Ancient Barons and the Returned Assassin

by Weiqi Wang

  ‘This is not an Expert trial. At least not yet, probably not until we get to the hill.’ Halgon spoke while approaching the retreating beetalbull. ‘A real Expert trial is more about battling Expert magimals with their Adept followers. But right now we are just fighting one single Adept.’

  ‘GULALA!’ After realizing that Halgon was much faster than he was, the beetalbull finally had to fight the boy. With a buzz from its mouthparts, a blast of stone thorns spiked out of the grass under Halgon’s feet — it was an insta-cast of an Earth spell!

  ‘Not bad.’ Halgon jumped into the air, out of the way, at the same instant. He turned his body around in the air and insta-cast the same stonethorn spell, only his thorns were a lot bigger and sharper. The thorns hit the beetalbull hard from underneath. Although they didn’t pierce its body, they made the beetalbull flip over with its feet on top, so that it wouldn’t be able to flee until it managed to flip back. However, how could Halgon let that happen? With a hand wave, a cloud of black smog surged towards the beetalbull’s open mouth and got into it. The next moment, the beetalbull made a horrendous screeching noise, with yellowish and reddish pus gushing out of its mouthparts. Soon enough, it stopped struggling.

  ‘What?’ Soarame was stunned to see the battle finish just like that. ‘What’s that smog?’

  ‘Etching smog. The best spell against enemies with tough skin or armour. It attacks them from the inside.’ Halgon took out his dagger and cut open the skull of the giant insect; it cost him quite some efforts due to the toughness of the carapace. ‘You don’t really think Darkness can only do hide-and-seek, do you?’

  ‘Well… thank god it’s an Expert spell.’ Soarame was rather worried about this. ‘I don’t wanna encounter such a spell in a Dragon&Empires game.’

  ‘I guess that’s part of the reason the school says “all Experts graduate”.’ Halgon said casually. ‘Moelmos made a good point — there’s a big gap between Experts and Adepts. Sadly, a silly girl just wouldn’t listen.’

  ‘She really liked you.’ Soarame tried to speak for Sophie. ‘Why not try to look at her good part?’

  ‘The boobs? Nah.’ Halgon teased. ‘It’s not about that. You know what I am… I can’t get too close with a human girl.’

  ‘Oh god, that’s the reason?’ Soarame smacked his forehead. ‘Is it that bad?’ The moment Soarame asked this question, he regretted his silliness — a human and a dragon, it probably won’t make a good couple.

  ‘Worse than you think.’ Halgon sighed deeply. ‘I never told you this, but my mum died because of me.’

  ‘What?!’ Soarame was stunned. ‘How so?’

  ‘Difficulty in labour.’ Halgon was knocking the beetalbull soulcore against a rock on the ground. A level-6 soulcore was actually worth quite a lot, but the boy seemed to not care about damaging it at all. ‘Dad said it was all his fault, because a dragon’s bloodline was too strong and invasive. Even an Expert wizard wouldn’t be able to cope with it.’

  ‘So that it caused difficulty in labour?’ Soarame asked. He didn’t really understand the theory, but was curious. However, this question seemed to puzzle Halgon; the boy was silent for a while, seemingly in deep thought.

  ‘Let’s go.’ A few minutes later, Halgon came out of his reverie. ‘There won’t be many Expert magimals for us, but the first one is yours!’

  LIFE MAGIC

  ‘Gugu, gugu.’

  Among the caws and jugs from different kinds of birds and insects, two figures were walking on the hill. Several hours had passed since they got there and the sun was set, but the two hadn’t had any remarkable experiences yet. All that they’d got so far was a handful of level-6 soulcores, plus a bunch of lower levels. Although these were not bad, the ambitious boys were aiming for Expert magimals, which simply hadn’t showed up.

  ‘Patience is a virtue.’ Soarame was comforting himself. ‘It’s just a mini-tide after all, maybe no Expert magimal survived from the professors’ attack.’

  Halgon nodded. The professors did claim to have killed three Experts already. In fact, after the professors broke the beastide, they specifically focused on the higher-ranking ones — only after eliminating the most dangerous ones would they feel relatively comfortable letting the Adept students go into play. As a consequence, there could be just a couple of Expert magimals left, and those were really supposed to be for Moelmos.

  ‘This supervised trial really sucks.’ Halgon kicked away a stone. ‘Sophie got one thing right — being babysat is just annoying.’

  ‘It wasn’t supposed to be our trial in the first place.’ Soarame cracked a bitter smile. ‘By the way, have you had an Expert trial yet?’

  ‘Of course.’ Halgon was happy to talk about this. ‘Back at my home, it’s convenient to do trials there. If it weren’t for the fact that my dad is super-sensitive about his privacy, I would have invited you there.’

  ‘I see.’ Soarame certainly understood the importance of privacy, especially in this case. ‘So there are a lot of wild magimals near your house.’

  ‘Actually, around it.’ Halgon made a knuckle crack. ‘You know about my dad. Think about it.’

  ‘Oh dear… I never really thought about this.’ Soarame muffled a scream. ‘Your family lives in a… magimal forest of some sort?’

  ‘Bingo.’ Halgon thumbed up. ‘But it’s not “of some sort” — it is the very Magimal Forest that you’ve heard of.’

  ‘What!’ Soarame stared at Halgon. ‘The famous Magimal Forest? That’s where you live?’

  ‘Right in the middle.’ Halgon looked pretty proud of this. ‘Come on, man, you’ve known about my dad for ages. Where did you think he would live?’

  ‘Oh god.’ Soarame couldn’t help picturing all this — a big black dragon, hiding somewhere in the well-known Magimal Forest! But wait a minute, the Magimal Forest is on the Knighton Continent, which is governed by mankind. According to the Grant Migration Pact, no dragons can live in the human world.

  Looking at Halgon, Soarame wasn’t sure if he should ask about this; it was a highly sensitive question. Halgon was able to see the confusion in Soarame’s eyes. ‘Of course, it means that the Grant Migration Pact has a loophole. The Great Libral was indeed a great man, but he still missed something.’

  ‘THAT. IS. CRAZY!’ Soarame was dumbfounded to hear the news. There was such a big and scary fact that most people were not aware of, which really worried Soarame — it was sure to be a problem sooner or later!

  “Do you believe in fate?” For some reason, this astonishing news reminded Soarame of Ecrif’s words. The boy started to wonder if his fate had something to do with his brotherhood with Halgon.

  ‘Relax, dad is hibernating all the time.’ Halgon could see Soarame’s obvious anxiety. ‘As I’ve mentioned …’

  ‘Watch out!’ Soarame suddenly jumped at Halgon and knocked him over. Halgon was fast enough to jump straight up again, only to find Soarame’s belly had been penetrated by a big bodkin, which was pinning him down to the ground!

  ‘AHHH!!’ Soarame screeched in pain. The slack boys were now reminded of where they were. Soarame struggled to fetch his wand, shooting windblades towards something. ‘It’s there!’

  At the same time, with a burst of humming, a yellowish thing pounced down from a big tree, aiming at the injured target and dodging all the windblades. Soarame was madly anxious because he was still pinned to the ground and couldn’t move, but Halgon would by no means watch his best friend get attacked again. With a stoneshield he had summoned in his hand, Halgon threw himself towards the attacker, but he didn’t hit anything because the thing swiftly changed its trajectory — it swung by and flipped in the air, then disappeared behind another tree.

  ‘Soar, how are you?’ Halgon was still on guard, facing the sudden attacker’s direction of retreat, and stepped backwards to his friend.

  ‘It’s freaking fast!’ Soarame, on the other hand, had to grit his teeth hard and pull the bodkin out of his body. ‘AWWW!’ The getting-out of the bod
kin from his flesh caused sharp pain, especially because some ribs were cracked. At this moment, Soarame no longer had the tiniest bit of sympathy for the wild magimals, and his guilt about killing them vanished completely.

  ‘Take this, quick!’ Halgon dripped a drop of liquid into Soarame’s mouth. The liquid tasted pungent, and had a bitter smell, but Soarame didn’t hesitate to swallow it.

  ‘What is this?’ Soon enough, Soarame found a wave of itching taking the place of the pain. A few minutes later, the broken ribs were all reconnected, with the flesh all grown back!

  ‘My dad’s blood, fresh.’ Halgon was holding the bodkin and checking it up and down. ‘Don’t worry, it’s not anyone’s pee this time.’

  ‘Damn you… but thanks!’ Soarame jumped up in joy — the drip that he had just taken was actually the legendary medicine, dragon blood! Double-checking the wound in his belly, Soarame couldn’t help marvelling — Snower’s “cure” was certainly amazing, but the dragon blood was even more miraculous.

  ‘Dude, you don’t need to thank me for getting you injured.’ Halgon teased. ‘That villain’s initial target was me. It’s clever enough to tell who’s more threatening, and tried to target him.’

  ‘Wait… what’s that supposed to mean?’ Soarame punched Halgon’s shoulder, both laughing. However, neither could afford to let their guards down anymore, especially now that the sun had set and it was dark. Soarame took over Halgon’s stoneshield and held it in front of his chest. ‘Did you see what it looked like? What is it?’

  ‘It’s too fast so I’m not sure, but it could be an Expert magimal called deerhornet — a mix between a red deer and a hornet. The bodkin is the sting in its tail.’ Halgon summoned another stone shield for himself and led the pursuit — with great ambition, the two tried to hunt it down.

  ‘How did you spot that sniper attack anyway?’ On the way, Halgon suddenly asked. ‘Not many people are more vigilant than me, but even I missed it.’

  ‘Obviously, I have better eyes than you.’ Soarame was ready for this. Since Halgon had told him so many of his secrets, Soarame was prepared to tell his best friend some of his own. Therefore, Halgon got to know that Soarame saw green light shine in the dark just before the attack came, which gave him a half-second advantage.

  ‘Such wonderful talent!’ Halgon had to marvel at Soarame’s unique gift, because it would be so practical in a real battle. ‘Did your master tell you what it is?’ Half a second sounded short, but it could be vital in most battles between Experts and above!

  ‘Some say it’s called Magic-magnetic Physique.’ Soarame had to put it this way. Sadly, he had promised to keep Ecrif’s secret so he couldn’t say much more. ‘I can tell that it’s Life magic, but I don’t really know about this magic type — is it another lineage besides the well-known seven?’

  ‘Yes and no.’ Halgon pondered a bit. ‘Dad said Life magic is a special type, but he’s not sure if it counts as a “lineage” — because he’s convinced that it’s superior to the seven common lineages, but he doesn’t know the details either.’

  ‘Superior?’ Soarame nodded, because Snower’s amazing abilities had also convinced him of that. However, it also worried him at this moment — it was on their enemy’s side this time.

  ‘Fortunately, Life magic is not best at attacking, so we don’t need to worry too much.’ Halgon certainly understood Soarame’s worry. ‘It’s just that it’ll be hard to kill the magimal, because there must be other tricks that it hasn’t shown yet.’

  The two continued their exploration ahead. A while later, Soarame suddenly made a slight cough — it was a code word for alarm. At the same time, Halgon felt three pokes on his back, meaning target at the direction of 3 o’clock.

  It’s the same one! Great! Halgon looked around casually, as if nothing was happening, but he did catch a vague outline at 3 o’clock. The hiding magimal was the same shape as the last one, and it was absolutely quiet at that moment. In Soarame’s eyes, it was glowing in green again, meaning that it was preparing for another attack — the last time the green colour had glowed for no more than the blink of an eye and the attack turned out to be a sting-shot; this time the green colour lasted longer, meaning...

  ‘Careful!’ Soarame instantly dropped the initial plan of luring the magimal, and initiated the attack instead. A wave of windblades went on their way as Soarame shouted. ‘It’s gonna be a bigger spell!’

  ‘BUZZ!’ The magimal seemed to be caught off guard by the sudden windblades. It left the spot in a hurried attempt at dodging, and at the same time just about finished its spell — the next moment, a vine shot out from the grass and twined up the two boys’ legs. Due to the heavy stoneshield in their hands, neither Halgon nor Soarame managed to dodge the vine, so that they were both rooted to the ground. At the same time, the two finally saw the magimal’s appearance. It had a bee-like body with yellow and black stripes all over, and there was a cluster of branch-like horns on its head — it was a deerhornet indeed!

  This is Life magic? Soarame was nervous. The spell seemed to be the same as the one he had encountered in his illusional battle against the big tree. With that experience, Soarame had fully appreciated the difficulty they would have in dealing with these vines, so he hurriedly insta-cast as many windblades as he could to cut them off. However, the deerhornet was certainly not stupid; it insta-cast another sting at the Wind boy right away. Soarame hurriedly raised the stoneshield to block it, but then he couldn’t fly up before the next cluster of vines got his leg.

  ‘Crap! It’s a clever one!’ Soarame yelled. He couldn’t break out of the writhing vines due to the harassing sting attacks one after another. The same thing was happening to Halgon too, so pretty soon they were both well wrapped up.

  ‘Halg, are you okay?’ Soarame was madly anxious. He’d never expected an Expert magimal to be easy, but he hadn’t imagined that this one would be so hard, due to Life magic.

  ‘I’m fine, watch yourself!’ Halgon was making all kinds of attempts too. Just then he was summoning etching smog to corrode the vines, but it seemed not to work well. Therefore, he was even more wrapped up than Soarame.

  ‘BUZZZZ!!’ Soon enough, the deerhornet seemed to be satisfied with its vine bundle — Halgon’s entire body was totally wrapped up. Although Soarame was still resisting, his lower body was bundled firmly too. Therefore, the deerhornet suddenly changed its style of attack — it started to spin rapidly around the boy, seeking for chances. The creepy buzz really freaked Soarame out; he had to do everything he could to block the sting with his stoneshield, yelling. However, the winged-magimal was just too mobile for a rooted human, so that Soarame was injured several times. The sting wasn’t really poisonous — thank god for that — otherwise the boy would have been done. After a round of dog-fighting like this, the deerhornet finally found its chance to thrust the sting towards the boy’s chest. Soarame was desperate to see the sharp tip coming towards his heart, and he was too exhausted to react in time.

  ‘HAAWWW!!!!’ Soarame howled out of panic. The deerhornet was transfixed and stayed still for a second — a subconscious piercing wave again.

  ‘Crack!’ Thanks to that, Soarame just managed to block the sting with the stoneshield again. But this time the gigantic hornet hit it so hard that its sting penetrated the shield and got stuck there. This woke Soarame up; he instantly dragged the deerhornet close and grasped a branch of horns on the magimal’s head, trying to immobilize it.

  ‘AWWW!!!’ The next second, Soarame cried sharply as he lost a piece of flesh — the deerhornet had become nervous and had bitten firmly into his arm. But the tough boy was fierce enough to carry on holding the horn with one hand, at the same time letting go of the stoneshield in the other hand — to tear off a piece of the deerhornet’s wing.

  ‘BUZZZYYY!!’ The deerhornet made a creepy screech of pain. It had detached its sting and tried to escape, but it couldn’t free its horns and thus had to suffer the wing-loss. This sudden change had driven the giant hornet
mad; it had generated another sting and was thrusting it towards the boy’s chest once again. Due to the close distance, the thrusting wasn’t at a high speed, so Soarame could just about manage to grasp the sting with his bare hand. But it was still very forceful, so that the sting thrust into Soarame’s right chest bit by bit, making him cry out shrilly.

  Pisou, pisou! At the same time, another cluster of vines grew from the grass and got on to Soarame’s body, trying to wrap him up totally. Soarame was fully convinced that he would die if this happens, but he was too exhausted to do anything. Scankeen’s token had begun to shine as a result of the boy’s nervousness, but it was no longer as helpful to Soarame as it used to be — the boy had become an Expert now, so that the Epic magigear had lagged behind.

  SIZZ—ZIZI! Right then, a weird sizzling sounded. Soarame looked over subconsciously, and found that the vines around Halgon were shaking drastically. Soon enough, there was a burning smell and some smog, and Lightning sparks could be seen from the gaps between the veins. This panicked the deerhornet; it tried to summon more vines for Halgon and, at the same time, get away from Soarame, but how could Soarame let it? After another round of dog-fighting, the deerhornet had still failed to escape and Halgon finally broke out!

  ‘Crack!’ A savage punch broke the deerhornet’s skull. After a miserable screech, the giant hornet lost control of its body and dropped to the ground.

  ‘Man!’ Soarame was short of breath. ‘Finally!’

  ‘Yes, it was close.’ Halgon was also breathing heavily. Breaking out of the vines had been really tricky — he’d had to risk using his full power and trying different lineages; finally Lightning had worked out. Halgon quickly pulled the sting out of Soarame’s chest, causing the poor boy to cry again. ‘Great job on the tackling. If it had flown away, we may never have got it again.’

  ‘It lost a wing, so…’ The sharp pain in Soarame’s lung made him cough and stopped him from saying more. Fortunately, with another drip of dragon blood swallowed, Soarame stopped the pained moaning and felt the wound deep in his chest healing up once again.