This time the target was just Cockerel's type.

Young, tender, fair soft skin, and ignoring one trait, even more beautiful than a girl...

Thinking back on past exploits during his side jobs, Cockerel's mind gradually went mad.

Cockerel couldn't wait to capture him, then listen to his angry curses.

He would slowly watch the transformation from tough guy to lamb, it would be a wonderful process.

Cockerel set off with excitement, but halfway through some accidents occurred.

At first he thought the target just had some tricks, but after eating an explosive fire trap, Cockerel had to admit this target was far more crafty than imagined!

Recalling the intel provided by the client.

The target was a low rank apprentice without his staff and casting reagents. Such a mage, just dodging the first spell, even a farmer with a hoe could easily take them down! Let alone someone like Cockerel in full armor.

Yet the result exceeded Cockerel's expectations.

The 24 man cavalry squad now had only 16 left.

1 dead, 4 heavily injured, 3 lost their warhorses.

Seeing his men's sorry states, Cockerel licked his lips.

"He's really grown to like this little wildcat more and more."

"Compared to those hollow-eyed corpses, these scratchy wildcats are much more interesting!"

"Those that can still ride, follow me. The rest stay and treat the wounded."

After leaving them with those words, Cockerel whipped the reins and followed the wheel tracks, dozen of wind blades swirling behind him.

*

*

*

The carriage continued forward several hundred meters before stopping at a hill.

After disembarking, Ronald tossed the hunchbacked driver a gold coin. The driver caught it in his mouth and happily exclaimed, "Thank you sir! Thank you sir!"

Ronald didn't reply, just waved him away.

The driver respectfully saluted, then quickly disappeared into the fog.

After the driver was completely out of his detection range, Ronald stashed the carriage behind the hill. Then he set up several more trigger traps in the area to turn rock into quagmire.

Magic plus trigger settings were Ronald's latest findings. Just add timing, detection, weight measurement and other patterns onto the original spell matrix, and a fireball trap with triggers is created.

Compared to his previous modifications to fireball, this wasn't even a small change, at best expanding magic's applications to make combat less rigid.

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

After meditating half a sand timer at the ambush point, the end of the road finally showed several stumbling figures.

By now the fog had completely dispersed. Ronald could clearly see his pursuers' miserable states.

Their originally splendid shining full plate armor was now damaged beyond recognition.

The intricately carved breastplates were covered in the aftermath of elemental spells. Most common were the scorch marks from explosive fire and slashing scars from wind blades.

The few figures supported each other as they stumbled forward. Ronald could clearly hear their conversation from the treetops.

"Brothers, hang in there a bit longer. We're about to catch the target."

"Captain, Kelson is in bad shape. He needs healing!"

"Thirty-two spells... This guy's guardian mage must be out of mana. We just need to endure a bit longer. The golden coins are almost in hand."

"Captain, Kelson passed out."

"Victory will be ours. This little wildcat can't escape. I'll get to showcase my art on you hundreds of times!"

Listening to the near madness below, disgust flashed across Ronald's eyes. He pointed at the best looking armor and summoned his internal mana.

Cockerel lived up to being a peak journeyman knight. His danger senses were extremely keen. Just as Ronald's wind blade formed, he rolled down the roadside slope.

"Supporting the ground then tumbling and side rolling."

After Cockerel pulled off half of the textbook evasion moves, the wind blade swept past the clueless knights, leaving behind offal.

Cockerel crawled out from the bushes. He swiftly focused his gaze on the source of the magic ripples, but only saw swaying treetops. The mage who used wind blade to kill his subordinates had disappeared without a trace.

"You can't protect this boy. Your mana is almost gone. How many more batches can you kill? One? Two?"

Cockerel didn't act like prey at all. He immediately told the enemy about the pursuers behind him!

This was to make the other side hesitate. If the mage's mana really was about to run out like he said, then they would surely not want to waste time on a peak journeyman knight.

Although killing Cockerel wouldn't be hard, doing so when faced with reinforcements would be extremely foolish mana waste.

Cockerel thought he already had Ronald figured out, but what greeted him was a terrifying scorching blue-white fireball!

"Spinning jump and forward dive." At the critical moment Cockerel dodged the fireball.

But before he could feel relief, a black shadow swiftly enlarged in his eyes!

After the modified fireball, Ronald cast an even stealthier force spell.

The advantage of this spell was the casting ripples were very small. The shortcoming was weaker might.

Normally Cockerel wouldn't fear such weak magic, but the mage chained his spells together perfectly.

This spell just happened to come right when Cockerel exhausted himself dodging!

No way to dodge!

Cockerel was decisive. He raised both hands to block in front of himself.

With the mithril vambraces' protection, it should at least block this magic attack.

That's what Cockerel thought, but he soon realized how wrong he was.

Boom—

Ahhhhhhh!

Amidst the metallic roar, Cockerel couldn't suppress a miserable shriek.

Cockerel underestimated Ronald's force spell. His left arm exploded from below the elbow, now only a shred of skin connected his dangling severed hand, shaking along with Cockerel's wails.

"Why?!"

"Why is the might so great?!"

"It's just a junior earth mage apprentice spell. Why can it blow apart my arm protected by mithril vambraces?!"

Cockerel let out a shrill roar of anger. He couldn't understand why the force spell's power was so great. Other mages casting it only had might comparable to arrows, but in this mage's hands it reached nearly ballista level power.

And not only was the spell might terrifying, the combat methods were also extremely rational.

Cockerel had never met such a mage!

A mage who exhibited "cunning rationality" to the extreme.

From start to finish of the battle, Cockerel hadn't even seen the other's figure.

Cockerel felt like he wasn't battling a mage, but an assassin hiding in the shadows!

Furthermore, more rational than an assassin!

Those types hiding in shadows would already be spewing trash talk after blowing off an enemy's arm.

Yet this mage, even with both Cockerel's arms gone and no longer a threat, still refused to show himself!

Damn mage!

Ronald's performance was cold and rational to an incredible degree. This was also what Cockerel found truly unacceptable. Cockerel didn't fear how powerful the enemy was, but he feared an enemy who was sufficiently calm.

A calm enemy was often the hardest to defeat.