Chapter 8

Fifteen minutes earlier…

“And this is supposed to be the Link Rune. It is the foundation for the ultimate Soul Bond Rune Constellation. That is the reason the rings are not going to go off from Lily and you.” Rohan explained to me, passion burning in his eyes and voice.

I nodded and as I was ready to ask another question, the Detection Rune activated.

BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP BEEEEEEP

Three cloaked figures entered through our window and directly attacked us.

Each one threw a fireball at us. I casted an Ice Shield – a simple spell, in front of Rohan and me. The fireballs collided with the shield and they were successfully blocked.

‘This is so weird, I can’t feel their mana at all, but they are still using spells.’

I covered the whole room with solidified mana and casted an Ice Dome - a spherical shield – around Rohan.

Now that everything and everyone was safe, I launched myself at the strange creatures.

‘Lets hope this room has a sound isolation.’

They were around little shorter than me so there was no reach advantage.

Usually, three versus one would be a death when fighting against the opponents of the similar skill level, but the creatures were fire Magicians and they didn’t have enough space in here to cast large spells.

And we weren’t of the same skill level.

As I entered hand-to-hand combat with one of the creatures, other one threw another fireball at me. I ducked and let it go through the destroyed window.

I finally broke through the monster’s defenses and struck it once in abdomen.

The Ice Touch took care of the rest as the ice began covering its abdomen and then rapidly its whole body.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘One’s out.’

The same tactic was not going to work twice so I took a distance and threw a few probing Ice Spikes. They were all welcomed with a shield made from pure mana.

The fire Magicians weren’t really good in the defense department.

The creatures also changed their tactic. One was away trying to hit me with range attacks and one rushed in close combat with me.

It was getting harder and harder to fight in a small space, especially considering that I could only shine on the open field.

In theory, I shouldn’t have problem with these things. I was much better at close and at ranges combat, but they fought like they had one mind.

‘I am going to regret this.’ It was especially important for no one to learn what happened here, the less attention we got from anyone, the better. If I took my time here, I would win easily but at the great risk of someone noticing.

The close combat creature leaped back to summon a sword made from fire and attacked me. I used those precious moments to cast a few spells simultaneously.

As the fire sword was about to slash me, I threw seven Ice Spears at the long range creature and three at the creature in front of me.

“Arggh, fuck!” The both of my opponents got drilled with holes, but I also got slashed on the chest.

‘It is a normal fire, it will heal fa-‘ The sharp blink of pain interrupted my thoughts.

‘What is happening!?’ The pain didn’t stop at all as I tried my best not to scream.

My vision was getting clouded with white dots as I frantically tried to think of the solution. I released Rohan from the Ice Dome and everything went black.

“WAKE UP!” What woke me up was a feminine shrill. I opened my eyes and saw around my comrades around me.

“Did you interrogate the alive one?” My voice was dry, I probably slept too long.

“Take a look yourself.” Said Noir, his voice unnaturally weird.

My wound was not healed yet, but my body froze the wound so I didn’t need to worry about opening it.

I looked the bodies that I killed from the bed and they were not cloaked anymore. ‘I was right! They weren’t human.’

They had gray skin and a very sharp jawline with multiple horns sprouting from its forehead and head. It had green eyes, but definitely not the normal green. It was more of an mix between green and yellow. The creature also possessed some strange symbols decorating its head and body.

“So, did you get any info out of the one that was alive?” I asked Noir.

Lily was the one that shook her head. “I tried shocking it with my strongest electricity that wouldn’t have incinerated him, but nothing. It is like a puppet that had its strings cut off.”

“Well, that is disappointing. Did you learn anything on your trip?” I asked, really hoping for some good fucking news.

Noir then started explaining to me how he and Lily got the two different pieces information.

“In my opinion, it is either that both are true or that neither are true.” Rohan added. He was uncharacteristically non-energetic since I woke up.

“Every single scenario is possible. Maybe someone lies, maybe they told the truth, maybe they think they told the truth. We don’t know anything yet.” Noir said as he stroked his beard.

I agreed with Noir. “I think that it is best to try to find more pieces of information in the next few days and if we do not, I suggest we act on what we have now.”

Noir agreed with me and said. “That sounds like a good plan. For now, I am going to repair the window and get rid of these corpses. You all rest.”

“Yes, Sir!” We all saluted.

Lily was conflicted. She still loathed Alexander, but she started feeling respect towards him too. Just a little bit.

To take that kind of wound intentionally was a lunacy, but he still did it. For the mission. That was something she still wasn’t ready to do.

As he moved nimbly through the room inspecting corpses, she couldn’t but feel a little amazed. ‘He is so nimble with that wound…’

“We are lucky that there are sound isolators, we would have been busted otherwise.” Alexander said to Rohan and Lily, but mostly to himself.

“Lily, Rohan, come here. Do you recognize any of these symbols?” Alexander asked as he pointed to the symbols on the creatures body.

Lily looked hard trying to come with anything useful, but she wasn’t able to. She shook her head.

Rohan on the other hand stared at those symbols for a while with a little bit of fear and admiration, but he too ultimately shook his head.

Alexander narrowed his eyes a little bit, but he also kept shut.

Lily just hoped that it was nothing serious.

“They are dead.” The gray-faced figure said. Some snotty brat actually defeated his clones.

It was contemplating for a moment, but then viciously smiled. “Oh dear Cleo, you sent the rings away, but they are still completely my back to me. The Staff of Tyrannus is going to be complete again and there is nothing you can do!”

Again, like the last time, no answer came.