Micheal immediately hit a symbol on the wall sending an emergency signal to the wheelhouse causing them to speed up. The ship lurched forward as wind magic pushed the ship's speed to its limits.
As Chronos stepped onto the deck he saw pillars of black smoke rising up to the sky in the distance. A moment later a message came through his system from Micheal.
{Black beasts are in the village! I've seen steppe wolves, wild horses, and a disturbing number of horned rabbits and burrow drakes. I can confirm at least one sun badger as well.}
Most of those creatures were pack type beasts or animals making them difficult to fight when they grouped up like this, but that sun badger was going to be a problem. Despite not being very powerful, sun badgers were extremely ferocious and could absorb the power of the sun to heal from almost any injury. Which just made them fight even harder.
Chronos had heard that fighting them was a pain, but he was looking forward to it.
Since evening was approaching, he would have to hurry before the badger lost its healing ability when the sun set. Otherwise, it wouldn't be any fun.
{Captain, fly low! I'm going after the badger!} He sent to the ship's captain.
The guards assembled on the deck as the village's real situation came into view.
It had both an outer wall and an inner wall with the inner wall set on a hill where the village head could easily defend the populace. From the size of it Chronos classified it as a town with a small fort on the hill, but it wasn't the size of a city yet.
He didn't remember seeing a named town on the maps that Micheal had shown him and wondered how such a large place didn't have a name.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think any further. The black beasts had broken through the outer palisade and were ransacking the village, but it didn't look like they had broken through the inner wall yet.
Chronos could still see archers and mages shooting from the walls and commoners dropping rocks and other items from the top of the wall. If they had commoners on the wall, then their situation was growing worse by the minute.
Some of the archers on the wall saw them as they passed over the outer wall and fired arrows at them. Ignoring the arrows Chronos prepared to leap off of the ship when Lyla jumped on his back.
"You're not going down there without me!" She said with determination.
"Fine by me but don't get separated from me. Against this many enemies fighting alone is a death sentence. Also, do you see a sun badger anywhere?"
"Hm, over there!" She pointed at a gap in the beast tide where a single black badger the size of a large dog was lying down.
From the way the other black beasts were carefully circling it without entering its territory it was clear that all of them were afraid of it. With that size and presence, it had to be a third rank beast.
Chronos smiled as he motioned for the captain to drop lower.
"Hold on!" He said as he leapt from the ship just 30 meters above the ground.
The ship dropped so low that several of the black beasts tried attacking the bottom of the ship when Chronos jumped off.
Falling through the air he applied [Adhesion] to his hands and feet, latching onto a tall wall he used it to slow himself down.
"Ugh."
But still hit the ground hard enough to feel a slight pain in his knees.
Transforming into a werewolf he took off running towards the badger while Lyla started throwing down [Lawbound Bulwarks] behind them.
Several wild horses tried to trample them, but Chronos easily cut their heads off and ignored any beast that wasn't in his way.
As he charged at the badger it sensed his approach.
"Grrr." Growling, it stood up and faced Chronos as he entered a ring that no beast seemed brave enough to enter.
Lyla hopped off his back and threw down two more bulwarks before casting [Holy Gavel].
"I'll make sure nothing interrupts your fight. Finish this quickly so we can help the hill fort." She ordered.
"No problem." Chronos growled as he took out Echoforge.
He could have used a weapon he had reached full mastery with, but he wanted to master more weapons. Out of the weapons he currently carried, only the bow and hammer were not yet at full mastery.
He had never trained for using the bow in close combat, so he decided to use Echoforge instead.
Waving his hammer in front of him he provoked the badger, its fur lit up with golden flames as it snarled at him.
Not giving it a chance to power up further Chronos rushed forward and swung down at it, but the badger just roared and jumped at him causing Echoforge to bounce off of its thick hide. Chronos grunted as it knocked him over then kicked its midriff launching it off of him.
Hm!? Why did it feel so solid? Most black beasts felt like soft fur, but this badger was like a lump of rocks. He could think about that after he won this fight.
He jumped to his feet just as the badger rolled over and charged again.
Sidestepping the charge, he tried to hit its backside, but the badger planted its front feet and rapidly pivoted, throwing its rear in front of it. Chronos's hammer whisked through the air as the badger lowered its body and jumped at him again.
Chronos pulled the shaft back using it to block the badger's mouth then charged forward slamming it into a wall.
It growled at him and locked its legs around his waist before punching the wall behind it. The wall collapsed as both of them tumbled inside swiftly turning the fight into a brawl as they wrestled on the floor. Which Chronos was swiftly coming to regret.
Bang!
He blocked another low blow. "Damn it! Why does it keep aiming for my crotch!? This thing fights dirty."
Grabbing a fistful of fur Chronos managed to rip it off of him but lost his grip as its flexible hide slipped out of his hand.
It jumped back and growled at him while the flames healed its body. Watching it rapidly recover Chronos wondered if this was how his opponents felt when he kept getting up after taking heavy blows.
Looking at its face Chronos realized that it was smiling. Was this thing enjoying the fight?
An eager smile crossed his own face as he discovered that he had found something that liked to fight just as much as he did.
As they gathered energy for the next round a howl distracted both of them.
"Howl!" Crash!
Black wolves burst through the windows and doors aiming for their vitals.
Chronos scowled as he swung Echoforge at the nearest wolf crushing its spine in a single blow. Spinning around prepared to face the onslaught of the wolves and badger together, he was surprised when several wolves turned on the badger and tried to bite through its throat.
Its thick hide bunched up around its neck preventing them from doing any real damage to it. Roaring it shook its body, throwing them off and tore one of their throats out before turning on the rest in a rage.
"They aren't allies? Wait, does the sun badger have black fur when it's not on fire!? And its body was far too solid for a black beast! Come to think of it, black beasts smell rotten too, but this one smells like a sun-touched field." Chronos was beginning to believe he had made a mistake in attacking the badger.
While he was thinking, a large alpha wolf charged in the door. Four wolves latched onto the badger's limbs holding it in place as the alpha moved to bite its face off.
He couldn't let that happen. Stepping forward Chronos swung Echoforge at the alpha wolf's head before it could react to him.
Boom! Boom!
Two echoes exploded as the alpha wolf's head was pulverized.
The badger glared at him wondering why its enemy had suddenly assisted it.
"I thought you were one of these damn black beasts and attacked you. I'm sorry about that." Chronos explained as he crushed two more wolves freeing the sun badger.
It ripped the heads off the last two wolves before spinning to face him. It glared at him for a few moments before snorting, seeming to accept his apology.
They jumped out of the house together to find Lyla fighting off 6 wolves on her own while other black beasts were pressing against the bulwarks blocking entry to the yard.
"Looks like there are plenty of beasts to fight. Let's head for the fort now." Chronos said as he ran to help Lyla.
Growling in agreement the badger launched itself at a wild horse that had forced its way past a bulwark.