Ascension of the elder

Chapter 123: A mad dash

"Surprise mother fudger."

This larger than usual signal stone began glowing with a bluish white light which projected straight up drawing the attention of everyone on sight and even some people outside of the battleground.

The glow from the signal stone grew in brightness before suddenly cutting off. The silence that followed this was heavy as everyone was looking around expecting something big to happen. Nothing was immediately apparent so Edith breathed a sigh of relief which was echoed by the imperial overseer.

Kyle's people were all waiting ready for combat to resume while the gangs were looking around cautiously, suddenly one of the gang members shouted while pointing towards the east.

"What the hell is that?!"

This exclamation drew everyone's attention and they looked where this bandit was pointing. A giant glowing array seemed to be floating in mid air while being surrounded by what looked like heat haze.

This haze grew in length with visible speed before another array began to glow along its path followed by another and another. They were located in the centre of the city so as more of these arrays appeared they could see them and that the city was surrounded.

Edith was looking at this with shock, was this some kind of attack? He had some knowledge of arrays like most people in the empire but these arrays meant nothing to them as the glyphs within them were different than the type he had seen before.

The imperial overseer also saw these and although he didn't know what these arrays were for he knew the glyphs were from the ancient empire that had created the array and alchemy systems they still used today.

In the imperial capital where the overseer was taught they had greater access to historical knowledge than those at the border had, so he could tell these glyphs would also be more powerful than their contemporary counterparts and with the size of them he was afraid of the implication.

Deciding discretion was the best course of action at this point he retreated into his manor house, Edith saw the overseer scurrying away like a rat and decided it would be best if he followed so grabbing Raith he also entered the manor with some of his guards.

The cultists also saw this transpire so one of the higher ranked members present on sight began issuing commands.

"Disengage, grab any heathens on the way and head straight for the safe zone."

With that the cultist bolted away from Kyle and his people while grabbing any healthy or injured civilians they could in their way. This left only the people on Kyle's side and the gangs still present and ready to battle.

The gangs were still watching the surroundings with looks of amazement and shock, gradually the glyphs lost their glow and the haze dispersed. What was left was the city walls Kyle had reconstructed with the bastions which were also visible now.

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Kyle wanted to do this so as to cause as much confusion and fear as he could within the enemies and suddenly having giant shielded walls appearing out of thin air would be the epitome of shock and awe.

The gangs still hadn't moved so Kyle issued his orders to his people while the enemy was still distracted.

"Wind spells to clear blast us a path; civilians follow behind us once we are in the open return to your homes. Everyone get moving NOW!"

With that Kyle's people began moving forwards again. Those who had trained in wind magic began using concentrated blast creating a wedge which blasted away the enemy opening up a path out of the kill zone.

They rushed through this path as the gangs began to recover but even with the opening made Kyle's people didn't stop their mana attacks which they were using to keep the gangs away from the civilians.

They reached several streets away and the civilians began to run away presumably back to their homes to lock themselves away until after the battles had past. Leonard and his family got close to Kyle at this point.

"Kyle I need to return to my territory to take command."

Leonard had several guards with them so Kyle thought they would be safe getting back to their territory plus Leonard himself was powerful in his own right.

"Okay Uncle Leo keep safe."

With that Leonard clasped hands with Landon before leading his family back to their territory; luckily he had already been warned that something may happen during the tournament so he had left Ruby at home.

A little while later the leader of the tor family approached them, Kyle wasn't sure when they had joined them but it wasn't a bad thing as he could see that lord Tor's daughter was still with Neil sending gazes at him now and again to make sure he was okay.

"Young lord Kyle I also need to return to my territory."

Kyle looked at the Tor's guards and they were looking worse for wear. They had been caught in a fight with the cultists and had several injured men with them.

"Okay but take some men with you. Neil I need you to take a detachment and make sure they get home safe."

"No problem cousin I'll see it happens."

Harris saw his son and wanted to say something but was cut off by Kyle.

"I know you want to stay with him but he'll be fine and we have work to do, can you put your feelings aside for the moment so we can sort out this disaster."

Harris on hearing Kyle's words took a deep breath before looking at Kyle with a grateful look.

"Of course nephew, we need to ensure our people's safety first."

This was the Harris that Landon remembered, when he had first taken leadership of the family Harris was his right hand man and none dared question his loyalty but over time a distance had grown between them. Landon thought this was due to him being the family head and Harris having to report to him but now he wondered if this was because of James' influence.

"Welcome back Harris."

Landon said while giving his brother a hug. Kyle and Maria were watching this before Kyle shook his head.

"We can kiss and make up later but for now GET MOVING!"

Everyone began running again so as to not get caught by the gangs, as they were moving into their territory they saw running battles all over. As they passed an area they would strike out at the attackers helping the guards.

Gradually their numbers swelled as the guards they helped joined their rush. In some places they saw members of 'shadow hand' fighting the enemy gangs. Some of the guards were ready to attack them but were stopped by Kyle's people.

"They are fighting the enemy leave them be."

Was the stock statement that Kyle's people gave, until these people had been brought within the fold they wouldn't let them know what forces they had at their disposal.

The damage that had been done within their territory while extensive seemed to be mostly property damage with very few injured civilians. 'Shadow hand' had been given certain task one of which was to help the guards protect the civilians.

There were a few noticeable buildings which hadn't been damaged, these were safe houses used by 'shadow hand' or businesses and buildings Kyle had openly taken control of. He had put multiple defensive arrays around these buildings so the gangs couldn't damage them.

During the battles the guard captains Kyle had placed in charge of the different units moved the civilians into these protected buildings to keep them safe. Things could be replaced but people couldn't hence the plan incorporated these shelters.

Susan and her team were still watching from overhead checking for any ambushes or unexpected occurrences. Once they passed the market they hit the main road leading back to their estate. Waiting at this road were a few dozen steeds being held in place by some members of the 'death watch'.

Mounting up the speed of their retreat was much faster and they were able to reach the estate in less than 15 minutes from then. The roads were empty at this point so they moved as fast as their steeds could carry them.

When they got back to the estate Kyle continued onto his bastion with his people, no one was speaking as they were still surprised at how the battle had progresses. It would be no lie to say that when they were surrounded many expected to be killed or at least injured but with all of the aces Kyle had up his sleeve they all came out with only scrapes and bruises.

When they reached the bastion and dismounted several members rushed off to their next call of duty leaving just a small contingent of people which included Clyde who was looking down.

Kyle saw Clyde and approached him before placing his hand on his shoulder which made Clyde flinch away.

"Clyde you aren't your father, your actions dictate who you are just look at Willem if he followed his father he should be a right prick."

"Hey!"

"No offense intended of course."

Hearing his cousin Clyde finally looked up and saw that his extended family were standing around him giving him their support. Landon put his hand on Clyde's other shoulder and gave it a squeeze.

"You'll be fine just do what you believe is right."

"Yes uncle and thanks Kyle."

"No charge."

Kyle responded with a grin, everyone began to talk about what had happened and everyone was fully in agreement that the rest of the Miles family and the overseer needed to be removed but the cult was the biggest problem right now. While they were talking Willem suddenly remembered something and spoke to Kyle.

"Um Kyle what about the youngsters from my family, they haven't done anything wrong can we save them?"

"No problem, Faye if you would."

Suddenly from the shadows Faye appeared in her full ninja maid gear making Harris's eyes bug out.

"Sir the children in the Miles household have already been liberated, they are now with the female members of their family we extracted prior."

"What? How did you do that the arrays in the manor should have prevented that?"

"When we broke in before and damaged the array network in your estate we also created a weakness in the main house. We couldn't use it when the majority of your family were there but as they are mostly in the city directing the battle a small team managed to get in. We only took the members from the main family as the outer members didn't seem as corrupt."

"Thank you Kyle a thousand times thank you."

Seeing this was all done Harris decided to speak up and find out what the next plan was.

"Kyle you've done a lot to protect the family but what are you planning to do now."

Kyle looked at everyone who was around him with a smile slowly growing on his face, Susan had just arrived after landing with her falcon and seeing Kyle's smile grinned herself as she knew what was coming.

"I'm planning to royally screw them up."