Roger performed a wind technique.
Suddenly, a tall great vortex of wind started generating from the spot Roger stood and swiftly increased spreading outwards and deflected the flying arrows as it spun rapidly around the user.
Roger suddenly directed the wind energy using his blade and sent a large gust of rotating wind current in the direction of two mages swiping them away.
He then jumped towards two other mages raising his blade above him in mid-air intending to strike them.
They both barely defended the attack by immediately creating mana-generated swords at the last instant before Roger struck them.
Roger, after his sword attack landed, kept pressing against them with his large sword as it remained crossed with both their swords, submerging them downwards further and further.
When the mages were approaching breaking point as a result of Roger's force pressing them down, a mana-generated arrow suddenly flew towards Roger and he managed to barely miss it by some inches as it passed him before hitting the ground.
The suppressed mages had their chance and they took it.
They jumped away to a good distance from the point where Roger stood.
The shooter of the arrow, the third mage started running towards Roger continuously firing arrows which Roger kept dodging.
The shooting mage suddenly stopped half way to Roger and shot three arrows simultaneously towards him.
Roger deflected the arrows with a swing of his sword.
"Enough dancing around.
Since you're not going to talk, I'll just have to end you anyways"
Roger said, and took a squatting stance as he held his sword horizontally as if preparing to perform a technique.
A light blue energy slowly began to cloak him.
He was gathering momentum to perform a special move characterized by extreme levels of speed by concentrating his chi on specific parts of his body.
His heartbeat tripled in a second, his veins began to show indicating strain.
While the mages were still confused about what was happening, Roger suddenly made his move.
He was so fast that before the mages could understand his move, he had appeared behind one of the three and struck a devastating blow with the back of his sword, knocking him out instantly.
The others took caution and jerked back impulsively.
But they couldn't evade him for long as he immediately made his next move.
His speed was too fast for them to comprehend.
He suddenly appeared in front of the two mages and swept them off their feet with one swing of his right leg as he crouched.
While they were still imbalanced, he knocked them out with the back of his blade, and they fell to the ground.
The remaining conscious mages fled when they saw they were being subdued by the members of the squad.
Roger had three mages unconscious and ordered his men to bind them up with strong ropes.
Mark also captured one of the mages he had beaten to unconscious state.
"Well done".
Roger said to the members of the team.
"We'll suspend the chase and go back to the temple with the captives of the enemy we've caught first.
There's plenty of information that can potentially be gotten out from them.
Let's head back to the temple".
Roger said to the rest of the team members.
They all mounted their horses again.
The hostages were kept with the strongest men among the members of the team, on their horses as they rode back in the direction of the temple.
One of the hostages was with Roger and one was with Mark.
As they rode off mark did a partial transformation, upgrading his eyesight.
He began to look around the area.
As he kept on scanning while they left, he observed something...
*****************
Maryann immediately underwent her transformation as the enemy approached her from mid-air.
Her gills, scales and fins appeared on her chin, hands and legs.
Her arms and legs grew longer also.
As the mage's blade was about to hit her, she evaded it by moving sideways, the sword hitting the ground.
The other three mages ran forward to attack her.
Maryann's power was mostly well displayed in a watery terrain but it didn't mean she wasn't strong in the absence of water.
In fact, being an Acousa, she had the ability to extract water from anywhere it could be at any time.
She could bend water from the earth, trees and even vapor from the atmosphere but in small amounts to the degree to which the level of her power was in terms of ranking.
As the three mages approached her, she jumped off the spot where she was and performed a technique.
"Fire art! Dancing flames!!!"
Whirling flames appeared in front of her and spread outwards surging towards the enemy preventing them from reaching her.
The fourth mage came hither and attacked her with his energy sword but she evaded it with a dodge.
They engaged in hand to hand combat for a few seconds.
The fire fizzled away and the other three mages came again.
Maryann took on the four of them at once.
She dodged and punched and kicked.
She started having near misses and was slowing down for some reason.
One of the mages observed the lag in Maryann's fighting and increased his energy.
"You're getting sloppy little girl, something the matter?"
The mage teased her as they continued in the heat of the battle.
The mage stretched one of his two swords to attack Maryann.
She ducked but another mage kicked her from below, sending her rolling on the ground to a few metres away from where they stood.
"Something's wrong"
Maryann thought.
"I'm getting unusually weak".
Could this be a spell?"
Maryann thought to herself as she slowly tried to get up from the floor.
The mage with the two mana-generated swords started walking towards her slowly as she was still trying to get up from the floor.
As the mage kept on walking towards her, he recklessly kicked aside her bag of items she came with from the market which was in his way.
Maryann, still on the floor began to shift backwards with the support of her hands and her butt.
At this point she began to become a little scared.
She could feel her strength significantly reducing by the minute as if something was sucking it away.
She knew that things were going to get sour if they continued at this rate.
The walking mage stopped suddenly.
Maryann was taken aback.
By this time she could barely lift a finger.
The mage looked at her.
"You should never have gotten in our way"
He said.
Maryann could feel the energy of horror in his eyes even through the black mask.
She impulsively looked back to see another mage already holding up a club.
'SMAAACKKKK!!!'
The sound of the head hit hard with the club.
Maryann felt herself falling.
She landed on her head, everything suddenly turned black...