CHAPTER 154: ZORAN’S SITUATION.

Meanwhile, the situation inside Balon City had changed more than what Alex and those three who were still chasing after him and the windrend had expected.

When Alex and the bird started to fight, the weather above Balon City had changed drastically. It went from just being cold and windy to fierce howling wind raging all around the city.

Although it wasn’t nearly as dangerous as the situation at the mountain range, the wind blowing all over Balon City was already powerful enough to lift a full-grown man off his feet!

Some old houses in the outskirts already had their roofs blown off and weak tornados that brought sand into the air were forming in different locations.

People were running to take shelter that would protect them from the strange wind; none of them dared to stay out in the open for fear of getting blown away by the powerful wind. Huge logs of wood and rooftops would fly past occasionally, and even some smaller vehicles were being pushed across the street.

Somewhere in Balon City, a group of men wearing construction workers’ jackets and yellow helmets stood under a half-completed structure. There were over twenty of them, and each one of them carried different building equipment.

Amongst these men was Zoran, Alex’s father. They were working on this construction site and had yet to finish when the weather suddenly changed. The howling wind sounded like ghost cries that threatened to send them flying if they dared to keep working, so the men had taken shelter in the incomplete structure for the time being.

One could see that only half of the roof had been put in place, and a part of it was still open; some of the wind entered the structure through this opening.

At this moment, the wind outside suddenly intensified. Loud rocking sounds could be heard from outside as if something heavy was crashing against the semi-covered roof.

Dang!

A clear sound of the roof pulling off sounded in everyone’s ears, and they all turned their heads to look.

They saw that a section of the already placed roofing was slightly lifting after the bolt holding it to the metal frame was ripped off by the wind. If left like that, the entire roofing that had already been placed would most likely be sent flying sooner or later if the wind intensified again.

"Who’s in charge of fixing the roof?!" A loud voice sounded through the structure, as a man with a fat belly walked in front of the group of workers. He didn’t sound pleased in the slightest. He was the supervisor, and his job was to make sure the workers did their work efficiently and didn’t waste materials.

"It’s Zoran and Bret." One of the workers replied.

The eyes of the supervisor immediately swept in the direction of Zoran and another man who was in a workers’ safety jacket as well.

"I’ve always known that you two were slow workers. Why didn’t you work faster and close up the roof before this damned weather started acting up? Now the already closed part is about to come off, you better do something or else I’m taking any repair costs off your payment!" The supervisor spat ruthlessly.

The faces of all of the workers turned grim when they heard this but they didn’t say anything. This supervisor was just too heartless and might target them as well.

Everyone knew that placing the roof was one of the riskiest jobs on the site, but they had only hired two people for it. It was already impressive that Zoran and Bret had almost completed the work before the wind started, yet the supervisor dared to say such nonsense.

At this moment, the wind became fierce again and ripped off a small part of the roof before taking it away.

This made the supervisor even angrier.

After saying those words, the supervisor stormed off and went to sit in a different location while cursing in a low tone.

The other workers immediately surrounded Zoran and Bret.

"What are you going to do now?" one of the workers asked.

"What sort of stupid question is that? Of course, they won’t do anything, it’s too risky to go up there in this wind." Another worker replied in place of Zoran and Bret.

"I know, I know. But they can’t just sit there and watch the roof get damaged any further. The current damage alone is already more than half of our payment, and they might enter debt if they continue to watch."

"And so? How much are we getting paid anyways? Just 20000 Zen, is that worth risking their lives?"

"Easy for you to say, not like you’re going to help with your own money."

Zoran got tired of listening to the workers argue and stopped them, he turned to Bret and asked if he wanted to go fix the damaged parts of the roof.

Bret immediately agreed, despite knowing that it was going to be dangerous.

He didn’t want any amount to be taken off his 20k Zen payment either as the money was already too little to begin with.

The other workers didn’t stop them and even helped them prepare. They attached strong straps around the waist of the two men before helping them climb up.

After getting to the top of the roof, Zoran and Bret immediately got to work and started fixing, but their movements were slow. The wind made it difficult to open their eyes and they had to walk slowly as the current was pushing their bodies.

Although they were working slowly, the roof was gradually getting fixed.

The other workers watched from below and hoped for the weather to remain like this.

At this moment, the wind suddenly turned more chaotic and the howling turned into roars.

Both Zoran and Bret hadn’t expected it and were blown off the roof.

Clank!

The straps around their waists stretched to the maximum length but didn’t snap, preventing them from getting blown away as they were suspended in mid-air.

It didn’t stop there, part of the roof that they had just fixed was ripped off again and the wind took the piece of roofing away.

"Holy fuck! That was dangerous, come back down quickly!"

"Hurry, grab the metal frame and push yourselves down!"

The workers on the ground yelled out after seeing what just happened, their hearts were beating wildly as if they were the ones in those two’s positions.

But the howling of the wind swallowed their voices, and neither Zoran nor Bret could hear them.

But it didn’t really matter, though, because the two men already knew what to do.

Zoran was the first to grab hold of the metal frame of the structure and pull himself to the roof. He then stretched out his other hand for Bret to hold.

The two had silently decided to leave the roof and go down. With the current level of the wind, continuing to stay on the roof would be playing with their lives.

Who cared if they lost all of their payments? It was all right as long as they were alright.

After Bret managed to grab hold of the metal frame, he proceeded to let go of Zoran’s hand and climb down. Zoran also attempted the same.

But at this moment, a ripped part of the roof suddenly flew toward Zoran. He saw it and moved his body away to dodge, his hand let go of the meter frame and he was pulled into the air; this was the only way to avoid getting sliced.

However, now that his body was out of the way, the strap that was holding his body in place was left to face the piece of roofing.

With a single movement, the strap was sliced in two by the sharp roofing; Zoran found himself spinning through the air the next second, the roof of the structure he was working on previously getting further away from him.

"Zoran!"

Bret’s horrified voice sounded in his ears for just a moment before the roaring wind almost deafened him as he flew away like a piece of paper in a storm.

A while after Zoran was sent flying, the roaring wind stopped and the fierce wind went back to normal.

Bret and the other workers "..."

It stopped just after sending one of them flying? What sorcery was this?

"Quick, go look for Zoran!" Someone shouted and all of the workers immediately rushed outside.

Meanwhile, Alex finally caught up with the windrend. He had to admit that its speed was insanely fast and Alex could barely keep up by combining his skill and spell.

They had crossed thousands of kilometres before Alex caught up. He appeared on top of the bird and sent a strong kick at its back.

Bang!

It sounded like an explosion after his leg met with the bird’s back.

The body of the windrend fell from the sky like a meteorite and crashed into the ground at lightning speed.

Boom!

Its huge body caused the ground to explode and tremble as a massive pit instantly formed, it looked like a mountain was uprooted from the place.

Alex didn’t stop there as purple stars appeared around him and formed into six star constellations.

"Domain of the lightning emperor!"

A Grand Archmage’s spell!