The situation eventually came to a standstill.
Every time the paladins broke through one of the water barriers, the elderly mage would conjure another as their longswords were completely unable to hurt the opponent. On the other hand, the opposition were almost the same, because the two younger mages were less intelligent, the three were not able to handle the paladin.
But Benjamin knew, this kind of standstill would not last for long.
Seeing the way the elder mage fought, he knew he still had tricks up his sleeve. Right now he only wanted to show his apprentices, so he only used defensive magic. But once he unleashes the offensive spells, these two paladins probably would not be able to handle it anymore.
If they weren’t able to handle it, Benjamin would be in trouble too.
Even though he started having sympathy towards the elder mage, but at first, this man already said he wanted to annihilate all of them. Benjamin did not dare to gamble. If he actually exposed his identity as a mage, he wasn’t certain if he would be allowed to live. This automatically threw away his rights to make decisions in this situation.
Plus, he had yet to finish his preparations to betray the Church.
Because of this, he still chose to stand by the two paladin’s side.
Therefore, he made his choice. He did not intend to continue idle by and do nothing ----- things have already developed to this phase, even though his magic has yet to mature, he had to join in and not continue to OB.
In his heart, a plan to break the stalemate formed quickly.
At that moment, the paladins launched a second wave of attacks at the water bubbles.
Right when they slashed downwards with their swords, Benjamin moved. He rapidly raised his pistol, under the circumstances where no one noticed him, he opened fire at the elder mage without hesitation.
Bang!
With the sound of the water bubble popping and the gunfire mixed together, it gave everyone a shock.
Benjamin, after firing the shot, rushed at the thief whose kneecaps were shot and unable to move. He did not care about what was going on with the mages and paladins after that shot, he only wanted to snatch back the money that was stolen from him.
The child did not resist, and Benjamin managed to get back the money after a while.
After getting a hold of the money, Benjamin was relieved.
This was the plan he came up with: First of all, using his attack, it would be impossible to break the water barrier. Even though the paladins could break through it, they had to do a second slash to hurt the mage. But all the mage had to do was conjure another water barrier when they were doing their second slash, and it would block their attack.
This created an equilibrium, and Benjamin wanted to break this equilibrium.
He used the perspective of shooting to calculate the time, and shot the moment the water barrier broke. The bullet will go through the barrier the moment the water bubbles had an opening, and hit the intended target. The time taken for this to occur would be too short for the opponent to chant a spell, so there was no way to repair the barrier.
A mage without a protective barrier was just like another ordinary human, as thin as a piece of paper in front of the bullet. Because of this, with just one shot, and there being no magic involved, it would definitely change the tide of the battle.
He took aim at the heart of the elder mage and fired, but because this was the first time he fired a gun with the intent to kill and he pitied the mage, his hand accidentally shook a little. Hence the bullet most probably did not hit accurately.
Even though if it did not hit, he still managed to achieve half of his purpose.
To be honest, he never had the heart to kill his opponent. From the beginning to the end, he only had one thing in his mind ----- to get his money back.
The whole plan was for him to take the opportunity to sneak away during the chaos after he has gotten back his money. According to what he had thought of, based on the prowess of the elder mage, even if he was severely wounded, he probably had illusory spells, and would be able to bring his apprentices to escape with him.
Regarding the two paladins, these would probably give chase. Thus, no one would care about Benjamin, and he could continue his plan to buy a gun.
Everything sounded good during the planning phase. The two paladins were protecting him, and Benjamin did not want them to get hurt, but the three opponents were mages just like him. When Benjamin recalled the few sentences at the end of the Bible, he hoped that they would not die here as described.
Right when he thought of the plan, Benjamin could not help but laugh at himself. It was probably because he was like the main characters in the novels, making decisions on the whim, treating human life as something cheap.
Because of this, Benjamin fired the gun, snatched the money, and everything went according to plan. From the mages, there were terrible screams and shock, but there was no sound of someone falling to the ground. That confirmed that the bullet hit accurately without anybody dying. It was perfect. Benjamin immediately made his move to escape.
But, like every other plan he came up with before after he arrived in this world, no matter how perfect, there were still flaws.
The moment he was ready to escape, a few voices of angered chanting suddenly came from his back. The huge amount of magic and elemental power converging shocked him and he could not resist but turn around to take a look.
He saw a tsunami-like wave gathered in front of the three mages.
Damn!
What magic was this?
Benjamin had predicted wrongly on how the elder mage would behave. It was probably after being angered by both his students and then getting shot, his anger reached the boiling point and triggered his berserk mode. Thus, he did not choose to use magic to escape, but instead, he chose magic to attack.
Seeing this kind of power, conjuring a ten meter high wave in an alleyway was probably an ultimate level spell. This mage was already talented in using water barriers, how much more powerful would his signature moves be?
Facing such a huge wave, Benjamin felt that he was not dealing with magic, but with the limitless Mother Nature herself, and felt as if there was no way to fight back.
Is this…...Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique?
Finally, a second before the wave came over him, he managed to make himself put up one last fight. By using a water ball spell to create a water bubble to wrap around him ---- he was not afraid of others figuring out that he was a mage. The two paladins who were standing in front were already devoured by the relentless water current. There were no other people around, no one knew that he used magic.
A second after the water bubble formed, the huge wave came down on him.
Everything in front of Benjamin became black and he lost all consciousness.
...
"Why are you chasing me?"
"I need, sugar syrup!"
What, what the hell?
"Besunyen rejuvenating tea, removes all toxins, makes you feel refreshed."
"Where is the remote, hurry up and change the channel..."
"There’s Levonorgestrel, do not worry about making love..."
"You…...shut up!"
Benjamin suddenly woke up from the state of shock, he gasped for air, opened his eyes wide and sat up.
"Ah, you’re finally awake." The System’s voice came from within his mind, sounding rather happy.
Benjamin sat still for a while, and steadied his breathing, then with a very unsatisfied tone he said to the System: "The next time I pass out, can you use another way to wake me up?"
The digital interface appeared in front of his eyes once more:
"If you need human assistance, please press zero."
Not this again.
Benjamin couldn't be bothered about the system. After experiencing such terrifying magic, the first thing he had to do was make sure of his current situation: Pain came from every part of his body, but it was not acute, it was bearable, he was not missing any limbs or having any of them broken, he could still move freely. In conclusion, he was fine.
This made him feel less worried, at first he thought he would suffer much more terrible wounds. Looks like the spell that the mage used was not as fearsome as he though.
But, after taking a look at his surroundings, he felt less optimistic.
This was not the alleyway that he passed out in.
He was situated at what seemed to be a storage area, the light was dim, the space was rather claustrophobic, there was only a sole oil lamp lighting the area bright at the far corner of the wall. There was nothing much in the whole storage area, it felt rather empty, together with the poor lighting, it gave off a creepy vibe.
Benjamin was totally clueless.
Where was this?
Why would he wake up in a totally unfamiliar place, did somebody bring him here?
During the time he was unconscious, what happened?
"Hey, how are you awake so quickly?" Suddenly, a voice came from behind him.
Benjamin immediately turned around, only to see the two young mages of varying height, standing at that corner of the storage area, together, seeming to be filled with curiosity but fear, looking back at him.
Benjamin was touched. Did these two bring him here?
Thinking of this, he panicked and looked around a few more times. Luckily, the elder mage was nowhere to be seen, Benjamin felt relieved.
"Hey, I’m talking to you, why don’t you reply?" The shorter one saw that Benjamin did not reply after some time, and seemed to be in some hurry, thus raising his voice and saying this.
Benjamin wanted to reply, but the other person cut in.
"Don’t be like this, I think he’s probably been knocked silly by our master’s spell, so he can’t understand what we’re saying at all." The taller one pushed the shorter one, and said this.
"Right, why didn’t I think of that, he really has been knocked silly!" The shorter one had an expression as if he had a revelation, then happily said so.
"What should we do? If he’s really been knocked silly, who’s gonna save our teacher?" But, the taller one made a worrying expression, saying this with full of frustration.
"Yeah, what should we do..." The shorter one’s mood immediately died down, and said so sadly.
The two went closer to each other and whispered to each other.
"...."
Benjamin looked at the both of them cluelessly.
"Hey, you two." After hesitating a little, he still decided to show his normal level of intelligence. Plus, he had questions to ask them, "Was it you two that brought me here? Where is this? What happened? Where’s your teacher?"
After asking this, he immediately felt regret.
He should have asked one by one. If questions came out in a flurry, judging by the intelligence of these two, there would be no way they could answer him...
But the reality kept him in check, he overthought.
"Hush, don’t make any noise, you’ve been knocked silly and can’t talk." The shorter one looked over, stared at Benjamin and said so angrily.
"...’
Benjamin has overestimated the intelligence levels of these two.
He gave up trying to communicate with these two, and turned to the System within his mind and asked,"Hurry up and explain to me what actually happened!"
"That magic knocked you unconscious, but after finish casting that spell, that mage passed out as well, the only people left standing were these two fools." Comparing to last time, the System sounded way more reliable now, "These two fools discussed for a while, and was ready to bring the mage along to escape. Not knowing why, they brought you a long as well. The two paladins were abandoned back at the alley though."
After hearing the System explain, Benjamin thought for awhile, then asked again: "Where is this? How far away did they bring me?"
The System replied: "Don’t worry, we’re not out of the city, this is still in Havenwright. They didn’t go too far, probably about ten minutes. But this area is rather secluded and hidden, it would be hard for other people to come across here."
Only ten minutes?
Benjamin was instantly relieved. What he was worried about the most was that he might have been brought to same distant place. Luckily, he was still in the outer area of the city. Based on the current time, he was probably not out for long.
The System could remember the way back, he wasn’t considered lost.
After thinking of this, he stood up, under the instruction of the System, he was prepared to leave ---- since the two people already considered him to be knocked silly, right?
He has already seen enough trouble for tonight, he did not know if he should continue his journey to buy a gun.
"Hold up! You’re not allowed to leave!"
The short one saw that Benjamin wanted to leave, panicked, and ran over to stop Benjamin.
"Why are you stopping me?" Benjamin asked with no emotion.
"Even though we have no idea what magic you used to wound our teacher, seeing that our teacher is about to die, only you can save him now. Of course you’re not allowed to leave!" The short one replied confidently.
"That’s right, you’re not allowed to leave." The tall one ran over as well to back him up.
Benjamin was speechless.
He did not use magic at all to wound the mage, he used a handgun, but was misunderstood by these two to be magic, it was humiliating. But, these two are probably dumb for thinking he had a way to save their teacher.
What were they even thinking?
"Didn’t you say that I’ve already been knocked silly, how am I supposed to save someone in this state?" Benjamin asked.
"Right, he’s been knocked silly, there’s no way he can save our teacher." Hearing this, the short one was stunned, his panicked state turned into a face full of sorrow.
"You’ve already lost your mind, it’s useless, you can go." The tall one shook his head, then said this to Benjamin.
"..."
Not knowing why, after being treated this way by the two, Benjamin somehow did not want to leave anymore.
Seriously....
Whatever.
After some hesitation, he walked a few steps out, but let out a heavy sigh, and came back. He was rather helpless, faced the two and said: "I haven’t lost my mind yet, where is your teacher, bring me to him, perhaps I can save him."
He felt like a teacher in a kindergarten, and a toddler fallen down, he could not resist but to help him get up.
These two "toddlers" heard this, looked at him, and displayed joyful expressions.
"You have to save our teacher, if not we’ll kill you." The short one dragged Benjamin and ran deep into the storage area, while happily saying these words.
"...Okay." Benjamin said coldly.