Cooking up a plan.

The scout came back, and provided the group with three possible escape routes. The human commander and the elven commander had no choice but to sit down and discuss.

The elven commander, a male who seemed to be in his 30's with his long, silver hair and a slim yet athletic body, found himself in a dilemma.

One of the members of his squadron, Ryan, had been fatally wounded while defending the Elven Princess. 

It wouldn't have been a big issue, had she chosen to heal him back to his peak condition, but…

"Don't wanna. He didn't want to play with me and Teddy Tree," were the exact words she had told him a few minutes ago.

Thus, without being able to heal Ryan, he really wanted to take the safe road. 

"Look, Commander Gregor, I understand that you want to make sure your squadron survives, but…" the human commander looked around.

Wild monsters ran rampant around the remains of the burning and chaotic town, and the people living there were incapable of putting them in check. They weren't fast enough.

Nor strong enough.

He knew how he felt about this, and the route he wanted to take. 

"Commander William, that move is too risky. What will you do if the Princess is killed because of it?"

"I…"

"I have a plan," casually interjected Randall, while keeping both of his hands behind his head.

Natasha almost ran up to him to slap some sense into his brain, but Jean held her back.

"Why? Can't you see he's being disrespectful??"

"Just… Don't get involved. Trust me."

Meanwhile, Randall merely laid out his idea, while everyone stared at him.

"Scout, is there a faster route you've overlooked?"

"Y-yes… There's a direct route through the town's Main Plaza, but it's infested with monsters ranking from 6 to 4, along with a Rank 3 Goblin."

The bodies of many knights almost froze upon hearing that. 

"Why is there such a powerful Goblin here?..."

"It doesn't make sense, at all," muttered another knight, who held a mostly blue bow.

The commanders, William and Gregor, looked at each other in understanding, after realizing there was only one way out. With both of them performing a head nod, the human spoke. "We'll be taking the fast route, then."

At that moment, Randall silently snapped his fingers, and everything around him lost its color.

'So… This is Time Alter.'

Just a plain, black-and-white world.

He observed the battlefield around him, while the world remained at an absolute standstill.

"... This outcome is good, but not what I need," he mumbled, while pondering about his current short-term goal.

Then, he went through a few scenarios in his mind.

'Slow route… Wouldn't be helpful, plus, there's the Goblin. And considering everyone's reactions, then it might be a threat. So it is possible for it to attempt to ambush them… Anyway, the fast route… is it fast enough?'

His eyes widened, as his brain came to a conclusion.

'Whatever. I'll just let this situation develop further, then plan from there.'

Slowly, he snapped his fingers again, and the surroundings regained their livid colors after… 40 seconds. 

William raised his voice, and asked a singular question. "Those who can manifest their Ego, please raise your hand."

Ten hands rose up, with six of them belonging to the human squadron, and the other four to the elven team.

'The two commanders, the elf Jean was talking with, the armored knights… Hm? Jean can't do it? Well, that's one thing to keep in mind.'

Gregor assigned the roles to his squad, while William did the same thing.

Those who specialized in fighting face to face, were placed as the vanguard. And those who weren't had to provide support, either in the form of cover fire for mages and archers, or information in the scout's case.

With their roles decided, the mini army set out to leave the besieged town.

As they ran towards their extraction point, the squadrons took on multiple brief skirmishes. Nothing too dangerous, considering most of the monsters they faced were either Rank 6 or 5. 

But soon enough, their luck ran short.

Hiding inside the remains of a building, the human commander raised his hand, stopping the entire mixed squad dead on its tracks.

"Commander, we've spotted multiple Rank 4's on the street nearby. There's a nearby alleyway that we can use to sneak around, but there are five Rank 5 monsters in it. Engaging directly may alert those from the street."

William stopped to think, and called out Gregor's name. "You can dual wield daggers, correct? Can you assassinate the weaker monsters?"

Nodding his head, Gregor manifested his daggers. Both of them had goldenrod blades and a deep green hilt, as if made out of leaves. For some reason, his weapons had a cold hue surrounding them.

Randall felt something was off. Thus, he volunteered to assist the elven commander.

It was definitely not his main character bullshit sensor tingling.

And so, both of them left the building. The turnabout path they took easily allowed them to sneak past the Rank 4 beasts. 

On the way, they stumbled upon the corpse of a young adult holding a dagger with a partially broken blade. While Randall casted his gaze elsewhere, Gregor kneeled down and picked up the blade. "May the ancient philosopher guide your spirit to rest."

Then, they continued on their way. 

"The monsters should be on the other side. A height advantage will make it easier for us," commented Gregor.

A dagger suddenly appeared on his hand, but it left just as quickly. With the wall penetrated by the dagger, the brown haired elf ran towards it and leapt lightly. 

And used said weapon to further the jump, reaching the top with ease… The dagger vanished without a trace not even a second later.

Randall exhaled lightly. 'How am I going to make that jump?... I'll give it a try. If I fail, I'll ppan from there.'

With that in mind, he dashed forward. He drew closer and closer to the wall, and his body readied itself to leap.

Right at that moment, a strange burst of strength invaded his arms and legs. One of his feet made contact with the surface of the wall, and further pushed him upwards.

His left arm held onto the somewhat stable edge of the ruined building.

'That… was surprisingly smooth, considering this was my first attempt at wall climbing. I suppose this is what Body Augmentation does?'

He propped himself up, and met Gregor's solemn gaze. 

"Let's keep going. We can't waste too much time."

They took some cautious steps, and reached the other edge of the roof.

'Now, the hard part. The assassinations.'

Gregor, who picked up a few items along the way, stopped as he glanced down the alley. "Wait."

The elf placed his hand on a broken dagger's handle and closed his eyes. Soon enough, a creamy, milk-like energy wrapped itself around the instrument.

It glowed strangely. A cold feeling invaded Randall's body, persisting throughout the entire process.

The energy disappeared, leaving behind a smaller, yet unbroken knife made purely of ice. Then, he repeated the same process with a stick. "Not the best materials, but it'll have to do," muttered the elf.

He gave Randall the first ice knife. "Fling it towards a stranger, it'll do the rest."

"Anyway, countdown. On one, you attack the two brown wolves, and I'll go for the big wolf and its partners. Got it?"

Randall nodded, put the ice weapon between his teeth and manifested the rapier and chain blade from earlier.

"Three… Two… One."

The human and the elf jumped down. Three of the monsters looked up, one due to sheer luck. As for the other two, they did it because they spotted two irregular shadows.

Both of them landed on top of one of their targets. Randall stabbed the wolf's head with its rapier, killing it instantly, while Gregor threw one of his daggers towards another monster and crushed the head of the one he had landed on at the same time.

With three down, they quickly jumped their next targets, but alas…

There weren't just five wolves in the alley.

A sixth wolf had been lying down on the floor, hidden from sight. 

Randall flung the chain dagger towards one of the few living ones, and snapped his fingers.

The world lost most, but not all, of its colors, and everyone's movements slowed down. 

Slowly, but a tad faster than earlier, he gently spat out the ice knife and caught it with his now free hand.

And flung it as fast as his body could towards the hidden wolf's eyes, only for the struggle of snapping his fingers to come again. 

'This is such a pai- shit, time's up.'

The world regained its colors, and he jumped towards the other remaining monster. 

With the world back to normal, the elf finished off the wolf he had targeted.

The last remaining wolf's eyes widened, as it tried to howl to warn the others, but a stab to the face interrupted that.

"And, that's that," muttered Gregor, as he picked up his two daggers.

They headed to the team's location,

and passed by the monsters on the street. Blood stained the bodies and mouths of those hungry beasts, while a few utterly defiled human corpses littered the soil. Not a single one remained intact.

Randall clenched his fist, and ignored them.

Both assassins returned, and found everything as they had left it. Except for one detail.

One of the scouts had returned, and informed them of the presence of a few Rank 3 monsters, and a corrupted one.

"So… Is it safe to assume the demons are behind this?" Muttered one of the human knights.

"Not exactly. Even though demons are indeed known for causing monsters to fall into corruption, we must not forget that it can also happen whenever a pure monster absorbs too much Mana," replied Natasha, one of the elven archers.

They remained deep in thought, until Jean spoke up.

"At least three Rank 3 monsters are coming. I can feel their energy closing in."

Everyone had different reactions. A few were calm, but others were somewhat afraid.

"Alright, Jean, let's go."

Jean looked at him, bewildered, while one of the elves almost yelled at him. "Are you going to fight them or what?!"

"Oh no, I'm just going to have a friendly and civilized debate with them on the current state of modern society and its ever growing complexities and intricacies," Randall calmly stated.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Are you stupid?" was the only phrase Jean muttered.

"No, I'm a genius," replied Randall, with a confident smirk on his face. 

No one else uttered a single word, let alone a sentence. Lest their neurons would be slaughtered by the Elven Princess' long lost brother.

"Anyway, Jean, follow me. The rest of you, wait for half a minute and head out the fastest way to the horses."

William rose and questioned Randall, but the latter manifested his Ego and uttered something in a threatening tone.

"Just do as I say. Otherwise, this whole charade is doomed."

With that, Randall dragged the still stunned Jean out of the room, and patted her on the back.