I fell through the rushing air and landed on my side in the darker alley between two of the buildings and was too dazed to get up for a moment.
"He saw my fire construct, I'd bet my life on it." A voice said nearby said.
"Come off it Dan, he's a crafter. He was probably just nervous from standing there for so long. I've seen rabbits that look like snails compared to how this one dodges and weaves all about the damn place." Another voice responded.
"Enough you two, let's finish this and get back to the base." another said.
My vision was coming back to me and I saw three men standing in the only exit to the alley. They wore leather armor that was decently maintained and the two smaller men each had a short sword on the hip while the bigger one had a morningstar. As I got back up on my feet, they noticed me again and stopped their squabbling.
"Well kid I'm sorry it had to turn out this way, but if it's any consolation you died for the betterment of the Coalition." One of the men, a big, bald bear of a man standing a few inches taller than even me with a long black beard and piercing brown eyes said. His two companions, a rat looking man with red hair who was missing a front tooth to the left and one with a mop of brown hair and a ragged goatee to the right, sneered at me off to the side as the bigger bloke stood front and center from his companions.
I drew my tube but sadly while the other two sneered, the big one wasn't as witless as his companions. He summoned an earth shield just in the fraction of a second before my lava round could burn a hole in any of them. The goons stood there a moment until the redhead slapped the mop head.
"Damn it, Joel. We could have died just because you can't aim for shit." Dan, apparently, said.
"I hit his stuff. I know for a fact I did, Ben. You gotta believe me" Joel said, as he summoned another blast of wind that rolled over me.
The men visibly relaxed. I was too badly outnumbered to not use the element of surprise, so I had to put my acting skills to the test.
I moved to make it look like I was trying to get the tube to fire again without success and slightly panicking when it didn't fire, giving it a frenzied slap for good measure.
"Hmpf, it looks like the Diamond academy doesn't hold the staggering talent people say it does. Kid, you're screwed. Let's just make this as painless as possible." The bigger man said as he sauntered over to me brandishing the morningstar.
I waited until he was a few steps from his fellows to use my internal mana generation and metal magic. Doing this made sure they didn't see me making the spell construct, just in case they had the metal element and it also meant they wouldn't see me use any of mana. The spell violently pulled the two gangly goons short swords from their holsters and slammed them into the big mans' back and thigh. He bellowed in pain and turned on his traitorous compatriots.
"So that's how it is then. You really couldn't wait till we got back to the capital to start taking all the glory? I'll remind you why Noah put me in charge!" Ben roared as he charged, leaving a small spattering of blood dripping down his back. The two goons were too stunned by what their eyes told them had happened to react at first.
The redhead managed to snap out of it and threw a fireball. That such a large man could move out of the way so quickly was quite impressive as the flame hit air and splashed against the dirt.
"It..it..wasn-" The wind mage, too stupid to see what a lost cause trying to plead innocence was, had his argument end with a swift bash to the head. His blood and unused brains decorated the wall of the warehouse.
The fire mage turned to run but he just got a spike of stone in the back for his troubles. Despite that injury and laying on the ground, he wasn't completely out of it as he managed to scorch his killerwith a loud animal scream from both men before his head was crushed by a summoned boulder. The gorilla just stood there for a moment catching his breath with heavy pants as his right side smoldered but he still started walking towards me to finish what brought him here.
"All right, let me make this quick and I'll take out my frustrations on some whore in this shit hole." He said as his right hand limply swung to his side.
As great it would be to drag him into the depths of despair with our insurmountable power difference, I had my own job to do. My response to his offer was to shoot him. Unfortunately, I was a little off and my shot took him in the good left shoulder with a lava brick. He roared, for the second time in as many minutes, but this time he seemed to scream in surprise as much as pain.
"How the fu-" I silenced him permanently by running up and decapitating him with a quick cut across the neck using my water jet. Leaving the corpses behind I jumped back up as I heard more bandits coming from the river. Back in my preferred altitude, I prepared to continue the bombardment.
After a few more lava bricks flew into their boats, whoever was in charge now knew his casters had failed and decided to take the goods in the warehouses as a lost opportunity as they tried a new tactic. I had found and eliminated several small teams trying to light the warehouses on fire. Their efforts were pointless though as those buildings were specially treated to become flame retardant.
Finally, a big mob of about 30 plus bandits ran headlong into the alley between the warehouses to try and force me out through sheer numbers. The burning missiles from my shoulder canon and the spray from my previously set up mines quickly singed that charge into a mass of burning bodies. I noticed faint whiffs of steam wafting in the air as the cobblestones started heating up the blood spilled on them.
When I finished looking over the carnage, I took another look over the river. The boats had stopped coming and the bandits were gathering from their spree of murder and rape to meet the force of the guards. Then I saw a big walking boulder coming down the main street to the docks.
Even at this distance, I could hear the scream of air as the rocket function of Ryan's hammer engaged. The stone lion head tore through a group of 3 bandits like paper, sending fragments of bone and flesh in a spray whenever the hammer was swung. It took the bandits two other attempts at stopping him and getting their challengers turned into a red paste as a reward for their bravery before the mobs' morale broke and they all fled in a panicked frenzy.
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Some tried to swim across the river, others made across the town towards the bridge. It seems the garrison was truly stretched thin as some of the fleeing scum managed to make it across the bridge before the exit was blocked off by a squad of infantry. I considered chasing them but the acrobatics and fighting had dragged on for what seemed like hours but was probably less than half an hour. Sheer hatred was the only energy that kept me going towards the end of the battle.
The guards were cleaning up now. Mostly seeing to the injured while Ryan crushed any remaining pockets of pathetic resistance the bandits who didn't manage to get away could muster. As the din drew to a close and the medical teams started working, Ryan looked out over the carnage and helped one injured guard up. Gradually a cheer for him went up among those not tending to a dire case.
Ryan looked embarrassed at the attention but could only put on a brave face for the crowd. I also gave a light clap from the rooftop I was laying on as I overlooked the docks. But eventually, the moment passed and everyone got back to work.
I got down after 5 minutes of rest and was looking around when one particularly worn-out soldier came up to me.
"Oh, thank the gods for you lord wizard. I thought we were done for, but you saved us all. You and Ryan, thank you sir." He said as the brown-haired fellow with a side covered in bloody bandages gave me a bear hug.
"All right lads enough cuddling" A voice called, and I turned around to see the captain of the guard in a full iron helmet and white and blue striped cape.
"We have too many people doing recovery and not enough to handle the prisoners. Think you could help move some of them to their 'trial'?." His emphasis on that word left the impression it was going to be anything but.
"Sure, what are the disciplinary 'boundaries' if I may ask?" I responded.
He gave a cruel laugh and nodded.
"After today, just make sure at least one of them makes it to the bridge for a judge to execute."
He pointed to a long row of bandits chained up by their wrists and feet in a long row. I came up and took the lead chain hoop to direct them towards our destination. The third prisoner in the line, a greasy man with wild black hair sneered at me.
"What? I'm more than 30 years old and they want me to follow the lead of some punk barely out of his mother's womb? " He spat on the ground at this while the rest of the ragtag bunch chuckled and looked at me with mockery.
I simply walked up to him and activated the water jet cutting him in half at the hip. His guts spilled out onto the dirt as the rest of the men blanched at the sight.
"OH GOD. My... That's my fucking" He cried as he clutched at his entrails in horror.
I then promptly went to pick the hoop back up and tugged again. This time they swiftly moved to follow, even as they dragged the still crying half-man as dead weight.
Ryan was leading the whole procession in front. The peasants not too injured or traumatized to stand formed a crowd of spectators as we all marched in lines. He soaked up the attention, his previous hesitance gone.
"Ryan!"
"Mountains Fury"
The various members of the crowd cheered.
Along the way there the half-man's cries died, and the only pained screams left were from those being treated or from the ravings of the other lines of prisoners being pulled about. The occasional onlooker would hurl a rock or dirt at the chained men. As we came near the section closest to the academy a heckler even managed to get one of the prisoners in the face with a dung pile. But this recipient seemed to have some stubborn pride issues the others didn't.
"How dare you." He screamed. He had a bare chest with a long leather jacket, brown pants, and a well shaven midnight black beard. His brown eyes simmered in outrage at his treatment.
"Silence, scum," I responded with my wrist guard that had killed the last prisoner bared for him to see. The other prisoners flinched back, but he remained unimpressed. A crafty look stole over his eyes for the barest second before he went to scratch his thigh.
Then I saw the ocean blue of a water mana construct come up in his hand. It was tucked in his jacket sleeve and was concealed from any onlooking mages. Well, any onlooking mages who weren't me. The density of the mana and structure of the construct told me he was using a single powerful spell to crush my ribs or skull, not just put my craft out of commission. I had a lot of really shitty choices on how to deal with this and not give away my ability to see what he was doing.
Unfortunately, I had stared at the mana construct for a split second too long. His face got a look of comprehension and the choice was made for me. I activated my jet and it cut his hand clean off. He screamed as his severed hand and the dissipating construct flew off to the side. Then I took his head off.
A lot of the onlookers cheered, and the rest of the prisoners just stood still in bitter silence and stared at the new burden they would have to pull. 10 guards came out of the academy to reinforce the guards already moving with us. When we got near the academy entrance Ryan turned into the smooth white building while the rest of us turned right on towards the bridge.
We finally came up to the bridge. There was a well-dressed man standing on a large box as he looked over a long line of chained men who got here before me. Before getting onto the bridge there was a large fire burning to the left of the entrance of the bridge.
"Guilty!" He exclaimed.
"Fuc-" The leading prisoner didn't get to finish his profanity before he was dragged off to the side. His throat was slit by one of the guards and he was unceremoniously chucked into the fire. This went on for a little while but once or twice the men would produce a piece of paper that the judge would look over. These men would then be put into a heavily armored carriage off to the right. One of the men, with short black hair and a cut over his right eye, even looked back to glare at me.
The rest were searched for their gang tattoos and summarily executed. When my line came up a heavily armed guard took the hoop from me and I went back towards the academy.
"Good luck lads" I jeered towards my former prisoners as I made my way down the road. I was already too far for them to spit at me and their curses were promptly silenced with a whip from one of the guards.
When I came up to the academy it was a mess of civilians, students, and soldiers trying to account for everyone. In the mayhem, I saw my targets idling awkwardly off to the side standing amongst the carriages. When I came close Salamede spotted me and ran up with a hug. Thankfully I had managed to get my helmet off before we collided.
"Is it over? Are we all safe now?" She asked through a spirit connection, her words still carrying a tremble of fear.
"It's all over except for the minute-long 'trials'," I said in the most comforting voice that I could manage to use.
She stood back for a moment before giving me another hug. Her snout just rested against my neck, as she just leaned against me and her body shook with tremors for a long moment.
"Oh, thank the ancestors. I was scared shitless they would charge through the gates and that would be it for all of us." She said as her tears splashed against my left shoulder. I just patted her back until she finally calmed down.
"You should have seen Ryan when the guards tried to stop him, he just pushed through and ran ahead of the garrisons formation. Everyone's saying he single-handedly saved the town." She said excitedly as she pulled away.
I must be really good at hiding my emotions because she didn't react when my mind flooded with anguish and bitterness. I had at least gotten praise from the trials.... and what did it matter in the end?
'After all, if nothing comes of it either way why get worked up over it? ' I thought bitterly to myself.
"If you lot would ship out, non-authorized occupants are now required to vacate the area." One of the guards said as he came up to us.
We all gave a light bow and made or way back to our homes, with Salamede giving me one last hug before we parted ways.