Troubling Winds

Smoke and fires everywhere. Screams filled the air. The city was being torn apart by its own people. The hybrids were few in number but their physical strength was several times that of a human's. The soldiers did their best to take down the creatures, moving in groups and taking them out in formations.

However, the hybrids very quickly learned that there was no need in fighting the soldiers and went for the easier targets, choosing to ignore the ones who were armed and in groups, and pursuing the ones without any weapons.

A cowardly tactic, according to Otanian standards, but they weren't human anymore, and it didn't apply to them. Morals didn't exist with them.

Kies received a rundown of the situation from Rui and he was observing everything from the top of the walls of the colosseum which somehow survived the explosions unscathed. Everything was really utter chaos like she said.

Rui would take the northern part of the city. Lentis, the south. Nyana, the east, and the majority of their forces consisting of soldiers and guards would take care of the west. Kies was tasked with doing something else. His job was to provide support to whoever needed it. His reach with his winds was unmatched and he could take out a hybrid at the edge of the city from here.

"Winds, give me a tour," Kies ordered the winds to go around the city and survey it for him. With a howl, the winds went off, spreading out in all directions. This was going to take some time so Kies sat down and waited for them to reach their destinations. 'This was going to take some time,' but really, it only took less than a second. By the time Kies sat down, the winds already looped around their destination twice and reported real-time what was going on.

From the number of soldiers against the number of enemies to the number of casualties and bodies, Kies knew it all. In the North, Rui was leading the soldiers and was achieving an overwhelming victory now that she had access to her magic again. The soldiers weren't even doing anything to help with the battle. They were all standing in the back, away from Rui and taking care of evacuating the civilians while Rui froze all the hybrids that got close to her.

On the opposite side of the city, Lentis was doing the same with his squad of soldiers. His magic alone was enough to deal with all of the hybrids. They didn't even have the chance to escape from the royal guard. He obstructed their paths with walls and generated a cage of stone around the area to keep the hybrids from getting out.

Things in the east were going just as well. Nyana was given command over a small unit as per her preference and systematically took out the hybrids with her magic, using the guards as bait to lure them into her. Against magic, the hybrids were no match.

However, things weren't looking as good in the west. Despite having the most soldiers, they had no leaders to lead them. Actually, they had too many leaders... Each squad had its own captain and there wasn't anyone of high rank to order the squads around other than their own captains. This led to terrible teamwork.

The hybrids didn't even bother with the soldiers and ignored them, going after easier prey that didn't fight back. Things were looking grim. They had a few mages among the soldiers, but their magic couldn't compare with the royal guards or the elf. They desperately needed assistance, and that was where Kies came in.

"I should've just gone with them at the start..." Kies knew that they would struggle the most out of all the teams. Numbers didn't mean much if they were all so disorganized. Without even standing up, Kies pointed his finger in the direction of the most hybrids and commanded his winds to do his bidding.

"Rip them apart."

Like hunters from the sky, the winds swooped down and picked up the hybrids, shredding them to pieces before dropping them back down. Kies ordered the winds to continue doing this until he filled the hybrids by roughly half of their numbers. After that, the hybrids became aware of something picking them up and killing them and started going into hiding.

Kies still knew where they all were and killed all of them. The soldiers were waddling around clueless, trying to figure out what happened to all the hybrids.

Forget going along with the soldiers, Kies should've just done this the moment he had the chance to.

The winds reported to Kies, informing him that the other three sides were almost done as well. There were only a few hybrids left scurrying the streets, and they weren't safe from their pursuers.

Though, it was quite interesting to see how all three of them accomplished their tasks while using different methods. Rui was like an exterminator, using her ice to spread out across the area and freeze hybrids that stepped on it.

Lentis, on the other hand, chose a more passive approach, ordering his men to gather all the civilians at the center where he would protect them with his magic and take care of the hybrids who were trapped within his walls at the same time.

And lastly, Nyana went the hunger approach. She stalked prey one by one and killed them, using her soldiers to lure the hybrids into narrow choke points where they couldn't escape her arrows. Her tactic was the most inefficient out of the three but she still somehow managed to finish first. Kies guessed it had something to do with her skills.

The royal guards and soldiers were more used to fighting against enemies who fought like them. In other words, they were more used to conventional fighters that also used weapons, not people who fought like beasts. Nyana, however, being an elf, probably had a lot of experience dealing with such opponents. She lived in a forest after all. It wasn't an exaggeration to say that she hunted beasts like these all her life.

The matter was settled in around half an hour. Hopefully, that was the worst of it, but Kies had a feeling that it wasn't the end of things. Kies hopped down from the walls, landing in an open area a couple of meters away from the residential buildings. There were no people around. Everyone was told to go to an army base so that the soldiers could protect them... Almost everyone at least.

Kies traced the aura of the fragment to the inn. There was a total of three presences that he detected inside of the building. Other than the three, whom Kies knew for sure were Sirks and the two girls, there was no one else at all inside of the building. That was good. Kies heard from Nyana that Iris got injured badly... again. For some reason, she really couldn't stay out of trouble. It was that or everyone wanted her dead, or maybe both. Either of which, it was makings things more irritating for everyone.

Since they were okay, Kies saw no need for him to go there. Now all he needed to do was wait here for orders. He would have to wait for the royal guards and Nyana to get back to the colosseum. It was times like these that he wished he could use telepathy or some other form of long-range communication magic. But as he knew, he couldn't use anything other than wind magic. Hm... Could it be possible for the winds to carry his words to other people?

With nothing else to do, there was no harm in trying. Kies mumbled a few random words and ordered the winds to remember them. He then told them to loop around the arena a couple of times to simulate flying a long distance before having them stop in front of them.

"Speak."

Other than the howling of the winds, Kies understood nothing. His message hadn't been conveyed back to him. Or maybe it had, but it was in a way that he couldn't understand. Whatever the case, the experiment was a failure. "What a disappointment..." If only he had a wind spirit, even a single one... Was he still not powerful enough to command one, even after all this time? Was there perhaps another requirement other than strength?

That requirement... For starters, he will have to find a wind spirit first. Shockingly, Kies hasn't encountered another wind spirit since the one in Silverfield throughout his travels. There were none of them residing in any of the fragments either. Where were in the world were they hiding? Kies looked up in the sky, empty with no clouds, but bright orange from the sun. Were they not hiding and just watching him? He really didn't understand them.

Tonahl had hundreds, possibly even thousands under his command, but he couldn't get a single one. However, Tonahl did mention something to Kies, something about how their magics were different from one another despite both being Aeos and only being able to utilize wind magic. If no wind spirits were approaching him then it meant that his magic wasn't compatible with them.

It was fine if they didn't want to approach him. He didn't need them. If anything, he could just do it himself. Was it more efficient if he had servants to help him? Yes, but to make sure things get done properly, it's best to rely only on himself.

Kies told himself this, but he was still a little disappointed that no winds spirits wanted to follow him. "When are they going to come..." Well, not the spirits of the winds. This wasn't about them. He was wondering why it was taking Nyana so long to get to him. She told him beforehand that she was going to deliver his new orders.

A good amount of time had passed and Kies was growing a bit impatient. He closed his eyes and pinpointed the elf's location. "Hm? Why is she there...?"

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