Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"This just keeps getting better and better," Rain said after he heard the news and crossed his arms. "I want to lay low and wait for something in our end to happen, but you should return to your father's side and call me if something happens. I should be able to give a hand."

"We can handle that, if the worst comes to the worst, father will fight," Seadir said.

"We need to avoid that, people will probably think that this happened because of the alliance," Rain explained. "A lot of people should know about Seara's pregnancy as well, so my help will silence anyone that might want to talk too much."

Seadir could see Rain's point… as expected, he could see things far ahead way more than most people. In the end, he nodded before leaving the area. In any case, when Seara was about to say something, Rain immediately shook her head.

"I didn't even say anything," Seara said.

"I can already tell that you want to go, but that won't happen," Rain said. "Your father also agrees that you shouldn't get anywhere closer to danger. You can help from here, making us see the point of view of the sea folk in this situation."

"Right… unfortunately, it doesn't seem like we will be able to help with the monsters in the south," Seara said as she studied the map as well. "I already said we don't like the southern sea due to its cold. With the sea dragons making their move, they will feel even less compelled to help at all."

"We have to solve both situations as soon as possible to prevent unrest and the enemies understanding where our troops are," Roan said. "We need to split up and help the squads."

"You have a point…" Rain rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"I do?" Roan asked, a bit confused. "I thought that you would refuse this for sure."

"Normally, I would, but we have to surprise the enemies as well," Rain said. "They think that they know everything about me and my weakness, so let's surprise them. Apparently, the enemy can teleport… at least one of them can do that, but they shouldn't have that many tricks to track us down. With that in mind, you all will have to move quickly.

Your journey continues at empire

Dad, Dana, and Kei will help the squads on the eastern side of the country. Jori, Terra, and Gila will deal with the Western side. You all have only one day to act and return immediately."

"What about me, I can help as well," Reca said.

"You have a kid to feed, even for a day, leaving all of your kids alone will be too much," Rain said. "They need at least one of their parents here at all times. The next time, you can go and Jori will stay."

"As long as you don't forget that," Reca said.

Rain laughed a little… Reca was already a mother of four, but she wasn't going to change. At that rate, her kids will grow up to be just like her… blunt as they come.

In any case, Roan and the others quickly prepared their things and then soon departed using the underground tunnels. Before long, Rain couldn't help but feel the anxiety bothering him, letting others do all the hard work while he just waited for the results was troublesome… Even though he kept his troops under rigorous training, that still wasn't enough to keep his mind busy.

"I guess I should try several things with that delayed effect healing spell," Rain thought.

Rain was starting to grasp how that spell worked, while Terra already made a bit of progress on that field. Hers already could last for five hours… maybe it was because her High Healer's path was thirty levels above Rain's. It couldn't be helped since she used her skills pretty much everyday dozens of times.

Still, Rain's Intelligence parameter was higher, so he shouldn't have that much of a hard time learning… unless Terra was that much more skilled and the path levels truly made such a difference.

"It can't be helped since I am trying too many things at once," Rain thought. "Maybe I should ask Seadrei about his Sea People path… he is five hundred years old and he should have mastered most of the skills of that path. He didn't have any reason to do that until now, but this will be a good experiment for him… I should talk with him directly about that, though, to avoid problems."

While Rain spent a day training that technique and training his troops as well, time passed slowly, but soon the Roan group returned and two hours later, Jori's group returned as well… They looked a bit tired since they didn't have time to stop for a full day, but they seemed fine.

"We have helped some squads and a lot of the monsters were killed, but their behavior was weird," Roan said while pointing to the bodies on the earth platforms in the waters."

"... In what way?" Rain furrowed his eyebrows, and then he approached the bodies.

"They immediately began to run away with all their might when they saw us and even used their magic to slow us down…" Roan said.

"Only to do that," Jori added.

Rain checked their bodies to see if there was anything weird on them, but he didn't find anything… His first thought was that perhaps they were being controlled with blood magic, but their skin and fur didn't show any signs of that. That was worrisome since only one person could use that kind of magic…

"They began to run away even before they saw us or we had the chance to attack," Kei said while frowning. "I heard that monsters have good instincts to run away from predators, but I didn't expect that it would be like that."

Rain thought about the incredible instincts of certain animals from earth, capable of detecting their predators from kilometers away… it was similar.