Harem Regressor: I'll Save Them This Time-Chapter 31: Ch : Shadows.

"A monogem Champion, a spellblade, and a camp full of bandits.

August’s decision to charge out and capture Sen as swiftly as possible looked more and more foolish with each passing second."

A monogem Champion, a spellblade, and a camp full of bandits.

August’s decision to charge out and capture Sen as swiftly as possible looked more and more foolish with each passing second.

The storm hadn’t passed, and visibility was terrible. Even the magic in August’s eyes barely let him see the center of the camp. He didn’t know how good Fei’s or Vera’s vision was in the mist.

He waved Vera back from the lip of the hill from where they had been overlooking the camp.

It took several seconds before she spotted his gesture, but she followed him back.

"What’s wrong?" she asked after they dismounted, leaning in close to him.

"There’s a Champion down there," he said.

Vera froze, her eyes widening.

"Onyx gem, black hair," August continued. "Only a monogem. I can handle her, but I’ll need the two of you to handle the rest of the camp."

Vera unfroze, but looked uncertain. Huddled in his cloak and pressed against his chest, Fei looked up at August.

"I’m your Champion," Fei protested. "I should be protecting you."

His hand clumped up in her wet hair when he tried to pat her head and she shook him off, sending water flying everywhere and demonstrating how sodden her tail was.

She scowled at him.

"I can use the binding stone to support my sorcery," August said, drawing his sword. "A monogem Champion will tear you apart.

Either of you. But the spellblade will be weakened.

I’ll provide some summons to support you, but the plan of attack is simple: we blast apart the camp, scatter the bandits, then focus on the Champion and spellblade. I want to capture them alive."

"Alive? How?" Vera said.

"Earth prisons, shackles, dogpile them with summons. I don’t care. I need to know what the Federation is up to," August said, lying about his reason for capturing them.

"You can’t deny that they’re behind the destabilization of the leylines anymore, and if there is a Champion here, then that means a Bastion is involved."

And if a Bastion was involved, that likely meant that the Federation was intentionally trying to start a demonic invasion in the Empire.

Had August uncovered the truth behind the fall of the Anfang Empire, and, consequently, the rest of the world? That the Federation had been willing to unleash demons on the Empire for the sake of their own expansion plans?

He pushed the dark thoughts aside.

Whether they were true or not, he didn’t have time to deal with the consequences and what they meant for his long-term plans.

"Fei, I need you to support Vera," August told his beastkin Champion. Her ears pricked up when he said her name.

Droplets of water scattered from her fur and splattered onto his chest. She nodded at him in acknowledgement.

With directions given, the three of them split up.

Fei slunk over the hill and into the valley, Vera right on her heels.

The rain bucketed down harder than earlier. August could only see the shadows of the bandit camp now, and their shouting was barely audible.

The bubble in the center of camp stood out like a sore thumb, however. It crackled and glowed in the distance, marking the center of the camp.

August reached out toward the binding stone. It felt distant, as it should.

The leyline was directly beneath him, and the cairn brought even more magic to the surface.

He didn’t dare approach the cairn, however. If Sen had claimed the cairn for herself, then she could sense another sorcerer trying to use it.

The binding stone didn’t have as much power as August would have liked, but it would suffice.

If we wanted to defeat a monogem Champion, August would need a constant flow of power from the binding stone. Hopefully, its meager reserve would be enough.

The storm had caused him to lose sight of Fei and Vera, so August checked on Fei’s relative location with magic.

She was close to the bandit camp. That meant the duo would attack shortly.

Go time.

Using a big bundle of power from the binding stone, August summoned a half-dozen armored soldiers at once.

They were slimmer than the armored knights Vera used. Their armor comprised a bronze breastplate, gauntlets, greaves, armored skirt, and helmet.

Each soldier wielded a round shield the size of their body and a long spear. No flesh resided within the armored husks.

August hadn’t developed these summons himself. They were a popular summon used in the western nations, such as Falmir and the Empire.

Supposedly, soldiers had once worn armor like this millennia ago, back when the Watcher Omria walked among humanity.

They had been known as hoplites.

The bubble in the center of the camp vanished.

August heard Sen screaming at the bandits, but he wondered if the bandits heard her.

The storm was ferocious. The roar of the wind might have buried her orders to the bandits.

Sen had sensed the summoning. That was why August had waited.

Powerful magic stuck out, and August had done the equivalent to slapping his dick on the table while screaming nationalist slogans.

With a mental order, August sent the hoplites into the camp, with orders to kill any bandit they ran into, dogpile Sen if they found her, and avoid Sunstorm.

Then August pointed toward the far side of the valley and vaporized a sizeable chunk of the hillside.

The roar of the storm was drowned out by the rumbling of falling trees and rocks. Countless tons of rock and soil poured down into the valley, and whole pine trees tumbled down with it.

Although August couldn’t see them, he heard the panicked screams of bandits as the other side of their camp was taken out by the landslide.

The ground itself seemed to groan and begin falling in on itself to fill the gap that August had made. More trees toppled over and made the situation worse.

Something began flying across the bandit camp.

A tornado full of logs, tents, and bandits hurtled across the camp for several seconds before vanishing as quickly as it appeared, sending everything hurtling toward the ground.

August didn’t watch the aftermath. It was bound to be gruesome.

He ran down into the valley.

The bandits weren’t putting up any real fight. Between the landslides, the storm, and the bombardment of sorcery, they were terrified.

Dozens of them fled their own camp, carrying whatever they had on them.

Blasts of light punched holes through the remaining buildings, and through any bandits foolish enough to be in the way.

Vera calmly strode down the hill, her arms outstretched and white triangles spinning in front of her palms. She blew blast after blast of magic into the camp.

Farther down the valley, Fei scythed through the few bandits foolish enough to fight back. Her footwork was as swift as earlier, but her blade was slower.

She no longer targeted limbs and instead went straight for the torso. Her scimitar gleamed crimson. Sparks showered and blood flowed as she cut through steel, flesh, and bone alike.

A single slash was enough to bisect a man now, no matter what armor he wore.

August couldn’t see Sen or Sunstorm. Then he felt Sen. Or her power, more accurately. The light of the cairn glowed ominously, and magic built up in the area.

Cursing, August realized that Sunstorm might have ran away. Or perhaps she was waiting for a better opportunity. Her gem was perfect for stealth, after all.

As such, August focused his efforts on Sen.

He pointed his sword where the surge of power was coming from and unleashed a triangle blast of force.

The hut blocking his view transformed into sawdust, and a massive puff of shadow exploded into the air.

August saw Sen and Sunstorm standing next to each other for a moment, a glowing red hexagon around Sen’s greatsword.

Then that mass of shadow consumed the cairn, Sen, Sunstorm, and the entire center of the camp.

The darkness was too dense to see through, and even Vera’s blasts of light had no effect.

Sunstorm hadn’t run away. This shadow was part of her gem’s ability. She controlled it.

Her name was deeply misleading. Sunstorm had always complained about her gem’s ability.

August scattered half of his hoplites to take care of the fleeing bandits, then called the rest toward the shadow.

The bronze automatons hovered at the edge of the dark mass, shields raised and spears at the ready.

A lull fell over the battlefield. The roar of the wind picked up. Rain pelted August’s face and chilled his body to the bone.

The shadow lingered.

Somebody had to break the stalemate.

August sheathed his sword and drew on magic from his binding stone.