Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

After not so long, Rain moved in the opposite direction, and after one hour, he reached the other side. He found a door leading to an area above, but it was sealed tight. Rain could also see some dust falling from the breaches of the door. He imagined that a building above had been knocked down. Probably a result of the invasion or someone who had a grudge against the Lonard family.

"I guess they destroyed and left as if it was anything that was connected to the previous leaders of the city… I can\'t hear anything around, but I need to be careful," Rain thought.

Without wasting time, Rain started to dig once again, this time upward to return to his hometown. It was getting late, so Rain had to be careful not to make any noise. At the same time, that was a good thing since Rain won\'t be seen emerging from the area.

While it took a few hours, Rain considered himself lucky since the small hole that he made him see the night sky. He didn\'t dig toward a pile of rubble, so that was definitely luck on his side. Rain stopped to listen to the sounds outside, and he could hear some metallic footsteps in the distance and some conversations, but nothing more. He wondered the reasons for that…

"They must be the mercenaries and guards that serve Leo… the magic people must be camping outside the city and guarding the walls," Rain thought.

After not so long, Rain stopped to rest a bit while he listened to the sounds outside. It was close to midnight already, but there were no signs of the city getting quieter. It was only natural since they didn\'t want to lose it… in any case, Rain had to move and at least learn where he could find his father before coming up with a plan to rescue him.

He probably won\'t be alone, so a fight will probably happen, and he will have to knock down all the enemies instantly. He had made a lot of progress with his magic, but not to do something so brazen.

"That will be hard, so I have to come up with some surefire method to succeed by taking out the enemies by surprise… Considering my skills, what can I do in that regard?" Rain thought while rubbing his chin.

After thinking for a short while, Rain realized that he already had his answer. He had played with it for the past few days. He grabbed one of those round small spheres of dirt, and, using his magic, he shot them in the distance.

They were as fast as arrows and heavy as cannonballs, but their best range was only twenty meters of distance… Rain will have to expose himself a bit if he wants to use them as weapons that won\'t make much noise. At the same time, he will make a lot of enemies since those could kill anyone with a good hit in the head.

"I guess this solves problem A, as for problem B… how to bring back Dad, who is currently under some brainwashing magic," Rain thought. "I suppose a good hit in the head won\'t be enough."

Rain had no idea how magic that manipulates the mind works, but he could guess. First of all, they naturally should affect the brain of the target, altering their notions of reality and perhaps even memories. That kind of thing was really scary and disturbing.

Still, people stopped at nothing to win wars and get what they wanted during conflicts, so it was no surprise that some tribes developed and became quite good at using that kind of thing.

"I will have enough time to test all this once I recover him," Rain thought. "I suppose I need to wait until the next night and focus on recovering my strength and mana."

The next day passed rather slowly. Rain tried to hear some conversations around, but he didn\'t learn anything useful; he only heard nonsense. Resting underground was also quite difficult to do as well, so Rain woke up several times during the day. That didn\'t help much with his exhaustion. It was better than nothing considering the situation, though.

"It is time to move," Rain thought when things got a bit quieter outside.

Rain had already finished opening the exit of the tunnel for him, so he just had to move it downward and then seal it again when he left. That happened in just ten seconds, and then he found himself in the middle of several piles of rubble. It seemed that the residences of one of his uncles became those, and thanks to that, he couldn\'t see anyone around.

Rain flew, using his magic to avoid making any noise, and then crossed the rubble and stopped in a dark alley nearby. After looking around, he confirmed that the city was a lot more empty than before. The night attack destroyed a lot of buildings, but a lot more people were killed in it as well. That explained the emptiness.

"Hmmm?" Rain thought while he was checking the area ahead through the darkness of the alley.

Rain saw people coming and going like normal. While some of them looked a bit down in their spirits. It was only normal that most people would surrender to their enemies, but it seemed that they adapted too fast. Maybe Rain was wrong about that, but there were no signs of people planning to rebel against the enemies.

Even if they couldn\'t fight, they didn\'t want to do anything else either against those that destroyed part of their hometown and killed their friends and acquaintances.