Lara's uncle didn't know why he listened to his words or let him do it. The final formula was delivered to William, and with a single glance he knew how revolutionary it was!
William was aware of the explosive substances, the ones that could be inhaled and enter the target's body, ending up exploding everything within. But he never heard of a formula that could mix the berserk effect of his toxin with the explosive nature of this substance.
The mixture seemed out of this world, and indeed it was. William wanted nothing more but to find that master and have a long talk with him.
In his eyes, this master was someone who came from the outer world just like him. Or else such a thing that didn't even exist in the outer world wouldn't be present here.
William thought of many explanations, an exiled master perhaps? Or someone who got drifted in a spatial storm, ending up passing through cracks and ending up here. Or perhaps he was someone who came here for a mission, to do something, and passed accidentally by this place.
William guessed lots of things, but he felt like he never came close to the truth. And he was right in his hunch. What really happened was something else than what he thought about.
And yet there was no time to waste on thinking like this. Even with such a mysterious master's help, William was sure they weren't going to win this war.
"I told you, this substance is indeed scary, but it needs time," William sighed, didn't like the fact of being this close and ending up losing this bad, "if we can delay them for a bit longer, then it's our win. But… Just look around you, all of our masters are heavily wounded. Not to mention we lost lots of them thanks to the long-range attacks of these hounds! They bark and some of the masters on the walls get their bodies exploded!"
"Is it… Hopeless then?" she hated it when she said these words. And from the silent look over William's face, she knew they already lost, "fine! I'll issue the order to retreat…"
"Let Stark handle this," William knew Lara was a good and capable family leader, good businesswoman, but not that great as a war general. So leading everyone away from here wasn't going to end nice if she handled the matter.
Stark was indeed a capable candidate to do such a task. And Lara didn't feel anything at this moment aside from endless bitterness and regret.
If the city was in its prime condition, then it was possible to fend off such scary monster tides. However, the tide came at a very bad moment for the city. And she had to blame herself for such a fate.
Even if she assisted in such a situation partially thanks to underestimating her enemies, she still blamed herself. If she listened to William's warning back then, dealt with Richard as if he was a toxic viper, got rid of him even, then nothing of this would have happened.
She didn't know that even if she did that, nothing much would have changed. Rick would just look for another puppet to use, and the city would have met the same miserable fate.
This was what made fighting against the dark master side quite difficult. They were very determined to achieve their dirty goals, and they knew how to find and manipulate masters with twisted minds and spirits.
"Are we going to retreat now?" When Stark heard about such an order from Lara, he couldn't help but run all the way towards them, "we didn't lose yet! Those hounds are moving like turtles! We can still fight!"
Against what William expected, this old master didn't want to retreat as well. This was quite expected. After all, this city was a home to many of the masters fighting here.
Many would prefer to die standing and fighting rather than leave the city and abandon their homes.
William understood all this, and that what gave any normal spirit master group hope to crush the dark side. "Fine! But you need to know this is a lost battle! The hounds are going to breach the walls soon enough. And then it'll be a massacre."
"You told me we need to buy time, right?" Stark's face showed a rare look of determination and stubbornness, "let me lead all the masters willing to put their lives on the line for the city, let us go down there and fight."
"This…" Even Lara couldn't believe her ears. She was about to convince Stark to drop such a crazy idea when the latter raised his hand and stopped her.
"We won't stand idle and watch our home getting destroyed! It's our fate as the old ones to protect the young generations like yours," Stark showed an air of a true elder in William's eyes.
What Stark said was true. The old ones had such heavy responsibility towards their younger generations and their homes.
As Stark decided, he left and gathered up thousands of masters. It was a formidable force, where all the high-end masters were gathered.
"Are we going to watch them die like this?" Lara was already panicking, wanting nothing more but to go down there and help them. Stark led the elite team of masters, jumped off the walls, flew in the air, and started bombarding the hounds with their deadliest attacks.
"We have no other choice," William shrugged, "if we got five times such force then we could live through the day, if we got ten fold the size of normal masters here then we got a chance. However, we don't, and no matter how we hoped or prayed, nothing will change."
"..."
William's words were harsh, but they spoke the truth. He turned around, looked at the eyes of his vices and Lara. "It seems I shall give him the order to retreat," William didn't like any of this. And above everything else, he didn't like running away and cancelling Ibra's mission.
