Domitius is standing exactly to my left, and Lucanus is standing behind me. There are two warriors from the temple guardsmen in front of me, an elite unit from the republic. I can assume both of them are stronger than anyone I fought before, aside from Ozias.

One of them has a sword in his right hand and a dagger in his left. The other is holding onto a spear, the unique thing about the spear is that the handle is made of metal, the metal actually looks similar to my dagger's material. They both seem to take the style of heavy infantry, but they are too agile for that. I find it hard to imagine they move so quickly and strike extremely heavily. It is most likely that their gear is lighter than it appears.

They space themselves out and point their weapons. One of them speaks up, and to my surprise it is a woman's voice, I was wrong about the gender.

“Step aside if you wish to live. I do not make a habit of killing children of God. Proclaim your love for our father and lord. If you do so I will grant you the chance to live a full life away from war.”

So all I have to do is proclaim love for a God if I want to run away? Normally I would lie about something like this, hide, and strike when they are not expecting it. But something about proclaiming love for a God puts a bad taste in my mouth.

“Fuck you and your fake God. There is no such thing as the divine, what you call God is merely a product of mankind's collective delusion. Your God is dead, and you are an idiot for believing in it.” I respond.

“So you are a heathen? You will pay for mocking our lord. Sinners who defy God’s will shall be punished by my blade, this I swear on the progenitor's name.” The woman answered.

While we were talking back and forth, Lucanus cast physical enhancements and mental boosts. His spells of this kind are far more potent than mine.

Ok, deep breaths, remember your training. I’m at my best when using my mind, which I learned long ago. Now, consider your position. Neither of my allies is capable of holding one of the enemy off alone, Domitius is strong, but far from elite. I have to keep both of them on me or sacrifice one of my allies.

Sacrificing Lucanus is out of the question, he is applying my buffs. Princess obviously isn’t an option. Then if it comes down to it I will sacrifice Domitius, but that will be the last option. Meaning I will have to fight both of them, to do this I will use a trick I learned from Claudia.

I raise my left hand up and focus a large amount of mana into it. I put up a barrier, the strongest one I can conjure. Relative to people who specialize in this stuff, it is fairly weak, but it does the trick. If they try to break it, I will kill them using those precious seconds. If they want to get to the others, they will need to fight me.

“Cassius! Don’t be crazy! You can’t fight them alone!.” Lucanus calls out.

“Just shut the fuck up and maintain the barrier, I can win this.”

The guardsmen recognize the situation relatively quickly. They bend their knees in response and lunge at me.

The swordsman reaches me first, she draws the mid-length sword with her right hand back while preparing to swing. It is then that she activates her first move, by pouring mana into her blade she makes it shine so bright that looking directly at it could blind me. I leap away avoiding a confrontation with that sword.

While dodging the first person the spearman stabs at me. I shift my head position to avoid the spear, and he responds by swinging the tip at my neck.

The swordsman comes out from behind the spearman while using her bright sword ability. For some reason, she used it while being too far away. That’s when I realized she was just supporting a spear attack. I use all of my strength and focus to keep my eyes open during this attack. I keep my eyes on the spear moving at my chest while preparing to block, but…

The tip of the spear disappeared. It is… behind me!

I spin 180 degrees, block the spear tip, and leap over the point of attack. Flipping onto new grounds within these woods.

How did I know the spear was behind me? What was that?

No point in questioning it now. What matters more is that strange ability… the tip of the spear teleported. I am just as fast as both of them, I am also probably stronger. The problem is those abilities. I can definitely understand now what makes them elite.

Even the strongest troops would have trouble with that combo, taking away sight and then attacking from an impossible angle. If I hadn’t seen that attack somehow, I would likely be dead. Still, I have to stay calm and analyze these things

I dodged various attacks non-stop, firing magic at them whenever they got too close to the barrier. While doing this I keep thinking about their previous abilities.

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The tip of the spear didn’t fall to the ground when it was all alone behind me. Something was holding it up, most likely that wasn’t teleportation. The tip of the spear moved through some kind of gate that appeared behind me. That person is using magic to create a wormhole.

Yet they didn’t chase me using that superior movement method, which means it only works on the spear. Furthermore, they never used that ability to attack me while on the run, or attack the vulnerable people in the barrier, such as my support mage. That ability has limits, my best guess is a limit on the range.

In between swings of the enemy's weapons, I used magic to test something that was bothering me. I shoot burning magnesium into the air like before and see it. The swordsman looks away from the light that is burning just as bright as her sword. I was right.

For some reason the sword as bright as the sun doesn’t hurt her eyes when it is just in front of them. Despite this my magic which was equally bright blinded her, this likely meant one thing. The sword isn’t shining… It's using illusion magic.

Now, knowing what I must do, I isolate myself one more time to prepare. I take a deep breath and watch as they close in on me once more with their same attack pattern, spearman in front and swordsman supporting.

The sword shone brighter than the sun. However, I did not need to fear damage to my eyes. I stare at the spear tip as I take one step back, baiting the movement I had seen before already. As expected, the tip disappeared from my sight. Somehow I knew where it was, but I didn’t intend to block it.

When you create a threat that comes from behind, you are open from the front. I leap into the spearman's reach. He moves slower than I do, I stab into his throat, it is without a doubt lethal.

With her final movement, the spear wielder hugs me tightly. I was trapped within her grasp, I realized it instantly, this was some type of magic binding.

He was using his last moments as a suicide attack. These religious freaks really are crazy.

I can’t move my arms. My body is much heavier than normal, I use magic to leap away. This is not fast enough, the swordsman is coming my way with a stabbing motion. I desperately look to Lucanus in the barrier to help.

“Lucanus! Undo the binding!”

He is pouring mana into a staff and pointing at me. Time moves slowly, I desperately want to get out of this person's grasp, but I can’t. Before Lucanus can counter this magic it happens, the swordsman stabs through her comrade and into my abdomen.

“AURGH.” I unconsciously yelp.

I feel the blade push through my body, but it doesn’t hurt. Probably the adrenaline, but at that moment I get an idea.

I send explosion magic through my heel, kicking my leg up faster than my body allows, and my hip joint goes out of place. But I crumbled his armor and crushed her groin. She flinches for a single moment, I use this opening to leap at her and bite through her armor into her neck.

She pulls her blade out and stumbles back, putting pressure on her neck which is missing a chunk of flesh. Lucanus still hasn’t undone the binding. I look to my side to see him completely frozen. Ever since he put mana into his staff he has just been standing there horrified. I can tell he is looking at the stab wound in my stomach.

“Damnit Lucanus undo the binding! Or heal me! Just do anything!”

My words fail to spur him into any form of action. I’m all alone for this, only able to use one leg I’m hopping on and my head to finish off this swordsman. Wait, my hand is in contact with this spearman's leg.

I cut off the spearman’s leg with earth magic as the swordsman approached once more. I then use wind magic to throw the leg into her face. She is disoriented from the neck wound and can’t dodge in time.

With my one good leg, I leap into her body making the three of us collide together. Once I do I am able to place my one good leg onto her chest and send explosive magic into her low abdomen.

I then rest my entire body onto her now bleeding-out torso, she is helpless. I still hold myself up even with the weight of a spearman holding onto me. I stare into her eyes, she smiles as she nears death.

“I am ready to die young heathen, you are not. For I will join God’s side in heaven, and you shall burn in hell for all of eternity.” She mocks me as she dies, but I respond accordingly.

“There is no afterlife you idiot, even if you are reborn once, there is always an end. You won’t go to heaven or hell, you are going nowhere. The abyss doesn’t have a name of heaven or hell. It is just nothingness.”

She dies as I finish taunting her. Domitius is the one to release the barrier from the inside. He played the role of guarding the princess alone during this fight. You never know when a third party will enter. The princess comes with him. He frees me from the binding magic by cutting off the arms of the spearman and pulling me away.

Lucanus walks up to me and starts healing. His hands are trembling violently and he looks away from the blood as he casts the magic. I wasn’t hit in any vitals, which allowed me to recover completely. His healing magic is extremely potent after all.

Still, healing magic which only recovers damaged body parts does nothing for fatigue. I fall asleep on Domitius’ back and he carries me away from the battlefield. I stay on his back as everyone else walks towards the nearest town where we keep a spare carriage and horses.

Dodging the guards was pretty easy in the nighttime. We get on the road immediately and work to escape enemy territory. I was asleep for the first 14 hours of this. Luckily I didn’t dream of anything.

The ride back to the base was uneventful. Even if scouts spotted us on the road, nobody was stupid enough to engage. While the rest of the temple guard was in the region most likely, we didn’t run into any more of them.

Throughout the trip back to the base Lucanus has an awful look on his face. It was a dark look that I had never seen him wear before. Well, this was his first battle, it is probably to be expected.

When we arrived at the camp the princess relieved the rest of us and went to speak with her father. Apparently, we weren’t necessary for the mission report. Lucanus stood still at the gate and spoke to me.

“I… I’m sorry Cassius. I was just a burden during that fight… no, I’m always a burden to you aren’t I? Things would be better for you if I weren’t around wouldn’t it…”

“Yeah, you’re a burden,” I respond curtly and walk away. This was the only way I could think of responding to that question.

With that, we walk separate ways to get our rest.