Percival and his team were running at their fastest speed possible for them, going to the mystery place that Percival thought would allow them to have their salvation.
Suddenly, Percival stopped and looked into the distance.
"Sir what is the problem?"
Ross asked as he watched the weird behaviour of their lieutenant.
"We are changing direction."
'I wonder what is this feeling of threat coming at us?'
The team changed their direction, but still had Percival's mystery position as their final destination. It did not take a long time when Percival, and this time Sheryl, to stop and observe the distant sky with serious faces.
'Damn! Now I understand this domain spell's main ability. I have really gotten a spell genius in my team. Ahh… But why are they so formidable.'
Percival lamented the situation.
"We change direction."
This time Alice, Ross and Grant were wondering what the other two people of their team were feeling.
'Soon, we can get to that place.'
Percival was starting to get competitive as well, after facing so many setbacks he wanted revenge.
It was not long before the whole team would stop and look at the distant sky, the civilian recruits were all pale. The feeling of death that seems to follow them was haunting them.
When the threat that they were feeling finally entered Percival's awareness, he finally saw the threat.
'Ahh shit… What a beauty this is.'
"Sir what are we supposed to do?"
Alice asked in panicked voice as she could feel the threat coming in very fast. It was the first time such a situation happened to this noble scion. She was already losing her composure in a spar, makes you wonder what would happen during the real thing.
"It looks like we cannot avoid the spell, we stop and defend. Don't even think of splitting from the team. I believe this is the main reason behind such spell, too target those who split from the team."
Percival could see such thoughts were starting to affect the highly panicked Alice, wanting to split from the team to save herself.
Percival did not blame her too much, for a complete rookie under such stress it could be considered was normal. Especially for an untrained person like Alice and the civilian recruits.
"Whitlock and Nordeck to the front with me to help me defend."
'If Hart and Katz try to defend again, they might just be put out of commission.'
The situation was not such that Percival could not defend against the spell alone, but such a situation was rare to find under training environment. Percival wanted all the civilian recruits to full experience such a stressing situation before the real thing.
The whole situation reminded him about the battle in the Dralia mountain range, that time he was only a tier 1 mage. Even as a fully trained military mage, he too felt a lot stress and that allowed him to temper himself.
Percival casted tier 1 combination spell, [Heavy Rock Barrier] whilst Alice and Ross took more time to cast [Gale Storm Barrier] and [Corruption Barrier] respectively. It was possible to see that they were lacking experience in casting combination spells of the defence type.
A large barrier of rock was summoned at was the front to receive most of the brunt of missile's power, at the sides there were two smaller barriers, one was made of concentrated darkness elements, whilst the other was made of lightning and wind gales.
"Mam, the enemy has stopped."
"I can see that, they have just entered my awareness range again. Get ready for combat!"
BOOM! BOOM!!
The missile collided with the three barriers. There was rock everywhere, the darkness elements of the [Corruption Barrier] were still eroding some rocks and trees whilst there was the occasional lightning bolt hitting the ground.
The air was turbulent around Percival's team due to the collision of the four spells. Percival had let some of the power of the spell to pass through so as to allow Alice and Ross to feel the power.
Percival was still stable even after receiving most of the power of the spell, especially since the spell had less power when compared to June's power due to her tier 2 magic ring's influence. However the same could not be said for Alice and Ross, Alice hands were trembling whilst Ross was pale.
'These two people survived Lt Marion spell, they must be more talented than myself. I have to keep working.'
Ross glanced towards Grant and Sheryl and tried to understand how they survived June's spell, but he got a look of mocking from Grant and a look of understanding from Sheryl.
"Come on, we are almost…"
Percival was about to order the team to move, when he felt that June's team was too close.
'I was distracted.'
"Prepare for combat, we will be fighting as we retreat."
As the started to retreat, spells started coming at them, these were normal spell and not combination spells.
"Fight!"
Percival dodged a [Darkness Ray] as he casted [Water Bomb] towards Ilse, the civilian recruits were all struggling under the coordinated spell bombardment. But as he realised a problem as more time passed.
"Mam, I am taking out recruit Katz."
"Sure, show me."
"Louis cover me."
'Tsk.'
Immediately after that Ilse casted tier 1 combination spell, [Shock Absorbing Mud Barrier].
Grey did not waste time as he casted tier 1 Killer spell [Multiple Light Weapon Barrage] and tier 1 Killer spell [Focused Laser Ray]. The [Multiple Light Weapon Barrage] was fired at every person forcing them to focus on that spell whilst [Focused Laser Ray] only targeted Sheryl.
"Ahh…! It burns! It burns…"
Percival realised that the problem was that Sheryl and Grant were being focus fired a little bit too late. Sheryl had fainted from the burns that [Focus Laser Ray] had created around her chest and abdomen. The spell was under powered, if it was not, the spell would have made a large hole in her chest.
Grant and the other civilian recruits had looks of horror as the saw Sheryl scream in pain and then faint.
"Recruit Grey those are some powerful spells, I am dying from envy right now."
June commented with a crazy look of a battle junkie, there was obvious greed in her eyes.
Grey felt a little bit uncomfortable around June, sometimes she reasoned like a mage, and sometimes she just looked like a crazy person like right now.
Seeing that she was a little bit out of it, Grey took temporary command.
"Mountain and Louis finish Hart, Meyer and myself will cover you."
Grey ordered as they got ready to finish Grant.
"Leave Katz, there will be a person to come and pick her up. Grant stop attacking focus on defence, it looks like they are focusing fire on you. We are close, just hold on for 30 seconds."
It must be reinstated that the fight that was happening between these two teams was a mobile fight, June's team was still chasing Percival's team.
Grey casted two [Giant Light Shield] spells and Bon casted [Water Shield] they were ready to remove Grant.
"Gram! Hart has retreated to the rear."
Grey's observed the enemy team as they retreated as he head Sharon shout at him.
"Change of plans, focus fire on recruit Ross, he looks distracted."
June was the one who ordered, it looks like she was back to her more mage self.
Sharron and Ilse did not waste time as they launched two tier 1 combination spells [Mud Snare] and [Triple Vacuum Cleaver] respectively. Ross had no chance, the ground on his feet turned to a mud trap and three blades cut him down.
"Ahh! Ahh!"
The poor fellow had lost a hand, Ilse had not killed him as the spell was under powered, but the hand still got cut of and blood coming off. The fellow was trembling with pain on the forest floor.
"Oh you two have good team work."
Commented June as she saw Percival stop at an assuming spot on the forested area, the remaining two civilians were haggard without a looks of hope.
'I now understand what Percival meant when he said that our chances of winning were very small. So this is only a piece of the military's power, I understand why Grandaunt warned us not to infuriate the military before we left the Whitlock Estate.'
Alice had lost all hope as she looked at June lead Grey and the others.
"Are you giving up Percival?"
"I'd be crazy to do that whilst I have a chance to win."