"What the hell?" The guard on the wall let out as his pupils shrank while he looked into the distance.

Although visibility was an issue, the rumbling of the ground and the multiple red glowing eyes in the distance were enough to tell him what was coming.

He immediately rushed towards the bell beside him and with a blast of wind, it rang throughout the kingdom’s walls.

This bell was rarely ever rung, and whenever it was, it was a sign that a corrupted monster stampede was on its way.

And from how loud it was, it definitely wasn’t a small horde.

The people, at least those who weren’t proper spirit mages or were too injured to fight, went inside the houses where they’d be safe.

Whilst the large majority, originally belonged to the military, they put on whatever armor they could find and prepared themselves.

Despite most being rusty, they were still spirit mages that ranged from C to A....so they could definitely handle themselves.

***

In the camp close to the castle, the spirit mages all around were also getting ready as quickly as they could, waiting for their Saviors to leave the tent.

"Finally!" Darius was the first to jump off the crate he was sitting on, the moment he heard the bell ring, "some action."

He had been bored out of his mind as he just sat in the tent, looking over maps and waiting for Adrian and Renelle to return.

He couldn’t spar with the other spirit mages around either since he might’ve.... probably, gone overboard quite a few times and they were now terrified of sparring with him.

Hence, the reason he was stuck in the main tent, waiting for something to happen... and it finally did.

Even the bored student, Caius, seemed a bit excited at hearing the bell, and in the next second, it seemed as if it was a race to see who could get their armor on quicker.

But before they could make any other moves after that, Cassian spoke up,

"What about the prince?"

"We’ll move first," Noelle answered, already in her white robe and without an expression on her face, "he’ll join us later."

Lucian had left for the castle earlier, his face dark with a suspicious expression, and she suspected his line of thought.

She knew why he was visiting the king again, and she understood why he didn’t want any of them with him.

After all, if his suspicion turned out to be correct, they’d all be in danger, and he didn’t want that.

"Right, right," Darius muttered with a grin as Inanis appeared on his head, the dragon’s scale, just like his hair, had multiple black spots, "Let’s do this."

With that, without waiting, he launched himself out of the tent before blasting into the air.

Without another word, Aqua, Noelle, Caius, and Cassian followed behind him, and behind them, the other spirit mages.

They headed to the top of the wall, only to realize the full scale of what was coming.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of corrupted beasts of different kinds were rushing towards them.

"The black sea moved again," Aqua said with a frown on her face, "and they’re trying to avoid it."

For monsters of corruption, she thought they’d try to go towards it, not run away from it.

Regardless, this was a problem they had to deal with.

BOOM!

Before anything else could be said, what seemed to be a massive ball of flames, or rather, a meteor suddenly landed right in the middle of the horde, blasting away everything in a massive radius.

Only one person was capable of such.

Darius, otherwise known as the red dragon.

His red hair danced wildly from the heat surrounding him while black and crimson scales slowly spread across parts of his skin.

He was covered completely by flames, which also caused smoke to rise from his body.

The corrupted mana in the atmosphere reacted violently around him as though intimidated by his presence.

"Hahahaha!!!!!" the lunatic laughed loudly while looking at the beasts around him, "finally something entertaining!"

A massive wolf-like beast lunged toward him from the side only for Darius to casually grab its jaw mid-air.

BOOM!

He slammed it into the ground hard enough to break the earth beneath them before immediately kicking another creature straight through three more behind it.

The people on the wall behind him remained silent for a second.

"He’s insane," one of the spirit mages muttered.

"You realize that now?" Another turned to him, "The red dragon has always been this way."

"Can’t let him have all the fun," Caius muttered before as he jumped off the wall and landed on something invisible.

He then casually walked into the horde, a few jumping at him only for them to slam into an invisible barrier.

But Caius paid them no mind, instead, he walked straight towards the ones he identified as the strongest before extending his hand towards one.

One of the C-Rank corrupted beasts tried lunging towards him, but before it could reach him, it also slammed into an invisible barrier.

But unlike the others, Caius wasn’t done with it yet.

Instead, he clenched his hand into a fist and an invisible pressure started crushing it from every angle.

And in the next second, the entire creature exploded into a cloud of blood under the overwhelming pressure.

Caius calmly lowered his hand afterward as though crushing a C-Rank beast was no more difficult than stepping on an insect.

Behind him, dozens of beasts continued throwing themselves against the invisible barriers surrounding him only to die before even reaching his body.

The spirit mages standing at the gates looked at the spectacle in awe, they already knew that their Saviors were strong, but it had been a while since they witnessed their power.

The other three soon followed behind, making the five seem like an entire army against the almost unending horde of corrupted beasts.

It took a while, but the spirit mages finally snapped out of their awe and moved to help their Saviors.