"Yeah, let''s go,"


    They moved through  the night...


    The news would spread among the nobility faction-'' the nobles were mobilizing for war...''


    Well ording to them it was an extermination of pests and the destination...Westley City.


    Neveah stood atop a tree. His eyes scanned the city before him, taking in the scenes.


    People scurried through the streets, some scavenging  their meager belongings from the wreck Neveah had cleared before, others gathering in small groups, helping each other... They hadn''t even got over the previous attack.


    " Sigh... I''ll give you guys a heads up." Thought Neveah looking at the scenes below.


    Neveah raised his hand. A ball of fire started forming, it was small at first... He then channeled his power, and the fireball grew, it then started spinning and swirling and intensifying as it grewrger until it morphed into a tornado, a tornado of dark-red me.


    With a flick of his wrist, heunched it skyward.


    Below, the city residents watched in  terror as the ming tornado suddenly appeared in the horizon.


    Buildings, walls, structures even those made of stone and steel that were considered very sturdy broke and melted like butter under the tornado''s heat and the wind it generated as it moved...


    But as the tornado was about to reach the densely popted area of the city, a strange phenomenon urred. It vanished… simply ceasing to exist.


    The mes were gone but the destruction was still evident.


    A stunned silence descended upon Westley City. The sighs of relief, the  scrambling to escape, the panic  all of them stopped.


    Fortunately for them no one died.


    "I have no need for weak soldiers, but with this… you should be alerted." Thought Neveah.


    " What is happening again." Someone shouted and Kai looked at this with anger.


    ''Those mes looked and felt familiar... It was definitely the masked man. But no one was injured what does this mean?... Is it a provocation or is it...'' Kai was deep in thought.


    " Kai... Attackers areing... They are many and they are drawing in close fast." Shouted Fred.


    " Damn... Get everyone into the bunkers... Prepare the soldiers for battle... Sound the rm." Kai ordered fast.


    " Sir... You ordered for people to move before... We arecking in personnel." Said another person.


    " Shit.... Just get anyone who can fight ready! And tell those who were gone toe back! We ain''t moving now!" Kai yelled.


    " YES SIR!" The sorrounding surbodinates saluted and even Fred was caught up in the momentum and saluted.


    Neveah just smiled looking at this scene proudly..."Now we wait," he said as he sat on an ice couch with snow pillows.


    Shouts and roars echoed across the deserted ins.


    Ronald atop a towering golem, looked the ''army'' of nobles. It wasn''t a real army just a bunch of nobles with one goal... But their was a hierarchy the previous viscounts were incharge and that was Ronald and Shamah and some other 3 nameless viscounts.


    When they got close enough to see Westley City... Ronaldughed"Hahaha! Guess what,moners! You sessfully managed to piss us off! We are… here?" He was confused... As looked at the city better.


    Before themy a scene of utter destruction. A wide scorched path of the city, a path that was leading directly to the heart of Westley, was made and it was just ckened rubble.


    Here and there, ashes and smoke... They were confused what happened here and who caused this?


    Suddenly, " Crackle! Crackle! Crackle!" air crackled with electric energy. Before they could even react, a white rocket of lightning tore through the air, hitting against the golem''s chest with a deafening roar.


    The golem shook as white cracks formed on it and then boom! It broke.


    Ronald barely managed to react in time. As a swirling construct of mud enveloped him, forming a protective cocoon just as he jumped ship before it could explode... But he wasn''t out of the clear yet... A lightning bolt shot at his cocoon. His cocoon spit him out and he was unscathed...


    Crawling out of the mud Ronald surveyed the battlefield.


    "Honestly, I''m tired of you bastards!" he heard a voice low and heavy....


    "Since peaceful coexistence isn''t an option, maybe annihtion is the best option!"  Kai dered.


    A figure materialized in the clouds, a silhouette outlined by blueish white glow at his limbs.


    It was Kai, his limbs crackling with white-hot lightning, stood defiant.


    "Hahahaha!" Ronaldughed hysterically.


    "The likes of you annihte us? That''s the funniest thing I''ve heard this century!" He held his ribs.


    "...." Kai said nothing. He simply raised his hands. Ominous clouds gathered overhead heavy and swollen with crackling energy.


    "Lightning Rain Chain," he said powerfully.


    From the darkened clouds, bolts of blinding white lightning shot down. Hitting random targets...


    But unlike a normal attack, they didn''t strike once. Each bolt found its target, then curved, jumping from one vampire to another vampire, literal lightning chain .


    Screams ripped through the air as some desperately tried to shield themselves with their respective elements some seeded others failed and were hit, others just stood paralyzed by fear thinking that their fates were already sealed.


    The air got filled with the smell of burning flesh.


    When the final bolt dissipated, a horrifying silence descended.


    Where once stood a proud ''army'', nowy a battlefield littered with the dead and the dying. A fifth of the attackers were dead, their bodies charred and smoking. The rest,  stunned and burned, faced an agonizing choice – retreat or fight a battle they knew they couldn''t win.


    "Ronald!... Let''s retreat!" Shamah said.


    Ronald, his mud cocoon dissipating, coughed away the smoke of burnt flesh... His rage spiking even higher.


    "Shamah!... What the hell are you talking about, retreat?!"  he roared, his voice furious.


    Beside him, Shamah, his face grim just shook his head. "A nine-star ising... and I didn''t call for help. We are outnumbered, outmatched ... We are facing a force we clearly underestimated. It''s time to cut our losses."


    Ronald scoffed. "Retreat? Againstmoners? Never!"


    Shamah cast a nce at the city walls. Then Kai, the looked at Ronald "Look at them, Ronald," Shamah urged, his voice low and urgent. "They have twelve eight-star fighters alone, matching half our force. Dozens of seven-stars and some psuedos  in their ranks, and a nine-star approaches as we speak. We are outgunned, Ronald, andpletely unprepared."


    "What will people say? We, the nobles, retreating from a rabble ofmoners?"


    Shamah''s face hardened. "They''ll say we were fools who died for misced pride. Look around you, Ronald. This isn''t a battle, it''s a ughter."


    He turned, his voice ringing with authority. "Everyone fall back! It''s an order!"


    A murmur of discontent rippled through the ranks, but the sight of Shamah, a respected viscount himself, already making a quick retreat silenced them. Now they were scared. Slowly, the nobles began to disengage, some grudgingly following Shamah''s lead, others wanting to see this to the end.


    "Kill as many as you can!" Kai ordered.


    At hismand, the eight-starmoners unleashed an assault flying from the city. Their movements were well trained, efficient, honed rigorous training.


    The remaining nobles, caught off guard by the sudden retreat, were overwhelmed by the iing attacks.


    Screams filled the air as the defenders of Westley City cut down their foes with mercilessly. The seven-stars, even some pseudo-seven-stars, fought hard.


    Fury choked Ronald. The very sight of hisrades, even Shamah, fleeing the battlefield made him furious that and the fact they were up againstmoners... He was about to snap.


    All this havoc, all this death, it was because of Kai! If he could just eliminate that annoyingmoner, maybe, this madness would stop. He thought.


    Mud churned and writhed around him. It sculpted itself into two colossal hands, their surfaces coated with a green aura. With a feral roar, Ronald mmed the hands together.


    The gesture was mimicked by the mud construct, it pped creating a thunderous boom that echoed across the battlefield from the impact point.


    Kai who from Ronald''s perspective looked drained from his earlier disy of power, stood frozen in the epicenter of the p.


    "This was it," Ronald thought with a  smirk. He''d finally squashed the bug!


    But then, a scream tore through the air. A woman, "No, Ronald! Watch out!" she screamed.


    Everything happened very fast for Ronald to even make sense of it. One moment he had squashed Kai like the bug he was then the other moment things got bright... he heard a woman shouting then the light was blocked by a shadow then something wet sshed on his face.... Ronald blinked, his vision momentarily obscured because something wet got on his eyes.


    When it cleared, he opened his eyes and saw the woman it was his wife, Dorcas?!


    When his mind processed and pieced it together... A horrifying realization dawned on him – Dorcas was shielding him, taking the brunt of the attack from Kai. She saved him?!