Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

The next day, even though two thirds of the army were heavily wounded, they began to prepare to move since they knew that the battle wasn't over… around the same time, they began to hear that some of the sea folk arrived with some news for Rain.

"The magic people attacked us until noon of yesterday, but soon they retreated when the walls were about to fall," Seadir explained. "We used our water magic to push them away, and even tried to freeze it as well, but they were ready to counter it with fire tornadoes. I guess they heard that the battle here was over…"

"That seems to be the case… they knew that they had around six hours before we could reach the area and they tried to cause as much damage as possible," Rain rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I suspect that the beast people did the same."

Not before they put on fire all the villages and farming fields that they had found… that would weaken the human kingdom a lot, it would need months, even with magic for them to recover from the damage…

Although that all-out attack had been devastating, ultimately, they managed to push the enemies away with minimal losses if compared to the other side… Nevertheless, Rain couldn't help but think that despite their hatred, the magic people and the beast people were following orders and keeping their heads clear in order to achieve their goal of wiping out the human kingdom.

"What do you guys think of the actions of your brethren?" Rain asked while looking at Artisia's squad.

"My tribe occasionally would lead others, but we were quite isolationist, master," Artisia said.

"I told you not to call me that… what about you guys?" Rain asked while looking at the others.

"We weren't at the top of our tribes, commander. So, we can't say much."

"Then why did you side with Josar in the first place?" Rain asked.

"Well… during that war, you saved our lives a bunch of times, we decided to repay the favor by siding with someone that wanted to repay the favor as well."

That didn't made Rain happy at all… he felt troubled since he began to feel like Josar's death was his fault… it would be easy to think that some semblance of loyalty killed him, but that would be too convenient to think.

"... Anyway, both sides lost a bunch of soldiers and they lost a lot of power, now they can be attacked again and again and blame us when they can't defend themselves," Rain shrugged.

"What are our options now?" Jori asked.

"First, we wait for Geo to confirm things on the beast people's side and then we consider what we can do, but mainly, we will need a few weeks to recover and if we attack one side, the other will take advantage of it," Rain replied. "We can ask Seadrei for help, but that would be too dangerous.

I would like to keep improving our strength… there is also the dungeons that keep increasing in size, and there isn't much that we can do about that."

Rain had some other ideas, but he didn't want to say that out loud… he didn't know the enemy was so well-informed, after all. Before long, Geo arrived in the capital, informing everyone what they were experiencing… The beast people burned everything that they could burn yesterday and then began to march toward the mountains again.

At that point in time, Rain was more confused than angry… they should know that Rain could wipe out a large town from their territories. What would they accomplish by annoying him?

"For now, let's focus on recovering from the damage and then prepare for the future," Rain said. "We lost around one thousand warriors and we need to repay the families of those who died for their efforts."

"You can leave that to us, the monster's bodies will serve to boost the economy a fair bit," Esmeralda said. "The main issue now is recovering the farms and only you guys can make that happen faster."

"You are right…" Rain said and then nodded. "One week should be enough to let everyone rest, and then we will return to that side of the country. Still, I will have to make some headquarters along the kingdom to train new people. At this point in time, I believe that we weeded out all the troublemakers who could become a nuisance in our ranks, I also trust in the judgment of the squad leaders."

"More headquarters to train more people, right?" Roan asked. "How are we going to divide those places? We will need some people leading each one of them and supervising them. Around five of them seems like a good starting number, but we don't have enough people for that, right?"

Roan was weirdly enthusiastic about that… but he had a point. While the places needed a leader, they also needed a vice commander in case something happens. So, they would need to split the group in pairs. That would work for Jori and Reca, if they still wanted to be part of the Raging Phoenix while they raise their kids and level up on the rabbit path.

Asche and Liss probably could oversee another place, Rain and his wives would be another… that would leave them with two left.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"I guess Dad can command one of them, and Dana, Kei, and Gila can support him if they want, but we will need another group to lead another," Rain said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"I can do that, I have been training hard my body lately and I can use Limit Breaker now," Branden suddenly declared.

Now that everyone looked at him, Branden looked a bit more muscular… they didn't notice that before because his semblance was of complete exhaustion… maybe the training was the reason.

"We are severely lacking in terms of magic power, so I think it would be good to train the kids in the magic academy to use that and magic boost," Branden added. "What do you think?"