A vessel was anchored under the cape. A large ship with heavy planking and no identifying marks.
"Hmm, smugglers, it seems... It's better not to mess with them," Hilda attempted to step away from the edge before they noticed her, but treacherous icicles decided to fall down just at that moment. "Oh, darn."
The girl peered carefully from the edge of the rock. A group of tough sailors in dark clothes bustled on the deck. Of course, breaking off a piece of the cliff was a common occurrence, but icy hail falling from the sky in the middle of summer wasn't usual. The pirates quickly realized the source of their trouble and started fetching bows and massive crossbows from the hold.
"Better run!" Several arrows whizzed past the princess's face, and some bandits had already begun descending to the shore.
Despite the steep slope, a narrow strip of land ran along the shore, and the smugglers started hooking their way up with grappling hooks.
"How persistent," Hilda dashed towards the forest but was stopped by a few arrows. "Already here? Then there's no choice but to break through."
The princess smiled confidently at the suspicious attackers emerging from the woods and swung her axe.
"Well, you asked for it!" She took the axe in both hands and released a broad wave of ice ahead. The wave swept away all the protruding icicles from the ground, but before it reached the enemies, it dissipated. "Huh?"
A few meters before the suspicious assailants, three flashes of flame entirely neutralized the attack. Hilda was an experienced warrior, and she easily understood how dangerous this opponent was.
"Well then, we'll do it the old-fashioned way." Taking the axe with both hands, the Valkyrie leaped at the nearest assassin.
There were six bandits on the summit, three standing in front with swords, taking turns to receive the heavy axe blows while giving each other a respite. Meanwhile, the three fighters behind them used crossbows and shot at the princess whenever they found a convenient moment.
In one-on-one combat, Hilda could easily defeat all six of them, but they extinguished her ice attacks and exploited the fact that she couldn't retaliate effectively at long distances. Involuntarily, she had to retreat, a couple more meters, and she would tumble off the cliff. And her accomplices were already closing in.
"Oh, to hell with you, can you melt this too?" The princess slung the axe over her shoulder and balanced on one leg. It was a straightforward and striking move, but not very effective. The field of ice shards, a technique she had just trained and which her opponents couldn't help but notice.
The assassins didn't resort to using bombs against this attack; they simply withdrew to the edge of the forest, leaving the girl surrounded by sharp peaks.
"This will give me some time to catch my breath," Hilda lowered her axe in front of her, creating a small ice wall to shield herself from the arrows. Swinging the heavy axe in such heat had taken its toll on her stamina, and she breathed heavily, trying to calm her racing heart. At that moment, the enemies reached their target under the cliff, and an explosion resounded. "What?"
Hilda didn't react quickly enough, and the crack that split the cliff started to carry her downward. The bandits didn't intend to climb up; they had planted bombs under the cliff to collapse it when their victim was left there alone. Even considering all her strength and armor, falling from such a height would have resulted in several serious fractures, and the enemies would easily finish her off.
"Someone, help me, finally!!!"
With Seleria, I had been in the midst of the battle for about fifteen minutes. The enemies were cautious, making a frontal attack challenging. Although I fought with three assassins and Seleria dealt with five at once, her opponents looked much worse. They were barely standing, having taken blows enhanced with fire magic. At the same time, my opponents only suffered a few cuts and bruises. Whenever I tried to attack one of them, the other two intercepted my strikes. It was challenging to fight with such a disadvantage when the enemies acted so cohesively. If only Grain were here, we would have defeated them in no time, but two were clearly not enough. Although Seleria was holding up well, her magic was likely to backfire soon.
Our salvation came in the form of an explosion on the far outskirts of the island. The assassins immediately ceased their attack, apparently, that incident was also their doing. After a short discussion, two members of their group took out two bombs from their pouches and threw them under their feet. Apparently, one of the bombs contained fire dust, and the other water dust, creating a thick fog that quickly enveloped the shore. Carrying the wounded, the assassins disappeared into the little forest along the coast.
"They are leaving," I finally relaxed and lowered my weapon. "Should we chase after them?"
"No, that would be foolish," Seleria was drenched in sweat from the tension, but the perspiration instantly evaporated due to the burning magic. "They will surely leave traps behind, and besides, I can no longer fight as before."
The girl fell to one knee, trying not to lose concentration in case the assassins decided to return.
"Need some help?" I offered my shoulder, and the princess blushed slightly, though it might have been the aftermath of the fire magic. "So what do we do now?"
"The best thing would be to capture one of them and interrogate them."
"But all of them fled."
"Haha, kha-kha," Seleria tried to chuckle self-assuredly but immediately coughed as the fire mana in her blood was still interfering with her breathing. "Do you really think I didn't anticipate that? We have one right here."
Seleria pointed to the body of the assassin who took her first blow. After those injuries, he probably wouldn't last long, but the princess disabused me.
"I hit him specifically to make it look like he died, but in reality, he just lost consciousness from the pain shock... and possibly broke a few ribs," the girl confidently approached the body and tried to lift it.
When the princess touched the body, a barely noticeable hissing sound came from underneath it.
"Move aside!" I grabbed the princess by the collar and forcefully pushed her away from the body. In the next second, it was engulfed in a burst of flames. "There you have it, their trap. They detonated their comrade, hoping to kill both him and you."
"Phew... thank you. I wouldn't have reacted in time in my current state. But what bothers me is that they had more than just ice bombs."
"Do you think they intended to fight all of us when the opportunity arose?"
"Well, either that or they had more than one target," the girl looked cautiously towards the cliff that crowned the eastern outskirts of the island. "We should check what they detonated there."
Four dragons smoothly soared through the sky above the city. The black dragon in the center was large enough to take down a medium-sized ship with a single strike, and three smaller white dragons followed her in a neat formation. Although the formation was relatively even, one of the sisters always lagged behind, dozing in flight, and her brother had to nudge her forward.
"Let's visit Mama Hilda; she should be finished with her business," the black dragoness made another circle and soared above the central square, enjoying the applause from the crowd. She never refused to indulge her pride: "Hmm, there she is."
The adult dragoness had better vision than the little ones, so she quickly understood what was happening down there.
"Land, and I need to do something," Ragni's voice was calm and caring; she didn't want to scare the little ones. When they were on the ground, she transformed into her human form and rushed to help her friend.
In her true form, she would have probably destroyed the cliff along with Hilda, but having assumed a winged girl's appearance, she arrived just in time.
"Having fun here without me?" Ragni grinned playfully as she pulled the Valkyrie from under the debris.
"Not in the least. Even for me, fighting under such conditions was too difficult."
"Well, what's this riff-raff?" The dragoness observed the bandits scurrying on the shore. Realizing their failure, they hastily boarded the ship, preparing to depart. A couple more groups from the island joined them.
"Well, I thought they were simple pirates or smugglers, attempting to escape unnoticed. But it seems they were specifically targeting me... they even prepared to confront my magic."
"Hoo, hired killers, and such a crowd. Let's see how they swim without a ship!"
The assassins' ship had already sailed a considerable distance when Ragni dropped Hilda in a safe spot.
"Don't be foolish; do you think they haven't prepared for an encounter with you?"
"We'll find out soon. At least I'll make a couple of holes in their hull, so we can catch up with them on a sea lord."
The dragoness waved off her friend's warning and soared into the sky. Fighting a ship full of mercenaries would have been easier in her dragon form, but she would have been too slow in it and might not catch the fleeing enemies.
The dragoness ascended higher and, folding her wings, sped towards the water's surface. Gaining speed, Ragni began gliding a couple of meters above the water, swiftly closing in on the enemy.
"A wooden ship should be enough for a couple of fireballs," the girl took a deep breath, but the enemies were not idle: "Ha, they think this will get to me."
From the ship's deck, dozens of arrows flew in such a dense formation that it was difficult to dodge them. The first fireball knocked down most of the arrows, but a dozen managed to break through the fiery curtain. The dragoness made a sudden upward jerk and shielded her body with scaly wings. The assassins didn't have self-loading crossbows, so Ragni had a couple of minutes before their second volley.
"Now it's my turn," Ragni gathered the flames in her mouth again, but a sharp pain in her shoulder interrupted the incantation. "Huh, what's this?"
The girl looked at her right wing; an arrow fragment was stuck between the scaly plates. The sharp pain gradually spread through her body.
"Poison?" The princess pulled out the tip, but the venom was already spreading, slowly paralyzing her right side. "Didn't manage to land a single blow."
The girl turned around and, exhaling a stream of flames backward, rushed towards the shore. The poison wasn't strong enough to kill the dragon, but if it paralyzed her above the sea, she would drown before reaching the shore.
"Just a little more," only two hundred meters remained to the shore when her right wing completely failed, and she landed heavily on the water's surface. The paralysis had already spread to her right arm, and paddling to the shore became increasingly difficult.
Losing consciousness, Ragni felt an invisible force dragging her towards the shore.
"Well, have you woken up, sleeping beauty?" Rizel was working over the dragoness lying on the shore, looking displeased and slightly irritated. "If I hadn't noticed you, we would have a historical figure in our guild: the FIRST dragon in history to drown at a depth of three meters."
Her malicious sarcasm stung even more than the poison that the necromancer was sucking out of the wound.
"Sorry, I didn't want them to escape, but I was of no use, indeed."
"At least you didn't let them kill me," Hilda smiled, sitting down next to Ragni. "But I told you not to go alone. They were well-prepared, not just for a battle with me."
The Valkyrie nodded toward Katrina, who was sitting nearby, and Seleria, lying on the sand.
"What's wrong with her?" Ragni looked at the red-haired princess with doubt; she was barely moving, only breathing heavily.
"Nothing special, just overstressed, but judging by what happened, they were hunting the three of us."
"Hey-hey! It's not a joke anymore; if any of these attempts had succeeded, a war could have started."
"Exactly," I quietly joined the dragoness. "And I doubt they'll give up so easily. We need to return to the Academy and try to find the contractor."
There were still one and a half months left until the end of the holidays, and future freshmen were already gathering at the Academy, but for now, it was the safest place for us.