"Pull back. All of you. In the next 10 minutes, I want every soldier, every bow, every mage, and every one of you in my barrier", the young High-Magician's voice rang out, causing Aaron to turn toward the barrier in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"Do it", the Eldest confirmed a moment later. Aaron didn't get to ask why they should retreat. An extremely fast creature, which Aaron immediately identified as a Vidian, appeared beside him. With a deft turn, he cast his Igrikum and pinned the creature to the ground, preventing the Vidian from moving. He then caused a small ball of fire to appear, setting the creature on fire and causing a loud scream to be heard across the meadow.

"Retreat!", the High-Magician shouted loudly and hurled himself into the sky, being watched by dozens of fighters. "Everyone retreat back into the barrier. Now!"

Jerkily, the mass of people began to move, pursued by the creatures. Aaron was assisting the people in their escape with his Igrikum when he heard a loud bang behind him and turned around in surprise. His colleague Rangar was a good distance behind him, striking with his bare hand at a creature that may well have been three times his size. In the next instant, Rangar crushed the creature's head, grabbed two injured mages, and leapt into the air as well.

"Aaron..."

"I'm fine. Search for injured and get them to the city before time runs out", the 3rd seat commanded, turning back to the fight. He tried to keep as many creatures as possible from getting close to the city with his Igrikum, but was visibly getting into trouble as time went on. He hadn't fought in a long time and felt that the constant use of mana was getting on him. Besides, he always had the problem of not being able to cover a large area with his Igrikum. Especially not against such a high number of opponents who immediately hunted him down every time he made a mistake.

Two things had probably struck him throughout the evening. First, the creatures really seemed to be targeting Exarion, because they were heading very precisely for the capital and ignoring everything else. On the other hand, it almost seemed as if the creatures were targeting the Mages, especially the High-Magicians. Around him always accumulated significantly more creatures than other groups, which Aaron could not really explain. Were the creatures intelligent enough to judge who was the greatest danger? Or could all creatures detect the amount of mana and not just the Pachendrans?

In the corner of his eye, Aaron saw a large, dark object rapidly approaching his position. Surprised, he built up his mana armor and went into a defensive stance as the object caught him and hurled him to the ground. Something or someone had hurled a boulder at him, knocking him out of the sky. Like a flat stone, Aaron bounced across the ground several times until he came to a stop and instantly stood up. A multitude of creatures stood in proximity, staring at him as if they were equally surprised at his arrival.

Aaron instantly began to cast his Igrikum to confine the creatures, sinking their feet into the ground simultaneously with earth magic. That was as far as he got, as a wall of fire suddenly appeared to his right, killing half of the creatures he was holding down with his mana. Taking advantage of the moment, Aaron killed the other half with his own fire magic before he got around to looking at the people behind him. A muscular soldier came running toward him with a whole group of people, many of them badly injured.

"Come on!", the soldier demanded, yanking him to his feet as he ran past. Unwittingly, Aaron started moving, thanking the strangers for their help. As two creatures tried to pounce on the group, the soldier parried the attack of one of them with his sword while Aaron took care of the other.

"Sir Nolan!", a young man called out in surprise.

"Go ahead. We're not far from the barrier!", the unknown soldier instructed him as a third creature appeared out of nowhere. Neither Aaron nor Sir Nolan could react as the creature hurled one of its six feet through the mass and plunged its blades through the young man's chest.

"Sylas!", two others cried out and immediately came to his aid, but any help came too late. Aaron watched in horror as the creature pulled its claws out of its body, splitting the boy in two. Blood flowed in all directions, while several people began to scream and one of them threw himself on the ground. Immediately, this one looked for a sign of life from Sylas, but the soldier was inevitably dead.

"Go!", repeated Sir Nolan, hurling a wave of fire at the creature before him before killing it with a slash of his sword and turning his attention to the creature with 6 feets and 2 arms. Many of the people did not let the instruction being said a third time, only two of the soldiers stayed in place and tried to lift Syla's body. "Leave him here. Sylas is dead."

"He's not...!"

"Elijas!", the swordmaster countered sharply, as the unknown creature once again began to sprint and pounce on their small group. This time, however, Aaron was prepared and built a wall of earth separating him from the creature. But that did little to bother the creature. It rammed its body through the wall, hurling the earth in all directions. A pang of panic came over Aaron as he realized the creature's eyes were on him. He built up a gravity field with the help of his Igrikum, which abruptly stopped the creature and pushed it to the ground. "Get out of here. The creature is out of your league!"

Sir Nolan pulled his charges by the arms and pushed them towards the barrier, who ran towards the city with tears streaming down their eyes. The swordmaster himself was about to turn his attention to the unknown creature as well, when his senses warned him and he turned to the side in surprise. Without hesitation, he flung his sword into the air, slicing one creature in two, but another simply leapt past him and shot straight at Aaron.

"Look out!", shouted Sir Nolan, though Aaron had long since noticed the danger. He hurled the creature back with his wind magic, giving Sir Nolan the opportunity to kill him. In doing so, however, Aaron weakened his Igrikum and allowed the other creature to move.

In a split second, the creature reared up and shot toward the two men, which Sir Nolan saw and immediately caused a massive wall of fire to appear. But the creature ignored the fire and leaped through the wall.

"Not again!", cursed Sir Nolan loudly, before Aaron used magic to fling himself into the air, narrowly avoiding the creature's attack. It had taken a few moments, but by now he was sure he had seen the creature before. If he was not mistaken and he could believe the Chronicles, the creature was an Uachref, which was among the most dangerous creatures that could be encountered in the plains.

"I will restrict its movements. If it stands, aim for his legs first", Aaron commanded moments later, again pinning the Uachref to the ground with his Igrikum before the swordmaster ignited his blade and lunged at the creature. With a skillful twist, he severed three of its feet simultaneously, causing the creature to cry out loudly. However, neither of them were fazed by this. Sir Nolan again hurled his weapon at the immobilized creature, severing its head from its body. With a thud, the large head fell to the ground beside Sir Nolan, who wiped the blood from his face and looked up at Aaron.

"Good job. I'm Yuma Nolan. Who are you, mage?"

"Aaron Tho...", Aaron raised his voice as a small creature unexpectedly dug itself out of the ground and attached itself to the sword master's leg.

"What the...?", the swordmaster brought to word, brandishing his sword.

"Don't!", Aaron shouted loudly and shot down, but it was too late. The moment Sir Nolan touched the creature with his weapon, it exploded. A massive fountain of blue fire shot into the sky, flinging Aaron back like a piece of paper. The High-Magician composed himself a moment later and stared in disbelief at the spot where the swordmaster had been standing only moments ago. This was one of the creatures the Eldest had seen in his vision, and he remembered well the drawing of it from the Chronicles of Creature Lore. But even though he knew it, he reacted too late. "No..."

The man had stopped because of him. Because of him, the young soldier named Sylas had died, and now the swordmaster himself had perished. Why were the creatures so intent on him? Why hadn't Aaron reacted faster? Why hadn't he studied the Chronicles of Creature lore better? Why on earth had they been attacked in the first place?

"Aaron!", his colleague's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Astonished, he looked down and spotted Sefra a few feet below him, skewering some creatures with the help of her Igrikum.

"Are your people in town?", inquired Aaron immediately, helping her shake off the creatures. He couldn't waste time mourning people he'd known for barely 5 minutes.

"Yeah, yours?"

"Yes. We should go back, too. Do you know what Caleb is planning?"

"I rather think Raphael is up to something", Sefra replied, pointing her finger at the top of the dome. Aaron spotted two dark-clad figures and only moments later realized that there was a lot of mana accumulating there. Only then did he realize what the mages were up to and why they should come back into the barrier.

"That... they're not going to... not really go through with it?"

"Yes, I think they are", Sefra interjected, appearing next to Aaron a moment later. She let one last glance glide over the mass of creatures at her feet, checking for survivors. But she couldn't see much more than a black mass and blood. So she flew back towards the barrier, accompanied by Aaron.

The barrier began about 5 meters from the actual wall of the city and countless people had gathered outside the gates. Many of them were standing just an arm's length away from the creatures trying to gain access to the city. Several healers were outside the gates and many mages were using their magic to bring people inside the city, as they could not get through the gates.

This was the first time in a long time for Aaron that he was really glad to have Caleb by their side. He hadn't expected a 22-year-old to really be able to fend off such a mass of creatures with his Igrikum, which is why he was skeptical about the plan. But seeing how the barrier protected the inhabitants filled him with joy, because without it, the city would have been overrun long ago.

, Aaron instructed himself in thought, sighing softly and flying over the walls. Curious, he glanced up at the sky and could see Caleb talking to the Eldest and then smiling. Aaron watched them for a moment, but sprang into action when he saw his colleague and former student.

"Grischa", he called out to him, causing the white-haired young High-Magician to turn in his direction. "Get moving, we shouldn't stop here."

Without comment, he took an arm from Grischa and rested it on his shoulder to give Grischa support as they headed toward one of the houses. Sefra and Odin had gathered there as well, so Aaron planned to exchange a few words with them briefly.

At the same moment, the Eldest released all of his mana, causing about 20 massive fireballs to appear outside the barrier. Heat spread, followed by a light that blinded the entire city. Virtually every inhabitant shielded their eyes with their hands as the Eldest cast his magic. Even the High-Magicians, who had all come to an absolute standstill.

Shortly after, the fireballs crashed down simultaneously and expanded abruptly. The pressure tore up the ground and incinerated all life, followed by a massive fire that enveloped the entire barrier. But that didn't stop people from watching in utter horror what was going on.

In the dead silence, nothing else could be seen but this fire. Powerful as an attack of dragons, it killed all life outside the barrier. Aaron could clearly feel thousands of creatures dying and the rest abruptly retreating when they saw the attack. At the sight, he couldn't help but feel nervous himself.

"You'd really think you were a dragon in the form of a human", Caleb brought out in amusement, which all the High-Magicians could hear thanks to the crystal. "Truly incredible."

"I personally find it even more incredible that your Igrikum can withstand it without any problems", the Eldest casually muttered, which Aaron could only agree with. Ever since he knew what Caleb was capable of with his Igrikum, he felt a certain fear towards the kid. But seeing that his barriers were primarily designed to protect life also relieved him at the same time.

For minutes, he stared at the fire that had made the night bright as day. It was not the first time he saw the Eldest's starry fire, but every time he saw it, he thought of his past. In his mind's eye, he saw the dragons that had tortured him until Rangar's laughter caught everyone's attention.

"Guess we don't have to worry about who burns all the bodies."