Chapter Text
The midday sun was glaring on everyone foolish enough to not seek protection from the heat. Though the people below the sky had no way to seek refuge in the shade of the trees close to them, after all they were in an active battlefield.
One side of the field was filled with bear and lion best people, humans with a fanaticism to their leader, black mages using the power of dead mana and despair, and the leader. The one who is called the White Star was directing his men in this battle.
The main objective of this battle was not the conquer of land, the annihilation of their enemies, and not even to fulfill the search to the Earth Ancient Power he needed. No. The main objective was to get rid of the annoying pest that had been getting in his way and destroying plans older than the bastard.
This battle was to get rid of Cale Henituse.
Said man, the enemy of the White Star was commanding the other side of the field. He was the redhead commander of the soldier, mages, tiger beast people, and his own group consisting of a swordmaster, a genius mage, two assassins, two cat beast children, and a little dragon that was at his side all the time.
Cale frowned in annoyance and confusion while gazing at the battlefield. His soldiers were fighting valiantly against the berserk bears and lions, with the support of the tigers there was not much to worry about. The mages were doing alright against the black mages thanks to the support of Rosalyn and Choi Han. Both were very strong and alongside the mages they were making sure the black mages ranged attacks did not damage their side.
Ron and Beacrox were hidden in between the enemies and slaying necks one by one without being detected. Ohn and Hong were with the assassins and helped them by poisoning their victims. They insisted on going with Ron as a kind of stealth training exercise. Cale told them to do whatever they wanted and pretended to not notice the vicious smile Ron had on his face.
Cale was annoyed that the White Star had decided to attack at this location and at this very moment. The dark elves were still constructing the trap and Taylor was working on the fake ancient text that the Whales would accidentally lose to the White Radish. That he attacked now that he was just visiting part of the army that was about to move from the Empire to the Caro kingdom was annoying.
But what confused Cale was the attack itself. There weren't as many enemies as Cale knew the White Star commanded. The lack of either the Bear or Lion King and the fact that the White Star was only watching made it seem as if the reincarnator was not really trying.
-Human this is weird! They seem more weak but that bastard is not weak- Raon was as confused as himself.
“He is planning something” Cale mumbled.
-It doesn't matter what he plans. We are strong! We can beat this bastard!- Raon cheerfully sent curses to the radish.
Cale was nodding to Raon ramblings when he noticed many figures from the enemy's mages suddenly running towards the battlefield. They had backpacks and no weapons on sight.
“Suicide bombers” Cale grumbled. There were at least a two dozen of them and Cale was not sure if the bombs were normal magic bombs or the ones with dead mana. Either were dangerous anyway.
-I’ll put up a shield. Human, you don't have to use yours- Raon said. He didn't want his human to cough out blood again.
“Sure I’ll-” Cale was going to say that he would put his shield behind Raon’s to pretend he did the work, but he was interrupted by the young dragon.
-Human behind us!- Raon detected more enemies running toward them.
Looking behind, Cale could see other bombers coming at them. It seemed that they had remained hidden and, after some kind of signal, they jumped to attack. It seemed that it didn't matter that they would kill people from their own side, though that didn't surprise Cale. The white bastard would kill his own people to achieve his selfish goals.
“Shit, mages shield!” Cale commanded white pointing at the back.
His mages responded immediately and created various shields. Raon used that opportunity to create his own shields to protect the soldiers from the front bombers. Cale then used the indestructible shield to cover both places. That thinned his own shield but with the addition of the ones put by Raon and the mages, Cale was sure that his shield would not break.
Hopefully.
Thanks to the acceleration magic, the bombers were upon them in no time. It seemed that they did not need a mage because as soon as they reached the shields, they exploded.
“Ugh” Cale frowned. The sound and fire of the explosions were strong. His ears were ringing and he could barely see anything outside of the shield with the amount of fire and smoke around them.
What was strange was the lack of strength of the bombs. Sure it killed the bombers as soon as they activated, but he didn’t see as many broken shields as he expected. Had Raon made stronger shields this time?
Because of the wall of fire and smoke, Cale didn't see the White Star moving as soon as the fire started. He didn't see the fire sword ripping apart the shield made by humans and a dragon. Although he felt the indestructible shield getting an opening, he couldn't see what was behind it. The redhead commander did not see the extremely fast object crossing that opening. He was only aware of it when it was too late.
-Human!-
Cale did feel the arrow striking his shoulder.
“Fuck!” Cale grimaced. That hurt like hell, and he hated pain!
Looking at his injury Cale noticed that the arrow was strange. It was made of stone and had engravings of a strange language on it.
-That bastard! I'll destroy everything! I'll kill them all!- Raon was extremely angry that his human was hurt.
Cale looked at where he knew the opening was in his shield and, as the fire was receding, he could see the white bastard with a smirk on his face and a ripped teleportation scroll on his hand before he disappeared.
“Tsk” Cale was in pain and annoyed. It seemed that the white radish had set a trap for him and he fell on it.
“Cale-nim!” Choi Han saw his liege hurt and jumped towards him.
“Choi Han, I’m fine” Cale felt fine besides the pain in his shoulder. He needed to get the arrow out so that his healing Ancient Power could work properly.
“Cale-nim” Choi Han's eyes were shaking. How could he say that he was fine when he had an arrow still impaling him?
“Raon, tell Ron to come here” Cale said before looking at Choi Han, “Choi Han, get rid of the enemy”
“Yes, Cale-nim” Choi Han nodded and his vicious aura came forth before launching himself to the fray.
Cale ignored the scary sight of Choi Han slaughtering the enemy while waiting for Ron, he hoped that the arrow was not poisoned, but it was hard to tell. He didn't feel weakened or any kind of pain moving from the injury.
-I… sob… I don't feel any poison in you… all your organs are fine and your plate is not suffering- the crybaby informed him. There was no one that knew his body better.
-We still don't know what that strange arrow does. We must be careful- the super rock said.
Cale nodded at the wise words of the Earth Ancient Power when Ron touched his uninjured shoulder.
“Young master, it's not a good idea to sleep right now” Ron smiled at Cale with his usual benign smile.
“Obviously” Cale said. He did not know what Ron was talking about, there was too much noise around to take a nap.
Ron nodded and made sure his young master sat down on the spot. The old assassin had seen Cale moving his head up and down as if he was fighting sleep. That was not a good sign. He had to make sure that the poison in the arrow would not move to the rest of the body too fast, that's why he made Cale sit.
Cale stood still while Ron examined his injury. He saw Choi Han move like a monster or demon slaughtering everything that was not on their side. He looked scary, but Cale could see how efficient he was. He also saw fireballs and mana arrows falling into the enemies, even the ones trying to escape. Rosalyn and Raon had joined forces and were decimating the black mages.
“Hmm… strange. I can not detect any kind of poison on the arrow or yourself, young master” Ron frowned. He was an expert in discovering poisons, even the ones that had no taste or smell. The fact that his young master was not poisoned was unusual. Why else would anyone shoot an arrow at him?
“Raon” Cale mumbled.
-Yes human?- Raon had not left his human’s side.
“Any magic on it?” Cale asked. If it wasn't poison then it might be magic.
-I don't detect any magic, but there is a weak energy on it- Raon made sure to include Ron in his mind communication so he also knew.
“So it's safe to put it out” Cale said.
-Yes human- Raon said.
“In that case, allow me, young master” Ron smiled and before Cale knew it, the butler pulled out the arrow in a swift movement.
“Ow!” Cale grumbled. That hurt a lot!
“My apologizes” the old butler said even if it was the redhead’s idea to get the arrow out of his shoulder. He decided to take hold of the offending object for now. There was no need for his young master to touch the thing more than necessary.
“It’s fine” Cale said and looked at the injury.
The redhead, assassin, and dragon saw how the injury closed in a fast way leaving not even a scar behind. The regenerative capabilities of his Ancient Power were great.
-I don't detect anything in you human, and the weird arrow still has the weird energy- Raon informed after scanning his human and the offending arrow once more.
“Alright, let's finish here and return fast” Cale said. He would let Eruhaben and Sheritt-nim look at it when they returned to the Black Castle.
“Of course, young master” Ron said but he did not join the fray again. The old butler was going to guard the young master and not let anything near.
-Human, can I destroy the arrow?- Raon was glaring at the stone arrow wanting to explode the thing.
Cale looked at the arrow in Ron’s hold deep in thought. It would be very satisfying to destroy that thing as it had hurt a lot and Cale hated pain. But the strange stone arrow was covered with the strange symbols and Cale didn't want to risk being defenseless if the White Star had more of these things and those worked.
“Not now” Cale said and ignored the whining of the vicious dragon.
Inside an enormous sinkhole, there was a white castle at the bottom of it. Inside said castle, there was a room currently occupied by two people. One was a redhead with a white mask hiding the upper half of his face. This was the White Star and he was lounging on a sofa while looking at his subordinate.
“So, was the gift useful?” Sayeru, the feeble looking Bear King asked with a smirk.
“You said it takes time for it to act. Though it was satisfying to stab Henituse with it” the White Star said in a bored tone.
“Ha ha! Imagine their faces when they find their beloved commander in that state” Sayeru grinned.
“If it works as you claim, they will kill the annoying bastard before knowing it was him” the White Star said blandly.
“It will work. We tested it many times before” Sayeru declared with a lot of confidence.
The White Star nodded and dismissed the Bear King out of his room.
The plan was simple, after using the divine object of an unknown god on Cale Henituse, it was only a matter of time for his subordinates to kill their commander. The arrow has been tested extensively ever since it was found by Sayeru 100 years ago. It would transform humans into rabid monsters after they sleep for five minutes, and when killed, those monsters would return to their human selves. Of course, as a corpse.
There was no need to research for how long the transformation would last. After the humans they tested the arrow in did not transform back after a day, it was good enough for him. The arrow had only been used twice when used as a weapon for assassination and the victims had always been killed a few hours later by their own security.
The White Star smiled at the thought of how the one human that's been an outlier in his plans would disappear bringing even more despair into the world.
The plan of the White Star would have worked if not for a small detail he had no way of knowing.
Cale did not sleep alone at night. After all, his three kids had to make sure he was actually sleeping.