Lord Canning was standing not so far away as he observed the shield and sword his opponent was carrying. He had seen anti-magic artifacts before and knew how troublesome they were in the hands of someone skilled. Sazar, however, was not such a person in Canning's eyes.
*Booong*
His fist and the shield collided when he bolted forward and threw a punch.
The moment the fist landed on the shield, both Sazar and Canning were slightly pushed back due to the impact. Sazar was both impressed and worried by how powerful his opponent was to create such an impact with just a fist. Having such a fist land on his face would cause some serious damage, he thought.
The surroundings of the two combatants cleared up as all the spells cast and hijacked by Canning were dispersed by that brief contact with the shield. Not surprised by this, Sazar stepped forward and tried a stab with the sword but Canning dodged and countered with a punch.
*Boooong*
Canning's fist hit the shield again. Sazar had moved fast enough to shield himself from the incoming punch. He then used his shield to push forward against his enemy before trying a low slash with his sword. But he cut nothing but air. Canning had jumped at the very last second and teleported behind Sazar.
The moment he arrived behind Sazar, he threw a series of punches but the latter managed to shift his weight and the shield to protect himself. The sudden movement was not well coordinated and balance could not be attained when a barrage of punches started hitting onto the shield.
Sazar fell on his back but tightly held onto the shield as Canning got on it and started punching it some more. What Sazar thought would be an easy fight got hard again. To make matters worse, the shield started curving in as the punches were deliberately all landing in one place.
Canning's plan was simple but effective, he was going to cause the shield to fail by repeatedly hitting the same exact spot with brute strength alone. An electric bolt from behind him interrupted his plan and made him roll to the side. The lightning bandit had recovered just enough to fire a bolt to help out his boss. Seeing the enemy dodge the blind spot attack and remembering the kick made his heart race.
Canning glared at the now panicking bandit for some time but reverted his attention to Sazar who had stood up and was charging at him. He prepared for a sword swing but was met with a shield bashing he could only stop with his crossed arms at the last second. The impact sent him sliding backward while he thought of what to do next.
However, that decision was made for him as the other bandits had started gaining a bit of confidence after their buddy launched a sneak attack that almost hit the enemy. Several small fireballs hit his side and a water jet followed thereafter but he was able to dodge it. Sazar attempted a sword attack but Canning rolled away, preventing a cut and a follow-up shield bashing in one move.
"Tsk."
Lord Canning was starting to get irritated by the bandits' interference. He was about to teleport to their location when his senses picked up on a very dark aura coming in from the campsite. The magic was of pure darkness like something he had never encountered before. If someone told him it was an angry demon spawn causing this, he would believe it without question. He wasn't very religious, however, and could only guess what the source was.
He was hoping it was the nightmare wolf, he really was. But as soon as his senses picked up on the presence of the nightmare wolf not so far away from the dark mysterious thing, he knew it was Annabeth.
He had been worried about making her face off against a Tier 7 mage, but now that the situation had escalated so much, he was panicking inside. He was about to teleport inside the campus when his opponent tried to slice his head off. Without averting his eyes from the campsite's direction, Canning held the sword between his fingers while his enemy tried with all his might to pull it away.
*Sigh*
"Look, I have something to do now," Lord Canning said as he turned to look at Sazar, "I have to go somewhere for a bit and I will be back shortly."
"You can use that moment to escape if you want but I will hunt you down eventually. So, enjoy life while you can," Canning threatened and advised.
Teleporting a short distance did not require much time and conjuring, but if the distance increased, a few more seconds would be needed. That is why mages who could teleport only teleported short distances during fights.
Canning let go of the sword to prepare his teleportation but Sazar tried to bash him with the shield. Canning used his palm to stop the shield in time but it interrupted what he was going to do. It seemed his opponent wanted to settle things first to the point that he would follow him while he was trying to deal with Annabeth's case. Sazar probably thought that Canning's words were merely an excuse to get away. Well, either that or he simply was not happy with the threat so he decided not to let Canning do as he pleased.
"Very well then," Canning said, resolved to settle the job at hand first.
Sazar tried to push forward with the shield but was met with no resistance until the shield was forcefully pushed downwards into the dirt. The pushing was at an angle towards his feet and caused him to fall on to the shield his left arm was locked in.
Canning moved to end him but a few arrows made of fire were heading towards him already. He quickly conjured a mirror surface to reflect the arrows that headed back to their caster at the same speed. The bandits all dived away to avoid getting impaled and burnt. Sazar managed to roll and tried a swing from the ground position but his opponent was no longer there.
Canning's magical presence reappeared where the bandits had dived and Sazar got to witness a massacre. His men were getting pierced by small bright lights from Canning's finger at bullet speed. He was conjuring with his free hand at a fast pace and aiming with the other hand at who died next.
Within a few seconds, all of Sazar's remaining men were permanently decommissioned.