The Homeseeker: Elemental Adventurer LitRPG [Isekai] (Series Complete!)

Gorb jumped and thrashed his arms out powerfully, sending a wall of wind to deflect the oncoming spears. Many were thrown aside, but two successfully struck the hot air balloon. One stabbed through the floor of the basket, and another sliced off one of the ropes holding the basket to the balloon. The passengers tumbled sideways, gripping desperately to ensure they didn't fall off.

They heard screams from the attacking guards.

"Monster! Take it down before it does any damage!"

"We are not monsters!" Gorb boomed with Elemental Air, deafening Zalan with his oppressive volume. "We are residents of Wollstone!"

"They seek to deceive us!" a guard called back.

"I am not dying like this," Rep grunted, pulling out the spear sticking through the basket and imbuing it with flame.

Leaning over the end of the basket, he swung his weapon side to side, parrying other incoming volleys of attacks. Zalan strained to get himself upright, trying to look over the end of the balloon. With snipes from his fingers, he blinded what guards he could with Elemental Light, just enough that they wouldn't be able to aim properly.

"How do we send this back down?" Slauson asked.

"Just don't put any more warm air in the balloon! We'll get down eventually!" Zalan replied.

"Eventually?" Moss asked concerned, constructing a wooden shield.

"I'm not an expert in hot air balloons, okay?" Zalan said quickly.

"You quite literally are!" Moss replied, deflecting an incoming spear.

"Gorb, try talking to them again!" Zalan exclaimed. "Before they—"

A spear cut through the balloon, tearing a massive hole in it and sending the entire apparatus crashing down immediately. The group screamed as they tumbled out of the sky. Gorb tried to slow them down with his wind, but they were still going too fast to expect a soft landing. Zalan gripped so tightly to the wood of the basket that it snapped. He hoped that the crash landing wouldn't be enough to kill him. Even then, he dreaded having more broken bones throughout his body. He still hadn't mentally recovered from his experience with the Wrathgaze.

Zalan lurched forward as the momentum came to an abrupt halt, smacking his abdomen against the rudimentary railing of the basket. Retching in pain, Zalan fell onto the floor as the basket began to slide in the opposite direction. As he caught his breath, Zalan looked up and realized they were descending very slowly. The others were gripping tightly to the ends of the basket, none of them in a position to run a life-saving maneuver, Gorb included.

"Is everyone all right up there?" Opal's voice came calling.

Gorb sighed loudly, looking embarrassed.

"Thank you, Mother," he called back. "We are fine."

Looking above them, Zalan realized they were sliding down a massive mound of sand. As though a desert's sand dune appeared and caught them, allowing them to slide to the ground in relative comfort. The sound of sand shifting around them mixed with the sounds of the basket occupants trying to regain their bearings.

"The guards are still approaching," Bartleby pointed out.

"Allow me to speak with them," Gorb said, leaping far out of the moving basket with a puff of Elemental Air.

The remaining four companions breathed hard, catching their breath after the near death experience.

"If hot air makes the balloon go up, could I not have made cold air with a block of ice to increase the speed of our descent?" Slauson asked, his arms wrapped around the end of the basket.

Zalan stared at him, growing embarrassed the longer the silence stretched.

"Yeah, that might have worked," Zalan murmured.

"How do hot air balloons protect themselves from spears in your world?" Moss asked between gasps.

"They don't. We definitely would have died in my world," Zalan admitted.

"Something to be grateful for. Our realm is not nearly as deadly as it could be," Moss said.

Zalan wasn't sure how to reply to that and decided not to try and open that conversation. Once the downed hot air balloon finally came to a halt, the four young men poked their heads out. A small battalion of guards was making their way over, Gorb marching to confront them with wind whipping at his back. Zalan and the others hopped out of the basket, moving in to assist Gorb. Opal and Bartleby watched, seemingly amused by the incoming interaction.

"Are you out of your minds?" Gorb boomed. "You could have killed us!"

"What manner of monster was that?" a guard pointed at the hot air balloon.

"A man without eyes could see that was not a monster!" Gorb threw his arm back to gesture toward the fallen vessel. "It was wood and some cloth tied together!"

"It was massive! And glaring down at us!" another guard said, somewhat pathetically.

"It was supposed to be our means to stop the Beasts of Slumber! This new transport would give us the upper hand, but you let your cowardice take hold of your weapons!" Gorb said.

"Watch your mouth, Gorbonifus," one guard said with grit teeth.

"Yes Gorb, I think calmer heads will be our best means of communication," Rep said firmly, stepping between the guard and Gorb.

"You took us away from a glorious flight!" Gorb said over Rep's head. Zalan realized that Gorb was taking it personally. It was the first time he had achieved the ability to fly and they'd taken it away from him so soon. He joined Rep, pulling at Gorb's arm to hold him back.

"We protected the city from the unknown! All aspects of the Beasts of Slumber are unknown! I would do the same given a second chance!" another guard yelled from the back of the group.

"I find it astounding that you are proud to act rashly," Gorb said.

"Yes!" Moss raised a fist in support. "You guards are hindering the realm from reaching new heights." He winked at Zalan as he delivered the pun. Slauson closed his eyes and pinched his nose, sighing loudly in annoyance.

"You're not helping," Zalan told him.

"I will help if we get into a fight," Moss raised his fists.

"There will be no fighting. Gorb, enough," Rep snapped.

"That depends on them," Gorb said, finally allowing himself to be pulled back.

The guards stood awkwardly, looking away from Gorb and shifting their weight uneasily. Then, one of them perked his head up.

"Hang on, does he call you 'Gorb?' I thought everyone but your parents were required to call you Gorbonifus," the guard asked.

"He has proven himself to be strong," Gorb said, patting a heavy hand on Rep's shoulder, causing him to buckle slightly.

"We have been fighting together on those walls for weeks and we… Are we not strong? The men and women that have been fighting at your side for weeks?" the guard asked.

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The tension was like gasoline waiting for a match. Zalan had no idea how they were supposed to speak around the question and could see the restless expression of the guards' faces. They were greatly offended and full of fear from the outside and wanted to take it out on someone. Zalan tried to think how to use his power to get out of the situation, perhaps blinding everyone and running. He knew that wouldn't work. Suddenly he grabbed his own arms and began shivering. Looking up, he saw the anger snuffed out of the faces of both Gorb and the guards as they immediately went to warm themselves up.

"What is that?" Gorb looked up, confused as snowflakes descended from immediately above them.

Zalan looked back at Slauson who nodded at him with a very tiny tilt of his head. Zalan realized that neither Gorb nor the guards knew he had Elemental Ice. He had literally cooled down the situation. And in some strange way, it felt like Slauson was cheating.

"Is someone using Elemental Ice Power?" a more observant guard asked.

"Let me warm us up," Rep cut in, opening a large circle of flame over them. "And let me say what a fine group of guards this city has to defend it. Ready to spring into action at a moment's notice."

The guards were immediately flattered by the compliment, smiling between one another. Gorb scoffed quietly, but said nothing. Then he shook his head to himself.

"I apologize for my flared temper. You were not unreasonable to react as you did," Gorb admitted. "Just try to make sure not to do anything that might kill a fellow guardsman next time. But you did good work."

"Of course! We will not shy away from any threat that comes to our walls," a guard replied boldly, the others nodding in agreement.

Suddenly, an urgent bell toll rang out, followed by several more clangs against its metal like someone was drumming against it with two spears. An urgent call was being made at the gates. Much to the contrary of their confident claim, the guards went pale and stiff at the sound of danger. Zalan didn't blame them. Before he had been through dozens of fights, he was afraid of almost every monster encounter.

"They need us," Gorb said, inviting his friends to join him on the way to the wall.

They followed closely behind him, watching the few remaining guards on the walls as they beckoned for their colleagues to return. Zalan wondered what got them so agitated, especially so soon after taking down the hot air balloon. Opal and Bartleby ran by him, and he wondered with dread whether another Beast of Slumber had made its way to them.

The townspeople had already fled at the first sign of danger when the hot air balloon was being attacked. An eerie sensation ran through Zalan as he rushed through empty streets. Like they had already been killed by whatever was coming. Gorb stopped at the base of the wall.

Kneeling down and cupping his hands together at knee height, Gorb looked like he was intending to boost them up. Zalan squinted at him, looking up at the wall that stood at least sixty feet over his head. Moss wasted no time and rushed directly to Gorb's arms. Gorb thrust him upward, boosted by a powerful gust of wind, enough for him to reach the wall. When Moss looked back over, he nodded at the others and waved them up.

Quickly, the remaining friends ran to Gorb one by one to be shot up the side of the wall. Zalan was the last one to go, rocketing upward as soon as he touched the palm of Gorb's hand. With the force of his ascension, Zalan was surprised by how gently he landed on top of the wall. It felt like he had done nothing more than take a step up some stairs. He looked back down as Gorb launched himself to join them. He marched by Zalan and spoke to a guardswoman who was already conversing with his parents.

"They are fighters, ready to assist with the defense," Gorb introduced Zalan and the others to the guard. "What has raised the alarm, Winnania?" Gorb asked.

The guardswoman pointed out into the distance, looking a mix of concerned and confused.

"There are monsters at the distance. From multiple fronts. As though different factions, but they are all the same creature," Winnania pointed somewhere above the horizon, like she was pointing out a star.

Zalan looked over the monsters approaching, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. Turning his focus back on the monsters below, he saw a mix of Ogre-like things that he didn't recognize. Definitely creatures that he didn't expect to be working together. They stumbled around aimlessly, not seeming to be marching in any particular direction. Much less to the city.

"An odd group. But this isn't the worst set of monsters. Grimfangs will not turn this way unless first provoked by some noise. We should be able to keep them outside of the walls," Gorb said confidently.

"That is not what concerns me," Winnania replied. "There seems to be a larger monster above them! Something flying!"

Shocked, Zalan looked back out as far as he could see. Just behind a cloud, he saw a wing appear and flow back behind. Though he only had a fraction of a second to see it, he knew exactly what it was. It had the dark, bold black and purple color that Zalan could never forget from the Castle Docrun.

"An Elemental Dragon," Rep said, baffled.

"The dragon is leading a charge against a city?" Moss asked.

"No." Winnania shook her head. "It is stalking us from the distance. But they are intelligent creatures. They may see the Grimfangs and turn them to our direction."

"I have never seen so many Grimfangs before," Slauson said, pursing his lips.

"Elementals migrating caused storms to drive them out of their previous homes," Winnania said. "It seems these were two separate groups that converged over time."

"I will take on the eastern wall. You stay and protect the northern walls," Opal said to Gorb. She leapt off the side of the walls, producing a vine at the same time that clung to the edge so she could run along the outside without anyone getting in her way. It was like a personal grappling hook. Zalan thought it was an excessive way to move from one place to another, but couldn't help but think it was super cool.

"And I will take the west. Stay safe, son," Bartleby said to Gorb, jumping off the wall and summoning a massive wave of water to surf toward another end of the walls.

Those remaining on the northern walls watched in fascination as their strongest fighters rushed off. Gorb knelt down, building up air to leap off with.

"No, Gorbonifus," Winnania held her arm out in front of him. "Wherever you intend to go, you are needed here. You are a guard and need to lead others."

"I just want to ensure that the south wall is fortified. My friends can take care of themselves," Gorb said quickly, Zalan and his friends nodding quickly in assent.

"Fine, but come back and report before you do anything rash. And bring in the other newcomer. He entered shortly before we stopped taking in outsiders," Winnania nodded her head towards someone looking tense and confused at the eastern part of the wall.

"Very well. Ring the bell if you need immediate assistance and I will be here!" Gorb said.

Gorb grunted and leaped away, wind boosting him at his back. In a single bound, he traveled across the wall surrounding the city. Zalan wondered how close he was to achieving true flight if he could glide around like that already. Gorb spoke quickly to distant guards on the south end, looking grim and nodding occasionally.

Peering back out to the newcomer that Winnania had indicated towards, Zalan got a sense that he'd seen him before.

"He seems familiar," Slauson mused.

"You too?" Moss said. "I thought it was just an acquaintance from my hometown. I know that I know him from somewhere."

"If that is who I think it is, the realm is truly a small place," Rep said.

"Why? Who is it?" Zalan asked.

A cloud of dust appeared behind Gorb as he ran around the walls in a blur. He exchanged a few quick words to the individual who looked like he didn't understand a thing Gorb was telling him. Gorb placed an arm behind the young man's neck to protect him from whiplash then jolted them forward at impressive speed. They came to a sharp halt, blasting enough air past Zalan to cause him to blink several times, not looking properly at the newcomer.

"What are you doing here?" The voice was instantly recognizable.

Rubbing his eyes clear, Zalan blinked one last time in the realization that Dimak, the winner of the Elemental Rage Tournament, stood in front of him.

"What are you doing here?" Rep, Zalan, Slauson and Moss asked back at the same time.

Gorb looked between Dimak and the others, frowning as though he was sad to be the only one not in on the joke. He didn't participate in the tournament, as he was busy with burial arrangements for his sibling.

"I asked you first! What are you doing here?" Dimak said, pointing between Zalan and the others.

"We are trying to get to Aetheria!" Moss said, pointing upward.

"What? That does not make any sense," Dimak said.

"Gorbonifus! Report!" Winnania cut in.

"The south wall says that they have seen glimpses of the dragon. It is circling the entire city. It seems to have decided that Wollstone is a worthy target."

"I see. We should be able to defeat it if we can come up with a plan to get it close to the ground. But it will do everything in its power to remain airborne where it has an advantage. If we just… Incoming!" Winnania screamed loudly, throwing as much Elemental Fire above of her as she could muster.

Zalan caught sight of the incoming projectile at the last second. A massive block of ice rocketed down into the side of the wall surrounding Wollstone, smashing into it and causing Zalan to lose his balance in the resulting rumble. Looking up, Zalan saw the Elemental Dragon flying high, circling the city. A sudden, deafening crack brought Zalan's attention back down to the wall as a huge chunk fell off. The resulting sound echoed outward loudly, like a rumble of thunder.

There was now a hole from the outside into Wollstone. The Grimfangs all turned their attention at the sound of the crash of ice and stone. Slowly, they began to lumber their way in the direction of Wollstone. Then they picked up speed.

"Stay on the walls," Winnania told Gorb as soon as she saw it. "We can not risk any monsters getting by and into the city."

"Understood," Gorb said immediately.

"The army of monsters was one thing, but this is so much worse," Moss said, his eyes locked on the hole in the wall.

"We can just close it up with some of Slauson's ice or something, right?" Zalan asked.

"Perhaps. But so long as the containment is not perfect, it is useless," Slauson said.

"What? Why, we can defend it," Zalan said.

"No, they mean the other intent of the walls," Rep said. "Insecure walls means no more Healing Rest. We must defend the city without a guarantee that our injuries will be healed by the end of it."