A plethora of forest creatures ran over to the campsite, ready to maul everyone they could come across.

Other than the Hell Bunnies that gave a lot of people a start, there were also Infernal Bears and Crimson Stags, one wreathed in fire and another having sharp antlers that can cut through steel.

At least, that's what Mikella would expect if any of them actually hit. However, both Mikella and Janet specialized plentily at not getting hit.

Janet whirled across the grassy field wreathed in fire and flames, slashing across every creature that came at her. At her current speed, she was keeping up with the horde rather quickly, mostly dealing them critical hits at their vulnerable spots with her attacks.

She had a good Assassin Class Skill that worked similarly to Mikella's Dragon Eyes, allowing her to see valuable weak spots to quickly take down her opponent. That, and adding along her training, made her a force to be reckoned with all by herself against such a horde.

In one instant, she would normally use the wind around her to boost her speed, but instead of doing that, she would instead focus the wind to sharpen her blade, dealing more damage as the small winds start creating their own blades and slicing their bodies internally. As they were all fire creatures, she mostly used wind and water magic, using the very same water magic to cut them apart from the distance. However, she could only take out one at a time.

That's when Mikella would help out and take on the monsters that ran past her by instantly killing them with an arrow shot. Rather than just shooting it with her magic, she opted to use her bow to deal fatal blows faster. She wanted Janet to level up, and from the looks of it, Lyle was leveling up quite a lot as well.

She didn't know why this was going on, but the best she could do is keep the monsters away from the campsite. Thankfully, Mark and Elly were keeping everyone in place, ensuring their survival by not doing anything stupid and running off where they can't get protected by her.

"Mark, does this usually happen?" Mikella asked the man in charge, casually shooting another arrow into a bear's head between the eyes.

Mark took a moment to marvel at the magnificent shot before shaking his head and answering. "N-No, this never happened before. I was actually gonna ask if you knew."

"Sorry, but I don't," Mikella asked, and to be safe, she added. "Also, we're not responsible for this happening. We have no intention of hurting you guys, and normally towers don't just dump monsters on us like this. I hope you'll understand."

"C-Crystal clear," Mark nodded.

Mikella huffed out a breath. The last thing she wanted was everyone thinking that they were responsible for all these monsters. Mistrust would grow and chaos would spread and yadda, yadda, yadda.

She really wanted to avoid that at all costs. If they don't believe her, then she'll make them believe her. But right now it wasn't important. What was worse is that the monsters trying to attack them didn't seem all that numerous, but she knew that there were more monsters around.

If anything, her sight managed to land on some of them turning tail and running towards somewhere else, as if–

A huge explosion occurred at a far distance behind them. Mikella whirled around, on top of everyone else, to see what looked like a giant pillar of light at the distance. It flowed up to the fake sky, then it slowly vanished into nothingness.

The monsters soon went back into fighting, leaving Janet to fight against them with just a bit of shell-shock. Meanwhile, Mikella furled her brows at the event.

"Please tell me that that's normal," Mikella pleaded with Mark, and he quickly shook his head.

"No, that's another first time we're seeing it! Just what is going on?!"

"I wish I knew…" Mikella muttered.

Looking back at the campsite, it was clear everyone was up and above panicking. Some were scattering about, trying to keep in place, and others screaming at the explosion that occurred. Some even shouted unhelpfully that it was the end of the world and they were all going to die.

Seriously, why does someone have to go and say that as if it's gonna happen? It never works, and it'll only make it worse for everyone else.

Elly ran up to them both, her eyes spread wide and frantic.

"What's going on? Is it really the end of the world? I-I don't wanna die! I'm still too young to die!"

"Nobody is gonna die!" Mikella roared, getting everyone who still had working ears wince at her voice. "Now shut up and stay calm! You won't die if you don't make stupid moves!"

Mikella put down the bow, figuring that Janet had everyone on point. Realizing what was happening, Janet took the extra time to use more AOE moves and keep the monsters away from the campsite. It was working so far, and she apparently had a storage's worth of Mana potions on her, so she won't run out soon. And her training with Zeke helped her conserve her Mana if possible.

This is to give Mikella the time to deal with the mass of people. However, there wasn't much anyone could do in this situation. What really gnawed at her is something else.

"Mark, Elly–you said that the other camp is somewhere beyond here, right? The ones that keep attacking you?"

"Y-Yeah," Elly said, finally showing some composure. "What about them?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"I think they're being hounded by even more monsters, and they probably won't survive. That's why I'm planning on heading there myself and helping them."

"What?!" Elly shouted. "Why? We need you here! And also, they're the ones that keep attacking us like you just said! Why do you need to help those criminals!?"

Mikella frowned at her. She can't blame her for thinking like that. After all, how many people that she knew were attacked and killed by the other camp? She would be insensitive to ignore her plight.

"Because I know it was only some that commited crimes, not all of them. I can't ignore them all. What if they had kids there? People that didn't want to hurt others but had no choice but to go along with it? And… even if they did commit crimes, just leaving them to die by the monsters is just awful. I can't do that to them."

"But…"

Despite the persistence in her eyes, Elly quieted down. She scowled at the ground, frustration on her face as she can't make a better argument back.

Mark responded instead. "I think you have a point. But how can you get there in time? As far as I know, they're far enough away for miles."

"Do you know precisely where they are?" Mikella asked, stumping Mark for a second.

"Umm, yeah? They're over at the northeast of here. Why?"

"Oh good, because you're coming with me."

Without another word, Mikella picked Mark up by the sides of his waist and hauled him up to the sky. Then, in a graceful manner, Mikella caught Mark on her back, his legs under her arms with his hands on her shoulders. She also made sure for him to avoid hitting her wings. His eyes were left completely wide at the whole ordeal, unable to fathom what just happened.

She was literally giving him a piggy-back ride.

"Wha–?"

"No time, right? So we gotta head there fast. And I'm pretty fast!" Mikella turned to Elly who only just realized what just occurred. "Elly, you're in charge here for a bit, and whatever you do, follow what Janet says. Janet! I'm counting on you! I'm gonna go over to the other camp!"

"Got it!" Janet shouted back, realizing her intent when she looked over at Mikella with a serious gaze. She went ahead to behead another Crimson Stag with a single swipe of her dagger.

"W-Wait, I'm not–!" Mark tried to protest, but Mikella spoke over him.

"Keep your mouth shut or else you'll bite your tongue! Here I go!"

Without another moment of hesitation, Mikella's body flashed with electricity coiling in her veins as she ran forth with all she had. Unfurling her wings for once, she dashed upwards, practically disappearing from Elly's sight in just a second.

She was left behind with her hair all frazzled, her eyes still widened at the sight.

…..

If she was honest, she didn't know what she was doing. Even as Mikella flew through the forest with a clear destination in mind, all in all, she had no clue what she was supposed to do.

All she wanted to do is to help the people that can't help themselves. With her power, she can easily do that. And even better, she wanted to prove to Clara that helping others is the right thing to do. Sometimes, that was hard to do, considering their circumstances.

But she wanted to prove that to herself as well, that's why she relentlessly kept flying even as Mark screamed from behind her back, holding onto her shoulders with a death-like grip. She can't blame him though. She was just glad that he wasn't pissing himself on top of her. She can respect that.

Suddenly, she stopped in the middle of a clearing between the dense trees, still flying in between as the trees were too damn tall and the canopy too wide to fly through without affecting Mark. Mark himself finally breathed as he stopped screaming, his eyes still wide as dinner plates.

"Mark, focus," Mikella ordered, getting his attention. "Where is the camp? Am I close?"

"I-I… Uhh…" Mark stuttered, his eyes probably still dizzy from the rampant speed. Then, after another moment, he answered. "Y-Yeah, just… whoa…"

"What?" She asked.

"Look at that…"

Mark pointed out with his finger, leading Mikella to find a whole crowd of monsters flowing towards a single direction. A horde of literal Fire Foxes were skittering across there, the flames licking the air and turning them almost wavy at this distance like looking at a mirage in the desert. If Mikella were to hazard a guess…

"Let me guess, that's where the camp is?"

She asked, knowing full well what the answer was.

"A-Are you serious about going to the camp now? Those are all Fire Foxes, the strongest monsters we ever faced. Nobody else survived fighting against them. At this rate, that camp is…"

Mark's voice told Mikella that despite himself, he didn't want them to die like she did. However, being low-level as he was, it was like watching a natural disaster and being incapable of doing anything about it.

But not Mikella. She won't let that happen.

"I'm still going. Mark, keep holding on tight to me. I might have to fight the foxes too."

"A-Are you serious?" Mark asked, clear genuine concern. "You might get killed!"

"If I get killed by these low-level trash, I don't deserve to be called a Journeyman," Mikella said, flashing a grin to no one in particular. "Just don't let go by any means necessary!"

"A-Alright, I got it," Mark said, grasping onto her shoulders and tugging himself closer to her back. She was glad that he wasn't against doing such a thing to a woman like herself, as that would just waste both their time.

She summoned a sword out of her storage pack, prompting a funny yelp from Mark before pointing the sword at the foxes.

Closing her eyes, she breathed before opening them, unveiling her attunement.

With some serious handicap strapped to her back, she can't allow anything to hurt him. This would be good training as she pounced on the nearest fox she could find and ended it before a second even passed.

…..

She was worried. She was constantly worried, but this time she was even more worried than ever before.

Lyle was out there fighting for his life. Their comrades were separated, and now even Mikella left her, though she knew better than to complain about that.

After seeing the camp and their people, struggling to survive, she constantly thought about her own beginnings with Lyle back at the tower. It was the most frightening time of her life, worse than the time she spent on the run with her mother from loan sharks after her father made some bad decisions.

Even now, she wondered how her mother was doing. Was she doing well? She hoped that now that Janet was missing, she can focus on her efforts to take care of herself. Still, she knew her mother better than that. She was probably beside herself with worry and grief.

But she forced herself to stop thinking about that as she dealt another finishing blow to a bear trying to rip her apart. At the back, she could hear the people of the camp scream for their lives after Janet made an entire field of grass explode with an air spell mixed with fire mana.

Fire probably won't hurt the creatures, but an explosion was different. All the while, she moved with deft steps across the field, slicing every creature she came across.

She'll keep fighting. She'll keep fighting and protect the people behind her. She knew Lyle would do the same, as well as Zeke and Mikella and the other Journeymen.

With all that in mind, she dashed forward to the next target, her eyes narrowing and gleaming like steel during a mission.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.