The sentinel scrutinized me with her gaze.
"And what will that achieve? Even if he's a dragon."
"If he's a dragon, then he'll adhere to the ancient code of honor and not abandon his comrade."
"Do you want to trade my freedom for yours?"
"Nooo, it will only buy us the necessary time. Tell me, can the general give the order to cancel the campaign?"
"He can, but only a very weighty argument could make him do it!"
"Ragni, do you recall the rules of honor duels for dragons?"
"Huh?" Ragni was surprised by the unexpected question. "Well, a dragon can challenge another dragon to a battle, demanding something in return if they win, but at the same time, they must offer something of equal value. You don't plan to do that, do you?"
"Oh, yes, I will challenge him."
"Hahahahaha!" The captive began rolling on the floor with laughter. "YOU want to challenge the general?? He'll tear you apart with two fingers; don't make me laugh. Besides, he's not obligated to accept your challenge; after all, you're just a simple human! Or are you going to let her fight?"
The girl pointed at Ragni.
"What's wrong with me?"
"I do respect dragons, but the general has thousands of years of experience, and you look... umm... to put it mildly, insignificant..."
"What did you say??"
"Ragni, calm down. I'll duel the general; I hope my skills will come in handy here."
"Fool, do you think you have something equivalent to ten thousand academy students?"
"Yes, I do, but I'll tell him about it myself. Now, let's focus on the plan."
I unfolded a map of the academy in front of us, previously obtained from the guild.
"We'll create diversions, the main goal is to minimize the number of guards around the general. For him to accept my challenge, he needs to hear my words clearly, and to achieve that, we need to get rid of his guards."
"This is nonsense; the guards won't leave the general for a couple of troublemakers. They'll send ordinary soldiers after you, and trust me, they'll catch you!" The captive tried to disconcert us, but I had already taken everything into account.
"You're right, sending the best warriors against a couple of troublemakers wouldn't be wise. But what if we had an entire army?"
"You're out of your mind; there are barely ten of you, and you're not even worth a proper squad."
"Ohoho, don't underestimate us. Each of us is worth a hundred. All we need is for the enemy to believe that we're an army. Listen, everyone, gather around."
After assigning roles, I pulled Katrina and Seleria aside.
"I hope you both understand what I'm about to wager in this duel?"
Katrina's face didn't betray her thoughts; she had probably guessed already. However, Seleria smirked cunningly and shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh, it's not nice to put two such beauties at stake. I might get offended."
"What?" Katrina finally began to comprehend. "So, you've decided to bet against us?"
Katrina started unleashing lightning in her anger but was stopped by Seleria.
"Calm down, Katrina. Only princesses of two countries can bargain for the freedom of all students. Besides, kings are unlikely to negotiate the release of ordinary students, but they might try to do it for their daughters."
"Nevertheless," Katrina sighed deeply, "Fine, I understand. But don't you dare lose me!"
Princess pointed her finger at me and stepped aside. I knew I had to be careful to ensure nothing happened to her.
"Ah, such tenderness," Seleria sneered and hugged me from behind. "You two have gotten quite close."
"Don't talk nonsense. The princess's main concern is the well-being of her people," I shrugged off the girl and went to explain the plan to the others.
"Sigh, as stubborn as ever. Why not take advantage of the moment while you can?" Seleria shrugged her shoulders and joined the others.
The plan was simple to the extreme: distract the enemies until they decide to respond decisively with their best forces. Most of the soldiers stayed to guard the prisoners on the ships, and only a couple of hundred were roaming the academy in search of escapees. The general was interrogating the Rector, and his guards never left him for a minute.
All the guards looked quite formidable, and each carried their unique weapon: a hulk with a two-handed hammer; another guard, slightly smaller, with a huge spear of unusual shape; a guard with two small crossbows and a dagger; one with a shield and sword, and a guard with a two-handed sword. They all looked imposing, but the last four aroused the most concern and several questions. A short person wearing a closed cloak even over their armor, with no visible weapons in their hands, and their skills remained a mystery. A plump male figure carried strange cylinders on their back, which hardly resembled a staff, especially considering that this person had hands with a half-meter grip. Moreover, they were adorned with numerous small pouches.
But the last two caused the greatest unease. A distinctly female figure standing closest to the general carried nothing other than a katana on her belt, and I noticed the same symbol as Asura's on the scabbard.
"Asura, is she one of your relatives?"
"It can't be; my clan never leaves its lands because of... Well, because of ancient traditions, and joining the empire is out of the question. Although..." Asura paused for a moment. "There have been cases where some of my relatives went missing, of course, many simply left for big cities when they got tired of our seclusion, but there were also those who disappeared during some natural disasters."
"It seems you've found one of the missing. Hey, sentinel, do you know anything about that female warrior with the same sword?" I pointed to Asura's katana.
"Hmm, we know very little about her. Lady Iria was a victim of a shipwreck and was washed ashore. She and her mother were found on the coast about thirty years ago, but her mother was wounded and died soon after, leaving her this weapon. It was clearly not from our country, and since we didn't have any contact with Verania, we couldn't send her home, so the emperor took her in at the castle. It turned out she had a good command of this weapon and soon became one of the guards; now she's our captain. I can tell you for sure, you better not anger her; she prioritizes the empire's security over orders, and if you attack, she'll kill you without hesitation."
"It seems I know her; she's my distant relative. During a major earthquake, she and her parents were at sea, and they were swept away by a tidal wave. I would like to talk to her, but I wish we could meet under different circumstances."
"Unfortunately, not this time. Asura, I'd like you to duel with this one." I pointed to the guard who was lounging on the grass behind the others.
In principle, except for his obvious indifference, he didn't differ much from the others, but lying next to him were scabbards with two curved short swords.
"Rumy, if I'm not mistaken, this weapon is similar to ours? I thought the dual-wielding style wasn't well-known in our world?"
"Well, it's hard to say. Dragons used to practice a similar fighting style too until Nihelim tightened their stance towards humans, after which this style was forgotten. However, it could have been preserved in the empire; the dragon gods didn't have as much influence on those lands."
"Hmm. Odd, I thought it would be the opposite, but it will be interesting to fight him."
"It will be challenging. If our style is designed to combat any other style, this one truly excels in a duel against a warrior with two swords."
"How unpleasant. I hope he's the only one among the guards with this style."
"Maybe, maybe not. The key is to remember that it's not shameful to learn from the enemy's tricks during a battle; strive to become better with each new strike."
"Rumy, right now you look like a master sending his student into a dangerous duel."
"I do look cool, don't I?" Rumy made a silly face, completely breaking the seriousness of the moment.
"Well, you ruined the mood. Anyway, it's time to act. First, let's create some noise to make them nervous. When the guards decide to investigate personally, we'll intercept them. Seleria and Ragni, head to the forest; on my command, start firing at the enemies in the center. If everything goes well, they'll only send a couple of guards after you, and it will distract the general's attention."
We dispersed through the passages, exiting not only through the main building but also through passages in the guild, forest, auditorium, and training grounds. We moved in small groups of one or two people. Me, Grain, Levris, Kurone, and Werner stayed with the captive in the tower to coordinate movements.
And so the battle began. Lightning bolts flared up on the academy grounds, Leira and Katrina were having a field day with the enemy knights, but soon they got in touch with us.
"Krito, I have bad news for you."
"Katrina? I hope you didn't accidentally kill anyone there?"
"That's the problem; even if I wanted to, I wouldn't have been able to. Our magic works very weakly on these knights. I could knock out some of them only when I struck with full force."
"Immunity to magic. Strange, they can't all be dragons," I glanced at the bound guard sitting nearby. She was definitely a human, and if even guards can be human, why would dragons become mere soldiers? Then, the silver stripes on her armor caught my attention – they were the distinctive signs of the imperial guard, but at the same time, they looked uneven, as if having an inner ornament. "Hey, madam prisoner, care to tell me, are you afraid of magic?"
"Huh? What are you talking about now?" Of course, the guard didn't hear the telepathic conversation we were having through Kurone, so the question came as a complete surprise to her.
"I just want to check something," I drew my blade, infused it with fire magic, and hurled a fiery edge at the guard. "HEY, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" She barely managed to shout before the fire shattered against her armor and scattered on the floor. At the same time, glowing inscriptions appeared on the silver stripes for a second.
"As I suspected, these are not ordinary armor," I brought the still-burning blade closer to the armor, and the inscriptions reappeared, repelling the magical flames. "It seems like a spellguard. Rector realized it only when we had him in our grip."
"I thought so, too. I wondered why you managed to capture everyone so easily and why you attacked right now. If you're protected against magic, then everything falls into place. Probably not many warriors were walking around with their weapons during the celebration, and if magic is useless against you, there's no one to resist."
"Well, you've figured us out. You can't imagine how helpless magicians become when you just slightly weaken their magic," the captive smirked maliciously.
"Kurone, tell everyone it's better not to rely on magic during the fight. Their armor disperses simple magic, and it seems the material doesn't allow for the after-effects of spells. It's better to fight hand-to-hand."
"Krito, I think everyone has already figured it out, and the enemy has finally made their move."
Kurone stared at the image of the central square through the window. Two guards with spears and crossbows were the first to step forward.
"How fortunate, Vivien, Miriam, we'll take care of them; they're heading towards the dining hall."
"A good opportunity to test our combat skills. We'll delay them as much as possible."
In the opposite direction, towards the training grounds, went the guard with a two-handed sword.
"Leira, Algo, he's yours. Leira, you probably won't harm him, so support Algo with your magic."
The other guards dispersed as well. The unarmed guard in a cloak headed towards Rumy and our guild. The massive warrior with cylinders on his back headed towards the dormitories near the clock tower; Katrina and Rizel were battling there, and they should handle him. Finally, the warrior with two blades woke up and moved forward.
"Asura, he's heading towards the auditorium. I'm counting on you."
"Don't worry; everything's fine."
"Hey, you there! I still haven't figured out who you're talking to?!" The captive nervously shouted at me. "Do you have communication crystals too?"
"Oh no, what are you talking about? It's just our little secret. If you behave well, I might tell you what it is."
"Darn it! You won't win anyway; the guards will sweep away your comrades."
"We'll see about that. It's time to finish. Kurone, let Seleria and Ragni start the barrage."
After a few seconds, huge fireballs rained down on the square. I didn't expect such accuracy from these princesses, but not a single fireball hit the hostages or the general standing nearby with the head of the guards. All the strikes landed on the guards with shields and hammers, who barely managed to dodge.
"As expected, they fell for the provocation, but Iria stayed with the general."
"I can distract her, although not for long," Grain bravely volunteered to help.
"Hmm, with the difference in your strength, you'll hold her off for maybe a minute or two."
"Then I'll help him too!" Levris stood up for Grain.
"Hmm, no, I've come up with something more interesting. Levris, you'll come with me. The rest of you, with the captive, head straight to the square."