Cinders of Cendri

Like this, three more granaries burn, with small units of guardsmen that'd been stationed outside of them doing their utmost to stop the duo, but failing in the end due to his superior skills and abilities. It had to be noted that by now, Michael's agility had broken into the eighties due to Essense Shifts temporary stat gains.

To the relatively untrained guardsman, he looked like a blur of steel as he charged at them, and then darkness as their souls were sent to whatever afterlife awaited them.

Tiffania wasn't completely comfortable with his actions of course, though, this didn't refer to his slaughter of the guardsman, but instead his persuing of those that'd started retreating. She continued her job though, knowing that they could discuss this after everything was said and done.

Strangely though, as they moved onto the next granary, no guards were stationed there, leaving it completely open to attack. The duo easily destroyed it and farms surround it before heading to the next, and the next, and the next.

All of the other granaries were also undefended, allowing the duo to completely wipe them out... "Where are the guards? Have they given up already?" Michael questions, anxiously glaring at the town of Cendri, feeling as if something bad was coming.

"Ah, they are probably preparing to protect the town... Or waiting for the Dragon Knights to come." she says, glancing uncomfortably at the various fires in the distances that they'd caused.

Michael frowns, "Whatever, we still need to hit the granaries inside the town. The dragon knights won't be able to do anything once we are inside the town, otherwise they'd risk burning Cendri along with us."

Tiffania nods in response, knowing that the safest place to be right now was ironically the town itself. The dragon knights would scour the area in search of them, leaving no stone unturned, and while Michael could probably outrun them, Tiffania was another story entirely.

If they entered the town, Michael would be able to equalize the dragon knights biggest advantage, that being flight and wide, large scale attacks from both magic and the dragon's fire breaths.

"The gates'll be too difficult to clear in time, so I'll clear a part of the wall and carry you over it. Okay?"

She nods, "Ahn, okay!"

The walls of Cendri weren't as impressive as those surrounding Antomiers, Tristania, or Londiunium, as they were only around twenty-five feet tall and were usually only useful against the occasional monster raid.

Michael again turns invisible, the guards atop the walls completely unaware as he liberally uses pounce to climb up it. Using this ability reveals him of course, but by the time anyone spotted him, it was already too late.

Michael leaps atop the wall and sparta-kicks one man off of it(Insert Wilhelm Scream here), sending the unfortunate guardsman tumbling to his doom as he begins besieging the other guardsman with both steel and magic. With his agility so high, deflecting arrows was fairly easy, so Michael just charged towards the group of archers while literally cutting his way through the wall of arrows.

"BRIMIR-NO!" one man shouts for his god but gets cut in half anyway, there'd be no salvation again Michael's onslaught, and by the time three minutes had passed, this entire section of the wall was completely barren of enemies.

Unfortunately, this also meant that the enemy had no compunctions about firing onto it from distance, their comrades were already dead and the only one that remained was the enemy that'd killed them.

Michael just hops off of the wall however, running to Tiffania and picking her up in a princess carry as he climbs back up the wall and throws himself over it, into the town below where people had already started screaming at his approach.

The duo land in an alleyway, but Michael doesn't set her down yet, not wanting to leave her so vulnerable in this area. He runs out of the alley and reaches the back of the stores, eventually locating a tavern of some sort and kicking its door in.

It'd mostly been evacuated at this point, by the tavern owner raises a cleaver and starts shouting at him, "Y-YOU BETTER LEAVE HERE! OR I'LL CUT YOU TO PIECES!"

Michael just ignores him, tapping Tiffania on her side and prompting her to act. "Erase!" she easily chants, causing the man's eyes to blank as he falls backwards unconscious.

With that obstacle dealt with, Michael makes his way behind the bar and finds what he was looking for... The cellar where the alcohol was kept, "Tiffania, hide down here for now. Once things have calmed down a bit I'll come get you." he states, but TIffania looks very reluctant to let him leave.

"Look, I'm going to be fighting an army and some dragons out there. I won't be able to add protecting you onto that. So just stay down here for now, I promise, I'll come back as soon as possible." he explains, but is surprised when she nods and give him a hard hug.

"If it gets too difficult, please leave me and escape." she says with determination, squashing her breasts against his chest.

He just lightly pushes her away and snorts in response however, "Pfft, you really think I'm going to abandon you to save my ass? No way Jose, we're both getting out of this or none of us are." he says, ignoring whatever response she has and starts clambering out of the cellar, closing the hatch behind him.

With that, he exits from the back of the tavern and makes his way into the chaotic town to look for someone who'd know where the granaries are. All the while, the lord of the city, Tatiana was scrambling to get things back under control.

Michael's temporary Essence Shift stacks had started fading, so he'd have to build them back up if he wanted to effectively deal with the dragon knights when they arrive. He glances over at the opposite end of the road where a huge group of guards had gathered and were now marching. "Heh, just in time, a palate cleanser." he smirks.