Dragon's Wrath: The Cursed Returnee

"Hey… that is not fair," Ian protested.

"That is some level of concentration…" Emily frowned. "So, you decided to train mentally before trying in reality? I can understand, but… you progressed too fast in three hours."

"Is that so," Ethan said. "Better luck next time, mate."

Ian just sighed because he knew Ethan was like that. At most weird moments, he could show an incredible level of focus, and he didn't cheat. Ethan had used everything he learned by himself, so Ian only felt slightly bothered for a moment.

"That being said, you can't use two spells like that, right?" Emily asked.

"No, but that isn't necessary right now," Ethan nodded.

It was weird, Ethan felt like much more time had passed while he was concentrating, but he didn't feel the effects of Zen. So, it was hard to believe that the effects of its power could affect his mind when he wasn't using any skill. In any case, for the first time, Ethan learned how useful mental training could be.

"Well, I won't lose this time," Ian said. "I will learn how to summon three ice arrows first!"

"Why are you being so competitive?" Ethan frowned.

Ethan felt like teaching Ian a lesson for a few seconds by using his powers to cheat. By doing so, he could learn how to summon three ice arrows in a few seconds, but in the end, he changed his mind. He shouldn't answer effort with cheating, the effort has to be answered with an effort.

"It looks like you are pretty good at teaching, Emily," Carter said after he watched everything in complete silence. "I think you could become a great teacher."

"Hahaha, no way," Emily laughed. "I only succeeded because those two are idiots and can be easily read. Anyway, let's rest while we can since tomorrow things won't become easier. Although we didn't suffer a single wound, spending the entire day casting spells is quite tiring."

Just like that, Emily escaped from that conversation. Ethan also felt like sleeping a little bit in order to rest his body. In case something happens, he will be able to respond faster and better after a good night's rest. For some reason, Ian stayed awake to train Multi-Cast.

When morning came, Ethan woke up feeling pretty refreshed and a little bit rusty as well since a few days had passed without him swinging his sword. Since he had time, Ethan decided to test that again. That session of meditation that made him feel like he had trained for dozens of hours, a technique that he had never used before. In the end, Ethan managed to relax a little, imagining himself swinging his sword. Still, he didn't obtain any notification, and his body seemed the same as ever.

"I guess this is more like image training than proper meditation. Still, this could be useful while I train to recover the techniques that I lost when I returned."

While Ethan was thinking about that, Isaac suddenly appeared. Unlike yesterday, when he left in a bad mood, now he appeared quite pissed. That was odd since previously as well, even though it was so early, he appeared quite happy.

"Bad news," Isaac said. "The dumbasses commanding this operation decided that we will have to split the mercenaries and heroes' group in two. Each group will have to hold down the perimeter for eight hours."

"Why?" Ethan asked. "What happened with the plan of using the Hunters?"

"That became the last resort since it is too expensive to use them in actual combat and because our performance yesterday surprised them," Isaac scratched the back of his head while showing an annoyed expression. "Although they said that we can mix heroes and mercenaries in two groups, things won't proceed that well. Everyone knows that the mercenaries are weaker. So, in order to decrease their losses, most heroes are joining sides with other heroes."

That seemed really troublesome. Although they did that to preserve their own strength and decrease the risk for their own lives, that kind of strategy could cause the end of the mission since the chances of the weaker group being exterminated were quite high.

"What is the plan?" Ethan asked. "If we try hard, I bet we can endure this crazy idea for a while, but eventually, people on our side will begin to collapse, and the few heroes on our side won't be able to solve the situation."

"Well… I came here expecting that you guys could help me find a solution to the problem," Isaac scratched the back of his head. "I absolutely have no idea as to how to solve this mess, and I don't want to save the lives of my men only to doom the mission and the capital of my country."

Ethan could understand that, but even so, Isaac was expecting a bit too much from the people who were only there for their own personal reasons. Besides, they couldn't do too much directly, and otherwise, they will draw too much attention to them.

"Well, if the big shots are going as far as so that, we might as well change the whole strategy," Emily said. "This country has some magic items stored that the government obtained to use in some situations, right? Can you find some summoning magic items?"

"I bet I can. We have some time since the assholes of the other group even intend to let us fight at night," Isaac said. "However, such items consume too much mana, and controlling several of those creatures isn't something many people can do."

"It is fine," Emily said. "I have enough mana, and we can use as many potions as we want, right? As for the problem of control, I can easily solve that."

Emily sounded pretty confident, and since she was smart, Ethan was sure that she would succeed in whatever she was doing. The problem was the fact that she would stand out, but as long only one of them gets everyone's attention, things won't get really troublesome… probably.