Dominic reloaded, and used the empty socket in his pistols to charge [Arcane Blast] into the reloaded mana rounds.

It was an experiment to see if he would get the healing benefits of the skill without using it directly, and if it didn’t work, he would put one pistol away so he could cast and shoot at the same time.

The pistols became a droning scream as Dominic fired as fast as he could move his fingers, reloading on the fly so that there were no gaps in his firing rate.

Within seconds, it was clearing a circle around himself, and he could actually see what was going on.

Someone had opened a portal to a horde of monsters, and they were trying to flood through. Not a big problem, he had more than enough mortars for this situation.

The Royal Guards only carried a dozen or so rounds with them, as that was normally more than enough for any reasonable attack that they might launch.

But Dominic had hundreds left over that he hadn’t needed to distribute.

On his right, Alexis pushed forward with her sword and shield ready, while Ella moved to guard his left.

"Turn us toward the portal, and I will stop the flow. How did this happen?" Dominic asked.

"Mages hiding among wounded refugees, and a staged ambush." Alexis explained.

That was good enough for him.

"There will be soldiers here soon. I asked the Duskblade Sect to open a portal and send us a Regiment. Just hold on for a few minutes, and we will have all the soldiers that we need."

The mages of the Duskblade Sect should also be able to close the portal.

The first group of monsters was finished, and the hunting team was finally able to move forward to contain the monsters.

But the flow was too high, and they were being pushed back, even with Dominic firing multiple times per second.

"How does he not run out of mana?" Dominic heard one of the soldiers mutter.

If it were anyone else, they would have been out long ago. But Dominic’s pistols had mana regeneration on hit as a secondary effect, so even if he gave them to someone else, they should be able to keep reloading.

It was just the mental stress of constant magic use that would wear a normal person out.

"Why did you think that they called him the Butcher of Wistover? The man is a force of nature in combat." One of the Axbridge soldiers replied.

He hadn’t understood at first why his country had put zero effort into finding the last of the Wavemates Dragonkin. But now that he saw what happened when one fought back, he was beginning to appreciate the King’s mercy.

Then, cavalry horns blared, and portals opened in the open grassland a few hundred metres from the battle.

The army was here, led by a group of flying mages.

Lances were levelled, and cavalry on mechanical horse charged toward the monsters, while the mages worked to destabilize and collapse the portal spell that the enemy mages were feeding.

The next wave of artillery was fired through the portal, and the monsters stopped coming for a few seconds, giving the army time to get in position, while Alexis’ team retreated to catch their breath.

Dominic remained at the front, satisfied with the influx of energy that he got from imbuing mana pistol shots with [Arcane Blast].

But the enemy was not satisfied with the situation, and more portals began to open around the first location.

[Prince Dominic Wavemates, for your crimes against Humanity, you have been sentenced to death. Turn yourself in now, and King Kaizon may have mercy on your soul.] Someone on a megaphone shouted from a newly opened portal.

Dominic smiled as he turned to face his accuser.

[Arcane Blast] took the man off his horse, missing a large portion of his chest.

War horns blared, and Dominic laughed as Dagos cavalry rushed out to meet the combined arms regiment sent to rescue Princess Alexis and her team.

"Highness, I believe that this should be called solid evidence of Prince Kaizon’s involvement in the monster attacks. We have magitech cameras recording everything, including their declaration against Dominic." A cavalry officer from the rescue force announced.

"You brought cameras?" Alexis asked, confused.

"In case there were tensions between the forces. We grabbed whoever was equipped when the mages arrived, so we have soldiers from three different nations here." He elaborated.

That made sense. Nobody wanted accusations based on hearsay to cause trouble between the forces when there were negotiations ongoing.

"Should we rescue the Duke?" Ella asked.

Alexis shook her head. "If I’m not mistaken, he’s about to start using mortars as hand grenades, and we don’t want to be standing anywhere near him when he does."

Yes, there they were. He was throwing them through the portal with one hand as he shot with the other. Even the mages of the Duskblade Sect were backing away from his insane area attacks.

Instead, they focused on the other portals, and the waves of monsters that were coming through them.

"Sect Master, where do these portals lead?" Alexis shouted, ensuring that they gathered as much knowledge on camera as possible.

"The portals with monsters are coming from somewhere west of here, the uninhabited lands near the Axbridge border, while the ones with soldiers open in northern Dagos, near Westleby." A mage shouted back.

That would be valuable information for the Princes who were discussing the current state of the Dagos Civil War, and its implications.

"Don’t let any of our men go through those portals. Fire spells and mortars if you need, but do not send anyone to the other side." She instructed.

"Understood, Highness."

"Are we sure that the Duke is a Blacksmith? If I had to hazard a guess, I would think that he was a berserker." The cavalry officer noted, gesturing with his chin toward where Dominic was fighting.

"The enmity with Dagos is deeply personal to him. Just make sure that he doesn’t get flanked and let him fight." Alexis ordered.

"Shouldn’t we pull him back to the healers?"

Alexis shook her head. "There are no mages in the Dagos force, and no guns. Most of them aren’t even getting close enough to hit him. He will retreat when he is injured."

He likely wouldn’t, but she had seen him heal major injuries with [Arcane Blast], and one man loose in their ranks was much less likely to lead to friendly casualties than sending infantry to support him.