At the sight of reinforcements, the Lich, who was surrounded, halted the march of its Undead army. That alone should have tipped them off. Flames of gloating and derision blazed inside its empty eye sockets, but the humans and Wengols in front of it saw nothing but provocation.
"DIE!" Urzul, the human commander, and the old blacksmith threw themselves furiously at the hooded Lich.
"WAIT!" Jake yelled, firing air bullets past them to stop them, but he was too far away.
The old blacksmith was the only one who was not a fighter, so the supersonic compressed air bullet successfully managed to shock him out of his wits. He was so startled that he rolled backwards, only catching himself by bouncing back nearly twenty meters.
Sorry for the late release. If all goes well tomorrow there will be two chapters.
If some wonder why Jake didn't take the refugees with him, he simply follows his Shadow Guide. Even without it, the avians that attack them in the end would have simply slaughtered them in an instant. In the end, leaving them alone was the best solution, even if it doesn't change their final fate much.
He could have chosen to fly off alone with Ruby and let his comrades protect the refugees from the Undeads, but that creates other difficulties. From Jake's perspective, the Avians are less dangerous than the Lich.