Gliding silently through the night sky, Rei and Set successfully touched down near the center of the encampment.
They remained motionless for a moment, suppressed their presence, and surveyed the area. Fortunately, no sentries seemed to have spotted them.
Between the lethargy following a post-feast dinner and the overconfidence of being deep within their own territory—barely a day’s march from the Imperial Capital— the soldiers lacked any real sense of urgency. While not every man was slacking, even the few who were performing their duties with sincerity never expected an intruder to drop from the heavens. Very few sentries bothered to watch the sky.
If word had spread that Rei was cooperating with the Rebel Army, they might have been more vigilant. However, his involvement remained unconfirmed. Had the leadership publicized that "Crimson" was their enemy, those who knew of Rei's performance in the Spring War or the Fighting Tournament would likely have deserted. Even if they stayed, a devastating blow to morale was a certainty. For those reasons, the truth of his identity was still being suppressed.
In fact, the only creatures to notice Rei and Set’s arrival were the Wyverns stationed at the edge of the camp.
The mounts of the army’s few Dragon Knights perceived the intruders with their keen five senses. However, rather than raising an alarm, they cowered in silence. Overwhelmed by the difference in rank between themselves and the King of Birds and Beasts, the sub-dragons could only huddle together in terror. Had their riders been present, they might have rallied the Wyverns to action, but the soldiers and their mounts were currently separated—a fatal oversight.
"…Alright, it looks like we’re in the clear. Set, you ready?"
"Guruuu," Set gave a low, soft trill.
The griffon understood the gravity of their mission. If they failed here, the Mobile Unit approaching on horseback would likely be discovered and annihilated. To ensure their success, this night raid had to be absolute.
I could cause even more damage if I used Flame Ore, Rei thought. No, if I make it too powerful, I might catch the Mobile Unit in the crossfire.
He shook his head to clear the thought and focused his mind. He could hear the heavy snoring of soldiers in nearby tents and the chirping of insects that defined the autumn night.
He waited for thirty minutes. When the pre-arranged time finally arrived, Rei looked at Set.
Understanding the signal, Set let out a short cry toward the center of the camp and activated Tornado. As the whirlwind spiraled into existence, Rei gripped his Death Scythe and began his incantation.
"Flame, manifest your power like a blazing scorch as a vortex!"
With the final words, he hurled the lump of flame generated at the Death Scythe's butt end into the heart of the wind.
"Swirling Hellfire!"
As the two phenomena overlapped, Rei activated his Wind Hand skill. Wind tentacles reached into the vortex, and he began pouring his Magic Power into the wind tornado just as it was about to be consumed by the heat. Under the influx of mana, the wind surged, growing until it matched the fire in scale.
The two merged. In an instant, they fused into a massive, towering Firestorm.
By now, the sentries’ frantic shouts had begun to rouse the camp. Soldiers stumbled out of their tents, only to freeze in stunned silence at the sight of the inferno before them.
Those far from the center were the lucky ones. The men in the tents near the Firestorm's origin were incinerated before they could even comprehend what was happening. It wasn't just those who stepped outside; the vortex swallowed the tents whole, consuming those still sleeping, those trying to dress, and those frantically reaching for their armor.
Fueled by Rei’s Magic Power, the Firestorm grew more violent by the second. The reality of the nightmare finally set in when the first of the gawking soldiers were sucked into the swirling hellfire, their screams echoing through the night.
The initial burst had already claimed nearly a thousand lives, but that was only the beginning. The Firestorm expanded, devouring men, tents, and supply wagons. It swallowed the horses and the warhorses nearby. Roaring with a terrifying hunger, the vortex did not stay stationary as it had during the Spring War; instead, perhaps due to the increased level of the Wind Hand skill, it began to wander through the camp like a living calamity.
Though it moved slowly, its sheer size meant that lethal heat radiated far beyond the visible flames. It stole the breath from men’s lungs before they were even touched by the fire. It was no longer a military maneuver; it was a literal disaster, a natural catastrophe given form.
Within mere minutes of the Firestorm’s creation, the Subjugation Army full of elites prepared by the First Prince Faction had been reduced to a broken ruin.
"Evacuate! Get out! Regroup outside the camp! Move, move!"
Shouts rang out through the smoke, but the roaring of the wind drowned out the orders. Many soldiers, unable to hear the command to retreat, simply stared in paralyzed terror until the flames reached them.
Even for those who managed to run, the nightmare was far from over.
The protective fences, originally erected to keep out thieves and monsters, had become the bars of a cage. To escape the ravages of the Firestorm, the soldiers were forced to funnel toward the few narrow entrances. In the crush, panic state took hold. The "elites" of the First Prince Faction vanished, replaced by desperate men who drew their weapons on their own comrades, killing friends they had laughed and drank with hours ago just to reach the exits first.
Had they been calm, ten men working together could have easily torn down the fences. But the towering Firestorm closing in behind them allowed for no such reason. They were only a day’s march from the Imperial Capital; they had been far too relaxed, and now that overconfidence had left them more helpless than raw recruits.
The panic was worst among the veterans of the Spring War. Having seen the Firestorm's power once before, they were already at their breaking point. This new version was larger, more mobile, and more terrifying. Many simply lost their minds, swinging their swords at anything that moved.
"It’s him! He’s come for us!" one man screamed. "We’re dead! We’re all going to die!"
"Shut up and get a hold of yourself! Damn it! Break the fences! Do something!"
One of the three nobles participating in the subjugation shouted as he tried to restrain a rampaging soldier, but his words were lost in the chaos. By this point, roughly 70% of the Subjugation Army had already perished. Over a hundred had died not from fire, but from the blades of their own terrified comrades.
The encampment was no longer a military base; it was an enclosure designed for slaughter.
This was exactly what Rei had intended. A camp’s defenses were meant to repel attacks from the outside, but they were equally effective at trapping those within.
While a few knights and nobles managed to maintain their composure, the general soldiers were beyond hope. They swarmed toward the protective fence entrances, trampling each other in a desperate bid for freedom. But even for those who managed to burst through the gates, safety was an illusion.
"Huff… huff… we made it. We’re alive!"
"Gods, what was that thing? A tornado of fire…"
"I heard rumors… back in the Spring War, when we lost…"
"Wait, are you saying Crimson is working with the rebels!?"
"I don't know who he’s with, but he’s definitely our enemy! Why else would he—gepyu!"
The soldier turned toward his friend, only to see him fall. In the flickering light of the Firestorm and the moon, a shadow flitted by. Before the soldier could process it, his own world went dark.
"Hey, what’s wro—an arrow!?"
"Gahyu!"
Another man fell, an arrow through his forehead.
Finally, the survivors realized they were under fire. They tried to call out to the others, but high-arced arrows rained down from the sky, piercing skulls and pinning men to the earth.
The ambush was being carried out by the Mobile Unit led by Rei—and commanded on the ground by Paelnix. Though they were only thirty strong, they were elites who had survived Rei and Set’s grueling training. Firing into the illuminated targets exiting the camp was child's play for them, even in the dead of night.
The camp had five exits. Paelnix had stationed six men at each. They waited in the shadows, systematically picking off the soldiers as they emerged from the bottleneck of the protective fence entrances.
For the Subjugation Army, the night of calamity had only just begun. Dawn was still a long way off.