Raiden realized that the enemies attacked that place and another at the same time because they wanted to make the defenders focus on recovering from the attack... even though the warriors of the village split up, they still weren’t able to stop the enemies completely in two fronts.

While that was convenient since they wouldn’t have to worry about cannonballs and reinforcements on the sea, Raiden realized that his parents didn’t look that happy over it, they looked rather troubled for obvious reasons. The first was the fact that they lost two more hundred warriors trying to protect that port town...

The second was the fact that the situation was odd... the enemy was doing unexpected things that put them at a disadvantage. Their best option would be guerrilla warfare, keeping attacking the port towns, destroying and stealing as much as they could, but it wasn’t everything they were doing.

"It has been a while since this happened, but we heard that they are also capturing as many of the elves as they can... they are also quite violent toward the dwarves," Hearth said. "This war will become quite bloody and more intense than expected."

Harth avoided saying that in front of Raiden, but he had already heard some of those acts of violence... they beheaded all the dwarves that they found and put their heads on spikes.

Raiden’s feelings were complex. Though he had little affection for the Lunarians, he found himself stirred by a sense of righteousness and moral outrage when he saw how their enemies conducted themselves.

To Raiden, war was a grim necessity, but it didn’t absolve people from acting with decency and respect. The sight of captives being mistreated, being captured as slaves, and the bodies of the fallen being dishonored annoyed him deeply.

He understood that conflict often brought out the worst in people, but he couldn’t ignore his own principles. Even if he had doubts about the Lunarians or their kingdom, he believed in a fundamental respect for human dignity.

This belief extended to those who stood up to defend their homes. Raiden admired the courage and skills of fighters who, despite their flaws or the complexities of the situation, remained steadfast in protecting their land and upholding a sense of respect and fairness. His respect for these people wasn’t about glorifying war but about recognizing the importance of integrity and courage amidst chaos. The idea of his friends and allies suffering the same fate left a bad taste in his mouth.

"... What are we going to do?" Iri asked.

"We are here to help, and while we can act independently, we still have to defend the port towns," Lenore said after crossing her arms and closing her eyes. "Until the enemy starts the invasion en mass, we can’t leave this place."

That was a tough spot to be in since the enemy didn’t have many reasons to hurry up... the more they took their time, the more the people of the Lunaria kingdom would get annoyed and make mistakes. Revolts weren’t out of the question either, there was also the possibility that other neighbors would attack to take advantage of the chaos.

Thinking about all that was very annoying... the reason for that was the fact that Raiden couldn’t do much about it. Things were too big in scale, after all. In the end, Raiden left his family alone and then went to train... since he leveled up his Aura Force, he could recover energy faster and train for long as well.

"He protected me more than a little bit while I was working, and you were going on a rampage," Lenore said as Raiden moved to an empty place to train.

"He saw a lot of people dying and getting hurt, but he didn’t show much reaction aside from some tension..." Harth said after he crossed his arms. "Still, he is more quiet than usual, so it is hard to say what he is thinking."

"If he is training, then he doesn’t like this," Iri interjected. "He knows what happens to the survivors of the defending side, and he doesn’t like it."

"I would say that his skill, based on what I saw, is on the high end of the adept level," Lenore added while considering a few things. "He is even more skilled than some students that barely graduate on the scholar level."

Raiden’s family was deeply concerned about his involvement in the conflict due to their awareness of the severe consequences of war. They were unsure if even the most trained students would be able to stay away from the battlefield, given the intensity of the situation.

While Raiden had developed significant skills that could help him defend himself, his family was reluctant for him to face the battlefield directly. They understood the harsh realities and risks of war and felt that Raiden had already endured too much trauma in his young life. His past experiences had left him with emotional and perhaps physical scars, and they wanted to protect him from further harm.

Their concern was not just about his immediate safety but also about the long-term impact of war on his well-being. They hoped to shield him from the full brunt of conflict for as long as possible, even as they recognized his potential and the skills he had developed. Their priority was to keep him away from the frontline to prevent him from experiencing such harshest realities at his age.

"We have been isolationists for far too long," Lenore said, suddenly changing the subject with a serious expression. "We will have to learn from this misstep and prepare for the future to avoid this kind of issue."

"Having enough informants is no longer enough?" Iri asked. "That guy helped us quite a bit."

"We can only gather so much intel since we only moved from a certain point to a certain point," Lenore explained while scratching the back of her head. "I have been thinking of expanding our areas of influence, but it is difficult to do that without making people stay away from the village for months at a time... those people also need some certain skills for the job. I will have to think about this a bit more seriously."

While his family was talking about that, Raiden was training his legs while holding some large stones on his shoulders. He already knew the basics of how to enhance his joints with force, but he still needed to make them use to some extra power. After using Lighting Spear that night, his arms hurt quite a bit the next morning, after all... it was probably because he suddenly leveled up the skill as well many times over.

"This is only to show that even my power can ignore such things as proper growth," Raiden thought. "Anyway, I need to finish this technique before the next battle happens. This world isn’t peaceful at all, and I don’t want to fall behind or be someone who needs to be protected."