The students participating in the sword magic tournament proceeded with their training as expected with everyone trying their best to improve their abilities in one manner or another.
At the western fields of the academy which bordered the hill region usually off limits to students, training was ongoing, and as rigorous as ever.
Everyone focused on the prime goal of developing.
Well, this only had to do with those who would be partaking in the tournament, others proceeded with the usual everyday task.
I was infact at the dungeon during this period.
At the time, individuals indulging in training were Belitha who was being assisted by Laia and Alaric to better improve her skills.
Same with Dilbert and his friends who also prepared him for the preliminaries.
It wasn't a long lasting period of tranquility.
The worst had happened, but what exactly was that which had occurred? The manner with which violence erupted was so quick no one expected it, and on a weekend no less.
Fading into the scene like sharp blurs of bodies in motion was a group of individuals all covered in picth black cloaks.
The manner with which they'd appeared caught the majority by surprise, they were mages without a doubt, and five in number.
Maybe it was instinct or the noxious feeling in their guts, but the students knew these mages were not here for the occasional friendly visit. This prompted them to scatter.
Fruitlessly nevertheless, one of the five cloaked mages made use of a spell which created a border of flames that kept them in check, in turn limiting the movement of the students (Belitha, Laia, Alaric) on one half of the plot.
Whereas Dilbert and his friends were occupied by another mage who had cast a sleeping spell of sorts on them. It made incapable of any futile resistance.
The mages spread out, excluding the two who stayed stationery since making their way here, they hadn't been given a reason to battle or indulge in this needless violence.
"Secure the target and we leave.." it shouldn't be that hard, yeah right.
"We have to get out of here." Alaric stated although he couldn't do much against magic of this type. The border of fire was much too intense to consider breaching, also, Belitha wasn't versed in the use of water type spells and neither was Laia.
The borders touched the skies making it much more difficult to consider jumping out of this hellish incarceration.
Belitha, the natural-born leader, asked "Any ideas guys?" She had the motivation to take center stage, but the look on Alaric's face said it all; they were not up against everyday mages.
He stated that they couldn't beat them, and Laia agreed.
Despite the seemingly dire situation, Belitha remained optimistic, determined to find a way out of this.
When handling situations that seem insurmountable, one must first learn to tackle situations as they come. Rather than panic on the most unlikely obstacle to bypass, tackle your problems in increasing order of difficulty.
"What do you guys want!?" our muscle-headed Alaric didn't waste any more precious time waiting for an answer, if he wanted them then he'd have to work for it.
It was either a very good choice or a very stupid one, no going back at this point.
"Get her.." said one of the mages, of the three restricted by the border of flames only two were girls; Laia and Belitha. It had to be one of them.
They'd chosen to ignore the less important inquiry of Alaric as he was neither important to their cause nor useful in any manner. Merely an expendable property.
To retrieve the target they'd have to deactivate the cast spell. So the mage who'd initially activated this mana phenomenon reversed it which in turn led to the flames collapsing.
Alaric used this as his chance to act sharp but he didn't factor in the most important variable. He was going for the Hunter route which made him a close range specialist whereas mages were long range veterans.
The mage who'd cast the border flame spell dismissed him easily with a powerful gust of wind [--Consecutive Wind Repulsion--] forcibly throwing him a few meters across the ground. It was that easy for them.
The girls had no intentions of letting them take whomever they pleased, so simultaneously they'd utilized type magic; speedy activation of magical spells via magic circles that are formed from mana in the atmosphere (magicubes).
Before them manifested three magic seals each, spewing out of it was an intimidating curtain of flames directed toward the opposing mages. Three of the five leapt forward to cast a barrier strong enough to suppress the spell.
The two male mages at the back; namely Lync and Fushu yet to move throughout the course of this confrontation.
These evil mages finally unveiled themselves, Lync and Fushu seemed to be the ones calling the shots and speaking so far. Respectively comprising of a young, tall, red-haired boy and an old man well into his sixties.
The two in front made up of a busty brunette (Dvena) and a bespectacled young man with black hair (Yugta).
Finally, a brown skinned man with blue hair and a horn protruding from his fore head (Beltin). Also the same individual who cast the flame spell and then subdued Alaric.
"Resistance is futile," but those words only tend to motivate the workings of the female psyche even more.
They were easy pickings now and before, because the opposition not only had strength in numbers but also had a number of years on them when it came down to study magic. In other words, they were more experienced.
"Do not resist, it'll only get worse if you so foolishly choose to.." said Yugta the black haired fellow as he proceeded to grasp their vaguely described target.
It proved uneasy for him as after the exploding sounds of thunder in the area followed a strong surge of lightning which trailed across the ground in-between him and the girls.
This forced him to withdraw.
Who cast the spell?
Belitha.
Having used type magic, she manifested a magic seal above them that projected the strong surge of energy which opted Yugta to pullback. The scorch marks etched on the ground as a result of the magic had smoke emanating from it for quite some time.
This proved it was indubitably packing heat upon it's descent.
"Come any closer, and it's your face.." she threatened him whilst standing protectively in front of Laia.
It was her next words that threw light upon Laiaʼs eyes, "I won't let anyone hurt my friends and get away with it.." slightly jaded as she uttered such uplifting words.
She was driven by the motivation to protect her friends.
'Sheʼs able to create magic seals from the surrounding magicubes that better aid speedy activation of magic attacks although not as potent or accurate... It doesn't seem to require a chant either..'
Fushu was meticulous to a fault, he could tell her lightning spell was intended to strike down Yugta but her aim was off owing majorly to her lack of versatility in type magic.
After all, it was a method of casting magic only recently made, even Fushu was surprised to have witnessed it occur but he maintained his shock.
They needn't dally around taking it easy simply because no harm was to come to the target. They decided to approach it however they deemed most effective.
The one who made the order to carry out moderate force was Lync, he suggested the same thing Fushu had. You could say they were on the same wavelength.
Beltin had a craving for sadistic tendencies, it wasn't out of the norm that he'd be the first person to act on said orders.
After the necessary chant to activate said spell he amassed some sort of internalized green energy that coursed through his body like an over-flowing rush of energy. As his arms thrust forward he released a destructive energy wave [--"Lightning magic: Pulsewave"--].
The ground trembled as the wave deeply carved a path leading to its targets Belitha and Laia.
The girls had used a unification of chants to cast their defensive spell, this led to the creation of a defensive mound of earth from materials acquired from the ground they stood on.
"That was too close.." a sigh of relief escaped Belitha's mouth.
"Are you okay, Belitha?" Laia showed concern.
"Yeah, yeah, it's fine.." she assured her.
The wall was at least ten inches thick with a height and width of 10 meters and 15 meters respectively. But it didn't stand a chance. Their defensive wall was demolished as relatively easy as shattering glass.
The force of Beltinʼs attack spell was with enough propulsive force that it repelled the girls away which sent them crashing to the ground meters from where they initially stood.
The two were barely conscious, what would happen to them? Who were these hooded figures really? What was their goal?