Roland looked at the Flux direction and pointed out. "It is coming."

"I know." Lynn said with a hump, lifting up her hand.

She compressed the space in front of her, building a solid impenetrable wall with a wave of her hand. The arrow collided against the wall and created a loud boom.

Eli looked at the battle with a frown. He didn’t have any intention of entering a fight. He already decided his role in this place. An observer.

The strange energy of the arrow gushed out from the tip, warping around the compressed space wall. It consumed, breaking, returning every bit of the wall into the origin state.

Lynn stared at the arrow with interest and slapped away with her invisible hand. But as soon as her hand connected with the arrow, the same phenomenon happened.

The witch frowned and dodged to the side, letting the arrow pass her.

Eli smiled as he saw the arrow coming at him. He extended his hand and grabbed the arrow without exerting any effort from his part. He looked down at the arrow in his hand and nodded in understanding.

"Divinity." He said.

"Worthy of the title the strongest elf. Indeed, it is the divinity crafted into the arrow. To be precise, it is the divinity from the Church of War." Flux said.

"Connection with Tolstoy?" Roland asked, recalling the civil war going on in the Tolstoy Empire.

"My connection remains with me." Flux said, drawing upon another arrow from his pocket. "And deal with it."

He fired another one.

Roland intercepted from the side, slashing at the arrow in half. He bypassed the divinity without any problem.

The knight looked down at his arm and smiled. "I can tell the energy is pure. No wonder, it is used to heal."

"The best use of the divinity is dealing with the gift user." Flux said. "Like the legend, the church hunts down the witch."

"No chance." Lynn said and attacked with full force. She compressed her breath and fired like an arrow.

The same shadow came up and absorbed the air again. Lynn crouched down and picked up a small peddle. She then threw it using her gift.

This time, Flux dodged to the side, not even bothering to use his shadow.

Roland arrived to his side with his footwork and swung his sword.

Flux spun around, blocked with his bow and kicked the air to jump higher, trying to free from the knight pursuit.

"I won’t let it happen." Roland said with a smile and swung down his sword, creating an arc of air slash.

The slash travelled and in the same manner as Lynn’s attack, it was absorbed by the shadow.

Ronald squinted his eyes and landed on the ground, guiding the wind on his feet to soften. The shadow was somewhat of a problem. He didn’t know much of the ability behind the shadow. He didn’t sense mana or energy behind the shadow.

And Flux seemed to be a martial artist. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Roland frowned. He had revealed his three cards. Energy absorption, Wind Flow Footwork and Air slash.

Flux must have some kind of technique related to bow, considering his proficiency with it. Roland sighed, controlling his energy to calm down. He was still climbing up to the fifth circle.

He couldn’t lose control.

Flux stared at the knight and said.

"I will pay you what you wish for. Can you stop attacking us?"

Roland thought for a moment and shook his head. "Your goal is to destroy the tears. I can’t allow that."

"Alright then, come out." Flux yelled.

The shadow on his feet widened.

Roland dodged the shadow and backed away, firing the air slash at the ground to gauge. Heads came out from the shadow, slowly revealing people hidden in the shadow.

They were Flux’s group.

Roland remembered seeing them when he visited the Pinky finger. There were around 8 people all wearing the same black uniform like Flux.

Flux didn’t look back and left, leaving a word to his group.

"Hold him. But you can use deadly force. Just don’t die."

"Yes sir." The woman in the front replied, taking out her weapon. It was a spear coated with energy.

"Stop." She said, pointing the tip at Roland.

Roland complied with her and observed the surrounding eyes. All of them were 3 circles and the leading woman was the only 4 circles.

’It is going to be hard to break through without killing them.’ he thought with a soft smile.

Roland dashed forward, swinging his sword to the nearby elf.

***

Luna circled around the campsite, thinking about moving forward. She looked at the center and saw the battle taking place.

Roland took the attacks of the eight people alone with his sword. And he was winning.

It was nice and all but he was wasting all his energy on useless stuff like this. He should be facing the beast tide. Luna let out a frustrated yell.

"When is Geon going to come back?"

"I can take you to the center." The dark elf from the side responded, looking in the same direction at her.

"What about them?" Luna said, pointing at Old Gin and Isvendar.

"I will come back."

"Then, it is impossible." Luna shook her head.

"Why? You say you want to escape from the beast tide and your actions are the opposite." The dark elf said.

Luna didn’t say and pointed her finger at the sky. The dark elf followed, his eyes staring at the cloud. He caught a glimpse of dark spots roaming in the sky.

"Beast." He muttered.

"They have been eyeing us for a while now." Luna revealed with a frown. Her mana detection was weak at first but Silas trained her a lot.

Now, she could effectively sense someone looking at her.

"I think there is an intelligent beast hiding in that tide. So it will be a bad idea to leave the high ground and go there." Luna continued, explaining her reason.

The dark elf frowned, thinking about the tactics. He then shook his head in a defeated manner. He looked at Luna and asked.

"You seem like you are adapted to planning."

"I just got an extra lesson from my teacher." Luna said, still looking at the sky.

"Then, you are the most fit person here to lead."

Luna turned and looked at the dark elf.

The elf nodded and took off the plain ring from his finger and gave it to Luna. "My name is Voren. I led the second squad of the Flux’s Mist mercenaries. I am giving you the temporary position of the leader of the second squad. Take my men and plan for the way out against this beast tide."

Luna looked down at the ring, feeling vexed for unknown reasons. She didn’t want to be burdened with leadership. She had seen how that affected her teacher, Silas. And she wanted none of that.

It might sound uninspiring to the child and adult alike but she was happy as a follower.