Galaxy Fall: All My Skills Are Maxed

Chapter 379: Fire Lord

​Mirabella reappeared before the floating silhouette of the Golden Palace. Without missing a beat, she casually snapped her fingers, storing the castle directly back into her personal storage.

​"Where are the others?" She asked with absolute calm, looking over her shoulder at Grace, Carl, and Rose.

​"They rushed directly to the city center after hearing Lord Hayatobi’s emergency mental broadcast calling all active Dragon Academy students to form a defensive line," Grace answered promptly. Her hands nervously, as she lowered her gaze below, where the fifty red-skinned zombies stood in eerie formation.

​"Some of these things followed behind them, while these particular zombies below us are keeping their unblinking eyes entirely fixed on us. They haven’t broken aggregation since you left," she added.

​Mirabella slowly and deliberately nodded her head. ’I could easily fuse with Adira right now and wipe out every single one of these zombies in less than ten seconds... But doing so would prematurely expose my trump card to whatever entity is orchestrating this invasion from the dark.’ She turned her gaze toward the burning, smoke-choked skyline of the metropolis.

​"Come with me." She ordered, and shot toward the burning city. The three guild members burst into motion, following right behind her.

​GRAAAAA!!!

​Directly below them, the fifty red-skinned zombies let out terrifying roars. Abandoning their stagnant guard positions, they shot forward, running with hyper-accelerated speed on the stone ground, their glowing crimson eyes fixed completely on the four airborne figures flying directly above them like tracking beacons.

___

​BOOOOM!!

​The shockwave of a localized shockwave rippled through the southern thoroughfare. Lord Hayatobi moved backward in a fluid, high-speed evasion sequence, his boots skidding across the cracked asphalt before he cleanly landed beside Master Teacher Keegan.

​"These things are entirely unkillable." He muttered under his breath, casually dusting the white sand off his heavy uniform shoulder.

​"I know that all too well! But if we can’t definitively hold this perimeter and kill them, we will lose the entirety of Galaxy City before sunrise," Keegan added through gritted teeth. "And where the hell is Nadia?!!"

​"That petty old hag might still be throwing a childish tantrum over the tournament’s outcome..." Hayatobi sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair and rubbing the back of his neck in deep frustration.

"It’s just a standard academy competition, I really don’t see why she was so angry about the result... Jessica must be an exceptionally asset to her academy for her to act this irrational." He added.

​"Innocent people are actively dying by the hundreds! And she is still somewhere throwing a pathetic tantrum!! Did she completely forget that there are also a massive number of Sword Empire’s own civilians trapped here?!" Keegan was clearly furious, his aura flaring red. He could not understand why a designated Master Teacher would intentionally stand back and watch the total destruction of a city.

​"We can’t do anything about that woman’s twisted morals right now," Hayatobi exhaled softly, and turned his head to Master Teacher Yakima, who stood a short distance away, maintaining the defensive perimeter.

​"Yakima, what is the exact status of the survivors?" He asked, his voice cutting through the roar of the fires.

​"Roughly half of the city’s civilian population has been successfully routed and rescued toward the evacuation zone... But as for the remaining half trapped in the lower commercial sectors, I honestly don’t know," she muttered grimly. Without breaking her sentence, she executed a flawless, blinding horizontal strike, slashing completely through ten advancing zombies with a dense wave of pressurized wind energy.

’If we attack continuously, we can kill the normal zombies, but the red ones.’ She sighed.

​"This is an absolute nightmare!! If we rush our main forces deep into the city streets, we will inevitably get surrounded and clash with those things without a proper chokepoint! And if we simply fly over the city to cherry-pick survivors, we won’t be physically able to save many people from the ground hordes," Keegan thought aloud. He raised his head anxiously to the sky, seeing a bright golden ball of light flying swiftly towards their defensive position.

​"....?!"

​The Master Teachers all blinked in synchronization, staring intently at the three figures encapsulated within the descending orb.

​"Thank goodness you guys are safe!" Keegan sighed in profound relief, his eyes immediately recognizing the students.

"Mariana, are there any other survivors from the medical sector?"

​The dense energy barrier lightly touched the ruined ground and shattered cleanly into harmless particles of light:

"I am sorry, Master Teachers. No one survived within the central hospital... As for the rest of the city, it is completely in chaos... I say we cut our losses and abandon the island entirely," Mariana stated flatly.

​"We can’t do that yet," Hayatobi stated firmly, crossing his arms tightly over his chest as he stood like an immovable wall.

"We have already successfully formed a secure, continuous defensive line here; none of those things will get past this specific intersection alive. Furthermore, the central continental teleportation circles are located right behind our current positions; if we proactively destroy the city or retreat, how would we safely return our students to the respective empires?" He asked, highlighting the logistical trap.

​"Yes, Mariana, flying off this isolated island back to the mainland empires would take at least several weeks of continuous flight, and none of us currently possess the massive energy reserves required to sustain a barrier of that scale over open ocean," Yakima added, confirming the lock.

​"Okay, then what’s the immediate plan?" Mariana asked, drawing her golden guzheng and preparing for a prolonged siege.

​"The plan is to simply keep fighting."

​The weary group simultaneously turned their heads to the eastern flank of the avenue, seeing a young man walking confidently towards them through the smoke. He was dressed in a striking, all-red ceremonial combat uniform, with a heavy red cape billowing dramatically behind his shoulders, his long, vibrant red hair moving gracefully in the hot wind.

​Marching in perfect lockstep behind his heels were two elite women, both outfitted in the exact same crimson guild attire.

​"Antonio Blaze, the Guild Leader of Blaze Guild," Mariana muttered in mild surprise, recognizing one of the Dragon Empire’s premier independent powerhouse.

​"Oh, I am deeply honored to be recognized by the Guardian of the Eagle Empire," Antonio said with a soft, pristine smile, pausing his advance to give a small, perfectly executed bow.

​"What on earth are you doing here, Antonio?! Your explicit imperial orders were to protect the royal family, and escort them back at the capital!" Hayatobi snapped at him, his brow furrowing.

​"Teacher Hayatobi, I only felt comfortable leaving my post because Lady Beatrice Zachary, the Great Mage of our empire, is currently handling their personal security details... I came here entirely to help stabilize this front," Antonio explained smoothly, his calm smile never leaving his face despite the horrific scenery surrounding them.

​Hayatobi exhaled softly, the reinforcement welcoming regardless of the breach of protocol, and lightly shook his head. "As you can see, elite fighters from both the Eagle and Dragon Empires have already naturally gathered here, forming this continuous line stretching from the first end of the city wall to the other end. Our singular task right now is to defend this line at all costs, and buy enough time for the surviving civilians to completely clear out using the teleportation circles!" He explained the current tactical parameters of the defense.

​"This is truly so bad... If our intelligence networks had even remotely known such an anomalous event would occur on this neutral ground, we would have obviously come accompanied by our strongest forces. As it stands, the only capable fighters currently present in Galaxy City are those who originally came merely to watch the Glory Flag Competition. What absolute bad luck," Antonio said with a soft, unbothered smile on his face, his eyes narrowing as the first wave of green skin began to breach the fog.