msmithbooks Chapter 607: Surrender.
Chapter 607: Surrender.
He looked at every single one of them with absolute accuracy, the hidden men felt like their very skin was being peeled off, one by one, as painfully as possible.
If they had any doubts before—
Now, it was obvious.
He knew.
The Flying Man knew.
He knew they were here, he knew exactly where they were all along.
The worst part?
He knew and he still came.
And he was still smiling.
It was... terrifying.
For a good moment, the members of the ’hunting party’ were frozen stiff, until...
The Stormcaller Chief, the leader of this Mission, a lean man with Storm Tattoos crawling up his throat, gritted his teeth in anger and raised two fingers.
The command was to wait.
But the Hunt was still possible.
Even if the enemy knew, he was only here with fifty Cindersteps, they outnumbered them, they outpowered them—
They wouldn’t lose.
They could not possibly lose.
But then—
"To everyone hiding."
Kael spoke in the Stormcaller Tongue because he knew every single person here understood it. This was how they had been communicating all this while.
The Stormcallers froze.
The strong winds kept flowing, but for the ’hunting party’, the world had gone still.
"I know where you are."
Kael declared.
The Stormcaller Chief’s hand moved to the Artifact he was given, prepared to move.
The Ironblood captain swallowed, a Frostvein trap-man felt sweat on his back even though the cold was biting his skin and the Shadowstalkers had it the worst, they hadn’t moved ever since Kael looked at them.
Kael, however, no longer cared about them, he simply raised his hand and pointed at the highest ledge.
"You. Leader."
The Stormcaller Chief’s stomach dropped.
Kael then pointed at the crack.
"You. Knife-men in the crack."
The Shadowstalkers couldn’t breathe.
"Ironblood with your shields behind the bend."
"Stand up."
Kael commanded.
"Now."
And the moment he said those words, behind the Cinderstep Convoy, it happened—
HOOOOOOH
A horn blew.
The "empty" path behind Kael filled with bodies.
A wave of tribes rushed in.
The Velmourns, the Stonefangs, the Borealis Herd Fighters, Rimewood Rope-men, Shardpeak Tinkers and the Emberfolk—
They were here.
A total of three hundred and eighty-six of them, this, combined with the fifty-two Cindersteps who were already standing there—
It was...
It was a massive army.
And the moment the ’hunting party’ saw the army so large, their eyes widened in absolute horror.
How...?
They couldn’t understand.
How did they not see... an army so absurdly large...?
Why did the scouts not report it?
Did they... betray them?
They wondered.
But—
The answer was far simpler than that.
The scouts did not betray them, what they saw was... merely an illusion Vitaria made them see.
Because of Imperia, Kael already knew the location of every single ground scout there was, as for the scouts in the air, Cirri, who had been in her sky form all this while, took care of it all.
She pointed at the Flying Beasts the enemy scouts controlled, Vitaria made them see what she made the scouts see—
They never knew.
This was the ’minor’ detail the scouts had missed.
An army of three hundred and eighty-six warriors.
And the ’hunting party’ realized it.
This was no longer a hunt.
It was... a trap.
A trap they had stepped into willingly.
The army moved—
A Velmourn shield line appeared on the lower path behind the bend, cutting off retreat.
Stonefang elites climbed the rock wall to the left like they were born for it, taking the ledges the Stormcallers had claimed.
Rimewood men threw rope nets across two narrow side paths, sealing exits.
Shardpeak tinkers rushed to the bomb points and began digging with bare hands, pulling out black shards and tossing them into cloth sacks like they were collecting rocks.
And just like that—
The hunting party was surrounded.
Their escape routes were sealed.
It was over.
Before it even began.
"No one moves without my word."
Kael commanded.
The Velmourn line stopped.
The Stonefang elites stopped.
And surprisingly, so did the new tribes.
It was surprising to see Kael command all the tribes with his voice, but... how could it not work?
Just at this moment alone, Kael’s presence had become something... much larger than what any of them believed.
If before, they had only heard of what Kael could do, if before, they only joined because Kael offered them food, protection and something they desired—
Now, it was different.
Now, the Stormcaller Leaders were standing right in front of them, with their heads down.
The Tribe they thought might control the Heights, their Leaders were captured by the likes of them simply because they followed this man’s words.
The Stormcaller Chief’s lips trembled, he looked at the men around him.
"Fall back."
He whispered.
But... where?
They were on a ledge.
If they jumped, they risked falling into mist.
If they ran, the Stonefangs would catch them on rock.
If they stayed then...
Well... then they’d be trapped.
The Chief understood it as well, he was helpless and in his helplessness, his eyes darted to a small pouch in his belt.
A black shard bomb.
If he threw it down at the convoy, made a gap and escaped in the chaos...
"Don’t."
The moment his fingers moved, he heard Kael’s cold voice, he looked and noticed that Kael was looking right at him, as if he knew what he was planning.
The Chief swallowed.
How did he know?
Was he truly... a God?
He couldn’t help but question in his head as he swallowed.
His fingers loosened, he gave up on his plan.
"To everyone hiding."
Kael spoke again.
"If you move, you die."
He declared.
"Surrender."
He demanded.
And that was when it happened.
One of the Stormcaller Leaders, the woman, who had come up with most of this plan, suddenly put her hand inside her Sanctuary.
That made Kael frown since he knew she didn’t have a bomb, but it didn’t matter.
He prepared to defend the Cindersteps from the bomb while the Stonefangs behind her moved to capture her—
But what the woman brought out was not a bomb—
It was a teleportation crystal.
She then looked into Kael’s eyes and—
"We will meet other again."
She warned him and then—
She disappeared.