Ryu Astre (Point Of View)

One thing I've learned when I fought the dragons was to never, ever underestimate the enemies. That's why I nonchalantly cast scout magic the very moment we stepped out on the streets, but even with this was not enough to avoid the inevitable dilemma.

An unexpected ambush. Two magic circles simultaneously appeared when Princess Yume was separated from the group. It was like they were exactly waiting for this one chance.

My scout magic failed to detect the enemies lurking in the shadows. The only explainable reason was someone within them can use magic. A spell good enough to bypass mine.

They were so gallant attacking us in broad daylight. If they're not shallow enough, I can assume otherwise that they're people who have extreme confidence in their own assassination skills. Whether daytime or nighttime was the same for them.

But now was not the time to think about their identity. Only a few seconds were remaining before both spells finish activating. One magic circle was beneath us while the other was under the Princess. I need a quick plan to fix this situation.

I thought their only target was the maid, so I naturally tried to keep myself close to her for protection; however, I was wrong.

"An ambush!" I said, eyeing Sir Billy who was the captain of the Princess's bodyguards, all in hope that he would be fast enough to know what's happening. After shouting, I intuitively ran towards the Princess who I deemed more important, stretching my arms to reach her. "Yume, Dodge!"

"As yparxei prostasia!" Please let my magic be in time... Please... Please!

BOOM! BOOM!

Two large explosions made the earth shook.

My movement was stopped as I tried to stabilize my balance. The ground started to split as I leaped and rolled to the left side of the street, preventing the ground from swallowing me underground.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Debris from the damaged walls started to fall. Making me dodge over and over again. Not giving me time to worry about anything else. Eventually, the walls crumbled.

"...Kak!" I squealed, coughing to remove the particles of dust that I accidentally breathed in. I stood up seeing the thick density of smoke that covered the surrounding. I raised my arm trying to cover my nose, looking to my right just to see a few guards covered in rubbles. "Afiste ta pragmata na afairethoun."

After a few seconds of chanting, my earth magic turning the nearby rubbles into dust while my wind magic created an exhaust to suck out the remaining smoke. Seeing some injured guards, I added lower healing magic to apply first aid before leaving.

"Ase me na petaxo," I chanted, flying a few meters above the ground to see the situation a little bit clearer.

Here, I saw that the incident was a lot trickier than I thought. Everyone got disseminated. Eight people chased after the Princess who ran towards the north. Two knights already died in the earthquake, while dozens of enemies currently engaging with the ten remaining guards. On another note, the maid who was the original target was nowhere to be found. I anxiously hoped that the debris didn't bury her.

'I have no time to check because I need to catch up with the Princess. Using my discretion, I'll just let my Shadow Assassins come for their reinforcement.'

I glided my body horizontally preparing to burst flying when a sudden lightning bolt beamed towards me.

Bzzzzt! Boom!

The bolt directly hit the swords on my waist that made me flew back and drop a few meters away. If not because of mana protecting my body I might already have been roasted. Still, it did hurt me a bit.

"What do we have here, younger brother?" A voice of an old man said.

"What do we have here is a little bug which negated our lightning magic, older brother," an old man with a similar voice said, "but why are you my older brother, brother?"

"A bug who can evade our 3-Star offensive lightning magic?" the older brother pondered, also answering the question. "Didn't you just lost in our bet, that's why you're my younger brother, brother?"

"It seems I had become senile, older brother. I didn't remember."

"Of course we became senile, we're already 135 years old."

"It's 145 years old, older brother... or was it 146?"

"Oh... Who cares about age... Who cares about age? Let's focus on what are we gonna do with this bug, younger brother."

"Right, who cares about age? Rather, let's focus on what are we gonna do with this bug, older brother."

"But since it escaped our offensive magic it's not a useless bug, but a useful bug?"

"Indeed a useful bug, not a useless bug."

I slowly landed on a roof to recuperate and saw two old people talking on the other side. They look the same as if they were a doppelganger. Wearing black robes with mage staffs that were made from wood. Both are bald with long white beards, white-colored eyes, and even the wrinkles on their face are identical.

"Are you done resting?" the younger brother said, "Stop wasting our time and we still have a young lady to kill."

The last sentence made me irked. "You'll pay for all the things you have done," I said, "Ase me na petaxo."

I flew back to the air and dashed towards the north, I would need to protect the Princess while fighting these two. According to my speculations, they are not to be trifled with.

"Ase me na petaxo," the two old men chanted, flying to the air chasing me. "As yparchei astrapi!"

Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzzt!

Another two lightning bolts went towards me, but now that I'm aware, I easily dodged them by using enough mana to boost my maneuver. These two are capable of casting 3-Star magic with ease. Seeing how they can fly, I believe that they can also cast other 4-Star magic if they like it.

As for me, I'm still a 4-Star mage that's struggling to advance in these past 6 years. If these two would at least be a 5-Star mage, then I would have a problem. But we will see.

While flying, I turned my body to face them casting an offensive spell, "As yparchoun bales fotias."

Six fireballs came out of my magic circle and were divided into two groups. The two old men received three fireballs each.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The fireballs successfully hit the two old men, but with no damage. Since the fireballs were easily stopped with their magic shields. The three of us continued to fly.

"Older brother, this bug is so talented."

"You're right younger brother, the bug is still a kid but can easily use a 4-Star flying magic."

"But it's a shame he will die in our hands."

"It's really a shame he will die in our hands."

"Let's stop playing around, older brother."

"Let's stop playing around, younger brother."

They started to cast at the same time. But the magic circles they produced were different from each other. 3-Star wind magic and 3-Star lightning magic. But it didn't end with that. What happened next made me astounded. The two magic circles from two different people suddenly combined into one, a magic procedure that I never heard of. Then it suddenly became a 4-Star magic circle.

Not only that but the magic chanting time was reduced in half because two people cast it. "Afiste ton anemo kai ton keravno na syndyastoun," they said at once. A large flying bird materialized and dashed towards me. Its body was made by wind magic, while bolts of unlimited lightning continued to spark throughout its body. It was deadly. "Sorry little bug, we have a mission so we can't play with you any longer."

The Lightning Wind Bird was so fast that it reached me in no time.

Whooosh! Bzzzzt! Boom!

Fortunately, I was able to cast 4-Star defensive magic that almost took a quarter of my magic power.

"Eh? The bug once again defended."

"Defended against us? The genius evil twin mage of Zen Kingdom?"

"No no no no... Older brother. I hate this bug, let's kill him! Let's kill him, older brother!"

"Calm down, younger brother."

While the two were having distorted thoughts, we reached the location where the princess and the assassins were fighting below. The place was like a large street intersection, and they were currently fighting in the middle. The situation was a little bit dire because she was outnumbered. So I quickly nosedived like an aircraft leaving the two behind in surprise.

Slash!

One assassin was cut in half. "Princess are you alright?" I said, leaning behind her back while holding the Fire Dragon Sword. The other assassins who surrounded the Princess backed down a few meters when they saw how I easily killed one of their allies.

"Ryu?" Yume said, turning her head to have a little glimpse of my face. Her face looked exhausted as she eagerly held a long metal as a weapon. I can feel that she's already reaching her limit.

"I'm here Princess," I replied. When I said that, I felt her back leaned against me in desperation. Like it was secretly saying that she can collapse any minute.

"Careful, Ryu. These people are skilled—Ah! What are you doing?!"

"Carrying you?" Using my left arm, I carried the Princess. She was so light that I can mistake her for a feather.

"W-Why are you carrying me?"

"Just embrace me so you will not fall off." Holding the Princess in my left hand, and holding the fire sword with my right. "Just relax now, and let me do the rest."

"Aren't you too confident, little bug?" The twin mages who were following me also arrived.

"Little bug, is too confident."

"Younger brother, our target, and the little bug is here."

"Older brother, isn't this good? We can kill them both together."

"Yes, let's kill them together."

"Kill them together, it is."