Advent of the Archmage

Golden Plains.

Felina was originally focused on searching for Elodim and neglected her surroundings. Upon Link’s words, she immediately turned her attention towards the town of the Beastman.

The dragon race had much better vision than humans. Felina’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the scene.

"What happened?" Link asked.

Felina then started circling the air as she said in an incredulous tone, "I saw Todelron! He saw me too!"

Todelron?

Link seemed to have remembered something from the distant past. Wasn’t Todelron the Red Dragon Warrior that died in the High Elves Tomb? How could he have revived himself?

Everyone present clearly caught the fragrance of barbecued meat when he was getting electrified. If he could still live after those merciless attacks, his vitality would be insane.

"Are you sure he is alive and not an Undead Warrior?" Link had not seen such tactics before, even in the game. There had been many instances where souls would possess another body to revive themselves, but never one where a full and complete revival was done.

Felina said in an affirming tone, "He is not an undead. He is alive! As alive as how we saw him last time. If not for the fact that I recognized him, I would have thought that I had the wrong person!"

From afar, Link could only see that the town was going up in flames. However, he could not see the details of the incident. He then cast an Eagle Eye’s spell on himself.

With the help of the spell, he could see that the town was already immersed in a sea of fire. The architecture within the town was built from the bones of beasts and covered in beast hide. It looked similar to a Mongolian yurt. They seemed to be splashed with oil to help with the combustion, causing the fire to burn fiercely.

Outside of the small town, over two thousand ordinary Beastman were surrounded by Todelron and his over 300 berserk Beastman underlings.

In fact, these Beastmen looked extremely similar to humans. They only had a slightly darker skin tone and had a larger physique, though they were still largely human-shaped. The only stark difference was the four sharp beast fangs that they possessed.

Link could see that amongst the Beastman surrounded, more than half of them were elderly and children. There were even a few unlucky humans.

The humans seemed to be protected by the Beastman. They were in the very center of the circle. There were five of them, four of which were mercenaries while the last one was probably a merchant. They huddled amongst the crowd with a pale expression on their faces.

At that moment, Todelron was commanding the berserk Beastman to pull the strong and healthy Beastman out from the crowd, separating them from the children and elderly.

None of them knew what awaited them. They kept silent and merely stared at the huge dragon in fear.

A young child was just about to wail loudly when her mother clasped her mouth swiftly. A young boy was huddling in his grandmother’s embrace, only revealing his pair of small and innocent dark eyes. He was still too young to know fear. He was merely curious about what was happening.

"Todelron is choosing his Warriors. The children and women are of no use to him. He has also burned down the entire town...I’m afraid he will kill off all the people he deems useless."

If he was not going to exterminate them, there was no reason to burn off all that they had. He was obviously not planning to leave anyone alive.

These Beastmen showed no resistance at all. The reason was simple. They were too weak.

The Beastman were, on average, only around Level-2 in strength. The strongest one was Level-5 in strength, though the berserk Beastman surrounding them were mostly Level-5 in strength as well. The strongest berserk Beastman was Level-7. Todelron seemed to have achieved a breakthrough as well, reaching Level-8.

Link frowned as he observed this scene. He could feel the mana concentration of Firuman increasing, resulting in the birth of more powerful individuals.

Although Felina did not wish to believe that someone of her race would be so ruthless, the situation was dire. She whispered, "What do we do now? Should we try to save them?"

Link nodded as he said, "Since we have already met them, we have to interfere! Although we cannot simply barge in... let’s leave them first."

"Leave?" Felina was unable to keep up with Link’s thoughts, though she obeyed Link’s command immediately and started flying in the opposite direction.

On the side of the small town. Todelron had also discovered Link and company; he even recognized that red dragon. He seemed to have spotted a tiny figure on top of it, though he could not make out the exact features.

He had been keeping tabs on them ever since they appeared. Now that they had gone in the opposite direction, he felt slightly relieved.

"Accelerate!" He bellowed. He walked on the outer perimeter of the encircled Beastman as the loud rumble of his footsteps echoed through the area.

The actions of the Beastman suddenly became extremely ruthless. One young Beastman was unwilling to leave his family, grabbing the hands of his pregnant wife and parents as he wept.

"Scram!" A ferocious berserk Beastman shouted as he kicked the wife with full force. This blow landed on the abdomen, which caused her to curl up in pain as she lay helplessly on the ground with her hands around her unborn child.

"No! I will not let you get away with that!" The young Beastmen growled in rage as he charged towards the berserk Beastman.

The berserk Beastman then unsheathed his sword and plunged it into the young Beastman’s chest without hesitation. Three seconds later, he then pulled out the sword as he chuckled, "Those who rebel, will die!"

This sent shivers down the spine of the Beastman present.

In the center of the Beastman, Masos looked around with a pale expression. He was a merchant who had traveled far and wide. This situation was not exactly the most optimistic one.

"They will probably start killing people afterward. You guys should run if you can, don’t bother about me," he told the few mercenaries beside him. Along the way, they had done well fending against the ordinary bandits. However, they were definitely no match for a dragon. It seemed like the God of Light was summoning him back to the heavens.

The four mercenaries smiled bitterly at one another. If they could escape, they would have already done so.

"I am seriously unlucky. The Dark Elves are in the North, and I thought the Golden Plains would be a safe place. To think I would meet a goddamn dragon!" A mercenary swore to relieve the fear in his heart.

The female mercenary then said, "We might not be dead. There are so many of them. We can simply fake our deaths later on. We are not important to those berserk Beastmen."

"Faking death? Alright then, let’s see which of us has better luck."

On the other side.

After flying for around a mile, Link looked behind him and realized that Todelron was no longer concerned with them. He then cast a Traceless spell, causing the three of them to disappear in mid-air.

"Alright, we will descend and go back in. We must be quick," Link said. They could, of course, fly back in, but Link believed that Todelron would definitely use those Beastmen as hostages. They would then be harming them instead of saving their lives.

"I understand." Felina then flew towards the ground and landed after ten seconds.

"Nana, you will sneak up on them and delay their actions while attracting their attention," Link commanded.

They were still around six miles away from their opponents. If they were to travel at their current speed, it would be too late by the time they reached the scene.

"I know, relax," Nana’s voice is crisp and even warm. She sounded no different from a normal human. Following which, she bolted off and disappeared.

"Let’s go. When we reach there, you will fight while I will protect the Beastman," Link said.

"I understand," Felina took a deep breath as she said.

Nana’s speed was not compromised by her bodily changes. Link estimated that her top speed should be at 2300 feet per second, only a bit slower than her previous 2400 feet per second.

At such speed, she would only take ten seconds to cover a distance of six miles.

...

Outside the small town.

Todelron and the berserk Beastmen seemed to have not felt the incoming threat. Just when they were getting bust, a berserk Beastman suddenly pointed to a plain some distance away and said, "Hey, why is the sandstorm so intense today?"

His compatriots then looked in that direction. Sure enough, on the distant plain, a huge sandstorm was approaching them at an unimaginable speed. It was terrifying to watch.

The only person who knew what was going on was Todelron. He was the only one who saw the blurry figure charging in front of the sandstorm.

"Who could be this fast?" He was confused for a moment. He then gave up on his bulky dragon form and turned back into his agiler human form.

Three seconds later, he became a Red Dragon Warrior as he unsheathed his Dragonfang Sword.

"Caution; defend!"

He shouted. Although this person looked intimidating, they were alone. He believed that with the help of the berserk Beastman, it would be an easy victory.

The sandstorm quickly closed in and came to a distance of 300 feet away from them swiftly before coming to an abrupt stop. A beautiful young girl with a ponytail clad in brown leather armor appeared in front of their eyes.

Hm? A young girl? Todelron was even more confused. Although Nana appeared in the High Elves Tomb, he was on the verge of death at that time. He even suffered the damage of a Level-9 spell which caused him to lose consciousness. It was natural for him to not have any recollection of Nana.

Nana walked forward as she smiled, saying, "Todelron, I don’t have any other motives today. I have heard about your perfect swordsmanship and was just thinking if you would like to battle?"

Although there were people on the streets who would indeed issue a challenge so flippantly, Todelron was clear that he did not have much of a reputation. His swordsmanship was definitely strong, but he had stayed in the Dragon Valley his entire life. Why would anyone outside of Dragon Valley hear about his name?

She was definitely up to something.

"Scram. I am not free," Todelron was still clinging on to the last ray of hope as he did not wish to be engaged in a battle. He merely wished to settle his mission swiftly and smoothly.

The duke was already unhappy with him for the failure of his previous mission. He had to make sure this one was executed perfectly.

"That will not do. I have to challenge you today. Are you afraid?" Nana’s voice was just like a small little girl. If not for her flashy debut, one would have thought that she was simply a girl-next-door who was out for grocery shopping.

Todelron was immediately reminded of something as a terrible premonition struck him. He recognized that red dragon who was flying towards him just now. She was Felina! Judging from her character, she would never be able to ignore this violent and immoral scene.

Todelron was horrified at the thought and immediately bellowed, "Defend! It is a sneak attack!"

But he was too late!