"A plan?" Tristan looked at me.

I held his gaze with strong resolve in mine and nodded.

"Yes, some way to end this and move forward. Don't you think it's a bit pointless to keep going like this?"

I glanced over his shoulder as a Cratakiti swung its hooked tail, wanting to strike. But Tristan simply moved his leg out of the way, dodging the blow and crushing its head beneath his foot.

His gaze did not leave me all through.

"Are you underestimating the Caravan?"

I frowned. "What? No! Of course not, but isn't this battle of attrition pointless? Not when we don't even know how many of these beasts there are. They just keep pouring out of the forest."

Tristan held my eyes seriously.

"At least we would have to descend into the forest while some protect the caravan. The whole point so far is to diminish the numbers as much as possible before the more able mercenaries push forward. A chain of command came earlier."

I raised a brow.

"Oh?"

That actually made sense, but at the same time...

"Still, isn't that dangerous? We don't even know what else is in the forest, and am I the only one worried about whatever might've left those corpses? Whatever's causing all this trouble for us — it's still in there."

Tristan looked at me thoughtfully. It seemed I had made it into his mind somehow.

"So... what are you say—" He suddenly gripped me harder and lowered my shoulder forcefully while also bending his head. Following it, a tail swung over us. Just as Tristan dodged, his leg shot out from behind, delivering a powerful kick that sent the Gorewraith flying into the air.

Somewhere from the crowd, Nisha's big black cat leaped out and caught the creature like it was playing casual fetch.

"What's your plan?"

I froze for a moment, trapped in awe.

'This guy... he didn't even look back!'

Tristan... I kept forgetting this son of a bum was S-rank. Even though he was a Regular Summoner, he was freaking strong.

"I—I'm saying, burning. Burn." My words came out scrambled as I tried to recover from Tristan's awesomeness, which I hated because I hated glazing the male gender.

Tristan looked at me with a frown, intensifying on me for some reason.

"I mean, let's burn. Burn the forest."

His gaze regarded me with distrust and doubt.

"Burn the forest? You want to kill us all?"

I exhaled. "No, no, we are not going to die. Trust me Tristan, I can use what little is left of my essence to send flames into the forest."

Tristan looked unsure.

"How exactly will this work? You can't just randomly throw flames into the forest."

I nodded. "That's right, which is why I need your help." I pointed up and his eyes followed.

He looked back at me. "Tercet flies?"

"Yes, we'll use them to send the flames into the forest."

The Tercet flies in the sky were fewer since the Spirit Beasts had been attacking, which could mean that all of them had found their way to the corpses and were feeding on the essence there.

"I'll set the flies on fire. You'll use your control over the weather to create a wind that'll drive them into the forest. I'm simply going to create a chain of fire that will catch everything and burn it viciously, while you fan it to flames."

Tristan looked me up and down.

"First, are you sure you can pull that off with the amount of essence you have left? Secondly, how exactly do you know the flames aren't going to come back at us? Are you confident in your control?"

'Am I confident?'

The question Tristan asked — to be honest, I had asked myself that same question, and I couldn't provide an answer to myself. The truth was I didn't know. I was running on fumes, barely holding together, and here I was proposing we set an entire forest ablaze with me at the center of it. But standing here doing nothing while the beasts kept coming wasn't an option either.

I looked into his eyes fiercely. The light in my eyes transitioned subtly to white again.

"Yes. I am."

He sighed. "Okay, then on my signal. I'll send out a message up front to stop them from advancing. When I give you the signal, start." He released my shoulder and was about to leave but stopped. "Also, Cade." His tone was serious. So was his gaze. "Try to do this discreetly. We still can't risk revealing your identity."

I nodded and watched him drift off, thrusting his dagger into the nearest Gorewraith that tried to get in his way. He twisted the dagger away, and the momentum carried the creature — he just threw it aside as though it was waste.

Then he was already running.

I leaned on the wagon and breathed heavily.

If Tristan somehow successfully convinced them to follow my plan, the burden would fall heavily on me. I'd have to perform a miracle with something around two-fifty worth of spirit essence.

On one hand, it seemed like a worse fate I had brought on myself. On another... it was a challenge I'd created for my own survival. I couldn't leave my fate in the hands of these roughened-up mercenaries.

With my partner with the serrated chains and the other people on the front line, the Spirit Beasts were being felled steadily. I thought about joining them, but then again, I needed to conserve my essence.

So I just stayed still and didn't move.

My legs ached, burned with hot pain. I was even tempted to use [Warlord's Command] to ease it, but I persevered without.

'I need all the spirit essence I can get.'

I just leaned against the wagon, waiting for Tristan's signal.

A moment later, I could see a pack of Tercet flies drifting towards me. Since the battle began, they'd all scattered and weren't clustered anymore, so this was quite strange.

Then I realized.

A small frown creased my brows along with a smile I couldn't complete because I was just in so much pain.

'Tristan!'

Not only did he give me a signal — he gave me something to work with.

Now all that was left was on me. Would my essence even be enough to finish this?

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