Chapter 4249: Warrior’s Oath (Part 2)

Sentinel, the King in the East, couldn’t afford to fight so many powerful Awakened alone, especially when the weak members of Lith’s family might be caught in the crossfire or used as meat shields.

As soon as the Awakened had appeared, she had contacted Faluel and the other Kings with her communication amulet. Only then did she howl. It alerted the enemy to her presence, but it also forced their hand.

Knowing that the Kings of the Woods and their magical beasts were coming, no one could afford to take their time to reach whatever goal had brought them to Lutia.

At that point, Sentinel cast a Spirit Spell to conjure a dimensional beacon that allowed the other Kings to lock on her position.

Normal Steps were faster to cast and required less mana, but a simple elemental-sealing array could disrupt such spells with ease. The Spirit Steps led the battalions of warrior magical beasts before the enemy, creating the first wave of the tide.

Anyone and anything would be trampled over if they stayed, and chased after if they ran away. Which was what had happened after one Spirit Steps for each clan opened.

The Awakened humans had formed a perimeter around Rena’s house that was supposed to fend off the squads of the Queen’s Corps, and delay any reinforcements that might interfere with the plan.

The flood of magical beasts had slaughtered the lookouts, opening the way for both the Queen’s Corps and creating a surveillance net that forced the Awakened who had kidnapped the children to take detours.

A single magical beast was just an annoyance for a powerful blue-cored Awakened, a pack was a threat, and an entire clan was a death sentence. With the Crons and Lifebringer patrolling the sky, it only took one howl to draw the attention of the magical beasts and start a charge.

The Awakened couldn’t afford to slow down or fight, they could only hide and run. It was the reason the squads of the Queen’s Corps had caught up with the runaways so quickly.

The opening move of the Byk clan was known as the Black March, but everyone else just called it a stampede. The magical beasts simply charged at full speed while conjuring as much darkness element as they could.

Being rammed by a Byk meant facing a creature weighing almost a ton that released a pulse of darkness magic upon impact. A well-armed blue-cored Awakened could easily resist the first blow, but not all those that quickly followed.

The Awakened standing watch who had dared to stand their ground against the Black March had been knocked off their feet, weakened by the darkness blasts, and then stomped to death.

The Byks didn’t bother stopping to finish the Awakened off. They just put their full weight in their steps and released more darkness from their paws.

After breaking the cordon, the Black March scattered but didn’t stop. The magical beasts switched from killing to searching, looking for any sign of the enemy or the members of Lith’s family in need of help.

Makhari was patrolling the western area of Lutia when he stumbled into Barago. The Awakened was fleeing the scene of the kidnapping, carrying Lenart over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

According to protocol, Makhari had to roar and alert his allies of the sighting. It would be the Kings of the Wood’s role to perform the rescue. Yet doing that would also mean alerting the Awakened man and potentially losing the child.

The Byk clan still suffered from the humiliation for Irtu’s and Gerda’s crimes. The fact that none among their ranks had managed to become an Emperor Beast and take the mantle of King in the West only made things worse.

Despite all that, Lith had provided the Byk clan with food, magical books, and everything they needed to survive. Without his help, many cubs would have starved in the winters following the Wither’s rampage.

It was the reason the Byks took an oath on the day of their coming of age.

The day when a cub became a warrior.

To wash away their shameful past and repay their benefactor, the Byks vowed to protect the members of the Crownless King’s family at all costs.

Makhari knew he only had a fleeting chance to rescue the young boy, yet he didn’t hesitate. The Byk used earth magic to make his steps lighter and quieter than a cat’s, conjuring all the darkness element he could muster.

Barago was too far and too fast for Makhari, but there was one trick that the Byk clan had inherited from Irtu the betrayer. Makhari leapt forward with all his strength, using earth magic to turn his landing spot elastic like a trampoline.

The ground below Makhari’s paws bent instead of breaking, and bounced him up faster and higher than before. When Barago noticed the black beast flying at him, it was too late.

Makhari slammed into the Awakened man with his full weight, releasing all the darkness magic he had accumulated and conjuring more. Barago lost his grip on Lenart, who tumbled on the now-soft ground without a scratch.

All magical beasts knew about the Scalewalker armor and that no fall could threaten the life of the Verhens, so aside from softening the landing, Makhari was free to focus on Barago.

"Run, little man! Run!" Makhari yelled with air magic as he emitted a loud, guttural roar that resounded across Lutia’s empty streets like a war horn.

The Awakened man was already back on his feet, and the Byk knew that he had no chance of victory. Makhari was neither a clan leader nor an elite warrior. He had no equipment aside from what Mogar had gifted all Byks.

His bright cyan core was nothing against a bright blue, and the fact that he could only access two elements only made his situation more desperate.

Lenart heard the voice of the magical beast, knew what he had to do, yet he was unable to stand. The last thing he had seen before being kidnapped from his home was a bad man threatening his mother.

Then, the boy had been taken away from his family, never to see them again. Lenart was scared of the Awakened man, and his childish heart told him there was nowhere safe from the bad man.

He would find Lenart and take him away, no matter how far he ran or how well he hid. Amid the chaos and fear that ravaged the small boy’s mind, the big black bear seemed the safest place on Mogar.

"I said run, dammit!" Makhari roared again, slashing with his claws and opening shallow gouges in Barago’s armor.

The Awakened man was still dizzy from the impact with the ground, and the constant flow of darkness magic didn’t make his recovery easy. Yet he was at the apex of the bright blue and had access to all forms of Fusion Magic.

Light fusion cleared his head, while darkness fusion allowed him to ignore the pain. Air fusion made him faster than any Byk ever could be, and water fusion made his movements graceful and coordinated.

Earth fusion neutralized what little damage the Byk’s claws dealt past his armor and fire fusion made him even stronger than he already was.

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