On The Wings of Death [II]

"Kill them all!" Seeing that they had been discovered, Myrgath, leader of the bear clan, shouted, and at the same time, leaped in the direction of the Birch village, just behind Daghr, the Secondborn of the dreaddragons.

The athons who were on the ground, after hearing Myrgath's order, roared from different directions and rushed towards the Birch village.

One of the bronze-level athons, Yakha, took the lead. Although he could perform partial transformation into human form, because of his low power base, he was grouped among the inferior athons. But this time around, he was here to prove himself worthy of higher status.

Approching the human village, he saw more than a dozen humans, shouting and running towards him. He couldn't believe his luck. So he roared in delight, and ran straight to meet them.

He knew that the earth magic of the bearkind was powerful enough to strike down a good number of the humans. One after another, he raised earth walls, pushing back the humans, while his earth-spears ruthlessly ravaged the lives of the people in front of him.

A few seconds later, Yakha saw that more than half of the humans had stopped their attempt to approach him, and were aiming their bows at him.

The dread wondered what these humans were trying to prove, aiming arrows at him. Some sort of confidence? He suddenly realized that they had to be up to something. So, he began to slow down.

But before he could realize what was happening, five arrows had pierced his body, flinging him backward and he stopped breathing.

The swooshing sound of the arrows continued to come from all directions, mixed with the painful roars of the athons and the cries of the humans.

The power of the bows was exceptional, but they were only effective against dreads below the silver-level. For the Athons above the bronze-level, apart from causing them minor pains and injuries, most of them could only be itchy best.

What was this weapon of the humans? Daghr snorted. As a higher-level dragon, he had already achieved full human transformation. He floated into the mid-air and followed the movements of the humans who were firing the deadly arrows which kept killing his own kind.

These humans must be completely destroyed.

Looking down at the raging battlefield beneath him, Daghr snorted coldly. How could the humans develop such a weapon?

If these weapons spread among the human race, it would be greatly detrimental to the survival of his antherion race. Sincr he came across it today, he must kill all of them, and destroy these weapons.

Then, he suddenly remembered something, and looked around. Earlier, he remembered seeing an essence master among the humans, swooping down from the sky. But right now, there was no trace of him. So, he quickly fused his essence into his awareness, and spread it across the vast area.

Every fleeing human was examined with his advance dragon sight. Even the animals hiding in the dark borrows of the forest didn't escape him. Still, he couldn't find any traces of the human refiner, and no essence fluctuations.

Where was he? Daghr gritted his teeth with hatred. As soon as he looked up, he saw Myrgath commanding the battleforce not far away. "Myrgath."

"Yes, Secondborn." Myrgath, suspending himself in the midair through a flight artifact, floated over immediately after hearing his name.

"Something is different, don't you think?"

"Yes, the bows. They're more powerful than before. But they have no chance against us." Myrgath said proudly, but when he saw the gloomy look on Daghr's face, he swiftly wiped the smile off his face. "Is there something wrong, Secondborn?"

"Can't you see it, Myrgath?" After pondering for a time, Daghr answered. "Since the battle started, the mage has vanished. Don't you find that strange?"

"Yes, it does look strange." As if he just woke up from a dream, Myrgath immediately turned around and swept his gaze through the battlefield below. "But how do you know he's a mage?"

"I can smell his essence in the air." Daghr uttered thoughtfully. "We need to split our attention."

"That sounds great."

"You take some dreads with you and go that way, I'll take some with me and take the other direction." After that, Daghr pointed to one side of the forest edge and continued, "Go now, and don't let any of them escape."

"Okay." Myrgath said, then quickly asked. "What about the dry plain outside the forest, do we need to send some dreads there?"

"There's no need for that." Daghr glanced at the periphery of the forest and said. "There's only grassland there. No hiding place at all. They won't be stupid enough to pass through where they would be easily seen."

"That's true." The leader of the dread-bears dropped down to a low altitude and said to the five athons nearby. "The five of you, come with me."

After watching them leave, Daghr flew into the air, and headed in a particular direction with three Athons.

Kiara took hold of her son and continued running towards the far forest with the rest of the tribe. They didn't dare to run to the grassland since the place had a lot of open spaces.

Unless they escaped across the plains to other side in a blink of an eye, they couldn't think of not being discovered by the Athons.

At this time, anyone that wasn't with them had been confirmed dead by Wynter. They wondered why the dreads were relentlessly after them, but they had no time to ruminate on it.

It was a good thing that the village Shaman had learned about the attack beforehand, giving the clansmen the chance to flee.

As soon as the group entered the far woods, they heard shouts from humans and Athons being killed behind them. Yhe swooshing sound of flying arrows and the shaking of the earth caused by earth magic, continued to reach their ears.

Because they were not too far ahead of the Athons, Wynter did not dare to use his essence power. He feared that the fluctuations of his essence would attract the attention of the more powerful dreads.

So, with the company of his family and the dozen or so young clansmen who escaped together with them, Kai continued to flee with his heart filled with pain.

Although he couldn't use his power, Wynter was able to use his true perception to pay attention to the movement of the athons around them, and give them the direction of their escape route. But after a distance of more than ten miles in a short time, the clansmen were already exhausted and were panting.

Wynter couldn't see it, but he could sense four powerful forces rapidly approaching them from the distance. Among them were the three bronze-level Athons who would be easily dealt with. But the fourth one?

The Soulsmith could feel the power of the dragonborn through the feedback of his divine sense. He knew the dragonborn had reached the Platinum-level in power base, and could completely take a human form without need for any sustenance.

Wynter himself was only a gold mage. So he knew he couldn't face Daghr's terrifying level, which was as strong as a Titanium mage, at this moment. Therefore, he immediately urged everybody to run as fast as they could.

Kai looked back at his clansmen with furrowed brows. "The dreads are now gaining on us. For most of you to have the best chances of surviving, we have to run away separately from now on."

"Okay, chieftain, but you have to go first."

"Don't worry about us, we'll find our way off this woods afterwards."

"You have to survive for the sake of our tribe, chieftain."

"May the gods be with you all." Kai looked at his clansmen. All of them were already tired and sweating profusely. In normal conditions, running ten miles was nothing to these clansmen, but today was different.

The sudden attack had affected them mentally. No matter how good their physical strength was, it wouldn't hold for long. After all, most of the villagers were ordinary humans with no essence power to rely on.

"Chieftain." Wynter looked at the Birch tribe's leader and said. "We can't delay any longer. The dreads will be here before long. I think everyone should choose a direction and run for it. Anyone that can't run should find a secret place to hide, and pray to the gods."

"Yes, you're right." Kai nodded in agreement. "Let's get going."

Wynter turned his head and said to Kiara. "Kiara, you go with the chieftain and your son, while I go with Shesara. We'll only use our body strength to carry them in leap-runs, no flight spells or artifacts that can attract their attention. That way, they'll stop pursuing the villagers."

Kai was initially reluctant to give up his clan, but because he had suffered two clan annihilations in his lifetime, he knew Wynter was right. After escaping from the last attack on his tribe, with only a little more a dozen people, how could he be willing to put them at the mercy of the Athons again?

Kai couldn't bring himself to do something as such, but when Wynter said that using essence power to attract the attention of the Athons might save the other tribesmen, Kai nodded in agreement.

This was also where Wynter was smart. He knew too much about his upright character.

After everyone agreed on the meeting place, they quickly dispersed.