Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  Vancoblades! Tifonal! Soarame’s attention was instantly captured. He widened his eyes as much as he could and tried to see the brief moment when the blades passed through all the big trees, right through the trunks, and chopped the targeted beasts into pieces!

  SIZZ — SIZZ!

  At the same time, there was a terrifying buzzing sound. A net of purplish lightning glittered by and cascaded out, with each sparking chain bridging magimals with one another, and bridging further on. All the magimals chained up by the lightning cascade were instantly roasted, with their fur set on fire and their flesh baked black and dry. The smoke coming out of the bodies carried a strong smell and spread it around, making people instantly panic and gag.

  ‘Thundercade! YESS!!!’ Halgon was roaring with excitement, but no one could really hear him due to all the other noises. It was Kastico this time — the terrifying spell released a cascade of lightning to cover a large area of live targets using its branched chains — thundercade!

  ‘Holy… that’s Lightning?’ Soarame was just as fascinated. As a complete fresher in Lightning, Soarame hadn’t had the chance to learn a proper spell yet, but he was witnessing one of the best works right before his eyes. At the same time, although Sophie was Adept in Lightning, she had never been lucky enough to observe such a splendid scene either. Right then, the girl was totally possessed — she couldn’t hear the explosion of the magic bombs, she couldn’t see the screeching beasts rolling in the mud with their incomplete bodies, she couldn’t feel the drastic rocking of the tree that she was sitting on — all she could see was the beautiful purplish net of lightning chains, looting lives away as easily as she’d heard they could!

  Swish —

  A group of three firebolts rose into the sky. Amongst the noises that were trembling the earth and swaying the mountains, the noise of the firebolts was inaudible to all — but it was the predefined signal for Moelmos’ group to start their attack!

  ‘Ha!’ Halgon was ready for this; he jumped off the tree and pounced at the nearest magimal without hesitation. At the same time, Moelmos cast four big firerings with ferocious flame to isolate a number of magimals from the beastide — each ring held several within it for one of his teammates. However, he hadn’t expected Halgon to be so excited that he forgot about the plan — the boy was already fighting a wolf-like magimal outside of the firerings.

  ‘Halgon!’ Moelmos was anxious, but no one could hear him at the moment.

  ‘He’s fine!’ Soarame flew by in the next second, shouting as loudly as he could. ‘Let him! He’ll be fine!’ Soarame was holding Sophie in his arms, because according to Moelmos’ plan they would get in and out of the firerings with the help of Soarame — the flame was really fierce, and they couldn’t break in or out through it. For the same reason, the magimals couldn’t either, so they could enjoy a relatively safe environment in which they would only face a limited number of magimals at any one time.

  Watching Soarame drop Sophie into the firering that had the weakest beasts by the look of it, Moelmos picked the one that looked hardest and jumped into it from the tree.

  Halg… Soarame floated in the air for a few seconds before he landed in a firering. He was watching Halgon battle a small group of magimals in his own way — it was a mixture of magic spells and martial arts, and looked really brutal and ferocious. By that time, the terrifying charge of the beastide had been stopped, and the tide broken into small groups of magimals of varying numbers. Therefore, to someone like Halgon, it was more like butchery than hunting, even though he was all by himself.

  Soarame landed in his ring and sized the several magimals up and down. They were of relatively low ranking, barely reaching the Adept level; so it was more of a warm-up round. Seeing the fear in their eyes, Soarame wasn’t sure if he should really kill such weak beings. However, he knew that they were too powerful for civilians to fight, and there was no way that they would spare people’s lives if they were in charge.

  ‘Soarame, when you’ve finished, don’t forget to pick up Sophie!’ Moelmos put out his own flame in his ring — he was done with it. ‘I’ll set up more rings for you guys!’

  ‘Soarame, when you finish!’ Sophie’s voice also sounded. ‘It’s easy!’

  ‘Oh my.’ Soarame decided to pick up Sophie first. He landed in Sophie’s ring, and saw a number of roasted magimal bodies, smelling, as had the others, like vomit. ‘How did you do it so fast?’

  ‘Come on man, you guys are faster!’ Sophie curled her lips. She thought Soarame had finished his ring too, but soon she learnt otherwise. ‘You didn’t do it out of sympathy? Are you serious?’

  ‘Take me to your ring then. I’ll do it for you.’ Seeing Soarame silent, Sophie stretched her arms to hook on to his neck from the front. ‘But how did you pass the Jankide Quest?’

  ‘Err…’ Soarame blushed. He was not sure if it was due to the girl’s scorn or the close body contact with her — he had to lift her up from the front. ‘I just don’t wanna bully the weak.’

  ‘They are wild beasts! They came to eat our people!’ Sophie stared at Soarame at zero distance, nose-tip to nose-tip. ‘Boy, I thought you were smart enough!’

  Soarame was at a loss for words. He landed back in his ring and let go of Sophie. The girl looked at Soarame with a special smile, then walked towards the trembling beasts —

  ‘AWWW!!!’

  With a blast of sharp screeching, the battle was over. Sophie turned to Soarame. ‘See? It’s not that hard, is it?’

  ‘Sorry! I’m back!’ Just then, Halgon jumped over the flame and landed into the ring. Obviously, this boy didn’t need Soarame to get in and out of a firering. ‘Not bad… who did this?’

  ‘Your friend was too shy to kill the weak.’ Sophie’s eyes glowed as soon as she saw Halgon. She walked towards him, but stopped and frowned halfway — there was a strong, bloody smell from the boy. Sophie wasn’t sure how exactly Halgon battled the magimals but she did catch a flash of a scene, when the boy had cracked open a wolf’s head with a hard punch. Although the smell was certainly not pleasant, Sophie seemed to enjoy the warrior-like feeling of Halgon; she sized Halgon up and down with something unreadable in her eyes. ‘How come you two are so different and still best friends?’

  ‘They are our enemies.’ Halgon didn’t reply to Sophie’s question, but walked over to Soarame. ‘I get your feelings, but it needs to be done — either by you, or by someone else. Just think about them eating up the people in your hometown. You can do it.’

  ‘Halgon, how did you jump that high anyway?’ Sophie was annoyed at being ignored. She made up another question, trying to get the boy’s attention.

  ‘With my legs.’ Halgon answered, with his back to the girl. ‘I’ll wait for you to join me, Soar.’ With that, Halgon jumped out of the firering and disappeared.

  ‘…’ Sophie pouted at Halgon’s attitude. She stamped her feet and walked to Soarame, hooking herself on to his neck again. ‘Can we go on? We shouldn’t waste time here!’

  ‘Ahh… yes, sure.’ Soarame blushed again — this time he was sure that it was because of the girl’s soft body, especially the special part on the chest. But he hurriedly pulled himself together and rose into the air, with a hardened body. Feeling the boy’s entire body suddenly tighten upon her arm-hook, Sophie snickered inside.

  Soarame quickly put Sophie into her next firering, and landed himself into another. Watching another group of magimals shaking out of fear, Soarame sighed inside. He knew that these beasts would have killed him if they could, but right now…

  ‘Hoowwwll!’ A dhole-like magimal pounced at Soarame in a flash; perhaps it believed that this boy was mind-sliding and thus vulnerable. However, a small transparent crescent pierced through its skull in the next moment, taking away its consciousness forever.

  Watching the first one die, the rest of the beasts put up a desperate fight. After a round of roaring and screeching, all of them were lying on the floor, with blood leaking out of their heads. Soarame ha
d chosen to use an almost instantaneous way to kill, so as to minimize their pain. Then he had to pick up Sophie again, and keep the loop going.

  After several loops, a blast of icearrows were cast into the sky — the signal for Libral students to attack at will. Soarame could see a number of figures jump off trees one after another; some starting to spell, but some starting to puke.

  ‘Where’s Halgon?’ seeing the Adept students join in, Soarame knew that the battle must be going well. He had no interest in hunting and butchering, so he floated up to search for his best friend. Many Libral students thus saw a majestic-looking Soarame flying above them, each with his or her own opinion —

  ‘Look! The show-off again.’ Ben and Matt were moving together for safety. They certainly envied the flying boy, who didn’t need to worry about being pounced on.

  ‘The flying spell is way too useful… I must learn it one day!’ At the same time, a Wind student muttered with admiration.

  ‘Soarame, Halgon and Sophie!’ Casavin, Adam and Dave were probably the most powerful group within the Libral students, except for Soarame’s group. ‘Sophie betrayed us and joined them? I can’t believe this!’

  The students had to focus on their surroundings and be extremely careful. They were in unknown woods against an unknown number of similar-level magimal enemies, which could come at them from any direction. Sandoray and Vracho were following the students, trying to keep all of them in their eyesight. Now and then, rounds of roaring, screeching and all kinds of noises sounded up from somewhere, and usually ended soon after — it was usually because a group of students had won their battle. However, they got injured too, inevitably; and in some cases, the injury could be fatal —

  ‘Sandoray, come quick!’ Kastico yelled. A comatose student was lying on the grass; he had been bitten by a poison snake-like magimal. Kastico had killed the magimal and tried to suck the poisoned blood out, but it hadn’t worked very well. Sandoray performed her professor-level healing magic for detoxification and cleansing, but the student still didn’t wake up. An Expert from Sunrise Alliance then performed Light magic, trying to dispel any negative effect brought by the poison, but the boy was still in a coma.

  ‘He may not be able to make it.’ After trying everything, the professors sighed as they carried the boy into a tent. Usually, the victim would have been healed, as had happened to a few others already. But if not, all that they could do now was to pray for him, because they had to carry on protecting other students.

  The efforts went on for several hours, until Tifonal summoned everyone for a gathering. After a quick count, no student was missing, but everyone was injured, and several were unconscious. So the professors carried on healing them, but no one could guarantee anything for those who didn’t wake up after the treatment.

  ‘Everyone, attention please.’ Tifonal sighed slightly for the unconscious students. But as a senior wizard, he’d been through countless similar scenes, so he didn’t spend time to talk about it. ‘I hope you have learnt about the beastide. You all did well; but just to remind you, this was no more than a mini-tide. A real beastide is a lot more lethal and complicated, so that’s the knowledge you need to take home with you.’

  ‘As you can see, now the beastide is broken and they are trying to flee. After a rough counting, we have finished most of them, including three Expert magimals.’ Tifonal continued. He deliberately didn’t mention the comatose students. ‘But we still need to finish the rest of them, and our magic seal around the forest can only stay functional for another 24 hours. That means we have to clean up everything by then!’

  ‘And for the students, it’s your showtime now. The previous battle was just a warm up for you.’ Kastico followed up and talked to the Libral students. ‘From now on, you’ll be allowed to adventure on your own, should you so wish, to search and hunt the magimals — just as you would in a formal Expert trial. But remember, if you can’t handle a situation, call for help immediately.’

  ‘You only have 20 hours. The last 4 hours are for us to double check and make sure the field is clean.’ Looking around at the students, all with different facial expressions, Kastico continued. ‘Of course, if you think you can tame one of the beasts, be my guest — it’ll be very impressive to succeed in that at your level. But bear in mind, if you count on that and fail, you may get killed.’

  ‘One last thing: we know there are some remaining Expert magimals here, and we know they are most likely hiding in the hill.’ Tifonal took over the speech. ‘As a result, you are strongly warned against getting close to the hill — including Soarame, Halgon and Sophie. If Moelmos decides to explore the hill for his Expert trial, you shouldn’t follow. Are we all clear?’

  ‘It’s been an hour, but we’ve only seen level-5s.’ On their way deeper into the forest, Sophie was disappointed. ‘You guys are going into the hill anyway, right?’

  ‘I am, but you probably shouldn’t.’ Moelmos smiled. ‘Don’t take this wrongly, but there really is a big gap between Expert and Adept, as a matter of fact.’

  ‘But three of us should be able to cover each other’s backs without bothering you, right?’ Sophie was anxious. ‘Perhaps we could even lend a hand…’

  ‘Hold on, lady.’ Halgon suddenly spoke up. ‘I never said I’m going.’

  ‘You aren’t?’ Sophie was surprised. ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because it’s dangerous.’ Halgon looked at Sophie as if she were an idiot. ‘Haven’t you heard enough from the professors?’

  ‘But they were just trying to keep us safe.’ Halgon’s action made Sophie uncomfortable. ‘If we want to be safe, why did we come here?’

  ‘Whatever you say.’ Halgon wasn’t swayed. ‘I’m not following Moelmos to the hill.’

  ‘Shame on you, no-balls.’ Sophie humphed with bare contempt. ‘What about you, Soarame? You said you were looking for higher-rankings, right?’

  ‘I trust Halgon’s judgement.’ Soarame pondered a bit and decided to put it this way.

  ‘Fair enough.’ Sophie rolled her eyes at this. She then turned to Moelmos. ‘I’m following you.’

  ‘No, you’re not.’ Moelmos replied immediately. ‘Unless you think you can beat either of them.’

  ‘One of them would fly away and the other would just hide in shadow.’ Sophie sneered. ‘I don’t care to beat them.’

  ‘Then I don’t care to take you.’ Moelmos sighed. ‘Lady, you do know that once we get in there we could be prey, not hunters, don’t you?’

  ‘Look, this will keep the prey safe.’ Sophie handed over a scroll to Moelmos. The scroll looked quite ancient and strange, attracting everyone’s attention.

  ‘What is this?’ Moelmos’ eyes brightened up on seeing the scroll.

  ‘It’s called absolute bubble, a level-9 area-of-effect defensive spell in Water. It summons a tensile bubble that absorbs the attack from the exterior, and shelters the interior, at the same time healing the people in it if necessary. I don’t think we’ll ever encounter a level-9 magimal in a mini-tide, do you?’

  ‘True.’ Moelmos had to marvel at the wonderful scroll. He was really swayed by Sophie now — with such a protective scroll, the potential danger would be dramatically decreased.

  ‘What do you guys think?’ Moelmos pondered a bit and decided to ask for the two boys’ opinions.

  However, he got cut off by Sophie right away. ‘The bubble can only hold two people, so I can’t bring anyone else… sorry.’

  ‘It’s Fine, good luck!’ Halgon waved his hands in a goodbye. He didn’t seem to care about the scroll.

  Sophie stamped her feet and turned around, walking ahead by herself. Moelmos had to shrug his shoulders and follow the girl, signalling Halgon and Soarame to be careful. The boy and girl soon disappeared into the deeper part of the forest.

  ‘Okay, now she’s pissed off.’ Soarame teased. ‘You’ve done it.’

  ‘She talks too much, don’t you think?’ Halgon laughed. ‘Okay, let them go for a while, then it’s our turn.�
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  ‘To where?’ Soarame looked around. ‘Other than the hill, it seems there’s nowhere else to find an Expert magimal.’

  ‘To the hill, of course.’ Halgon puzzled for a second. ‘You must be kidding me, right? I thought you were playing along with me?’

  ‘Dude, all that was a lie?’ Soarame punched Halgon’s shoulder. ‘Ouch, what are you made of? Metal?’

  ‘I didn’t lie. What I said was “I’m not following Moelmos into the hill”.’ Halgon chuckled. ‘I didn’t say I’m not going there without him!’

  ‘You must teach me how to do this.’ Soarame urged. ‘I just can’t hide anything from Jemario!’

  The two kept talking on their way towards the hill. The professors were right — the remaining magimals were mostly of a higher level, and they were mostly gathered around the hill or on it. So far the two had encountered a few level-5s, but those were valueless to them. By the dawn, the two finally found a level-6; coincidentally, it was a member of their old friends — an adult beetalbull.

  ‘Hi there, long time no see!’ Halgon walked towards the huge beetalbull. ‘Your clansmen gave us a big welcome party years ago. It’s time to return the favour.’

  ‘Jigaga…’ The beetalbull instantly sensed danger; it started to make threatening noises straight away. Beetalbulls were supposed to be level-5, but this one was obviously much bigger than an ordinary one. Halgon was experienced enough to tell that it had levelled up for some reason — probably by eating a lot of other magimals, or people. Thinking of this, even Soarame wouldn’t feel any guilt if he were to kill it. However, there was only one target, so the two had a finger-guessing game and Halgon won.

  ‘Is an Expert trial supposed to be this easy?’ Soarame couldn’t help asking. ‘There doesn’t seem to be much danger as they claimed.’