SSS Awakening: I Can Class Change at will

Chapter 178: The Black Raven

Gratis was in similarly agonized condition, barely conscious and unable to support his own weight despite his pride demanding he try.

The two other surviving Savi warriors were marginally better off but still severely injured—limping badly and barely able to stand without support, let alone run.

Selene’s mind raced. She couldn’t carry all four injured prisoners simultaneously while moving at combat speed.

Before she could find a solution, disaster struck.

A young child, perhaps six or seven years old, emerged from a nearby tent, likely disturbed by the commotion. The child’s innocent eyes landed on the three decapitated bodies and the pools of spreading blood.

“AHHHHHHH!”

The child screamed from the top of his lungs, struck by the gory scene before his eyes. The piercing cry cut through even the explosive combat noises from the main gate, immediately drawing attention from distant Heretic warriors.

The kid was immediately grabbed by someone inside the tent who had clearly tried to stop him after realizing he was sneaking out but was too late to do so.

Several combatants who’d been engaged at the periphery of Moon’s battle suddenly turned and spotted Selene attempting to evacuate prisoners from the execution area.

“Shit!” Selene cursed aloud as she immediately recognized the dire situation at hand.

She scooped Yara up in her arms in a princess carry while simultaneously pulling Gratis onto her back in a piggyback position. Although Selene was strong from her awakener status, she absolutely couldn’t run at her maximum combat speed while burdened with two injured adults.

She was a mage after all. Her strength stats were limited to the ones that she received from leveling up solely. She invested most of her free attributes into her intelligence,.

And that meant she couldn’t physically help the other two barely-mobile Savi warriors who were limping desperately behind her, struggling just to remain standing.

Selene whistled sharply, sending the emergency signal.

The white horse, hearing the urgent call from his companion’s friend, immediately launched himself over the wooden fence with explosive power and began galloping at full speed toward Selene’s position.

Behind them, angry Heretic shouts were growing rapidly closer as warriors broke away from the main gate to pursue the escaping prisoners.

Spears began to fly towards them, breaking through the air in an attempt to impale them. Selene dodged most as she ran towards the galloping horse.

♢♢♢♢

Despite being aggressively surrounded by dozens of hostile Heretics pressing in from multiple angles, Moon remained outwardly calm and collected. He spotted the sudden commotion erupting from the settlement’s interior.

’Selene has been caught.’ Moon immediately thought, understanding the reason behind the commotion.

’I need to dramatically increase the combat tempo and draw more attention. Keep them focused exclusively on me so Selene has maximum time to escape with Yara and the others.’

A massive fireball began forming and rotating above Moon’s staff, but this time he employed a different approach. To maximize the area of effect and threaten the greatest number of people and structures simultaneously, Moon deliberately used his basic Elemental Attack skill rather than the more powerful Ignite ability.

Although the raw damage output would be significantly reduced since Elemental Attack was a far weaker skill, Moon gained the advantage of being able to create a much larger fireball since he wasn’t compressing and concentrating the energy nearly as intensely. The growing sphere of flame expanded rapidly to the approximate size of a small boulder, visually intimidating and covering enormous area despite the lower threat it carried to everyone else.

Moon unleashed the massive construct directly toward the small number of Heretic warriors who’d begun breaking away to pursue Selene, preventing them from easily running after her and the rest.

The Heretic Chief shouted urgent commands in his native language, and every available warrior immediately began desperately hurling their weapons at the approaching fireball in an attempt to somehow intercept or destabilize the spell before it could make impact.

Surprisingly, the concentrated barrage of thrown spears, arrows, and various other projectiles actually managed to disrupt and prematurely detonate the fireball before it reached its intended targets.

Moon smirked coldly as a second, even larger fireball had already finished forming above his staff during their desperate attempt. “Not bad. Now try stopping this one.”

He launched the second fireball, hurtling once again toward both the retreating Heretic warriors and the settlement’s vulnerable wooden structures around them.

The massive sphere of flame charged through the air with incredible momentum, completely ignoring the few weapons being thrown desperately at its path this time.

Just as the fireball was mere meters from reaching its intended targets and causing catastrophic damage, a sudden flash of pure black shadow broke through the air with incredible speed, intercepting the attack at the last possible moment.

BOOM!

Enormous black wings appeared directly before Moon’s narrowing eyes, the massive appendages physically striking against the fireball and forcibly dissipating it. The collision wasn’t without cost as visible burn marks and scorched feathers appeared across the wing surfaces despite their resilience.

SCREEEEEECH!

An absolutely deafening avian screech erupted across the entire settlement, the sound so penetrating and unnatural that even Moon felt his ears ringing a little. His brows furrowed as he recognized the beast before him.

The Heretics themselves were forced to physically shield their ears against the overwhelming sound attack from their own guardian creature. As the dissipating flames and smoke cleared, the creature’s full form became visible.

A colossal black raven stood between Moon and the Heretic forces, easily matching the White Swan’s impressive five-meter height when fully extended. Its dark feathers were like the dark night, a flat, consuming black that erased detail and dulled everything around it. Its intelligent crimson eyes fixed directly on Moon with obvious hostility.

The guardian beast had entered the battlefield.

Moon’s expression showed caution. He glanced around the battlefield, his eyes surveying everything around him. He was surprised by the black raven, not due to its appearance, but due to the lack of injuries it had despite killing the White Swan.

Yara’s words and the years of no combat had proved to Moon that the two beasts should have been at a similar rank, yet somehow the Black Raven was not injured, at least not severely, whilst the White Swan was dead.