Two days had passed since the initial skirmishes—forty-eight hours defined by a rapid escalation of violence.

In the immediate aftermath of the first day, the Spriggans had been overwhelmingly decimating the operating squads of the War Hounds and reducing their numbers.

It had seemed for a brief window of time, that the War Hounds were weaker than they assumed. However, that illusion shattered the moment Aaron intervened.

It was easy with a babysitter.

Realizing his forces were being outclassed by the leveling speed of Reidar's allies, Aaron had launched a counter-strategy.

He was forced to increase the power-leveling spree, dragging the War Hounds through high-level monsters.

While they had not fully recovered the numerical losses suffered on the first day, the remaining forces recovered enough to mount an effective defense, and that just in two days.

Besides, attacks became harder to carry out due to a new, troubling variable: the War Hounds started using summoning skills.

It looked like Reidar was influencing the entire region. For sure, the entire city.

Though they lacked the finesse, the perks, and the vision of a dedicated summoner like Reidar. But that didn't stop them from getting enough creatures to flood the battlefields.

The summoned creatures were mostly used to protect the War Hounds from the Spriggans' opening volleys of magic and arrows, forcing the attackers to waste mana clearing the fodder before reaching the true targets.

The battle for Creamont had turned into a grinding stalemate in just two days.

What was worse was that Reidar was away from this gridlock. He was not patrolling the perimeter, nor was he resting within the fortified skyscraper.

There was no need for the others to get his help since they were strong enough to hunt on their own now. Though Lena and especially Jake had great potential for leveling up.

The problem was that everyone quickly found out that most of the greatest monsters—those above level 300—left the city. The Spriggans didn't know the reasons, but they feared it was because the Church had opened new portals.

New portals meant new creatures; new creatures meant new mana. It was clear that the really strong monsters would migrate where there was more mana available, and given the situation, those many portal monsters promised quite a lot of mana.

The reason Reidar was not there to help the others was that, thanks to the Vorathid Foragers, he found out that Silas, the Archdeacon, had surpassed Level 300 exactly as he had assumed during the first day of his stay in Creamont.

This led to speculation. In Reidar's opinion, Silas actually used some toned-down version of the mana gathering circle to get stronger. One that would require him months to do the same thing that he wanted to achieve in days, but one that worked nonetheless.

Or maybe it was simply the proximity to the circle's raw materials that fueled his increase in levels.

Unfortunately, there were no other monsters at suitable levels in Creamont. Killing monsters five levels higher than him was going to work regarding his C.L.A.S.P. points, but not as much as killing monsters with more than 40 levels, as he did in the past days.

Reidar now was as strong as Aaron.

However, he made it so that fighting Aaron was something Jake could do. Reidar wanted to take care of Silas, as much as Lena wanted to make sure that Aaron died in the same way.

…

…

…

The outskirts of the War Hound base were shrouded in the gray half-light of dawn.

Huddled behind the wreckage of a collapsed overpass, the core group of the Spriggans, made up of all the leaders that joined Seraphine's original group, prepared for the assault that would determine the fate of the city.

Seraphine crouched over a map spread out on a slab of broken masonry. Around her stood Lena, Jake, Matthias, Helga, Kara, John, and Aldric.

The group was tense, and that was because they were not only going to lead a group of almost 1000 people to fight against a group that had around 3500 members of equal might, but also because everyone was going to use summons, and that would make the situation messier.

What was worse was that Reidar wasn't there, and yet he had the task of destroying the circle.

"The goal is simple, but the execution must be flawless," Seraphine said. "We attack the base to force Aaron into the open. He will have no choice but to come out to defend the perimeter with the others, which will separate him from Judas."

It was clear at that point that Silas had told him to protect Judas, especially because the attack Aaron prepared to kill Reidar failed, not because he had stopped it, but because Reidar was nowhere to be found.

"We are lucky," Aldric said.

"Why?"

"Because if Silas knew we were aware of the Circle, he would have attacked us himself or with the entire might of the Church and the War Hounds." He paused.

"As of now, he sent Aaron because he is trying to not make things escalate too much given how close he is to completing the circle. A full-scale war would only delay him, if not outright stop him, since it could reach their base."

It wasn't an assumption; it was what they figured out. Silas wanted to complete the circle because of the progenitor, but also because of what he himself would gain. Of course, he didn't have the numbers to attack the Spriggans, not with Reidar there.

He needed to do it himself if he wanted to get rid of the problem, but that would make months of effort futile.

So, he was trying not to provoke the spriggans. The last thing he expected was for them to attack so directly.

It wasn't just the patrols; it was also the attack on the base. He was not expecting that, and neither did he expect someone like Jake to be an enemy. Of course, for now that would need to remain a secret. It was an advantage they could not risk, especially if they wanted to kill Aaron.

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