After walking deeper and deeper into the forest, we finally arrived at the cave opening amidst a dark field.
He paused and looked at me.
~Whish~
~Whish~
~Whish~
~Whish~
Amidst the darkness, men in black assassin clothing began to emerge from the ground. They were all equipped with the same kind of dagger. They surrounded us in an instance.
Challan rolled his sleeves and was about to start his chant but I interfered.
"Why would you waste your strength on something like this...?"
"Pardon...?" He asked me, clueless about what I was saying.
"I thought you have been here before, however, you do not know that these are only illusions?"
His eyes widened, "...ah? Is that so... that is because I've never been this close." 'He can tell just with a glance, as expected of an archmage.'
"Then are you going to undo the illusion magic?"
'That would have naturally been what I was supposed to do but because my magic formula is different, plus I use ether, they use mana, I'm not allowed to learn anything of this world which also means I can't learn their magic formula which would have enabled me to dispel the magic easily hence...'
"I have no intention of preserving the environment," I said to him as I snapped my finger.
Immediately hundreds of golden magic circles filled the air, spreading far and wide and high.
He looked around in amazement, "What in the world is this?"
"Fireball Pro max."
~Whhhoooooommmmm~
The entire surrounding trembled as red sparks escaped out of the magic circles. And at once...
~BOOOM!~
~BOOOOOOOM!!~
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!~
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!~
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!~
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!~
~BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!~
The franchise of explosion consumed the entire space in front of them, the entire forest trembled and flight-type beast swung their wings to escape the terror that threatened the entire forest.
For a while, the explosion continued. I was intending to blow the entire cave, and when I find Denethor I can heal him, if he dies I was hoping to test out this new magic I formulated.
"Your eyes are unpleasant" I said to him as his eyes won't come off me like the fire around won't stop burning.
"You are amazing! I would do anything to gain your trust! I will tell you all you need to know about my organisation, you don't have to tell me your identity, just give me three help slots!!"
I looked at him and looked towards the front.
"It seems, our enemy survived the explosion, they must have a very strong mage on their side." I floated onwards after talking.
"Wait, wait, wait for me!" He shouted, running after me.
Getting closer, I could see that the cave had been greatly desolate by the explosion.
But a particular building was covered by a round transparent shield. The building was not large or extraordinary, it just looked simple but the very fact that it was not touched by my pro max fireball meant the shield was very durable.
"That seems to be the hideout." I could see it clearly from the height I was but the smokescreen would need to clear Challan who was on the ground to see it.
"Pardon?" He said, looking up at me and trying to figure out what I meant.
"Wait here" I said and flew in faster, my hands behind my arms.
I slowly descended in front of the shield that looked like it was never going to allow in an external threat.
Several men on dark hooded cloaks had gathered outside. From within their hoods, their purple flaming eyes could be seen and it was quite fierce.
The pressure they discharged was filled with killing intent.
"Oi, Goshujin. One mistake and you'll die, these are not like the plays you've been having before."
'You didn't have to say it... even I can feel that much.' I replied to her. The red eyes on my mask squinted and slowly sparked as I stretched out my hand and lowered my legs. From my back began to emerge seven golden rods that were quite sharp on both ends which amazed me.
'I knew he wasn't just a defensive armour'
"Since both of your hearts are connected he must have felt that you were going to attack," Anastasia said, her statement made sense, if it was like that it meant I don't need to call Ardor before he wraps my whole body with his golden armour.
~THUWACK!!~
I took off speedily, leaving behind the red sparks on my armour.
~KAANGH!~
The shield cracked upon the first impact with my punch. The force of the impact blasted away even the top soils of the ground, I'm sure I would have been repelled if I didn't have Ardor and this body.
I stepped back, the rods floated towards my front and all seven of them began to merge to form a long golden lance. I smiled and grabbed it and lowered my leg, focused my gaze towards the point of crack, I transferred as much ether to my leg muscles and -
~THWAAACK!~
The impact of the first taking off was not compared to the second as the floor dented and crumbled.
~BAAANGGHHKK~
~Crackle~
The shield fell like broken glass as I pierced it with the golden lance.
"The strongest defence when turned to an object of offence of course because the greatest offensive power." My hands let go of the lance however it still floated beside me as I walked into the shield. Seeing their shield break must've startled them but I couldn't tell the expression on their faces as it was embedded in the darkness of their cloak. Even their presence itself did not seem human.
I shifted my right foot slightly in front of the left, keeping both my feet parallel to each other, with my right foot being the lead foot, I made sure it wasn't far away from the left to allow even distribution of weight during movement and maintaining balance, I raised my clenched fist to my nose level with the right ahead of the left.
"Here I come-"
~WHISH~
My body tore through the wind as I lifted the back heel of my left foot and swiftly dashed ahead.
"Jab!"
~POW~
He flew straight away from me as I threw my right fist straight ahead of me and into his face, twisting my knuckles as my hand extended sharply and retracted to the nose-level position.
~Wham~
A horde of darkness swarmed towards me from my right but was dispelled by ars praesidium. The shadow assassin on my right flinched and jumped several steps backwards. Not just him, but even the others began to give space and step back.
"Great one..." I suddenly heard a voice accompanied by a horrific pressure that made my heart thumb, I could the thin layer of armour around me thickening even harder.
"Goshujin, that is not the way to stand in front of a strong foe." Anastasia's statement gave strength to my weakening knees.
The man in front of me was unlike the others, he had similar dark cloaks but his head was not covered, he had a dark face and his eye socket housed his eyes even deeper in it. He placed on hand on his chest and bowed his head.
"I am Orfel, the 8th branch leader of the shadow assassins. It seems we have angered you somehow, can this be settled amicably?"
'Right, there's no reason to fight him, besides it's already getting into midnight I'm so fuxking hungry.' The lance separated into seven rods and guarded my back as I turned to this man. "You have someone I need."
He looked at his subordinate and looked back at me, "Great one, we the shadow assassins have many captives, do you perhaps know the name of this person?"
"Knight Denethor," I responded to him.
From behind him another assassin emerged from the ground and spoke into his ears.
"Ah, A client of ours submitted a job, which my subordinates seemed to have failed at, hence the man was captured for them to move on with our job because the shadow assassins never fail."
"Does that job involve killing or kidnapping a young Lord?"
"It seems great one is even more informed than I thought but I cannot disclose my client nor his job. We will give you the Knight but answer this question, were you also hired?"
"Hired?..." '...that's a great idea...' "Yes, I was hired by the young Lord whom you fail to kill to bring back his Knight," I replied him.
"I never knew there was someone so powerful for hire... It seems I underestimated the young Lord of the Maxnor duchy. No wonder my subordinates failed, with someone like you by his side, he can not be harmed. I look forward to a day we will meet again, a day you won't be hired by anyone, perhaps we can share talks on our experiences over beer." He concluded and bowed.
By the time he was done, Knight Den was being escorted out of the house.
Contrary to what I thought a person kidnapped by assassins would look like, he was fresh and well clean, he also looked like he has been treated nice since he has been kidnapped and here I was worried about him.