Chapter Two: Preparing To Attack

"Our intel states that the two Guardians are currently headed towards Great Haven and that they would arrive within 1-3 days depending on if they continue to move at their current speed or speed up if we want to lure them to a trap.

If anyone has any plans on how to kill them and what kind of traps to set down them please speak freely. All plans will be appreciated." Speaking with a devilish smile on his face, Paul, the leader, wanted to obtain any and all possible plans from the strongest individuals in Great Haven.

The first person to give their plan was Kris, who still had a cold expression on her face, who gave a simple plan that had few flaws. "What if we get the Earth Magicians to use their magic and create an incredibly large chasm that can fit both of the Guardians.

After the chasm is finished the Guardians could be lured over with some of our fastest and most agile Ravens, and then the Guardians can be bombarded with spells by all magic users above level 30."

Licking his lips while looking at Kris, Paul constantly looked at her body, which was very tempting in her current armour, and he responded. "Solid plan, let's go with that. The meeting is over, I will mobilize all forces to immediately start making the chasm.

The trap will be located 10 kilometres South of Great Haven, we should have more than enough time to make the chasm if the Guardians aren't lured over and if they maintain their current speed." Preparing to stand up, Jashuri spoke up at this time and put in a plan of her own, just to annoy Kris.

"Why not just fly over there after making some preparations right now and deal with both of the Guardians? We have more than enough combat power with all of us combined." Relaxing back into his chair, Paul looked at Jashuri, who had just spoken, with a lustful look in his eyes, and he made a decision.

"All those in favour of General Kris's plan, raise your right hand and all those in favour of Jashuri's plan raise your left hand." Taking a vote with all of the people in the room, Paul watched as almost all hands were raised, and he looked at the single person who didn't raise their hand.

Karl couldn't hear anything the other people were saying, his eyes were solely focused on Jashuri while his hands were clenched so tightly that the metal gauntlets he was wearing were easily pierced by his bone fingers.

Being nudged by Matthew, Karl snapped out of his daze and looked at him questioningly, he was then informed of the current situation and promptly raised his right hand. Smiling in satisfaction, Paul stood up and announced the end of the meeting, and left with all of the people he had brought with him.

All who were left in the room were Karl, Matthew, Kris, Greg, and Thomas. Karl's eyes were still fixated on the back of Jashuri, who had left after giving a victorious smirk at Kris, and he was filled with endless rage.

The others were dejectedly looking at the table as they started to stand up and head out of the room while following behind Kris, who had been the first to stand up and head out of the Association building and mount her Raven.

Everyone else also mounted their Ravens, including Paul and his group that he had brought with him, and they started to fly off in the direction of the Guardians. Karl also got on his Raven, which was twice as large as the other Ravens, and he followed at the very back of the group.

In total, there were 21 people who were heading in the direction of the pair of Guardians, and they were all 21 of the strongest known people in Great Haven. On some of the Ravens, people had changed the casual clothes they were wearing into suits of armour and robes with many inscriptions on the outside.

Kris and the other 3 Generals were always wearing their armour and equipment, so they didn't need to change whatever they were holding. As for Karl, he has never taken his armour off since he got it from Itami four weeks ago.

However, the main reason that they didn't change their equipment was because they didn't have storage artifacts like the other people close to the Leader. Karl did, but it was barely big enough to fit his scythe and secondary weapon, which was the spear he had used to kill the mutated boars.

Rarely ever using his scythe, the only people who knew about it was Trish, Kris, and Itami, which really went to show just how rarely he used it. Looking at his gauntlets, which had been pierced by his fingers, Karl reshaped them so that no one could see what was inside the armour.

Flying closer to Matthew, Karl motioned at his mouth, implying that he wanted to speak to him, and Matthew cast a spell that would allow them to communicate. "What do you need?" Matthew asked while casually laying on the back of his Raven.

"Could you tell Kris that I want to invite her onto the back of my Raven?" Speaking quietly while looking at Kris, Karl turned to Matthew after asking the question, only to see that Matthew had a knowing smile on his face while his eyes were mischievous crescents.

His face quickly returned to normal after he realized that he was being watched and he nodded. Cutting off the spell with Karl, Matthew watched as he flew closer to Kris and her Raven, and he quickly cast another spell to speak to Kris.

"Guess what?" Kris, who was sitting cross legged and honing her mind, jolted slightly as she heard Matthew's voice suddenly appear right beside her ear. "Kral wants to invite onto his Raven, and I suggest that you accept his invitation. I quite like him, he reminds of Karl."

Twitching her eyebrow at the sudden remark from Matthew, Kris looked at Kral, who had started flying close enough for her to jump onto his Raven, and she decided that it was time to move on. "Okay, tell him to slow down enough for me to jump on the Raven."

Stunned at the reply that he had received, Matthew's mouth fell open slightly as he hadn't expected that Kris would actually agree. Quickly cutting off the spell, he relayed the message to Karl, who promptly slowed down enough for her to jump on his Raven.

After Kris jumped onto the Raven, the Raven sped up again to not fall behind the other members of the group. Magic that would allow for a shield to surround the pair was then cast by Matthew, who was watching the pair closely.

Lying on her back beside Karl, Kris looked up at the starry sunless sky that had many planets that could be seen without the use of a telescope, and she waited for the guy beside her to take the initiative since he had invited her to have a chat.

Half an hour soon passed as neither Karl nor Kris had spoken yet, Matthew had continued to watch the two since he was waiting to see what would happen, if anything would happen, but he started to slowly fall asleep because of how bored he was getting.

Moving his gaze away from the couple, Matthew started to meditate and think about what he could do to make Kris fall in love with Karl without exposing his identity, but he couldn't think of anything at the moment.

As soon as his gaze had moved away from the pair, he missed the fact that Kris had made a quick chuckle at a sudden joke that had been made, and he didn't realize that because Karl was Karl, he could just make Kris fall in love with him all over again.

Another half an hour passed as Kris and Karl were joking and flirting with each other, they were also talking about how there might be life on the other planets that were close by, and wondered if they would soon find out if there was life on other planets.

In the middle of flirting, Karl noticed that the other people in their group started to slow down their Ravens came to stop in the air, Paul's voice sounded in everyone's ears. "The Guardians are 200 kilometres ahead, behind a group of mountains, but they will be arriving shortly.

Use this time to prepare spells and sharpen your weapons, or calm your mind to prepare for battle."

Whistling at a high frequency, Kris called her Raven over and jumped back onto it, but not before waving goodbye to Karl and mouthing the words "Talk to you later."

Everyone other than Karl then landed and started to huddle together into two groups, one of which consisted of Kris, Matthew, Thomas, Greg, and the strongest member of the Stalkers. The other group consisted of Paul, Jashuri, the angelic beauty, the rest of the Stalkers, and the magic casters.

Karl hadn't joined a group since he was currently sitting atop his Raven, which was perched on the cap of a 2 kilometre tall mushroom, and he surveying the surroundings while occasionally glancing in the direction that the Guardians would be coming from.

The mushroom forest below him was brightly illuminated by many different colours, most of which were pinks, purples, blues, and greens. Many different mutated animals could be seen as they hunted each other while oblivious to the fact that they were being watched.

Gazing into the distance at the 7 kilometre tall mountain ridge blocking his view of the Guardians, Karl thought about life before the world was thrown into chaos, and he wondered how different it would be by now and how his life would have played out.

Would Kris have straight up told him that she liked him if he continued to not get her hints? Would they get married and have kids? Would he work a stable job, come home, work on miscellaneous things such as vehicle repairs, kiss his wife, and then go to sleep and do everything all over again?

Maybe that's how life would have played out, but Karl wasn't too sad about the current situation since he could still marry Kris, adopt some children, go on adventures, and make the world a better place with his strength.

In the midst of his thoughts, Karl didn't realize that the hand which carved the runes onto his body had appeared behind him again from a purple and black crack in space, but it wasn't just the hand. From the hand all the way up to the shoulder could be seen, even part of the neck was also seen.

On the arm and neck were many scars, some were from burns, other from cuts, but the one that stuck out the most was a small group on the outer part of the forearm. They appeared to be intentional as they were made closely together.

Slowly examining Karl, the being that the arm was attached put on a finger directly on the back of Karl's skull and examined his stats. After only a second though, it retracted it's finger and gave a thumbs down in the speed of his growth, it then scratched their neck in thought.

Snapping their fingers after a few seconds, the being got an idea, and it acted immediately upon that idea. Withdrawing their arm back into the portal, the being then appeared in an unexpected spot as it started doing something to help Karl grow faster.

It had no idea the consequences that it would cause by making the current actions.

(AN. Yes I know I haven't published in a while, and I have no excuses, but here is a chapter. As always, please leave a comment if you see a spelling or grammar mistake, constructive criticism is also appreciated as I am always looking to improve the quality of my novels. Oh also, I am going to be participating in WSA, but I don't know what theme I should go with, if you have any recommendation, then I will number the recommendations and roll some dice to see which one I will go with. Peace out!)