Guilt and Punishmen

by Sophia Schmidt

  "I never understood why you guys never cauterized the enemies' wounds during the exam. There's never a reason to make a bloody mess."

  Lith had appeared out of nowhere right in front of Yurial. His left hand was clenching the corpse's crushed right wrist while the right one was open and covered by a layer of ice that made it razor sharp.

  The battle experience of the group of assassins was first class, but they were no Talons. No one had told them about the Queen's corps involvement, so when they noticed the detail protecting the kids, they had been forced to improvise.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click for visiting.

  The Warp array was a last minute trick, to bring the target to a secluded place they were familiar with. It implied they had no opportunity to prepare the field in advance, since their Warden had to stay behind to cast the Warp array at the right moment.

  A man placing magical stones in the middle of the road of one of the most exclusive districts of Lorion was beyond suspicious. The residents would have called the guards faster than if they had painted with blood the word "Murder" on a wall.

  They had no idea their opponent was the Queen's corps, otherwise they would have long fled. With so many unforeseen problems the mission was already a disaster, yet it managed to get even worse.

  As soon as they moved toward the target, some of Lith's rings glowed, releasing several fireballs aimed at them. They exploded beside or above the assassins' hiding spots, engulfing them in flames that would have been lethal if not for their enchanted protections.

  "How the heck does he know where we are?" The leader screamed in his communication earpiece, having become temporarily deaf due to the explosion.

  "It's almost like he can see us!"

  "I actually do." Lith thought with a wolfish smile on his face. "Let's see if they like this."¨C

  Lith shot another round of fireballs, this time high in the sky.

  "Oh gods, why?" The assassins' leader was on the verge of tears. The key to a job well done was to be quick and go unnoticed. With so many fireballs flying around it was just a matter of time before the city guards and the Mage Association swarmed the place.

  "I could use a little help, here." Lith said while shooting down whoever ran towards them instead of away from them.

  Yurial stopped staring at the head laying at his feet, remembering who he was and who he was meant to become.

  "Friya, protect me! I'm clearly the target of the attempt. Quylla, keep the flames under control! This may be a sh*thole, but there are people living here and they need our protection. Lith¡" His brain froze for a split second.

  What kind of advice could he possibly give to someone that moved faster than his eyes could see and capable of attacking fiercely like a divine punishment?

  "I literally meant to help me, not to do damage control." Lith thought, surprised by Yurial's care for the residents. "Whatever. The more spell they cast, the less people will be able to understand who did what." -

  "You just focus on those b*stards, I'll cover your back!" If there was something that Yurial had learned from Lith's negative attitude, fueled by his unbridled paranoia, was to always expect the worst.

  Hence Yurial started to conjure the faster arrays of his repertoire in case something went wrong.

  Less than ten seconds had passed since the activation of the Warp array, and most of the assassins were already dead or gravely injured.

  "F*ck! If I leave even one of my men behind, my identity will be exposed. A royal constable's tortures can even make you remember how much milk you drank as a newborn. I can only kill my way out of here."¨C The leader thought.

  "Code black! Repeat code black! We sink or swim here, boys!" He yelled in his earpiece. The remaining assassins quickly gulped down all the enhancing potions they had, even those with dangerous side effects.

  While their leader bravely charged forward, they ran away as one, scattering in all directions. Their only wish was to see another day as free men. No amount of money was worth their lives.

  The leader was now empowered by top tier Hatorne (*) potions, that turned him into a one man army.

  He easily dodged the barrage of incoming spells. To his eyes the world was now moving in slow motion. He had never felt so powerful in his whole life. The first target was the rugrat that had ruined their ambush.

  Years of experience in the field had honed his instinct. The other three were like mages riding on the back of a dragon, his sword had no chance to reach them without slaying the beast first.

  Seeing his mana was going to waste, Lith interrupted his casting, projecting instead a shroud of spirit magic that engulfed the assassin and squeezed him like a wet rug.

  The leader noticed something was attempting to restrain him, but he shrugged off the feeling with sheer force.

  "F*ck!" Lith thought. "Whatever this guy is high on, has effects so similar to fusion magic that the mana flowing in his body counters my spirit magic. Time for plan B."¨C

  Lith infused himself with all the elements at once with fusion magic. The assassin executed several feints, using footwork to make his real target unpredictable.

  Between the high speed movements and the abysmal gap in technique, Lith was left in a daze. He was still physically superior, but thanks to the potions the assassin was able to use the advantage coming from his combat skills to put Lith on the defensive.

  The sword struck Lith several times, piercing both the uniform and his magically hardened skin. Lith had managed to avoid or block all the slashes aimed to his vitals, but it came at a price.

  His arms and legs were full of cuts, some even deep enough to bleed profusely.

  "Do you see it, men? If he bleeds, we can kill it!"

  From their short exchange the leader had partially regained his confidence. The rugrat was a monster, but still an untrained civilian.

  Now that he had managed to stop the little monster from raining death from above by putting his life on the line, his teammates could safely join the battle. It was only a matter of seconds before they surrounded the rugrat and killed him with their teamwork.

  "Any moment now."¨C The leader stopped his attacks to catch his breath, taking a quick look over his shoulder to check the situation. Only then he realized no one was coming to his help.

  Lith exploited that pause to use Invigoration, making his wounds close with a speed visible to the naked eye and sending the assassin further into panic. He immediately resumed his attack, discovering that little by little the monster was getting used to his pattern.

  "I still need help, here!" Lith yelled after noticing his opponent's distress. Yurial racked his brain to find a way to help him, but they were moving too fast. If they attacked without a plan, the enemy could exploit their spells turning Lith into a human shield.

  Their opponent was the one with a clear line of sight, while their friend was unaware of their actions. The only silver lining was that he had already finished placing the first array, so he was able to talk again.

  "Quylla, attack on Lith's right side. Friya, same on the left. Lith, push forward." Yurial yelled.

  "F*ck, no!" The assassin moaned.

  Chapter 198 Helpless 2

  The earth all around the assassin turned into mud while spears of ice as big as a man randomly fell from above. Without space to move around, his footwork was nothing but a silly dance. Strength had become the deciding factor.

  "At least he has already used up all his rings. If he attempts to cast, I can kill him in a split second. As long we are lined up, his friends cannot aim at me properly."¨C

  The assassin was right, except for one detail. Lith had only used one ring in the opening act, the other spells were silent cast with true magic. True magic was silent, but still required time for casting, so he saved the rings for later, just in case.

  All he had to do was to spread his fingers, releasing the remaining nine at once. Cursing at his bad luck for meeting such a monster disguised
as a rugrat, the assassin crushed the medallion he wore at his neck, activating his last stand item.

  Multiple barriers enveloped him, negating most of the damage. The sheer force of the impacts, though, was another matter entirely. The assassin was knocked back right to the point where the battle had started.

  Yurial activated his Earth Vines array, entangling the assassin's body with tendrils conjured from the hardest minerals in the soil, devised to be powerful enough to keep even magical beasts in check.

  Four bolts of darkness magic hit him from the front, above, and the sides. The moment the array was activated, Lith had crouched down, clearing his teammates' line of fire.

  Seeing how sturdy and resourceful their opponent was, they knew that restricting him wasn't enough, but it created an opening. They all decided to use darkness magic because, despite being slow and mana expensive, it was the most difficult element to defend against.

  It directly attacked the enemy's life force, so a hardened skin or a magically enhanced chain mail didn't offer much protection from it. The dark energy sapped the assassin's strength and vitality, turning the scratches he had suffered during his clashes with Lith into open wounds and the bruises into internal bleedings.

  "You suck!" The assassin cursed at Lith, spitting a mouthful of blood from the many broken ribs that were now piercing his lungs due to the darkness ravaging his body.

  "You are barely an amateur. Technique, experience, footwork, you are below me in every aspect. Why am I the one that ended up losing? This is not fair!"

  Another four bolts of darkness struck the assassin, putting him out of his misery.

  "Yeah, and if my grandpa had three balls instead of two, he could have been a pinball." Lith replied only after confirming that the assassin's life force was fading away.

  "What pisses me off the most is that he is right. I really need to join the army and receive some proper training. Most of my knowledge about martial arts is only about unarmed combat. Aside from our sparring, Solus, I have no real practice.

  "I'd need a master to polish my skills, since neither of us has the talent necessary to derive new notions from what I already know. Not to mention how I keep suffering from not having a decent weapon nor training in the way of the sword.

  "The practice I had with Phloria during the first trimester barely taught me to hold a real weapon. After that, between the exams, the plague, and dimensional magic I hardly touched a sword.

  "Awakened ones and Monsters can use true magic just like me. When magical skills are on the same level, combat technique and equipment make the difference between life and death." Lith thought.

  "Once we learn more about Forgemastering, we will be able to make our own equipment." Solus mind-nodded.

  "For the training, though, there is not much we can do for the time being. The academy takes too much time. Even if it didn't, mastering magic and combat skills at the same time is unheard of in all the books we read. Progress, not perfection. Remember?"¨C

  "Lith, are you all right?" His companions asked in unison.

  "Yeah, only flesh wounds." He extended his arms, revealing that aside from small cuts in the uniform, only shallow injuries remained. Lith studied their reactions carefully.

  He had shared with them part of his secret, but only now could they realize the scope of his revelation. They were still shaken up by the ambush, so Lith could see right through them.

  "Surprise aside, Yurial seems to be really impressed. Friya is conflicted between fear and admiration instead. She probably longs for this kind of power, but at the same time she is afraid I could turn it against her. Quylla is beyond me though."

  Lith could see something resembling pain in her expression, but she wasn't hurt. Her eyes were a little watery, but there was no trace of fear, making her a mystery.

  "What you see is compassion." Solus answered the riddle for him. ¨C

  "How did you do that? I mean moving so fast and taking so little damage?" Yurial asked.

  "I told you I'm faster and stronger than a normal person. Also while you were spacing out I consumed enhancing potions." He lied.

  "As for the damage, I must thank the Forgemasters that enchanted the uniform and Professor Trasque's lessons about using first magic in combat. I used a lot of earth magic to deflect most of the sword strikes."

  "Did it hurt?" Quylla asked while tending to Lith's wounds.

  "Of course it did." Lith gave his first honest answer.

  "I might be a little different from you guys, but I feel pain like anyone else."

  "I'm so sorry you suffered so many injuries just to protect us. I wish there was more I can do." Quylla gently wiped off the blood from his skin before stepping away.

  Yurial grabbed Lith by the shoulders, his breath was still ragged because of the physical and mental exertion, but his voice was calm.

  "Thank you for saving my life." He then looked at Friya and Quylla too.

  "Thanks to you all for sticking with me, instead of running away like the associates of this poor b*stard." Yurial kicked the corpse with more anger than pity. It seemed no one was going to be traumatized this time.

  "In my darkest hour you remained by my side, you are the best friends a man could wish for. I¡"

  "Queen's corps, nobody moves!" A voice suddenly roared.

  The five members of the unit landed in the middle of the alley, finding it difficult to hide their surprise. The place looked like a warzone. There were several burn marks on the house walls, spears of ice scattered everywhere and a small crater where the spells contained in Lith's rings had crashed into the barrier.

  Five dead bodies lay on the ground, yet the students were without a scratch.

  "What the f*ck?" A member of the unit blurted out, drawing on himself reproving looks from his colleagues. Normally the Captain would have scolded him for his lack of professionalism, but he couldn't do it in front of the students.

  Not to mention he had expressed the feelings of the whole unit, so the Captain decided to let it slide.

  "Have the soldiers secure the perimeter, then search for survivors. Maybe one of them is still alive for interrogation." The Captain opened a Warp Steps leading back to the Mage Association right in front of the group.

  "Get in, kids. First, I need to get you to safety. Then you have to tell me exactly what happened here."

  "There is not much to explain, sir. It's all thanks to teamwork." Yurial replied.Find authorized novels in Webnovel£¬faster updates, better experience£¬Please click for visiting.

  ***

  White Griffon academy, Headmaster Linjos' office

  As soon as Linjos was informed about the assassination attempt, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

  "It's worse than I thought." He explained to the Queen.

  "Either I have traitors in every department, or it's someone really deep in my inner circle. The leaked information is too precise to be the work of a single clerk or of a Professor of the old guard.

  Even though it's hard to say how far the reach of people like Vastor or Rudd goes. Even if I keep them in the dark, nothing I do ever seems to surprise them."

  Linjos pensively scratched his goatee.

  "I doubt the traitor is one of them." Queen Sylpha shook her head.

  "Vastor has no faction outside his own. If the Kingdom plunges into chaos, he would lose at least half of his connections. He'd rather die than put to waste so many years of efforts.

  As for Rudd, deep under that obnoxious 'old goat' attitude of his, there is a true loyal servant of the kingdom. Beware though. If you go even deeper, you'll find another old goat."

  "What really puzzles me is how someone that has managed to infiltrate the academy to such a level can be dumb enough to send amateurs to kill fourth year students. Even if young, a dragon is still a dragon."

  "Maybe he is not dumb. Or do you know something that I don't?" The Queen appeared to be quite amused.

  "No, the investigation is still ongoing, but how hard c
an killing four students possibly be? Especially considering that two out of four remained scarred after killing a single person?"

  ***

  White Griffon academy, somewhere else

  "How hard can killing four f*cking students possibly be?" The traitor yelled while trashing their own apartment.

  "Especially considering that I gave those idiots a complete background check on every single one of them?" A punch hit a luxurious desk, causing it to crack almost in half.

  "The battle experience of three of them amounts to fighting acne! The last one is a deranged psychopath that only preys on the weak and magical beasts to make a quick buck." A bookshelf was ripped from the wall and crushed to bits, while the precious books were stomped mercilessly.

  "Who would have thought that the reputation of the Ravagers was just a blatant lie?" They panted.

  "They were supposed to hit and run, leaving no traces behind. This is a disaster! If I were superstitious, I'd think that Lukart's incompetence jinxed me. Luckily, it doesn't matter." It took a few deep breaths to calm down

  "Worst case scenario, I can give Lukart part of my funds to keep him quiet. I just need a bit more time to put the last pieces in place, before I'm able to destroy this place to its very foundations."

  ***

  Back at the academy, Yurial managed to doctor the story, explaining how they survived the ambush with little damage. To achieve his goal, he had to significantly reduce Lith's contribution to the battle, making a hero out of Friya instead.

  Having a Mage Knight capable of Blinking proficiently before the end of the fourth year was something so rare, it even impressed the members of the Queen's corps. Many of them had undergone special training in the military to achieve the same result.

  Less than half the students from even the six great academies were able to learn dimensional magic and even less would usually master the Blink spell. It perfectly explained why the initial assault had failed and how the Ravagers died where they stood.