The faun leader then straightens his body and turns around like a ghost, taking his spear, preparing to throw himself into the slaughter once again, but then something surprising happens.
An explosion of energy comes from the direction from which the faun leader came, and with it a swift figure emerges soaring through the skies in the shape of a parabola, and in the middle of the air the figure shouts: "I hope I didn't miss the fun!"
Then the figure adjusts itself in the other half and shortly before falling into the middle of the combat zone shouts while punching the air: "Emerald Crash!"
Then, as if it were a collision against the ground, emerald-colored cracks appear around a circular area in the air, and after that a shockwave erupts causing an explosion that directly crushes the enemies below and violently ejects the others, making them crash into everything in the area, from trees to hard rocks or even their own companions.
Feicui Long then laughs saying: "This is fun!, a good hunt is always fun!"
After his voice fades, a crimson flash appears and a series of thread-thin slashes shine in the air, cutting down some distracted gnolls.
Gloria sheaths her sword and says: "I don't understand what you find fun about this kind of thing… normally you don't seem like the type who enjoys violence, but when you enter combat mode you practically have three forms, the defensive practice, the cold, calculating and cold-blooded killer, and the idiot who loves combat."
Before Feicui Long speaks, a fireball explodes beside him, burning gnolls who are trying to flee, while a small barrage of energy arrows pierces those on the other side.
Feicui Long responds and says: "Sometimes it's good to let out a dragon's instinct, you can't always restrain yourself, besides who doesn't love a good fight?"
A particularly large and brave gnoll goes to strike Feicui Long when it is very close to his neck, Feicui Long calmly turns around and grabs the blade of the large saber measuring about 1.5 meters, he then squeezes with great strength and easily breaks the blade, only to then throw a punch with his clean fist, followed by a horrible crunch as his hand is seen piercing through the gnoll's chest.
Feicui Long speaks saying: "You know, I hate rude people." And he pulls out his arm, wiping off the blood.
Then the faunas on the walls come out of their shock and begin to attack from a distance, killing more gnolls, soon the battle becomes chaotic, the desperate gnolls try to flee, but they are almost surrounded…
That is when a thunderous sound is heard, a piercing sound, almost like the firing of a modern artillery at full power, and with an explosion and extreme speed a BOOOOOOOOM resounds.
Followed by another BOOOOOOM and another BOOOOOOM, each strike killing between 5 to 7 gnolls, the few remaining gnolls who have been reduced from their original number of 100-150 to now about 25-50 watch in horror as the faun leader takes metallic javelins from his back and with his arm drawing back to throw, the runes on his arms are seen lighting up violently…
To then launch them with an explosive sound capable of perforating eardrums and with such tremendous speed that the javelin is barely seen as a blurry figure, almost like a low-quality video, and immediately after with brutal kinetic force it pierces, no, destroys the chest of a gnoll, and the shockwave directly shreds it into pieces and kills another 6 gnolls.
Gloria, who has never seen the faun leader fight, is left in shock and says: "What the fuck did you do to that n-", realizing she could make a serious mistake she quickly corrects herself and says: "To that faun so he can throw javelins with the power of an energy cannon!, that thing is literally a cannon with legs!"
Feicui Long smiles saying: "Isn't it beautiful?, I have dedicated hours and days to perfecting his inscriptions, on top of that I didn't make him use dragon energy or spatial or time energy, otherwise it would be even more lethal."
Gloria remains silent, thinking, isn't this lethal enough?, this attack alone could kill a creature in the ascending realm grade 5 advanced stage, 5 grades above with extreme ease, god, she wouldn't even be surprised if it could seriously injure a grade 7.
…
After a few minutes all the gnolls have finally died and Feicui Long gestures for the surviving faunas to come, bringing with them the empty wind lizard carriages.
The faun leader then approaches Feicui Long and stands still, he looks at him out of the corner of his eye and says: "Why are you waiting here with me?, didn't you see something?, go on, go see who you wish to see."
The faun leader makes a strange but slight bow and then after picking up his javelins and placing them in his quiver, he withdraws, walking with his spear in one hand toward the palisade gate.
The faunas only watch him approach, but they do not know how to react, the unprecedented violence and strength make them afraid, but at the same time, all of them can recognize him, he is their leader, the champion of the village, their protector…
But all of them here saw him leave that day with the troops to pursue the enemies and… they never returned, hours passed and those hours turned into days, those days into weeks, weeks into months and a year has already passed, the tribe… well the women, the boys and girls, the elders, had considered them dead, but now each and every one returned today suddenly and they look stronger than before…
Even so they could not notice anything strange about them other than their strength, this is because Feicui Long took care of creating a recreation with illusion formations exactly as their eyes had seen them before he himself killed them, so no one can see any difference compared to that moment.
Amid so much indecision the faun leader stops right at the gate, while the other undead fauns approach and begin to line up, after a while the fauna who seems to be the leader, somewhat indecisive and conflicted with her heart pounding, finally orders the gate to be opened.
Soon the gate opens wide, as she jumps down and sees the faun leader and the others enter slowly and steadily, only stopping once they reach the center of the village, she follows them along with other faunas.
The non-combatant fauns who were watching from their huts come out in shock seeing those they believed lost…
Especially the boys and girls who run happily to see their parents, but the mothers and elders do not let them approach… except for a pair of children, a girl and a boy who run until they reach the faun leader and stop, looking at him with those tender eyes.
The female faun leader watches all this with her heart beating fiercely and approaches slowly, when she sees the faun leader about to kneel down she runs forward, but before she can do anything, the faun leader simply embraces them gently.
The female faun then finally, upon seeing this, cannot contain her tears and runs to hug the faun leader from behind…
The female faun says: "Bastard, bastard, bastard!, you finally came back…"
The faun leader trembles slightly as he gently releases the children and turns around to include the woman in the embrace, an embrace of four people takes place.
This motivates the others to let the children approach the other "fauns", who although they do not respond like the leader, still imitate him and gently hug the children, the female fauns follow closely, tears and sorrow are exchanged.
…
Feicui Long together with the other fauns who stored the dead gnolls in spatial storage, enter along with Gloria, Andrea and Arianne into the village, since the gate is wide open and there is no one guarding it.
Feicui Long then pushes it to close it and enters along with the others, when he reaches the scene he sees it is… devastating, families crying with happiness, with joy, celebrating.
But the saddest and most depressing scene with which he can identify is that of the faun leader, it is the one that hits him the hardest because even though the faun leader has not awakened his soul yet, he can feel it, it is very close, too close, a single step… no, half a step, no less, just a few centimeters, a little more.
And even so, without awakening his soul he can clearly feel the vibration of his soul, the emotions he feels, the image of seeing the faun leader with his children and his partner hits him far too close, it reminds him of Isabella, of his girls who even if they do not carry his blood will always be his daughters…
So much so that he cannot help but say with a certain sarcasm and mockery toward himself: "It seems I am the villain of this story…"
Gloria, who hears him say that, places her hand on his shoulder and says: "No, you did what you felt you had to do to protect your own… it's just that fate… no, the current state of the universe is such a cruel state, that there is only one choice for two beings who want to survive… one has to die for the other to live."
Feicui Long smiles bitterly, because he never thought he would be taught by someone younger than him about matters of life, and he sighs while looking up at the sky, as a tear escapes from his eyes, softly saying: "Master, will I have the strength to do what must be done?"