Chapter 61 - 61. Sixteen Hours Left (1/2)

Three days later.

A man came running from the west. Stumbling on his own legs and barely avoiding the trees and rocks on his path.

The man was a warlock. He was running for hours already.

Raz, seeing that figure approaching, knew what it means.

The mage army was moving.

Raz wondered why only one came. But thinking again, he knew the answer, they probably were found by scouts and one stayed for the other to leave..

They lost another warlock.

Raz's face darkened and went to help that man that barely could breathe, his lungs were almost popping out of his chest because of running.

The others warlocks around came too, and that warlock started to tell his story.

Between fatigue and barely any time to breathe, the man told them what they already expected to hear.

One day from now, and the mage army will be here. But scouts would probably come earlier.

Raz, hearing what the man said, made a quick count with his head. The crystals would run for a hundred hours. Three days and a half had already passed.

Raz looked at the still unconscious Mack.

He had around 16 hours of crystal Essence left, and the mage army would reach here in 24hrs at maximum.

The problem was the scouts.

If only one or two appeared it would be fine, they could quickly eliminate them. But if was a squad, it would take longer and a battle would ensue, and Raz knew that if a battle ensued, the others would notice and would flock like bees to where they are.

Raz wondered if he should stop the runic circuit and take Mack and leave.

But he also knew it would be all for naught. Their last hope was for Mack to reach a breakthrough.

Raz gave another look to the unconscious Mack, and started talking with the warlocks.

They were going to create a perimeter of one mile around where Mack was. Roughly at the edges of the small forest they were.

Only Raz would stay with Mack. His last line of defense.

Seeing those warlocks going, Raz's heart became heavy. He knew they would not come back.