690 The one who leads. The one who fights.

“Awa, I need you to take good care of Plow and Zero for me.” Vincent looked at the Dullahans acting like headless chickens, “After losing your previous leaders, you need to put what you read in the books to good use and lead your people out of this village.”

Vincent looked at Awa and asked, “Can you do that for me?”

*Gulp* “Y-yes.” Awa nervously agreed.

“We will support you.” Both Amie and Lamin told Awa reassuringly.

[Vincent. Remember to ask Awa where the collections of books are. I do not want the books to be destroyed.]

*Sigh* “Can I know where the books are? I want to save them if possible.” Vincent asked with a poker face.

The situation was urgent, yet he had to look for the books and hope the past Dullahans mentioned anything about the second hero, Dominic Smith.

“There is a small house beside the clan leader’s house. The books are all there.” Awa responded. She looked around and asked, “Where should we go?”

Vincent pointed at the log wall in the distance and said, “I removed two logs from the back. I already took two pregnant women outside. Their husbands are with them.”

.....

“Okay. Leave most of the evacuation to me.” Awa said in a determined voice.

“Can Plow follow Vincent Vincent?” *Pho?*

“No. Stay and protect Awa in my stead. Okay? The ants you heard might attack at the gathering location outside. There might be a fight, so be on high alert.”

Plow nodded. “Plow understands. Plow will show how very very strong Plow is.” *Pho*

“Zero. Obeys. Master.”

“Good.” Vincent turned around and leaped on a roof. He leaped from one roof to another while Kazumi guided him to the clan leader’s shack.

One roof after the other, Vincent arrived in front of his destination. The moment Vincent arrived, Kazumi went to check inside the nearby shacks post haste.

[Vincent. Store this shack!] She exclaimed after looking inside the second nearby shack.

Vincent hurriedly went to touch the wall of the shack. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind. Focusing while many Dullahans were shouting and screaming was challenging.

Vincent spent less than half a minute feeling with his intent everything that was inside. Afterward, he swiftly stored all the contents inside his Soul Dimensional Storage.

*Tsk* “I can feel the strong presence of hundreds of enemies.” Vincent stopped talking and rubbed his chin. “But why do I feel an abundance of fear instead of anger while approaching to attack us?”

[Ants barely show fear as we had seen before. However, there is another creature that is small and can be in the hundreds in this forest.]

“The Cefeye?”

[That is my guess. And based on what I found in the cave, the holes in the walls where the Dullahans place their food are large enough for the Cefeyes to enter.]

“Could this place have been one of the Cefeye’s nests, and the Dullahans built a log wall? This must be why Awa told me the Cefeye race was aggressive toward them.”

Vincent shook his head to clear his thoughts. “I will try to help before evacuating.” He said before jumping onto a roof.

Vincent saw a couple of Dullahans were just leaving their shacks. He took a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs, “GATHER AT THE TRAINING AREA.”

The Dullahans heard Vincent loud and clear. They all began to head toward the training ground, where they met with Awa.

“Yes, do that and leave the empty space on the wall.” Awa looked at another Dullahan. “Lift the child. We can not have a child falling and be stepped on.”

Awa pointed her finger at the log wall. “Go that way and remember that all of you are proud Dullahans. All of you want to live a better life instead of dying right now and going to Valhalla.”

“However, those who want to remain with me until the last Dullahan evacuates can follow me.” Awa smiled proudly and continued, “If our fate is to die for our people to escape, then today is a good day to go to Valhalla together and have a feast with our ancestors.”

The more Awa led her people. The more Awa spoke. The more the Dullahans started to see Awa as a leader they should follow and place their lives in her hands.

Even though Dullahans had it easier to awaken the Warrior Class, not all of them trained after awakening and learned how to fight or hunt. This was one of the reasons Awa had to let those who were most likely going to die evacuate promptly.

“Five children and their parents have evacuated. ” Amie told Awa.

“I saw six families of two leave as well. ” Lamin told Awa.

“Twenty-eight in total have escaped... that is not enough. ” Awa complained.

The rate at which the Dullahan was escaping was slow. Additionally, there were already twenty men and five women gathered beside her. They were all holding spears as if they were planning to fight.

“We will help with the protection.” A Dullahan holding a bow and a quiver filled to the brim with arrows said. Behind him were fourteen Dullahans holding a bow and also carrying a quiver full of arrows.

Awa looked around her. She had become in charge of a small Dullahan platoon consisting of twenty-five spearmen and fifteen archers. An injured and weak father and a mother helping him. A little fox and a small plant.

*SKREEEE!* Loud screeches reverberated through the entire village. All the Dullahans knew enemies were about to pour into their village.

“Archers. Go to higher ground and assist our fellow people in evacuating.” Awa quickly ordered while pointing at the roofs of the shacks.

“Spearmen. Prepare a defensive line in front of me. Point your spears forward and prepare to hold the line.” Awa continued while moving her arm from left to right.

historical

“Mother. Father. Please evacuate now.”

“No. We will be with you until the end.”

“Your mother is right. We will remain together until our very end.”

*Whoosh, whoosh* “Come here.” “Run this way.” “Leave your stuff and hurry.”

The archers shouted and directed the Dullahans toward the training ground whilst shooting arrows. The enemies entering the village in hoards were the Cefeye.

The archers saw a figure approaching them. It jumped from one roof to the other while leaving a trail of green steam behind.

“The clan leader is returning.” One of the archers loudly announced after accepting Vincent as the next clan leader.

Vincent soon landed in front of the spearmen line. He placed a little boy and his mother on their feet. He clenched his fist and threw a punch, nearly hitting the child’s mother.

*Crack* The skull on a Cefeye’s head broke, and the leaping Cefeye was a couple of meters knocked away.

“Hurry and come here. ” Awa ordered the child and his mother.

The ground started to rumble, and the number of the Cefeyes constantly increased instead of decreasing. Second, after the other, the amount became more than archers could handle with their limited quantity of arrows.

“I will be the vanguard. Awa, you take care of the evacuation.” Vincent went in front of the spearmen and continued, “We can not save everyone, and we do not know how many have died. The protectors will leave after the rest evacuates.”

Awa nodded. “Spearmen, form a V line with Vincent as the vanguard. Archers, support any Dullahan approaching and save as many arrows as possible.”

Awa moved her gaze to her mother and father. Behind them were two children, their parents, and a couple more Dullahans ready to leave.

“Incoming!” Vincent shouted.

A huge wave of Cefeye rushed to their location. Vincent clenched his fists and prepared to protect those behind him.

The spearmen beside him clenched their spears with a firm grip and prepared to protect as many of their people as possible before going to Valhalla proudly.

The archers drew their bowstrings and prepared to shoot their arrows at Cefeyes, who tried to attack those evacuating.

An archer noticed the last child running alone. “Save the child!” He shouted.

Four more archers saw the child running. They hurriedly shot the arrows at the Cefeyes aiming to run over the child. However, they weren’t shooting quickly enough.

A Cefeye lept to run over the child. *Bam! Crack* A green fist struck the skull on the Cefeye’s head.

“Stay behind me if you want to live. ” Vincent told the child with a deep angered frown contorted on his face.

The child nodded while watching Vincent swing his arms and kill one or two Cefeye at the same time. The child rubbed her eyes after her vision started to become darker than the night.

The child’s surroundings illuminated green. She raised her head and saw a large boulder falling toward them.

*Sniffle, sniffle* “Mommy. Daddy. I am comming to Valhalla...”

“Not. On. MY. WATCH!” Vincent shouted. He took a fighting stance while ignoring the Cefeye bumping into him in fear of being squashed to death.

[Eta. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Soul Invite.]

Vincent’s perception of time increased as if time had stopped for him. During this cheat-like state, Vincent controlled all the condensed mana he collected into one fist.

The time resumed. The archers jumped away to avoid impact. The child crouched and covered her head with her arms. However, one man remained to face the incoming boulder head-on.

Vincent threw a strike with all his might. The moment he could feel his arm being pushed back, Vincent shouted, “SHATTER!”

Condensed mutated mana entered the boulder. The thunder-like roots divided and multiplied dozens upon dozens of times.