At the town of Flendon, the people guarding the town had been going through a whirlwind of emotions. Seeing the entire Behemoth Army, one of the great clans in the Demonic Faction, they all feared that their life was doomed.
Even standing out on the wall, they knew very well they had little chance of surviving, that was until one brave warrior, who was only a Wanderer hire, had gone out to challenge the Behemoth Clan.
The warrior named Brack, instead of going against Sha Mo himself, faced one of the pillars sent out, Umonke. The fight was in favor of only one, as the person known as one of the pillars of the Behemoth Clan had devastated Brack in the fight.
Regardless, Brack would not fall. He stood up again and again despite clearly fighting a losing battle, which had caused the town of Flendon to cheer for him in honor of his bravery.
Frustrated, Umonke felt like his only choice was to behead Brack, making it so Flendon would lose their morale. As he swung his sword cleanly at Brack's head, a dagger had appeared, stopping it with a forceful amount of Qi.
"Who are you?" Umonke asked.
"I guess I was the first one here, and there's a lot more of you than I thought," Cronker said as he scraped his dagger across the slicing blade and then swirled his body to try striking again.
Umonke, though quick on his feet, managed to jump back a couple of times and avoid the hits completely.
The pillars were some of the strongest middle-stage warriors in the Demonic Faction. While the Crimson Crane were well-known, they weren't the strongest. In the past, it would have taken perhaps all of the Crimson Crane members just to fight one of the pillars.
The only difference was they had the items of the Dark Magus with them now; however, Cronker was not one of the fortunate ones.
"Interesting," Lince said, standing from the wall. "That man is incredibly fast and quick on his feet. Even with his lack of Qi, he has great foot techniques."
With Lince and the Lost Clan being informants for the Demonic Faction and specializing in footwork techniques, Cronker had caught his eye. Yet no one quite knew who he was, and it was the same for those who were standing on the wall.
"Why are there strong warriors fighting for us?" one asked.
"I'm not sure… should we go and charge in now? Maybe we can head out and bring Brack back?" another asked.
During the last battle with the Behemoth Clan, Cronker hadn't taken part due to his duty in protecting the children. It was the first time the others had seen him.
"It doesn't matter who you are," Umonke said. "You stand in our way, so you will pay with your life."
Umonke moved forward, and his sword sliced through the air, making a piercing sound. Cronker managed to move to the side, but the sword had skimmed his cheek, making it bleed.
He noticed that this attack was far greater and filled with condensed Qi compared to the last.
'I'm guessing he was holding back his power when trying to cut that kid's head off… if I block that with my dagger, it will just slice right through it.'
"Night Force!" Cronker shouted out.
Brack was weak on his legs, he could barely see. His unconscious will was the only thing that had kept him going. As he wavered, just before he fell to the ground, three members with red headbands wrapped around their heads appeared, dressed in black everywhere else.
The Night Force was the special group that Cronker had been training up, consisting of Tilson, Joe, and Violet. They all quickly grabbed onto Brack. Like Cronker, they had focused nearly all their training on foot techniques.
Although they certainly would be no match if they were to face a middle-stage warrior, perhaps they could match their speed if it came to using their legs.
"Take him out of here. I saved his life, so I would like to not see his blood split," Cronker ordered.
The three nodded and were ready to move, but Umonke wasn't going to let them go so easily.
"You think I will let you do that while I'm on the field?"
By the time Umonke finished his sentence, though, the three had already rushed over to the other side. They were far quicker than he imagined.
Using all of his anger, Umonke started to swing his weapon rapidly in the air. In response, Cronker was moving swiftly, dodging each one of them by jumping in the sand from side to side, avoiding the attacks.
Neither one looked like they were letting up, with their attacks or with Cronker avoiding them. The Behemoth Clan were quite enjoying the unexpected spectacle.
"This is not good," Lince said.
"What do you mean?" Andy replied, overhearing one of the guards. Everyone else was cheering for this newcomer fighting for them. "Isn't this fine? The two of them seem to be equal?"
"I guess it would seem that way to most, but that certainly isn't the case," Lince replied. "The blond-haired man is constantly using techniques to achieve his feats to dodge. He specializes in footwork, but because of this, he's using up a larger amount of Qi."
"While his opponent is making him use these techniques just by swinging his sword. Eventually, time will run out, and when that happens, that Umonke fellow will win."
Hearing these words, it made Andy and the rest of them a bit nervous. If the stranger was able to win the battle out of the gate and take down one of the pillars, it would be a huge momentum shift, maybe even causing some of the Behemoth members to doubt their actions in attacking in the first place.
"You don't have to worry about that," a voice said.
The men turned to look at who was speaking but were unable to see someone, until they looked down and could see a short woman with her hair tied up in pigtails.
"Get out of there!" the woman shouted with her hands by her mouth and filled with Qi.
Hearing that, Cronker knew the signal and backed off. He turned his back and started running toward the gate. As he went through, he looked up.
"It took the rest of you long enough," Cronker said.
Jumping up onto one of the bricks on the wall, others could see who it was and recognized her, one of the Crimson Crane members.
"It's time for me to test out my new weapon on these guys," Froma said with a rosy red cheek smile.