Jon dashed out of his office. His figure crossing hundreds of feet in mere seconds.
He could sense the tension present in the now quiet streets of the village, and felt he could slice it with his swords.
His eyes fell on the village gate, and platforms made of orange flames didn't hesitate to materialize in front of him. His feet stepping on them to arrive on the empty guard's post up there.
The five most powerful figures stood at the fore front of the clustered group of around 200 tier 2 experts.
The path to his village had been too narrow for such a large number of people to ply without difficulty.
Apart from the marching sounds and occasional grunts coming from the clustered troop's, there was utter silence.
Wearing a dark expression, Jon went ahead to sweep his gaze on the leaders. Their faces were filled with complete confidence, and one of the five men present spoke.
"Good day, Jon," He called out informally. The man looked to be in his mid thirties or early forties, he had a bald head and a long black, neatly groomed beard.
His outfit featured a light green garment that shone with few Inscriptions and nothing more. Actually all the leaders present were donned in light garments. They didn't seem to take the whole event seriously.
Why would they? They were five against one after all.
"I'm sure you understand your current situation," The bald cultivator spoke. "So we; after a few series of discussions, have decided to give you a chance," The man smiled.
"We ask that you to release all the Nindiom plants in your villages' farm, and we'll leave without any fighting," The man announced. Intentionally not being specific about where the plants were, so as too not reveal their informants.
"Not only that, We'll also sign an agreement to take 50% of the Nindiom plants you harvest every year," The man added with a grin, the others nodding in agreement.
Shaking his head in disagreement, Jon shot a sharp gaze at the talking man, "How do you expect me to accept that offer or even believe you, when your face is filled with the desire to draw blood," Jon snorted with a cold smile.
As a village-head, he had naturally gathered information about the heads of the villages' around him. And one Individual stuck out most amongst the five.
The head of the Nila village, a man known for his bloodthirsty desires. He would buy slaves from the underground market, wasting village funds. Then kill them for fun. Simply taking pleasure in watching their agonizing deaths.
The baldy utterly disgusted him. The few tmes they had actually met, had given birth to that Intense feeling, and he soon found his mind begin to make up satisfying scenarios about slowly killing him.
A cruel smile broke on the bald man's face at Jon's words, his voice ringing out with power in its fabric. "Bring down the village!"
That singular command caused over twenty aura's in the middle-stage of tier 2, to suddenly flicker into existence at different points within the border of Enil. Multiple explosions resounding from those areas.
Screams of pain soon accompanied that event. Jon's expression got darker when he understood that his commanders, and the guards still around, would probably have a hard time dealing with the new threat.
Magical circles shone in front of Jon, followed by myriads of elemental spells.
His figure shot down the wooden gate then he dashed forward while the spells converged on it. But just before the multiple tier 2 spells could actually touch it, a massive white veil appeared between the spells and the gate, preventing it's destruction. For now.
Jon's consciousness immediately expanded at that point, and he managed to witness a significant amount of events going on within the village.
His mind Immediately spotted the troublemakers, and he couldn't help but wonder who had let them in, and how they did it.
The group seemed to have snuck in before the main troops arrived, causing for that outcome.
His mind moved to snap their necks, but a yellow light shone on their figures fending off his consciousness.
The event left Jon surprised, but he couldn't let it linger in his mind too long, since during his time sprinting from the gate, the leaders had been attacking the veil.
The sound of shattering glass spread forth in the village, followed by the demolition of the front gate.
The troops flooded in at that point, and they quickly moved around searching for villagers, but found none.
Jon had moved the villagers to five empty buildings around a kilometer from the villages' exit. He had assigned the individuals who signed up for helping to those buildings.
But things had changed due to enemy troops within the walls, they were no longer safe in their position. He hoped Enik and Delius would figure this out and get there before he did. And he couldn't help but wonder where they were.
Sensing five powerful consciousness lock unto him, Jon prepared himself to defend, and a series of spells shooting towards his figure, proved him right.
Two large boulders riddled with thick spikes, a large spear made from condensed liquid, two horizontally spinning blades made from densely packed air, and two fire balls, converged towards his position at break-neck speed.
Just before the spells could arrive on his body. Jon stabbed his swords into the ground, a magical circle expanding beneath him at that action. Mulitiple thin pliiars of flames shot upwards before twisting upon each other to form a defensive area around him, but that wasn't all.
The now twisting pillars of flames, condensed into a beam above him, and his consciousness moved to lock onto the incoming spells, seven beams immediately shot towards the seven spells at his command.
An incredible explosion followed that event, spreading large cracks on the ground for hundreds of meters, but Jon's attack didn't manage to finish off the boulders and spinning blades.
The attacks fell on his defense, and their peak lower-stage power began to shred into his dome-shaped defensive area of twisting flames.
The spells eventually destroyed his defense, and he didn't hesitate to activate his armours ability at that point.
A wave of Intense flames suddenly spread outwards from Jon's figure. Followed by a dispell of searing rocky liquid. Lava.
The explosion pushed the experts backwards and they didn't hesitate to shoot upwards, platforms of their respective elements suspending their figures a few tens of feet above the ground.
The flames eventually died down, and Jon's new form appeared in the darkness of the night, illuminating his immediate surroundings.
His armour glowed with a deep orange hue which was as a result of the Intense heat it emitted. The armours surface seemed to be boiling as drops of hot red liquid shot out from time to time.
The ground beneath him eventually began to turn red and burn, but Jon didn't care about that.
Raising his swords, he quickly executed a slash at the newly advanced cultivators.
Large orange slashes over 20ft in length shot out of his swords and moved towards their targets, who scrambled at the sight of that attack.
Ten balls of flames exited the magical circle that formed beneath him and hovered around his body, in quick succession to his slash.
He noticed the slightly serious expressions the cultivators adopted at that show of power, but he knew it wouldn't be nearly enough.
His mana reserve bore the load of all his flashy abilities, and was diminishing at a rapid rate. He would run out of mana only after a few exchanges.
During their moment of hesitation his mind processed what his next action should be.
He was obviously surrounded, and would definitely die if the cultivators went all-out on him. He desired to go protect the villagers, but leaving his current position to the cluster of buildings wouldn't be any different than killing his beloved villagers.
His opponents would tail him, and their battle would kill the villagers far quicker than the weak cultivators scouting for them.
He could summon Noah. But he felt it too early for that action. He still didn't know who the traitor was, and revealing a trump card like Noah would ruin his plan.
'Fuck it all. I'll fight till I'm exhausted. The traitor should reveal himself at my moment of weakness. Then the monster of a man will take over,' A battle cry escaped Jon's mouth after he concluded, followed by multiple arrows of flames shooting at the cultivators above him.
Unbeknownst to him, his trainees watched him struggle from the sidelines.