The Battlefield

Year 2850 | Month 9 | Day 4

Baron Cedric Whitmore glares at the immortal magician, feeling more than a little regretful at the waste of manpower he’s spent here today. And at how little progress has been made.

He can sense from here that the Undying Magician is nearly out of mana, but he can also tell that the strange monster isn’t.

His eyes narrow, briefly taking in the survivors from the attack. To which he quickly finds that pretty much every one of the important magicians amongst his forces are still alive and succeeded in defending themselves.

After a few seconds, his lips quirk upwards ever so slightly. Because he realizes that the pains that he’d been wanting to get rid of not too long ago were all wiped out in the attack.

All the ones who ended up dying by trying to protect the other soldiers even while under the attack of a Tier IV spell.

I guess this isn’t a terrible outcome after all.

There has been a large problem building up within his barony over the past few years. Some upstarts beginning to grow confident enough that they could overrule his, as they put it, ‘tyranny,’ and protect the non-magicians under his rule.

He couldn’t deal with them very well himself otherwise the other barons would take advantage of the chaos it would cause to cleanse his magicians.

But this way he doesn’t have to deal with the problem. And the non-magicians are replaceable and therefore of no consequence, so nothing of great importance has been lost during this altercation.

Cedric lets out the pent up breath he had taken in before slowly stepping forwards while signaling his magicians to all stand up as well. And since none of them were the troublemakers, they all ignore the deaths around them and focus on the enemy magicians hiding in the woods outside of the clearing. Then he sends them all orders, having two thirds of the magicians deal with the Undying Magician’s forces while the other third joins him to deal with the Undying Magician himself.

Now, however, instead of just having them all attack, he stops approaching several dozen meters away from the Undying Magician, who is finally beginning to stand up again, pushing against his suppression. And with a frown on his face, he finally asks, “Brat, what was your name again?”

The Undying Magician brat glares at Cedric for several seconds before glancing at his subordinates, who are currently fighting with Cedric’s own subordinates. With both sides losing one magician after another, but with Cedric’s side coming out on top.

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Until the Undying Magician finally shakes his head at them, and his forces begin to retreat, surprising Cedric.

So the brat thinks more along the lines of those troublemakers, then? Surprising to find a supposedly true immortal magician who still cares about his underlings. But a pity nonetheless. A waste.

Cedric nods his head at his forces as well, prompting them to pursue the Undying Magician’s forces. Meanwhile the Undying Magician himself turns back to Cedric and finally answers his question, “My name is Nathan Fox.”

Nathan Fox… right, he was from the Republic. An outsider who was adopted by the dead king.

He and the Undying Magician make eye contact, standing in silence with the only sounds being the explosions and other sounds coming from the battle between subordinates.

“I am Baron Cedric Whitmore, and I acknowledged your power,” Cedric eventually declares, deciding that the Undying Magician’s power is real and not just a fiction concocted by the weak fleeing from him. “So I will give you a choice. Surrender now, and I will spare your subordinates and even let you become my own subordinate. As long as you agree to become my test subject and do whatever it is I tell you to.”

Cedric glances up as the strange bird coated in black flames flies into the air before rushing and landing on the Undying Magician’s shoulder. But he doesn’t pay it any more mind as he waits for a response from him.

Seconds pass in silence. Then the seconds turn into an entire minute, making Cedric’s eyes slowly begin to narrow.

“Brat, you have ten seconds to answer before we take you in by force,” Cedric states, feeling more than a little irritated by the brat’s stare.

But then he notices something.

A very faint sensation, but definitely a spell circle.

One directly beneath them all.

“You fucking brat!” Cedric shouts while jumping backwards, only for an entire eruption of black flames to shoot out of the ground all around them, enveloping the other magicians he has with him and killing each one of them. Along with the Undying Magician himself.

But by the time the eruption fades away, the Undying Magician and his pet monster are both left standing without a shred of clothing or armor on. With the sole exception of his storage ring, from which he quickly takes out a shirt and pants to put on.

Then he pulls out a rifle and a sword, holstering the sword on his waist as Cedric clenches his fist, feeling true anger this time around.

How?! A mere Class C magician should never have been able to create a spell circle without my noticing, much less get so far into casting the spell that he very nearly caught me! Especially while under suppression and with very little mana remaining!

He focuses on the Undying Magician’s mana pool, which is very nearly empty. Then he looks at the bird, his eyes narrowing further as the rage turns to surprise and contemplation.

That bird… its mana is nowhere near where it was before… could it be the one who fueled that spell? But… how?

Cedric fails to wrap his head around what’s happening, and as his mind’s going at a hundred miles per hour trying to figure it out, the Undying Magician fires his rifle straight at Cedric. A shot Cedric only manages to block through the suppression barrier around him decreasing and then deflecting most of the impact.

“Fine then,” Cedric declares, any possibility of taking the man to be a subordinate having vanished from his mind now, “if that’s how you want to play, brat, let’s play.”