Chapter 307: The Chaos around the Teahouse.

Just like Blaze had thought, Raven really didn't like using this method. She hated her own plan more than him, but time was short and they couldn't afford to make any mistakes either.

Although detestable, this seemed to be their best option.

"We just have to make sure it will not wreck the whole city. I don't believe two Rank-8 Mages cannot control a simple Beast tide,"

Raven commented before turning to the man on her left, "You don't have to explicitly try and save the girl, just kill any Beast that comes in your way. Can you do that?"

The man in question seemed to have gotten cold feet and could only nod his head, not daring to wipe the sweat dripping behind his back. He couldn't help it while being the target of Raven's stare.

Content that the man agreed straight away, Raven looked back at Blaze, waiting for him to ask if he had any questions. 

"What? Can you not even manipulate a small Beast tide? I will be there too if you are afraid that it will get out of control," spoke Raven after Blaze wordlessly stared at her.

In response, he shook his head and kept his thoughts to himself. He was merely worried that Raven was forcing herself to do something that she hated so much. He also knew that he wouldn't be able to persuade her now.

'If only this Kenzie held recruitments, we wouldn't have to go through so much trouble,' Blaze internally sighed. 

Most of the time they wouldn't have to plan anything as they just ordered a few men under them to apply to the recruitments of the organization they wanted to infiltrate. The problem here was that there weren't any official timely recruitments in the Manor of City Lord. 

The City Lord, Kenzie, chose people of his own liking to bring to work in his Manor, or they were required to be recommended by his subordinates.

They also didn't have the time to wait for an opportunity to get their spy recognized by Kenzie. They had to create the opportunity themselves and this was the best they could come up with even though both didn't want to do things this way.

"Hey! What is your name again?" Blaze asked the man.

"Y-yes! Ah! Everyone just calls me Kone," the man answered in a hurry.

"Let's go. We will start tomorrow."

With that, the three left the place to plan the remaining details. Time was short and their methods were flawed, but they had to make do with what they had.

...

The next day, early in the morning, Raven together with Blaze and Kone appeared near the teahouse in an alleyway.

"Go on in, act like a traveler stopping for some rest," Raven ordered. She didn't explain further since Kone was aware of his role already.

Just before he was about to walk out of the alley, a voice laced with an icy aura made him halt, "You mess this up and that will be your last mistake."

"Y-yes sir!" Kone hurriedly nodded before he again straightened his posture and lazily began to walk towards the teahouse.

With the way Blaze bickered with Raven, he had thought that both of them would be easy to talk with, but it seemed that this frankness only extended between themselves. To all others, the duo was two icy peaks unmoved by even the coldest of winds. 

"How long do we have to wait for?" Blaze asked while watching Kone enter the teahouse.

"That little girl of Kenzie hasn't even arrived, at least wait till then," Raven replied before she flew towards the forest. They didn't have much time to completely survey the woods yet and this was the only time they had to do so.

Blaze followed behind her. 

"We can still give up on this plan," he whispered quietly from behind. 

Raven ignored his comment and continued to look for the Beasts around the area. 

To create the Beast tide, all they needed to do was intimidate some strong Beasts from the opposite direction. Once these Beasts howled in fear, the rest of the Beasts would start to get agitated and in the end, all of them would be seen running away from those howls.

Some might be brave enough to not run away and that would disrupt the tide while it's at the starting stages, but they would make sure that every Beast in the area ran towards the city.

"You keep an eye on Kenzie's daughter. I will keep tabs on the Beasts," Raven told Blaze who nodded his head before leaving.

'I have a bad feeling about this...' Raven thought internally. 

The number of Beasts that they had estimated fell far shorter than she had previously estimated.

"Hmm? Ha... it seems he loves his daughter a little too much..." she muttered as she stumbled upon some markings on tree trunks.

To a normal person, these markings wouldn't mean much but since Raven had already surveyed the whole area, she could see that these signs drew a line that separated the area where there were almost no Beasts at all in the area!

And since that was the case, it was clear as day that the City Lord had been keeping the numbers of Beasts in check around this area. The markings were most likely done by the people he sent in order to clear the increasing number of Beasts.

Coming to this conclusion, Raven knew that the best course of action would be to retreat and make a new plan since Kenzie would immediately be suspicious that it was a setup.

'But there is no other choice... Ozul will be disappointed if at least not all the important organizations are infiltrated,' Raven bit her lips and continued to slowly rally the Beasts in a single direction like they were a herd of sheep instead of ferocious monsters.

Only a while later, she sensed the familiar cold aura approaching her from the distance.

Blaze nodded at her before they assumed their positions.

He had more raw power while Raven had finer control over her abilities. So he was supposed to rally the Beasts on the outer ring while she would be the one to actually control most of their behavior when they reach the city.

If Blaze were to manipulate the tide from inside, he would be instantly noticed by the onlookers. It couldn't be helped; his spells were too flashy.

"I am ready," Raven asked as darkness slowly surrounded her and her threatening aura receded back to her body, completely disappearing as if she wasn't even there anymore.

This was a new trick that she had learned a while ago. It allowed her to lower her own presence. Even Mages might just miss her standing still if they weren't alert enough. And if she deliberately tried to hide, there was no chance anyone below Rank-8 would find out.

Mages of same or above Rank could easily feel her presence since even this technique of hers required some amount of Mana. 

With that, Blaze crackled his shoulders before his aura started to spike.

A second passed and his aura got to the point where any living thing that could not rely on Mana wouldn't have been able to survive under the pressure. 

Though this aura was just Blaze forcing out raw Mana out of his Mana Core. The pureness of this raw Mana was enough to scare even the Rank-6 Beasts. Unfortunately, the strongest Beasts in the area were just Rank-4.

*AKHWO!*

*KHREE!*

*GHRRH!*

...

One by one, the Beasts howled at the sky and started retreating from the icy cold aura that chilled their spines.

Those weaker Beasts on the edge of the forest were too far away to immediately start running away just because of the aura but the howling of the stronger Beasts made them run all the same.

In a matter of a few seconds, one could see all types of Beasts running towards the city.

One could feel the ground shaking. If only someone else was there, they would immediately realize that a Beast tide had already formed!

These Beasts will mindlessly keep running and tear everything apart in their way until they are tired. Like sheep, they will continue to imitate the others around them until they run out of any strength to do so.

Blaze stopped releasing his Mana and took a few deep breaths. Forcefully pouring out raw Mana was an exhausting thing for any Mage, no matter which Rank they were in.

It seemed quite strange that none of the Beasts seemed to have noticed a human was among them.

At the same time, the clouds were darkening over the city. It looked like it might rain today...

...

Raven nodded at Blaze and put on a mask before following the tide. She actually landed on the ground and started running together with the Beasts. 

If she caught sight of any Beast about to fight any other Beast, she would immediately kill it before it disrupted the whole tide.

The teahouse was one of the most prominent buildings around that edge of the city. 

Only a few minutes later, people in the city began to realize the situation. The first ones to notice were the guards of the teahouse.

They immediately notified everyone in the building, but the distance between the woods and the city was far too short. They had only just exited the building when the Beasts collided with the teahouse.

The daughter of the City Lord and Kone were one of the first people to leave the teahouse.

Two of her guards were already killing the Beasts while the two stayed close to the young girl in case Beasts attacked her.

Suddenly the tide of Beasts was no more. It was replaced by a brawl of Beasts which not only attacked all humans in sight, but also killed each other.

The whole area was in utter chaos and no one could make out the exact situation except for Raven and Blaze.

Blaze's work was relatively easier than Raven as he only killed the stray Beasts that escaped this area. This way, the damage was minimized.

On the other hand, Raven had to delicately handle the Beasts in such a way that many of them somehow ended up rushing towards the blonde-haired girl protected by two guards.

To achieve this feat, she had to grasp the whole situation and keep everything in check to a great precision. Unfortunately, she still missed the glowing red stone on the wrist of that blonde-haired girl.

And amidst all the commotion, Kone slayed all Beasts that came in his way.

Like the four guards of the City Lord's daughter, Kone was also a Rank-6 Mage. Killing these Beasts wasn't a problem for him.

The only problem was the number of Beasts present at the scene mixed with humans. They couldn't use any devastating spells. 

Another minute passed and Kone found himself naturally closing in on the young lady with blonde hair while slaying the Beasts...