Chapter 512: And It Begins

Julius quietly watched as the robed man looked around at the crowd of Tier 3s impassively. Each second seemed like it stretched for an eternity. Nobody moved a muscle, even as over a minute of silence passed by.

Finally, the figure seemed satisfied by whatever he was looking for and slowly rose up into the air. Everyone stiffened in preparation for something; they had no clue what was going to happen or if this unknown person was an enemy or something else entirely.

“Too many humans,” the robed figure softly spoke for the first time. Despite him practically whispering, everyone in the crowd heard him perfectly, and they all tensed at the ominous words.

Whispers from the crowd began to rise as they talked among themselves. Even Aubrey quietly spoke to them. “What does he mean by too many humans?” She asked nervously.

Edgar furrowed his eyes. “No clue, but it doesn’t sound like he was praising us.”

“Yeah, it sounds like he was comparing us to a bunch of rodents or unwanted trash,” Julius added.

His friends stifled a laugh and nodded with agreement.

“So what now?” Aubrey asked them. The floating man still wasn’t doing anything, and after he spoke, he has said nothing since.

“Good question. But we should be careful, I feel like something is about to happen,” Derek noted.

As if that was the signal, Julius felt a sudden surge of mana from every direction. He swiveled around and stared at the surrounding area. It felt like someone had just erected a massive barrier.

He wasn’t the only person to have noticed either. Several other people who must have had relatively good senses had also picked up on the disturbance.

“What is it?” Aubrey asked him, recognizing that he must have felt something.

“I’m not sure, but a large field of mana has appeared around us,” he explained calmly as he continued to observe the surrounding area.

“Bad?”

“Hard to say. But based on his words earlier, I am guessing that it will solve the ‘too many humans’ problem he seemed to have,” Julius hypothesized with a grimace. He had no clue what was going to happen, but the surge of mana certainly didn’t feel like it was comforting or supportive.

It felt raw and dangerous.

“Get ready, just in case,” he warned them.

They didn’t even question him for a second. They activated all of their skills and readied themselves. Julius did the same; his kinetic energy was already being channeled through his body with vigor.

They had already talked about how they would fight if it came down to it. Edgar and Julius would be at the forefront, taking on their opponents head-on. At the same time, Derek and Aubrey would support from behind.

Derek would use his lightning magic to help slow down and cause just overall chaos amongst the enemies. Aubrey would use her clones and prismatic light beams to hit from all angles. It wasn’t the most diverse team strategy, and without Lily, they couldn’t communicate as readily.

But they should still be fine. At least that was what he hoped.

After a minute or two, he finally saw something appear on the edge of the horizon. A mass of black slowly got larger, and he sighed when he realized what this was. It looked like the robed man had brought some exterminators after all.

There were thousands of monsters all collapsing on them. Julius had no idea how the floating angel man had done it, but he had likely brought all of the surrounding monsters in the area to attack them.

“Get ready,” he said to them. They had also seen what was happening with their own eyes and prepared for the incoming attack.

Since they were on the edge of the temple’s boundary, that meant they were the first ones who would confront these monsters.

Some of the other groups behind him tried to get closer to the temple doors, using them for protection and letting the closer groups take contact first. But they weren’t able to do so. Another group has already taken that spot.

Julius noticed that the large group Garrett Greyson had gathered had somehow squeezed between the other groups and the temple. He also spotted several members of the Greyson group attacking the people who tried to get closer to the temple.

Apparently, the protection that the temple afforded them was no longer in effect. They were on their own, and the stabbing in the back had already commenced.

It was unlucky for the other groups because, as much as they wanted to yell at the much larger group for being a bunch of asses, they didn’t have the opportunity to do so. The huge wave of monsters was quickly approaching, and they needed to concentrate on the incoming horde.

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Julius and his friends weren’t shocked by this, though. They already knew that the group had been planning something. Otherwise, there wasn’t a need to gather so many people. However, Julius didn’t know whether Garrett Greyson had somehow planned for this to happen. It certainly felt like it.

Julius took some time to observe the largest group and couldn’t help but smile when he spotted the mage he had fought the other day standing expressionlessly in the back. The girl who had attacked him out of nowhere was right beside him, and the same black cloak hung over her shoulders.

Julius kept an eye on them. He wanted to talk to them later and didn’t want to lose them in the chaos.