Roar!
"Holy cow, it's an Iron Claw!"
Right after shouting that out loud, Cray quickly kicked the ground, and moved away from the 3 meters tall, iron clawed tiger's path.
In exception of Basil, the other students followed suit in the next moment; Basil kept standing in its path, and merely swung his sword once in a unique way.
Whoosh!
The Iron Claw passed beside Basil, as if it had intentionally dodged him. It wasn't only the Iron Claw, but the other Beasts also avoided crashing to Basil.
Standing in the middle of the horde while graciously waving his sword, he looked like a maestro who was leading an orchestra.
"That move ... Hasn't he been doing a similar move since we encountered the horde for the first time?" Cray and the others were already away from the horde of Magical Beasts, and now were looking at Basil.
"Well... He does..." Whitney responded Cray uncertainly. "There is no way ... Right?" He really wanted to say his thought, but he wasn't sure whether it held some truth.
Different than the others, Iliana was looking at the scene with an amused smile. "Fu-fu-fu. He has been leading the horde for all this time."
Right when it was said, Whitney and Cray turned their bewildered gaze at Iliana. 'Is that guy for real?!' was written on their face. Iliana merely shrugged nonchalantly, and gestured her head at Basil.
The two students returned their gaze to Basil, and found that most of the Magical Beasts had entered Raneil Barony.
"Shouldn't there be more of them?"
Whitney quickly realized that the horde was, at least, a fourth of the original one which they had encountered for the first time. Since he hadn't been paying that much attention to the horde, he didn't know where the rest of it had gone.
When Whitney noticed the way Basil organized the horde however, two possibilities came up in his mind. "It is either Basil can only lead up to that amount or Basil has sent the remaining horde the other way..." he muttered to himself.
Iliana turned her gaze to the pondering Whitney, before returning her gaze back at Basil; a small smile decorated her face. Basil was really taking 'being a Mage and live in secrecy' to another level to the point that even Mages were bewildered.
He didn't live in closed doors; he showed a part of himself that could amaze people, but no one could really read him—no one could gouge what he was truly capable of. His entire being was surrounded by mystery, and it was hard to say whether it could ever be unveiled.
The epitome of a Mage.
A few seconds passed, and the horde Basil had led had completely entered the Barony. Upon seeing that, Iliana and the others quickly came to Basil's side. Without saying a thing, Basil sheathed his sword and stepped inside the Barony.
Whitney and Cray turned to Iliana before looking at each other. In the next moment, they merely shook their head in slight disappointment.
They had expected Basil to say a word or two regarding what he had done, but he treated the matter as if something wasn't worth the explanation. Of course, they didn't have any intention to nag Basil for it.
They were aware of the first rule of interacting with a fellow Mage: never be too nosy of the thing the other side does. Therefore, they, too, quickly dismissed the matter and followed behind Basil.
Upon entering the Barony, they could finally take a good look of the situation inside. Many of the buildings had collapsed, Demon and human corpses alike littered the ground, and the air was filled with the pungent blood stench of the corpses.
They could only imagine how worse the situation in the inner part, if the outer part of the Barony was already that much. Even at this point, the existence of survivors were highly arguable.
"Where is the Magical Beasts go to, Basil?" Iliana asked.
"I spread them to the four direction of the Barony."
"You are a talented Tamer, aren't you?"
Basil glanced at Iliana briefly before answering. "Telling a wild dog to run is not the same as teaching them to behave."
Leading a horde of Magical Beasts that had lost its leader was not a chore for him; it was too easy for the experienced him.
"Hoh? It is surprising coming from you." Iliana quirked her eyebrow at Basil's rare show of humbleness.
Since Iliana took it as something amazing, Basil didn't want to do something as useless as convincing her otherwise. Therefore, he kept his silence.
One might ask what was his reason for doing that; the answer was simple: to evoke more chaos. Basil had split the original horde of Magical Beasts into four groups. The one Basil had led to Raneil Barony had the least amount of Magical Beasts.
He had done so because Demons had already overwhelmed the entirety of Raneil Barony. If he were to lead the bigger group to Raneil Barony, the Demons would choose to coexist with the Magical Beasts instead—exactly the exact opposite of he wanted.
Magical Beasts were naturally a peaceful group of creatures. They followed the command of their pack leader, and never poked the others unless their territory was breached.
The reason why they had suddenly gone down Lone Mountain was the death of its mutual leader, Yamata no Orochi that Basil had killed around a year ago.
Although it hadn't been that strong of an opponent to any capable Third Circle Mage, it had the capability to make any Fifth Grade Beasts and below bow down to it.
In their mind, Yamata no Orochi was their protector. Since it was dead already, they had no one to protect them. Therefore when the Magical Beasts had sensed the sudden influx of Demons, they panicked; therefore, they felt the need to run.
Once they found an area that suited them, as long as it wasn't occupied by the much stronger opponent, they would fight for it. But when there was a probability to coexist, they would definitely choose it.
Since the former case was happening in Raneil Barony, a three way battle between Demons, humans, and Magical Beasts would ensue. Due to Basil's deed however, Raneil Barony wouldn't be the only area experiencing it.
There were three other areas in Fortescher County that would experience the same thing; all of them were a vital area for both Fortescher County and the Kingdom. Just like what Basil intended, chaos would ensue.
When the attention of the Kingdom was split, he could proceed to take the legacy which one of the renowned Mages of Braxtein Kingdom had left in Arthan Library without notifying the Kingdom.
After five minutes of walking, Cray and the others had finally arrived at the area of conflict.
They could see a group of Mercenaries fighting 20 or so Demons, while being constantly harassed by 8 Magical Beasts. Watching the scene alone was painful enough, let alone experiencing it.
"Let's go." At Basil's word, everyone turned their head at him. While Iliana was looking at him the way she usually looked at him, the other two were looking at him in slight bewilderment.
"Aren't we going to help them?" Cray asked.
"Why should we?" Was Basil's cold answer.
"I mean, there are..." Cray trailed off his word.
He couldn't find the exact reason why they should help the group of Mercenaries. Not only were the Mercenaries not a Mage, but they were also not their acquaintance. Even if the Mercenaries fulfilled the two conditions, they still didn't have the obligation to help them.
Whitney put his hand on top of Cray's shoulder to stop him from thinking too much. Looking at Basil, Whitney calmly asked, "You wouldn't stop us if we helped them, would you?"
"Why would I?" Basil quirked his eyebrow as if asking, 'Are you joking?'
Whitney nodded his head, then turned to Cray. "Very well. Let's help them." Cray looked up, then nodded his head wordlessly. Dashing at the group of Mercenaries, they quickly took on the eight Magical Beasts by themselves.
Iliana stayed in her place, and turned her curious gaze to Basil. "What are you going to do from now on? Though I like you, I won't leave those brats alone." She pointed her thumb behind her, at Whitney and Cray.
"I will fight my own fight," Basil muttered lowly.
"What do you—"
Boom!
Just before Iliana finished her word, the building in front Basil was destroyed; it had gotten smashed by something big. Iliana slightly widened her eyes at that, and quickly readied herself for battle in the next moment.
Snort!
A steaming breath came out of the nostrils of the Demon in front of them. It had a head of a bull with two big and pointy horns on its head, and a body of a muscular man holding a gigantic hammer.
A Minotaur Warrior!
Standing at 8 meters tall, it was looking at Basil and Iliana with its shining red eyes.
Roar!
As if one was not enough, another two appeared in front of them. While Basil was swinging his sword lightly to ready himself, Iliana was exceptionally ecstatic with the upcoming fight.
With a wide grin on her face, she said, "Coming here is a right choice."
As a battle maniac, she couldn't hold herself back. Taking out her favorite weapon, a Magical Spear, she immediately dashed at one of the Minotaur Warriors; her Art was fully utilized.
Basil lightly smirked at the extremely familiar scene, before dashing at the Minotaur Warriors. Although he never admitted it, he, too , was a battle maniac.
A clash that alerted everyone in the vicinity ensued.