Ajax P.O.V

A moment after the first man appeared, so did two more. The three were basically at the entrance of the tent. I could clearly see the bulky plate covered man and the four daggers that had bounced off his plated chestpiece at the ground by his feet. Behind him I could just about make out the form of a cloaked caster with a similar design to the one that was tied up but anything below his neck was blocked off by the plated shoulders of the first man.

The final man was covered in a similar cloak to the first three that had similar outfits in the first group. In the downtime after the first ambush they had told me the reason for the cloaks, it was so they would cover the noble house the people represented, attacks on healers didn’t make people popular so they were allowed to keep the cloaks on even after on the condition that they gave up everything on them similar to a search.

The third man was also the one I locked on to, he already had a foot past the entrance of the tent when he appeared, likely waiting for the cloth to be pulled back when the next person entered so he could sneak in.

I was slow responding to the situation, taking time not only to analyze the men but also waiting until all of them had their stealth removed. The more experienced soldiers were already close to them, most likely having started moving even before the knives connected .

I finally started sprinting towards the action. The armored man turned and stood his ground looking to block people off as the mage spread his hands. The mouth mask moved as he whispered the incantation before two blasts of wind knocked aside the surprised guards standing on either side of the tent.

As the two were getting ready to block the exit the third tried to spread the flaps and gain entrance. As his hand touched the cloth I felt a surge of mana whirl through the tent and spawn a small weak barrier to surround it. It finally made sense why neither of the guards had opened the way for the patients and always waited on a doctor to move up and do it, there was a failsafe that triggered a barrier should someone touch it from the outside.

This was probably a well known tactic that also explained why neither of the two groups had attempted to enter the tent by making a new entrance in the sides or the back as well as why they were waiting for someone to open them a path despite the illusion aspect of their spell.

Not only that, I could feel that the barrier was actually weakest at the front, likely a known weakness that allowed them to strengthen the rest of the barrier as a tradeoff, giving only one easy point of entry and as such one place to guard.

The woman, as I took a better look at her, didn’t even seem surprised about the appearance of the barrier. She was also most likely cursing the previous four patients, all of whom were not only hefty but also needed to lean on someone to walk meaning she had no chance to squeeze in with them when they were let in. She pulled out an evil looking black knife with some red runes drawn on the blade and proceeded to start cutting away at the barrier.

For the first time since I came to this world I finally felt runic magic being used. Unlike the simple enchantments placed on gear that could use mana from any source to use their effects I could clearly feel the difference here.

The knife held two runes one side with a bigger one on the other. I could clearly feel different amounts of mana going from her to the runes. The knife got coated in mana, I could almost feel the sharpness of the mana through my senses as she started to tear at the barrier.

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The first three men had already made contact with the armored man, All three having smashed into the tower shield he had pulled from his back. This style of fighting meant that it was only a matter of time until he went down with no chance of doing any damage to his attacker, what it did do however was buy time.

This time was quickly put to use not only by the woman tearing at the barrier but also by the caster who had already started muttering his next spell. I could feel the mana gathering even before he was finished chanting, this was something I came to recognise as a clear sign of a powerful spell coming. It worked a lot like the warning that came from beasts when they were using their mana.

Unlike a beast however he wasn’t summoning it early because it would take time for him to channel it into the desired effect, no he was summoning it because the amount required for the spell was too much for it to be pulled from his body directly.

“Something big is coming,” one of the mages stationed here called out. He had obviously noticed the same thing I did.

The other had also noticed but didn’t bother to notify the rest of us, instead I felt his mana flow freeze as his mouth stopped moving for a split-second before it started again launching a quick one word spell towards the enemy mage. The blast was odd to me, the mana I felt was similar to the one I felt coming from the pond water if slightly more concentrated, not only that its motion was odd only mimicking a directed blast.

The blast knocked two of our guys off their feet as collateral damage, they were too close to the caster and slightly in the line between him and his target. I could feel the spell lose power noticeably as it traveled, it had not only sent the two guys airborne but also spinning from the power of the blast, but as it reached its intended target it did little more than knock him backwards off his feet.

Despite the small amount of damage inflicted it did fulfill its purpose of stopping the man from finishing his chant. The look of surprise not only on the enemy mage's face but also on the other mage said that this spell was, if not powerful, at least well known and desired by others. Even the runic caster stopped hacking away at the barrier and turned to look at him in surprise.

The mage stalemate disappeared as quickly as it appeared with the two stunned mages starting to cast once more and the woman turning back to hack at the barrier. Not only that but the plate covered warrior chose this as his moment to shine as he flung off all three people that were pushing against his shield.

The man fell down on one knee afterwards, his shield arm hanging lifelessly by his side as I almost tripped over one of the people sent flying like ragdolls. Most noticeably I hadn’t felt any mana before this, this had to have been a rare or higher physical skill. Most likely only rare as it not only cost quite a bit of stamina, judging by the breathing and the fact that he dropped to one knee afterwards, but also inflicted damage on the user, the arm either being broken or the muscles torn.

As the ment were starting to get back up and surround the pair I charged straight through, ignoring the startled looks of the others as I dashed past them, only slowing down to dash out of the way of the wind blast I felt coming from the enemy mage. Almost all my focus was on chasing down the runic mage that had finally sped right into the tent.

I was only a second or so entering behind her but already I could see she had wasted no time. The glowing runes of her dagger shone brightly as he pressed it against another barrier, one whose mana signature I recognised.

Unlike most of the other young healers taking part in this war Kate had learned a few defensive spells from her parents and was not solely reliant on the free knowledge coming from the Healing Union. This allowed her to ready a defensive spell once she realized something had gone wrong.

A blow was all it took for the runic mage to make the decision that trying to break through the barrier was too much of a hassle. Instead she quickly moved away and charged the next closest healer while also lifting her other arm to point a ring at another healer while barely sparing me a glance.

By the time I reached her she had already left a dent cut on the shoulder of the healer she charged and sent another to his knees with the eclectic blast coming from the ring. Engaging with her gave me an odd feeling. For the first time when facing someone I found myself on the opposite side of a situation I had been intimately familiar with soon after awakening the system.

She definitely had higher level combat skills than I did, most likely low rarity as only those also counted Vitality as a physical stat sufficient for breaking the level limit, but she was woefully understated in terms of Strength Dexterity and Endurance. The only thing that stopped me from simply abusing my stats to smash her into the ground from close range was the runed dagger that had chipped a good part of my blade from only a glancing parry.

As I tried to maneuver around her enchanted blade I only managed to score some shallow cuts on her arms and legs. This was hardly enough to pin her down, luckily I caught a glimpse of other people charging into the tent. Sadly I wasn’t the only one to notice this as she flung her knife into the shoulder of another healer close by before I could realize what she was doing and restrain her.