Kyle went on his way back to the fortress.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but at most, he would need to wait a couple of days.
He casually jumped from peak to peak to get to the fortress.
'Huh?' Kyle thought as his instincts picked up some danger. 'Is a beast near this place?'
The next moment, an arrow with a bunch of lightning shot at him.
Kyle was in the middle of the air when that arrow was fired.
'Not a beast,' Kyle thought as he used a Boost to lower his altitude.
The next moment, several more arrows shot at him, but he avoided all of them with some Boosts.
When Kyle landed, he looked in the direction from where the arrows had come.
Three Initial Grandmasters were firing at him, all of them using bows.
'Scary,' Kyle thought sarcastically.
As soon as Kyle saw the three people, he ran away.
An instant later, the three of them charged after him, jumping from peak to peak.
They jumped past the peak Kyle had hidden behind and looked into the distance.
"Can't find him!" one of them shouted. "This guy is fast!"
"Retreat," another one said. "The sentries are probably already coming."
BOOOOM!
At that point, a huge explosion appeared behind a mountain almost two kilometers away.
When the three archers saw that, their eyes widened in shock.
With full speed, they charged towards the place where the explosion had occurred.
Their Enchanter had been there!
Naturally, not all of the archers had Lightning Affinities.
The lightning on the arrows had come from the Enchanter's Enchantment.
"Quick! The captain can only keep the enemy away for so long!" one of them shouted.
This was a full team of five.
Three archers, one Enchanter, and one Shouter.
The three archers quickly reached the spot.
All three of them split up, pulling out more arrows as they prepared to shoot at the enemy.
Yet, the only things they found were the two smashed corpses of their comrades.
An instant later, Kyle appeared beside one of the archers.
The archer immediately used several techniques to increase the distance between them, but Kyle was faster.
The archer used Time Slow and used another defensive technique, but Kyle simply weaved through it.
WHOOOM!
It was like space distorted for a moment.
The air had become distorted for just a moment.
Yet, during that short moment, the archer's upper body had turned into a bloody mist.
The distortion had been Kyle's hammer. It had moved so fast that it just looked like some kind of spatial distortion.
"Shoot him!" one of them shouted in panic as he and his colleague attacked Kyle.
Yet, a huge wall of fire appeared between the archers and Kyle.
The archers shot into the approaching wall of fire while retreating.
Suddenly, a huge hammer flew out of the fire wall, right towards one of the archers.
The archer immediately shot the hammer with an arrow, redirecting its trajectory.
But then, the hammer suddenly turned in the air and flew to the other archer.
The second archer focused on the hammer.
Sadly, that was not the right decision.
The next moment, two humongous arms clamped around the archer's entire body.
The archer didn't realize in time that it was suddenly becoming darker.
The last thing he saw were some teeth as Kyle's maw enveloped the archer's head before clamping down onto his neck.
Kyle's teeth crunched and ground while he pulled the body forward like it was a tough piece of beef.
Eventually, Kyle managed to pull the meat off the cervical vertebrae like one would pull meat off a chicken wing to make boneless chicken wings.
After that, Kyle just spat the head to the side.
When the last archer saw that, his face turned white, and he started running.
Kyle caught his hammer and charged after the archer.
BANG!
As soon as the archer landed on a peak, an explosion pushed him back.
In the air, the archer turned around to fire more arrows at Kyle.
Sadly for him, that wasn't enough.
A couple of techniques later, the last archer also turned into a mist of blood.
'Huh,' Kyle thought. 'I thought a full team of people in the Third Realm would be stronger.'
'That's a bit underwhelming.'
'Well, anyway! Got some loot!'
Kyle gathered the corpses and all their belongings before going back to the fortress.
When the first guards saw the corpses, they walked forward.
Without saying anything, they inspected the corpses and found out that they belonged to the Winterfire Kingdom.
"What happened?" the guard asked.
"We fought," Kyle said. "I'm the only survivor."
The guard sighed.
"I'm sorry that you lost your team," the guard said, "but we have to thank you. This group has been causing a lot of trouble. I will report this to my higher-ups. Since you are the only survivor, you will receive all the credit."
"Yeah, well, whatcha gonna do?" Kyle asked with a helpless shrug.
The guard nodded. The guard knew that Kyle was probably in shock.
The true horror of losing one's team in a battle always took some time to set in.
When horrible tragedies like this happened, people often acted normal or even chipper for a while.
Everyone knew that was just a mask to hide the pain inside.
Naturally, Kyle had worded himself very carefully.
He never confirmed nor denied that there used to be a team.
After some small talk, Kyle asked someone who looked to be in charge to check his emblems.
"Three more days," the person said.
"Thanks," Kyle said.
For the next three days, Kyle focused on learning more about Spellcasting from Theodor.
When the three days were up, Kyle waited near the entrance of the actual fortress.
After some time, the Alpha Team arrived.
Apparently, there were only three people left.
Seemed like they lost one.
"Where's your team?" Captain Martin, the leader of the Alpha Team, asked.
"We split up," Kyle said. "Three of them joined the army."
Captain Martin nodded. "One of us also joined the army. It's nothing unusual. That's one of the reasons why they ask for us."
"What about the others?" Kyle asked.
"Team Rapidstream isn't done with their mission yet. They will be staying until they are done."
"Team Mountainwall got annihilated by an enemy team of archers."
"We are everyone," Martin said.
"Not everyone," a female voice said from behind Martin.
"Hey Wyveria!" Kyle said with a smile.
Wyveria looked at Kyle with furrowed brows.
"Hi, Kyle!" Bonk shouted from behind Wyveria.
"Hi, Bonk!" Kyle shouted back.
As Kyle saw the Ace Team, he couldn't help but smile.
All five of them were still there.
And all five of them were Initial Grandmasters.
A moment later, the Captain walked out of the fortress.
He nodded towards the Ace Team before looking at the Alpha Team and Kyle.
"You four, come inside," he said. "It's time for your rewards."
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