No matter how hard Lith tried to hold back, his mind kept slipping back in time, to that dreadful night. Then, one of the invaders noticed Elina's golden necklace and steered his horse while extending his hand to rip it off.
Unfortunately for him, Elina had picked up Aran to make sure he wouldn't run away in panic and was holding the child in her arms. All Lith could see was a hand aimed at his mother's neck and a car rushing against his little brother.
Lith's shadow came to life as he Blinked in front of the thug with War between his hands while the angry blade was still enveloped in emerald flames from its summoning.
A single slash was all Lith needed to cut down both the horse and its rider. They didn't shed a drop of blood thanks to the fire and darkness coursing through War. The corpses turned into a fine mist before even touching the ground as if they had never existed.
At the same time, the obscurity surrounding Lith spread out like a black sun and infected with spirit and darkness magic all the other shadows it touched. No matter if they belonged to a streetlight, a building, or a person, all the shadows joined together and enveloped the area.
"Close their eyes! They must not see this." That was all Lith managed to say before he Blinked again.
To the raiders, it was as if they were under the attack of an entire army. Lith seemed to be everywhere at the same time, striking without any notice and killing many with just a swing of his blade or hand.
The darkness made it impossible to see further than a few meters, so the raiders slowed down and regrouped to leave no blind spot. Their horses were well-trained and had seen enough magic to not panic.
Keeping a cool head while assuming a perfect formation didn't spare them from their fate. It was the horses, not the men who formed the circle, which left plenty of space behind them for Lith to appear and decapitate them all at once with a circular swing of his blade.
"There!" A woman in her early thirties pointed at Lith with her wand, unleashing a stream of tier three lightning bolts.
Her comrades followed her lead, conjuring a full-blown thunderstorm before War had yet to cut the last neck. To thrive in the harshness of the north. violence and bravado weren't enough.
Even bandits were well trained and equipped.
Lith tried and failed to activate Dominance. The lightning bolts were too many and too fast for his amateurish technique. Even his blue core coupled with his mastery over air magic wasn't enough to control so many powerful spells at the same time.
Yet, he wasn't alone.
The angry blade attempted to support its master's Dominance, but having no idea how the ability worked, the sword failed as well. Yet War grasped Lith's intentions and activated the World Mirror ability that Orion had infused the blade with after perfecting the enchantment.
World Mirror was boosted by Lith's and War's willpower, allowing it to absorb the thunderstorm inside the blade for a split second before sending it back against its casters after reinforcing the spells with Lith's mana.
Each bolt of lightning was now so powerful that it killed its target despite the raiders wore enchanted protections.
The remaining marauders couldn't see a thing, but they could still hear the death cries and recognize the familiar voices. On top of that, each one of them knew what the smell of ozone mixed with that of barbeque meant.
"We've been set up! Jambel has mages. Retreat! We must…" The man leading the charge froze in horror as his own shadow covered his mouth with one hand while chocked him with the other.
The shock of seeing his own face twisted into a grimace of hate, staring at him through the white holes that replaced its eyes, made him unable to resist. Seeing the black mass attacking their leader, the raiders thought it was an undead.
They lunged at the shadow, only to kill their comrade.
"What the heck is that thing?" A woman asked after noticing that her ax met no resistance while passing through the living shade.
Their horror turned into despair when black hands emerged from the ground, dragging the horses and their riders down while sucking their life force. Only then did they notice the white eyes belonging to the invisible army surrounding them.
When the sun returned, there was no trace left of the invaders. Even the young man between his big brother's arms was now as fit as a fiddle.
"Are you alright?" Lith returned by his family's side while his anger made clouds cover the sky and lowered the temperature by several degrees.
"Yes." Raz nodded, half scared and half proud of his son.
For most of them, it was the first time seeing him as a fighter instead of a Healer. They had listened to Lith's tales about his fights, but not even holograms had prepared them for the brutality that a single swing of War held.
Aran and Leria were still crying, whereas the triplets had slept through the events as if nothing had happened.
"Bring them home and protect them until my return. I've seen this scheme in the past. Half of the bandits reach the target while the other half keeps the city gates open." Lith said to Tista and Nalrond before warping to Jambel's entrance.
The streets were on fire because the marauders had set everything ablaze to force the militia to split their focus. Between the burning houses, the injured citizens, and the enemies fighting for the control of the walls, Baron Wyalon had his hands full.
Lith appeared above the gates, understanding what had happened at a first glance. The first wave had disguised themselves as merchants and taken down the gatekeepers while the rest of their forces rushed out of their hiding spot.
Judging by how fast and efficient they were, the invaders had carefully prepared the heist by learning the guards' routine and waiting for the moment when the security was more lax, high noon.
Many cities had become too used to fighting mostly undead, and with the sun shining bright above their heads, the guards felt overconfident.
Lith recognized many of the fallen soldiers. Some were relatives of those he had healed, others he had cured himself. He started to breathe regularly, conjuring with Invigoration a pillar of blue light that connected the ground with the thunderclouds.
With each breath he took, the storm grew stronger. With each breath he took, he separated allies from enemies.
"Mjolnir!"
Lith raised his hands and a natural lightning struck him. It coursed through his body, dealing him no harm as it was split into countless bolts that reached their marks with surgical precision.
The current formed a tidal wave that swept the ground and reached even those who were still fighting inside the city walls. Yet only the invaders died. The battle and the thunderclap ended at unison.
Lith lowered his arms, making the clouds disappear along with the mana controlling them. He came down slowly, needing only a wave of his hands to put out the fires and rescue those who had remained trapped inside their own homes until that moment.
"Did you see that, son?" Baron Wyalon said to Kotu while they were providing first aid to the injured. "That's why there's no need for prayers. You don't have to look up in the sky to see gods. They already walk among us."
