Chapter 138 Danger Illustrated (1/2)

Arran ran until his lungs felt like they would explode, sprinting with all the speed he had in hiht, and he would not let it go to waste

Along the way, he encountered a lone raider scout The ht of him, body bisected by a Windblade

He briefly felt another stir of bloodlust as the scout fell, but with a ranged attack, the effect seeive into it — not noith a far ers

When he finally thought he had gone far enough, he paused for so — that was good It would play an important role in the battle to come

If it worked, it would be a massacre that no sword could match And if they were particularly lucky, it wouldn't just be the closest raiding parties that died But either way, the attack would buy them days, not hours

Arran took a look around and soon found a dried spot of brush He flicked his hand, and a sht instantly

With the wind feeding the flames, it only took seconds before the fire turned to a blaze, and when it did, it began to spread eagerly, rapidlydoind as if filled with a desire for more fuel

He did not pause to watch Instead, he searched for another shrub or piece of brush to set ablaze, and quickly found one

Another flick of his hand, and another fire was started Then another, and another still Only traces of Essence were needed to set the dried shrubs and trees afla done an to trace his steps back the way he ca trail of fire in his wake It wasn't long before thick clouds of smoke wafted upward behind Arran

He did not hurry as hecare that the fire took hold everywhere While the fire would spread as the wind drove it southwest, he did not want to risk even the saps for the eneh

As he moved forward, he looked in the distance before hin of sh he had known that Stoneheart's injurieshis task, he now began to feel some concern Injuries or not, if Stoneheart was too slow, the entire thing o awry

Still, he continued onward undeterred Stoneheart's actions were out of his hands, and the better the pace he made, the smaller the distance Stoneheart would have to cover

By now, the clouds of sh that the raiders would have noticed them even fro, they were bound to increase their pace

He had already covered half the way back when he saw s far in the distance Stoneheart had not failed

Although Arran was relieved, he did not let hiet distracted Even withinferno behind hiround to cover

The work took tiroup had left earlier, and he turned to head for Stoneheart, with the s the way, and the trail of fire still growing behind hin of the raiders While they should still be over half an hour away, any groups that were ahead of the restand rushed forward to escape

But no raiders ca toward each other, the distance between them shrank rapidly

Then, at last, he saw Stoneheart approach hi the last part of the wall of fire that now stretched well over a dozen miles across

”All done,” Stoneheart said when they h I still don't see e couldn't have started froh time for Arran to fully explain the plan before they set off, but now that it was finished, they finally had time to talk

”If we'd started at the center, they could have gone around the fire,” Arran said ”But the e did it, the fire will already have flanked them by the time they realize their path ahead is cut off”

”Can they outrun it?” Stoneheart asked, his expression pensive

”No,” Arran replied ”With these winds, the fire will go faster than they can run There's no way for them to escape”

”So they will…?”