Arthur jumped back and noticed even more figures behind the one who was just holding him.
It dawned upon him that if these figures were here to capture him then he must have appeared close to the Stormheart territory.
Probably the forest that one had to cross before coming to the mountain range.
There was no chance to fight now and if these figures weren't strong he would try his best to escape them.
Arthur waved his hands and his daggers appeared in his hands like always.
Upon seeing his intent and the daggers, the figures standing behind the smaller one were about to move before the smaller one raised a hand.
A voice, extremely feminine came out which proved the identity of the figure to be female.
'I'll take care of this, no one will interfere."
At her command, immediately the figures stopped and went back to their positions, now silently observing Arthur.
Arthur quickly shrouded his feet and shot towards the female figure, not giving her even a moment.
But as soon as Arthur made it halfway, his senses screamed danger and following them he immediately darted right.
As soon as he moved, two sharp blue arrows shot past where had been standing.
If they had hit, then his waist would be severely bleeding right now.
Arthur's gaze drifted back to the girl and saw her new form, she was holding a bow and nocking three arrows now.
But one thing made Arthur confused, this girl was weak and by weak he meant a whole sub-rank weaker than him, according to the presence he felt from the arrows.
But if so, then why would the Stormhearts send so many weak people after him.
Especially, a little girl who was a whole sub-rank weaker than him.
Even if they didn't know he was a genius, they could have sent stronger people at the start after him, like [Ascendant] rank people after him.
But if it was like this, then Arthur would not hesitate to take advantage even if she was just his age and a female.
He had never been one to care about gender or age.
Shrouding his legs again, Arthur shot off again towards the girl.
Just like before, three sharp blue arrows came whizzing through the air towards him but this time he could see them perfectly and they were also slower for him.
As soon as they were 1 meter away from him, Arthur used his skill.
'[Shadow Blend]'
Arthur's form immediately blended into the shadows of the trees and the arrows whizzed past his previous spot without hitting anything.
Not giving the girl time to recuperate, Arthur shot forwards in the shadows and saw the girl looking at the shadows trying to see where he was.
Just when he was a little distance away from her, Arthur could feel something glowing red on her face even though her face was covered.
Instantly, he realized that his location might have been uncovered and so he cancelled the skill.
The girl looked up again and realizing that Arthur was in close range now immediately did something that shocked his thoughts.
She broke her bow with her hands, but contrary to what Arthur was expecting would happen, the bow perfectly broke in two as if it was designed to do so and turned into two perfectly sharp daggers.
Just like Arthur, she also shrouded her feet and shot towards Arthur making him realize that the girl was a [Darkness] user just like him.
As soon as their forms met, the girl slashed her daggers only to be blocked off by Arthur's quick deployment of [Obsidian Screen] which shocked her to the core.
For such a quick deployment of the skill at short range would mean that the boy had his mana veins extremely attuned to his mana flow and his rank would also be higher than her.
But wasn't this boy the same age as her!
Arthur could feel the girl's surprise and chose to take advantage of the moment, immediately moving his shroud to his arm he stretched it back and smashed the fist to the girl's face.
Although the girl had instantly composed herself by the time he had shrouded his arm, she couldn't deploy her skill as quickly as Arthur which caused the punch to perfectly connect with her face.
Her head cocked back with pain and a small puddle of blood splattered, before her whole body shot back towards the trees, past the figures.
Although the figures could have easily caught her, they were too shocked and enveloped in disbelief to render her figure shooting past.
How was a boy, the same age as the girl so strong!!?
As the girl's figure collided with a tree, Arthur could hear the breaking of a small device from her body due to his high perception.
As the disbelief and shock finally settled in the figures, they immediately remembered the girl and shot towards her with a potion -the same flask the girl had given to Arthur- in hand.
Realizing his moment of escape, Arthur was about to shoot off towards the trees but immediately the thought was put out as numerous portals opened around him.
Red chains shot out from the portals and immediately attached to his arms and legs, causing him to kneel down and his arms placed around his back in X position.
Mages started coming out of the portal, who were responsible for the chains he was being held by.
They were wearing a red mage robe and had their faces covered with a hood, but what shone out to Arthur was an insignia pinned to their chests and immediately a name came to his mind.
'The Blackhearts huh'
Contrary to what he should have been feeling right now, he was completely calm without a shred of fear in his body.
His cold blue eyes travelled from one figure to the other before finally settling on a blue portal in front of him, out of which no one had arrived yet.
But this made him realize that the figures he was fighting were not Stormhearts but Blackhearts and their coming her was probably due to the device that had been broken just now.
That meant, that after the dungeon he must have landed in their territory maybe and the figures came upon him.
Then he remembered something and instantly his eyes moved to his chained body, and realized he was perfectly fine and he realized that this was all his fault.
The girl had actually healed him with a potion when he was dying, and when he woke up she was holding his head to make him digest it better.
All in all, he had a huge misunderstanding right now.
His eyes once again darted to the portal in front of him as heard a ripple from it.
Out of it, another mage came but his red robe was embroidered with golden lines and it was adorned with many badges which revealed to Arthur that he was the head of all of them.
After him, two more figures came and instantly their pressures and authority weighed upon the area and more specifically, Arthur.
One of the figures was a male, he was wearing a regal black dress which also had the Blackheart insignia pinned on him. He had pitch black hair with crimson eyes that seemed to bore down on Arthur.
The second was a female, she was also wearing a regal black dress with a Blackheart insignia. She had long blue hair that cascaded down to her waist and similarly light blue eyes that seemed to bore down on Arthur.
Both of their presences were cold and chilling but this did not seem to affect Arthur in the least.
And their gazes moved towards Arthur, it was if they could kill him in a fraction of a second but Arthur indifferently met their gazes without any fear.
As their gazes kept locked for a few seconds, it was as if recognition of Arthur settled into their eyes but before they could speak the head mage immediately spoke in a loud voice.
Although he was speaking in a normal manner, his voice was loud which made Arthur realize it was Sound magic, a derivative of Wind Magic.
'' YOU HAVE INVADED THE BLACKHEART'S TERRITORY AND NOT ONLY THAT YOU HAVE HURT THE DIRECT MEMBER OF THE BLACKHEART FAMILY. IDENTIFY YOURSELF."
Even though Arthur owed his life to the girl who had just saved him, which meant she basically had a Sacra in her hands.
Arthur only owed her and her only and would be eternally grateful to her but this didn't mean one bit that he was going to kneel down to these mages, as the heir of a Dukedom.
So keeping his cold blue eyes locked with the Patriarch and Matriarch of Blackhearts, completely ignoring the other mages and people in the area.
He spoke in a cold and monotone voice, no he did not speak, he ordered and his voice came colder and more commanding than ever.
"Release me."
___________________
Hello! Author here.
So it seems like that the figures were actually Blackhearts rather than Stormhearts!
And now he is actually ordering the mages!
What do you think will happen now?
Please give your thoughts and suggestions in the comments so that I can also improve and fix my mistakes.
Thanks for reading! :) :>