“That was stupid,” Henry reprimanded himself as he looked around his now all-too-unfamiliar surroundings. Though he was still surrounded by trees, the formation was not one that he had ever seen. He might still be in a forest but it was a different one. “Oh, fuck…” he muttered unconsciously.

  He had been fighting the kingdom’s army in one moment and in the next, he was here, in a completely unfamiliar forest. He knew how he ended up here. A teleportation spell. He expected the enemy to use it on themselves to escape but to think they would use it on him. Now that he was gone, they were free to invade Ulrum.

  “No, they won’t.” Henry immediately refuted himself. “Less than half of their forces remained intact. Even if they still have their war machines, they don’t have enough manpower to operate them. At best, they would retreat to their camp, if they had one, and reorganise their advance.”

  But that was only if they had any sensibility, Henry realised. From what he had experienced and seen, the Grand Mage was a formidable opponent. He was also cunning. If he chose to continue with the invasion, no doubt he could do some serious damage to the Lavans even if they wouldn’t succeed with their invasion.

  Regardless of what the army intended to do, Henry’s first and foremost priority was to get himself back to the battle. He took to the air and soared straight until he was just beneath the clouds. From this altitude, he surveyed the nds. Thankfully, he instantly saw something promising. There was smoke trailing into the sky but it was near the horizon of his sight. Moreover, the mountain range far into the horizon was familiar. There was no doubt that was where the battle had taken pce and where he was teleported from.

  “Well, no time to lose.” Saying to himself, Henry flew in that direction at full speed. It would take him only a few minutes at most through the air. Flight was truly a convenient thing. It was perhaps one of the things he liked the most about being a dragon, that and his nigh-impenetrable skin. If he wasn’t semi-invulnerable, he doubted he would have survived for so long or even stayed sane from being in a world of pain.

  As Henry was about halfway to his destination, he suddenly stopped and made a sharp descent straight to the ground. By this point, he had learned how to make a proper nding without making a crater and causing a deafening noise. There were many ways to do so but the easiest one was to change to his human form moments before he hit the ground. He wasn’t sure how physics worked here but his falling velocity seemed to be reduced upon assuming his human form as he freefalled.

  Once on the ground, he camoufged himself among the tall and dense vegetation. He carefully observed his surroundings. Though there was no presence in sight, his hearing told a different story. It was a thunderous roar of metal meets dirt. There was only one scenario that could make such a booming sound. A march of an army. He had not seen them but he felt their presence and he also felt Murux. Mages lurked amongst the army that he sensed. From what he could tell, they were marching in the direction of Ulrum.

  “Reinforcements?” Henry mused. It was very likely but there was no way of confirming it until he had seen them. The insignias on their armour and the banners they raised would tell him of the army’s affiliation.

  Henry thought about approaching them immediately and nipped the problem in the bud. He rose from the vegetation he was concealing himself in, but he stopped himself from taking a step forward. He had learned his lesson. Unless he could wipe them all out in one fell swoop, it was best not to confront them directly. Even if he couldn’t be harmed, there were other ways to incapacitate him, such as teleporting him away.

  “If this comes to a direct confrontation, I would need to take out the mages first. Then… the Syers should be next, or the commanding officers. The foot soldiers will be the st.” Henry made a mental pn. He wasn’t confident that he could pull the whole thing off without raising any arms. At the very least, he hoped to take out the mages before he was exposed.

  With that flimsy pn in mind, Henry crept towards the army following the sound. The sound of the army marching got louder and louder until he could finally see them.

  “Huh?” Henry blurted out inadvertently.

  The soldiers had no insignia anywhere on their armour. They carried no banners. Most importantly, each one of them was donned in armour that didn’t look like what foot soldiers could afford. If anything, they looked like a ptoon of elite soldiers. He assumed they were knights at first but what kind of knight would neglect showing their banner or insignia? Unless…

  Henry stopped in his tracks. He was nowhere close enough for the ptoon to spot him amongst the vegetation but that was taking only their ordinary visuals into account. He felt a barrier a foot or two in front of him. It was barely visible. He wouldn’t have noticed it if he wasn’t cautious. He didn’t know what kind of barrier it was but it was certain that making physical contact with the barrier was foolish.

  “Now what to do?” Henry began to contempte. He had only one stealth ability and it could only be used for espionage at best. Making any big movements would break the camoufge. He could snipe the mages with his abilities but none of them were subtle enough to go unnoticed. They were either too fshy or too noisy.

  Just then, the army stopped its march and in turn, pulled Henry out of his thoughts. The army was marching on paved roads when they came to a stop. There was a soldier in red armour in the middle of the army formation on a heavily ornate horse. Evidently, he was the commanding officer. His face was covered by the helmet he was wearing but it was clear that he was scrutinising his surroundings.

  “Did he notice me?” Henry had such a foreboding feeling.

  The red soldier gnced back and gestured for a mage to come forward. The mage-in-question hurriedly scrambled his way up to the red soldier.

  “Y-yes, my lord?” asked the mage.

  “Did you not detect anything?”

  “N-no, my lord. If we did, we would have told you already. Is there something wrong, my lord?”

  The red soldier gnced away from the mage, directing his gaze in Henry’s direction.

  For a split second, Henry thought he had been found but he calmed himself down immediately. It was unlikely for him to have been exposed. His camoufge managed to even fool the monsters and beasts of Ulrum.

  The red soldier eventually pried his gaze away and climbed down from his horse. His action seemed to surprise his peers.

  “My lord? Are we stopping here? We just had our rest not ten minutes ago.”

  “Everyone, spread out and set up a perimeter. We’re being watched.”

  Henry felt shivers running down his spine. Was he truly not exposed, he asked himself.

  The soldiers did not argue nor did they need to be told a second time. They broke their marching formation and went to their respective positions.

  “Watched? By who?” the mage inquired.

  “By what, you mean.”

  “Impossible, my lord. No beast or monster in the province can escape your net.”

  “Net?” Henry’s eyes perked at the mention of a peculiar term.

  “There is much that we still do not know. Do not presume we have documented every kind of creature living on this continent.”

  “Of course, my lord. We shall expand the sentry barrier. Now that we have ceased our march, it will not be a problem to double the radius of the sentry barrier.”

  “Oh… fuck,” Henry cursed inwardly. If the barrier doubled in radius, he would certainly be in its perimeter. As for whether he would be exposed or not, that was another matter. “Maybe I won't be discovered.” Henry had such wishful thinking. Even if he was discovered, it was not the end. At worst, things would just become annoying but not unfeasible.

  The barrier grew in size and swallowed Henry as it expanded.

  Henry braced himself for the imminent fight but seconds went by without the arm being raised. The soldiers were even walking by him and none took notice of him. If a soldier looked like they would bump into Henry, he would move slightly out of the way, just enough to be grazed. Henry heaved a sigh of relief. Now that his biggest worry was out of the way, he began to search for the mages.

  “The barrier detected nothing, my lord,” the mage reported.

  “The creature is either watching us from further away or… it is versatile enough to not be detected by your barrier.”

  “That is unlikely, my lord. This is a second-grade spell. Even the empire’s spies cannot escape the barrier’s detection. If such a creature exists, the barrier cast on the royal keep is in danger. If our enemies got their hands on such a creature, they could experiment on it and most likely make use of the creature’s ability to their advantage.”

  “I am well aware of the implications, which is why we must find the creature at all costs.”

  “It shall be done, my lord. We will use a sonar spell to find this creature.”

  “Well, shit.”

  “Alive or dead, my lord?”

  “Alive.”

  “Understood, my lord.” The mage bowed and finally left the red soldier’s sight.

  Henry’s gaze also left the red soldier and followed the mage, who rushed his way to a rge carriage just some distance away from the red soldier’s position. The carriage was the size of a small hut and it was a wonder to Henry that the seemingly thin and feeble wheels and axle were able to support it. Henry focused his senses on the carriage. The density of Murux was at its highest in that carriage.

  “How wonderful,” Henry tittered silently. It was simply too humorous. Mages were always huddled together. From what he had gathered, it was most likely for the purpose of strengthening their spell’s effectiveness and speeding up the chant.

  There were four Syers surrounding the carriage and they were the only guards. The humans had a lot of faith in these Syers. Henry could understand why. Even Vishara found them annoying to deal with and Henry himself had a hard time in the past. Their metallic bodies possessed magic resistance but it was only resistance, not immunity. Moreover, the carriage appeared to be of a simir kind of machine as the spider-like golem machine. Whatever these machines were using as fuel, it was highly fmmable and explosive.

  “It’s now or never.”

  Henry rose to his feet. His camoufge remained intact but his movements were taken notice by the red soldier. The red soldier looked his way once more and began to stride towards him. Henry grinned and broke his stealth.

  The soldiers that were searching near him were dumbfounded at his sudden appearance. The red soldier was befuddled by Henry’s appearance but he recovered faster than the others. Before the red soldier could shout, Henry took on his true form, instantly crushing dozens of soldiers that trod too near to him. Henry immediately bsted the carriage with Fire Breath. The Syers stood in the way of the fire but the fire wasn’t solid and it simply swallowed the Syers along with the carriage.

  As per his expectation, the carriage exploded magnificently and devastatingly. The explosion took quite a bit of colteral but it worked in Henry’s favour.

  “Now that those pesky mages have been dealt with. Let’s—” Henry had his thoughts interrupted halfway as a wave of aura struck in the side of his head. It barely hurt but it did shake his bance quite heavily. He turned to his assaint, which was the red soldier, wielding a greatsword that was brimming with red energy.

  “Damn beast!” the red soldier roared. “You will regret crossing paths with me for I am—”

  Henry did not hear him out and cut the theatrics short by severing the red soldier in half with his Jetstream Breath.