My Joker System: From Low Mana Trash to the Mightiest Wizard!

The dark skies turned a shade darker in Zephyron's peripheral vision, his heart sinking at the news.

His intuition was right.

However, it was too late!

He, by no means, was threatened, as he could certainly escape easily, even if he couldn't win.

But what about Ennya Kasai and Hal Fennec?

They were the hot targets in the eyes of the fell race, and even he wouldn't be able to protect them, not when he had five thousand Fell Beasts to deal with.

The smarter move was naturally to give up Parralen Valley and retreat.

After all, as it turned out, the horde wasn't "forming" at all.

It had already been long formed, and the Fellkin was merely scheming to draw out their forces here in the east and wipe them out.

The empire had messed up badly!

'Damn it all!' cursed Zephyron inwardly, realizing that the Imperium fell hook, line, and sinker.

Now, their path back to the empire's borders had been cut off.

'It's fine…we still have time…' he thought, turning to Duncan. "Prepare to retreat, we're heading to the east to reunite with Targon's forces."

Realizing that the battle was lost and could never have been won in the first place, Duncan bowed, his heart racing, though he desperately tried to hide it like the Wind Magna did.

Zephyron vanished the next moment, reappearing at Parralen Valley a minute later.

His voice, carried by the winds, resounded in a stern yet loud "Prepare to retreat! I'll create an opening!"

But then, just a second later, somebody retorted from just across him, though her deep, female voice didn't echo with such weight and volume as the Wind Magna's:

"You wish!" Yisu began, "Even if you escape, Zephyron Haldavar, I'll make sure your men will stay in the east forever to honor my lord's death!"

In the next moment, a massive, translucent purple barrier emerged, sealing off the entire valley.

The Fell Beasts then turned even more berserk, the tempo of their assault intensifying.

The Fell Cohorts also threw caution to the wind, skirmishing with the Zephyr Battalion even harder.

This was the moment they've been waiting for.

They couldn't allow the Imperial Wizard Army regiment assigned to Zephyron to escape, especially the two Magna Prospects, Hal Fennec and Ennya Kasai.

If they succeeded, everyone assigned in the southeast would be rewarded handsomely by the Fell Sovereign.

Only Yisu and the other three from Khatu's cohort knew that it was still a bit too early to allow Zephyron and his men to escape.

How did they even find out this soon, anyway?

Did some random fern somehow escape the encirclement and manage to inform the regiment ahead of time?

Still…

'I'll never let Lord Khatu's death be meaningless!'

If she allowed Zephyron and his men to escape to the east, then they would, at most, be lucky to be recognized and rewarded.

Yisu knew that it was highly probable that they would be treated as failures instead.

She couldn't let such a thing happen, not when her dearest lord had laid down his life for glory.

Cold determination flashed in the female fell subordinate's eyes.

Meanwhile, Zephyron glanced at the barrier, slightly angered.

The Wind Magna, too, did not want to fail.

The deaths of an entire regiment and two extremely talented youngsters would be a burden too difficult for his heart to carry.

Like Yisu, Zephyron was determined.

A pillar he was to the empire, and like a pillar he shall act.

"As if someone here can stop me," he snorted.

In the next moment, the four-winged hawk crest engraved at the back of his hand illuminated a bright green.

Zephyron waved his arms.

Three massive, green magic circles emerged at the ground—one at the left uplands, one at the valley's rift, and the last at the right uplands.

Three colossal Wind Tornadoes then emerged, ones larger than even Ennya's five-hundred-percent-boosted Flame Tornadoes, forcing the Fell Beasts and the Fell Cohorts back.

"Zephyr Battalion, Thirteenth Regiment, Fire and Chaos Platoons, retreat to the east!! We shall rendezvous with Targon and the Fourteenth Regiment!" he roared, gazing at the fuming Yisu coldly as if challenging her:

'What can you do to stop me?'

The female fell subordinate remained petrified, still unsure of what to do.

The barrier prepared by Khatu was still active. There should be no need for her t–

*BANG!*

A single, glowing Wind Cutter quickly turned the situation around, shattering the entrapment barrier with a single casual wave from Zephyron.

Yisu's eyes widened, and desperation washed over her like a tidal wave.

No…

She can't fail her late lord!

"Topturo, Baazan, Tejin!" she exclaimed.

"Shut up, we know!"

The four then consumed their Fell Overdrive Pills, their bodies expanding before shrinking into lean, compact forms, purple smoke oozing from their pores.

Zephyron narrowed his eyes.

These four were stronger than the ones who tried to assassinate Ennya Kasai, that much is certain, and perhaps even his subordinates would perish if allowed to fight them in a duel.

"You four, stay back, let me deal with these desperate dogs."

Yisu and the other three dashed forward, a bit too difficult for their initial opponents to follow this time.

Space trembled, thunder roared, and the void rippled as the four members of Khatu's cohort bolted forth, a fearless gaze in their eyes.

However…

Like compassion, being merely ruthless and fearless wasn't enough.

One would have to be competent enough to win.

Before Yisu and the others even reached Zephyron, invisible wind cutters sliced them apart, and while the cuts weren't too clean this time, they ended up like chopped cucumbers all the same.

Viscous purple blood rained down on the valley rift, and the Fell Cohorts beneath, who saw what happened, were momentarily petrified.

They were the more brutal race.

But this doesn't mean that their morale doesn't take hits.

The sight of their strongest warriors all falling in the hands of the Wind Magna was a chilling sight, even for the fell race.

Zephyron, on the other hand, merely snorted in disdain, not even sparing the falling slices a glance.

The Wind Magna simply shifted his focus back to the momentarily stopped battle below him, watching over his retreating regiment.

Unbeknownst to him, some distance away, a female figure was hiding in the void—as still as a statue.

Yisu realized it was impossible for the current her to defeat Zephyron.

However, what about the future?

She would pay this vendetta back in blood.