"I have to retrieve the rune as soon as possible. That is not negotiable."
Ryze's words were just as unquestionable, carrying a coldness that seemed to come from ancient times.
"There's no room to discuss it at all?"
Caleb looked at Ryze's frostlike expression and felt as if something had collapsed.
He had originally thought Ryze was warmhearted, someone who helped people in need all over the world.
But now, it seemed that in Ryze's eyes, only matters related to the World Runes truly counted as important.
"What's the time limit?"
Caleb asked heavily.
"Before tonight is over, I must take it away!"
Mana faintly surged in Ryze's hands, and a cold light also burst from Lind's eyes.
It seemed that in the very next second, these two would both go all out and blast each other with their strongest arcane power.
"This is way too difficult…"
Caleb could not help getting tangled up in it too.
Although this place was not that far from the Ice Children village newly occupied by the Avarosan tribe, moving everything from this entire village would be extremely troublesome.
"Can your people pack two days' worth of food, then go directly to join the Avarosan tribe?"
Caleb looked at Lind, who seemed ready to strike at any moment, and still refused to give up.
"Impossible. These elderly and weak people can't march at the same pace as you. In the end, once the trolls intercept us, not even one in ten would survive."
Caleb opened his mouth, still intending to say something, but in the next instant, the entire room suddenly changed.
Countless ice spikes surged out of the room, and the walls and ceiling all came crashing straight down toward the three people inside.
With a single Arcane Shift, Caleb was already outside the door.
One side inside was the greatest mage in the world, while the other very likely held a World Rune.
From the attack pattern just now, Caleb could roughly guess which World Rune the old man possessed.
"Glacial Augment!"
After hesitating again and again, Caleb still did not use the Sorcery rune he carried on him.
After all, the true master of runes was Ryze.
Not Caleb himself. If he made a move now, Ryze might get angry enough to wipe out Caleb's entire team.
The violent noise gradually stopped, and in the end, Ryze, whose entire body was engraved with ancient runes and radiating light, climbed out of the ruins.
The enormous sound nearly woke the entire village. People poked their heads out from their houses one after another.
Among them, of course, were the members of the team, who had already been on guard.
"What happened?"
Ashe's arrow arrived first. The ice arrow slowed the large chunks of wall that had been sent flying, preventing any secondary casualties.
"It's a long story…"
The area around Caleb was practically an elemental current. Almost all the arcane energy in the entire village had been drained dry by these two.
"Do you have something to say?"
Seeing that Caleb was not fleeing for his life, but instead staring right at him, Ryze spoke coldly.
"I do, but I'll say it to you myself later."
Caleb also knew very well that someone like Ryze had almost achieved absolute rationality.
That was why he could "disregard" the lives of the entire village like this.
"This is bad… the trolls' attack will arrive within days."
Caleb also sank into worry. Whether Lind under the ruins was dead or alive was no longer the most important thing at this moment.
"Need me to beat the crap out of him?"
Olaf, who had rushed over in a hurry, did not look at Ryze kindly either.
He tightened his grip on his axe, then loosened it again. As long as Caleb gave the order, Olaf would swing that axe straight at him.
"Forget it."
Caleb silently shook his head, watching the runes surge around Ryze.
He was rapidly distancing himself from this place. It could even be said that he was rapidly distancing himself from the Freljord.
When the light of the magic circle disappeared, only the confused villagers remained, approaching this place one after another.
"Wasn't this supposed to be old friends meeting?"
The guard craned his neck and tried to look inside, but the bone-chilling ruins made him instantly pull his hand back.
"Save him."
There was not the slightest hesitation in Caleb's words.
He had figured it out. This entire village was simply made up of hearthbound.
Now he understood why Lind had been so certain they could not make it to the Ice Children tribe.
If ordinary people were forced to march, compared to Caleb's group of elites, their speed would slow to a third, even a quarter.
Not to mention that there were so many elderly, weak, women, and children here who did not have the strength to cross the mountains.
And that would be while trolls holding those massive clubs chased after them.
By Caleb's estimate, even in the best-case scenario, their survival rate would only be three percent.
Not the ten or twenty percent that the old man had estimated.
After all, Caleb had already walked this route, while Lind might no longer have a clear grasp of what winter had become over these past few years.
The growth of trees, the shifting of stones, for the hearthbound, all of them would be enormous challenges.
However, Caleb's group had a purpose for this journey. Visiting Ornn was the smaller matter. Meeting Lissandra was the truly important one.
"Come here and talk."
Caleb had to make a decision.
The problem was getting bigger and bigger now.
An entire village, more than a hundred lives, might now rest in his hands.
Olaf and Sejuani pulled the ruins apart together, revealing the mangled body inside.
"No heartbeat."
Caleb had expected as much. In a battle that decided survival or death, Ryze did not seem like the type to hold back.
"With just us, we can easily avoid the trolls and even kill their patrol sentries."
"But with this many warmbloods, there's no way for us to protect them all the way to the Avarosan tribe's new camp."
Ashe also understood what Caleb meant, and her brows furrowed tightly.
As a Warmother who had ideals and had made real efforts for them, Ashe immediately saw where the problem lay.
"Yes. This just became extremely troublesome."
Caleb also fell into conflict.
Ryze had already left. The villagers, now without their pillar of support, were wandering around the village like headless flies.
"We have to leave! Without Lord Lind's protection, we'll die the next time the trolls attack!"
A young man with a baby-faced look shouted, finally calming the people around him a little.
"You can head west. The Avarosan tribe has people stationed at the mountaintop there."
As the Warmother of the Avarosan tribe, Ashe now began speaking to the villagers.
A group of over a hundred people would still be too conspicuous even if Caleb's group each carried ten of them.
Caleb also had no way to ensure that when they encountered trolls alone, he could protect the ordinary people behind him.
So Caleb would have to do the opposite.
Advance toward the trolls' lair!
Harass the trolls' living forces and use the strength of their small team to assassinate the trolls.
That should buy the village quite a bit of time to flee.
As for how many could survive in the end, how many would freeze to death on the road, and how many would be caught by the trolls.
Caleb could only do everything he could, then leave the rest to fate.
"I agree with this approach too."
After hearing Caleb's plan, Udyr immediately voiced his agreement.
"The end will be bloody."
Tryndamere's expression did not look good. This reminded him of a painful memory.
"There's no time to waste. They can pack their own things. We'll rest first and set out before dawn tomorrow."
With the entire village in chaos, Caleb had no way to relax and rest inside the village.
"Nothing too serious will happen, right?"
Kai'Sa was also a child born in a village. Looking at the chaos before her, worry naturally rose in her heart.
"If everything goes smoothly, perhaps all of them can reach the Avarosan tribe."
Ashe thought for a moment, but did not say what came after.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810