18 Magic (1/2)

The situation was dire, the small ravine forced then to crouch, but still they were able cover against the arrows. The stones near the river were big but too far away from cover to risk, they could see nothing further than that, no other cover was in sight.

Seeing this, all of them understood that the enemy had played them, the ambush was set. The enemy force intentionally gave away their position and this way forced the prey into a convenient hiding spot… the enemy now was able to surround and force the group's back against the deep river, and they were completely trapped.

Carrick and Callan were observing the enemy movement, they were clearly covering their flanks so they couldn't escape. And to prevent any wild attempts, arrows were flying towards the trapped mercenaries, anyone who moved out of cover would be hit in instants.

Levi was near Riou who was besides Viktor, they both were looking around trying to figure out how to turn that situation. Judeau was between Carrick and Viktor, looking for enemies who would try to approach. Shooting arrows to keep them at bay, the enemy was cautious to never leave cover for long enough to get hit, and seemed to welcome Judeau's attempts.

At this rate he would run out of arrows soon, he already feared that they were just preparing something to flush them out of cover as soon as his arrows were gone.

Some time passed while they took cover there, few of Judeau's arrows were left by this time… The enemy were preparing to act soon.

Riou had considered his options, but still was uncertain on how to approach this… ”I can't go and attack them head on… it would be too much to take if one guy took them all out… perhaps magic is a better approach here…” Thought Riou looking to his companions… ”Now, should I go all out… or should I try a silent approach?” Conspired the boy against the enemy as he pondered between a direct assault spell of if he should use a more subtle approach.

”Necromancy? Yeah should be nice, I could get some undead minions to fight for me… but wait… Max never mentioned anything about necromancy…”Riou thought to himself, and realized something as he kept that line of thought ”he never mentioned anything about arcane magic either… now that I think about it… all he talked about was elemental magic… Can it be possible they don't know other kind? Does it even exists here? Or could it be that it is just too rare…” Many questions raised that needed further discussion with the mage… ”Better avoid them for now…”

He took another quick look at the enemies ”Ok… plan B…” thought to himself almost ready to stand up and burn the assassins to ashes… when another idea popped up… ”Unless…” Riou quickly turned to the mercenaries.

-”Stay behind and follow me closely.” Said the boy confidently and readying himself to get out of the ravine

Viktor looked with squinted eyes showing his uncertainty in the boy's confidence… after a moment pondering he ended up in his usual smirk, as he was out of good options by that moment

-”I don't know what you gonna do boy, but I hope you know what you're doing…” Said the Mercenary leader…

Riou focused his mana, commanding the air surrounding him into a strong current against his body and then upwards, he stood up and climbed the ravine saying out loud

– ”Wind Barrier”

When he finished his words the strong current became a violent wind storm, unseen to the eye but clearly shown by the arrows that came straight towards the boy, thrown upwards with a violent strength just a few palms from him… the barrier was just 3 palms of the boyand was very wide to protect the mercenaries as well.

Judeau squinted his eyes and smirked at the sight of the magical display, clearly suspecting of extent of the boy's abilities. Carrick, Callan and Levi looked astonished to Viktor as if asking for answers, who just shrugged amazed as well.

-”Don't look at me, I didn't know either…” Said the smiling mercenary – ”Let's not waste our friend's magical power, come one!” – ordered the big man jumping up the ravine, quickly getting behind the boy followed by the others.

Riou walked towards the center of the enemy forces, they were about 15 steps away from the ravine at that moment, but covered by the terrain, trees and stones. As he approached he could see about 20 enemies divided into two groups, one to their right and the other slightly in front of them also covering the left exit of the ravine. Each group had 5 archers and 5 melee fighters, all using short swords.

The enemy force was clearly taken aback by the magical display, but as professionals they tried to adjust to the situation as quickly as possible.

As the main plan was not working anymore as arrows now were useless against the mage. They started to move towards each other, trying to group up improving their numbers to fight the mercenaries. Riou noticing their intention to join forces quickly moved to intercept their path.

Riou while maintaining the wind barrier, forced the wind to blow against both enemy groups, a strong enough wind to blow debris and dirt from the ground, so sudden and vicious that when the enemy noticed, was too late. Unable to guard against it, it forced them to cover their eyes and quickly trying to remove the dirt from it, providing a brief blindness cover to the mercenaries. Riou was now at the middle of the two enemy groups followed by the mercenaries.

It was the opportunity they needed to attack, Riou turned himself and his barrier to the enemies to the right, giving free passage to his companions to the enemies on the front and left side, he intended to guard them from the enemies of the right, preventing them from overwhelm the mercenaries with their increased numbers.

It was 10 against 5 now, Riou held the other 10 to the right side.

Viktor mercenaries were veterans, dogs of war… as they saw the opportunity emerge before them, they grabbed it without hesitation. The assault was swift to the enemies at the front, with weapons in hand they quickly went for the enemies who were still trying to recover their sight. Judeau now having a clear view from their flanks, shot 3 arrows, each pointed to one enemy. The arrows hit them between the eyes, 2 archers and a melee fighter where down in an instant.

Every foe in that group fell quickly as the mercenaries reached them, the strikes were certain and deadly, aimed at the head, neck and heart. The dogs of war moved as a pack of wolves cornering and attacking the prey in a silent but coordinated attack. Some enemies tried to fight back but with the vision affected it was too much of a handicap to overcome against the elite mercenaries.

Meanwhile on the right side group, Riou noticed they were closer together as they tried to converge with the left group, and at an open terrain… it was a perfect fit for an area of effect magic. ”It's too good of a chance to let it pass…” thought the boy as he decided to indulge himself a little. Commanding his mana he began a small swirl effect targeting the center of the enemy group. And agitating his right arm in a circular movement pushing it up in the second rotation, picturing a vortex of wind, controlling his power to a controlled test, he created a sudden whirlwind, two man high and right at their location, strong enough to launch them to the air, not high enough to kill but certain to keep them down for a while. The whirlwind right after appearing vanished instantly in a burst.

As they went down, Riou walked towards the nearest opponent that were still conscious.

-”Who sent you?”Asked the boy to the dark green hooded man.

-”…” Silence was the only answer Riou got.

-”Who sent you?!” asked again the boy, threatening the man's life, pointing his hand to him as if a violent spell would come of it at any moment.

The man was the common look of Allard, dark hair and eyes, light skin shade. Lot of scars on the face, but no runes… The man paid no mind to the threats, he kept silent, and his mind seemed absent, his eyes showed no interest as if he had already forfeited his life.

Viktor and the mercenaries where approaching him by this time as they finished their work on the other side…

-”Fweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhh” Viktor gave a low long whistle of surprise. – ”A wind specialist huh? And this young…” Said him looking to Levi for a moment before continuing the talk to the boy– ”I never saw a barrier soak up so many arrows at such close range… and that other thing you did… what was it?” Continued Viktor clearly excited – ”You must be considered high tiered amongst the mages, are you not?” Kept going on enthusiastic as the others were also listening carefully. -”Now I understand why you said you could handle yourself… ”

Riou looked confused to Viktor ”High tiered? This is considered high tier wind magic?”Thought the boy before answering…

-”I'm still an apprentice, my master is the one who really knows magic” Said Riou diverging the attention from himself

-”This Max is your master right? I know that Syldis said he was your old man, but it seemed a bit too strange by the way you were reacting back there… so this is how it is…” Viktor started to ponder about the ramifications of this discovery and began thinking out loud… - ”if you are this powerful and he is your master… he must be a Magus level at the very least…” Realized the mercenary continuing his vocalized thought process - ”that's why Syldis said it was her kind of danger… Max… Maximilian! The great Magus! He is your master!” Said Viktor satisfied he was able to put the puzzle together as he looked to Riou face confirming his suspect.

All Mercenaries widened their eyes to the news… Levi as always was the first to speak

-”The great Magus!? Really? It is said he is over 200 years old… how long are you studying under him?” Asked her to Riou…

Riou smiled awkwardly… - ”Yeah, it's going for a good time now, he don't want people to know I'm his apprentice… so I'd appreciate if you kept it a secret…” Riou tried to contain the information leak…

Viktor nodded, - ”Very well, we will keep our mouths shut, don't worry” as he looked to the enemies at the ground…

-”But you should know by now boy” – Said Viktor approaching and looking at the man Riou was trying to interrogate – ”this kind of assassins don't know who hired them, they are part of an underground organization… only the higher ups know the contractors name…” Explained Viktor – ”That's why they are so expensive, they are good tacticians and deceivers, excellent fighters and above all… deadly loyal to their cause” - said the mercenary in a serious tone.

Riou looked towards the man on the ground, without a drop of fear, silently staring into the sky, showing an unwavering will. The boy understood what Viktor said… the boy couldn't help but wonder ”Torture?” he pondered for a moment considering his time and options… but it would take too long and he needed to go to the city and check the last place.

-”So what do you suggest?” Asked Riou to the mercenary…

Viktor just nodded to the others, each of them began approaching the fallen enemies and proceeded to kill every one of the remaining foes.

Riou watched silently as that outcome favored him, this way they would not inform about him.

-”This way we lower their ranks and also buy some time until the organization realizes they had failed. Maybe we can even keep your powers hidden for a little longer… as doubt they knew you were even a mage apprentice… Or they would have brought at least one to ensure victory.” Said Viktor looking at the last man alive in front of Riou…

Viktor approached the assassin… pointed his sword to the man's chest while looking into his unwavering eyes… and quickly stroke the man's chest. The foe smiled as blood poured out of his mouth, he was dead seconds after. ”Indeed, loyal to the very end…” thought the boy seeing the man face.

The mercenary removed his blade and cleaned it, he began to wonder why the boy kept his powers a secret… and appearing to reach a conclusion put his thoughts into words...

-”I see...” Said the mercenary understanding the situation, - ”That's why you kept your powers as a secret… to not bring unwanted attention to yourself… they would have brought their mages if they knew… If this situation was already bad,I don't even want to think how it would be if they got mages at their side as well.”

Carrick spat on the ground - ”That would have been bad…” Said the mercenary uncertain of the victory if that had happened.

Viktor signaled his mercenaries… - ”Make sure all of them are dead and let's move, it will get dark soon and we still have a lot of ground to cover…” Said him looking into the sky calculating how long it would still get to be completely dark… He looked around while everyone began to move back to the river to follow it until the city…- ”Let's hope the beast isn't hungry today…”

All enemies were killed…

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The group was walking by the river bank, the night was dark but luckily the cloud layer was not thick enough to prevent the big moon of that world to shine a bit through them… the group walked seeing only a few steps ahead of them but it was enough to keep them going in a steady pace.

They were silent, complete attention to their surroundings… Riou could feel their tension, their weapons where sheathed but their hands were eager to pull them out at any moment.

A sound in the distance…

-”CRACK!”

And every mercenary had weapons in hand, ready to defend themselves… they kept there for a few moments, until they could finally relax a bit and continue their way…