Some time after the initial skirmish took place, the scout had managed to return to the warehouse's insides.
Most of the silver armor worn by the knight, albeit much more light-looking than that of his teammates', shrouded his appearance in a wave of mystery. Though in comparison to the elves' more flexible combat uniforms, it remained as the more grounded one. Only the long, blue musket on his hands helped to set him apart from the rest of his squadron.
Everyone took notice of his arrival. "Adam, routes. Now," ordered the human commander.
The newcomer did not take even a second of respite to start elaborating on his findings. Something that the elven commander felt grateful for.
Upon hearing the plan, everyone's gazes fell on the two leaders.
Shadows from the building's partially broken roof wrapped the silver-haired leader under a cold veil. While his slim body stood tall and confident, his golden gaze landed on the tired elves that he called subordinates.
Particularly, on the one elf of his squadron who had lost an arm while defending the Elven Princess. This sort of detail wouldn't have been a big issue, had she chosen to heal him back to his peak condition, but…
"Don't wanna. Ryan didn't want to play with me and Teddy Tree," were the exact words she had told the whole group a few minutes ago.
Thus, without being able to properly heal Ryan, he really wanted to take the safe road.
"I get you want to protect your team, Commander Gregor, but..." The human's deep voice trailed off. No words were needed to describe the current circumstances, mostly thanks to the living pictures created by the rampaging monsters.
"To take things slow here would mean betraying the oath I have with these people. My people."
"Commander William... Look at the bigger picture for a moment. Is risking the life of a figure as relevant as Princess Ladenia for a small town worth it?"
'Given what I saw so far, I'd have to think about it.'
William's eyebrows sank with discontent. "You know there's a full abyss of differences between picking the lesser evil and sacrificing lives based on someone's whims."
The quick escalation of the issue made everyone feel somewhat tense.
Yet, one human that looked way out of place merely snapped his fingers.
A monochrome dyed the world surrounding him. His movements became as slow as everyone else's, yet...
'So, this is [Time Alter]... Not what I'd have expected from a time-manipulation skill, but the ability to accelerate my thoughts at will is a fairly nice trait anyway.'
The brown-eyes youth blinked, the darkened skin on his eyebags moving ever so slightly, at an equally slow pace. Such a thing applied to everyone present.
Including the two protagonists of the rising conflict.
'So, a way to defuse this bomb of sorts... If Gregor wants to go slow and William, fast, then one of them will have to change their stance in order to get to a result.'
The wind kept passing by, just like time. It remained far from equal, but none of the natives present in the nearby area knew about it.
'Finding a reason for William to take things slow isn't convenient for me, as it might bring closer harm later on.'
He put the scout's words under slight scrutiny, and quickly caught on to something. 'Wait, he didn't mention threats yet. Maybe, I can push through that side.'
A smirk appeared in the mind of the transmigrator. He snapped his fingers as quickly as he could, and the world returned to the colorful mess it used to be.
"I have an idea, if you two are willing to listen," he voiced.
The abnormally confident voice of the young man reached everyone's ears. Almost instinctively, Natasha almost ran up to him to slap some sense into his brain, but Jean held her back.
"What are you doing? Can't you see he's being disrespectful??"
"Just… Don't get involved. Trust me."
The woman's body shuddered at the mere thought of what the transmigrator could do, if interrupted. She did not want to find out.
"So, 'Scout,' what's your name?"
"Adam," answered the man holding the musket.
Randall nodded. "Then, Adam. You came up with five different routes, but what about the threats you found?"
"There's quite a few monsters. Most of them are between Rank 5 and 4."
"I guess it could be worse," stated William. A bit of hope dawned on him.
"... And a few Rank 3 monsters, including a goblin with a manifested Ego."
Shock froze everyone's bodies.
"What the fuck."
"A monster with an Ego??"
The two commanders looked at each other, before nodding.
"On second thought, we'll be taking the faster route," voiced William, despite Gregor's rather notorious discomfort.
"... Though, Gregor, we can afford to let your troops take a break."
The golden-eyed elf smiled. "Thank you. However, I can't allow myself to let your team deal with all the heavy-lifting."
"I'm still in condition to fight," stated Natasha, the female fighter from earlier.
Most of the other elves also voiced their objections to being left out of the fighting. Not even the one with the missing limb chickened out.
"Not in a hundred years, Ryan. You're staying with the Princess."
"Why do I have to stay with him?" Questioned the elf wearing the dress, loudly.
"He's too wounded to fight, he needs to be protected."
Yet, she looked at Gregor, wearing a look of ridicule on her face. "A member of the Mystical Gardem's formal army requires protection? What a jok-"
"Ahem!"
Randall cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention again.
"Great. Princess, can you let Sir Ryan travel by your side for a few acts?"
She almost glared at him. ".... I guess."
William raised his voice, and asked a singular question. "Those whose condition allows them to manifest their Ego safely, please raise your hand."
Ten hands rose up, with six of them belonging to the human squadron, and the other four to the elven team.
'The two commanders, the elf Jean was talking with, the armored knights… Hm? Jean can't do it? Well, that's one thing to keep in mind.'
Gregor assigned the roles to his squad, while William did the same thing with his own team. Of course, he did keep Randall in mind after witnessing his performance.
Those who specialized in fighting face to face, were placed as the vanguard. And those who weren't had to provide support, either in the form of cover fire for mages and archers, or information in Adam's case.
"We're done!" Yelled the black-armored human.
"Same here." Answered the leading elf.
The steps of the 14-man squadron led them to leaving the large, stony building behind. Flames wandered near the structure, soon to consume everything on their path.
As they ran towards their extraction point, the squadrons took on multiple brief skirmishes. Nothing too dangerous, considering most of the monsters they faced were either Rank 6 or 5.
Yet soon enough, their luck ran short.
Hiding inside the remains of a small house, the human commander raised his hand, stopping the entire mixed squad dead on its tracks.
"Commander, we've spotted multiple Rank 4's on the street nearby. There's a nearby alleyway that we can use to sneak around, but there are five Rank 5 monsters in it. Engaging directly may alert those from the street."
William stopped to think, and called out Gregor's name. "You can dual wield daggers, correct? Can you assassinate the weaker monsters?"
Nodding his head, Gregor manifested his daggers. Both of them had goldenrod blades and a deep green hilt, as if made out of leaves. For some reason, his weapons had a cold hue surrounding them.
Randall felt something was off. Thus, he volunteered to assist the elven commander.
It was definitely not his main character bullshit sensor tingling.
And so, both of them left the building. The turnabout path they took easily allowed them to sneak past the Rank 4 beasts.
On the way, they stumbled upon the corpse of a young adult holding a dagger with a partially broken blade. While Randall casted his gaze elsewhere, Gregor kneeled down and picked up the blade. "May the ancient philosopher guide your spirit to rest."
Then, they continued on their way.
"The monsters should be on the other side. A height advantage will make it easier for us," commented Gregor.
A dagger suddenly appeared on his hand, but it left just as quickly. With the wall penetrated by the dagger, the brown haired elf ran towards it and leapt lightly.
And used said weapon to further the jump, reaching the top with ease… The dagger vanished without a trace not even a second later.
Randall exhaled lightly. 'How am I going to make that jump?... I'll give it a try. If I fail, I'll plan from there.'
With that in mind, he dashed forward. He drew closer and closer to the wall, and his body readied itself to leap.
Right at that moment, a strange burst of strength invaded his arms and legs. One of his feet made contact with the surface of the wall, and further pushed him upwards.
His left arm held onto the somewhat stable edge of the ruined building.
'That… was surprisingly smooth, considering this was my first attempt at wall climbing. I suppose this is what Body Augmentation does?'
He propped himself up, and met Gregor's solemn gaze. "Let's keep going. We can't waste too much time."
They took some cautious steps, and reached the other edge of the roof.
'Now, the hard part. The assassinations.'
Gregor, who picked up a few items along the way, stopped as he glanced down the alley. "Wait."
The elf placed his hand on a broken dagger's handle and closed his eyes. Soon enough, a creamy, milk-like energy wrapped itself around the instrument.
It glowed strangely. A cold feeling invaded Randall's body, persisting throughout the entire process.
The energy disappeared, leaving behind a smaller, yet unbroken knife made purely of ice. Then, he repeated the same process with a stick. "Not the best materials, but it'll have to do," muttered the elf.
He gave Randall the first ice knife. "Fling it towards a stranger, it'll do the rest."
"Got it."
The elf looked solemnly down the roof. "Anyway, countdown. On one, you attack the two brown wolves, and I'll go for the big wolf and its partners. Got it?"
Randall nodded. He manifested the rapier from earlier on his right hand, and put the ice-made weapon on his free hand.
"Three… Two… One."
The human and the elf jumped down. Three of the monsters looked up, one due to sheer luck. As for the other two, they did it because they spotted two irregular shadows.
Both of them landed on top of one of their targets. Randall stabbed the dark wolf's head with its rapier, killing it instantly, while Gregor threw one of his daggers towards another monster and crushed the head of the one he had landed on. All at the same time.
With three down, they quickly set themselves to attack their next targets, but alas…
There weren't just five wolves in the alley. A sixth wolf had been lying down on the floor, hidden from sight.
Randall flung the dagger towards one of the few living ones, and snapped his fingers.
Noticeable amounts of color vanished from the world.
'There's one additional wolf, strange.'
His eyes fell for a glimpse of a moment in the hidden wolf. It rested peacefully below a small, almost makeshift tent. Its body didn't seem to have reacted quite yet to the death of his pack members...
'No, it's reacting.'
The transmigrator's thoughts quickly bounced between the courses of actions he could take. He quickly figured out the most efficient one, and followed through with it.
He recalled the rapier while slowly flinging the knife towards the other bleak wolf. As the weapon vanished into a tangible while mist, he snapped the fingers on his left hand.
As for the right one, the mist from earlier didn't have enough time to dissipate. The human commanded it to wrap around his moving right hand, and transform into the blade from earlier.
Then, he threw it at the sleeping beast.
With the world back to normal, the elf finished off the wolf he had targeted.
The last remaining wolf's eyes widened, as it tried to howl to warn the others, but a stab to the face interrupted that.
"Hah, that almost got out of hand. Well done, human," tiredly muttered the elven assassin, who recalled both of his daggers.
They headed to the team's location, and passed by the monsters on the street. Blood stained the bodies and mouths of those hungry beasts, while a few utterly defiled human corpses littered the soil. Not a single one remained intact.
Randall clenched his fist, but ultimately had no choice but to ignore them.
Both assassins returned, and found everything as they had left it. Except for one detail.
One of the elven scouts stood in the center of the wooden room. He informed the others of the presence of a few Rank 3 monsters, and a corrupted one.
"So… Is it safe to assume the demons are behind this?" Muttered one of the human knights.
"Not exactly. Even though the demons' Miasma is indeed known for causing monsters to fall into corruption, we must not forget that it can also happen whenever a pure monster absorbs too much Mana," replied Natasha, one of the elven archers.
They remained deep in thought, until Jean spoke up.
"At least three Rank 3 monsters are coming. I can feel their energy closing in."
Everyone had different reactions. A few were calm, but others were somewhat afraid.
Randall acted as the exception to this. He walked towards the human woman with confidence. "Alright, Jean, let's go."
Jean looked at him, bewildered, while one of the elves almost yelled at him. "Are you going to fight them or what?!"
"Oh no, I'm just going to have a friendly and civilized debate with them on the current state of modern society and its ever growing complexities and intricacies," Randall calmly stated.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"Are you stupid?" was the only phrase Jean muttered.
"No, I'm a genius," replied Randall, with a confident smirk on his face.
No one else uttered a single word, let alone a sentence. Lest their neurons would be slaughtered by the Elven Princess' long lost brother.
"Anyway, Jean, follow me. The rest of you, wait for half a minute and head out the fastest way to the horses."
"What do you think you're doing?"
The transmigrator manifested his Ego and uttered something in a cold, almost command-like tone.
"We'll draw the attention of as many monsters as we can. Focus on getting out quickly."
With that, Randall dragged the still stunned Jean out of the room after patting her on the back.