Chapter 112: Vanishing
The convoy continued running through the canyon, everyone breathing heavily now. The newly evolved Riders helped transport injured Goblins while the Hunters kept fighting off whatever closed in from the sides.
Suddenly a loud screech echoed across the canyon, and everyone instinctively looked up. High above, dozens of massive Thunderbirds began circling, lightning crackling across their wings.
The moment the Su Tribe saw them, they froze. One Gatherer whispered, "Thunderbirds," her voice barely audible.
Another gripped their spear so tightly their hands shook.
A young Su Goblin trembled. "Them again," he said,
Luka clenched her fists. "Not this time," she said.
Raku immediately shouted, "Keep moving! We don’t stop!"
One by one, the Su Tribe forced themselves to look away from the sky. Fear slowly turned into determination.
One Thunderbird suddenly folded its wings.
It dove.
Straight toward the Su Tribe. Several younger Goblins instinctively flinched but then Luka immediately stepped in front of them. "Look at me."
The frightened Goblins did.
She pointed toward the sky. "What do you see?"
One Goblin swallowed. "...Thunderbirds."
Luka shook her head. "No." She pointed again. "They are just targets."
"T-Targets?"
"Yes, after all. Do you believe they can harm you guys now?"
The young Goblin blinked before looking around.
He watched Arthur’s group running and them easily beating back beasts coming at them. He watched the Riders protecting everyone and not stepping back in fear. He watched the Hunters refusing to slow down.
Finally he looked back at Luka. "No... They can’t. They are just target for us."
Luka smiled. "That’s better."
The entire Su Tribe tightened their grips on their weapons and focused on moving forward.
Arthur noticed and smiled quietly to himself. They weren’t running from their past anymore but were running through it.
The monsters attacked from everywhere now. Not just behind them but from the side, cliffs, and even the sky itself. The canyon had become a killing ground.
Stone Apes smashed rocks loose from the walls.
Crystal Serpents spat spikes of jagged crystal.
Razor Wolves leaped from ledge to ledge.
Fire Lizards sprayed flame across the path. Thunderbirds dove from above.
The convoy kept moving through all of it.
The pace was becoming too much for some. A Yan Hunter took a falling rock across his leg, and it broke instantly, sending him crashing down.
Vedas slid beside him without stopping. He grabbed the Hunter by the back of his armor and threw him onto a nearby Rider. "Keep moving!" he shouted.
The Rider caught him and kept running.
Seconds later, another Hunter took a crystal spike through his shoulder and stumbled. Vedas grabbed him too. "Next!" he called, and another Rider caught him without breaking stride.
Everyone kept moving.
A Razor Wolf suddenly slipped through the front line. It sprinted straight toward the center of the convoy.
A Goblin child froze.
The Wolf leaped.
Before it could land—
A newly evolved Blazefang Rider crashed into it from the side. Both monsters rolled across the ground. The young Rider stabbed downward again and again until the Wolf stopped moving.
He breathed heavily because it was his first real battle.
The Goblin child stared at him. "...Thank you."
The Rider smiled. "Protecting everyone is my job now."
Before anyone could celebrate—
Another screech echoed overhead. Everyone looked up to see the Thunderbirds had stopped flying.
Athena looked up. "Arthur," she said. "They’re charging."
Blue lightning began gathering above them.
One bird.
Five.
Ten.
Twenty had gathered before the entire sky turned blue.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "STOP!" he shouted.
Everyone immediately halted.
Arthur thrust one hand upward.
[Guardian Shield]
A massive golden dome expanded outward, spreading over the entire clearing, covering everyone gathered there.
Then, boooooooom.
A sea of lightning crashed downward, dozens of bolts, the entire canyon disappearing beneath a wall of blue light.
Stone exploded.
Trees vaporized.
The Lions retreated and Stone Apes hid. Even the other monsters refused to move, unwilling to enter the lightning storm.
Inside the dome, everyone could only hear thunder.
The dome groaned with cracks forming and they continued spreading.
Another bolt struck.
BOOOOOM!
The entire dome shook violently.
Several Goblins lost their footing.
Children covered their ears as thunder echoed endlessly around them.
Another bolt and then another.
Cracks spread faster across the golden barrier while Arthur’s arm trembled harder. His boots slowly sank into the ground beneath the pressure.
One Builder stared upward. "...It’s breaking."
Another immediately shook his head. "No. Our Prophet is holding it!"
Arthur gritted his teeth. "...Just a little longer."
A final wave of lightning crashed down.
The cracks stopped spreading. And soon he felt the pressure fade away as bolts stopped raining down and silence descended.
Arthur dropped the dome, and smoke rose everywhere around them.
He smiled. "Move!" he shouted.
The convoy immediately resumed running. Arthur reached toward the King’s Mark, and golden light gathered around his hand.
"Guardian Skill. King Mu."
A radiant spear formed above him. He spun once and threw it. Boooooom. The spear tore through the air, striking one Thunderbird, then a second, a third, a fourth, each one exploding on impact.
The remaining Thunderbirds immediately scattered.
Not because they wanted to but because instinct forced them to. They had just watched four of their own disappear in a single attack.
Their perfect formation collapsed as several climbed higher into the sky. Others hesitated before diving again.
For the first time the Thunderbirds looked uncertain.
Luka watched them. "...They’re afraid."
Mara smiled. "They finally know how we felt."
The Su Tribe stared upward, then cheered. For the first time, they had watched Thunderbirds fall instead of Goblins.
Luka whispered, "Guardian Voro. Did you see that?"
The Lions stopped chasing. Instead, twenty of them spread into formation, mouths opening as flames gathered inside.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "Together," he said.
Vedas instantly understood, and both of them sprinted forward, spears glowing.
"Magic Burst."
Mana exploded around both weapons. The Lions fired, twenty massive streams of fire merging into one gigantic torrent racing toward the convoy. Arthur and Vedas threw their spears into the inferno, and the explosions slowed it, but not enough. The flames kept pushing forward.
Arthur and Vedas didn’t stop. They sprinted directly past their own spears, and golden light erupted around them both.
"Command Authority."
The nearest Lions froze in place.
Arthur shouted, "Turn!"
Vedas immediately followed. "Toward each other!"
Several Lions obeyed instinctively, and the flame streams suddenly changed direction. Instead of hitting the convoy, the Lions burned one another, fire crashing into fire, explosions consuming that section of the battlefield.
Arthur caught Dusk out of the air.
Vedas caught his own spear the same way.
Neither broke stride.
Behind them, flames continued exploding where the Lions had burned one another. Several surviving Lions slowly climbed back to their feet. They looked toward Arthur and then toward Vedas.
Neither side moved.
For one brief moment the beasts simply watched them run. Then another roar echoed as the chase resumed.
The convoy never stopped moving.
The Thunderbirds shrieked again, and four of them gathered together, blue light condensing between their wings.
Athena looked up. "They’re aiming," she said.
Not at Arthur. Not at Vedas.
The children. The center of the convoy.
A gigantic pillar of lightning began descending.
Vedas turned, his eyes widening. "NO!"
Arthur didn’t even look. "Trust our friends," he said calmly.
Athena stepped forward and planted Aegis into the ground, raising the shield above her head. The children looked up as lightning fell.
Craaaaaash!
For a second everything disappeared into blinding light.
Then the beam changed direction.
Aegis redirected the lightning, sending it slamming into the canyon wall instead. Half the cliff face exploded outward and then it continued racing across the canyon wall before exploding high into the sky.
Every Thunderbird instinctively climbed higher.
None of them dove again.
Athena lowered Aegis and she adjusted her glasses. "...Who’s next?"
The children behind her erupted into cheers.
One little Goblin shouted, "Athena is amazing!"
Athena blinked once. "...Thank you."
Arthur grinned. "Nice!"
Vedas exhaled in relief.
Athena adjusted her glasses. "Continue running," she said, already looking back toward the Thunderbirds circling above. "Again," she said.
A Stone Ape smashed into the canyon wall, sending thousands of boulders collapsing straight toward the convoy.
"KONG!"
"SUN!"
Both of them immediately broke away from the group. Instead of waiting for the boulders to reach them, they ran up the canyon wall side by side, Long and Mountainbreaker blurring through the air.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Every swing destroyed another boulder, pieces exploding into gravel around them. The children cheered from below. One enormous boulder remained, larger than the rest.
Kong smiled. "My turn," he said.
He punched it, and the entire rock exploded into dust.
Sun whistled. "Show off," he said.
Another massive boulder immediately followed.
Sun sighed. "...I spoke too soon."
Kong laughed. "Again!"
Both of them sprinted farther up the canyon wall as their staffs blurred.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every strike shattered another collapsing rock before it could reach the convoy. Gravel rained harmlessly around the Goblins below.
The children started cheering every explosion.
Sun smiled despite himself. "They’re enjoying this way too much."
The monsters realized brute force alone wasn’t working, and everything attacked simultaneously after that. Fire. Wind. Stone. Crystal. Too many attacks at once for any single person to stop.
Then Mithra disappeared.
Flash. She appeared beside a crystal spike and deflected it. Gone.
Flash. A fireball, redirected. Gone.
Flash. Wind, redirected. Again. Again. Again.
To everyone watching, it looked like dozens of Mithras were protecting the convoy at once. One Crystal Serpent suddenly stopped attacking.
Instead, it waited for Mithra, trying to predict where she would appear next. And then when Mithra appeared again, it summoned pillars of crystal from the ground. But Mithra vanished, leading to the crystals hitting nothing.
And then she appeared behind it.
One clean slash.
The Serpent collapsed before it even realized she had moved. The surrounding monsters hesitated as they could no longer follow her movements.
Arthur smiled. "She’s getting faster," he said.
Melo smiled proudly. "She always does," she said.
The King’s Mark pulsed against Arthur’s hand, and he glanced down. The golden trail didn’t continue forward this time. It turned, straight into the canyon wall, then down.
Arthur’s eyes widened. "Underground," he murmured.
He noticed tiny ancient stonework beneath a section of loose rock, a concealed entrance nearly invisible beneath centuries of dust and debris.
His thoughts raced. Goblins. Ancient architecture. The King’s Trail.
"A city," he said.
He didn’t stop to explain. "BUILDERS!" he shouted.
Arthur rapidly gave orders. "Take apart every cart! Use the rocks! Dome formation!"
No Builder asked why.
Not one.
One immediately tore apart a cart. Another rolled massive stones into place. Roots erupted from beneath the ground as another reinforced the foundation.
One younger Builder couldn’t help smiling. "Our Prophet found another impossible answer."
The oldest Builder laughed while working. "He always does."
Within seconds the dome was already taking shape.
Arthur turned toward the rest of the convoy. "Hunters! Riders! Mages!" he shouted. "Destroy the ground! Kick up as much dust as you can!"
Immediately spears, magic, and hooves pounded the canyon floor, and a gigantic cloud of dust rose into the air, swallowing visibility completely.
The Lions arrived first.
Then Stone Apes.
Then Thunderbirds.
Then every other predator was drawn by the chaos.
The Thunderbirds attacked first and lightning crashed into the dust cloud. Then came the Lions with twenty streams of fire tore through the canyon. Stone Apes hurled boulders larger than houses. Crystal Serpents filled the ground with countless crystal spikes.
Fire Lizards added rivers of flame.
The attacks collided with one another. Lightning ignited the flames. Boulders shattered crystal. Explosions echoed without pause.
Entire sections of the canyon wall collapsed. The ground itself disappeared beneath endless destruction. For twenty straight seconds the canyon became a storm of fire, lightning, stone, and dust.
One Blazefang Lion slowly walked forward. It lowered its head and sniffed once before doing it a couple more times. The Lion looked around in confusion.
A Stone Ape slammed both fists into the ground and the thunderbirds circled lower. They were searching but found nothing, the prey they had chased through the entire canyon...
Had vanished.
One furious roar echoed out and then another.
Soon every monster in the canyon answered.