“…we chase them and wipe them out.”

  The demons cheered as they heard Ilya’s decision, their pace quiing as they huhe fleeing elves.

  It didn’t take long before they caught up to some of the stragglers and Ilya charged into the lead, her sword as fast as always, severing heads before the elves eveered her presence.

  Behind her was Xaren who reduced gravity to make himself faster and doubled it on impact to increase the power of his fming sshes and stabs.

  Bjorn barrelled through their lines, his leopard cws ripping through throats as he shrugged o? retaliatory strikes with his thick hide that he reinforced with demoniergy.

  Kravok’s Warhammer spun in wide arcs, the magic weight behind it brutally shattering elven skulls while Carack brought up the rear, his fmes torg the feet of the running elves.

  They tinued moving like this until they reached the building ected to the bell tower, a four-storey structure where the elves had barricaded themselves inside.

  Sadly, their barricade meant nothing before the power of a certain Gravity-maniputing maniputing High-Demon.

  Ilya sed the building with her eyes, surveying the situation and quickly devising a pn.

  “Some of you should climb and break in from the windows when we burst through the main doors.

  The rest, shields up and push the front!”

  Just as she ordered, Xaren looked to the side and covered multiple rge ons belonging to dead giants on the floor with his magic power, before using Attra and Repulsion to yeet them at the doors of the building.

  The doors shattered and the first line of elves behind it were crushed by the giant ons.

  Immediately, the sed line unleashed a barrage of magic spells, but the shield bearers of the troop absorbed the brunt of the magical bombardment, shielding them from ?reballs, ice shards, and wind bdes hurled from above.

  Meanwhile, the climbers scaled the walls with ease, their cws and ons anch them to the stone as they reached the higher ?oors. Within moments, they shattered the windooured into the building, taking the elves by surprise.

  In the brief moment of fusion upoing the demons attag from behind, the elven spellcasters hesitated and their barrage weakened.

  Kravok seized the opportunity a forward, smming his warhammer into the ground and unleashing a powerful shockwave that sent tremors rippling through the entire building. Cracks split the ?oor, and ks of stone and debris shot into the air.

  “Xaren!”

  Kravok called out but Xaren had already taken a. He used Repulsion on the debris, hurling the jagged sto the elves. The projectiles tore through the defenders, smashing into heads, chests, and limbs, while Carack added a toues to some of them, his magiiting the bodies of those hit by the projectiles.

  Screams ?lled the air as ?re ed the elves, their panicked movements only spreading the inferno further.

  As the demons began the sughter of the ground and first floors, Ilya used wind magic to boost herself further, sg to the sed gallery floor and slig through the necks of the elves she entered.

  She left the ?oating souls behind without a sed gnce, fog her attention oructure itself.

  With a powerful ssh, she carved through the ceiling above her, sending ks of the ?oor above crashing down.

  The elves standing there plummeted to the floor she was on, and as they scrambled to rise, a sudden gust of wind burst forth from Ilya.

  When the wind subsided, all that was left within a five-metre radius of her position were bloody body fragments.

  The rest of the troop pressed the attack, systematically clearing ?oor after ?oor. Blood and ash paihe walls as they carved a path through the building.

  Eventually, their pursuit led some of the ?eeing elves to the Bell Tower itself. In the chaos, Kravok swung his hammer with reckless force, uionally smashing through the tower’s outer wall and creating a gaping hole.

  The team cmbered through it, gaining access to the roof, where the remaining elves made their ?nal stand.

  More than a hundred elves y dead by the end of the brutal skirmish, their blood soaking into the stonework.

  The building was eerily quiet now, the groans of the dying repced by the crackle of lingering ?ames and the distant sounds of battle still raging elsewhere iy.

  Ilya surveyed the se with a narrowed gaze, befiving her order to find the ones who fled from the windows and back doors.

  As the troop temporarily dispersed, only Ilya, Xaren, Kravok, Carack, and Bjorn remaiop the roof.

  Kravok broke the sileh a grumble, leaning on his hammer.

  “All that e?ort, and I only gained one level.”

  “Same here. What a waste,” Carack muttered, sighing as he ed his magic bracelet, wiping away the remnants of the battle while Bjorn, unbothered by their s, sat cross-legged, ing the souls he captured.

  Xaren wasn’t too far from them, sitting on the rooftop as he surveyed the city’s skyline.

  Fires raged, smoke spiralled into the skies, and the sound of colpsing structures echoed in the distance.

  He said nothing, his expression unreadable as he took in the destru they had wrought.

  ‘Am I cursed to be stu war or something?’

  Just as he thought that, he and the other four sensed a surge of magic ripple across the city, and their gazes turo sour instinct.

  From their elevated vantage point, they could see it clearly—a gregation of elven mages iy tre.

  The elves were gathered in tight formation, ting in unison as a glowing spell circle drawn with the blood of the giants and demons who had perished earlier materialized beh them.

  Surrounding the mages was a defensive perimeter of giants and elven archers, holding o? the relentless waves of demons charging in from all dires.

  Giants were a race renowned for their rge physical bodies, and they had the strength and durability to match.

  They also had race bohat signi?tly ampli?ed their strength and durability, often beyond what their status boards re?ected.

  Yet, their rge size, a symbol of power, was sometimes the cause of their downfall.

  Due to this, some High-Rank Giants acquired size manipution abilities and teo shrink their bodies.

  Xaren remembered a story he heard in his previous life, about an army division that had entered peared to be a group of low-rank giants, their forms pact at a mere ?ve meters tall.

  Assuming an easy victory, the soldiers unched an attack, only to discover too te that these were high-rank giants in disguise. The entire division, numbering tens of thousands, was annihited.

  In their shrunken forms, these giants traded some of their immerength for speed, but fher breeds like Ard Elder Giants, they retaiheir full strength while gaining agility, being far deadlier.

  But the giants iy tre were not of that calibre. These unranked giants, despite their intimidating size and brute power, were slow and vulnerable to being overwhelmed.

  That was what was happening before Xaren’s eyes.

  Dozens of demons swarmed each giant, exploiting their sluggish movements.

  Individually, these giants would probably win against the demons, but when dozens attacked simultaneously in such a ed space where the giants were forced to restrain their attacks to avoid harming their allies, they ended up being picked off one by one.

  But despite the mounting losses, the giants and elves held their formation, refusing to fall. They put everything into proteg the elven mages at the tre of the circle.

  Watg the se unfold, Kravok gripped his Warhammer tightly and spoke.

  “I don’t know what kind of strange magic they’re casting, but I think we should stop them.”

  The others nodded in agreement, and Ilya drew her sword silently, ready to act.

  However, Xaren was of a different opinion.

  “Wait, guys. I think we should let them cast it.”

  His words drew a chorus of incredulous stares, and Carack questioned him on behalf of the other three.

  “What do you mean we should let them cast it? Why would you let your enemy cast their magic?”

  Already anticipating this rea, Xaren quickly expined his reasoning.

  “It’s because of the type of magic they’re trying to cast. They’re using summoning magic.”

  “Shumonning magic?” Kravok tilted his head, still fused.

  “No. ‘Summoning’.” Xaren corrected him with a small sigh, his eyes still fixed on the magic circle.

  Curiosity piqued, Carack temporarily withdrew the magic power he po use and asked.

  “Yhe magic? What does it do?”

  “It allows them t reinforts here instantly. Other elves and giants who are really far away would cross the distan an instant and e out of that magic circle.”

  Hearing his expnation, the Demons remembered the spell that the High-Rank Demons had used to transport them into battlefields and they nodded, uanding that it was simir.

  “How the hell do you even know it’s summoning magic?” Carack asked, his disbelief evident.

  Still watg the magic circle the elves were juring, Xaren responded.

  “Don’t look at me like I’m some sort of smartass. I only read it from a book I picked up from an elven mage I killed.”