

Alex was furious as he strode through the camp and surveyed the destruction. He had a hand to his face as blood flowed from the wound he sustained. This was the main cause of his fury, as the attacker dared to attack his face. Alex's instinct had barely alerted him to the danger when the man threw his sword, and it was thrown with such strength that it had even destroyed his own sword just to deflect it. He still sustained a deep injury to his face however.

He went to see a healer, even though they were kept busy from the results of the attack. He demanded to be seen immediately, after which he was told he would have a scar for the rest of his life. Sadly at this moment one of his men came to give him a damage report from the attack. After hearing what was lost, including all the dogs that they needed after they attacked their own masters, his fury only grew. It would take two weeks to recover, then another two to finish the work.

It was only when he sat in the comfort of his own tent that he started thinking as to the identity of the attackers. His first instinct said beastmen, but the man had used mana so that was impossible. No humans moved that way, as he recalled the jump the two had made when they reached the cliff. It was only few minutes after he started pondering that Alex recalled information he heard only few days before. About the expedition that went north and was exterminated, never to be seen or heard from again.

As he thought of this, he started thinking. 'Could there be an even bigger threat than we originally thought of in the north?' He wasn't the chief strategist for nothing as he realized that after revealing themselves they would want to acquire allies. This thought created a feeling of dread, as he realized that might be another powerful force out there that they knew next to nothing about recruiting dwarves and possibly elves and beastmen.

However, a wicked smile came to Alex's face as he suddenly had a thought. If this was the case then exposing them, and possibly eliminating them would elevate his status. He might even be able to have the princess if he was successful. But he needed to focus on the dwarves first, and he would take the two prisoner to interrogate later.

Watching the whole thing from a peephole was one of the dwarven Chiefs, Agmundr who was in shock. He was the champion of Hephaestus, and when the report had come about the humans movements, he came himself to investigate. What he didn't expect however, was that two humans would attack the encampment and start climbing the Worlds Crown. He had asked Hephaestus for guidance when the humans began their siege, and the only answer he got was to wait. Now he believed that he saw what he was supposed to wait for, and started the journey back to Tirdaral.