'Tap...'
'Tap...'
The sound made by the feet of Maryann and Mabel as they landed on top of the mountain was heard.
Everyone on top of the mountain was standing, staring at the other.
While the guards were directly facing the hooded figures, Maryann and Mabel were standing adjacent to them at the far end of the mountain where they had just landed.
Almost immediately, Mr. Arasaki showed up with Emelda and David they were coming from the other adjacent end of mountain.
They stopped few meters away, almost at a similar distance as Maryann's company.
Now there were four groups of people on the mountain.
The council tower guards, Maryann's company, Mr. Arasaki's company, and those who they were all present to confront, the mysterious hooded company.
There was dead silence for some seconds.
Under normal circumstances, the council tower guards would not allow commoners to interfere with a seeming high ranking enemy.
But the current situation was different.
For starters, Mr. Arasaki was a Sohei who, for reasons best known to him retired close to a month ago.
He was of a good rank of level 30, and even though he lived in the South, he was still well known by the Northern army.
Him being present was not out of place at all.
As for Maryann and Mabel, they were just ignored because maximum focus was currently on the enemy ahead.
The reason the captain of the guards was heistant to attack was that he was trying to study the enemy first.
He wanted to look for an opening which he could exploit before making a move with his men.
On seeing that nothing was being done, suddenly, Lethar the Verdugo leapt forward, landed on the ground in front of the guards with one foot, making a clanking sound with his metal boots, and then leapt again, upwards, on a trajectory heading towards the enemy.
Raising his fist in mid-air, he aimed to strike down the enemy with a single blow.
"He's created the opening!"
The captain of the guards exclaimed immediately, pointing his sword forward.
"Attack!".
He said loudly.
The guards started off with good pace towards the enemy.
As Lethar was still in mid-air, about to land a punch on the two figures, they swiftly shifted a bit, each to one side, causing him to land in between them, the ground cracking significantly, in anguish at the devastating impact of his fists and legs as he dropped.
They simultaneously kicked him backwards, and he rolled twice on the ground before stopping.
He got up slowly, shocked at what just happened.
In this upgraded state where his whole body was metal, Lethar, at his current level, weighed up to 1500 kilograms.
He had never been pushed by anything to the ground, talk more of being pushed in such casual manner.
"Who are you?"
Lethar asked in his reverbrative voice.
Just immediately, the guards came upon them with their weapons.
They dodged and struck back every single one of them, taking them on, one by one.
They were moving so gracefully, they could not be flawed.
Also, they weren't using any weapons.
They seemed to have the ability to bend the elements.
One fought with the fire element, and the other, ice.
They burnt and froze and burnt again, every one of the guards that came their way.
The guards were taken on, and taken down almost easily.
One reason was that they weren't up to the level of these intruders in terms of rank.
Another reason, which was the key one, was that they couldn't understand who, or what they were up against.
These weren't mages obviously.
They didn't perform any spells or chants, and they weren't using any magic.
Who could they be? They wondered.
Up until now, the only enemies they had ever had was the mages, since the history of their battles.
Who was this new enemy that was so strong and so interested in destroying them?
Or what could they have possibly done against them?
Could they be working with the mages?
The two mysterious figures skillfully and effortlessly flattened all the guards that charged at them.
Lethar got up, and along with the other two Verdugo, he charged at them.
One of them generated ice in his hands and blasted it forward in a large mass, and then the other used another heavy fire blast to shatter the mass of ice as it was approaching the charging Verdugo.
This caused the ice to shatter in their faces, striking and blinding them, creating an opening for the enemy.
As the Verdugo were trying to block their faces from the ice, suddenly, the two figures appeared in mid-air behind them with fire and ice-generated swords and were about to slash the Verdugo.
Mr. Arasaki, almost simultaneously, appeared behind them also in mid air.
"Lightning art! Lightning stream technique!"
Mr. Arasaki performed a lightning art which caused different streams of lightning bolts to appear as he crossed his arms.
It struck away the two figures tossing them aside simultaneously.
Mr. Arasaki landed.
"They have great speed we should be wary of"
He said.
At the other end, Maryann and Mabel were observing the battle to know when best to launch an attack.
"So far, the enemy seems to be only able to use the fire and ice technique".
Mabel said.
"Yes, and you know one element that would easily counter both at once, right?"
Maryann added.
"Water!" They both chorused.
They suddenly held one hand together, taking stance as if to perform a move.
"Water art, spinning water tornado!"
They chorused.
Suddenly, like a whirlwind, water started rising from the ground, forming a water tornado.
They made the tornado charge towards the enemy and it moved at a fast pace.
The two figures, who were still on the ground after Mr. Arasaki's attack got up and jumped backwards. As they were still on the move, then suddenly, a fast paced arrow hit the ground right behind them.
The arrow had a thick diameter and judging from the speed it travelled with, and the force with which it landed, it definitely had greater mass than normal.
Emelda was seen holding up her bow straight, pointing it towards them, revealing that she was the one who shot the arrow.
Then suddenly, David showed up in mid-air behind the figures, his hand holding a raised sword, ready to strike.
Just as he was about to strike, one of the figures created an outburst of ice around them which shot out, starting from the ground, upwards and outwards, at a high speed with piercing spikes.
'Dassshhh...'
The sound of the deadly spikes piercing mercilessly through the stomach and head of the helpless boy dripping blood as the spikes shot further upwards, only to stop to a blood-dripping boy stuck in the rapacious spikes.