Invasion

When Joe was just about to ask Josh what was wrong, a loud sound echoed in the sky.

Joe involuntarily let out a cry of shock upon looking upwards. "Wha-!"

A gaping hole had opened in the sky. Josh was also gazing skyward and had an unpleasant expression on his face.

It seemed as though he had just swallowed a mouthful of shit. He turned to face Joe.

"Sorry. Something urgent has cropped up, and I'm sure you can see it. I'll have to go see the lord of the town. We still might not be able to face off this invasion even with everyone's help. You ought to leave while you still can."

With those solemn words, Josh left before Joe could even say a word. With the latter feeling gusts of wind at his front, he was gone.

Still left in his confusion, the townsfolk all around him began to flood in the direction he came from. People rushed out of their homes, carrying everything they could carry with them.

The initially small group of people continued expanding, as people from the depths of the town began to evacuate. A mob was created almost instantly.

Several seconds after the townspeople around him started moving, a blaring sound was heard.

Joe's expression scrunched up at that. It felt like he was standing right next to a school fire alarm. However, a voice was heard, upon which Joe pricked up his ears for in the midst of the raging crowd.

"An invasion from the Fire Nation is in progress. Some may know of them as the Ancient Invaders, however that is not of importance. All citizens please evacuate. All cultivators or Wizards with the power of the Core Formation state and above, please report to the Town Hall to be organized for battle."

The last two sentences were repeated several times. The townspeople paid little heed to the announcement other than scrunching up their faces, and continued swarming to the exits of the town.

Joe was left at the back of the mob by the time the announcement finished.

A new sound came from above. The sound of a crackling fire, so loud it could transmit all the way down to the ground from several hundred meters in the sky.

An entire battalion worth of people flooded out from a crack in the sky. Their skin looked as though it were lava, red-hot and crackly.

As they descended from the sky, Joe suddenly felt a sense of impending doom. It was like someone was summoning the Moon Lord for the first time.

Joe's legs began to move as he ran, following the crowd. After several minutes of following the crowd to outside the town walls, he heard a loud boom behind him.

Hundreds of differently dressed and unique people were in the air, holding back the Fire Nation.

People were dropping out of the sky like flies. Tens of people were knocked down every few minutes. Joe of course, couldn't identify who was falling because he didn't know them, and he couldn't see well from very far away.

Several more minutes passed. Joe had already gotten out of the town, and proceeded to continue running, retreating even further from the scene of the battle.

Upon reaching a sufficient distance of about two kilometers, Joe decided to camp out, rather than run further away. A safe zone was waiting for him in the Nine Towers, and he wasn't willing to give up going back unless something strongly compelled him.

Joe's first steps in setting up a base was gaining the high ground. Sure, the Fire Nation could fly, and the high ground wouldn't be of much use there, but at least it would be an initial advantage.

Creating a kind of earthen tower with the earth element, a small pillar was formed. Minutes passed as more an more formed, creating a circular platform above them, several meters in radius.

Standing on top of the platform, Joe could clearly see the sky above the town. The Fire Nation and the town's forces were still fighting. The amount of people had clearly thinned however.

Joe continued with his preparations upon seeing the battle was still ongoing.

To camouflage himself, Joe summoned the wood element. Creating a brush of artificial plants in the area would either be genius, or plain stupid in the barren land outside the town.

After completing his work, Joe felt that his idea was plain stupid.

'Oh shit! I already wasted so much time on this! What now?'

Joe started to sweat as he tried to think of a countermeasure for his own stupid idea. Looking up at the sky above Crag Town, the battle seemed to be just about wrapping up, as he could see four small figures in the distance.

Suddenly, Joe had a revelation.

'I'll just cover myself with earth! Although not a great plan, it's better than standing out so much.'

Joe summoned the earth element to create a dome around his small tower. Now, looking from the outside, it was a small hill in the barren lands. However, it was hollow on the inside, with a person hiding inside.

Joe truly had trouble covering his own mistake this time. He was sweating buckets, and was very mentally exhausted from summoning the earthen dome to cover himself.

After resting for ten odd minutes, Joe stood up from his exhaustion, only to realize that the battle might be over now, from how long he rested. Standing atop his pillar, Joe opened a small hole on the top of his hollow dome to take a peek outside.

Peeking out over the top of the town, he found nothing out of the ordinary. The skies were clear, and there were no disturbances in the air.

Although Joe found it quite safe to come out, with his previous screw-up in mind, he decided to stay inside his little hill a while longer.

Conjuring up some water for him to drink, he sat down atop his raised platform, overlooking the darkness in his hill.

He conjured a small fire for light. It initially hurt his eyes, but he got used to it.

After waiting impatiently for a few minutes, Joe decided it was safe to head out now. Opening a small hole in his hill, he walked out.

The light outside was blinding. The Great Sage maintaining this pseudo-sun carried on as always. Narrowing his eyes from the light outside, Joe walked forward, out into the light after a little less than half an hour in the dark.

Joe let out a short exclamation as he bumped into someone.

'Hot!'

He quickly apologized while gaining his bearings in the bright outside world.

"Sorry! Are you alright?"

There was no response. He frowned.

Slightly opening his sensitive eyes, he looked forward. He suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his abdomen.

Joe's eyes widened as he spoke in shock. "You... Stabbed me!"

With his eyes widened, Joe witnessed that the person in front of him was no human, but actually an alien of the Fire Nation! He had shoved his broken saber into his abdomen. The broken edge was not long, but it still hurt.

He screamed. "Ah! Fireball!"

With his shout, he conjured a quick fireball. Although small and weak, he still tossed it at his enemy, who brushed it off easily.

The alien stepped forward with an odd expression to punch Joe in his left cheek, swerving the latter's head to the side.

Staggering backwards, Joe tried to widen the distance between them, only for his hopes to be dashed. The alien rushed forward, kneeing him in the stomach, further intensifying his stomach wound.

The alien didn't stop, continually punching and kicking Joe wherever it could.

Joe tried to focus his attention to cast some kind of spell, but his concentration was always interrupted by a series of quick attacks.

After getting beaten up for several more seconds, Joe gave up on spell casting to fight back physically.

'This was a bad idea.'

These words continually echoed in Joe's heart.

This was a bad idea. This was a bad idea. This was a bad idea.

His emotions were a mess right now. Regret from leaving the tower, the pain of his wounds, the loss of a friend, and the unconfirmed death of his savior.

Joe dodged more blows when fighting physically than when he was focused on spell casting, but that was it. It didn't change the end result of getting his ass kicked.

In just a minute from the beginning of the confrontation, Joe pushed onto the ground. His rough fall worsened his injuries.

The alien stood nearby, stretching its limbs. Joe felt hope for a counterattack, but quickly gave up the notion. The ass kicking experience had already ingrained his inability to win.

Joe began to think of a way to escape. There was only one way. Space. But he had no space elements.

'Sense!'

Joe quickly activated his heart magnet to attract nearby space elements. Nothing happened.

'This is the end for me I guess. My fault for getting my hopes up by thinking I was special.'

Slowly, Joe's heart began to fill with darkness. Quite literally.

'Wait... Where is this all coming from?'

Joe began to turn his neck to look for the source, which had attracted the alien's attention. It stepped up to look into Joe's eyes, which had widened.

'The space element is on the alien!'

After remembering how the Fire Nation came out of a rift in the sky, he concluded something.

'That rift was probably made with space elements, and some remnants are still on this alien!'

After several seconds of observation from the alien, it stood up. It made a small prayer motion.

Joe's expression changed when he saw this. 'Oh shit! Is he going to sacrifice me or something?!'

However, in the span of those tens of seconds, Joe had acquired all the space elements on the alien, but there wasn't much to begin with anyway.

'Should be enough for a clean getaway. At least from what I know about this guy.'

The alien raised its fist. The fist began to glow as heat accumulated on it. Joe gulped, somehow feeling it's heat and power from the ground.

'If I wait until right before he unleashes this blow, it should waste some of his energy so it won't chase after me right?'

As the alien quickly lowered his fist, Joe quickly activated his already prepared space elements and warped away. The alien's fist hit the ground, as it collapsed in exhaustion.

Joe, who was only ten meters away at this point rejoiced.

'Yes! It's exhausted!'

Continually warping away, Joe was out of sight.

The alien on the ground looked tiredly in the distance. It failed.