A wise man had said, “the greatest victory is that which requires no battle."

He had kept that piece of memory in mind. There was a lot to think about when Adrin realized that he couldn’t continue doing what he unconsciously had been doing.

Adrin had been avoiding conflicts. He ran away because he was haunted by his past. He left the dangerous giant ants alone because he was afraid of dying alone.

But the news of Nerina’s kidnapping had him thinking. Either it was emotion or belief, someone would push the issue and he would need to stand his ground. He wouldn’t be able to avoid them forever and it could even mean taking the life of another human.

Adrin had flown towards the huge city before something inside him had pulled him towards a certain direction. It would feel really wrong when he tried to fight it. He didn’t know what this feeling was but the more he thought about Nerina, the stronger this instinct became.

And not long after that, he was floating above a big luxurious six-wheeled carriage speeding away from the capital city. Somehow Adrin knew for certain that Nerina was inside it. He had very little doubt about it. How he was so certain was still a mystery, but he should be able to find out why from the girl herself.

The carriage was moving on its own and it didn’t even have a driver guiding its way. The vehicle also was escorted by four mean-looking, leather armored swordsmen riding on lizard-like beasts, and they weren’t as simple as they looked.

[Mana Sense] was telling him that they were mages despite the swords hanging on their backs. It could only mean one thing, these riders were hybrid classes. Even though Adrin knew that he was practically overpowered, however, he would rather not test their metal against his [Shell] if he didn’t need to.

“Spellswords?” he mumbled as he recalled something he had heard before.

Regardless, he had to do something without revealing his secrets and that was a tough nut to crack. He could kidnap the carriage or kill everyone but that would be rather distasteful.

In the end, he decided to invite himself into the carriage. He simply opened the door and slipped inside as quickly as he could while the [Camo Shell] was active. It freaked out the people inside except for Nerina as the busty green-haired girl knew he was coming for her.

Her chest was heaving and her eyes were already locked at his invisible form as soon as he entered the speeding carriage. Adrin sat beside her and included her in his invisibility [Shell] as the other two gentlemen were making a huge fuss about everything.

Adrin wasn’t worried about any retaliation because of the precaution he had taken and their close proximity. The two gaudily dressed men should have learned to calm down and didn’t act like minor characters. They might live longer in that way.

Nerina’s eyes opened wide as she saw him but she couldn’t move a limb. He didn’t need to ask why when there was an enchanted metal collar around her neck.

“Did they hurt you?” Adrin asked as he reached to touch the collar.

He used his combined skills, and to his relief, it was just a simple enchantment which only stopped her movements. There was no death trigger or something from the list that popped out when he activated the skill combo.

The girl shook her head as the metal collar broke into small pieces. Nerina let out a gasp and dove into his arms as soon as she was able to move again. The girl began to cry her heart out while the two men were screaming and banging the walls of the carriage to no avail.

Adrin had made a special square [Shell] for the carriage. There would be no sound coming out from the carriage anytime soon.

“Do you want to go or should I teach these idiots a lesson?” he asked her again.

“No! Let’s just go,” she pleaded.

“Alright,” said Adrin as he picked her up in princess carry. “Hold on tight, princess,” he reminded before he burst his way out of the carriage and into the thick forest.

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Screams of obscenity and anger echoed from behind as soon as the square [Shell] dispelled because of the range limit. Adrin gathered mana into crystal marbles in his other hand while he was on the move.

He would say the guards would be pretty confused before they could give chase. Because all they could see before the explosion was the door opened and closed by itself.

Adrin kicked the ground to avoid a particularly large root before dodging and slipping between the huge trees. He hated running, but luckily, he didn’t have to.

“Your- your legs, they hardly move, but how?”

“Feeling a little better?”

“Yes,” her face became red, “but how are we moving so fast, and why is everything green?”

“I’ll tell you after you tell me what you have done,” Adrin said. “How can I tell where exactly you are when I think about you?”

“I- I’m sorry,” Nerina hid her cute round face. “We were being selfish and I put a [Life Beacon] mark on you. It took a toll on me but-”

The forest ended and Adrin skied to a stop when they found the gravel road again. It must have been the large U-turn he previously had spotted from the sky.

“What does it do?”

“It tells me and Emi if something bad happened to you, that’s all, I promise!” The girl exclaimed while gripping hard on his shirt.

“Then why didn't I notice when you got kidnapped?”

“I…” Nerina paused and looked at him. “It doesn't work that way, it will only just tell you the way back to one of us if you wanted to.”

“I see,” Adrin sighed. “You should have told me, but that's a pretty nice effect to have, and I’m sorry for leaving and everything.”

Adrin felt bad not being there when she was kidnapped. He could have done something. There was no way he could have known, but he wasn’t in the right mind until lately.

The ghost of his past was haunting him and he didn’t even realize it.

The [Spellswords] burst out of the forest and Nerina let out a yelp. He didn’t know what skills they had but these guys were pretty damn fast. They would have caught up with him much earlier if he was running on foot.

“In the name of house Maron, reveal yourself and return the property you have stolen!” One of the four swordsmen shouted. Their drawn blades flared with dangerous feeling mana. One of them was even crackling with lightning.

Adrin chuckled, “since when can a half-elven apprentice become the property of this Maron house?”

The swordsmen were alarmed to hear that. They probably weren’t expecting someone who knew the girl’s identity to come for her rescue.

Adrin silently moved out of their range as the men began to corner him based on his voice. It was easy when he wasn’t walking and or disturbed the stones around.

Calling the girl their property had pissed him off. Now, all he wanted was to cut these men to pieces, but Nerina had urged him otherwise with her eyes.

[Aim Assist] dots tracked his targets, ready to fire the spell glyph he chose at any time.

The [Spellswords] would be dead before they even realized it.

Adrin pushed his boiling anger down and reasoned. The girl was right, it was better just to leave them unharmed. Any bloodshed could be twisted and used against him, and he could tell that the loss of these men wouldn’t hurt the Maron house even a little bit.

But that choice was taken away from him.

The ground exploded under him and stone spikes destroyed the [Camo Shell]. Nerina let out a scream with her eyes closed. The [Camo Shell] wasn’t designed to take powerful hits so it was easily dispelled with a large area attack like the stone spikes.

-12 hp

A gasp escaped the girl's mouth as she noticed the torn flesh on his cheeks. It took him less than a second to redeploy another [Shell], but some of the sharpened stones were able to hit him before it could be activated.

He felt sharp stings all over his body but he didn’t dare to check on them. There was no need to check because the cuts would heal themselves as long as his [HP] was still positive.

“It’s you, the [Crystal] boy,” said someone standing on a raised platform.

Adrin didn’t recognize the older man but it seemed the other middle-aged mage knew who he was. However, he was glad that the man took his time thinking about something as it gave him time to prepare all his spells.

The stone spikes around him collapsed, revealing five crystallized stones. The super-hardened materials pointed towards their targets as they revealed themselves.

Two of the swordsmen took a step back in hesitation.

“Kill him!” The order came and the four readied themselves to charge at him.

Adrin took his best shot but his [Diamond Bolts] was dodged or deflected easily. It seemed that the [Spellsword] class excelled in magic-boosted speed, and maybe that was why it was so popular. Adrin shook his head internally, he should be focussing on the fight instead of analyzing his enemy.

In a blink of an eye, the tip of the sword was already right in front of his face. It had pierced right through the equation-improved [Shell].