Captain Yansen's interrogation of Drienel, the guard, had come to an abrupt stop when one of Yansen's men called out to him about a commotion outside. He would not have batted an eye if it was a fight between the locals, but this was between two Lords from outside his city.
He quickly rushed out of the mansion, only to find a crowd had formed a circle and two people were standing inside. One of the men was walking up to the other. He looked completely unprepared for the fight.
Yansen would have wanted to stop the fight but he knew a noble's way of doing things was completely different from that of a commoner. Yansen could be killed by a noble and the matter would end by just paying a few gold coins to the court. He really wasn't paid enough to risk his life.
Besides, if the nobles from outside the city ended up killing each other in his territory, it was up to their origin cities to decide what to do with the matter. His only job is such cases would be to report what he and his team found at the scene.
Yansen looked around the crowd and saw the outline of a familiar figure, it was Lord Brodie who was a well-known Lord within Jorgen City.
He walked up to him, stood next to him and gave him small bow when their eyes met.
"Greetings Lord Brodie," Captain Yansen started the conversation.
"Captain Yansen," Lord Brodie acknowledged.
"I saw your men earlier but I didn't expect you to come here personally and so quickly," remarked Lord Brodie, his face full of sadness.
"I was already here to investigate the deaths of the two nobles," Captain Yansen replied, and then asked, "Is there any way to stop this fight?"
He worried that his paperwork will now reach the ceiling with the death of another noble in a span of fewer than 5 hours in the same area.
Lord Brodie let out a miserable deep sigh while shaking his head slowly.
"Unfortunately," he finally said, "my cousin has already dug his own grave and buried himself up to his neck."
"Your cousin?" asked Captain Yansen.
"The one with the fireballs in his palms," responded Lord Brodie while pointing with his chin.
Just then, a heatwave emanated from the fight up ahead that both Captain and Lord reflexively took a few steps back. The rest of the crowd had done the same.
Yansen could clearly see that the heat was coming from the man Lord Brodie said was going to die. How could someone with so much power be killed by his opponent who didn't even look ready for the fight? This was a puzzling situation, but answers would reveal themselves soon enough, he thought.
Just then, the man with the balls of fire put them forward to launch them at his opponent.
Captain Yansen started wondering why the other man had not made any moves yet… could he have given up on defending against them?
A look of astonishment could not be wiped off Yansen's face when the person who was supposed to throw the balls of fire burst into flames.
Captain Yansen could not get past his confusion quick enough to realize that the burning man needed help, but even if he had, what could he possibly do against those flames.
When Yansen fully came back to his senses, he heard the wretched screams of the dying man and felt a chill run through his whole body. His mouth had been open the entire time so the heat stole all the moisture in his mouth, it's you snooze you lose after all.
Watching this horrific scene and seeing the man that was alive 2 minutes ago remain nothing but ash, Yansen realized the answer he thought he wanted only left him with more questions.
"Are you wondering what to report to your superiors?" Lord Brodie asked him. You could tell he was now very depressed.
Yansen wanted to answer but his mouth was too dry to say anything, so he simply nodded.
"Alright. Tell them, Lord Ollie of Xenotar City, first cousin of both Lord Brodie and late Lady Elsie of Jorgen City, angered Lord Canning, 'The Arcane Fox' of Alpane City," Lord Brodie replied, "They will understand."
Lord Brodie sighed. He looked at his cousin's ashes one last time, muttered something that sounded like 'Ollie you fool,' and simply walked away.
***
8 years ago, when war broke out between the Alibarnair Kingdom and its neighbor, the Kingdom of Brusthorn, over gold-rich territories, many young men and women participated to make names for themselves. They were all the finest and most talented youths from all areas of Alibarnair.
To minimize casualties, they were assigned to guard districts on the outskirts of the Kingdom, while at other times they were responsible for holding the enemy troops to a stalemate. The veterans and expert mages were in charge of wiping out the enemies since they had higher Tiered magical powers.
An example of such a fine young talent was the 21-year-old genius, Elsie, who could not only coordinate her troops efficiently in the northern district of Vannis, but skillfully held off the enemy for 8 whole weeks before launching a counter-attack. It was even rumored that her team suffered zero casualties in the counter-attack.
However, not all areas where this capable of resisting the enemy's attacks.
Brodie was in one such region. The enemy was composed of 100 ridiculously strong mages who were causing casualties left and right for Brodie's side of 300 mages.
Just when he thought things could not get any worse, the Intelligence Unit reported seeing about 50 more enemy reinforcements teleporting continuously and heading towards the battlefield.
Orders were received to retreat and everyone was to evacuate. They also received news that an ambush had been set and they were to hold off their current enemies after the ambush was deployed.
However, if the enemy's reinforcements joined the battle too quickly, Brodie and all his comrades were to prepare to face a possible complete wipeout.
Morale sunk to its lowest point. Even when they reached the ambush point which was at the end of a small path between two mountains, they all thought their death was already set in stone. At any minute the enemy's reinforcements would arrive and the slaughter would begin. For their honor, they decided to give their all until their inevitable deaths.
After 20 minutes of fighting, a ray of hope had found itself in the hearts of the troops. The enemy's reinforcements had not arrived. The ambush was effective and over half of the enemy was already dead.
Another 10 minutes later and the rest of the enemies had been finished off, but the reinforcements had not arrived.
Out of the 300 mages that participated in this battle from Brodie's side, only 97 remained. If not for a few hidden explosives at the ambush point that had managed to kill off at least 10 of the enemy's forces, the number of survivors would be far much less.
However, no one could relax as they braced themselves for the enemy's arrival.
10 more minutes and nothing had happened still except 5 more of the remaining 97 dying from severe injuries.
Orders suddenly arrived for the remaining team to return to their original position.
Uproar broke out among the men and women.
Were the higher-ups that keen on killing off the entire team?
The enemies were simply too monstrous in strength. 92 tired mages would simply just not do if the enemy reinforcements just had even a fraction of what their previous opponents had. Their tiredness was accompanied by injuries on most of them.
However, orders were orders after all.
The group moved cautiously along the path between the mountains heading back to their first position.
Not knowing what to expect at that place was the perfect definition of mental torture. The group steeled their nerves as they approached the other end of the path. In just a few more steps, their view would not be obstructed by the walls of the mountain… and so would the enemy's view.
Brodie was near the front and exited just in time to see the last enemy reinforcement die.
The man had just finished conjuring 10 ice spears and motioned them forward towards a young man with bright red hair. The ice spears only traveled about a meter before turning and impaling the man who had cast them in one quick and fluid motion.
Three other young men were standing on the battlefield with the redhaired man, over 50 dead bodies lay on the ground.
Each of the young men wore a hooded robe in a unique color with a unique golden animal imprinted on the back: A Fox, A Tiger, A Wolf, and A Bear.
The man with the fox print wore red clothes and he was described later on as intelligent but cunning by his friends.
For the tiger, it was orange and black clothes, fierce and merciless as a description. The wolf, grey clothes, a smart and wise leader while the bear, black clothes, the strongest but lazy.
This is where Brodie had first seen Canning and learned of his title, 'The Arcane Fox.'