The city panicked, soldiers left their homes, still getting ready, but there was no time to wait; the orcs were here. The sound of the horn being rung had even made some faint from fear; it was heard by the whole city, and every civilian knew what was happening, being escorted out by some of the guards.

The King seemed confused, devastated. After all, his whole plan had fallen, and he was going to have to figure something out.

...

But to his luck, they were able to gather at the gate, all the soldiers of the Beast Human had gathered to fight back, and yet. The orcs had yet to attack.

'Why?' Aether said, looking confused. Why would the orcs let their enemies regroup and not attack when they had the option to catch them off guard?

It was confusing, also, did the orcs really not have any higher up than the King... it was weird.

...

But that was when he heard a branch break from his left. Turning in a hurry, he saw something that made him pale in horror.

The orcs didn't wish to attack the civilization outright; they weren't trying to break through the gate. But through the whole wall. Looking in the distance where the wall stretched, hundreds of orcs were ready to break it.

The plan was to surround them and attack them from all sides.

That was why they were waiting, so they could fully get in formation, not to let them regroup.

It was to their advantage that they gathered up at the gate.

It meant that no one was there to protect the other parts of the city.

"Shit!" But before he could shout out their plan, they had already crashed into the wall. He felt the ground under him break and fall.

His eyes widened. From this height, he would be lucky not to break all his bones. He needed to find a way to go around that, after all, if any of his bones broke, he was dead. And in his head, only one thing came to his mind.

He leaped forward, with all his might, so he had as much distance from the wall as possible. And right before his body hit the ground, he turned into a shadow, so he wouldn't get hurt from the fall.

Of course, this plan wasn't perfect.

With the pain of his ability kicking in at full speed, he was left defenseless on the ground, as orcs stormed through. He wanted to scream, he really did, but he bit his lip so he wouldn't, so the orcs would think he was dead and wouldn't attack his defenseless body. He also hid his hands under his body; that way, there was no chance for their weird finger fetish to break his plan.

His eyes went bloodshot as he tried to stay awake, and foam started to form at his mouth.

Even after all the training, this was still too much to handle. Just what kind of skill did this have on its user? Can't he gain something that doesn't hurt him or disadvantage him in some way?

Aether cursed under his breath as he finally failed to stay awake, fainting in the middle of the battlefield.

...

...

'Seriously... you're embarrassing.'

Aether's eyes widened as he found himself in a black room. Taking a look at his hands, he noticed they were covered in black goo. Most likely to be Abyssal Matter.

Meaning.

"You're a damn pain in the ass, you know?" Aether said, looking up at the Abyss, which scoffed with a smile on his face.

'Am I? I'm honored... Run. When you wake up, just run away."

Aether started confused but also surprised. The Abyss wanted him to retreat? "What, no! I can't do that, Kade and Lucien are there."

The Abyss frowned. "And what if they are, Aether? This is not a battle you can win. You will die. The only reason you're not dead now is that I created a shield around us that makes it extremely hard to detect us. The moment you wake up, it will be gone, and with your weakened state from using that skill, you will die soon. So don't try to fight it, just run away."

Aether gritted his teeth, trying to get up, but the Abyssal Matter on his hands kept him on his knees.

"I can't do that! What don't you understand! I can't leave without them, they're my friends!"

"They're not real people!" The Abyss shouted, like he had lost all his patience. "They are people created by the Abyss, humans that have had their memories planted in their minds. This world was created for you; it isn't real. None of them is actually human. So they can't be your friends, just run, it doesn't matter if they die, they're not even important characters for the story!"

Aether smiled arrogantly. "And since when did you decide who is a human or not, huh? By what requirements did you go for? Quite the hypocrite you are!"

The Abyss frowned deepened. "Fine, do what you want, but you should know that I will not help you once in this fight."

And before Aether could respond, the world around him shattered, and he found himself yet again in the city. Which was now destroyed. Flames burned entire trees as soldiers tried fighting back against the orcs, but were slowly getting pushed back.

They were also a lot less, which probably meant that the King had told them to split up, even if it was a risk, and it didn't seem to be paying off really well.

Looking around, Aether noticed Kade and Lucien, who were finishing off an orc. He didn't waste any time, as he rushed to them.

"What is the situation?"

Kade's light lit up in relief as he saw Aether. "You're alive, I was sure you died!"

Aether looked at Kade, a bit disappointed, his own student really thought he had died that easily... well, if he thought about it, he would actually be dead if it wasn't for the Abyss, so I guess his worry wasn't justifiable.

"Not the time, fast, what is the situation?"

Kade quickly nodded. "The orcs have formed three groups, one at the gate, which we are fighting against now, one at the end of the city, and in the middle. We have tried to regroup, but we haven't gotten the opportunity. The news is that the end of the city is already close to being completely destroyed and lost."

Aether bit his finger. 'Damn it, the situation really is worse than I thought... these guys really are starting, they completely outplayed us. I didn't even think of this outcome.'

Lucien walked a bit closer to Aether. "We also have news that the left and right hands of the king have taken one of the other two groups under them. The Beast Human King is currently fighting the orc king outside the gate, trying to keep him out of the city. But he isn't able to keep out all the other orcs."

Aether looked in the distance, and everyone was fighting. Blood was splattered all over the place. This was really going to be a dangerous fight.

'How strong are the orcs?' Aether asked the Abyss.

But he didn't respond. 'Looks like he really is not going to help with anything in this battle, that bastard!'

Aether looked back at Kade and Lucien. "Let's slip up, each of us is going to go and help one of the groups. I will stay here at the gate."

"Then I'll take the back of the city." Kade quickly said, before Lucien had any chance of taking that position.

The magician laughed. "Then I guess I will help control the center."

...

Then no one spoke a word.

...

"Come back alive... alright?" Aether said, chuckling.

"We could say the same to you." Lucien smiled while saying.

Aether nodded. After all, he knew that he might be the most disadvantaged out of all of them.

He was going to fight multiple enemies at once, which, for someone with a rapier, wasn't the best. Slashing is a great thing to have when fighting more than one enemy, since you can attack more than one person with it.

But with a thrust, it's very rare to get two people in the same line, so you can pierce both.

It became even worse when it was more than two enemies, which there defenetly were more than two in this situation.

The chances of him dying were probably the highest out of all three of them.

Kade's sword allowed him to slash, plus, with his fire Will, he can burn his enemies with each slash, and Lucien can keep a distance and block attacks with his Will by shaping the ground.

He couldn't do any of that stuff; the only way he could avoid an attack was by using [Erosion], which is just a dead wish.

...

'It doesn't matter.'

...

"I will survive."