Chapter 218: Tilting
The clash at the center escalated quickly. What had begun as a violent exchange between two fighters who had awakened otherworldly power now expanded into something far more catastrophic. Like a growing disaster that refused to stay contained.
The collision between Michael and Red pushed the destruction everywhere, widening the zone of devastation with each passing second.
Dark flames surged violently from Michael’s spear and body while Red’s searing crimson mist aura exploded against it. The two forces clashing and rejecting each other in a continuous chain of detonations that tore through everything around them.
Fire spread uncontrollably across the battlefield. The red mist thickened and churned like boiling liquid in the air to collide against the dark flames in bursts that sent shockwaves rippling outward.
The ground cracked deeper, structures and plants collapsed faster, the space between them became an unstable domain where heat and pressure erased anything that dared get too close to them.
The destruction was expanding.
—
From atop the wall, Hana stood frozen as she watched the widening chaos below. Her hands tightened against the edge of the crystal wall as her eyes locked onto the inferno where Michael and Red continued to clash.
Around her, the ranged attackers hesitated.
One of them stepped closer, his bow lowered slightly as uncertainty crept into his voice.
"We can’t shoot in that direction," he said, glancing toward the dark flames and mist chaos. "If we fire now we’ll hit Michael too."
Another one of the ranged attackers nodded quickly while gripping his weapon tighter. He said. "But if we don’t help, he’s fighting alone in there..."
Their voices overlapped with worry, the tension spreading among them as they struggled between action and not action.
Hana didn’t answer immediately. Her lips pressed together tightly as she bit down on the inside of her mouth. Her gaze still fixed on the battlefield below.
The firelight reflected in her eyes as deep and agonizing worry spread across her expression. She understood exactly what they were feeling. She wanted to help him too.
But she also knew the reality of the situation.
Any attack they launched now would not distinguish between friend and enemy. The battlefield at the center had turned into an uncontrollable mess. Any interference would only make it worse.
Slowly, she forced herself to look away.
Her gaze shifted across the battlefield instead, scanning the wider situation beyond the inferno.
Her eyes moved from one clash to another. She looks in the state of both sides as she steadied her breathing and pushed her emotions down.
Then she spoke.
"Don’t aim there," Hana said firmly, her voice cutting through the hesitation around her. She turned toward them, her expression still tense but now controlled. "Redirect your fire to support the others."
The ranged attackers paused, their attention snapping fully to her.
Hana continued without hesitation, forcing clarity into her tone despite the worry still lingering beneath it.
"Red’s numbers are dropping faster than ours. We need to keep that momentum and win the field outside that fight."
Her words settled over them.
The hesitation broke.
"Yes!" one of them answered quickly, raising his weapon again. "Relay the order!"
The command spread almost instantly along the crystal wall as archers and ranged fighters adjusted their positions and changed their aim away from the center and toward the remaining clusters of Red’s troops.
Arrows and projectiles began to fly again with renewed coordination as they supported the ongoing battles across the field.
Hana remained where she stood.
Her hands clenched slightly at her sides as her gaze drifted back just for a moment, toward the inferno at the center.
She was a healer.
In any other situation, she would have already moved, already been among the wounded, stabilizing those who could still be saved. But not now.
If she descended into that chaos, she would become a liability.
She didn’t have the strength to fight. She would need constant protection just to survive and in a battlefield like this, that kind of burden would only put others at risk.
Her jaw tightened slightly.
So she stayed here.
She forced herself to remain on the wall, to command and guide the ranged attackers, to do the one thing she could still do effectively.
But even as she gave orders and watched the battlefield shift under their control, her eyes kept returning to that growing storm of fire and blood.
The longer she looked at it, the heavier the unease in her chest became.
—
From his concealed position behind the fractured remains of a collapsed structure, Rafe continued to observe the battlefield with sharp and calculating eyes.
The chaos unfolding before him no longer looked like a random clash of desperate survivors. Patterns had begun to form, and more importantly, the balance had started to shift.
He saw clearly how Myles moved like a blade cutting through the flow of battle, his presence carving gaps into Red’s formation with ruthless efficiency.
Everywhere he passed bodies fell, and those gaps never closed again. Victor and the others reinforced that momentum to push harder and faster, refusing to let Red’s forces recover their footing.
The pressure built steadily, and with the support from the ranged attackers above, Red’s troops began to lose their advantage piece by piece.
Their numbers were dropping too quickly.
Rafe’s eyes narrowed slightly as that realization settled in his mind. The faint smirk on his face slowly fading into a more serious expression. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
"This can’t be happening..." he muttered under his breath, his tone losing its earlier amusement as he continued to watch Myles cut down another group without slowing.
If this continued, one side would win too quickly and that was unacceptable.
He didn’t want a victor. He needed both sides to weaken each other until nothing remained strong enough to resist. That was the only outcome that he wanted.
Which meant he could no longer stay still.
His gaze shifted to search through the battlefield until he found what he was looking for. One of Red’s elites was still holding her ground not too far from the outer edge of the conflict. Her movements were still steady and controlled as she fought off multiple opponents at once.
He moved there. Keeping low and fast, Rafe slipped through the edges of the battlefield past the chaos without drawing unnecessary attention.
His path was deliberate to avoid the heaviest clashes while closing the distance quickly.
It didn’t take long before he reached her.
The woman noticed him immediately as he approached. Her eyes flicked toward him for a moment before returning to the enemies in front of her. She didn’t show any alarm because she already knew who he was.
"What’s up?" she asked casually.
Rafe stepped in just behind her flank, his presence calm but his eyes still sharp as they scanned the battlefield ahead.
"We need to move," he said without wasting time.
The woman glanced at him again, a slight frown forming as she caught the shift in his tone. "Move where?"
Rafe’s gaze locked onto the distant figure of Myles, who continued tearing through their forces without pause.
"To him," he answered. His expression hardened slightly as his next words came out with clear intent. "We need to deal with Myles and his group now or we lose this battle."
—
