Leaving Valtuz (Part 1)

"What?!" Lann exclaimed.

"Where did he go!?" Altu yelled.

The two generals rapidly look around the burning scenery to find where the undead vanished to, but the undead was gone without a trace, leaving a beheaded corpse behind.

"It's as if he was an illusion, but its roar felt real." Lann said.

"We must retrieve the body to confirm to our kings, that way it'll allow the younger, lower ranked adventurers to do their jobs with less risks to bandits." Altu said, Lann nodded and gestures his bandits to go ahead and retrieve the body.

"General!" a knight ran to the generals with urgency.

"General, the fires are diminishing, but our mages are running low on magic!" the knight said. "However, we have sighted our reinforcements and citizens heading to our location!"

"How many?" Lann said.

"A combined force of 500, sir!" said the knight.

"Good, we cannot allow the fire spread any further." Lann said, "Secure the body! After the body was secured, we must contain the fire!"

{Meanwhile...}

*Shoom!*

I come out of the shadows of one of the trees sat down on a rock. I let out huge sigh of relief and gaze upon the night sky. Using Thought Acceleration and Multicast at the same time put a lot on my mind.

"Gris, Noire, come on out." I said.

*Shoom!* *Shoom!*

Both Gris and Noire jumped out of the shadows. They jumped on top of me and began whining.

*Whine...*

"I'm alright, I just need to recover a bit." I said.

Gris and Noire shook their heads left and right, indicating that's not the case.

"It's because of the fire, even though it's caused by me, you'd still be affected." I said, "You're weak to fire because of it despite your special fur. Also, Zaneth gained multiple resistances by awakening and ranked up to Z."

*Ding!*

[Evolution complete for Mirtis.]

A message popped in my head, saying that Mirtis has finished evolving. I remember that giving a certain weapon of Epic or above to a certain undeads like zombies or skeletons, they will evolve without a cost.

*Wrooosh!*

A gust of wind, but a heavy wind, but I felt no wind of any kind. I look to see that Mirtis has returned safe and sound and his form is different than ever.

Mirtis, who had two horns on his helmet now has four horns with the color of deathly white. His armor is now plated and is painted black with red accents. The shoulder parts on the armor is placed with white skulls on both sides, along with the ones on his waist and knees.

Mirtis also gained a cape that was torn into a full black cape.

The undead that was once a Death Knight Captain became something more menacing than Zaneth that was once alive. He now holds two greatswords where one that is Lionheart and the other is bone white.

[Mirtis has evolved to Death Knight Baron.]

[Due to Evolution, Mirtis has risen to rank V.]

[Skills acquired for Mirtis. Earth Nullification, Acid Nullification, Dark Magic-XII, Curse Magic-X, Shadow Shift, Superspeed Regeneration, Infection, Aura-V, Weapon Ki-V, Mental Nullification]

Wow...he skipped Death Knight General! After General, he becomes Baron! That Mental Nullification is also useful.

Early game players may assume undeads are immune to Mental Attacks, that is true, but it only applies to the lower ranked, mindless undeads, unbound by anyone. If an undead is raised and controlled by Necromancy, Mental Magic cannot go through since that skill is a Curse Type. Although, its resistance is dependent on the caster's rank when it came to Necromancy.

Now that it has Mental Nullification, no one can control it except Necromancy.

I did see Mirtis standing there evolving by sharing Vampa's vision, but as the Noltian and Ergexian are heading this way, I told him to fly away as to avoid getting detected. I also can't share Mirtis' vision because he is in the middle of evolution and he has no eyeballs.

Mirtis knelt down, indicating that he has finished what I asked.

"Welcome back, Mirtis. Good job making them think you killed Zaneth." I said patting his helmet. Mirtis looked up to me and grunted.

"Ooooah!" Mirtis grunted. Asking me something, like a question.

"You wanna know when Arex and Saeva will return?" I asked for him.

"Oooh!" Mirtis nodded as he grunted.

"They'll return, but we have too many people around." I answered. Especially that one time some dude caught wind of my Perception, I better get all my monsters, our stuff, and hopefully sneak out while they're distracted.

I quickly stood up and got ready to move again.

"Alright, you three can go into my shadows." I said.

*Shoom!*

The three jumped inside my shadows to await my orders again, just when I was about to go, I call out to someone.

"Viri? Groza? Are you close?" I called out quietly as to not give away my position any further.

*Wooosh!*

*Flap!*

Viridesca flew from behind me and met me face to face. Groza descended from the sky and landed on one of the rocks beside me.

"Viri, I need you to go to Valtuz and find Hyoran. If you find her, stay with her." I told her. I turned to Groza.

"I need you to go to the sky over Valtuz to keep a close eye. If you see them, make sure you lead me away."

Viridesca nodded happily and began flying, leading the way. Groza flew towards the sky to become my watcher.

"Rrrr!" A low growl came and I look to see Santrasa, Stein, Flammen, and Taudera walk through the vegetation.

"Perfect, you four will distract them when I give you the signal. I will use that time to get the rest of us out of Valtuz." I said.

"Grawr!" Santrasa growled in agreement and I used Shadow Sneak to move to Valtuz.

*Shoom!*

{Couple minutes Later...}

*Shoom!*

I reached to the tavern and went in the back door, the tavern is empty.

[Notice. Viridesca has located Hyoran.]

I use Perception to find any other people besides her and the other monsters.

[No hostiles detected inside this location.]

[Thompson is in the basement of this tower.]

I advance through the counter and see that there are still a lot of soldiers outside keeping guard. I run upstairs to find the room Hyoran and I were in.

"Viri, open the door." I said.

*Creak!*

The door creaks and I see Viridesca opening the door and I quickly closed it behind me. I see Hyoran, Fennec, Paura, Schwarze, and our stuff lying safely.

"Kain! You're alright! Did you defeat the hero?" Hyoran said as she darted towards me with anxiety.

I look at her tail that has been relaxed.

"Yeah, we won't be worrying about him anymore." I said. "Come on, we're heading back to Noltia. Is Thompson still around?"

"Yes, I met him earlier. He's in the basement." Hyoran said. "We're leaving right now?"

I grab the backpack and carry it over my shoulders.

"Yeah, it could've been smoother, but it'll get complicated if we stay. We'll find Thompson first and we'll leave."

"Okay." Hyoran nodded.

I gestured Viri, Fennec, Paura, and Schwarze to come with us. Fennec jumped into her arms and wrapped herself around her neck, just like the time before we went to Valtuz. Paura climbed onto my head and Viri just floated.

We began walking downstairs to the basement and luckily no messages have appeared yet. We opened the basement door and about to call out to him.

"Kain, you're back!?" Thompson said, surprised.

"Yeah, but this time we have to leave." I said.

"What about the forest fire?" Thompson said.

"Yeah...sorry about that." I apologized, admitting the deed that I have done.

"You...you what?" Thompson said, flabbergasted.

"I did this because those armies failed to kill him, causing Zaneth to be awakened as a hero. I created a spell meant to kill him instantly, but it failed. With him dead, we're pretty much done here." I explained to him.

"Then what about the Feudal Lord, Mercenaries, the Bandits on the mountain..." Thompson tried to come up with something, but I jumped in.

"It was all because of the Black Horseman. Except for the bandits on the mountain." I said.

"The fire..." Thompson sighs.

"I know I should've done it cleaner, but you won't have to worry about the bandits running your pockets." I said, assuring him.

"Alright, but let me say thank you for saving Valtuz and the nearby cities, we would've accepted our fate had none of you came by. It's gonna be a long night for us, but it's better getting raided by bandits." Thompson smiled.

"Yeah." I nodded. "See ya later." Hyoran waved him goodbye.

"Later, kids." Thompson said.

We go to the back door I came from and gave the signal for my four large beasts.

"Stein, Taudera, Flammen, Santrasa, go through Valtuz to distract them." I said telepathically. "Zala, come on out."

*Shoom!*

Zala came out of the shadows and sputtered. I began petting her and she nudges her nose into my face.

"Thank you for bringing Hyoran to safety." I said. "Are you hurt anywhere?"

[Checking for injuries...]

[Zala sustained no injuries.]

For Zala not being injured, she used Shadow Sneak to move through the burning forest. A useful skill to have.

Seeing the rain has gotten lighter, it'll be harder to make it through. But...

*Kreee!*

[Groza has found that the path towards the mountain is unattended.]

Awesome, I can go in while the dark is still present. We put on the hoods, climbed on Zala and headed out to the front to hear noises cry out.

*MROOOO!!*

*ROOOOAR!*

The sounds of Taudera and Santrasa cry out in Valtuz, causing chaos one last time. This became my opportunity to sneak out.