The Natives' Counterattack

No one knew what had happened. They only knew that from that moment on, there were no more stars in the sky.

Only some veteran Priests, through their connection to the gods, seemed to know what had happened in that instant, but they remained tight-lipped about it.

"Are we really supposed to just stand here and watch them wreak havoc in our world?!"

A tall Knight furiously slammed his hammer into the ground, blasting the nearby rocks into fragments.

"Calm down..."

"How am I supposed to calm down? Do you have a way to deal with these bastards?!"

"I do."

The Priest spoke again, drawing everyone's attention.

"Oswaldo, this is no joke. Do you really have a way to stop those people from escaping?!" A Shaman could not help rising to his feet.

But someone else raised a doubt. "How is that possible? That's a spatial ability. To restrict them, you'd need spatial abilities too. Don't tell me you..."

"I do." Priest Oswaldo's words forcibly choked back the other man's doubts. "I possess spatial abilities as well."

As he spoke, he raised a finger toward a Knight some distance away. Before everyone's astonished eyes, the Knight suddenly vanished, then abruptly reappeared on the other side of the tent.

Perhaps because Oswaldo had not mastered his power very well, even the physically formidable Knight could not help dropping to his knees and vomiting after being transferred.

But the others had no time to care about the miserable Knight. Their gazes—shocked, furious, or greedy—turned as one toward Oswaldo.

"How can you possibly possess such power?!" the female Knight could not help asking.

Another Priest beside her reacted even more directly. He raised the scepter in his hand, a faint glow radiating from his body as though he might attack at any moment.

"You stole the gods' power?! Blasphemer!"

"Don't be so shocked. This is not power I stole. My god gave it to me before vanishing, so that one day it could become the power of vengeance."

Oswaldo glanced at the shocked Priest. He showed no intention of resisting, merely lowering his head to look at his own palm, sorrow written across his face.

"This..."

Hearing this, the several Priests who had been enraged looked at one another, unsure what to say.

"Enough, enough! Our world has already become like this. We should all be a little more understanding of one another..."

An elderly Shaman immediately stood up to soothe the crowd, and the Priests took the offered way out, putting away their combative stances.

After the disturbance, everyone sat back down around the fire, though their expressions were far better than before.

"Though I have not fully mastered this power, I can still create an area where they cannot use spatial abilities." Oswaldo was the first to make his limits clear.

"That will be enough!"

"As long as we can make sure those little bastards cannot run, the rest will be easy!"

"Good. Next, we need a plan to gather those Wizard Apprentices together." The scarred Knight commander tapped the table, producing a dull thud. "We have contacted everyone we could reach and assembled quite a few warriors. Over the years, we have also learned from our mistakes and studied their weaknesses."

He spread out a crude map drawn on animal hide. "According to our investigations, those outsiders will charge in without regard for anything for those glowing 'tokens.' Our scouts have spent a great deal of time collecting many tokens that the Wizards left behind or failed to discover."

With a wave of his hand, several warriors dumped a pile of point tokens gleaming with various lights onto the ground.

"These are our bait!" A vicious glint flashed through the scarred Knight commander's eyes. "We will scatter these point tokens across different areas, especially at dangerous valley entrances, forest edges, and deep inside caves."

"My plan is simple as well: use these as bait to lure in the Wizard Apprentices."

"Have a small number of warriors serve as the first force to make contact, luring those Apprentices deeper in and draining their power. Then Oswaldo will set traps in suitable terrain and pick off the lured Wizard Apprentices one by one!"

"A Wizard's power is limited. They cannot unleash that kind of powerful sorcery for long!" the Shaman leader added. "Once their power is exhausted and those 'magic items' run out of energy, they are no different from ordinary people!"

"This first step must reduce their numbers as much as possible. That way, even if they sense danger and choose to band together, it will already be too late." The scarred Knight commander's voice sank, revealing his ruthlessness.

"When necessary, we can gather a great army. With an absolute advantage in numbers, we will crush every Apprentice who enters this plane as thoroughly as insects beneath our feet!"

"For all these years, those Wizards have been plundering everything in our plane. I want to take back everything that belongs to us!" a young warrior added bitterly.

"That's right. We will not only take revenge—we will reclaim everything that belongs to us!" The atmosphere in the council hall ignited, and revenge burned in everyone's eyes.

"The only question now is, how do we ensure that when those Wizard Apprentices sense danger, they will not flee, but instead band together and launch an attack?"

Oswaldo spoke softly, his voice like a bucket of cold water poured over everyone's heads. "Before they enter the range of my spatial blockade, the initiative remains in the Wizard Apprentices' hands."

"Regarding that, we can only work from two angles..." The scarred Knight commander lowered his head in thought. "First, the bait must offer enough profit to stir their greed. To that end, we need to send more people to search for these tokens!"

"As for the other angle, we need to make the threat those Wizard Apprentices perceive seem less severe, so that they underestimate our combat strength."

"We can divide all our warriors into several combat groups. Small groups will be responsible for ambushes and baiting, while large groups will act as reserves, ready to gather and provide support at any time. The moment we discover Wizard Apprentice tracks, we attack immediately." The Shaman leader heavily struck the ground with his bone staff.

"We do not seek a swift victory. We seek only to thoroughly exhaust their power, then reap their lives. And this way, the Wizard Apprentices will form a mistaken judgment of our numbers..."

With a concrete method in hand, the group began discussing matters excitedly.

"Our objective: leave not one alive!"

At last, the scarred Knight commander rose to his feet. His gaze swept over everyone present before finally settling on the crude map reddened by firelight. "This world will be their grave!"

Everyone cheered loudly. Amid the fervent atmosphere, Oswaldo's smile appeared especially sinister.