Sunlight was glittering through the dense tree canopies giving the viewer a dazzling light play. Sound of river stream flowing could be heard along with sound of giggle. It is snowless winter and for winter it is really weird to see that not a speck of cloud blocking the glaring sun making the winter cold climate warmer than usual.
Near the river stream, a few small figures could be seen, 3 boys and 2 girls. Their outline were similar to human except their long pointy ears. All of them were either blonde or white hired giving them beautiful appearance that is rather rare to find in children.
One of them were manipulating the water from the river using magic before transforming it to a handful of ice spike that were about 10 cm long before launching across the river that were stretched about 20 meter and impaled a tree on the other side.
The sound of hands clapping then followed. The boy the bowed slightly like a pianist after a performance. The boy then take a small towel from the basket that near his feet. Wiping his face from sweat that come out when he is casting Ice Spike. Casting magic take a lot of concentration for a beginner like him. An experienced mage would not even break a sweat when casting a level 7 spell.
Casting a spell have two form, which is using ambient mana or internal mana. Mage usually use internal mana when cast their spell as internal mana is easier to use than ambient mana as it came from within the mage themselves. It is harder to cast a spell using ambient mana as the caster need to take note the condition of the ambient mana. But there is a boon when casting a spell using ambient mana. A mage could few Level 1 spell two or three times depending on the density of ambient mana. But it is also 5 times harder to cast such spell. Only few could cast such spell.
“Hey Edur, could you do that again?” one of the girl plead with her hand clasped together like someone that is praying.
“Of course, my cute little sister As.”
The elfish boy called Edur smiled brightly giving the girl a slight nod and raise both of his hand upward. His finger propped open revealing his tad pink palm. Closing his eyes he concentrate and start channeling his mana from his soul through his hand and out. Mage usually used medium such as their hand or staff and wand to channel their mana so the spell that they cast could be manifested. Chanting slowly so that he didn’t make a mistake, a ball of water start condensing in front him and then the ball of water split into a few smaller sphere before freezing and change its shape into cone shape ice spike.
Opening his green eyes with his pupil trained on the tree that he had use before as a target. The ice spike slowly turn their sharp end toward the tree across the river. After a few second the Edur launched the projectile toward the tree. But, before he could see the result of his spell a sound of explosion that come from the direction of their village.
Although obscured by the thick canopy of the forest the children could see smoke and ashes flew upward. After a few second in trance they started running toward the village starting with Edur that recovered first. They sprint forward while occasionally moving left and right to evade the trees and sometimes jump to avoid being tripped by the buttress root of the tree.
After a few minutes of running they finally arrived at the outer wall of the village. The wall of the village was made from dense cluster of a few meters diameter trees that were grown using magic so that it could grow even when planted next to each other. The tree made the outer wall of their village. It would look inconspicuous even when compared to the surrounding trees as the wall have been enchanted with illusion spell that repel and confuse even mage but right now the children could not feel the spell anymore. Even the physical condition of the wall is appalling like it had been attacked with a Level 5 or more powerful spell. The wall was full of black charred hole. The children’s heart were thumping loudly when they saw the condition of the wall. After entering the village, passing through the entrance their fear turn into panic and what they see with their eyes betray their hope, their desire, and their heart. What they see and hear are tragedy.
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Serias was stabbing his black sword into the head of the dire wolf. It pierce through the head like its head were made from tissue. He could only marvel at the sharpness of the sword. The sword only have one edge and from his perspective and he would call it a katana if not for its lack of guard and its straight blade that is about 80 cm. Well, totally not a katana is what he thought as he extracted the sword from the head of the dire wolf and in quick movement dispel the blood on the blade before sheathing it again.
His day started off with a skydiving. His master teleported him not near the town of Ast but ten thousand feet above ground. Totally a bad way to start a day. Luckily he had deployed the light wing that gives the ability to fly. He wonder what else a light element magic could do as he have seen numerous utility spell created using only single element. The spell created 6 wing with 3 on each side. Although he called it wing, normal people wouldn’t call that wing as its appearance is like his back being protruded by 6 sword. Each of about 20 cm width with 1 m long. Shortly after landing he was attacked by a pack of dire wolves. And he spent about half day hunting every single one of them to release his stress. He could imagine that his master is laughing maniacally at his bad luck. She always do, like when she pitted him in the training room with dragon and at one time against a clone of Precursor. That was really a fight with his life on the line. She is just plain sadistic. Well at least she was kind enough to teach him about magic and sword.
After killing the last of the dire wolf he sit down quietly. He spread his Sensing field to the limit about 1 km radius. That is his limit for now. If it is a focused field he could sense in one direction for 3 km. He usually used it to snipe someone using magic. From his sensing field he could feel about 2 pack of wolves and about 50 monsters. Not too many in this dense forest. The time is almost dusk. His time was spent hunting those wretched wolf. In his anger and releasing his stress he forgot to use Sensing Field. If he had use it the time spent hunting it probably would only be about a quarter of it. His heart feel a slight tinge of regret at his own foolishness. As it is almost dusk, he skin the wolf only taking the meat to use it as his food for tonight’s dinner.
Moving eastward he found a ruin of a settlement. There were ruin of building and almost all of it were covered with greenish moss. He decided to camp here as it provide a clearing that is quite wide and he could see if anything came for him. He thought that this is probably the ruin of the town known as Ast as his master didn’t came out from the Archive for about two hundred years. He started collecting wood for the fire to roast the meat. Using a simple fire spell he lit the wood bundle into a campfire. He chuckle as he remembered the camp that he participate as a boy scout when he is in middle school. At that time, manually lighting the fire and keeping it from burning out was a pain in the ass job. And the meat that his friends cook was overcook that he thought it is better eating it raw than his friends cooking.
He brought out salt and pepper from his bag and started marinating the meat and left it behind for a while. From what he read when he was at the Archive, dire wolf meat is delicious if it is roasted. The fire crackle wildly consuming the firewood. The flame dance left and right illuminating the almost dark place. The sun is hidden by the sea of trees. He could see the red colored sky to the west. As it is winter there is only one sun in the sky. The night would be cold. He start creating ward to repel wild animal and monster. The ground brightly glow before spreading out revealing a magic circle before dissipating into thin air. Serias breathe out air as the air inside the ward become warmer. He imbued the ward with elemental protection so when he sleep it would not be too cold.
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When he start to sit to roast the meat he saw smoke billowing from the east. He started thinking that there is a town to the east but reject such thinking as the smoke is too thick. Probably a there is a fire in the town. He then start sprinting toward the smoke source. Utilizing Light Step, his figure blurred forward. With his body right now what he could achieve were probably 1/30 of speed of light and that was his limit without breaking his body through sudden acceleration. In less than 1 second he arrived just barely outside the town or village as it seem. The village were located nearly 10 km from his campsite and as he approach the village the smoke grow denser that he cough two or three times. The village is walled and from the faint mana it release probably there were some sort of enchantment that were already broken. Some part of the wall that were made from wood were already collapsed.
Serias spread his Sensing Field so that it encompass the whole village he could feel about 50 or more people are in the village. Then he activated his Soul Perception and overlapped both sensing magic. These two magic, combined give him an almost bird eye view of his surrounding and that is truly a convenient ability. With it he could fight with eyes close but that ability is not omnipotent. He feel malice in their soul. Only two of the soul didn’t have it and currently the two pitiful soul were confined within one of the house, probably hiding from whatever hounding them. Serias could only shook his head and cast invisibility spell. He is determined to save them from these malice soul.
When he entered the village he could see men wearing armor running to and fro from one place to one place. Probably soldiers. But that made him confused. How could soldier of the kingdom attack their own people? He stride slowly so that no one could hear him. Although he mask nearly all of his presence the sound of his footstep could not be masked. When he walked for about sixty pace he found something that would made anyone without a strong will pale and puke on the spot. It is the dead bodies of elves as conclude from their long pointy ear and their beautiful face but it is now tattered. If it is only one or two it would not be a problem but it is nearly one hundred or more bodies. Serias could only close his eyes and pray in his heart for the poor soul. Some of the soldier spill liquid on the bodies which from its smell he knew that it is oil. Flammable. They proceed with lighting the bodies which give out horrid smell. He didn’t do anything but stared. Blinking a few times from his stupor he started moving toward his objective. From his Soul Perception he could tell that both the soul are young.
Abandoning any sort of masking his footstep, he dash forward while hoping that the sound of the flame consuming the bodies could mask his footstep sound. He moved without using Light Step to avoid causing shockwave. After a few minute of running he arrived at the shed that have the two soul that he detected earlier. Opening the door of the shed gently he cast a small magelight to illuminate the small dark shed. He see two small figure limping in the corner of the shed, one boy and one girl. The girl a white haired is awake while the boy from his injured form is unconscious. The girl shivered uncontrollable when Serias release his invisibility. He could see from her eyes the feeling of fear and the feeling of wanting to protect the boy, probably. He is not an expert at reading someone’s eyes. He also know that if he developed more his Soul Perception he could even read what is the in the heart of human. He could use it in combat to read his opponent moves and other miscellaneous thing. But for now he had to settle with what he had. He hold out his hand and cast healing spell on both of them.
When he try to touch the girl, she trembled slightly before pushing his hand away. She probably uncertain as a human try to help her when her village was ravaged by human. This make thing a little complicated for Serias. He is not a master in word to try and reason with her especially at this time.
“Little girl, listen here. This place is full of enemy that would like to kill you the moment you step out of this place. What I’m doing here is to try to save you and that boy. And we do have little time to spend before they found us.”
Hearing Serias’ words the girl sit up from her place and from what he could see her legs were shaking in fear but he could praise her determination. Seeing that the boy still unconscious Serias grab the boy under his arm and the girl also found herself under his arm. After making sure that both of them tugged safely his arm he started using Reinforcement magic on his body. His body without Reinforcement magic is seven time stronger than normal human, and with Reinforcement magic is about 15 times stronger. And then he thought about how to safely transport both of this children from this place. Using a Blink spell is not an option as it could only teleport one people. Using Light Step would definitely crush both of the child to a meat pulp. Even Silver Step, the downgraded version of Light Step could not be used.
After few minutes passed, he had considered the most viable. He activated an illusion magic. The magic made people didn’t want to look the direction of the caster. It is a magic that affect the mind. He step outside of the shed, looking left and right and after confirming there are no one nearby, he walked out completely from the shed. As it is already night the potency of the magic increase by a few fold. He keep himself to the shadow to avoid being detected and he is truly grateful as there were no moon tonight. After a while walking with the shadow he finally arrived near the entrance of the wall. But before he could step forward, a figure step forward. The figure show itself. It is a man with equipped to the tooth with armor and a longsword at his hip.
“So there are insect that is still alive. Luckily I waited near the entrance. Put down those two kid down and surrender or I’ll severe your neck this instance.”
Serias could only groan back at the knight. Luckily he wore his hood or his would be recognized and probably if he escaped this night his face would on the wanted poster post haste.
“Well, as you see I couldn’t”
His short answer currently enraged the knight. He could only rebuke the knight as short tempered people would always lose in a fight. The knight face was red with anger and unsheathe his longsword. Serias sighed loudly. He put both of the children down and whispered to the girl to guard the boy. He then continue to cast a light barrier to protect the children. Unsheathing his black sword, he face the knight. The knight stared at his black sword. Serias start enchanting his sword with light element magic and light coalesced around the sword making it sharper.
Without uttering a word Serias dashed forward using Sliver Step. He downgrade himself to such level so he could gauge the strength of the knight. The knight were dumbfounded when he could only see blur. Then his instinct kick in as he deflected the blow that were delivered by Serias. Both of them then continue exchanging blow. Sparks are produced every time the sword clashed.
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Expect another chapter in 1 or 2 days.