Chapter 12.

A messenger hawk flew to Gawain. Judging by the collar, it wasn't a missive from Hestia but Gallahad. He was currently forming an encirclement in front of Denburg.

It was half-past eleven in the morning, and there were virtually no orders coming from Hestia. In her last message, she had issued new orders for the pursuing troops while telling them to move at their own discretion from here on out.

It was a rational order since with only 50 kilometers left, it was self-evident that if the pursuing troops were to hesitate and wait for orders from Hestia, their target would be able to escape the forest. Although they could not receive instructions from her anymore, she had left them with a complete encirclement plan. Other than Denburg, it was impossible for anyone else to escape this level of encirclement.

"Captain Gawain, Captain Gallahad is saying that he will combine the first and second guard division to complete the encirclement."

"Tell Gallahad that we received his message and order the third warrior division to enter the encirclement without interfering with them."

"Okay."

A person was rushing towards Gawain as Mac was reading the letter to him.

"Captain! It's an emergency message from the third division! They are currently engaging with Master Denburg."

"What?!"

It couldnt be.

This was 20 minutes faster than Hestia had anticipated!

"Dammit! Contact Gallahad and ask him to send reinforcements to the third division!"

The third warrior division was connecting the left and right sides of the encirclement. It was basically acting as a plug blocking the only hole in the encirclement. In other words, if Denburg broke through the third division, no one could stop him from leaving the forest.

Of course, the division consisted of 100 warriors. It was not a force Denburg could penetrate with just his strength. However, being talented in both magic and physical ability, if he wished to avoid a head-on collision and run away, the possibility of success was quite high.

"Everybody, head to where the third division is at top speed!"

-o-

I held my breath as I approached the encirclement. Then, I observed the guards that were forming the encirclement.

From atop the tree, the formation didn't seem very thick as it was only composed of three layers of guards. However, since the gap between each guard wasnt that large, the array was laid out such that guards in the vicinity would be able to quickly arrive to assist if a disturbance occurred.

Unfortunately, blocking the arrow imbued with a ridiculous amount of magic power and flying around in a hurry had drained my magic power reservoir to less than 10%. With such a small amount of magic power remaining, flying would only result in me falling right into the encirclement while in mid-air. Even if I were to fly through the encirclement and miraculously break through, it was inevitable that I would be caught due to the exhaustion from depleting my magic power.

As I was nervously observing the encirclement, the guards forming it suddenly stopped and changed direction.

Did it work?

Was my plan successful?

The guards forming the encirclement were heading towards the third warrior division. I rapidly rushed towards the weakened encirclement. My current location was not far from where the third warrior division was located. In other words, it meant that it wouldn't take long before they found out about the fake l