"Victor, grab the Girl!" Mandy turned towards him. The behemoth of a man quickly moved the moment he heard him say that, quickly dashing his way over me and into the river.
Amelia stood frozen in place as Victor came sprinting at her, fear freezing her. Damn it Amelia, move!
"No, you won't!"
As Victor made his way across the river, a whip lashed it way out a tremendous length. The blades on the whip stretched and extended, wrapping itself around Victor's Right arm and digging deep into it. It forced Victor to stop in his tracks to see who had done it.
The tall woman across the river gripped the handler of her whip…Or sword? I'll just call it a sword-Whip. She held the handle with one hand as she adjusted her glasses with her other. "Korbyn, Assist me." She glanced at Lilith, who was still laying on her side in the water. "Kale, get the kids out of here. We'll deal with these two."
The brown skinned man clapped his hands, whistling. "You got it, Elena!" He drew his curved blade out and pointed it at Mandy. "Not my first rodeo with someone like you."
Kale quickly drew away from The two elves and went on to grab Lilith, scooping her up from the water and holding her. He then eyed me and nodded towards the side of the forest with our destroyed carriage.
Victor tried to get out of the blade-whips grasp, pulling harder and harder to remove himself from it. But that only tightened the blade's grip around his arm, digging deeper as he bled out from it. Though it seemed he didn't even acknowledge the pain? He still had a relaxed, almost calm demeanor when he was doing it.
Mandy looked at Victor with concern, sweat forming on his forehead as he gritted his teeth. "Victor!" He gripped his Bo-staff tightly as he looked at the two new faces. "Get your hands off of hi-wha?!"
Before Mandy could finish, Korbyn ran right up to him. His posture quite low to the ground before he pocketed something from his pouch, he tossed what seemed sand right into Mandy's face.
"Got something in your eye?" Korbyn taunted Mandy, who was trying to cover his face. Korbyn then turned around, planting his hands onto the floor before he kicked Mandy right in the chest. "You should get them checked out because you got a whole boot print on your outfit!"
Mandy slid across the water, holding his ground as he held his stomach with one hand. Quickly, he dropped his Bo staff to scoop up some water, splashing his face to remove the sand.
"Gah, I hate fighting you Wind king freaks!" Mandy picked up his staff once more and looked at Korbyn. "You people always carry sand in your pocket?"
"When it's necessary. Want some more pocket sand?" Korbyn dug his hand into his pouch, "Pocket sand…" was a whisper that came out of him as he rummaged through his pouch.
At the same time, I took the opportunity to run. Hustling to my feet and grabbing my staff before heading to where Kale was. Ain't no way I was going to be stuck between this battle! I've had my share of battling today, and I don't want to be in the way of these two new People!
Running, I noticed that Amelia was still standing frozen in place. She looked as pale as a ghost as she looked at Victor with fear. So as I was running to kale, I grabbed Amelia by the arm and hauled her with me.
"Don't just stand there! You're just asking to be killed!" I looked back at her, seeing eyes go wide as I took her by the arm.
I could hear Victor struggle behind us, the blades creaking and suddenly a loud crack. I can see the shadow of the blade whip soar in the air as it begins to retract back to the tall elf woman. The metallic clanking and dinging rang in the forest. As I turned to see out of curiosity, I could see the blade whip had seemingly turned into a generic Straight sword. Victor had been twisted to face the tall woman, his right arm receiving major damage as it looked like the upper part of it was torn. Anger now flared in the disfigured man's eyes, his left metallic arm creaking as he flexed it.
Yep, Staying out of this. I'm too exhausted physically and I know if I just get in the way of these two. It's best if I stay on the sideline and aid Lilith with her injury. Speaking of Lilith…
Once me and Amelia got out of the water and onto dry land, Kale was putting Lilith down on the ground. He looked me dead in the eye, concern riddled his face. Lilith laid on the floor as she seemed to be unconscious, her hand clutching her side.
"Kota, cast a healing spell on her!" Kale urgently ordered, he got up and drew both swords he had. "Stay here and watch these two."
"What about Chris and Claire?" I looked around for them. Were they in the fort that I made? I can't expect them to be moving in a situation like this.
"Safe inside the fort. Now get to it!" Kale snapped at me, he then hastily moved into the river once more. "Let the adults handle this!"
I quickly scrambled to the floor, sitting beside Lilith and putting my Hand on her side. I began to cast a healing spell, watching as the glowing green aura dispersed around Lilith. Amelia then sat next to me, leaning close to me. At first, I thought she was just examining the spell…But it seemed like she was looking at my arms.
"Are you fine?"
"Hm?" I looked at my arms, noticing the little scratches and marks from when Victor grabbed them. Didn't seem to hurt, so I should be fine…Wait, why's she so worried about me? Literally her friend has a broken side right now, she should focus on that. Better yet, she should focus on why she didn't even move when danger came at her!
"I'm fine. I think the bigger question is why you aren't focused on Lilith." I turned to look at Amelia, only to find her staring right at me. Quite scary for a nine year old.
Ameli quickly jolted back, her cheeks reddening as she scored away from me. "Uwah! Don't look at me like that so quickly!"
"Don't stare so closely at me! The hell was that?!"
"I was just asking if you were fine! Of course I'm still worried about Lilith, but at least you look alive at the moment!" Amelia pointed at me. "You know, you should be grateful I decided to make myself bait for the big ugly guy!"
"You? Bait?"
"Uh, yeah! For Kale and his friends!"
Amelia nodded into the direction where Kale, Korbyn and Elena were at. I looked over there, seeing that Elena had once again wrapped her blade whip around Victor's metallic arm this time. He was held in place as Mandy pushed himself against the larger man, holding his staff out as Kale and Korbyn stood ready to attack.
These two were pinned now, ready to be captured.
"As a part of the Ozoth forces, I order you two to stand down." Elena ordered, she pulled the handle of her blade, tightening the grip of her whip on Victor. "You're outnumbered and trapped."
"Best you drop that staff too." Korbyn added. "Don't think you can take me and my little helper over here." He nudged at Kale, who shrugged him off.
"Korbyn, be professional right now!" Elena barked at him. "Just because you've run into an old friend of yours, doesn't mean you can start goofing off!"
"Roger!"
Mandy looked around, concern riddled his face for a moment. I think those three got it in the bag, they might actually catch this guy!
Suddenly, Victor's Left metallic arm began to make noises. It began to emanate a blue looking glow as Elena looked in surprise. His arm began to shake fast, vibrating and it continued to speed up.
Mandy then reached for something in his skin tight robes. Black pebbles emerged from his robes as he held them up high.
"Tsk, to hell with it! This is a bust!" Mandy said as he threw the black pebbles around him and Victor. "You ain't getting us!"
Wait, I've seen those pebbles before! Those were the ones Mandy used on me and kale in Prusha!
Kale seemed to realize the exact same thing as his eyes widened and he quickly tried to run at Mandy. "He's going to smoke us!"
Suddenly, the whole river was clouded. White smoke exploded and spread around to the shores of the river.
Amelia stood up and aimed her staff to the river, readying a wind spell to disperse the smoke. "Dear Holy gods, I ask for the power of wind! I cast Wi-Wha?!"
Amelia cut her chant short as suddenly two figures threw themselves out of the smoke and off the river. It was Mandy and Victor, who seemed to have lost his metallic left arm?!
The sound of a whip cracking and metal pieces clanging around were made as the smoke seemingly dispersed. I could see that Elena was using her whip to clear out the smoke as gusts of winds were made by her swinging. As the smoke began to clear and disperse, I saw even more objects fly out of the smoke. With closer focus, I realized that they were something that I didn't really expect.
It was pieces of Victor's Metallic arm. Blue glows emanated from them as they trailed towards Victor. It slowly began to reattach to the man's left arm as Mandy flipped off everyone.
"See ya later, you fuckers!" Mandy angrily yelled as both him and Victor plummeted down the cliff. "Cost us a chance to grab a brat, you won't hear the last of me!"
"H-hey…Magic doesn't do that, does it?" Amelia asked, concerned.
"No idea…" was a completely honest answer from me. I don't have a single fucking clue to what I was seeing.
Kale and the two elves raced towards the end of the river, looking down to try and spot them.
Just as they were looking, I felt Lilith shuffle underneath my hand. As I looked down, I saw that Lilith was trying to get up. I've been pumping healing magic into her, so surely she was fine.
"Lilith!" She looked at me as I said that for a moment before jolting up and feeling her side. Her eyes were back to their normal amber color. After examining herself, she looked back at me and gave me a bear hug. I could feel the air leaving me as she crushed me.
"Kota! Are you alright?! Did the pink haired person die?"
"Gah! I'm fine, just as long as you don't get up and break my back!"
Lilith instantly let go, her eyes trailing past me and onto Kale and the elves.
"Kale and those two had Mandy and the big guy surrounded…until Mandy managed to escape?" I wasn't really sure about the last part. I mean…there's no way the two would survive a cliff fall, right?
Then Korbyn spoke, irritation filled his voice. "Are you kidding me?! How the hell does someone disappear like that?!"
Uh oh…that's not good.
"Come on, let's see what's happening." I said, lifting myself up from the floor. Amelia and Lilith got up as well, following me as I headed to where Kale and the elves were.
I looked down the river and saw that there was a large pool of water at the bottom, another river was flowing away. I tried looking for the two runaways, but I couldn't see them. All that was left from Mandy and Victor was a faint bluish glow that drifted in the air just halfway down the cliff.
Did they just vanish into thin air?
"That's the Fourth time they've escaped us…" I heard Elena say. The tall elf woman adjusted her glasses, holstering her blade-whip afterwards. "Such an annoying brat." She sighed. "We'll need to tell king Vergis about this…"
"How come he always manages to find a way to get away from us?" Korbyn said. "Last time, he managed to run away from like ten guards and me!"
Kale looked at him, pointing at himself. "Wait, he did the same to me!"
Korbyn gasped. "Oh, I forgot you work for King Lucian! You're swimming in the same pool as me!" He then turned to look at me, Amelia and Lilith. "Wait…Are you here for a job?"
"Erm…yes. I thought King Vergis would've told you about us?" Kale then pointed to the side of the first where our broken carriage laid. "We're here to bring Prince Chris to meet him."
Elena's eyes widened. "You are the group that King Vergis was talking about? Where is Chris?"
"He's in a small fort that Kota made for us. Luckily you guys came in time." Kale explained.
"Who's Kota?" Elena asked.
Kale then pointed to me, with Korbyn and Elena looking towards me. Elena raised a brow while Korbyn smiled, perhaps both were taken surprised by the fact a kid was able to get their attention.
Elena then walked over to me, leaning forward to get a little closer to me. Her blue eyes staring into mine as she spoke.
"So you made that Explosion then? Quite a young kid to be able to make a King ranked spell like that. Don't think King Vergis said much about you…" Elena turned her head to Lilith. "…or you. What's special about the both of you?"
"Us?" I looked at Lilith, She gave me a confused look before shrugging. Lilith wasn't really the person to answer these sorts of questions, so I needed to answer. "Well, I'm Chris's magic tutor. And Lilith is his bodyguard."
Elena kept her eyes on Lilith, particularly looking at Lilith's hair and eyes. "Bodyguard, huh?"
Lilith awkwardly looked at Elena as she examined her even more. "Not everyday I see someone from the dragon race…although you aren't fully dragon, are you?"
Eh, Elena figured out who Lilith was? Wait, isn't that bad? I thought most people assumed the Dragon was bad, Do the people in Ozoth feel the same?
"Huh?! You know what I am?!" Lilith seemed taken aback by the response. She stiffened and looked worried for a moment before Elena waved her hand in a friendly manner. Even Kale seemed surprised by the response, almost jumping into the conversation before Korbyn stopped him.
"Not everyone has those amber colored eyes. I've been around long enough to know those are Dragon eyes…" Elena then placed her hand in her chest, she simply smiled and continued on. "Just know that I personally don't have any quarrels with your kind. Nor does the kingdom of Ozoth."
Seemed like everyone stopped moving, or even breathing.
Just…how old was this woman? If she knows any dragon race people, surely she's like over a thousand years old? Right?
"And you…" Elena stared at me now. "What's special about you?"
"Um…I can cast spells without using a chant."
"Ooh! A rare skill, very rare." Elena nodded with intrigue. "And your mana output is quite substantial. I can see why you were picked to be Chris's tutor."
"Uh…yep!"
"Well then, I'm glad we were able to assist." Elena said, rising up to stand. She looked at Korbyn, who was looking down the cliff. "Korbyn, We should help with getting them back to the kingdom. Perhaps a teleportation circle would be our best bet?"
"You got it, one teleportation circle coming up!" Korbyn said, turning around and waddling his way towards shore.
Kale then walked towards Elena, holding his hand out to her. The woman looked down at his hand. "Thank you, Elena. I'm sure Korbyn has said some things about me?"
She shook his hand. "You were a friend of his back when you were an adventurer, right? He speaks fondly of you…Er, Sometimes. It annoys me."
"Oh." Awkwardness was the whole aura of their conversation.
"We'll speak more once Korbyn gets the teleportation circle ready…and you can stop shaking my hand." Elena looked down, seeing that the two were still shaking.
Kale let go of her hand, allowing her to walk back to shore. As Elena was walking past us, Lilith turned around and caught her attention with a question.
"Wait, you didn't even tell us who you guys are? Who are you?"
Elena stopped at the edge of the shore of the river, turning around and putting a hand in her Blade whip. The tall elvish woman stood proudly as she fully introduced herself.
"Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Elena Lemont, I am one of King Vergis's guard. I am also one of the few people who hold the title of Emperor rank to their Sword style. I hold that rank to the Water King style."