Finley looked up at the teammates slowly floating down from the sky, as well as the mysterious man beside them.
He realized that he had probably survived because this man had acted.
Vaguely, he felt as though he had seen this person somewhere before. There was an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Then he suddenly remembered.
He took a deep breath, and the way he looked at Gauss became different.
He remembered who the man before him was.
He had once seen him at the labyrinth exit, coming out with his team members. Back then, Finley had been stunned by the aura he gave off, and out of curiosity, had even asked some passersby about his identity. That was how he learned that this was Gauss, captain of the Red Dragon Company.
An unbelievably powerful high-ranking adventurer.
At least, to ordinary adventurers like them, that was exactly what he was.
No wonder he could instantly kill these dangerous enemies that had driven them into a desperate situation.
All the confusion seemed to vanish the moment Finley learned Gauss's identity.
At the same time, he could not help feeling dazed.
To him, these were enemies he could never defeat. But in Gauss's eyes, they were barely worth mentioning.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the head of his captain lying near his feet, and sorrow appeared on his face.
If he had power like Gauss, or even one-tenth of it, perhaps his captain and teammates would not have died.
Finley had gone out to make his living when he was still young and had moved through several temporary teams before this. This current team was one he had finally started to feel a sense of belonging to.
Sadly, one ambush had shattered it completely.
"I'm sorry."
Gauss landed on the ground and spoke softly.
If he had arrived a step earlier, he might really have been able to save more people.
But he could not foresee that something was happening here. When he sensed the situation, he had already rushed over as quickly as possible.
"N-no, no!"
"This isn't your fault."
The surviving adventurers immediately waved their hands in panic, speaking incoherently.
If they had been some hot-blooded rookies fresh out of the gate, perhaps they might not have understood the situation. But everyone present had at least several years of adventuring experience.
They knew very well how rare and precious it was in the adventurer world for someone to help complete strangers.
Forget strangers—even among teammates who called each other brothers, there was no shortage of people who stabbed each other in the back and pocketed the dead man's money.
Although Gauss was powerful, he had no obligation to save them. A strong person like him surely had more important missions. He had acted only because he was kind.
Otherwise, why had the person they encountered today been him, and not some other powerful adventurer?
Gauss sensed the other corpses scattered through the woods. Before long, his clay creatures carried them over.
He watched as the survivors collected their teammates' bodies, and throughout the process, he said nothing more.
Or rather, over the past two days, he had seen far too many similar scenes along the way. Not only adventurers, but also civilians he encountered on the road had suffered terribly in this calamity.
He had seen villages burned to ash, human warriors slaughtering broken monster tribes, and monsters gnawing on the corpses of children and the elderly by the roadside…
This was a war for everyone. Only when this giant beast truly arrived at their side would people truly understand its cruelty and terror.
Civilians, merchants, peddlers, soldiers, adventurers—none of them could stay out of it.
After escorting the survivors out of the forest, Gauss floated into the air again and sat on Hephis's back, heading southwest.
In truth, if he flew toward Barry at full speed, he could reach the area around the Forest Capital sooner.
But his senses were too strong now. It was hard for him to pretend not to see the situations he encountered on the way, so he had no choice but to slow down a little.
To him, it might only be a delay of a few minutes, or ten-some minutes.
But to others, that was enough to change their entire lives.
The war in the far outskirts of the Forest Capital continued, and its intensity was greater than the smaller battles happening in other areas. Although huge numbers of monsters had been slaughtered, more continued surging out from the depths of the forest.
Fortunately, the soldiers and adventurers on the front line had bought enough time. Large numbers of adventurers and soldiers from Falim and other cities had arrived at the front to reinforce them.
The greatest noble family of this land, the Zevier family, had also sent out the Iron Guard Knights under the command of the current family head, Border Count Augustin Zevier.
This steel torrent was far stronger than an ordinary army, and no adventurer team could compare to it.
Every member was a professional. To become an officer, one had to possess master-level professional strength.
But that was not even their true source of power.
The true strength of the Iron Guard Knights lay in their ability to condense their military momentum into a tangible force.
When they charged, that military momentum would raise their assault speed and endurance by another level.
Every cavalryman's armor would be surrounded by a faint white glow, as if they were constantly under the effect of a Blessing spell.
After the Iron Guard Knights arrived, the front line—which had been collapsing due to the fall of various defensive facilities and sections of the wall—stabilized again.
Several charges from the Iron Guard Knights outside the city sent the Green Dragon Army's frontline forces into chaos.
However, after several charges, the high-ranking commanders of the Green Dragon Army quickly adjusted. They sent out elite Green Dragon Army units to confront them head-on, with wyvern units overhead harassing and coordinating the attack.
Seeing that they had gained enough, the captain of the Iron Guard Knights withdrew back behind the city wall currently under repair and met with the current senior commanders.
"How did our aerial forces suffer such heavy losses? Who was commanding? Where are our magical cannons? Where is the griffin legion?"
Winston Zevier, captain of the Iron Guard Knights, walked into the command tent, removed his helmet, and placed it on a nearby table. He approached the others with a slight frown, restrained anger showing on his face.
He had just arrived with his men and found a huge breach in the wall. With no time to communicate with the others on the battlefield, he had immediately launched an attack and forced back the monster army pressing in.
If he had not been wary of the monster army's aerial forces, the Iron Guard Knights could have achieved even greater results.
If he remembered correctly, dozens of magical cannons should have been deployed here, most of them even private property of the Zevier family. As for the griffin forces, he had only seen scattered support from them just now.
Meanwhile, they were facing harassment from over fifty wyverns, hundreds of winged dragons, giant bats, flying serpents, and other flying monsters. How could he not be furious at the disparity?
The others present fell silent at once.
In particular, the expression of Kevin Brennan, captain of the Green Defense Corps belonging to the Forest Capital, became especially unstable. He was a member of the Brennan viscount family in Barry, and he was the main target of Winston Zevier's questioning.
Kevin Brennan wanted to explain, but first, the losses on the main battlefield had indeed been severe. Second, the family behind the other man was several levels above the Brennan family.
"All right, Winston. Calm down."
Matthias Monroe had just withdrawn from the main battlefield as well.
Although he was the president of the Forest Capital's Adventurers' Guild, command authority over the main battlefield was not in his hands. It was held by generals from the local noble families. He could only command a portion of the adventuring groups and the Adventurers' Guild's direct forces.
He had some friendship with Captain Winston.
Seeing his arrival, Winston Zevier's stern, unapproachable face softened slightly.
"Hmph. Matthias, you're still as soft as ever."
He paused as he spoke. Though his mouth said that, he still hugged the bearded guild president in greeting.
The two had known each other since their youth, and Matthias had even saved his life during a battle they had fought side by side.
"We've been under more pressure these past few days than you imagine. Don't be too harsh on Kevin. Those wyverns were practically suicidal. They were willing to throw away their lives just to destroy the magical cannons. You know how it is—once those heavy things are installed, they're very difficult to move."
"The griffin legion also suffered heavy losses fighting the enemy flying corps."
"The Green Dragon Army's aerial corps is far stronger than we imagined."
Matthias defended Kevin Brennan somewhat.
And what he said was true. Perhaps because the master of the Jade Forest was that green dragon, and because of the followers of those young dragons, the Green Dragon Army even contained quite a few dragonborn flying monsters. These powerful dragon-blooded creatures had caused enormous trouble for the humans on the front line.
That included the Green Dragon Army's vanguard general, the Rot-Wing Dragon Bat, which Matthias had been holding back over the past few days. It had also received a true dragon's blessing. Dragon blood could raise a monster's strength to another level.
On top of that, this was a force the Green Dragon Queen Aesselas had cultivated for over a hundred years, and it also seemed to have received some support from the demons. Even if only part of its strength had been deployed so far, it was already terrifying.
At the mention of young dragons, Matthias's expression suddenly became distant.
He could not help thinking of Gauss, who had accepted the commission to kill those young dragons. He wondered what Gauss's situation was now.
More than half a month had passed, and he could not help worrying about the safety of that young genius.
If Gauss had also fallen in the forest, it would truly be too great a pity.
Yet the guild higher-ups did not seem to have any special plan to protect him. Although Matthias understood that no great tree could be grown in a greenhouse, he still found it puzzling.
After hearing his old acquaintance's explanation, Winston Zevier's expression eased slightly.
"How is Lord Spellweaver doing?"
In the end, he could not help asking Matthias about the condition of his family elder.
It was somewhat shameful to say, but even though he belonged to the main branch of the Zevier family and counted among the top five figures in the vast Zevier clan, he had known nothing about their ancestor Erich Zevier still being alive.
His elder brother, Count Augustin Zevier, seemed to have known.
As a member of the Zevier family, Winston naturally admired the Spellweaver, the man who had laid the foundation for the Zevier family's prosperity. On the road here, hearing news of the Spellweaver had filled him with excitement.
Whether or not a family possessed an epic powerhouse made an essential difference for a count's house.
The Zevier family might look glorious in public, but compared to truly ancient and powerful nobles, they still paled.
Hearing the question, Matthias shook his head.
"I don't know. To avoid affecting us, Lord Spellweaver's battlefield was sealed off very early."
"We know nothing about the battle over there."
At the epic level, there were many methods to move a battlefield elsewhere, even temporarily entering a separate space.
"I see…"
Unable to hear the news he wanted, Winston sighed.
In truth, he had already searched for the Spellweaver's figure earlier, but found nothing. So he could roughly guess the situation. He had asked only because his concern had overridden his judgment.
He desperately wanted to hear good news from Matthias.
But both he and Matthias knew that the reason the Spellweaver had remained hidden for so many years was surely not simple. Most likely, after all this time, his condition had already deteriorated greatly.
Hoping to use his strength to further expand the Zevier family's influence was nothing but fantasy.
After asking about his family elder, Winston finally returned to the main topic of the meeting and began discussing with the others how to deal with the Green Dragon Army's troublesome and powerful aerial forces.
Flying monsters had far too obvious an advantage over ground forces.
This was also why Matthias had still not taken down the Rot-Wing Dragon Bat. As a holy knight, he could also master the power of flight, but compared to the enemy, he was still slightly lacking in speed and agility.
That little difference might not seem like much, but in truth, it determined who held the initiative.
When you faced an enemy who could decide when to engage and when to withdraw, it was very difficult to fully display your strength.
The Iron Guard Knights had a considerable advantage on the ground, but even they struggled to charge across the battlefield while enduring constant harassment from above.
"We're mobilizing more dragon-hunting ballistae."
Although dragon-hunting ballistae could not truly hunt dragons, they could still deal damage if they hit smaller wyverns and flying monsters. Most importantly, they were relatively cheap to build.
While discussion inside the tent grew heated, in a nearby camp, Alia suddenly seemed to sense something and looked up at the blue sky.
"What is it?"
Albena caught her sudden daze and asked curiously.
Alia did not speak. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she stared hard toward a certain point on the horizon.
A strange sense of familiarity rose in her heart, but there was no evidence to confirm it. She could not say anything rashly before she was certain, or it would only raise unnecessary hope and bring greater disappointment later.
Is it you?
In her distant gaze, a tiny dot on the northern horizon gradually enlarged.
Finally, the figure became clear.
When Alia caught sight of that familiar red, her heartbeat began to accelerate. At the same time, the other teammates who had instinctively followed her gaze swallowed in unison.
They looked at one another excitedly.
"Is… is Gauss back?"
Under their burning gazes, the figure of the dragon finally came roaring in from the north, slowing as it reached the air above the camp.
Its enormous wings stirred up fierce winds that howled around the camp.
"A dragon!"
"Is it an enemy?"
Many people who saw the dragon slowly descend still did not understand what was happening and nervously grabbed their weapons.
Several griffin riders, however, flew over respectfully to greet it.
"No, no! It should be the captain of the Red Dragon Company!"
Some people were quick-witted enough to react immediately.
Putting aside the fact that it had come from the north, if it were an enemy, the important figures in the camp would never have allowed it to approach so easily.