The Redwing army continued to travel further and deeper into the Shadow content, walking through the thick and heavy snow. The further they went, the deeper they were involved, and the harder it was for them to all turn back. They were pretty sure they were already beyond the point of return now.

  According to Bliss, they were getting closer as they had entered a mountainous area. This was between the border of two kingdoms which in the past would constantly be at war, but both of the kingdoms had built their castle within the mountainous area, making it hard for either one to attack.

  Right now they were walking up quite the deep slope, up ahead several odd-looking mounds could be seen. They had walked past some on the ways, and they had just assumed that they were rocks or boulders that had been covered with snow. At first, they had only passed a small amount and thought nothing of it, but now they were seeing many.

  "Stop!" Bliss shouted. She was getting increasingly worried about these strange looking boulders and the way they were positioned. Going up to one, but staying a fair distance away. She started to chant a spell.

  "Gustonte!" A big gust of wind blew out from her staff, and the snow was thrown off from the boulder. To her disappointment, it looked like that, just an ordinary boulder, she had suspected it to be a beast in disguise.

  "Move!" Kyle shouted as he managed to reach Bliss just in time, pushing her out of the way. The snow beneath the boulder had moved ever so slightly and out from under, a spear could be seen coming out.

  Kyle had his back faced towards the spear, and a clang was heard as his beast shell and the spear collided.

  "It's another ambush, prepare for battle!" Harry shouted.

  If a spear had come from underneath one of the boulders, it could only mean one of two things. It was a high-level humanoid beast which was very unlikely, or it was humans. The Redwing army drew their blades under Katy's command, while the Dragon knights made sure to protect both Van and Bliss.

  Out from underneath the snow, black armour could be seen with the emblem of the eye. They were people from the Dark Guild. However, that didn't seem to be their only worry. Large white gorilla-like creatures with white fur and four arms could be seen as not too far away in the distance.

  In total around twenty or so of them. The Dark Guild members numbered around two hundred, and they also had the beasts on their side. Even though the redwings outnumbered them, they were struggling with the terrain, and the beasts were extremely agile. They were advanced tier beasts affected by the shadow, making them as strong as a king tier.

  It was by far the biggest force the Shadow had sent after them.

  "We're on to them, I know we are!" Bliss said as she fired off several energy blasts in different directions. Her magic wasn't the strongest, but she certainly had control.

  Most of the Redwing leaders were fearing fine, dealing with the opponent in front of them without too much trouble, but the beasts seemed to go right past them and headed for the main army in the back being led by Katy.

  "Their goal was never to kill us in this attack." Kyle said, but it was to weaken us."

  Leaving the other stronger members behind, Harry went ahead to try to help the main army with the beasts.

  Katy had just blocked a hammering blow using her shield, and she had stabbed one of its hands before it could retreat, but it felt pretty useless as there were three others it could use. Aiming to hammer down its first one after the other, she eventually rolled out of the way, Into the thick snow. But the blow continued from the gorilla beast, hitting one of the Red wing members on top of the head. The blow was so hard that the snow around them was being dyed red.

  A few seconds later, and someone was seen leaping up on top of the gorilla stabbing it right through the head a couple of times. Its body started to sway, and before it did, Harry had jumped off into the snow.

  Katy wanted to thank him for getting revenge, but he had already left to deal with the next ones, and that's when she noticed the army wasn't faring well at all to these beasts. Turning her head, she looked at the Redwing leaders.

  It was a strange sight to see, a few of the Redwings were holding back an army of around two hundred Dark guild members, and at their end, a thousand Red wing members were being held up by only twenty or so beasts.

  "I nearly forgot that these guys work for the shadow!" Kyle said, kicking one of them away, and then quickly turning his back to another to avoid a stab with a spear.

  "It was always a worry," Martha replied. "We aren't just going up against Gary. He has the whole shadow backing him, and that includes Morfran and his men."

  Among the chaos, Van hadn't really done much, but he couldn't either. All the other members, Badger, Sloth, Dan, Jack were protecting him, he felt useless. But then, something warm was felt by the side of his leg. Looking down, he could see the crystal pulsating in and out once again.

  "The crystal!" Van said, pulling it out. He quickly tried to do what he had done before, focusing his energy and aiming at the people from the Dark Guild, but there was nothing.

  "Come on!" Van shouted. "You worked before, why wouldn't you work now!"

  "Boy, the crystal is a pure source!" Lenny shouted out. "It may be that it can only get rid of those infected by the shadow. These men are perfectly sane and have chosen to follow them out of their own choice.

  Hearing Lenny's words, he knew what to do. He decided to break out in the other direction from the circle surrounding him, and instead head to where the main army was. The two closest were Badger and Sloth, and they decided to protect him as best as they could.

  Flying arrows, thrown daggers, the whole lot they blocked each one of them. When it came to killing the king tier beasts though, they weren't too prepared.

  "Please work!" Van shouted, focusing his energy on the crystal and pointing it towards one of the infected gorillas. Just like before, a strong beam of white energy came out, hitting the gorillas and it started to burn them until there was nothing left but ash.

  With the use of the white crystal, the soldiers started to see hope. All Van needed to do was get close, and the army helped him best they could with that. Whenever he did, he would use the crystal to burn them once again.

  In his hand, he felt such power. He would have never dreamed of killing beasts that were meant to be as powerful as a king tiers and here he was finishing them off in a few seconds.

  'As long as we have this, we can't lose the war.'

  Before Van had joined up and started to help, Harry had been fighting non-stop. His body was growing very tired and leading everyone was more mentally challenging then he thought. He could see that a big chunk of their forces would be wiped out taking care of these gorillas, so he decided to lure a couple of them away, and he was successful.

  A few scuffs and cuts were on the beast's hands from Harry's blades, even if he couldn't kill them, he was going to hurt them and today wasn't the day he was going to die.

  'Why do I feel so weak, was it always like this.' He started to think. He had never been in a war like this one before, and this was the closest one to it for him. Sweat was running down his whole back and he was breathing heavily.

  Something just wasn't right, things weren't right ever since he had that strange vision. Another attack was blocked from the gorilla, but with it, his blades went flying, and we're lost somewhere in the snow.

  With only his bare hands, he could do nothing, all he could do was transform.

  'What why!' Even now, that had let him down, his body wasn't listing, and he could do nothing about it.

  One of the gorillas came forward, and Harry wanted to run or jump out of the way, but his legs weren't listing to him. Before the beast could reach Harry, a strange short but wide man started in their way and swung his giant axe right through the beast's head.

  The other beast quickly left after that.

  Harry had no clue who this man was, but he wanted to thank his saviour.

  When the man got close, with the back of his axe, he hit Harry hard against the head and was knocked out. Soon after he was lifted and placed over the strange man's shoulder. Kidnapped.

  *****

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